The top-tier Netflix plan is now a jaw-dropping $22.99 a month. I remember being shocked when it hit $19.99, and here we are again. And Netflix isn’t alone; Disney+ and Hulu have raised their prices, and you can bet every other streaming service will soon follow suit.
It’s the perfect time to take a step back and really examine what you’re paying for. Here are tips to help you trim down those monthly charges.
Streaming services thrive on autopilot subscriptions — you know, those monthly charges you barely notice till they all add up. My golden rule? If I’m actively watching a show, I keep the service, and if I’m not, I’ll cancel and only resubscribe when there’s something new I want to watch.
Set a reminder a few days on your calendar before each subscription payment to review whether you still need the service. This simple habit can save you from unexpected charges.
Streaming companies make canceling tricky. They know most of us are too busy or frustrated to follow through. The process can be especially confusing if you’re using a smartphone, so cancel from a desktop or laptop computer, where it’s much easier to navigate.
You might already have access to free movies and TV shows and not even know it! For example:
It’s worth checking if your cellphone provider, credit card company or internet provider includes streaming perks. I bet they do!
There are also great free streaming services, like Pluto TV, Tubi and Crackle, each offering a surprising variety of shows and movies without a subscription. Here are seven ways to stream TV and movies for free.
Your profile picture is more important than you might think. It’s your chance to make a good first impression on the world. That’s why you must know how to take the perfect profile picture for all your accounts.
Say you’re applying for a new job. Potential employers will run background checks on your social media presence. You need to have good pictures that show you at your best.
👕 For your next family reunion: Surprise everyone with custom T-shirts. It’s easy and inexpensive with iron-on transfer paper. Print it at home, iron on your design, and bam — shirts for the occasion.
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Are you a speed racer? You’re being watched. Major car companies are watching how you drive and selling your data to third-party brokers. Plus, discover secret codes to protect your family from scams and why the FCC is cracking down on illegal jammers.
🧬 A happy ending: Luis Armando Albino was just 6 years old when he was abducted from a California park in 1951. He was taken to the East Coast and raised by another couple as their own. Over 70 years later, a gal who turned out to be his biological niece took a DNA test for fun and found a 22% match — to her long-lost uncle. She went to the police, who reopened the missing person’s case, and Luis was reunited with his biological family.
Can be transferred to a friend or family member in Sweden. Folks will earn 80% of their salary by looking after their grandkids. Sweden was the first country to allow parental leave, so maybe this benefit will spread to other countries, too. It makes perfect sense!
Data broker MC2 Data left more than 100 million records of Americans exposed online for anyone to copy, grab, forward, sell on the Dark Web — you name it. This comes only a month after the National Public Data breach of 2.9 billion records. I’m getting so tired of these data broker companies and people-search sites screwing up, and it’s you and me who have to pay for their mistakes.
Another day, another monumental data breach. Just because they’re getting more common doesn’t mean you can tune it out. In fact, it’s time to get even more serious about your private information and what’s posted online.
Built-in teen trackers: Screen Time for iPhone and Google Family Link for Android let you monitor your teens on social media, set usage limits and block apps you don’t want them using. My advice: Don’t be sneaky about it. They’ll find out you’ve set limits, so you might as well have a convo about it upfront.
Social media is a minefield of dangers for teens, exposing them to extreme content like anorexia “thinspiration,” drug culture, hardcore pornography, suicide glorification and even predatory grooming. Algorithms push the darkest corners of the internet right onto their screens, sometimes with devastating consequences.
👩🍼 Bundles of joy: Bundles can save you money by combining services at a lower total cost. Try Apple One, which bundles cloud storage, music, games and movies — or streaming services Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. Share it with family and it’s even cheaper.
Am I the a-hole? A Redditor wants to know after not taking away their 3-year-old’s iPad on a flight. A nearby family with a kid the same age asked if the Redditor would put away their child’s iPad since they weren’t allowing iPads on vacation. The Redditor said no, and the other kid cried for the rest of the flight. Cue the dirty looks. I’m with the OP (original poster): Parent your own kid. Reply and let me know what you think!
🙏 What heaven’s really like: A brain surgeon fell into a deep coma and says he saw what heaven looked like. Guided by a beautiful woman, he described seeing a world filled with vibrant trees, rivers, animals and angelic chants more intense than anything on Earth. His proof? He was adopted and had been searching for his biological family. Four months after coming out of his coma, he received a picture of his late sister. It was the woman who guided him in heaven.
It’s beginning to look a lot like … fall. Before you enter a pumpkin-spice stupor, do your future self a favor and get this year’s travel plans organized.
From the best times to book to how to search for flights, I’ve got everything you need to score the sweetest deal on your holiday season trip.
If you browse the internet regularly, you can’t get around the fact that you need antivirus software. Viruses can pop up in unexpected places, and you want your device to be able to fight one off if it appears.
Dangerous malware making the rounds is what makes having antivirus software protecting you so critical. But what’s the best antivirus software for a Mac or Windows computer? Keep reading to see the best options.
👾 The science of fun: Action video games like Space Invaders Extreme 2 can help kids at risk of dyslexia improve word-identification skills. How? Fast-paced games require fast cognitive and motor skills, activating brain areas that control attention and process memory. Out of 79 kids with a family history of dyslexia, more than 80% showed improvement in word-identification tasks after playing.
Redacted: If you ever send a password to a colleague, family member or friend in a chat or text, delete the message after they’ve copied it. There are more secure ways to share a password, but let’s be honest: Everyone shares them this way (even me!).
Scammers are clever, but they’re not very creative. Most of their tricks are recycled versions of tricks that worked in the past. There are a few I’ve seen cropping up again because criminals know they work every time.
Do you have any idea how much you’re paying for Amazon Prime? If you said, “Probably around $100 a year,” try again. You might be spending over $300 annually and not even realize it. Let me explain.
Come with me back to Feb. 2, 2005. That’s when Amazon announced that for $79 a year, you could get free two-day shipping on most items with no minimum purchase. The price of Prime remained $79 annually until 2014, when it jumped to $99 a year.
