I Canceled Netflix 3 Months Ago & Everything Is Literally Fine

Let your brain breathe.

Welcome to Cheaper Than Therapy, a healing newsletter for 80s babies by Shani Silver. This newsletter does not publish free content, but if you’d like to read it you can subscribe here. Thank you for enjoying the work of independent writers.

This image has nothing to do with this newsletter, I just love the interior of this restaurant. It’s called King Brasserie, check it out if you’re ever in New Orleans. My full list of recommendations is here.

There is nothing that will invert your stomach faster than tallying up your annual subscriptions. For extra grins, if you are an internet content person who has to maintain functionality and monitor analytics, it’s worse. Recently, while freaking out about money—a hobby of mine—I reflected on the amount I was spending on entertainment streaming services and how, in light of the fact that these services weren’t paying their writers fairly, they can get fucked.

I cancelled everything. Netflix, AppleTV+, and HBO/MAX (whatever it calls itself these days). I wasn’t subscribed to Hulu at the time though I have subscribed in the past, and I mooch Disney+ from my friend Conor who is very nice to me so that I can watch Hamilton once a year. I couldn’t cancel Prime Video because it is included in my annual Amazon membership and say what you want, but I’ve seen shipping prices at individual retailers lately and I’m a woman on a budget.

Following the great expenditure adjustment of Summer 2023, I noticed something: Nothing got worse.