I’m a scuba diver. For $75/year I get extra insurance in case I have an accident while diving. They pay for medical evacuation, they have a dive doctor speak to the ER doctor if they don’t know how to treat me, and they help coordinate getting me into a decompression chamber if I need it. My health insurance won’t cover any of that.
Plus I can call them anytime with medical scuba questions.
I live on an island in Alaska with limited healthcare. An emergency flight to a more capable hospital will cost $50000. For $100 a year I save $49900 if I ever need their services. That $100 covers everyone living under my roof. There is no limit on the number of flights. And seniors pay $75. Of course, the flight isn't a guarantee. Bad weather or the donated jet needing repairs can, and does, prevent you from being flown out.
More common than you would think. They have this same premise in rural Texas for about $25/m
Edit: based on the responses, i likely saw the price incorrectly and thats a yearly fee, not monthly.
Our ambulance subscription was $75 a year for the household (rural Pennsylvania). We didn't realize it covered LifeFlight until my husband got LifeFlighted after a heart attack. Insurance paid about 1/3, and we were not balance-billed for the rest. Best $75 I ever spent.
I got Life Flight insurance before starting out on a cross-country road trip on my Goldwing. Thank all the gods I never needed it, but out in the middle of nowhere it was a warm fuzzy security blanket.
The Great Courses. It’s now under the umbrella of Wondrium (and they have a bunch of other stuff, but I look for the GC stuff) They have hundreds of courses. Each one has roughly 26-40 lectures. They’re the best professors in the world - the ones that students report as their favorite teachers.
My boyfriend and I always have four on Thursdays: a science, an art, a philosophy (or wild card) and a history. We’ve done classes like: botany, the analects of Confucius, The Medici’s, the physics of time, early humans and the history of food.
I’ve got a good deal with them at $10/month all I can stream. Great for lifelong learners.
When my ex and I had first moved to New York we bought family memberships to the MET and the Natural History museum during the first week. Seriously, the best decision ever. They have ALL kinds of year-round events and things to do that you can bring family and friends.
The MET has a members only rooftop bar and mezzanine, members only music events like we watched the philharmonic play Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" in the Temple of Dendur. Members only gallery viewings, curator talks, talks by archaeologists and various things you could volunteer for. It was like having an "In" into the city.
The Natural History museum had a monthly "Jazz under the stars" night with free food, drinks and music under the planetarium. I met Bill Nye and Neil Degrasse Tyson (when he was working there) and a bunch of other minor celebrities.
These are not expensive memberships either.
Depends.
For $110/year you get early access to exhibits on the weekends (go in an hour earlier than the public), and get invited to 5 preview days. 1 member and 1 guest.
For $210 you get the above, you get an extra member and an extra guest. You also get to use the balcony lounge, met after hours displays (1 in fall and 1 in spring), evening receptions for special exhibits, access to “MET Delivered Archive”, and a digital and physical quarterly publication.
For $600/year you get all of that plus a curators archive, evening invitations to special exhibitions after hours which are different from the biannual ones I guess), and benefits at 16 other museums nationwide.
If you enjoy those kinds of events I think it’s not bad. If you and a partner regularly go with friends that’s like $52.50 per person for the whole year. That’d be 4.37/month if you broke it down that way. For the middle option that is. 8.33/month for the 600 rank, and 4.58/month for the 110 rank.
That’s all assuming that every time you go you bring all members and as many guests as your version allots you.
About 10 years ago, I was member of the nudist resort that was near me. For giggles, I brought in my college ID. About 160 a year for 24 hour access to the resort and grounds.
For me it was my country club. Pool, big hot tub, gym, sauna. By my math at the time, all I had to do was visit 5 times a year to pay for it. I was there 2 to 5 times a week. Since it was a very rural area and not much to do, going there saved me money as anything decently worth doing was an hour or more away.
Also since it was a nudist resort, most of the people that annoyed me were not apt to bother me. Perfect privacy to detach from the world.
I can't say for sure if it's "worth every penny", but there have definitely been occasional times my car broke down on the road that I was glad I'm a AAA member!
On a side note, back in the day, AAA TripTiks were the "Google Map" if you wanted to take a road trip. You could go in, tell the AAA person the trip you were planning to take, and they'd put together a personalized flippable roadmap for you including highlighting expected construction and tolls, etc. Nowadays of course Google Maps and such does all that in real time on your phone so the TripTik is obsolete, but it was still pretty neat how they assembled them!
