How To Get Your Kids To Start Saving
They’re around… they’re lurking their on most of our credit card bills. Tiny amounts (or big ones!) that add up slowly over time. Nope, I’m not talking about surcharges or hidden fees – I’m talking about fees that you knowingly sign up for and pay for each and every month – thinking that you’ll save money!
I’m, of course, talking about subscriptions. While they can be great (if you use the service) they can also be a constant drain on your monthly expenses. In a lot of cases, we talk ourselves into a monthly or weekly expense that will (ideally) save us money over many small purchases. If it’s a product you use daily (transit pass) or you have a lot of discipline, many subscriptions are great.
For the sake of argument, let’s look at 2 different subscriptions for some examples of ones that don’t work:
The Gym Pass: $54/month (on a 12-month minimum) or $9/single trip
Ahh, the gym pass. This is an expense that many of us have justified over the course of a year. The problem that many of us face (myself included) is the motivation fall-off that may occur during the year. Unfortunately for us, signing the deal means paying the feeds –even if I sit on my but for the entire month of April because of rain.
Let’s say you go to the gym 1-2 times/week (but plan on going 3-4). If you’re actually going as much as you planned: it’s a great deal! But, if you look at the math and you only go to the gym 5 times/month… that would have only cost you $45
However, if you simply paid the one-time cost each time you went, you could wind up saving some money.
Subscriptions rely on us having big ambitions and the reliance on ‘cutting our costs by buying more’. As you can see, it takes a lot for it to work 100% of the time.
Where else does this occur?
• Magazines
• Newspapers
• Sausage of the month clubs
Got any more subscription stories? Hit the comments to tell us all about it!
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