I’m caught in a vicious cycle with paid streaming services. I’ll go through periodic purges, where the high cost becomes too much, and I cull services down to nothing. My wallet thanks me, but it never lasts for long. Within a week or two, I’ll think of a movie I haven’t seen in years and Google which service it’s currently streaming on. I’ll also be lured in by live sports, such as finding a way to watch the NCAA Final Four. Whatever it is, it’s not long before the roster of services is built back to an unsustainable level.
I’ve finally decided I’m done. I can’t keep paying over $200 a month for streaming services I barely use. I realized I’m inefficient with my media when I thought about it. I’ve paid for the same movie several times and often sign up for a service to see a film I already own on DVD or Blu-ray. There’s a better way to enjoy media without punishing our wallets. Here’s how I broke the cycle.
Too much money for too little entertainment
It never added up
Source: Roku
YouTube TV’s latest price increase opened my eyes to how much I spent monthly on the service. $83 is excessive, and while I’m keeping it for reasons I’ll explain later, it made me reevaluate where I spent the most time watching. At the peak, I had signed up to no fewer than eight streaming services, and for most of those, I signed up for one program or movie. As films and shows moved, I bounced from service to service, never canceling the previous destination. It’s an easy way to collect many small bills that add up to a big one.
I also found that if you wait long enough, your media will come back around. We’ve become impatient, and the allure of having a movie start up in minutes of when we wanted to watch it is powerful. I don’t know how often I’ve started a show on one service only to finish it on another. A little patience goes a long way, and it is best to sign up for something because you want to watch several shows or movies in a short timeframe. If that’s not going to happen, hold off until the service gets a larger library you’re interested in. You might have every intention of canceling the subscription once the movie or show ends, but how many times have you found a charge on your bank statement for a streaming service that you swore you would cancel?
Building up a roster is critical
Have an honest conversation with yourself
Before signing up for any streaming service, developing an entertainment game plan is worth the time and effort. You can decide how much time you’ll actually dedicate to each platform you sign up for, and it’s an easy way to determine if it’s worth your money.
Cataloging the movies and shows we already have can save money.
It also helps to set a budget. Putting a hard cap on your streaming spending forces you to make tough decisions, and you’ll see how quickly services you honestly wouldn’t watch very often fail to make the cut.
In addition, I found it helpful to chart how much time you spend watching what type of content. YouTube TV still made sense to me because I enjoy watching live sports. Most evenings, I watch the NY Knicks and Rangers lose, so it’s worth it for me to keep it. I also like watching baseball at night, so the $83, while inconvenient, still fits into the budget. With Max, I found I had watched content on it once in the last 2 months — not worth the $21 a month I was paying.
We need to get smart with our movies and shows
I have so much unorganized media
If you’re like me, you’ve amassed a gigantic DVD and Blu-ray collection over the years. I can’t even tell you how many titles I own, and I never pass up a chance to pick up cheap movies at a thrift shop. Cataloging the movies and shows we already have can save money. Not only does it help organize your collection, but you wind up saving money. Apps like Libib let you scan in your DVDs and Blu-rays, so the next time you have a craving, you can type it in to see if you already own it somewhere in the bowels of your home. A little legwork can save you plenty of money.
A Plex Media Server is another way to organize content. I encourage you to use your media legally, but it’s a fantastic way to have content centrally located, with access from several areas of your home. Before long, you’ll have set up your own streaming service, and I promise the contract will never run out on how long a movie can be shown in your home.
Streaming services forced my hand
I’m not looking for more work to do. I wouldn’t be bothered to take these extra steps if streaming services didn’t raise their prices unreasonably. I could stomach the flat monthly fees when they all hovered around $10. However, the frustration set in once tiers that included ads started showing up. I’d love access to everything all the time, but the monthly bill quickly adds up to more than I was paying for DirecTV. There’s no point in cutting the cord if I pay more. It’s long overdue, but I’m done wasting money on streaming services.
