The price of streaming vs out right owning

[trappedslider]

It’s not cheaper. People think buying a game for 70 is expensive versus a sub that lets you play multiple games but in the long term, it is not. I was spending 70/ month and maybe the family played 2 games. Are the subs worth $840/ year? I was not spending that buying games.

I found that most of the content I had access too went unused even in a family of 4.

Given how quickly I get bored with games and switch focuses, game pass is cheaper than buying a game play for a bit, buy a new game, rinse and repeat. My steam library is filled with so many games, I've either bought or gotten free and what am I currently playing: Fallout 4 lol. And I recently had a sub for expansion's for Hearts of iron 4, which I canceled before it's renewal due to not being interested in it, and it being cheaper than the total of the expansions that came out when i had it.

Games are going up this year and next year, the only game I foresee myself buying will be GTA VI and that's due to it not being on game pass at launch.

Oh and I have a kindle unlimited sub, which i get a lot of use out of.

If you’re not using the service you subscribe to, then it’s just basically a waste of money. It’s very possible to get more value than what you pay if you’re using a service frequently. I’ve started getting strategic about the subscription services, cancelling several and starting to round robin a couple of others. Do I really need Netflix all year long? Probably not.

The only reason why I still have hulu with my D+ is they have the full run of the original law and order, otherwise i'd have canceled it after The Rookie ended it's season. I did drop the Max from the bundle after The Pitt finished it's season. And the only reason I have paramount plus is due it being bundled with my Walmart+, otherwise i'd have dropped it after NCIS's most recent season.

It's been awhile since I subbed to netflix, and I canceled my peacock sub when i lost interest in the current Law and Order season.

 

[TiQuinn]

Given how quickly I get bored with games and switch focuses, game pass is cheaper than buying a game play for a bit, buy a new game, rinse and repeat. My steam library is filled with so many games, I've either bought or gotten free and what am I currently playing: Fallout 4 lol. And I recently had a sub for expansion's for Hearts of iron 4, which I canceled before it's renewal due to not being interested in it, and it being cheaper than the total of the expansions that came out when i had it.

Games are going up this year and next year, the only game I foresee myself buying will be GTA VI and that's due to it not being on game pass at launch.

Oh and I have a kindle unlimited sub, which i get a lot of use out of.


The only reason why I still have hulu with my D+ is they have the full run of the original law and order, otherwise i'd have canceled it after The Rookie ended it's season. I did drop the Max from the bundle after The Pitt finished it's season. And the only reason I have paramount plus is due it being bundled with my Walmart+, otherwise i'd have dropped it after NCIS's most recent season.

It's been awhile since I subbed to netflix, and I canceled my peacock sub when i lost interest in the current Law and Order season.

I’d drop Disney in a heartbeat but it’s bundled with our Hulu + Live TV and there doesn’t appear to be an option to remove it.

 

[R_J_K75]

Subs are pervasive. Many do not send a monthly bill. They just hit your credit card so you only see them on your statement.

I usually at least get an email receipt. I keep good track of those.

Iive alone so I only need single licenses if that matters regarding subscription prices. I usually get streaming services for free when they have promotions, which I just cancelled D&DB, HBO Max, and Netflix. So, I pay $19.99 for Spectrum internet and $25.00 for Philo streaming cable per month. Other than that, I just subscribe to Prime for $7.60/month. So total is $52.59.

I use Apache Open Office, and Foxit PDF Reader which are both free and serviceable enough for what I need them for.

The only other subscriptions I have which is more of supplemental insurance to my homeowner's insurance. It's a company called HomeServe, and they have saved my ass a few times. They replaced a hot water tank, furnace, circuit breaker panel/indoor wiring and some leaking water pipes. They don't always cover stuff so you may have to read the plan and stretch the truth a bit but the ~$75/month is worth it to me as I most likely won't have the $1K-$2K+ to fix something in the event of an emergency. Link is below.

HomeServe

 

[Belen]

I usually at least get an email receipt. I keep good track of those.

Iive alone so I only need single licenses if that matters regarding subscription prices. I usually get streaming services for free when they have promotions, which I just cancelled D&DB, HBO Max, and Netflix. So, I pay $19.99 for Spectrum internet and $25.00 for Philo streaming cable per month. Other than that, I just subscribe to Prime for $7.60/month. So total is $52.59.

