In the spirit of tax season, people all over America are taking a good, long look at their budgets and spending habits this past year. If you consider yourself frugal in money matters, it can be the worst feeling ever to realize you have been paying for something you don’t even need or use. In this blog post, we will explore the subscriptions and automatically-renewing services that you can easily take out of your monthly spending.
Unused Entertainment Platform Subscriptions
The rise of the Nintendo Switch has been hard to ignore these past few years. Games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons have brought quarantining people together from all across the world, but at the price of a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Now that Americans are back in school and their workplaces, Switches are being abandoned for months while their owners are still paying recurring subscription fees. If you don’t use your Switch Online, Xbox Live, or Playstation Plus membership more than twice a year, it’s time to cancel it.
Additionally, Covid has caused people to jump headfirst into online reading and audiobooks. With so much time to read, endless online titles kept people occupied during the stressful years of quarantine. Now there are thousands of Audible and Kindle apps being paid for and never used. It’s time to purge those apps out of your home screen if you haven’t touched them in the last month.
Adobe and Microsoft Office Subscriptions
To access Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and several other apps, Adobe now requires a year-long $600 subscription. Reasonably, this can seem like a ridiculous price. For someone who uses Acrobat and Photoshop now and then, canceling your Adobe subscription is a no-brainer. With 1.8 billion websites operating simultaneously across the globe, there are several free alternatives to Adobe apps. GIMP and Krita serve as Photoshop and Lightroom alternatives, while Sejda offers a free PDF editing software to replace Acrobat.
Historically, Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint have been staples of the office computer, but they shouldn’t add charges to your budget. Since Microsoft has adopted a system similar to Adobe in that they require a monthly payment, users are moving to the free alternatives that Google offers with any account. Google Slides, Docs, and Spreadsheets are exactly like your Microsoft apps, only all in one place and backed up to the cloud. Utilizing Google’s tools is the convenient key to saving money on your monthly software bills.
Food Delivery App Subscriptions
Of the four or five popular food delivery apps, chances are you have considered or invested in a subscription to get big food discounts or free delivery offers. Many people sign up for a free trial of Grubhub+ or DoorDash’s DashPass without noticing the recurring payments. To save money, dedicate yourself to one food delivery app that has the best prices in your area. You don’t need to be paying for an app that you constantly ignore for a cheaper alternative.
Every year, thousands of people fall prey to the mighty free trial, only to look at their bank statements at the end of the year and realize they were throwing money away for months. Keep a close eye on your subscriptions, and if you can find a cheaper alternative, then absolutely make the switch.
Photo Credit: stock photo
I’ve replaced Microsoft Office, with Apache’s “Open Office”, and find it to be almost identical. :o)
Me too, Lauren. I’m embarrassed to say until several years ago I was spending about $120 a year for a family subscription to MS Office 360 – then I finally woke up and smelled the coffee! As far as I am concerned they are indistinguishable.
Food delivery APP? I’ve heard of them but never knew how they worked! Me pay? If I want take out I pick it up at the restaurant which means the restaurant gets all the money for their product, instead of having to share the money with the delivery company. That means the restaurant can keep its prices lower. No stranger can tamper with my food on the way to my home . This system also encourages me to cook more at home which is cheaper and I have control of all ingredients including using less salt. I don’t have to tip a delivery driver which further increases the cost of a meal. Domino’s Pizza is advertising that they will pay you $3. to pick up your own pizza. At small restaurants where I take out when I pay cash they cut a couple of dollars off the cost of the food since they are not paying for the cost of the credit card fees and they give me that discount. “Do it yourself” usually saves you money.