Subscription Update for the Year Ahead

In a move no one could have predicted, I managed to cut my subscription costs this year (by $7). I drastically reduced the number of subscriptions, too. In December of 2024, I had a whopping 55 monthly subscriptions that cost me $193 a month, a number that includes software developers, bloggers I support financially, web hosting companies, network services like my DNS and VPN providers, and pay TV. This year, I managed to pare it down to 43.

The Breakdown

• Movies and TV: $32.40 a month for Netflix, YouTube Premium, Plex Pass, and Infuse. I don't have cable—I cut that cord a long time ago.
• App Store Subscriptions: $44.15 a month for 12 different apps, some of which I've been using for years, like Day One, Carrot Weather, and Drafts. The total includes the fee for Apple Music and the iCloud 2 TB plan.
• Other Software and Tech Services: $79.88 a month for cloud storage, DNS, Usenet, AI, email, RSS, search, and a couple of automation apps.
• Blogging: $25.91 a month to four different blogging platforms, four domains, and an analytics service.
• IndyWeb Support: $9.50 a month to seven different bloggers (including Kottke).

Why?

Some of the costs I picked up in 2025 are associated with my decision to de-Google in the name of privacy. I'm now paying for Kagi, a search engine; Fastmail for email; and ChatGPT instead of Google Gemini. Some of the money I saved by canceling all pay TV services except Netflix went towards a subscription to a Usenet provider and indexer. Substantially less of my income is going to billionaires now. I'm not paying a dime to Amazon, Microsoft, Google, or Meta, and they have much less access to my data. Most of my app subscriptions go to indie developers and employee-owned companies.

I no longer subscribe to 13 of the App Store apps that I was paying for last year, mostly because I found that I no longer used them enough to justify the cost; I didn’t rage-quit anyone's app. I dropped a location tracker, a list maker, a couple of quotes apps, two related to movies and TV, and one that went out of business, Pocket. I use Inoreader, my RSS provider for read-it-later services, now.

I'm Not Mad but that Doesn't Mean I Like It

Obviously, I like the stuff I'm paying for enough to let go of some dough. Almost everything I use has some cost incurred by the owner for backend support. Development continues, and new features get added. My most expensive subscription used to be The New York Times at $24 a month. Today, it's ChatGPT, a company whose morals and ethics are suspect but whose product basically taught me the skills I needed to get into self-hosting this year. I don't think I could have mastered Linux as quickly without its help.

I know that it's a privilege to be in a place where I can afford all of this. I'm retired. I drive a 21-year old Toyota. I don't have cable. I don't get a new phone every year. I've lived in the same house since 1996. Testing software is my hobby and, yes, it costs money. Many hobbies do.