Cancelling as many subscriptions as possible

[FuglyBitch]

Trying to reduce our software/streaming plans outgoings as I just feel annoyed at large capitalist organisations trying to bleed us dry, and move us to a model where we don’t own anything. Frankly, I want out.

• Apple iCloud - £8.99/month - cancelled, I’ve just backed up 40K images on to a hard drive.
• Spotify - £12.99/month - listen on the free one, but lost all my playlists
• TV licence - £174/year - cancelled, deleted iPlayer and don’t watch live TV
• Sky TV - £40/month - cancelled over a year ago

Subs We have, need to work out a plan to cancel

• HP printer plan - £1.79/month for 10 pages a month, use it mainly for kids work
• Disney+ - get it as part of our bank account, will keep while we can
• Amazon prime - £95/year - free delivery and Prime TV. I want to move to buying more locally and not impulse buying stuff

what do you pay for and are thinking of moving off?

I recently cancelled NowTV (£9.99 pm) and now only have Netflix basic sub of £5.99 pm (still finding plenty to watch) and TV licence (for iplayer - rarely watch live tv). I have one paid-for YouTube sub (£4.99 pm) and only use Amazon Prime for purchases when it has one of its free for a week/month offers. Only use Spotify with ads for free.

I got rid of Sky few years ago / don’t really miss it at all.

Netflix - downgraded to the £5.99 one with ads - they are really not that intrusive.

Spotify - I have two teens so we have the two person plan for that - that is the one I don’t think I will ever be able to use while they are at home. I don’t use it.

disney plus - currently 6 months free via O2. You can usually get a free free months / discount.

we had paramount for a couple
of years - only about £3 a month but that will go.

Phones I tend to buy outright unless there is a very good contract deal - I’ve just paid off my iPhone 15 but won’t get a new one for at least 12 months.

I do have an office 365 annual plan but as I get a corporate rate that’s not too bad.

i got rid of prime years ago - my ex has our dd added to his occasionally I get her to order something for me.

I’m pretty sure you can cancel your instant ink subscription and revert to buying normal cartridges instead.

I think we're going to cancel all our streaming services and switch to dvd rental - I know it sound retro but at least we'll always have something we actually want to watch an no worries about streaming quality! At the moment everything we try and watch sticks, or is pixelated or has other problems and it's really annoying. We have a 4k TV but can barely even get high definition on anything. Only thing we'll keep is the TV licence for cbeebies I think.

Cancelled all our streaming subscriptions earlier this year, haven’t really missed any of them,including primes next day delivery, also had an hp ink subscription but cancelled that two years ago, printer still works with normal hp cartridges but since kids left school/uni barely ever use it, none ofthe subscriptions seem expensive alone, but add them all together and it’s surprising how much they cost

I only have a pay as you go phone...I spend about 10 quid a year on it.

Disney free with my bank account.

We have netflix and Spotify but use them loads.

No prime but try and get trial membership as and when.

I get Amazon parcels delivered to the boxes in coop, usually free as lower minimum. We own our printer and buy cartridges off amazon, costs £15 per cartridge (2 needed) but last a couple of years, no idea how many sheets you get but we print more than 10 sheets a month.

I oay for
Prime- happy to continue
Im on an advert Netflix subscription.
I had Paramount plus on a cheap deal for a year but im not going to renew.
The only other subscriptions I have is my gym and my Piliates.

Oh and I buy phones outright. I bought my iPhone 12 new 5 years ago, still works fine. Pay £10 a month for sim with giffgaff which includes free eu roaming

Recently reduced mine down got rid of Disney, crunchyroll, peloton app and netflix

I’ve kept Amazon as it’s amazing value for us, as we use prime gaming, prime video plus obv the free shipping, kept my HP ink subscription as I print so much, it’s the 300 page one and Spotify

The one thing we will never drop is the tv licence as we mostly watch bbc, not often live these days but iPlayer is better than Netflix for us (we do have Netflix but id drop it if necessary)

We have
Netflix
Apple TV only for a month or so whilst watching Slow Horses
Amazon prime

No Spotify
No gym, running outside instead
No Sky never had it
dropped tv licence as we don’t meet the criteria to need it

We had a similar printer plan with HP. Be aware that if you cancel it then they will disable the cartridges remotely and you won't be able to use them again - you'll need to buy new ones.
We got round this by disabling the wifi for the printer and using a cable to the computer - so don't use it remotely from other devices. You can then cancel the printer plan and use as much as you like......

