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Trimming Subscription Costs

One of the easiest ways I find that you can spend money is through recurring expenses. Although it is something that I am aware of, it is something that recently began to creep back up. When I first became really interested in personal finance a few years back, I really thought that there would be a bit of work to be done and that a simple magazine might help. I subscribed to Money magazine and probably got something like 16 issues for like 12 bucks, who knows? Even after factoring in the entertainment value, I have decided to not renew. Much of the content feels recycled and the choices that they are highlighting seem to really be geared to people in retirement or with kids which doesn't really fit my life at this point.

Another subscription I've curbed is my World of Warcraft. I really enjoyed playing the game for a few months and also seeing all of the new content that had become available but the game has lost its appeal for me so I've quit. Perhaps I will go back, but not right now.

And the last subscription that I've worked down is the Netflix. I've been using this less and less for several weeks and I am actually finding that the online rental service seems to be the most valuable and I get that even with the lowest subscription level so that is what I switched to.

Overall these subscriptions don't count for all that much, approximately 30 dollars per month in savings which is not the end of the world, but I figured there was not any point in wasting the money. I'm curious to know how the economy has impacted other subscription-based services.

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