A Simple Hack To Save On Your Streaming Costs
In my last post I gave you a guide on how to cut the cord and save hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year for your tv service. You can see that here if you want more information about that here https://cheapodad.com/you-should-cut-the-cord-now In it I explained that saved over $2000 by getting rid of my satellite service. While this is an amazing savings it’s still not enough for the Cheap-O Dad. As we say in my family, “You never leave money on the table.” In an attempt to manage expectations, the discounts we will be talking about here are not earth shattering. Let’s be honest the streaming services aren’t all that expensive to begin with so the largest discount is around 10% I was having a conversation about my daughter while I was executing the steps of this hack and she could not understand why I was going through so much trouble to get a relatively small discount. I explained to her that the discounts add up and aside from that, why would I pay more for something if I don’t have to? The savings I get from the various hacks and money saving tricks I use allow me to provide a standard of living I otherwise would not be able to unless I went into debt like so many Americans do. Not in my house!
Where The Discounts Come From?
This is one of the less complicated hacks I use to save money. The discounts come from gift cards. Yes, its true, gift cards! There are two places I go to get them. The first one is Sam’s Club, but Costco offers the same thing. One of the best benefits of warehouse clubs is they offer discount counted gift cards on just about everything. I also use them to get discounts on restaurants or other gift cards as a way to get a discount on gifts I may get for a family member or friend. I have seen cards discounted as much as 30%! Now I can already hear some of you saying, “I don’t have a membership to Sam’s Club or Costco or any other discount warehouse!” I would recommend it if you are able to fit it in your budget as the benefits, they offer far outweigh the cost of the membership. Even if there is not one nearby as you can still get access to their products and benefits online as many offer free shipping. If not, there is a simple solution. Odd’s are you know someone who does! They don’t have to live near you, in fact they can live on the other side of the country and it will still work! If you can’t think of a friend or family member who is a member of a warehouse club post on social media and ask if anyone does! You simply ask that person to purchase the gift card online for you and you can Paypal or whatever service you like to the money to them. Most of the gift cards are online or “E-Gift Cards” and are delivered via email. They can forward you the email with the redemption information. If not, they can have the gift card mailed to you! The second place I go is Cardpool. They offer a massive array of discount gift cards on literally everything! I have seen them as high as 40% here although that is not typical. They even let you sell gift cards you might have that you don’t want to use and want to get some cash for. You can see a link to that here http://refer.cardpool.com/s/Ashba if you use my link you get $5 towards your first purchase! Both of these have applications far beyond streaming services but for our purposes today that is what we are focusing on. Some services do not have a specific gift card so you have to buy one through their parent company. In my case since I use Playstation Vue for my live tv option I have to buy a Sony Playstation Store gift card. Another example of this could be someone who has Youtube TV as their streaming option may have to buy a Google Plays gift card to redeem towards that streaming service. I have not specifically used that service so you will want to do your research to make sure you could use that gift card to redeem credit towards your Youtube TV Subscription.
What Next?
Well this part is very simple. You log into your streaming account or the redemption website listed on the gift card and follow the instructions to have the amount credited to your account! By day I am a real estate agent, so my income fluctuates throughout the year. So, when I get a commission check on a house, I sold I will usually pay at least 3 months in advance on my bills. When that check comes, I log on get my gift cards and redeem them as soon as I can. Some of the services will only allow you to have X amount of dollars credit in your account. In my case there is only one I have ran into that issue. The solution for that is I put the gift card in my safe and redeem it when my account balance drops low enough. Remember these hacks do take effort on your part.
What Kind Of Discounts Are We Talking Here?
I know you have been waiting and like always, your patience is rewarded. Below is a list of the streaming services I buy gift cards for, where I get them from, and how much the discount is at the time of this writing. Keep in mind these can change at any time.
| Service | Purchased From | Discount |
| Netflix | Cardpool | 10% |
| Hulu | Sam’s Club/Costco | 4% |
| WWE Network | Sam’s Club/Costco | 6.7% |
| Playstation Vue | Sam’s Club/Costco | 5% |
| Total Savings Per Year | $66.93 |
Keep in mind it takes about 60 seconds to execute this hack, so the time spent on it is well worth it! Your savings could be much higher depending on the amount you spend on your streaming services. Remember Cheap-O Elite never ever leave money on the table! Otherwise, someone else is liable to pick it up.