Canceled/downgraded subscriptions

Everything is on a subscription model these days. Every service tries to trick you out of your money by offering a free trial that automatically converts to a paid subscription. As an ADHD-er I’ve fallen victim to this too many times, and today I decided no more. Here’s a rundown of my subscription cleanup:

  • Chewy- I changed my cat food order to a larger quantity that ships less frequently- saving $2 per pound of food. I also changed the type of cat litter I buy. Since my automatic litter box broke (and I can’t buy another one until I’ve saved the money- I was able to downgrade to a cheaper type of litter (clumping from crystal) in the meantime. 
  • Nord Subscription- I turned off auto-renew. When it expires, if I elect to continue the VPN subscription, I will be omitting the unused services I bundled (Nord Locker and Nord Pass) when I resubscribe.
  •  Turned off Peloton auto-renew. If I want to do some Peloton workouts, I will resubscribe for one month at a time (and only if there’s cash available and budgeted).
  • Canceled my powerlifting gym membership that I haven’t used in a while. Although I canceled on January 4 I’m required to pay for services through the end of February- but whatever the cancellation is still complete.
  • Turned off auto-renew to all free trials of subscriptions I have.
  • IFTTT- the webhooks just randomly stop working anyway. 

I cooked all my meals at home

Update on decision to cancel all (most of?) my credit cards

Today I decided to do a trial run of freezing all my credit cards with balances. Doing this leaves me with one card with a $500 limit as my “daily driver” card, so to speak- since I hate using my debit card. I also have one card in a drawer with an approximately $2,000 limit I can keep available to book hotels, flights, and in case of emergency. And actually, I have another card with a $3,000 limit that I only use at Costco- so I suppose I’m not hurting for available credit. I will freeze all cards except the $500 limit daily use card. I’m still sitting with my discomfort with closing the cards that have a balance. Some of my concerns are rooted in reality- closing the accounts will drop my score because it will lower my available credit and skew my debt-to-available balance ratio. Also, it will affect my age of accounts for a while.

But some of my worries are rooted in emotion, and I don't fully understand. Is it a scarcity mindset that if I give up these credit cards, I’ll never have another opportunity to get a credit card in my entire life?

This needs more examination…

So to make a move in the spirit of the decision I’m too scared to make, I’ve elected to freeze the cards for the time being. Doing this, I won’t be able to spend impulsively without taking action to undo the freeze. If I unfreeze the cards t any point, that will signal me that the cancellation is necessary. Huh, maybe I’m just looking to give myself one more chance before drastically canceling my cards.

Unbudgeted money spent today: $0