Family of 4 in Southern California.
Out of so many kinds of memberships or subscriptions there may be, what are actually worth buying?
For example what I have now are these :
Gym membership : i pay $27 a month, no annual fee (locked this deal when I signed 7 years ago)
Costco : go there usually once or every other week for necessities, some grocery, meat, gas
AAA : around $100 a year for both me and spouse
Currently i do not subscribe to any streaming services.
I dont have any other memberships or subscriptions.. well mainly because I dont really know what memberships are out there and if I know something and that's worth then I'd like to see what's out there.
Appreciate your insights thanks!
What memberships/subscriptions are actually worth?
byu/Important_Bat7919 inFrugal
Posted by Important_Bat7919
31 Comments
Gym membership is $27 for all four folks in the family? You have a library card? I use that one to check out DVDs the library has.
I think Amazon prime is great. More than pays for itself with the free and fast deliveries, and pretty good TV content too. A touch annoying to have to pay $3/month extra to avoid having ads interrupt programming, but still worth it imo.
You’re already sound with the Costco membership, and it’s always a good insurance policy to have breakdown cover, so nice one!
To piggyback on that library card, you can get the libby app & it’s free. Just add your library card in the app and you can borrow their online selection – books, audiobooks, magazines, etc.
Check with the museums in your area and see what kind of membership benefits/programs they offer, sometimes they even offer reciprocity with other museums.
Library cards (obvs) for your whole family. Free, lots of resources available and may even get you access to apps like Libby and Hoopla.
On the topic of streaming, I recently learned that the Criterion Channel offers a one year subscription for $99, so it’s less than $10/mo and they have over 1600 movies. I’m seriously considering it.
Dropbox and Lastpass are worth it to me.
Any membership to an attraction the whole family enjoys? I live in Houston, and one trip to the natural science museum or the zoo covers a year’s membership and then we can visit as much as we want.
If my kid loved animals as much as I do, we’d be there every weekend. But alas lol
Do you use AAA for just the towing? If so, lots of auto insurance companies will add in towing for $3 or so per month.
I stand by the CVS Carepass for myself. It’s the one membership that puts a little money back in my pocket if used right.
What all do you use AAA for?
I dropped AAA once I found out the insurance through Costco(Ameriprise/Connect by AmFam) was cheaper, had better coverage, and included roadside assistance. The only caveat was you needed to be an Executive Member, which at the cost of only $60 more/year was well worth it; even more so considering it basically paid for my entire membership with the annual cash rewards associated with the executive level (which are separate from the Citibank rewards if you have the credit card).
The only other thing I ever utilized AAA for was DMV-related stuff which is almost entirely online now anyway, and some minor travel things, which I also feel Costco (or other online travel sites) can do just as well.
Just my experience after being in a AAA family for 30+ years, and a Costco member the last 15-20.
Edit: I’ll add I’m also SoCal and up until recently also had coverage for both my (ex)spouse and I.
What about LACMA? I don’t know if they have membership but I really enjoyed visiting there. And the shows must change often.
google drive has been great for me. $30 for 1 year, 200gb. use it on top of physical backups.
best for google photos. easily syncs across my phone, tablet, and PC.
A NHMLA membership gets you free admission to some special events which make it totally worth it IMO.
Real Debrid
CAA is our Canadian AAA.
Definitely worth it
You even get up to 5 free doctor consultations on line if you have no doctor or don’t want to wait for an appointment from your own doctor.
If you rent and pay on time: Boom reports your rent on your credit report. A higher credit score can lower all sorts of bills. When I rented, it was absolutely worth $60/year.
There are other similar services available, but not every leasing company is part of said programs.
PBS Masterpiece. $5 a month donation for all of the bedtime documentaries and shows my heart could ever desire – including all of Ken Burns’ stuff. Insane value.
Going.com
I shop at our local Kroger store and I pay for their Boost membership, $59 a year and I get double fuel points everyday and 5x points on Friday. I usually save $30-$45 a month on fuel. So to me a $400 fuel savings is worth the $59 bucks.
AAA- I’ve had them come out to change a flat tire and jump start my dead battery.
I have 2 library cards- for the town where I live and another city that offers a free digital card to instate residents.
My local library has several different free streaming and subscription services and apps.
We have roadside assistance through our car insurance. It is just under 9 dollars a month to carry on all 7 of our vehicles. We have used it 3 times already this year (so well worth it for us). It would obviously be cheaper if we were not covering so many cars.
Edit to add- we have several other subscriptions: Amazon prime, Netflix, Hulu, Sam’s club, and Walmart+, car wash membership, and a family gym membership
If it were just me, I probably wouldn’t have all of these. But we are a large family and need to keep everyone happy and up to date on their favorite shows. We do have the lowest plans that include ads on everything we can.
Walmart plus. To be fair I live in the city, but it’s like 100? Annually and you can share it with a ton of people which helps. And it’s essentially the world’s cheapest grocery delivery. Walmart is the place I shop when I can’t get what I need at Aldi, so I stock up on the store brands and it’s delivered super quick. I share it with my family.
Check streaming services around Black Friday. That’s the only time we subscribe. Got Disney plus for 3$ a month for a year and a year of peacock for $20 last year. I think we also did hbo for like three or six months for a couple bucks and then cancelled.
iCloud storage at 99 cents per month. For my iPhone backup, and makes switching to a new iPhone a breeze.
I think YouTube premium is worth it. Well I watch a lot of YouTube also there’s lots of movies now on there and this includes YouTube music. $14/month
Watch Duty. Having up-to-date information on wildfires is worth every penny, and more!
Consumer Reports
Some places like zoos or museums are at least partially tax deductible because it’s a donation. Not sure if this is helpful lol
AMC A list is an amazing deal for me! I live in nyc where the subscription pays for itself with one movie & you get up to 4 every week it’s the best subscription deal I have by far!
There’s a reason only boomers have AAA. They used to have market cornered, now there’s services are a dime a dozen. Ditch AAA and get yourself HBOgo
AMC A-List monthly subscription. A little less than $30 per person, up to 4 movies per week. If you see 2 movies as a family each month, so worth it. Good for all formats, including IMAX and 3D.
How much do you pay for internet?