Recently I saw a deal for a reduced annual subscription to one of my favorite magazines, ShopSmart, which is issued by Consumer Reports. I always find some great tips in that magazine and truly enjoy reading it. I was tempted to purchase the subscription when I stopped myself. I can read this magazine for free at the library; I don’t need to spend $15 on a subscription for a magazine that takes me less than an hour to read and would quickly find its way to my recycle bin.
I think this is how people get themselves in trouble financially as little purchases over time do add up. Particularly subscriptions which tend to stick around far past their usefulness because it’s so easy to allow the company to keep deducting that amount from your account. This is why as tempting as it is I’ve been able to stop myself from buying a premium subscription to the streaming music services I like to listen to at work. Sure, the semi-frequent commercial interruptions can get a little annoying, but is it really so bad I need to add an unnecessary expense to my budget? I don’t think so.
What subscriptions do you have, and more importantly, are they still adding value to your life or would you be fine without them? It’s worth re-evaluating them to see if you can free up a little money in your budget if you’d like to save more.
I pay $15 a month for rhapsody. It’s an unlimited music use app that allows me to download or stream as much music as I want. Personally I would have found something cheaper or just buy a few songs from iTunes each month but my boyfriend wants this so I caved. He downloads whole CDs and listens to them all day. I at least can say we are using the service frequently enough to make it worth the money.
In that case it’s worth it. But if you stopped listening frequently it might not be. Just depends on the circumstances.