We have:
Apple One family plan £24.95pm (3 of us listen to Apple Music, DP and I watch Apple TV, and we all use the cloud storage).
Disney+ with ads, but paid for with Tesco Clubcard points
TV license paid monthly £14?
Amazon Prime, paid monthly £8.99, mostly for tv but I might order items approx 20x a year

DP has a leisure centre membership £30pm, he visits a few times each week and it’s his only ‘hobby’, I’d be loathe to consider cutting that.

Of those we could cancel the Prime… I’d have to sit down and go through my order history to look at what we’d bought and what the alternative would be/cost.

re your printer: have you gotten your cost per usage out of the actual printer itself? Like a PP mentioned, it could be better to just print things at the library if you are near one. Ours is 10p per B&W page, 20p for colour. The paper they use is good quality too.

I was reading a Which? article, only yesterday, saying what a waste of money the HO printer plans are!

The only things I have are a few craft subscriptions, National Trust, Prime (which I also use for work) and the TV license.
I will be ditching some of the craft subscriptions due to a lack of time.

I agree with you op, but do cancel my subscriptions occasionally and end up crawling back!

Unless I'm being really dopey, I can't even use Word or Excel at home anymore as I don't have a subscription to those.

We have:

Amazon Prime (which I need for dd's Alexa)
Audible (for me)
Netflix (with ads)
Disney + (with ads)
Youtube (ad free)

I think that's it. Think it is around £40 for all of it every month.

ETA: we do have a NT membership too, but get that half price through DH work and also a TV license

I'd dump the printer plan and you can buy a new printer quite cheaply with cartridges that last for ages. After I itial outlay you'd save money and recoup in about 14 months.

I also have a £50/month gym membership actually. Too many to remember them all which says it all really!

I have a Virgin package of fast internet, TV channels, Sky Movies, Sky Sport channels and TNT. The whole thing is about £88 pcm. It includes Netflix and Sky go on 2 X laptops or phones. I get Disney + free with bank account and DH pays for Amazon Prime for Alexa's, next day delivery, music and some football on TV too. It all gets used a little t so I accept we need it ATM. I did get rid of a set top box in the spare room though as DS has moved out.

I do have lots unfortunately but the overall cost per month amounts to a lot of choice and enjoyment for about what I used to spend on one night out (or on lunches at work whereas I now mostly WFH).

We have Prime, TV licence and Disney+. OH has Discovery+ for the football (groan!) but I managed to persuade him off Sky at least!

We used to have a family members Netflix (they live in Oz!) but had to get rid, have never really missed it.
We use another family members Now TV login and they use our Discovery+, that works well.
Disney+ for the child who makes good use of it.
Prime is key for me, I have lots of items on cheap subscriptions from it that heat supermarket prices so I’ll keep up with that!
I have always been proud of the fact that we don’t spend loads on Sky, but I would like to fork out for Spotify, I currently use CDs in the car and OH has a free account. Maybe when our mortgage payments lower?!

Netflix, Now and Prime - total of £30 a month. I’m going to strategically sign up again with Apple TV in a couple of weeks time just for one month so I can watch the F1 film, all of the recent series of Slow Horses, and Down Cemetery Road. I’m thinking of dropping Prime in the new year after I’ve watched all of the films I want to see on there.

Look for DVDs in charity shops, usually get them for £1, sometimes less. I buy them, watch, then donate back.

Often get full box sets too. I've still got The Wire I've never watched!

I have Amazon Prime at £95.00, and wouldn't cancel it as I like the photo storage; and need the delivery aspect as I am disabled and struggle with getting further than the most local shops.

I have Netflix at £5.99. Watch it a lot so worth it for me.
I am a National Trust member and pay the over 60 rate of £6.00. I rarely use the membership but value what they do so keep it going. I also spend £10 per month on my local Hospice lottery and donate £17.00 to another local charity. I would cancel these two and the National Trust membership if I was struggling financially.

With Amazon prime you can put your photos on online storage for free there