Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that you can save a lot of
Speaker 1: money by reviewing all your recurring payments and subscriptions. Sometimes
Speaker 1: things add a lot to our lives and sometimes they don't.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that what we're paying for
Speaker 1: is worth it. To help me with this tip, I
Speaker 1: invited Joel and Matt from the How to Money podcast
Speaker 1: to share some strategies. They're with me here now as
Speaker 1: they will be for a few episodes this week, So
Speaker 1: Joel and Matt please take it away. Thanks Laura. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the subscriptions that we sign up for they end up
Speaker 1: owning us more than we think they can be, like
Speaker 1: little little vampires, little leeches, bleeding us dry over time.
Speaker 1: And streaming subscriptions they are one of the worst culprits
Speaker 1: most of us. Obviously, we don't want to go back
Speaker 1: to the days of cable. Our our favorite streaming services
Speaker 1: that they're nice to have. We can binge on whatever
Speaker 1: new series that we're interested in. But with the success
Speaker 1: of these streaming services, more and more companies are ratcheting
Speaker 1: up the price or charging US cable esque subscription fees
Speaker 1: more than ever before. So it is incumbent on all
Speaker 1: of us, on you out there, to keep watch over
Speaker 1: which ones that you bring into your life. Uh, and
Speaker 1: then to act the ones that you don't use. Yeah.
Speaker 1: A recent study found that the majority of Americans vastly
Speaker 1: underestimate how much money they spend on subscriptions every single month,
Speaker 1: and not just by a little by hundreds of dollars.
Speaker 1: The average person underestimated their monthly subscription costs by a
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty three dollars specifically. And that's a lot
Speaker 1: of money that's going on accounted for in your life.
Speaker 1: So if you're wondering maybe why you aren't able to
Speaker 1: save as much as you'd like to, the culprit just
Speaker 1: might be the subscriptions that you've forgotten about. And thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent of the folks in that same survey that
Speaker 1: subscriptions are making them crazy. They complain that they're hard
Speaker 1: to keep track of and that they're causing additional stress.
Speaker 1: And so we're not suggesting a spartan subscription free existence,
Speaker 1: but we are saying that it would be wise and
Speaker 1: financially beneficial to whittle down the number of recurring subscriptions
Speaker 1: in your life, that's right. Yeah, one of the worst
Speaker 1: subscriptions that we've seen. BMW they are planning to charge
Speaker 1: drivers eighteen bucks a month to access heated seats that
Speaker 1: are already installed in their cars. The hardware. It's like, literally,
Speaker 1: it's already there. But BMW, they don't want just a
Speaker 1: one time sale from you. They want some of that
Speaker 1: recurring income that these other businesses out there have been
Speaker 1: able to snack. And so in a world that has
Speaker 1: become subscription obsessed, where like every company they want just
Speaker 1: a small handful of dollars each and every month from you,
Speaker 1: it might be more difficult, but it's totally possible to
Speaker 1: pair back and to to mostly steer clear of them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So here's what we would tell you to do. First,
Speaker 1: make a list of all the subscriptions that you're paying for,
Speaker 1: and that means taking a look at your actual spending
Speaker 1: and combing through your debit or credit card statements. Subscription
Speaker 1: fees fester, and they'll continue to impact your finances if
Speaker 1: they're left in the dark. Leave no stone unturned on this.
Speaker 1: While you're while you're looking for these fees, while you're
Speaker 1: looking for these subscriptions, the recurring ones, and you might
Speaker 1: be you might be shocked at the recurring payments that
Speaker 1: you're making that you even just forgot that you signed up.
Speaker 1: That's those this free trials that come back to the
Speaker 1: exactly and so we say next after that, after you
Speaker 1: have shown a light, you found which subscriptions you actually
Speaker 1: have in your life, cut the ones that you aren't
Speaker 1: using with regularity. You should typically be able to do
Speaker 1: that in just a step or two on the company's website.
Speaker 1: It's not a terribly difficult process, but it's an important
Speaker 1: one because it could help you clawback dozens or even
Speaker 1: hundreds of dollars of your own money moving forward each
Speaker 1: and every month. Yeah, but that being said, there are
Speaker 1: now companies and apps out there who have popped up
Speaker 1: that will cut your subscriptions for you for a fee.
Speaker 1: Of course, they often want to keep close to fift
Speaker 1: of the money that they save you, or you can
Speaker 1: pay a flat monthly fee. Nothing like paying a subscription
Speaker 1: to manage your other subscriptions. The truth is negotiating lower
Speaker 1: prices for recurring subscriptions and cutting the ones that you
Speaker 1: no longer want. This is not rocket science. You can
Speaker 1: totally do this yourself, and then your money it can
Speaker 1: be better spent elsewhere, right, I mean, we we promised.
Speaker 1: We don't want you to cut the subscriptions that you
Speaker 1: use and that you love, the ones that are actually
Speaker 1: providing you real, real value, but we do want you
Speaker 1: to stop spending money on stuff that isn't a priority
Speaker 1: so that you can use those dollars in a more
Speaker 1: effective manner. What great advice. Thank you Joel and Matt.
Speaker 1: Being wise about recurring fees and subscriptions can free up
Speaker 1: quite a bit of cash for things you would find
Speaker 1: more fun. For more great financial tips, please listen to
Speaker 1: Joel and Matt at the how to Money podcast and
Speaker 1: in the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's b E the number four then breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
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