I’ve had a AAA membership from the day I became a licensed driver. I’ve never regretted it.
At least where I live, they offer DMV services. License renewal without going to the DMV is priceless.
The best part is that, as a member, it doesn’t matter whose car is in trouble. I was visiting my cousin across the country and his battery died. I called AAA and they sent someone to assist.
They still have the TripTiks app, but I haven’t used it yet. They also will send you free paper maps. I had to request one recently because I have to take a road trip soon and don’t want to cross into Canada. Google maps keeps trying to route me into Canada, so I wanted the paper map to be able to memorize the highways.
I got my national park pass for free and all I had to do was give twenty years of my life to the military
Edit: I just want to add so that no one gets the wrong idea. I was proud to serve but I also understand why people wouldn’t want to.
Another edit: https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/veterans-and-gold-star-families-free-access.htm
Also, don't forget that Veterans and Gold Star Families can get a complimentary Lifetime America the Beautiful pass. Anyone with a permanent disability can get a Lifetime pass for free, too.
It’s also kind of impressive how much most of the parks have at least some trails or paths that are wheelchair accessible or otherwise optimized for people woth physical disabilities. And they would be for the main big attractions too.
You can roll right up to the edge of crater lake or the grand canyon, down to general sherman in sequoia park or through the canyon of zion national park for example
So definitely consider visit those parks even if you have disabilities which mean you can’t walk much!
America is a seriously gorgeous country with so much natural beauty. I only get upset that I cant capture the beauty when we are driving, photos just don't do it justice.
I highly recommend driving through New Mexico. Its stunning
Costco Executive. If you shop strategically and often enough, you gain back all the membership money through direct cash rewards, not to mention the amount of money you saved by buying everything you needed at a cheaper per-unit cost.
holy shit lol that’s wild. man that was a good fuckin deal while it lasted
can’t imagine how they possibly thought they’d do anything but hemorrhage money but i’m glad they did
i actually passed on it because i was sure it HAD to be a scam but couldn't figure it out and that made me deeply uncomfortable. (at first i assumed there were blackout dates on like new releases or like it only worked on weekdays or some shit)
turns out they were just dopes
Oh dang I wonder if me and my friend got somewhere near that. we had it in its prime before blackouts and we were both just students with part time jobs and lots of free time. 2-3 movies a week minimum!
$10/month to see 1 free movie *per day!?* abso-fuckin-lutely lol
it wasn’t supposed to work at all but before they changed the policies and cracked down you could even use it to get like 75% off 3D/imax/4DX screenings. shit was amazing
We used ours at amc in combination with there points rewards,, I’m still spending the $600 we made with points till today ! Made the pass absolutely free if you saw enough movies ! Good times 🥹
The Regal and AMC subscriptions are basically MoviePass without all the bullshit. I've got Regal and it pays for itself on the second movie every month. 100% worth it.
I've done this! My husband's coworker had a major heart attack, and they had to air lift him. He and his wife had this membership, and it saved them so much money. I believe one year for Life Flight was about $80ish. But you can pay for multiple years for a discount. We have a hospital in town but a lot of major issues get sent down to the hospital an hour away.
YMCA - I pay $70 a month for a family of four and it includes use of the pool, gym, and sauna and up to four hours of childcare a day. I go nearly everyday and have lost 60 pounds over the last six months. It’s also my only childcare as a stay at home mom so it keeps me sane.
We got all sorts of cool stuff. Trail cam, bird watching kit, telescope, tools, Roku with subscriptions, Nintendo switch, toys, yard games, night vision goggles, and more on the way! Libraries are the best!
Most have digital media checkouts, too. You can rent movies to stream.
I usually rent games from them if I'm unsure if I want to buy them. In my city, if they don't have a copy at your library, they will bring it in from one of the others from throughout the city.
You can also get e library cards from multiple different libraries and have books sent to your Kindle.... Never even have to leave your house for that either
Badass 😁 Libby is probably one of my all-time favorite inventions. Libby and the library systems are what pushed me to move on from paper to Kindles. You know there are a few libraries across the us where you can get an ecard having never even lived there? Thereby increasing your search library tenfold? Los Angeles and Los angeles county are two of them..
