List out monthly recurring discretionary expenses

Hello All,

This week is the fifth issue of our Finances for Feminists Financial Bingo Series!

Have you noticed the current streaming service crackdowns on logins? This summer Netflix recently sent out a strongly worded email (tsk tsk) requiring subscriptions to be shared only within households. Paying for multiple profiles is apparently no longer cutting it.

This is a great opportunity and reminder to review your monthly discretionary subscription services! Log into your credit cards or other relevant accounts (debit card, etc) to see all of your recurring monthly discretionary expenses. List them out! These are expenses like Spotify, Hulu, New York Times, LinkedIn, Peloton, etc.

For many of us, we sign up for a service and it renews automatically making us unconsciously opt-in to that service again. Unlike essential expenses, discretionary funds are optional expenses, and as such, provide a good opportunity to save. 

Once you have your list of monthly subscriptions, ask yourself:

• Do I use this service?

• Do I enjoy this service and/or feel good about this expense? 

Answering "no" to the questions above might mean it's time to cancel that expense. If you are unsure about cancelling, know that most subscription services are easily renewable. If you're looking to trim your expenses this may be a good place to find savings.  

Let me know how it goes! You can shoot me an email at hello@financesforfeminsts.com or send me a DM at https://www.instagram.com/financesforfeminists/. Well done on another bingo square completed!