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?

This. Netflix can be cancelled at any time so we only have it when the clocks change in October until summertime restarts again in March. Don't have time for it in the summer and means no excuse not to get outside.

Totally agree with you. I need to look at cutting costs but a 4.99 Netflix subscription isn’t going to make a big difference in the grand scheme of things! My bigger costs like the mortgage, energy, water, council tax there is no way of reducing and that’ll what makes the difference

Have a look on the Martin Lewis Money Saving Expert website as they summarise the latest deals. I swapped 3 sim only’s to 75p a month each for 35gb and no roaming fees through finding the deal on there.

And sometimes they just absorb the cost into the Prime accounts so you can't see the p&p costs.

At work we were looking at getting something for £155, with £4.99 p&p for delivery next days or free for delivery within a week.

One of the chaps said he was on Prime so he'd get it delivered next day for free, so he'd order it.
He logged in to his account and discovered the item was listed on there as £159.99 with delivery next day.
He didn't have the choice of paying less and waiting a week.

So actually he was paying for Prime to get the item at best the same price, but he didn't have the choice of paying less either. Right scam.

I would imagine those suggestions aren't aimed at people with one £4.99 subscription. It's more checking your outgoings and those people who have the advert-free subs for Disney, Netflix and Apple, plus Spotify and Now TV, who haven't really realised how much it's all totting up to,

I would keep the Netflix as pp have mentioned it’s cheap entertainment and add some microwave popcorn for a movie evening at home.
always worth checking what subscriptions you have and are not using. Dh was helping one or elderly neighbours with a finance issue and she realised she was still paying monthly for a National trust subscription she never used. Same with more than one person in the household having prime.

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I have chase also and should probably be putting my money in there to get the % cash back but I don’t. Every little helps.

agree
there are lots of instances when 'take care of the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves' is good advice.

But often when people are struggling for money they go ott trying to make lots of tiny savings, rather than making 1 or 2 big changes. And often focus more on what they can cut rather than if they can get more money coming in.

Even only going from a £32k salary to a £33k one is equivalent to 200 months of netflix!

(okay not exactly by the time you've taken into consideration tax etc but just making a wide point).

I’m on a low income but still agree. We need something to watch. Netflix is far better value than a tv licence and I only get Disney when it’s on an offer, like just now I have it for £1 a month and we are enjoying family movie nights until that offer ends. Saving a fiver can be done in ways that doesn’t impact basic enjoyment in your home for an entire month

The source of this 'give up the Netflix, coffees and avocados' is the tabloid press whose readership tends to be older people (70 plus) who didn't have these things when they were younger and think anything other than terrestrial telly, a cup of instant coffee and a biscuit is an extravegance.

I think it comes from people still living in the days when a basket of shopping could be had for £20 and things like sky subscriptions were quite expensive. Tbh there is nothing that makes people sound more out of touch and clueless than cancel Netflix (maybe- stop eating avocados?)

I use money saving expert, go through their deals and you find fab deals.
jm with lebara. I pay £1.50 per month and get 100gb. I was paying £1 per month for 50gb. When the deals end (usually 6 month) I go for the next cheapest away from lebara, Thai time was talk home £4.50, then I switch my number back again to lebara (the total cheapest everytime!) back to £1 ish deal.
i haven’t paid more than £4.50 per month for years! When my phone needs upgrading (this is only the second time since I moved away from handset contracts) I buy refurbished or from cex. This time I used phones direct. I’ve paid under £400 for iPhone 13 Pro with huge storage. That will last me years. 👍🏼

True, it's like the old, if you stopped buying coffee everyday, you'd afford a Ferrari in x years.
Except, love doesn't work like that.

It boils down to priorities OP, in the other posts it was £140 for a cleaner Iirc.

I also have friends who have a Friday takeaway without fail, yet will be all 🤔 if we buy a big piece of furniture for example, claiming they could never afford such.

@Bambamhoohoo , if you've ever been skint, avocados and bought coffee aren't things you'd buy. They're extravagances.
If I sound clueless, then what do you think you sound to me? You've not been that person putting a (then) 23p tin of own brand baked beans on the shelf because you couldn't afford it.

Which bank may I ask please?

Look after the pennies…

It’s Lloyds. You need a Club Lloyds account and you get a few options for free stuff and Disney + with adverts is one of them.

Depends how much value you get out of any given subscription I guess. I think lots of people end up forking out more than they realise on multiple subscriptions they don’t really use, which is a waste!

We don’t have a TV 😂

I agree, but then it’s usually used by those who are crying about ‘struggling’ on £100k plus. £5 Netflix subscription gonna make not one iota of difference.

It’s almost like a weird kind of flex or virtue signalling.

Thank you, thats a good benefit.
unfortunately mine offers money off places I never use. 😊

Sorry but I don’t understand your reply in the context of my post. Did you tag the wrong person?

I think they thought "maybe stop eating avocados" was you advising to do that. When what you meant is that telling me to stop eating avocados is as clueless as telling people to give up Netflix. I wouldn't worry - I think the rest of us understood what you meant!

ID mobile always seems to come up cheap on comparison sites if you need a phone. And they offer free EU roaming so handy when you go away.

Getting rid of the cheapest streaming package would be one of the last things I would recommend someone cut. Having incredibly cheap entertainment on demand is valuable. People need rest and relaxation. Yes, libraries might offer free entertainment, but that adds travel expenses, even if you only walk and consider the wear and tear on your shoes. If we are really getting down to truly tight budgets, people need to consider every aspect of an expense.

It all adds up
We currently have 3 TV related subscriptions, 2 book related ones and one music one. For all of that I think I'm at £50 or so per month. I switch out one of the TV ones every now and again, or pull them back to a single one.
Nevermind all the other subscriptions
Magazine (gifts to family), alarm/CCTV, news, computer related ones....