How to stop subscriptions becoming a drain on your money

Tracking and pruning subscriptions isn’t as easy as it sounds. Here's how to take charge.

Woman with online meal recipe box
Meal boxes are the second-most popular type of household subscription
(Image credit: © Alamy)

Closed shops have led many people to discover the pleasures of regular deliveries of goodies. The trend endures, despite reopening. Barclaycard noted last month that “81% of UK households are signed-up to at least one subscription”, up from 65% a year before. Entertainment (such as video streaming services) is the biggest spending category, followed by food or meal boxes and technology.

The pandemic has also driven a rise in more niche items, including “cheese, musical instruments and underwear”. The average subscriber now spends £620 per year; one in five British households report receiving regular “subscription boxes” through the post. Alcohol is the most popular shipment, followed by shaving products, recipe boxes and coffee and tea.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.