I think we live now in the era of subscription services. I am not sure whether I really save money with it probably the opposite. Due to the fact there are so many of them one can lose the overview. In the past I had 1-2 subscriptions which I forgot to cancel them. I was extremely depressed when I signed the contract and I was pretty angry on me when I realized how much money I wasted. I have a lot of subscription services. I like to binge them and then cancel them when I am done. (If this is possible). I have some subs where I sometimes feel guilty and think I have to use it all the time because I spend money for it.
I am very anxious about future poverty and I think this will be a main cause for my suicide. I already try to save a lot of money. I am not sure how high my costs are compared to other people. I never buy smartphones or other technical stuff with a contract. Usually I pay one time the full amount,
Here comes my list - I won't give exact names which services I subbed because I am scared about being identified.
I subbed to two news/political magazines: 17 euros per month. Clearly my guilty pleasure. I love to follow the media and politics. I use it daily for several hours.
mobile Internet: 5 euros per month (I don't count the internet at home because I share it with someone else)
VPN and anti-virus services: 1,66 euro per month. It was hard to get them this cheap. The VPN is better than freeware but not good enough to bypass geoblocking in many cases
This was it. So this makes 27 euros per month (324 euros per year) I think that is pretty cheap.
Thouh one could add this enforced sub: German public media fee it is roundabout 18 euros per month. I know many people who really hate that. You have to pay it in any case - otherwise you have to go to prison (no joke - some people depict thermselves as renegades because of that). Personally I use German public media daily a lot. Probably because I am interested in the news and politics. I think the German services are superior to the BBC. At least from what I have heard. Though many Germans are discontent about certain structures withhin the service. Moreover they say it is too left. I won't go into details. They support some of my favorite youtubers with that money. I think that is a pretty smart step, This for sure increased my support for it. On the other hand side 18 euros is pretty expensive. They might want to call it democracy contribution. I am not sure whether this will increase its popularity. But this is off-topic.
Here are some other sub-services and what I think about them (as if anyone would be interested in my opinion):
soccer or sport subs: I had some of them in the past. Though I am glad I canceled them. Way too expensive, the sport is corrupted by money interests. We adapted to the British sport services standards. The prizes increased further and further. I think you have to pay 40 euros per month to watch champions league. I think even if I had the money I would not waste that much money
streaming services like amazon prime/netflix: never had one. For me that is a waste of time. I quit watching series years ago. Not interested anymore. Also pretty expensive the services fight each other and as what I have heard it is pretty annoying that there are many exclusive titles. I don't know how much a sub costs. Though I would always choose youtube. I love youtube. And honestly I would pay a lot if the content of youtube was behind a paywall. Gladly I can pay with my data and I use ad-blockers.
no game pass/ no music streaming: I don't like digital gaming services. I really dislike the development in this industry. It ruins gaming for me because I love to buy used game in order to save money. Music streaming is only for lazy people. This is at least my impression. There are legal and free ways to get music songs with youtube downloaders. As far as I know they are free and legal where I live (when you have no economical interest for example selling it). Though I won't guarantee it. I am always surprised why so many people waste so much money monthly just because they are too lazy to use youtube downloaders. But I am not sure whether it is legal in other countries. Though I am quite sure there are downloading sites where music downloads are illegal and you might have to pay a very high fee for it.
amazon prime: I don't like Jeff Bezos and Amazon in general is overrated. This is at least my opinion.
gacha game subs: They even start subs in them. Though when I did the math I was pretty shocked what you get for your money: barely anything. my other investments are so much more worth than the shit gacha games offer. And I currently play 3 of them. And I am free2play gamer.
One could even buy a sub for chatGPT. Also a waste of money in my opinion at least for now. There are ways to use it for free.
This post got a little bit long. What do you think about our current subscription era? Do you like or dislike it?
How much do you spend? And for what?
I am very anxious about future poverty and I think this will be a main cause for my suicide. I already try to save a lot of money. I am not sure how high my costs are compared to other people. I never buy smartphones or other technical stuff with a contract. Usually I pay one time the full amount,
Here comes my list - I won't give exact names which services I subbed because I am scared about being identified.
I subbed to two news/political magazines: 17 euros per month. Clearly my guilty pleasure. I love to follow the media and politics. I use it daily for several hours.
mobile Internet: 5 euros per month (I don't count the internet at home because I share it with someone else)
VPN and anti-virus services: 1,66 euro per month. It was hard to get them this cheap. The VPN is better than freeware but not good enough to bypass geoblocking in many cases
This was it. So this makes 27 euros per month (324 euros per year) I think that is pretty cheap.
Thouh one could add this enforced sub: German public media fee it is roundabout 18 euros per month. I know many people who really hate that. You have to pay it in any case - otherwise you have to go to prison (no joke - some people depict thermselves as renegades because of that). Personally I use German public media daily a lot. Probably because I am interested in the news and politics. I think the German services are superior to the BBC. At least from what I have heard. Though many Germans are discontent about certain structures withhin the service. Moreover they say it is too left. I won't go into details. They support some of my favorite youtubers with that money. I think that is a pretty smart step, This for sure increased my support for it. On the other hand side 18 euros is pretty expensive. They might want to call it democracy contribution. I am not sure whether this will increase its popularity. But this is off-topic.
Here are some other sub-services and what I think about them (as if anyone would be interested in my opinion):
soccer or sport subs: I had some of them in the past. Though I am glad I canceled them. Way too expensive, the sport is corrupted by money interests. We adapted to the British sport services standards. The prizes increased further and further. I think you have to pay 40 euros per month to watch champions league. I think even if I had the money I would not waste that much money
streaming services like amazon prime/netflix: never had one. For me that is a waste of time. I quit watching series years ago. Not interested anymore. Also pretty expensive the services fight each other and as what I have heard it is pretty annoying that there are many exclusive titles. I don't know how much a sub costs. Though I would always choose youtube. I love youtube. And honestly I would pay a lot if the content of youtube was behind a paywall. Gladly I can pay with my data and I use ad-blockers.
no game pass/ no music streaming: I don't like digital gaming services. I really dislike the development in this industry. It ruins gaming for me because I love to buy used game in order to save money. Music streaming is only for lazy people. This is at least my impression. There are legal and free ways to get music songs with youtube downloaders. As far as I know they are free and legal where I live (when you have no economical interest for example selling it). Though I won't guarantee it. I am always surprised why so many people waste so much money monthly just because they are too lazy to use youtube downloaders. But I am not sure whether it is legal in other countries. Though I am quite sure there are downloading sites where music downloads are illegal and you might have to pay a very high fee for it.
amazon prime: I don't like Jeff Bezos and Amazon in general is overrated. This is at least my opinion.
gacha game subs: They even start subs in them. Though when I did the math I was pretty shocked what you get for your money: barely anything. my other investments are so much more worth than the shit gacha games offer. And I currently play 3 of them. And I am free2play gamer.
One could even buy a sub for chatGPT. Also a waste of money in my opinion at least for now. There are ways to use it for free.
This post got a little bit long. What do you think about our current subscription era? Do you like or dislike it?
How much do you spend? And for what?