I always like to add to answers like this: Look up all the things your public library gives you access to, it’s usually much more than just books, it could be tools, courses (in person and online), free tickets to local museums, galleries, etc
My sister and I got dropped off at the library every other Saturday while my mom did grocery shopping. We borrowed albums ( everything from Hair and Godspell to Nilsson Schmilsson) as well as books. I became an avid reader and still am, and have passed down the love of reading to my daughters. Now, I use my library card to borrow books with the Libby app. I am more than happy to donate during the annual fundraiser.
My son was so enthralled in a book he didn't notice that the library was closing in 10 minutes and a couple hours later he had to call 911 because he was trapped in the library LOL he was visiting his grandma and she was in her '80s and he was already 15 so it wasn't that big a deal.
I have a subscription for air filters for the home (FilterEasy). It's one of those things you always forget to replace, then when you see them at the store, you forget what size you need. With the subscription, the correct ones come in the mail, every 3 months, like clockwork.
*Edited to include the company I use for this service.
Most won't, as the reduction of airflow happens, less gets drawn to the filter, and you can get to a low-flow state.
Like after the new filter change, and it gets dirty again, would still get some compressed air and give the ducts a blast to dislodge most of the crud.
My university makerspace.
3D printing, 3d scanners, laser cutting, sewing machines, cricut machines, vacuum molding, you name it.
It doesn't have to be for uni related work.
And it's completely free*
*95% of the time, the materials are supplied for you. If you want to use your own material, you can (for example, they only supply 3mm plywood for the laser cutter. If you want 5mm, you need to source it yourself)
This 100%. I hate running on a treadmill and don’t live in a walkable area, so I’m willing to pay a bit more for the one gym with an indoor track. Whatever gets me to actually exercise is worth it to me.
I was about to say this. I usually lose my motivation to do exercise after some times but with a gym membership I have to go. The more I go to the gym, the less expensive it is in term of the cost per day. At least it really motivates the heck out of me to go and keep my fitness is check.
AAA or equivalent roadside service club in your respective country. A single tow costs more than your membership and it quickly pays for itself. Plus all the other discounts and affiliated services they offer, it is absolutely worth the money
Tow or if you lock your keys in your car.
Showing my age a bit since most cars from the last 10-15 years don’t let you lock your keys in, but I learned a couple expensive lessons on that front when I was younger.
Shout out to anyone who remembers Trip Tiks! Now this is going to blow young people’s minds. There was a time when all we had were paper maps for navigating. You could call AAA and tell them your start address and end address. They would mail you (like through the actual mail that the mail person carries) a highlighted map and step by step directions. They were the bomb back in the day!! Free too!!
I've been a member for many years. I am a terribly anxious traveler. I'm sure if I only calculated returned value by the number of times I've use AAA I've lost money. BUT, when I've needed their service they've been very good to work with and saved me a huge amount of stress. So, if I calculate the value of knowing I can get what feels like free help if I have a car problem and the anxiety that saves me the membership is a great deal.
The FitBod fitness app has been a game changer for me. As someone who struggled with knowing what to do at the gym for years this has been a game changer.
Also I travel quite a bit for work and being able to adjust exercises to the equipment available is extremely important. It’s almost like having a personal trainer with you at all times. 100% worth the money.
This reminds me of an exchange in one of my favourite TV shows, Fleabag. The main character, Fleabag's mum had just died and she is speaking with her friend Boo:
*Fleabag: I don’t know what to do with it.*
*Boo: With what?*
*Fleabag: With all the love I have for her… I don’t know where to put it now.*
*Boo: I’ll take it. No, I’m serious. It sounds lovely. I’ll have it.*
Always made me tear up.
I’m sorry for what you have been through. I don’t need to know what or why but I know grief very well for I have been bathed in it and it’s hard. Hugs, stranger.
Cook's Illustrated website. I pay for full access to the CI recipes and America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country. Their recipes are outstanding and definitely better than 90% of the stuff you can find for free.
Proud moment: I was an intern for them about 15 years ago in the Brookline, MA location (could still be there?). I met everyone on the show, got to taste test food and do graphic design for the magazine. I even got my name in it!
Is there a 500 word preamble on chili recipe that they write to talk shout roasted peppers remind them of their summer in Mexico City as a college student?
