{"id":22021,"date":"2010-04-26T04:00:48","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=22021"},"modified":"2018-11-21T20:35:06","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T04:35:06","slug":"save-money-by-reducing-subscriptions-and-avoiding-long-term-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/save-money-by-reducing-subscriptions-and-avoiding-long-term-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Save Money by Reducing Subscriptions and Avoiding Long-Term Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"
In continuing celebration of Financial Literacy Month, my GRS contributions throughout April are covering basic techniques to raise your financial awareness. We’ve previously touched on the topics of debt<\/a> and income<\/a>. Today we’ll tackle two of my favorite tips for ensuring conscious spending.<\/p>\n Purge your subscriptions<\/strong><\/em> Of course, some subscriptions are beneficial or desired. I’m not claiming all<\/em> subscriptions should be avoided; however, it’s important that we understand the nature of subscriptions. By nature, subscriptions make you less aware of the recurring purchase. Rather than reevaluate a purchase every month, a subscription ensures that you’re charged regularly and obtain access to a benefit. Whether or not you’re actually getting a benefit is another story.<\/p>\n In the first couple of months of a subscription, we may still find ourselves using and enjoying the benefit. But 60, 90, or 365 days down the road the situation may be different. After the puppy love phase wears off, we may not be receiving the same benefit from our recurring purchase.<\/p>\n Many of us forget to reevaluate our subscriptions, so we end up paying for several months (or longer) of extra payment with very little benefit. We stop reading the magazine, stop watching the extra channels, or stop renting the bonus movies. The appeal of subscription-based services are high, but in many cases we’d benefit from a more conscious, a la carte approach.<\/p>\n Here are some tips for evaluating your subscriptions:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stop blindly signing contracts<\/strong><\/em> Once again, the problem with contracts comes with our assumptions. We assume that cell phones require a two-year commitment, that renting requires a minimum of a year-long lease, or that any gym membership will be accompanied by a lengthy contract.<\/p>\n In reality, there are many alternatives. You can often negotiate the terms of the contract, save money and avoid contracts by paying in advance, or consider alternatives to the idea altogether.<\/p>\n Here are a couple recent examples from my own life:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once again, let me point out that there are many<\/i> instances where signing a contract can be beneficial to the consumer. For example, signing a long-term lease means that you won’t have to go through any rent increases that may exist in shorter-term leases. Just ensure you only sign contracts on the most essential needs in your life.<\/p>\n Chances are you won’t be ditching all your subscriptions and you’ll still have plenty of contracts in your life. But the key is to review your subscriptions on a regular basis and constantly search for alternatives to lengthy, restrictive contracts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In continuing celebration of Financial Literacy Month, my GRS contributions throughout April are covering basic techniques to raise your financial awareness. We’ve previously touched on the topics of debt<\/a> and income<\/a>. Today we’ll tackle two of my favorite tips for ensuring conscious spending.<\/p>\n Purge your subscriptions<\/strong><\/em> Of course, some subscriptions are beneficial or desired. I’m not claiming all<\/em> subscriptions should be avoided; however, it’s important that we understand the nature of subscriptions. By nature, subscriptions make you less aware of the recurring purchase. Rather than reevaluate a purchase every month, a subscription ensures that you’re charged regularly and obtain access to a benefit. Whether or not you’re actually getting a benefit is another story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[476],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSubscriptions, even small ones, can sneak up on you. Every time you sign up for another recurring payment, you’re locking in a portion of your income. You’re tying up a specific segment of your budget.<\/p>\n\n
\nOur society loves contracts. They’ve become a routine part of our financial lives. In some situations, contracts are not only necessary, but beneficial. But, like subscriptions, we can easily go overboard and trap ourselves in some sticky situations.<\/p>\n\n
\nSubscriptions, even small ones, can sneak up on you. Every time you sign up for another recurring payment, you’re locking in a portion of your income. You’re tying up a specific segment of your budget.<\/p>\n