I use Apache Open Office, and Foxit PDF Reader which are both free and serviceable enough for what I need them for.

The only other subscriptions I have which is more of supplemental insurance to my homeowner's insurance. It's a company called HomeServe, and they have saved my ass a few times. They replaced a hot water tank, furnace, circuit breaker panel/indoor wiring and some leaking water pipes. They don't always cover stuff so you may have to read the plan and stretch the truth a bit but the ~$75/month is worth it to me as I most likely won't have the $1K-$2K+ to fix something in the event of an emergency. Link is below.

HomeServe

Thanks for reminding me about DDB.

 

[Belen]

For you, sure. This is not a typical list though. Most people do not pay $800 a month on subscriptions. That is… excessive.

I think most people pay more than they realize.

Oh, 2 iPhone subs too until we pay them off but they hate that so they get you to constantly upgrade every two years.

 

[R_J_K75]

Thanks for reminding me about DDB.

You're welcome. We're moving on from 5E/5.5 so I don't see the point in spending ~$5/month. That might be an 11" "Footlong" sub from Subway with a coupon in the coming months which may be the difference between life and death.

 

[Belen]

You're welcome. We're moving on from 5E/5.5 so I don't see the point in spending ~$5/month. That might be an 11" "Footlong" sub from Subway with a coupon in the coming months which may be the difference between life and death.

Shrinkflation. It makes everything worse. It is killing old recipes.

 

[payn]

800! Holy bananas batman!

HBO 14
Amazon 15
Spotify 12
(Not currently subbed to Peacock but I will for NFL season so ill toss it in) 12
NFL+ (also during football season but tossing in) 12
Monthly protein bar supply 15

Amazon black Friday special for two months of P+ for 5 bucks. Hardly worth mentioning.

So, thats 73 bucks a month (for 3 months out of year and then about 1/4 less than that)

Oh, im also still rocking an Iphone 7. You do not need to upgrade every two years.

 

[Velderan]

Regarding music subscriptions, they can make sense depending on your situation. Personally I buy maybe 1 or 2 albums per year so just buying the album on Apple Music with no subscription makes the most sense for me. At this point, I have a lot of music in my Apple account I have bought over the years and I can access it anywhere on my phone, iPad, or on my PC.

Currently we're paying subscriptions for:

• Disney+/Hulu/Max ad-free tier ($30)
• M365 family plan (military discount, $100 a year for 3 users)
• Adobe Creative Cloud my wife uses for work ($500 a year)

Oh, im also still rocking an Iphone 7. You do not need to upgrade every two years.

I agree you don't need to upgrade every 2 years, but I'm pretty sure Apple dropped security update support on that model at the end of last year so probably time to upgrade if you do anything remotely sensitive on it. I typically upgrade when feature support is dropped, which is usually 5ish years. The battery is usually really bad by that point anyhow.

 

[Desdichado]

I despise the new(ish) business model of subscriptions for software, and refuse to pay any of them. For most, there's an open freeware alternative. I do get Microsoft 360, for instance, through work, but I use LibreOffice at home, for example. I use Google Meet for free, and Teams through work, Webex through work, etc. Mostly if I'm using those, I'm in a meeting with someone else who has a paid subscription as host anyway.

I did pay subscriptions for SWTOR, but I do the 2-month one-off, so when I'm not actually playing it, I let it lapse. But games are a bit different. And I'm probably done playing that for good anyway. Even with games, I prefer to buy older (or old-fashioned) games and own them outright.

I use Android over Apple specifically because I can load a microSD card with mp3s rather than needing to stream music, so no subscription there either. I do have a YouTube Premium account, but I'm on the family plan my son-in-law bought; I'd just suffer the ads on my own and use YouTube a lot less. Etc, etc. Amazon Prime is the one that I can't do without, because of the free shipping more than because of the streaming. My wife uses Netflix and Disney+ a fair amount, but I rarely watch anything on either and often forget that we have them. We have a Hulu+ bundle too, I think, but we haven't even bothered to set it up after years of owning it. I think we might have a Max account, maybe? I've never used it.

If I were widowed, or something like that, I'd go down to Amazon Prime and cancel almost everything else. We only keep these because my wife wants them.