23 Common Monthly Subscriptions to Cancel on a Tight Budget

It’s easy to underestimate how much you pay for the convenience of subscription services. What you may not have realized is that this is probably not your only monthly subscription.

$237.33 per month

That’s the average cost consumers pay for the suite of monthly subscription services they have, according to a study by WestMonroe.

Does that surprise you?

That’s $2,847.96 a year!  What could you do with that money?  

• Pay off a credit card?
• Build up that vital emergency fund? 
• Use it as a down payment on a car? 

So no, it’s not just the $9.99 a month you tell yourself you’re spending because, more than likely, you have more than one monthly subscription. 

If you’re really tight on money and find yourself scraping by close to payday, or you have to pay late fees because you can’t pay your bills each month — why not take a look at your list of subscriptions to see if there’s anything you can do without?

Pausing or canceling a few of your subscriptions can go a long way towards cutting unnecessary expenses.

Loosening up some extra cash each month can help you avoid NSF fees, late fees, interest, cancellations due to being late, and collection calls.  

A List of Subscriptions to Cancel & Free up Some Cash

Some common subscriptions aren’t included because most people find them necessary-such as wifi or home security. If you work from home, you need some things for your job such as higher speed internet, software, web hosting, etc. 

Here are 24 common subscriptions to cancel to save money each month:

1. Online gaming services (Playstation Plus, Xbox Live)

2. Cable package. Try Pluto TV.  It’s totally free, with hundreds of channels, both live & on-demand. Yes, they have commercials-but it’s 100% FREE so do some squats, push-ups, get some water, do something during commercial breaks to get the blood pumping through your body again.

Sitting disease is REAL — people!

3. Gym membership (Have you been telling yourself you will go but honestly never do?)

4. Ancestry. If you cancel an upgraded access option, you won’t lose your family tree or your DNA results-don’t worry! You’ll just have restrictions on any new searching you want to do.

5. Netflix Premium. You can always upgrade again later-but save yourself $10-$12 a month and see how it adds up. They even have a plan that’s ad-based. Take a moment to review their plans and make it a point to downgrade. 

6. Premium cable channels like HBO or Showtime ($10-$15 each). Or, keep the channel but cancel when your favorite series ends and add again when it comes back.  

If it’s not a show where you may see spoilers (like Game of Thrones), wait until the season is over, get the channel, binge-watch the whole series for a month, and then cancel.  That way, you only pay for one month versus the 3-4 that they string it out for.

7. Music streaming (Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Music, Sirius XM)

8. Fitbit Premium / MyFitnessPal Premium

9. App upgrades (Meditation, organizing, to- do’s, financial). It’s probably a good idea to check out your current app subscriptions, as it’s so easy to sign up for them and then forget it. 

iPhone: Settings-Your Name-Subscriptions

Android: Google Play Store-Menu-Payments & Subscriptions-Subscriptions

10. Amazon Prime (Target & Walmart both offer free 2-day shipping without a subscription.) And do you absolutely have to have so many things in 2 days?

11. Subscription boxes  (Pets, lifestyle, beauty, fashion (FabFitFun, Birchbox)

12. Ebooks/Audiobooks

13. Cloud storage

14. Meal kit plans (Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, Freshly)

15. Credit monitoring

You can check your credit for free using credit karma

16. Identity theft monitoring

17. Online magazines (Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Medium)

18. Numerous streaming services like Hulu, Sling, Netflix, YouTube Premium, PlayStation, Apple TV, Disney +. Do you need several, or could you manage with just one or two for a while?

19. Tanning-are you really using it? And if you are — you really shouldn’t be. Take it from a former tanning addict-skin cancer is real. Plus, it severely ages your skin, so you really don’t look any better.

20. Food delivery. DoorDash, GrubHub (Both DoorDash & Grubhub offer a $9.99 membership fee for unlimited free deliveries.) Do you order delivery as often as you think you do?

21. Warehouse memberships (Sams Club, Costco)

22. Massage/Spa memberships. Do you go as often as you thought?  Would it be cheaper to just go once in a while compared to what you are paying? 

23. Store delivery shipping options (Shipt, Instacart)

24. Twitch streamer channel support

*BONUS TIP: While you’re at it-cancel your email subscriptions to your favorite stores.

They are too tempting and can cost you when you click on their enticing offers. If you hadn’t seen that offer-most likely that need or perceived need wasn’t there in the first place. 

When times are tight-you can do without “urgent” or “limited-time” sale offers that you feel you need to take advantage of.

So Easy, You’ll Think You’re Cheating

If the thought of going through all your spending activity to find your subscriptions sounds overwhelming — you’re right— it can be. But — you can save yourself loads of time and stress using a free subscription management tool through Rocket Money. It’s a FREE (well-Freemium) financial management app touted as “the all-in-one personal finance app.” While they do offer additional paid options, their option to manage subscriptions is FREE. 

 Rocket Money instantly finds and tracks your subscriptions.

Once you link your account, their app will search through your activity to find your subscriptions AND show you how often and how much you pay each time! 

Get ready-you may be in for a shocker if you don’t keep a strict eye on your spending. If you still feel avoidance kicking in, they offer a paid option to have them cancel your unwanted subscriptions for you.

Do an Honest Review of Your Subscriptions & Take Action

Take a look at your financial goals and how you can better meet them by focusing on needs rather than wants.  

If you just can’t bear to part with a few of the monthly subscriptions listed, fine. But, look to see if any of the services offer discounts, such as military/student/senior.  Also, some will give you a deal if you call to cancel-so that they can at least get you to stay with them. 

If you’re on a trial period for a temporarily lesser charge, add a reminder to your calendar or home assistant to alert you a few days before your trial period ends so you don’t forget.  

Remember-any changes you make don’t have to be permanent.  

See how you do after 90 days of not having one or more of these subscriptions and see if going without really does impact your life.  Most likely, you’ll be just fine.

Helpful Non-Affiliate Tools To Help You Save Money

I use these same tools/sources and recommend them in several of my posts because I know they can make a difference, especially when money is tight. Being careful with your money doesn’t mean you have to totally go without!

Credit Union (CU) Finder. Seriously-just find a credit union. They tend to offer truly free checking accounts, lower rates on loans, and higher rates on savings/CD’s. You don’t need to bank with the biggies to get what you need.

Pluto TV. Their service is 100% FREE. I can’t even tell you how many channels they have. They offer Live TV and On Demand. Their content is categorized by Topic Channel-like Bob Ross, Forensic Files, Fail Army, Pets, 80s Movies, COP’s…..you name it. 

Internet Speed Plans. You may be spending more than you need to. Answer a few questions when prompted and it will tell you how much speed you really need for the devices you have and how you use the internet. 

Netflix Plans. Did you know Netflix offers several different plans? If it’s just you watching, you don’t need the plan that lets you stream on multiple devices at once do you? Check out their plans-there’s a $10 difference between the Basic and Premium. They also recently added a reduced price plan with ads.

You may also like: 

How to Save Money on These Home Entertainment Services

4 Simple Tips To Trim Your Electricity Expenses Year Round

Are You Making One of These 5 Money Mistakes?