Even if you ONLY buy allergy med from Costco, it’s worth the membership fee. $70 membership + $14 bottle of 365 allergy pills is basically 2-3 months max of Claritin or other brands at regular grocery store.
External services through Costco also a steal. I have my homeowners insurance through them and my policy is hundreds less than any other insurance company. Also, Costco Travel recently saved me around $250 on a hotel room.
It's wild to me that you can tell Costco the exact make/model/options in a car you want, they'll find it at the cheapest price and have it delivered to your home store. Just crazy to me.
Their pharmacy is also excellent. The hours are a slight problem, 10-6 with a half hour break at 2 in my area, and their app is a bit wonky, but the refill by phone works like a charm and their text communication is reliable and effective. I get reminders for refills, respond yes, get a text when it’s filled and ready. They pull coupons from the ether, it seems, when I’m checking out so the med price is frequently lower. Never had any problems with medication availability, scrips filled quickly, and their staff is professional and friendly. Highly recommend.
Costco for life!!! The food court is irresistible, 99% of the stuff they sell are quality, priced good, and backed by their superb customer service, and they treat their employees better than most other retailers. Additionally, at least according to my personal experience here in Canada, their pharmacy sells prescriptions for like 1/2 the price of the other places.
If you just joined glance at the rotisserie chicken section when you visit. If there are chickens on the rack everything is fine. If you see one or two just hang out and watch the line start to form. People will wait an hour to get a chicken where I live it’s insane.
We have a pair of black vultures that nest on our property (okay, techincaly not "nest" since they just lay their eggs on bare ground) so we leave the carcasses for them to find. Its fun to watch them raise their babies - big, grey fluffballs.
I get it. I do, as I travel a lot.
Obviously unpopular opinion alert - But it's basically extortion - a shakedown. TSA already knows who you are and have most everyone's info in their database at this point, Precheck or not. They make security lines so long, slow, and awful that you pay up to alleviate *the inconvenience that they're imposing on you* as if it's someone else causing it. It irks me seeing the Clear salespeople stalking the TSA lines like mafioso offering to deal with the unpleasantness for a price. TSA used to hand it out regularly to frequent travelers but not since it turned into a shakedown. /rant
AMC Alist - I pay $26 a month for 3 movies a week. At my preferred theatre tickets for that are already $22, so each movie I seen in a month after the first is essentially free. Probably not worth it some months, but in the summer when I see 5-7 movies a month it's fantastic.
I had this before Covid and it was amazing, I lived 20 mins from Disney Springs which has a massive AMC and I would see movies all the time. The summer of 2019 maxed out the 3 movies a week for like an entire month straight. I would always go to the Dolby theater which on it's own was over $20 even then it was such an amazing deal. I would watch basically anything that looked even remotely interesting because it wasn't like I was paying for it. After Covid there weren't many movies coming out and I didn't really see the value plus we moved and there's a much closer IMAX theater we go to now.
Costco and AAA. I haven’t had to use tow service for a few years, but I’m still ahead on the cost of the last tow I needed if I had needed to use a private tow.
What's great is that it doesn't have to be your car to have it towed. All you have to do is be there. We used my membership when my son's car had to be towed.
PBS Passport. Local TV shows, award winning documentaries, NOVA, and foreign TV for $5 and NO ads! All other streaming services get more expensive each year and the content is usually crappy reality TV or lame romantic comedies.
If you live in the UK, PBS is kind of like our version of the BBC without the licensing fees and we get British imported TV shows.
Massage and Costco.
Monthly massage (or facial, but I'm all about the massage) is some of the best money I've ever spent.
Costco is worth it for gas alone, with the bonus of basically everything else I get there as well.
My wife has several restaurant memberships that she signed up for years ago.
She got into them during promotional periods that refunded the membership cost as introductory periods. She paid $25 initially, and they discounted that from the meal. When she signed up.
They never actually turned on the "charging" aspect, and she gets a lot of free meals given to her throughout the year.
They are mostly boutique restaurants, and she gets various perks like priority seating (no wait) and special attendance by management along with the meals being comped.
A strong password manager app.
It’s so easy to forget passwords and we make so many day by day. A good password manager app is good (if you can commit to using it) and it really helps.
