The price of streaming vs out right owning

[trappedslider]

well,it looks like I will be subbing to HBO, MAX,HBOMAX, whatever it's calling itself for the next couple of months since The Gilded Age is returning.

 

[MNblockhead]

Recent job change, relocation, and having to rent in a different city from my family until we can arrange moving the family have necessitating keeping to a tight budget. I use a fancy version of "envelope budgeting" (using YNAB) where every dollar coming in is assigned. Some categories a pretty broad, but I break down subscriptions so that each subscription has its own line instead of one budget line for "streaming". No matter the subscription schedule, there is a monthly cost that I have to assign money to. So, if an annual subscription is $120, I have to assign $10 a month to that budget line. I go over my budget at least once a week, assigning costs and income to budget categories.

This has really helped me keep an eye on subscriptions. I don't watch that much content on a day to day basis. I generally subscribe to a streaming service for a specific series. In the past, I wasted so much money paying for streaming services that nobody in my family was not actively using or wouldn't be until the next season of a particular show would come out. Going over my budget regularly has really helped me become more disciplined about cancelling services before monthly/annual renewals. I've also gotten more disciplined in not jumping into a new new subscription when a show I'm interested is released. I'll wait until more content I'm interested in builds up on that subscription and/or I'm ready to cancel another subscription.

The one area where I could be more frugal is supporting podcasts. There are a few I really enjoy, but hate ads so I pay to have the premium ad‑free access.

As for software, the one that I still pay for is for Adobe Acrobat. I feel it is dumb to keep paying for my personal use case. I could get by with Mac's Preview for most things. But there are just enough instances where it just works better for me that I continue paying for it. My subscription is coming up for renewal and I'm looking at buying a one‑time license of PDF Expert, which I've been testing and am liking better than Acrobat.

 

[John R Davis]

Erm. Sky glass with all the subscriptions, paramount, Disney, Netflix, Amazon Prime
Sky broadband
A MeFi portable box
2 phones.
Office 365 ( use voice teams for online now Skype has gone).

No idea the price as I have a wife to sort out lives mundane things!

 

[Morrus]

Erm. Sky glass with all the subscriptions, paramount, Disney, Netflix, Amazon Prime

Oooh. So i have SKyQ and have been mulling over Sky Glass/Sky Stream. The killer feature for me is the playlist feature, which for reasons unknown, they refuse to put on SkyQ. My use case is that 99% of my time is spent searching through each of a dozen streaming apps one at a time trying to find the thing I was watching, or remember what we've been watching.

So I have a question--does Sky Glass/Stream let you add shows from all of the inbuilt streaming apps? Netflix, Prime, Paramount, Disney, iPlayer, AppleTV, ITVx etc., plus all of the regular channels? If it does I'll probably get it, but if just one of the major apps doesn't pay well with the playlist, it defeats the point for me and I'll stick with SkyQ.

 

[John R Davis]

Oooh. So i have SKyQ and have been mulling over Sky Glass/Sky Stream. The killer feature for me is the playlist feature, which for reasons unknown, they refuse to put on SkyQ. My use case is that 99% of my time is spent searching through each of a dozen streaming apps one at a time trying to find the thing I was watching, or remember what we've been watching.

So I have a question--does Sky Glass/Stream let you add shows from all of the inbuilt streaming apps? Netflix, Prime, Paramount, Disney, iPlayer, AppleTV, ITVx etc., plus all of the regular channels? If it does I'll probably get it, but if just one of the major apps doesn't pay well with the playlist, it defeats the point for me and I'll stick with SkyQ.

Erm
I have this bar. Plus on the main screen or " continue watching" buttons from all the streaming shows
I ain't very technical ( see the wife comment).

 

[Morrus]

Erm
I have this bar. Plus on the main screen or " continue watching" buttons from all the streaming shows
I ain't very technical ( see the wife comment).

Ah well. Thanks for replying.

 

[chuckdee]

Amazon Prime, Walmart+, M365, Adobe, Quickbooks Self-employed, Netflix, YouTube, Disney/Hulu, Paramount, Peacock, Crunchyroll, BBC, NYT, NPR, Hasbro Pulse, Discord, SWTOR, EA Play, Xbox game pass, PS+, Nintendo, UPlay, Starlink, Amazon Music, Incogni, Credit Monitoring/Identity protection, LinkedIn, Kindle, PBS kids….

I am missing some but these are just off top of head.

Those aren't really all streaming though. They're for other software too.

Streaming I have Paramount+, Hulu/Disney/ESPN, Netflix, HBO Max, Apple+, Peacock and Youtube. I have Prime too, but buy so much from Amazon that I don't even include it in my streaming costs as the wider benefits outweigh the video use.

When you get into other stuff, it gets expensive, but those vary in usefulness and use case depending on the individual.

For example, I have microsoft 365, but I was paying that for upgrading office even when I 'owned' the software. And paying it in a lump sum. I also have Xbox Ultimate, Ubisoft, Luna, EA, Microsoft visual studio, Jetbrains, Discord, SWTOR, ESO, PS+, Spotify and others- but none of those are because of the changes to streaming - the video games especially help out because I tended to buy games and never get a chance to complete them.

 

[The Firebird]

It's hard for me to imagine subscription costs getting anything like cable or satellite. I primarily stream off Tubi, which is free with ads and has a great selection of older films, and some newer hits which rotate on a monthly basis. We also have a student rate for Amazon prime and use that, but will probably cancel it once that's no longer valid.

 

[MoonSong]

Ok, lets see

I have

Prime (mostly keep it for the video, I don't buy online that often),
Crunchy Roll
Disney Plus (Similar to the Prime arrangement but with Mercado Libre)
Netflix (with ads)
Max/HBO -whatever- (with a lifetime half cost account)
Spotify -as part of the family plan, I myself don't pay it-
Paramount (free with my internet provider)
Maybe Apple + at some point
Game Pass only during some months. Less than one or two a year.

There could be room for something like the kindle sub. I need to ponder it.

 

[MNblockhead]

Ok, lets see

I have

Prime (mostly keep it for the video, I don't buy online that often),
Crunchy Roll
Disney Plus (Similar to the Prime arrangement but with Mercado Libre)
Netflix (with ads)
Max/HBO -whatever- (with a lifetime half cost account)
Spotify -as part of the family plan, I myself don't pay it-
Paramount (free with my internet provider)
Maybe Apple + at some point
Game Pass only during some months. Less than one or two a year.

There could be room for something like the kindle sub. I need to ponder it.

Do you regularly watch shows from each of these? Otherwise, it seems like it would save you quite a bit of money by rotating subscriptions.