But life keeps you busy and pretty soon it’s next month and that gym membership starts to be annoying. As if paying for it will make you use it.
Fact is, people spend more money than they realize for subscriptions large and small. Think about the categories: Online news, Netflix, music streaming, premium television services, delivery, dating apps -- the list goes on and on.
One company, the Waterstone Group, did a survey of 2,500 consumers. People were given 10 seconds to guess how much they spend on subscriptions every month. The average guess was $79.74 per month.
Then they gave the same people 30 seconds to guess. The average guess was $111.61.
Finally, they asked people to go through a category checklist and find out exactly how much they spent for subscriptions. The true cost was an average of $237.33 or about $1,900 per year.
Simple Dollar advises people to set aside an hour to do an audit. Go through your checking account and total monthly subscriptions plus annual ones, like Amazon Prime.
Consider cellphone, wi-fi, tv-movie services, streaming services, subscription boxes, cloud storage, news apps, diet and fitness, security apps, web hosting, and gaming.
After you make your list, consider which services give you actual value.
- Are the subscriptions adding clutter to your home?
- Can you find a cheaper service?
- How much do you use it?
- How much will you miss it?
- Do you have something else you really want to use the money for (retirement, a college fund, emergency fund, vacation)?