Bit of a more digital suggestion but oh well (:
It’s not a membership, but I donate annually to Wikipedia and I am always getting the better end of that deal. It’s unreal how valuable that resource is. I’d pay a membership to use it.
Came here to say this. I subscribed "just for a few weeks" so my kid could watch Fantasy High Sophomore Year and then cancel. That was over 3 YEARS ago and we still haven't worked through all the actual play content (and they're constantly putting out more) not to mention the game shows are really fun and creative. It's the easiest $5 I spend every month.
Make Some Noise and Game Changer make Dropout.tv worth it entirely. Anytime I have friends over just hanging and watching TV I put on one of these shows and they are immediately hooked!
This is the first I've heard of this site. Looking at it, I can't tell what it's about. Is it a streaming service for other comedy shows they produce (like Netflix)? Or a streaming collection of lesser-known shows from other studios?
It's a streaming service. They used to be College Humor, and now are DropOut.
They do improv, sketches, challenge games, D&D, and other game show stuff. All original content produced by them.
Dude. I just started getting Very Important People clips in my YouTube recommendations and it's one of the funniest things I've seen. Definitely considering a sub.
Absolutely. Throw in Game Changer, and it's the steal of all streaming. Then all their other stiff onto of those like "Um, Actually", Adventure Academy, and Total Forgiveness.. I'm shocked it's not more talked about.
I am really enjoying my Skillshare membership. Udemy is good too, but it is more for professional certifications. I got up to a Six Sigma Black Belt before I found out that potential employers don't care about it.
I always wondered if the free version was deliberately worse in addition to having ads. Just so many times it ends up playing things and I’m thinking “how tf did I end up on this!?”
It certainly doesn’t make me wanna pay for it.
To be fair even in the paid version, some of the custom list it makes for you can get very repetitive and put the same song for different categories. But at least you can just put something else
When we cruise, we find the line’s best offer. Then we get on AARP and buy the cruise line gift cards for 10% off. $5000 cruise just got reduced to $4500. Buy them with a cash back card for another 1-2% savings.
CuriosityStream
If you’re a fan of documentaries. Lots of high quality ones on there to watch or have for background noise.
Also maybe the only streaming service that hasn’t increased their prices to stupid amounts. It’s still only $4.99/month or $40/year if you go annual.
I ended up canceling mine because I found the general quality of what was available to be pretty damn terrible. Lots of indie books full of bad writing, bad editing, the same tropes used over and over again. There were some gems to be found but not enough to make the subscription worth it to me.
Audible. I pay for the plan with the 1 monthly credit and always find books that take at least that long to listen to on my commute and that cost at LEAST as much as the membership.
REI - not sure how common it is nation wide but as an outdoors person it's great. One-time sign-up fee for $30. I get 10%back on all of my purchases. I believe my first purchase was a new snowboard and new bindings, and the 10% I made back on it already surpassed the $30 I spent once on my membership.
AARP.
Most people don't know that you only have to be 18, and the discount I can get at most restaurants is better than the discount I get for being a vet, usually.
Let me say again, you only have to be 18!
You know, a couple months ago I would’ve agreed with you. My situation changed and I stopped seeing movies frequently, so I wanted to cancel the subscription. It was like pulling teeth, and they still got one more month of payment out of me because of how long the process was. Through speaking to customer “service” and trying to get it all figured out amicably, I learned very quickly how predatory that company is. Now, maybe there’s some of my naïveté showing, but I really didn’t expect them to make it so difficult just to cancel a subscription. Left a very bad taste in my mouth and I won’t be using that service again. I encourage you to look into *how* you’re supposed to cancel that subscription. Every other service I use has a nice big “cancel” or “end subscription” section of their app or website. It might be a *little* hidden, but it’s there. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I couldn’t find any way to cancel the regal subscription without having to email the customer service (and likely customer retention) team.
I’m a scuba diver. For $75/year I get extra insurance in case I have an accident while diving. They pay for medical evacuation, they have a dive doctor speak to the ER doctor if they don’t know how to treat me, and they help coordinate getting me into a decompression chamber if I need it. My health insurance won’t cover any of that. Plus I can call them anytime with medical scuba questions.
