So as a followup to my last post in which I was complaining about Airmail moving to a $9.99 annual fee to retain notifications (something that was previously included when I purchased the app), I thought I would take a look to see what software and service subscriptions I currently pay for. I am genuinely curious about the costs and how they add up.
I’m breaking these down into monthly and annual costs. I’m almost scared to see the grand total!
Annual
| YNAB – awesome financial software 1 | $ 45.00 / yr. |
| Bear – note taking software 2 | |
| Forecast Bar iOS – iOS + Watch | $ 4.99 / yr. |
| Forecast Bar Mac – 15 min. updates | $ 7.99 / yr. |
| Mylio Pro – backup/organize all photos | $ 99.00 / yr. |
| AAA – roadside assistance for 3 drivers | $ 89.00 / yr. |
| Amazon Prime | $ 127.63 / yr. |
| Fastmail – email for 5 users | $ 250.00 / yr. |
| Todoist – task manager 3 | $ 29.00 / yr. |
| Total Annual Amount | $ 652.61 / yr. |
Monthly
| Apple Music – family plan | $ 16.08 / mo. |
| Echo Prayer | $ 1.06 / mo. |
| CircleGo – parental controls | $ 5.36 / mo. |
| iCloud Storage – 200 GB plan | $ 2.99 / mo. |
| Adobe Creative Cloud 4 | $ 21.48 / mo. |
| Hulu Live TV | $ 70.71 / mo. |
| Total Monthly Amount | $ 117.68 / mo. |
| (or $1,412.16 / yr.) |
So that’s a total of $2,064.77 per year in software and services! Yikes!
That doesn’t even count the internet access that we use to access these services. Let’s throw that in there too:
| Internet for Home Use | $ 45.00 / mo. |
| Internet for Work Use | $ 44.95 / mo. |
| Verizon (unlimited data, 5 phones) | $ 213.52 / mo. |
That’s another $303.47 per month, or $3,641.64 per year in access!
So, you can see how one might be upset about adding another subscription, even at $10 per year. We’re talking about $5,600 per year in costs.
What can we do about this? I can see a few areas to cut.
In the annual category, I’m not sure about the worth of Forecast Bar. It’s a great service and I know that it’s only $12.98 per year for all devices. That one might be a maybe.
I’ve often thought about canceling Amazon Prime. With so many shopping options out there, do we really need to spend $127 per year on Prime? I’ll have to ask the family how much we use the streaming services and see if this is worthwhile.
I could also get rid of Todoist. I have moved to Things 3 for all my task purposes and I LOVE IT! However, Things is Mac-only… it’s expensive to purchase each time (and on every platform)… and there are no delegation/sharing controls. I keep Todoist around for sharing to-dos. Plus I’m grandfathered in at the old cost.
YNAB and Fastmail are non-starters. I rely on them way too much. They are awesome services and well worth every penny. Mylio is a great service for us and with the limitations of Apple Photos (no sharing of full libraries, etc.) we are stuck for now. I have used Google Photos in the past, but I’m not comfortable having all my photos in Google’s hands, so I am phasing that out.
In the monthly category, I may be able to adjust my Verizon plan and get Apple Music for free. I do need to investigate the pros and cons of this.
I can drop Echo Prayer as I don’t use it very often. I saw that $1.06/mo. as a donation to the devs. I also need to think more about CircleGo. We have a Circle device in our house but my teenagers end up bypassing it, so I feel like I’m throwing money out the window each month. I need the iCloud storage so that stays.
I am using Adobe CC for a project now, but once that’s done, I’m planning on dumping it. I have the excellent Affinity suite of Photos, Designer and Publisher that are very good replacements for anything Adobe.
Hulu Live TV works for our family right now. We pay extra to have a larger DVR and unlimited screens. Once we are caught up on a couple of shows that are available on Hulu, I might consider switching to YouTube TV or something else.
As long as I’m working at home, I need to have stable internet that the kids don’t kill by streaming, so I’ll just eat that cost. It is a quality of life issue and I’m willing to pay.
I mentioned trying to finagle my Verizon bill into something more affordable. If I can do that, it would be a huge help! AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are just not options here.
This is obviously an on-going thing that I’ll need to keep tracking. I’ll update again as things change.
1 I have a long-term subscribers discount; it’s normally ~ $80 / yr.
2 I thought about subscribing, but decided to stick with DEVONthink Pro, which I already have.
3 I am grandfathered into the old price; it’s normally $36 / yr.
4 Student discount price