Digital Declutter: Step 2 Subscription Clean-Up

A few weeks ago, I started my own person Digital Detox/Digital Minimalism journey which started with reading a lot about why I should create a healthier relationship with my technology but also why it is so vitally important to my health and well-being. What I didn’t mention was the impact a lot of apps and services have on my wallet.

So, today I want to take a dive into some my digital distractions.

I have a lot of  streaming media subscriptions that directly relate to the amount of content I consume.  I’m going to come clean with what we were subscribing to and where we are now:

• PBS $5/mo
• Apple One (which includes AppleTV): $37.95/mo
• Disney = $18.99/mo
• Paramount  $5.99 (with ads)
• YouTube Premium $17.99/mo
• NY Times $4/mo
• Netflix: $17.99/mo

Total: over $109/month (that’s $1308 per year!)

I realized that I am spending more now than we used to have a standard cable package back in the days before we all “cut the cord”. Not great. I already cancelled our Amazon Prime subscription at the end of 2024 and we cancelled Spotify last year as well after they decided we did not constitute a family and kicked me off the family plan. Spotify said I could submit a request to be added to the family plan in a year and I said “Nope! Goodbye” and had Bob cancel the plan and we fully switched streaming music to Apple Music which we had been paying for with the Apple One suite.

After some serious heart-to-heart with Bob, we made some shifts. We downgraded out Apple One account to just iCloud backup and Apple Music and downgraded Netflix to the lowest tier plan which now includes commercials. It wasn’t a huge savings there but neither Bob nor I really used the additional apps included: Games, Fitness or News so really we just removed apps we felt like we should be using since we were paying for them. The biggest “loss” was AppleTV but we will probably swap out Netflix or Paramount at some point and swap in AppleTV for a few months.

I think trimming these apps down reduce the endless scroll that we often do looking for “what to watch” on any given evening. I get so bored scrolling on some nights, I end up just going to read a book instead because my decision had been made by what I got from the library or downloaded to my ereader. Am I the only one who get frustrated trying to find just the “right” thing to watch?

The hardest for me to give up was the YouTube Premium subscription which provided me hours and hours of ad-free content and access to the YouTube Music app. I don’t think any of the subscription services realized that those “end of year” wrap ups that show how many hours you used the service would actually be an impetus for me to cut it out of my regular content. “I watched how many hours of YouTube last year?!!?!” So, for me this was the hardest to let go but for my time and brain, probably the one I needed to use less. I will still be able to access YouTube for information and entertainment but the commercials will be enough to snap me out of the endless hours or algorithmically served content I had been consuming.

We also parted with Disney which has become more expensive. We left it with the caveat that, at any time, we can switch services in a one-in/one-out rotation.

So our new subscription list:

• PBS $5/mo
• Apple downgraded to Music and iCloud: $26.95/mo
• Paramount  $5.99 (with ads)
• NY Times $4
• Netflix: $8/month (with ads)

Total: $49.94/month (a little less than $600/year)

By removing and changing services we trimmed our monthly media content bill by over half. I don’t feel like we are living an austere life as a result, just a little more curated. Will we change or adjust this list over time? Most definitely.

We will still watch lots of shows and movies but maybe we rent a movie from our local library or (gasp!) go to a friend’s to watch a sporting event or series together?!?! Remember when going over to someone’s house to watch a movie or tv show was a common occurrence? I think its time to bring that back. The idea that we might watch things as a social activity or be more choosy about when and what we watch seems like an important step to reclaiming our attention instead of turning on the tv and then mindlessly scrolling on our phones.

Have you taken an inventory of the streaming services you currently subscribe to? How many do you actively use and how many are you paying for “just in case”? Have you considered paring back?