Saving on magazine subscriptions

[disneysteve]

There are a number of ways to save on magazine subscriptions. Some are available inexpensively through Amazon. Some can even be found for free if you search around. But even when renewing through the publisher, pay attention to the deals they offer and don't just renew the first time they mail you a renewal notice.

My subscription to Money magazine is expiring. Of course, I've gotten numerous renewal notices. They usually start sending them at least 6 months before the subscription expires. I just save them all on my desk until I'm actually near the end of the subscription and then I decide how best to renew.

I just sat down and opened all of the renewal offers I've gotten. There were 5 of them. Four all had the same deal: 1 year for $15, 2 years for $25, or 3 years for $35. One of the five was different: 1, 2, or 3 years for $10/year. I did a quick search online and didn't find anything better that didn't involve signing up for some site I really didn't want to sign up for so I'm grabbing the $10/year offer. It only saves me $5 over 3 years which is no big deal but it's the principle of the matter. I'm more than happy to spend $10/year for the magazine as I enjoy reading it and I'm glad that I didn't just grab the initial offer at the higher price.

[creditcardfree]

I no longer buy magazines...ever. Yet, somehow I'm receiving Women's Day, Traveler and Bon Appetite. I never requested them! I find them to be full of pharmaceutical ads...yuck! And they just regurgitate the same information over and over...all which you can find online.

And they produce more clutter in the home. I chuck the one's I'm receiving directly in the recycling bin.

[disneysteve]

I no longer buy magazines...ever. Yet, somehow I'm receiving Women's Day, Traveler and Bon Appetite. I never requested them! I find them to be full of pharmaceutical ads...yuck! And they just regurgitate the same information over and over...all which you can find online.

And they produce more clutter in the home. I chuck the one's I'm receiving directly in the recycling bin.

We used to get more mags but found that we barely read them. Over the last few years, we eliminated almost all of them. The only one I currently pay for is Money. Anything else we get is either free or included as part of some membership like AARP, AAA, or my wife's quilting society. So with this renewal, we'll be spending exactly $10/year on magazines. I'm okay with that.

[SavingSteve]

Thats a good tip. I just received a renewal offer for a magazine that offered me a discount. 1 year for $28 or 2 years for $48, plus a free carry bag for signing up to auto renew. If I had just renewed it it would have just been $28 per year.

I was going to go for it but maybe I should wait until more offers come...

[QuarterMillionMan]

I used to get mags using my Airlines points until I forgot and let the expiration lapse and lost all of my points, American (5000 points) & Hawaiian (10,000) airlines. I later wrote to them asking to reinstate my points but they ignored my pleas. My bad. The Hawaiian 10,000 point loss had hurt.

[Gailete]

I got my Money subscription through Amazon in December for $10.47 and with reward points only paid $8.86 for it. Also get the AAROP magazine and Bulletin as well, that help to keep me informed about Medicare and other issues pertinent to getting old.

I have gotten two magazines subscriptions with AARP points, Better Homes and Gardens for $5 and BHG Patchword and Quilting for I think $9. Time to renew that again. I do wish they had more of my kind of magazines on the AARP rewards site for points. Plus you can get all sorts of gift cards for 10% off the face value. I get the Vogue pattern magazine - tax deductible for my business, Threads magazines, again tax deductible as well. I LOVE magazines and any of the sewing/quilting ones I keep to refer back to. For me on my bad days which thankfully I haven't had too many of those for awhile, they are like picture books to look at for a sick kid. Some days I would tell hubby to bring me a batch, so I could sit and look at them. The bio-feedback to my brain made me almost forget the pain I was in. I am a glutton for books and magazines and NEVER consider them clutter!

Give me my sewing books and a bag of choclate treats and I am a happy girl.

[msomnipotent]

I never renew directly with the publisher. The best rates are always on Black Friday, through a portal like ebates, and then through Tanga or magazines.com. They usually have a sale and then 60% cash back on top of the sale price. They also have flash sales. I got an email not too long ago to renew Readers Digest for $9.98 a year plus a free gift subscription from discount mags.com. I got a BF special for Real Simple and Food and Wine for $11.20 a year for both magazines after cash back from magazines.com. Even though discount mags doesn't go through ebates anymore, sometimes their prices are cheaper even without the cash back.

Forgot to add that I get free or really cheap digital books from bookbub.com. They email you what is on sale at Amazon, Google, or B&N. I think the most I have paid was $2.99 for an ebook.

[Gailete]

I don't buy them from the publisher either. At the AARP site, you can currently get subscriptions for Family Circle, Martha Stewarts Living, Parents magazine all at less than $5. Last year I got my DIL a subscription to Saveur magazine for free I think it was. You can get 10 issues of Readers Digest currently for $7. My quilting magazine is $9, much cheaper than I can find elsewhere. I just wish that they had more of the quilting magazines!

[james.hendrickson]

I don't buy them from the publisher either. At the AARP site, you can currently get subscriptions for Family Circle, Martha Stewarts Living, Parents magazine all at less than $5. Last year I got my DIL a subscription to Saveur magazine for free I think it was. You can get 10 issues of Readers Digest currently for $7. My quilting magazine is $9, much cheaper than I can find elsewhere. I just wish that they had more of the quilting magazines!

Do you need to be an AARP member?

[Thrif-t]

I do surveys thru erewards and usually only do enough to get the year subscription to Money Magazine. Everything else I get from my library. I don't like all the clutter so gettin them from the library is perfect!

[disneysteve]

I do surveys thru erewards and usually only do enough to get the year subscription to Money Magazine. Everything else I get from my library. I don't like all the clutter so gettin them from the library is perfect!

Does your library lend out magazines? Ours only lets you read them there.

[Thrif-t]

Does your library lend out magazines? Ours only lets you read them there.

Yes! It's great, although their inventory has went down over the years. They used to have any magazine you could think of. I regularly check out cooking magazines and Real Simple, love it!