Chronic Subscription Fatigue Syndrome

Not maintaining my digital lifestyle is retarded!!!

Why would I go without a cell phone, cable, magazines, DVDs, and satellite radio to save a few bucks? So what if I save $1,000 to $1,500 a year! Look at what I would be missing out on. Even if I saved that money, I would just squander it on something else.

There is nothing on local TV and radio. Only talking from my home phone makes me feel like I am in jail. Not having movies to watch is dreadfully boring. I like my digital lifestyle because it is an escape from the misery of reality.

Just imaging 100 years ago before people even had radios or TV or internet. People lived dull and futile existences back then. They only knew what was happening in their own town. I think the real problem is that poor people try to make those who have money for these services feel guilty about their spending. Why work if you can’t have fun with your money?

It is hard for me to imagine a monthly nut greater than $1000.

We are a family of 4 with two sons ages 17 and 20.

Totals are as follows:

4 cellphones used for personal and business use $140/month. Company provides $90 month subsidy, therefore net is $50.

DSL, unlimited long distance and local phone bundle is $85.

Satellite TV (155 channels) is $50/month.

The Economist subscription is $8 month.

I think we have everything we need.

We pay about $80 for satellite TV (down from $100 after dropping all extras), $50 for DSL, another $50 for the landline mainly used for the DSL (we have no choice there: cable modem is not an option), and at least $140 for three cell phones. $3840 a year, which is a huge chunk of our income. Of course, there are credit card bills and car payments and other bills just like everyone else.

The cell phones are the biggest ripoff. Combined, the three phones used about a hundred minutes a month. That means we’re paying around a buck-fifty per minute! Insane by any standard.

We were going to switch two of the cell phones -which were out of contract- to prepaid but someone in the household called up Sprint to ask an innocent question and ended up renewing the contact for another two years and we didn’t even get new phones out of it. I wish they’d dump me because it’s $400 to cancel. We might anyway because we would actually recover that money in just a few months by going to prepaid.

I find it astounding that people take on these monthly charges. I hate paying $48 per month for my base cable, forget about cell phones, dsl, etc.. Apparently, Americans are swimming in cash. Who are these people??

I did the same analysis a while ago, and came to what I consider a good solution. I cancelled a lot of magazines, cut my bookstore habit to zero, and changed from cable to satellite TV. The bookstore habit was a $1000 annual killer, and the free library card opened my eyes to reading programs in our town, education on subjects (ahem, garden ponds) that I don’t know much about, and so on. Sure, my hardback is a little heavier on my frequent trips, but the savings allowed my family to save more.

This story touches on the issue I confronted 2 month’s ago. I toyed with the idea of not renewing my cell phone service($50/mo), my blockbuster monthly acess($23/mo) or my cable internet service ($35/mo). Add all them up and it’s $1,296 a year. I signed up for dial up internet in case I wanted to look something up from home which brought my savings down to $1,180 and the following week, I booked a 10 day vacation in Europe for about $880. I’ve been doing just fine without my extras and don’t intend to go back. I think that if people realize that life went just fine without the these extra’s, they could take the plunge and drop them.

And I thought I was bad having 2 different cell phone services! We also have the upgraded cable service at home and dsl of course. It does add up, but I haven’t really looked at the whole total. Just those 3 things without the local landline are well over $300 a month!!!

What’s worse is that we pay $300-$500 a month or more and think that it is a neccessity!!!!! People complain about gas etc going up……even having budget problems; but, NO ONE will give up the cell, internet, cable or dish until bankruptcy looms. Where has our common sense and priorities gone????

I couldn’t agree more with your comments. But the issue is that Americans are expected by their own peers to have all this technology, and thus expenses. “What do you mean you don’t have a cell phone on which I can reach you 24 hours a day?” What do you mean you don’t have digital cable on which to watch the newest and hottest show?” “What do you mean you don’t have a phone on which you can check your email at all times of the day or evening.” It is the expectations of those around us that continue to have an impact on our checkbooks every month.

I am fortunate that I’ve been disciplined enough to avoid signing up for every last subscription service that I, like everyone else, have been bombarded with in every media format available. Somehow, the idea of getting unlimited internet service on my cell phone at nearly half the cost of my home broadband service just wasn’t that appealing. I mean how bad do I really need to see the sports scores AS THEY HAPPEN? And do I subscribe to Sirius for the car, and to the super duper Rhapsody service for my PC because my MP3 player won’t stream Sirius content? And do I really need a monthly Netflix account on top of my Satellite providers Video on Demand service? Don’t forget about ESPN Gameplan.

I have a solution: Get out of the house more often.