One of the most frustrating parts of digital streaming can be how easily costs add up. When you subscribe to a handful of services a month, you can easily lose track of the accumulated expenses amid price increases, inactive subscriptions, and forgotten subscriptions.
But if you are busy and only have time to stream your favorite titles throughout the weekendIt is not necessary to periodically pay for individual services and not use them. Instead, you can use these tricks to save money and stream efficiently.
Check your subscriptions
Track your expenses
Before you start reducing subscriptions, the first step to take is to review all of your charges. It’s easy to lose track of all your monthly subscriptions and, in the process, lose track of how much you’re actually spending each month on streaming services that you may not even use regularly. With monthly subscriptions, you may also be ignoring the price increases that many services quietly make, so tracking your spending, regardless of your viewing activity, can be a good practice.
When I started streaming regularly only on the weekends because of my schedule, I made sure to put together a spreadsheet within my budget tracker so I could cancel (or pause, like netflix and youtube premium I’ll let you do) subscriptions that I hadn’t touched in over a month. Alternatively, you can also try a subscription tracking or budget app as Cop either TrimBut make sure you can track your spending on the free versions of these apps to avoid microtransactions that add up over time.
Buy or rent titles
Be selective
An easy and affordable way to curb unnecessary spending on streaming services is digitally. buy or rent individual titles from your watch list. You may feel like a huge streaming library is collecting dust when you have a busy month and only have time to stream on the weekends. Furthermore, for buy or rent titlesIt can save time you would otherwise spend searching for a new title to watch, something many viewers find annoying due to streaming platforms’ algorithms.
Many streaming services, including Apple TV, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video, allow you to rent or buy titles, and depending on your watchlist and purchases, this can easily amount to less than what you pay monthly for some subscriptions. I would recommend this approach if you are sure about what you want to stream so that you don’t have any regrets after purchasing these titles.
You can also explore Physical media formats such as Blu-rays and DVDs. if you are looking for high picture and sound quality and at the same time want to overcome the temporary nature of certain titles (due to licensing agreements, for example) on digital streaming platforms.
Change or rotate your services
Go month by month
If you’re not sure which individual titles to rent or buy, don’t worry, because there are plenty of viewers in the same boat as you. Many users of streaming services often create their viewing lists based on the content they browse, which means that committing to purchasing titles can be a bit complicated. But one way to have the best of both worlds (get the browsing experience to discover new content while saving costs) is change or rotate your subscriptions.
This could look different for each viewer, and when I tried it, it helped me spend quality time on the service I was focusing on during the month. You can subscribe to Netflix in April, pause the subscription after the month ends, and then try another service like HBO Max. This way, you get diversity and freshness (including original content) in your watchlist and save costs on an inactive subscription. And when you return to the first service, you can discover newer content.
While this may not be a long-term solution, it can be a good way to figure out which services you’ll want to subscribe to long-term. Rotating services over a quarter helped me cut down to three regular subscriptions for streaming video (I also did this for streaming audio and now got two), which helped me save hundreds of dollars over time.
Alternatively, if you can, consider family or shared plans that can help you and your loved ones save money while exploring new services.
Try free streaming services
Libraries better than expected
For those open to discovering content beyond what they can find on major streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV+, and Prime Video, there’s a cost-effective way to stream when you’re on a busy schedule: free streaming services. Such services may not give you the experience or high-quality library that these paid services offer, but the trade-off is that you will be able to browse a completely free library.
The best part is that such services have a decent library to explore. Many of these services host a nice, welcoming library of new and old titles, spanning many genres, languages, and tropes. But even if you don’t like what you see after a browsing session, you won’t lose any love (or money).
Here are some free video streaming services you can try:
Some of these services offer advertising-supported broadcastwhile others support free versions and premium options. If you’re new to some streaming services, you can also opt for eligible free trials. This is a safety net option if you don’t want to commit to one (or multiple) streaming subscriptions or simply don’t want to have dormant subscriptions during hectic months.
Tracking expenses, sharing or rotating subscriptions, and free alternatives are tricks you can use for any of your apps, especially if you’re someone who likes to sign up for premium tiers of apps (and forget about them). Beyond this, try creating a comprehensive watchlist to optimize your subscription package.
