5,000 yen less per month! 5-minute “digital decluttering” recommendation

The basic rule is to reduce the number of supported services from those that overlap.

Subscription services” may seem like a good deal at first glance, but when they pile up, they can put pressure on the family budget. In many cases, people sign up for the first month free of charge but hardly use the service. If we were to take the first scalpel to the ground, video streaming services would be a good place to start. According to mobile phone journalist Atsumu Ishikawa, “I’ve noticed that there were a lot of subscriptions.

Many people find themselves subscribing to a large number of services. Keep the services that have a lot of your favorite genres, or concentrate on the ones you want to watch for a limited period of time and switch to another service every few months or so to keep the cost down.

Let’s look at an actual example. The table above shows a case in which a large number of subscribers have signed up for a large number of video services, lured by advertisements for dramas they want to watch or “limited time offerings. The key to decluttering is to keep only those services that cover a wide range of genres. For sports, focus on “DAZN,” and for entertainment, leave “U-NEXT,” which also distributes magazines. NEXT,” which also distributes magazines, for entertainment, you can save 5,188 yen in monthly usage fees.

The case in the table above leaves both the once-mainstream pay channels and the more recent subscriber video distribution subscribed. As a result, they are paying as much as 8,000 yen per month for video alone, so they decided to stop subscribing to the high basic fee “SKY PerfecTV! s contract was dropped, while “Netflix” and ” WOWOW” are maintained. Incidentally, some video services are more economical when combined with a mobile carrier’s contract, so check with your mobile carrier. In this case, you can save 4,879 yen per month.

Along with subscriber services, what you want to review is whether you are paying too much for “premium membership” or “paid membership. The table shows a case in which multiple paid content subscriptions are made for hobby investments and cooking-related activities, with paid membership costs amounting to about 15,000 yen per month. Membership services such as “au Smart Pass Premium” sell entertainment distribution and coupon offerings, but let’s consider whether the benefits are enough to cover the usage fee and narrow it down to one. In this case, the savings was ¥9668 per month.

Just five minutes of review can save as much as 5,000 yen per month.

A lot of optional contracts anyway.
Switching to a low-cost smartphone is another option.

One of the “money-eaters” of the digital age is the “option contract” for smartphones.

Many people are still using the options they signed up for in the past without knowing why,” says Mr. Ishizuka. It is time to reevaluate whether they are really necessary,” said Mr. Ishikawa.

In the case of the following docomo line subscriber, he subscribed to an unlimited data plan even though his monthly data usage was 1.9 GB. He has left in place options that he uses almost exclusively now, such as “unlimited calling” and “answering machine,” which, when rearranged, will save him 4,455 yen per month. If you want to review the plan in earnest, you can cut 6350 yen per month by switching to a low-cost smartphone operated by the same group.

*Prices are as of August 30.

From the September 16, 2022 issue of FRIDAY