I Canceled Every Subscription and Saved $1,613/Year — Here's What Happened

The Setup

The average American spends $219 per month on subscriptions — and most people underestimate their spending by 2-3x. That's not a typo. When researchers asked people to guess their monthly subscription total, the average guess was $86. The actual average was $219.

Inspired by a Reddit post that went viral ("I cancelled 5 subscriptions and saved $1,613/year"), we decided to document what happens when you take the nuclear option: cancel everything and start from zero.

Here are the rules:

• Cancel every single recurring charge (streaming, software, gym, news, everything)
• Wait 30 days
• Only re-subscribe to services you genuinely missed — not ones you think you "should" have
• Track the total savings

What Got Canceled

Here's the full list of subscriptions that were active before the experiment:

The First Week: Surprisingly Fine

The first few days felt weirdly liberating. No decision paralysis about what to watch. No guilt about not using a service enough. The mental load of "I'm paying for this, I should use it" just... evaporated.

Some surprises:

• Didn't miss Hulu at all. Realized the only show watched in the last 3 months was already finished.
• YouTube without Premium is painful. The ads hit different when you've had ad-free for years.
• The gym membership was pure guilt money. Hadn't gone in 6 weeks.
• Free alternatives exist for almost everything. Spotify Free, YouTube Free, library apps for audiobooks.

Week Two: The Cravings

This is when the real test begins. A new season drops on Netflix. A friend shares a Spotify playlist. You want to edit a photo and don't have Photoshop.

Key insight: the urge to re-subscribe is strongest in the first two weeks.If you can make it past day 14, you've probably adjusted. The habit loop breaks.

What actually caused friction:

• Adobe CC — Needed for actual work. This was the only service that caused real productivity loss.
• Spotify — Free tier with ads was tolerable but annoying during workouts.
• Amazon Prime — Realized how much "free shipping" had been enabling impulse purchases.

Day 30: The Verdict

After 30 days, here's what got re-subscribed and what stayed canceled:

✅ Re-subscribed (actually missed)

❌ Stayed canceled (didn't miss)

The Math

• Before: $246.33/month ($2,956/year)
• After: $38.96/month ($468/year)
• Saved: $207.37/month ($2,488/year)

Wait — that's actually more than $1,613. The original Reddit poster saved $1,613 by canceling 5 subscriptions. By canceling everything and being selective about what comes back, the savings were even higher.

But the real insight isn't the money. It's this: you don't know which subscriptions you actually value until you lose them all. The ones you re-subscribe to within 30 days? Those are worth it. Everything else is just habit and inertia.

Unexpected Side Effects

• Spent less on Amazon. Without Prime's "free shipping" removing friction, impulse purchases dropped by ~60%. Started buying from local stores more.
• Read more books. Without infinite streaming, reached for actual books. Library card: free.
• Better sleep. No late-night "one more episode" trap.
• Adobe downgrade saved $600/year alone. Didn't need the full Creative Cloud — the Photography plan ($9.99) covers Photoshop + Lightroom.
• Spotify downgrade from Family to Individual saved $60/year when other family members realized they barely used it.

How to Run This Experiment Yourself

1. Find every subscription. Upload your last 2-3 bank statements to Just Cancel — it'll find recurring charges you've forgotten about.
2. Cancel everything. Use our cancel guides for step-by-step instructions on 440+ services. Some make it intentionally hard (see our list of the worst offenders).
3. Wait 30 days. Set a calendar reminder. Don't re-subscribe to anything until the 30 days are up, no matter how tempting.
4. Only re-subscribe to what you genuinely missed. Not what you think you "should" have. Not what your friends have. What you actually wanted during those 30 days.

Pro tip: when you do re-subscribe, check if the service offers a retention discount. Many companies give returning customers better rates than they had before.