Why I Deleted All My Streaming Accounts

Friday, January 31, 2025

Over 20 years ago, I signed up for Netflix’s DVD mail service ($19.95/month) and was pretty thrilled with it. A few years later, their streaming service launched—no ads, no screen limits, no restrictions—and I jumped on board. At $5.99 per month, my annual cost was just $71.88—not free, but too convenient to pass up.

Since then, other streaming services have popped up, and FilmStruck became my all-time favorite. It was bundled with the Criterion Channel for $11.99 per month, but honestly, I would have paid way more. Still, my annual streaming costs jumped to over $210—not nothing.

Because we have a short-term rental house in Palm Springs, I wanted to load the Rokus with a wide variety of channels. So, step by step, I started adding more—HBO, Hulu, Mubi, Apple TV, Prime, Paramount, Peacock, etc. Since it was all tax-deductible for our rental business and our renters were “paying” for these through the rent, I never stopped to do the math. I just kept adding, stupidly stumbling along.

Well, now it's tax time, and I finally crunched the numbers. In 2024, I spent over $2,000 on streaming services. That’s a fuck ton of guilty pleasure. Tax-deductible or not, that’s completely obscene, especially considering the number of films and TV shows I actually liked and was glad I saw—probably fewer than ten.

So, I’m canceling them all. All. Of. Them. And it feels great. Like, really awesome to be free of all that.

They all tried to guilt me into staying, but Netflix—the first one—had the nerve to remind me of the day I signed up, as if nostalgia would keep me paying. LOL.

I feel like a jerk for letting things get this out of hand. Because, honestly? I was a jerk.

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