I Cut My Subscription Bill by 60% Without Losing Anything

I just realized I was paying $187/month on subscriptions.

It took a random glance at my credit card statement to notice. GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT Plus, Spotify, NordVPN, a Netflix family share I never use, Grammarly, Adobe — they add up fast. And honestly, I don't use half of them consistently.

Three months later, I'm down to about $73/month. Here's what actually worked.

Family Plans Are Stupid Good

NordVPN individual is $12.99/mo. Family plan (6 people) is $15.99/mo total. That's $2.67 per person if you have a few friends to split with.

I found 5 other developers in my Discord and we rotated who pays each month. Same with Spotify. YouTube Premium family costs $22.99 for 6 accounts instead of $13.99 per person.

That math is hard to ignore.

Annual Billing Saves More Than You'd Think

Grammarly's yearly option is basically 2-3 months free if you pay upfront. NordVPN saves about $96/year switching to annual. I hate commitment, but my bank account loves it enough.

The downside is you need actual cash upfront. But if you use the service year-round anyway, it's just... money in your pocket.

Downgrade Instead of Canceling

This one's obvious but worth saying: you don't need ChatGPT Plus if GPT-4o mini handles 90% of what you actually ask it. Check if you're overpaying for tiers you don't need instead of canceling outright.

Do you really need GitHub Copilot when Claude Code (free tier) exists? Or 2TB of Google storage when you're using 180GB?

The Pause Button

Netflix and some other services let you pause for 1-3 months without losing your account. I pause Netflix during crunch periods when I don't watch anything anyway, then restart when there's something worth watching.

Not all services support it, but check the settings before you cancel. It's way less friction than full cancellation and comeback.

Actually Comparing Plans Takes Work

I built a quick comparison spreadsheet to track everything. Individual vs family vs annual pricing, across maybe 12 different services. Took about an hour, but it made the decisions obvious.

There are also a few comparison tools and calculators online that do this. Saved me from opening 15 browser tabs.

The TL;DR

Audit your credit card statements. Find 2-3 friends for family plans. Switch anything year-round to annual billing. Cut the subscriptions you actually don't use.

Then set a calendar reminder and do this again in 6 months.

The time investment is small. The recurring savings are real.