Cutting costs = cancel Netflix?

[Lykke1000]

Inspired by a previous thread about coping on a high salary with a breakdown of all monthly expenses.
Have you noticed that the expenses that always get mentioned are subscriptions, especially Netflix. My Netflix is £4.99 and just looked up that Disney is the same. Sound weirdly out of proportion to suggest cutting it out first thing. True, it’s not essential but if at least one person in the family actually uses it daily then it’s a pretty cheap per hour of entertainment.
TV licence is another story ( I don’t pay it as I genuinely don’t need it).

A takeaway coffee or a pint (once a month) costs the same but is way worse price for 15 mins of entertainment.

What are your thoughts?

I agree. It’s such a small cost in the great scheme of things.

It totally depends on your income though and what your paying. Your paying the cheapest rate, I pay for no adds on Disney plus so it's £8.99, same with Netflix although DH pays that.

I've also noticed a lot of people pay a lot for phone contracts. I pay a month for 4 phones, the same cost a lot of people seem to pay for 1 as they have expensive handsets which isn't a necessary item when cheaper ones do everything anyway.

I think it depends what’s important to you

I would rather make packed lunches for work and not have take out coffees and save money that way than cancel Netflix but maybe some people think differently.

I’ve noticed utilities vary massively too. We’re in a large house (lots of kids) but my utility bills seem less than some people in 2-3 beds. I’m not sure whether there are some big differences regionally in these costs (I’m in London so thought ours would be high but others are definitely more than ours!)

I think some people are on a significantly more expensive Netflix package. You (and I) are on adverts, SD, some content not available one

It all adds up. Of you have Disney, Netflix, Now etc on multiscreen plans, it can be a significant cost. Just Netflix on with ads, not so much.

The difference with subscriptions is that they all come out as direct debits and reduce your ability to make adjustments within the month. If you’re spending £30 on subscriptions then that money is gone, you can’t swap it for something else if money is tight. It’s a commitment of sorts (although you’re not usually stuck in a contract with these things so possible to cancel) and so kind of moves from discretionary spending to “compulsory”. Whereas a coffee out can be spent or not spent as you decide there and then on the day, if that makes sense?

I agree it all comes out in the wash but these suggestions are normally inspired by posters saying “we have £3000 coming in a month and only £400 left for everything after bills and food, what can we do” and the first obvious step is to look at ways that you can increase that £400 leftover which is by cutting out the recurring monthly expenses. Council tax and water bills etc aren’t exactly optional so the low hanging fruit is Netflix, Prime, Spotify etc as well as things like gym memberships.

You’re right that it’s not an automatic win, but it rather depends on what streaming services you’ve got and how many of them, and which of the packages you decided to go for. When we do have Netflix, which isn’t all that often, I always pay for the option without adverts as they drive me insane. If I were paying for that, on Disney+, And Hulu, et cetera, it would add up very very quickly.

It’s often the little changes that add up and save you fast amounts of money, because you actually can’t affect a lot of the big things.

People looking for advice also how often got themselves into a situation where they haven’t really thought about their outgoings. This is particularly true if you are going on from a position of having plenty of money, to hardly any. They think that because their mobile phone contract is £40 per month then that is what it always will be. Somebody has to actively tell them no, go and look at the deals that you’re on at the moment and change your tariff.

So although cancel your subscription is not always the answer, sometimes it can take you quite a long way towards the answer.

Im about to change my mobile phone contract. Recommendedations for something cheap would be appreciated!

Netflix would be the very last thing to go!

Lebara - the cheapest on the market right now. Go to Hotukdeals.com and put in search engine Lebara- you will see current deals. 2.99 gbp for 50GB data and unlimited minutes

I think Netflix with ads is worth the money. I watch a fair bit on there and I would miss it if I didn’t have it. I get the cheapest one because there’s only 2 people in our house. I get Disney + free with my bank.
LoandBeahold try MSE. I’ve switched to Lebara through a special offer with them. £1.99 a month for unlimited texts and calls and 10gb of data.

I think when you panicking over money your reflex is to start cutting what can be and those subscriptions really don’t make a dint. (Unless you have them all I suppose!) I agree that cutting a subscription pretty much does nothing unless it’s something like sky (which I personally am miserable without and will be finding a way to reinstate somehow next year!!!).

If you have a few subscriptions then it adds up and for some people, that’s a few £ extra to go towards food a month.
Budgeting makes life a bit boring and you end up going out less so it makes sense to be able to have some good affordable entertainment at home.

Fucking Hell, I'm paying £12.99 a month for Netflix. Need to look at that pronto!!

I purchased a coffee machine instead, as I have a coffee habit.
so having friends come round for coffee costs me £3 for a bag of coffee and £1.35 for milk - which lasts me a week. I have syrups which last months

Ive used TikTok to get hacks on the summer iced coffees and use those for pennies

nit that I use Costa but it’s now worth £2bn after being sold for £4bn

£12.99 is the standard 2 screens/two device download no ads version. The £4.99 has ads and less screens. £12.99 is as low as I’d be prepared to go.

it’s what a single dvd would have cost back in the day, so I think it’s worth it.

I'm also paying 12.99 for netflix but can't cope with adverts so I'm sticking with that.

I think more generally people do tend to forget about subscriptions - if you're not really using it then an obvious thing to get rid of.

I read a good article a while back ( I think Caitlin Moran) where she talked about how people are able to pay for a big TV screen and say Netflix for not very much per month, in the grand scheme of things. Compared to the cost of going out it's really cheap entertainment. Cutting that out isn't going to buy a new house.

My mother ( v wealthy) is the type to criticise young adults for saying it's difficult to get on the housing ladder, but even she understood that point when I made it.

I do cancel my Amazon prime every time I go away, as I know I’ll not use it as much, so then just start it again when I need - so have big gaps through the year, when I’m not paying

I’d not pay £12 instead of £5 for the 1 advert an hour

it’s just not worth it to me

I cancelled Prime and only then I realised everything is still free delivery to a local pick up location, just takes 2 days longer! Prime was not worth the cost.

I do the swapping bank accounts and regular savers, that can be quite lucrative and I can make £500/600 a year doing that

I budget on a lot of things. But I still have Netflix SD with ads. I rotate any other streaming services I have to pay for. At the most, I have Netflix and one other service at the same time.

I can’t afford to go to the movies. I miss the big screen and the better sound but it’s too expensive for me.

Is it really one an hour?