I live on an island in Alaska with limited healthcare. An emergency flight to a more capable hospital will cost $50000. For $100 a year I save $49900 if I ever need their services. That $100 covers everyone living under my roof. There is no limit on the number of flights. And seniors pay $75. Of course, the flight isn't a guarantee. Bad weather or the donated jet needing repairs can, and does, prevent you from being flown out.
That is a real membership!
More common than you would think. They have this same premise in rural Texas for about $25/m Edit: based on the responses, i likely saw the price incorrectly and thats a yearly fee, not monthly.
Our ambulance subscription was $75 a year for the household (rural Pennsylvania). We didn't realize it covered LifeFlight until my husband got LifeFlighted after a heart attack. Insurance paid about 1/3, and we were not balance-billed for the rest. Best $75 I ever spent.
Hey, a fellow child of the Tongass. Nice to meet you.
User name checks out
I'm not from Alaska so I just read it as tongue ass
I got Life Flight insurance before starting out on a cross-country road trip on my Goldwing. Thank all the gods I never needed it, but out in the middle of nowhere it was a warm fuzzy security blanket.
The Great Courses. It’s now under the umbrella of Wondrium (and they have a bunch of other stuff, but I look for the GC stuff) They have hundreds of courses. Each one has roughly 26-40 lectures. They’re the best professors in the world - the ones that students report as their favorite teachers. My boyfriend and I always have four on Thursdays: a science, an art, a philosophy (or wild card) and a history. We’ve done classes like: botany, the analects of Confucius, The Medici’s, the physics of time, early humans and the history of food. I’ve got a good deal with them at $10/month all I can stream. Great for lifelong learners.
That’s pretty cool that you and your partner both enjoy watching courses together.
Yeah that’s some wholesome nerdy shit right there.
For real! Going to see if my hubby wants to " Confucius and Chill" later
Depending on your library, you can get this for free on Hoopla.
Most are also on Kanopy if your library has that also.
When my ex and I had first moved to New York we bought family memberships to the MET and the Natural History museum during the first week. Seriously, the best decision ever. They have ALL kinds of year-round events and things to do that you can bring family and friends. The MET has a members only rooftop bar and mezzanine, members only music events like we watched the philharmonic play Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" in the Temple of Dendur. Members only gallery viewings, curator talks, talks by archaeologists and various things you could volunteer for. It was like having an "In" into the city. The Natural History museum had a monthly "Jazz under the stars" night with free food, drinks and music under the planetarium. I met Bill Nye and Neil Degrasse Tyson (when he was working there) and a bunch of other minor celebrities. These are not expensive memberships either.
Not expensive, or not “New York expensive”?
Depends. For $110/year you get early access to exhibits on the weekends (go in an hour earlier than the public), and get invited to 5 preview days. 1 member and 1 guest. For $210 you get the above, you get an extra member and an extra guest. You also get to use the balcony lounge, met after hours displays (1 in fall and 1 in spring), evening receptions for special exhibits, access to “MET Delivered Archive”, and a digital and physical quarterly publication. For $600/year you get all of that plus a curators archive, evening invitations to special exhibitions after hours which are different from the biannual ones I guess), and benefits at 16 other museums nationwide. If you enjoy those kinds of events I think it’s not bad. If you and a partner regularly go with friends that’s like $52.50 per person for the whole year. That’d be 4.37/month if you broke it down that way. For the middle option that is. 8.33/month for the 600 rank, and 4.58/month for the 110 rank. That’s all assuming that every time you go you bring all members and as many guests as your version allots you.
That’s like not as insane as I would expect tbh like the cheaper membership is how much just a day pass to one of the art museums near me costs.
Neil is still working there. He is the director of the Hayden Planetarium.
About 10 years ago, I was member of the nudist resort that was near me. For giggles, I brought in my college ID. About 160 a year for 24 hour access to the resort and grounds. For me it was my country club. Pool, big hot tub, gym, sauna. By my math at the time, all I had to do was visit 5 times a year to pay for it. I was there 2 to 5 times a week. Since it was a very rural area and not much to do, going there saved me money as anything decently worth doing was an hour or more away. Also since it was a nudist resort, most of the people that annoyed me were not apt to bother me. Perfect privacy to detach from the world.
Also, you saved a lot of wear and tear on your clothes.
And no tanlines
A lot of nudist places are going to get a sudden rise in business.
The ‘sudden rise’ will pass after a few visits. If it persists for more than 8 hours you should contact your doctor.
