by Stephen H

Created on: December 05, 2011   Last Updated: May 31, 2012

When the economy is doing well and we have money in our pockets, we may buy a number of goods or services and to get them a little cheaper, pay for them with regular monthly subscriptions, often by direct debit.  When the economy slows down, or we experience adverse personal changes to our finances, we can find that our money is not going as far as we need it to.  That is a good time to examine the subscriptions we have and look to lower or eliminate them so that we have better cash flow.  It is true that often these subscriptions are individually quite small, but it does not take long for a few of these to build up into a significant monthly out-going.

There are two approaches to take to reduce your level of subscription payments.  One is to eliminate them altogether and the other is to reduce the cost of individual subscriptions.

Elimination

Review the subscriptions to which you are currently committed.  For each one ask yourself if you are really getting good value by subscribing to that particular service.  In fact are you even using that service any more.  Common subscriptions that fall by the wayside over time include gym membership, video rental and book clubs.  You start out with good intentions and use the service at first, but then you starting missing going to the gym, you watch fewer films after the initial months and you are not reading the books that come from the book club.  If that is the case, why continue paying the subscription.  It is obvious, but because a lot of subscriptions are paid by direct debit, it is easy to forget that they are there.  Now is a good time to examine these and discontinue paying for a service you either no longer need or want.  Just getting rid of an unused gym membership alone can save a significant amount each month.

Reduction

Most of us subscribe to a number of services that we will want to retain, such as for a mobile phone, internet provision or television service.  But do we have the most competitive price for those services and do we really need the level of service we originally purchased.  Individually, these can be significant amounts of money but once you add them together they form a significant regular out-going.

Level of service

Review your subscriptions are ask yourself whether you need the level of service that you currently have.  Do you use the premium parts of the service that you purchased?  How many channels in a

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