Rotating subscription streaming services

I like to rotate my subscription streaming services. Well, some of them. Let me explain.

There are a lot of good quality streaming services, and they carry lots of programming I like. And probably lots of programming you like. Let me share some of my favorites. Note that these are not necessarily in the order I like them, just a list of my favorites.

• Hulu (standard, $8/month)
• ESPN Plus ($11/month)
• Disney Plus ($8/month)
• Prime Video ($140/year = $12/month)
• Frndly TV ($8/month)
• Peacock ($6/month)
• Paramount Plus ($6/month)
• Apple TV Plus ($10/month)
• Britbox ($9/month)

You may have noticed that Netflix is not in the mix. I dropped Netflix a long time ago. I found that I rarely watched the service, and nothing has changed that over the years.

If you add all these up, that's $88/month. And you may have noticed that no cable replacement services -- Sling TV, YouTube TV, Fubo, DirecTV streaming, etc. -- are listed. That's because I don't use them. Well, during football season, I'll get one to get ESPN, but otherwise, I don't use it. If I did, the price would go up by either $40, $69, or $73, depending on which service I picked.

So, I pay $88/month for subscription services? No. I do keep Frndly TV year-round, and I've subscribed to Amazon Prime for years, meaning I'm paying $20/month.

I also have Peacock included with an Xfinity Rewards redemption, so I have it, but don't pay for it. And, since I use Walmart Plus, I get Paramount Plus. Those two services, normally $12/month together, are included in other services I'd have anyway.

During college football season, I take ESPN Plus, bringing the total up to $31/month. Except that I can get the Hulu, Disney Plus, and ESPN Plus package for $15, giving me another service, and dropping the price to $27/month. Packages make the numbers look weird.

During football season, this is how it goes. But, the rest of the year, I'll keep Amazon ($12/month) and Frndly TV ($8/month), then add one of the other services, keeping that additional service for only 30 days, then switching to another. That means I'm paying around $30/month or less for subscription services.

If Walmart will improve their shipping times, I'll drop Amazon Prime, saving $12/month. If they don't, I'll keep it for another year. I'm not looking forward to that.

Doing it this way, I get the same content as $88/month for $30/month. Yeah, I have to wait to watch certain content that's only on certain services, but saving that much money makes it an easy call for me. My Streaming Life costs are higher than I would like, but they're not as much as they could be, if I didn't put a little bit of effort into it.