The average household now spends over $60 per month on streaming services. For many families, it’s significantly more than that. The promise of cutting cable to save money has in many cases been replaced by a different set of recurring charges that add up to roughly the same total — or more.

Audit What You Actually Watch

Most people have a clear top-one or top-two streaming services they use consistently and several others they “might get to.” Start by identifying which services you’ve logged into in the past 30 days versus the past 90. Services you haven’t used in 90 days should be strong cancellation candidates.

The Rotation Strategy

Rather than maintaining four or five subscriptions simultaneously, subscribe to one or two, watch through the content you want, then cancel and move to the next. Netflix releases most of its series weekly or in full drops — you can subscribe for one month, watch everything you wanted to see, cancel, and come back six months later when there’s a new batch of content. This rotation approach typically reduces streaming costs by 40–60%.

Ad-Supported Tiers Are Often Good Enough

Most major streaming services now offer ad-supported tiers at significantly lower prices — or free (in the case of Peacock Free and Tubi). The content library is usually the same; you just sit through ads. For background entertainment or casual viewing, the ad-supported tier is often perfectly fine. Paying for ad-free is a genuine luxury, not a necessity.

Family Plan Splitting

Many services offer family or household plans at a premium over individual plans, but significantly cheaper than multiple individual subscriptions. Coordinating with family members or trusted friends to share costs is a legitimate way to access multiple services at a fraction of the per-service retail price. Verify the terms of service for the specific platform before doing this.

Free With Other Subscriptions

Amazon Prime Video is included with Amazon Prime membership. Apple TV+ is included with purchases of Apple devices. Paramount+ is included with some Walmart+ subscriptions. Peacock is included with some Xfinity packages. Before paying for a service separately, check what comes included with memberships you already have.