subscription minimalism

This minimalist Youtuber shared her minimal list of subscriptions and it challenged me to question what subscriptions I truly need.

I have now culled down my monthly subscriptions to the following:

• Gym - $120/mo.
• Netflix - $8/mo.
• Spotify - $10/mo.
• Amazon Kindle Unlimited - $12/mo.
• Pump Club - $10/mo.
• One Medical - $9/mo.
• Ghost - $9/mo.
• Focusmate - $5/mo.
• Rocket Money - $6/mo.

My annual subscriptions are:

• Amazon Prime - $139/yr.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve - $550/yr. I did some math with ChatGPT and this is actually worth it for me.
• 1Password - $36/yr.

That's $2993/yr in subscriptions ($2268 in monthly subscriptions).

Anyway, I made a few changes to my process to help me tackle subscription bloat. (Rocket already gives me visibility, sometimes notifications that help me stay on top of my subscriptions.)

First, I'm keeping a running list of subscriptions in a note, so I can see their total. I technically have this in Rocket and it helps, but I'm more discerning when I have to write out the list.

Second, I now try to do a mental calculation of the true value of a subscription before I choose to purchase it. If a subscription is $10, and I have it for 3 years, that's $300. If I have 5 of those, that's $1500. And with the number of fitness and productivity apps I get into... I especially have to be careful. I'd much rather that spend money on a flight someplace.

Notes:

• I hope to cut Pump Club and Amazon Kindle Unlimited soon (I'm on and off with the latter). I'm trying to not add Obsidian Sync to the list, but we'll see. I also pay for Google Photos/Drive and some iCloud storage I think. Oh, and sometimes I'll use Hinge Pro, though I'm convinced it doesn't work...
• Here's an assortment of subscriptions I've tried over the years (sigh):
  • Criterion
  • Crunchyroll
  • Viki
  • Audible
  • Bear
  • Day One
  • Noteplan
  • 750words
  • MacroFactor
  • Webflow
  • Svbtle
  • Moova
  • Strong
  • YNAB
  • Oops
• I share this to show I've come a long way...