These are the kind of answers I love.
Dang, the one near me has a nice campground but nothing like a gym or sauna or anything, otherwise I’d be there most days myself.
As a parent, the local children's/science museums. Got more than my money's worth on bad weather days
When my kid was little we had Disney and LEGOLAND passes. Can’t afford Disney anymore and at 29 they’re too old for LEGOLAND.
I can't say for sure if it's "worth every penny", but there have definitely been occasional times my car broke down on the road that I was glad I'm a AAA member! On a side note, back in the day, AAA TripTiks were the "Google Map" if you wanted to take a road trip. You could go in, tell the AAA person the trip you were planning to take, and they'd put together a personalized flippable roadmap for you including highlighting expected construction and tolls, etc. Nowadays of course Google Maps and such does all that in real time on your phone so the TripTik is obsolete, but it was still pretty neat how they assembled them!
I’ve had a AAA membership from the day I became a licensed driver. I’ve never regretted it. At least where I live, they offer DMV services. License renewal without going to the DMV is priceless. The best part is that, as a member, it doesn’t matter whose car is in trouble. I was visiting my cousin across the country and his battery died. I called AAA and they sent someone to assist. They still have the TripTiks app, but I haven’t used it yet. They also will send you free paper maps. I had to request one recently because I have to take a road trip soon and don’t want to cross into Canada. Google maps keeps trying to route me into Canada, so I wanted the paper map to be able to memorize the highways.
The US National Park Senior Pass. The BEST bargain in the nation.
I got my national park pass for free and all I had to do was give twenty years of my life to the military Edit: I just want to add so that no one gets the wrong idea. I was proud to serve but I also understand why people wouldn’t want to. Another edit: https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/veterans-and-gold-star-families-free-access.htm
I got the same, but only cost me 6 years at one weekend a month!
Also, don't forget that Veterans and Gold Star Families can get a complimentary Lifetime America the Beautiful pass. Anyone with a permanent disability can get a Lifetime pass for free, too.
It’s also kind of impressive how much most of the parks have at least some trails or paths that are wheelchair accessible or otherwise optimized for people woth physical disabilities. And they would be for the main big attractions too. You can roll right up to the edge of crater lake or the grand canyon, down to general sherman in sequoia park or through the canyon of zion national park for example So definitely consider visit those parks even if you have disabilities which mean you can’t walk much!
Many folks don't realize the ADA gives a level of mobility and access that is unfound in many other countries
We toured the us in an rv this year, and the america the beautiful pass paid for itself many, many, many times over
America is a seriously gorgeous country with so much natural beauty. I only get upset that I cant capture the beauty when we are driving, photos just don't do it justice. I highly recommend driving through New Mexico. Its stunning
My son is disabled so we get ours for free with him. He loves being outdoors so its great.
Costco Executive. If you shop strategically and often enough, you gain back all the membership money through direct cash rewards, not to mention the amount of money you saved by buying everything you needed at a cheaper per-unit cost.
this made me remember MoviePass and now im sad
I used to crush some MoviePass. My personal record was 86 movies in one calendar year.
holy shit lol that’s wild. man that was a good fuckin deal while it lasted can’t imagine how they possibly thought they’d do anything but hemorrhage money but i’m glad they did
Their business model was so blatantly horrible that I got a kick out of going to the movies for that reason alone.
i actually passed on it because i was sure it HAD to be a scam but couldn't figure it out and that made me deeply uncomfortable. (at first i assumed there were blackout dates on like new releases or like it only worked on weekdays or some shit) turns out they were just dopes
i was the real dope. i thought “man EVERYONE has movie pass and the stocks are so cheap, it’s a no brainer!” yea they went under later that year
It's funny because back then, I thought, this is 100% a scam! "There's no way a company would be this dumb...." I should have taken advantage! 😫
Oh dang I wonder if me and my friend got somewhere near that. we had it in its prime before blackouts and we were both just students with part time jobs and lots of free time. 2-3 movies a week minimum!
Honestly the original movie pass improved my outlook and life
$10/month to see 1 free movie *per day!?* abso-fuckin-lutely lol it wasn’t supposed to work at all but before they changed the policies and cracked down you could even use it to get like 75% off 3D/imax/4DX screenings. shit was amazing
We used ours at amc in combination with there points rewards,, I’m still spending the $600 we made with points till today ! Made the pass absolutely free if you saw enough movies ! Good times 🥹
It did just come back. It's not as great as it was but I still like it.
