Monthly Subscriptions

Saving on subscriptions and memberships

Go to your list of recurring expenses and go through each of them one at a time. First, we’re going to categorize your subscriptions into three categories:

• Not using: Use this tag for any subscription you haven’t used in the last 30 days or more. Immediately cancel those subscriptions.
• Nice to have: Use this tag for things like music streaming, movie streaming, cable, audio book subscriptions, magazine subscription and more. It depends on you though.
• Need to have: Use this tag for any expense that you absolutely need to have. Typically things like insurance, cell phone and internet subscription are put in this category.

Note: Don’t look at housing, transportation and debt just yet. We have separate lessons for those expenses.

Canceling subscriptions

You should already have canceled any subscription you’re not using. If you haven’t, do so now.

Canceled those subscriptions? Good. Let’s look at your nice to haves.

I’m going to challenge you to imagine a world without some of those. 

For example, you might have several movie streaming subscriptions, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO and so on.

Do you really need all of them? 

If you have several subscriptions of a similar nature, start canceling them until you only have one left.

For example, you might have a situation like this:

• Streaming service 1: $8.99/month 
• Streaming service 2: $6.99/month 
• Streaming service 3: $13.99/month 

If you cancel streaming service 2 and 3, you save $20.98 per month. It might not seem like a lot, but that is $251.76 per year. Not bad for 3 minutes of canceling subscriptions. 

And you can still watch movies and shows using Streaming service 1.

Asking for a refund

If you haven’t used a service for months, there is no harm in asking for the money back. The company is not obligated to refund you, but they might do it.

That way you will not only save money on future purchases, you will earn back money that you have already spent.

The worst thing that can happen is that you get a ‘no.’

Here’s an email or customer support chat template you can use:

Hey there, 

My name is [your name] and I have been a customer with [their brand] for [time]. The thing is that I haven’t used your service at all for [X months]. 

Would you be able to refund me for that period since I have zero usage?

I would highly appreciate it.

Best,

[your name]

Saving on the subscriptions you’re keeping

For the expenses you don’t want to cancel, we’re going to look at a few ways to save money on them. It could be downgrading, finding a more affordable alternative or something else.

That is just as important of an optimization as canceling entirely.

Downgrading a subscription from $50/month to $22/month saves you $28 per month, giving you an extra $336 of disposable cash per year.

Finding the best and most affordable provider

LIST OF SERVICE PROVIDERS THAT ARE CHEAP (need to actually find these in the US)

• Insurance
• Cell phone
• Internet
• Cable

If you have a physical subscription like a gym membership, weigh up the pros and cons of your current gym.

Going yearly

Oftentimes you can save money by paying a year in advance. If a monthly subscription is $20/month, you might be able to get a yearly subscription for $200/year, saving you 17%.

This $40 extra per year might not seem like much, but these small optimisations all add up.

Asking for a discount

Just asking for a discount never hurts. Again: the worst thing that can happen is that you get a ‘no.’ 

Here’s an email or customer support chat template you can use:

Hey there, 

My name is [your name] and I have been a customer with [their brand] for [time]. I really like your service but I am in a bit of a financial pickle right now and it’s getting hard for me to justify the expense. 

I was wondering if you would be able to offer me a discount, so I don’t have to cancel my subscription? 

I would highly appreciate it.

Best,

[your name]

Bonus tip: Pretend to cancel to get a better offer

This is a bit sneaky, but it does work with many providers. If you go to their website and start canceling the subscription, they’ll ask you why. If they do, choose “it’s too expensive” as the reason.

They might offer you a discount to keep you as a customer.

Bonus tip: VPN to a cheaper country

Companies often adapt their prices to their audience’s purchasing power and they usually use your IP address to determine that. 

The US is a very rich country, so products tend to be expensive. But if you are in a poor country, products are often cheaper.

Use your favorite VPN and go to a poor country and you might see a different price in local currency.

You might need to use an incognito window or a different browser on your laptop to login if you have logged in on the web version previously.