Senso1970's Blog   Thoughts, ramblings, and accountability from sunny Madison, AL

Just wanted to send off a blog about my new spending practices.  One thing I noticed after I posted the original blog is that I hadn’t taken into account subscriptions to things like Netflix, Curiosity Stream, and language apps I use.  I gave it a little thought and I came to this decision.  We all need entertainment and education.  The measure of whether I would keep it or not is whether or not I actually use it.  Netflix I use regularly enough that it’s a keeper.  But I noticed that there were things like iTunes Match I was paying for that I can’t even remember the last time I actually used it.  And with iTunes Match I had the added silliness of paying for Apple Music, which I do use, which duplicates the very features of iTunes Match is use.  You’re welcome, btw, Mr. Cook.

So I went down the list of things I subscribe to and put them in two lists.  Subscriptions I’ve used in the last month, and obviously ones I haven’t.  Anything I was using I feel good about keeping but I’ll keep an eye on my usage.  Does the benefit justify the cost.  Column 2 was way easier to deal with.  Some of the subscriptions I got when I had good intentions and then never used.  So I’m out hundreds of dollars on some of these things with nothing to show.  Those, of course, I got rid of immediately.  On the list there were a few that I hadn’t used but knew I should, like wanting to improve my mind by learning languages.  Those I kept but with the caveat that once their usage goes down again they’re gone.

The final step in regards to keeping the subscription was the frequency at which I paid them.  A number of them I got on the monthly subscription because I wanted to test them out before I committed. But since I never tested them out I had wasted a lot of money I could have been saving by getting the yearly subscription.  So if I kept the app/subscription it was changed to the longest offering, which offered the best price.

The overall final step in this audit was changing how they were paid.  I have three credit cards.  They are all reward cards, one is for Apple, the other an airline, and the newest is Amazon.  I do a lot of business on Amazon so this card pays for itself.  I have let the Apple and airline card sneak up on how much I have on them.  This also costs a lot in interest I could be spending on me (or saving if I were being smarter).  So now all recurring payments and spending go on the Amazon card and that’s getting paid off at the end of the month so I don’t drown in interest.  I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t making progress on my Apple card as I always pay more then the minimum and it was the recurring stuff that was getting me behind my back.

Now that things are better organized lets see how this affects my bottom line.