When most of us sign up for a new service, we think that the extra ten or fifteen dollars a month won’t make any noticeable difference. The truth is that these services can make a huge difference in your end of month budget. Here are some examples of monthly recurring payments:
- Zune Marketplace
- Napster
- Netflix
- Tivo
- Realplayer
- XM satellite radio
- Sirius satellite radio
- Cable TV
- Internet
- Phone
- Cell phones
- Computer games such as World of Warcraft
- Electricity
- Water
- Gas
- Magazines
The list is practically endless! Some of these services are unavoidable like electricity and water. However, if you really want to stretch you dollar, you should seriously re-evaluate which recurring payments are really worth it. Some services are necessary, but you can choose which company you want to purchase service from. For example, if you’re sick of paying Comcast 50 dollars a month just for a lousy internet connection, you might want to consider cheaper, but still fairly high speed services. If you don’t do much online gaming or heavy downloading of movies and other large files, you probably wouldn’t even notice a difference between cable and DSL modems. It’s worth your time to carefully choose your providers for services which are necessary in your day to day life.
Other recurring payments are downright frivolous. The best example of this is XM and Sirius satellite radio. Now, if you drive many miles every day, it may be worth it for you do have satellite radio. But if you’re just driving 30 minutes to and from work every day, 21 days a month, that’s an extra seventy cents just to listen to music or news! If you have a short daily commute, this can begin to cost you almost as much as gasoline. Believe it or not, radio is free, and CDs are very cheap. In fact, even if you made a custom CD for every day you go to work, it would still cost less than a satellite radio subscription.
The last category to be discussed is subscriptions which reel you in. That is, once you purchase a subscription, you are forced to continue paying or else you lose something. An example of this would be Zune Marketplace or Napster. You can buy a subscription for 15 dollars a month and download unlimited music. The catch is that if you ever stop paying your subscription, your files become unplayable. Of course, there are some simple ways to remove copyright protection from audio files, but this is illegal. Even if you subscribe for an entire year and spent $180, if you choose to cancel the subscription you will have absolutely nothing to show for your money. Participating in these subscription programs do not allow you to build up any equity. A similar situation exists with services such as Netflix. Again, there are simple ways to copy DVDs, but this is also illegal.
So next time you consider purchasing a subscription to something, it’s best to think about the long term consequences and whether or not that service is really worth it or not. Put together, these services can easily cost you over a thousand dollars a year!
Stumble it!
Posted under Saving Money, Shopping
This post was written by admin on September 8, 2008
