30 Recurring Bills

Random Observation/Comment #638: It was so much easier when all I spent money on was Friday pizza slices for high school lunch.

Why this List?

I go through my finances every quarter and try to figure out what I’m spending money on that seems to be consistently recurring. Every outstanding subscription adds up and sometimes it’s good to consolidate them and think about where you use your time (as well as where you want your time to be allocated). I was surprised when it was very easy to get to 20 and fill in a few deeper insight ones for 30.

Being an adult is expensive. There’s a tax on living.

  1. Seelemons.com domain and hosting (monthly) seelemons.com home has bills to pay
  2. Apartment, Apartment insurance, and Utilities (monthly) – Need a place to live.
  3. Daycare (monthly) – Need to keep my baby social and need to maintain my personal sanity
  4. Phone bill and home wifi (monthly) – Actually the whole family plan, but I did find that I was accidentally paying for 2 numbers to devices I didn’t even know I had activated (tablet + smart watch had numbers?!?!)
  5. Amazon Prime (yearly) – Great that it includes video – I use Amazon enough to save money on shipping
  6. Chase card (yearly) – I got the Sapphire Reserve special heavy metal card when it came with 250,000 points and $300 redeemable travel credit. Still surprisingly worth it even with the large yearly fee ($350).
  7. Metrocard (monthly) – There’s always some cost for commuting. Since I don’t have a car, this is considerably pretty low.
  8. Netflix (monthly) – Still watching a lot of great shows here. Yay Great British Baking Show!
  9. Hulu + Disney+ package (monthly) – The bundle seems to be economical for now and I really like The Mandalorian. Unfortunately new episodes aren’t out in a while. This is the way.
  10. HBO Now (monthly) – This was mainly for Game of Thrones. I haven’t found anything else to watch this for, so I might cancel.
  11. Crunchyroll (monthly) – I love anime and still watch quite a bit of it for FoodWars. This is probably worth canceling just to save myself some time from pure video entertainment intake.
  12. Youtube Premium (monthly) – I watch enough Youtube for my news, comedy, and food videos to make this worth it to not watch 3 sec of ads for every video.
  13. Spotify (monthly) – I think we have one of these, but I listen to 90% of music on my Amazon Alexa. I also tried a Pandora account at one point.
  14. NYTimes (monthly) – Because we support real journalism.
  15. Password manager (yearly) – Needed for the whole family
  16. NYTimes wine club (quarterly) – We do like our wine and suggestions for them. We can probably get rid of this one and just buy wine from stores.
  17. 500GB GDrive space with GoogleOne (yearly) – I have a lot of digital files and photos that need backup so it’s worth it to buy and keep this. I used to have separate space pricing for Dropbox, but got rid of it.
  18. Spin table tennis membership (monthly) – Absolutely needed – even more important than the others tbh.
  19. Cleaning Service (at least monthly) – It’s not a big place, but it sure gets dirty quickly.
  20. Robinhood Gold (monthly) – I think I’ve made money off of pre-market and post-market trades to justify this spending. I’ve also lost a lot of money trading so maybe this is a bad addiction.
  21. Masterclass (yearly) – Got a great deal with buy-one-get-one-free one full year for $160. Classes are shorter than I would have liked, but they’re pretty cool. May actually watch all the classes available before the next year since they’re only a few hours long.
  22. Diapers and Wipes (monthly or whenever needed) – We order these regularly enough for it to be pointed out as a recurring bill. She’s potty trained now, but we still get some overnight diapers and flushable wipes.
  23. Coffee, Seltzer, and Alcohol (+groceries) – I drink enough coffee, seltzer, and whisky for this to be recurring. These are all bad habits and I should just drink water.
  24. Vinessa Date night (monthly) – Worth it for our sanity
  25. Babysitter (at least monthly) – Needed to achieve date night or be social at after work events
  26. Ordering In (at least monthly) – This is for the days I want Seamless for sushi, Indian food, or pizza. I can’t cook every night…
  27. Donorschoose.org donations (monthly) – I’ve been donating monthly to different elementary schools that have matching donations and are in subject areas I find interesting. I tend to try to fulfill anything under $20 and donate around $40 per month. I get quarterly hand written cards from students <3.
  28. VPN (yearly) – In case I’m at a public place or traveling abroad, this makes sense. Also includes mobile-based VPN. Probably worth buying a life-time membership.
  29. Zoom (yearly) – I have so many meetings that this is totally worth it and necessary in a remote-first company
  30. Userbitapp (monthly) – Try it out to make your research job easier.

What could I spend money on that I don’t?

So many things! Recurring costs are really important to keep track of because they become a base tax of just living. I can probably get healthier recurring services like:

  • Reading – Kindle unlimited (reading anything from my kindle device) or Medium paid membership for my blogposts
  • Podcasts – Stitcher Premium probably makes sense, but I’m already listening to too much content to get more addicted to this audio medium.
  • Clothes-related services – I don’t have one of these, but my wife has tried some of them
  • Creative boxes – I love these and will likely get a science experiment one for Evie through kiwico. I know there are ones with solving mysteries or random loot.
  • Food-related / CSAs – I’m already passed the food package delivery services and cooking meal kits since we’re so close to Trader Joe’s, but participating in a CSA to get fresh meats would be pretty cool.

~See Lemons Spend Money