Subscription services have become firmly established in our lives, such as video streaming, unlimited music listening, e-books, fitness apps, and regular food delivery. It’s attractive that you can easily sign up for a contract because it’s affordable, ranging from a few hundred yen to a few thousand yen per month, but according to Chiritsumo calculations, it can end up costing you a lot of money each year. This time, we will introduce a guide to reviewing your subscriptions to eliminate waste in your household budget.
The first step in reviewing your subscription is to make a list of all the services you currently subscribe to. Check your credit card statement or your Apple/Google account settings for a list of your subscriptions, and write down all the service names and monthly fees on paper or in a memo on your smartphone. It’s not uncommon to find a service that you intended to use as a free trial, but you forgot to cancel and ended up being charged every month.
Once we have a list, we will strictly sort the items based on the following criteria. The first question is, “Have you used it even once in the past month?” If you haven’t used a service at all for a month, you’re unlikely to use it again. Please cancel without hesitation. If the need arises, you can simply renew the contract at that time. The second question is, “Are there any duplications in service content?” For example, if you subscribe to Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and U-NEXT, do you really need all three? It is wise to limit your subscriptions to one or two at a time, such as canceling your subscription once you have finished watching the drama you want to watch and switching to another service.
Changing to an annual plan is also an effective way to save money. If it is a service that you are sure to use continuously (such as Amazon Prime), it is often cheaper to pay annually for several months than to pay monthly.
The biggest advantage of subscriptions is the ease of not owning them. By carefully selecting only what you really need for your current lifestyle and detoxing on a regular basis, you can balance a rich life with a healthy household budget.