Despite finding ways to reduce the cost of a subscription or fully cutting it off, we will have some unavoidable ones that we will still need in our daily lives. Over the years, I have tried to cut down as many subscription costs as possible by finding loopholes or solutions to save that money. Today, some of the paid ones that I am actively using include my phone bill, internet & some other website subscriptions. Based on the below list, you can look at the ones that I managed to save while still actively using it.
For Netflix & Spotify, I am riding on my brother’s existing family plan & that allows me to save almost RM900 per year. For Google Drive & Canva & internet, it is the most basic package that I am subscribing to & there is nothing cheaper. For my Digi, I have lowered my package from RM80 per month to RM40 per month. So far, I have had no impact in terms of my service usage. For Grab, I have converted from a monthly subscription to a yearly subscription. Just from all that, I managed to save RM1,322.78 per year.
How Can You Save Money From It?
1. Find Cheaper Package
If you are comfortable with your current subscription but you plan to save a bit, you can always seek to downgrade it to the lower package. It may have no or minimum impact on you. If you feel that the impact is big after downgrading, you may upgrade it later.
2. Find The Best Value
Cheaper does not mean that it is good. For the price that you pay, you need to have the best value for it. Service such as the internet is the one you can compare. Not all service providers have the best speed as what they claimed in your housing area. Perhaps you are paying a cheaper price but if the speed is slower & it affects your user experience, you may switch to a better one with a slightly expensive price.
3. Compare Apple To Apple
You can compare among all the other competitors to see which is the best package for you.
4. Sign Up For Long Term Plan
If you are comfortable with that service or you have used it for a long period, always opt to subscribe for long term plan to save some money.
5. Bundle Up
Some providers allow service bundling such as Astro which offers Netflix service too or Digi which offers Spotify Premium. A bundling plan allows you to save some money too.
6. Family Plan
If you have family that uses the same subscription as you, you can talk to them & share the subscription.
7. Track The Total Expenses & Breakdown
You need to ensure that your total expenses are tracked on a monthly or yearly basis. Just referring to my list, I am spending more than RM1,000 just for 5 subscription services. Imagine if you had more, how much would that expense be?
Conclusion:
All these expenses may look small when you are looking at them separately but when you add on all the costs together, it can cost you a lot from it. Coming from someone who is very cautious of my spending, the more that I can save, the more I can use it to invest or save for my next holiday. You can try to look at yours & find ways to save from it. I am sure you can at least save hundreds or perhaps thousands from it annually.
OSS!
