We spotted three mule deer in our front yard over the weekend. I’m hiding in our courtyard looking through the gates to take photos and this beauty is staring right at me.
I sat down Saturday and went through our bank accounts to collect info for taxes. Ugh. Not my favorite thing to do. But, with nothing else to do on a Saturday — except walk, go to the gym, clean house, carry dishes from the kitchen to the casita, watch TV and read — somehow I managed to sit down and get to work.
I’m always shocked at how much money we spend during the year and I look for ways to cut back.
One thing that hit me right in the eyes were subscriptions on our monthly credit card statements for things we no longer use. It’s tricky because some are billed annually. They aren’t that much, and somehow I let them slip by me.
Then there are monthly ones that are billed monthly. Those are easier to catch during the year, but I was negligent with some of those, too.
Some things I cancelled yesterday were useful to me in the past. Like LinkedIn. I used that when I was writing a weekly column and I got requests from companies to write for them. But what surprised me is that I had an annual charge for LinkedIn. I never signed up for a premium membership and I thought it was free. Apparently I was wrong.
Another one was for a newspaper attached to Ancestry.com. I don’t remember signing up for it. I was able to log in and checked out my account. It said I was a guest and didn’t have a subscription, yet they charged me $74.95! I couldn’t cancel it online because the website said I don’t have an account.
A few newspaper subscriptions I signed up for, I’m not interested in anymore. Yet I couldn’t find a way to cancel them. So today, I’ll be making some phone calls.
What a waste of time and money!
What is your experience with subscriptions billed annually or monthly?
I try to avoid these like the plague. I do my magazines through Amazon now, so that’s easy to monitor. I did have an issue with another mag but I took care of it. My daughter is really on top,of streaming services…she knows what we have and monitors it. I have my Ny times…puzzle and news online. I have a recurring chewy order for pet supplies. And I don’t think I have anything else. I get an iPad alert when my Amex is used, so I watch that and try to catch things. I think I have another subscription but I can’t think of it
I need to go through Amazon and double check our subscriptions. Thanks for the reminder! I get air filters and a few other things on subscription. They seem to stock up and not get used as quickly as they’re delivered.
Yeah…I watch our chewy because I don’t need dog biscuits or treats every month. I pick and choose
I was using Chewy for cat litter because my cat only likes one brand. Chewy was the only place I could find it! But now it’s back in the grocery store.
For me it’s the carrying of the cat litter. Chewy delivers.
That’s true. You’d be carrying it home, not putting it in your car. That would be a pain.
FYI, I went through Amazon and found two channels Showtime and Starz that were charging me every month. I honestly do not remember ever signing up for those. My daughter told me she thinks Amazon may be facing a class action lawsuit because she keeps reading that it’s happening to a lot of people.
Good luck getting rid of those mystery charges. I’m pretty fierce about never opting for anything subscription wise. I don’t need or want that stuff anyway. This is a great example though that whenever you enter a payment method on any site you really need to make sure how that info will be used and what you, often without knowing, agree to when you enter it. No one gets my card info!
Good for you! I need to be more careful.
These are so sneakily done and so hard to get rid of. I hope you can get all of them cancelled
I’m trying!
It’s a big headache and wastes a lot of time.
Exactly!
🥲
I have a few subscriptions that I allow to renew automatically, but I am very, very careful about it.
I learned I need to be a lot more careful!
Hello! I enjoyed your post – I just went through the same thing. I ruthlessly unsubscribed from every subscription I could in January. After a month, there was only one that I regretted and went back to! I’m looking forward to readilng more of your blog!
Thanks for stopping by! I am still working on getting unsubscribed. I’m glad you did it successfully.
It is hard to keep up with everything. I think the more you think linear, the easier it becomes. I appreciate the husband doing all or most of the design in the outdoor garden as he sees the whole picture. I am the detail person but we can appreciate each other’s views. I also learn from how he keeps notes.
I guess I’m not a linear thinker until I get in the right mode without distractions.
It is not hard to get rid of any of them, you folks are just focusing your attempts to stop them in the wrong direction. I have only once had this issue, and the company was playing stupid. So I sent them an e-mail cancelling the service, then took a copy of the e-mail to MY BANK, showed them I had cancelled, and to block their routing number from making anymore auto-withdrawals. They charged me $20, and it was done. That business threatened me with credit reporting, garnishment…all the usual junk. I gave them the number for a local attorney that specializes in this stuff. Never heard from them again, and that was maybe a decade ago.
I think like an English major. The husband thinks like a business major, which he was. We learn from each other.
I totally understand that. My husband was a business major and is in finance. I was a journalism major and spent my career writing.
Good for you. If I can’t get it done online, I’ll go to the bank. But it’s a firm we pulled all our accounts from except the credit card because of accreted mileage points.
We have so many varieties of deer in neighborhood. They are eating all of our plants in my garden. I found your site. And let’s follow our blogs. Anita
I will check your blog out. Thanks for stopping by. We have a fence around our yard, but they eat our plants outside the fence. They deer seem to love jojoba.
https://100countrytrek.com/
Can click above
The bottom page on the right side. Click the follow button. Let me know. Anita
Thanks 😊
Oh wow! How can they charge you if you never made an account!
There must have been something in the fine print to sign up for Amazon prime.