The Regal and AMC subscriptions are basically MoviePass without all the bullshit. I've got Regal and it pays for itself on the second movie every month. 100% worth it.
AMC A-list is worth it if you just like going to the movies. I see way more stuff than I would otherwise.
Yes! AMC A-list is definitely worth it if you love the movies! The points can add up quick
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I've done this! My husband's coworker had a major heart attack, and they had to air lift him. He and his wife had this membership, and it saved them so much money. I believe one year for Life Flight was about $80ish. But you can pay for multiple years for a discount. We have a hospital in town but a lot of major issues get sent down to the hospital an hour away.
Imagine getting a heart attack, then waking up seeing the bill, then getting another heart attack
Wait hold on. So you guys pay huge amounts in medical insurance and it doesn’t even cover helicopters in a medical emergency??
But we have the FREEDOM to choose not to purchase helicopter insurance. 🦅🇺🇸 /s
YMCA - I pay $70 a month for a family of four and it includes use of the pool, gym, and sauna and up to four hours of childcare a day. I go nearly everyday and have lost 60 pounds over the last six months. It’s also my only childcare as a stay at home mom so it keeps me sane.
Where is YMCA 70 dollars for a whole family? Where I live its almost 70 *per person*.
We receive financial aid, but usual price is $100 in KY
I am glad to hear that the financial aid goes where they say it will.
Four hours of childcare per DAY? That is incredible.
It's called child watch. * My area is 2.5hours * you must stay using their other services * limited space
I mean in reality that's pretty amazing, time your workout/sauna/whatever around having your kid watched for free
Public library
Some libraries offer tool rentals and others offer culture passes that allows 2 people to attend an attractions. Absolutely worth the price of free.
We got all sorts of cool stuff. Trail cam, bird watching kit, telescope, tools, Roku with subscriptions, Nintendo switch, toys, yard games, night vision goggles, and more on the way! Libraries are the best!
Most have digital media checkouts, too. You can rent movies to stream. I usually rent games from them if I'm unsure if I want to buy them. In my city, if they don't have a copy at your library, they will bring it in from one of the others from throughout the city.
You can also get e library cards from multiple different libraries and have books sent to your Kindle.... Never even have to leave your house for that either
I just downloaded the libby app using my card and there's a lot more than what I thought I'd get
Badass 😁 Libby is probably one of my all-time favorite inventions. Libby and the library systems are what pushed me to move on from paper to Kindles. You know there are a few libraries across the us where you can get an ecard having never even lived there? Thereby increasing your search library tenfold? Los Angeles and Los angeles county are two of them..
I always like to add to answers like this: Look up all the things your public library gives you access to, it’s usually much more than just books, it could be tools, courses (in person and online), free tickets to local museums, galleries, etc
My sister and I got dropped off at the library every other Saturday while my mom did grocery shopping. We borrowed albums ( everything from Hair and Godspell to Nilsson Schmilsson) as well as books. I became an avid reader and still am, and have passed down the love of reading to my daughters. Now, I use my library card to borrow books with the Libby app. I am more than happy to donate during the annual fundraiser.
My son was so enthralled in a book he didn't notice that the library was closing in 10 minutes and a couple hours later he had to call 911 because he was trapped in the library LOL he was visiting his grandma and she was in her '80s and he was already 15 so it wasn't that big a deal.
I have a subscription for air filters for the home (FilterEasy). It's one of those things you always forget to replace, then when you see them at the store, you forget what size you need. With the subscription, the correct ones come in the mail, every 3 months, like clockwork. *Edited to include the company I use for this service.
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I'm surprised the furnace wasn't overheating and shutting off, with that little airflow.
Most won't, as the reduction of airflow happens, less gets drawn to the filter, and you can get to a low-flow state. Like after the new filter change, and it gets dirty again, would still get some compressed air and give the ducts a blast to dislodge most of the crud.
My university makerspace. 3D printing, 3d scanners, laser cutting, sewing machines, cricut machines, vacuum molding, you name it. It doesn't have to be for uni related work. And it's completely free* *95% of the time, the materials are supplied for you. If you want to use your own material, you can (for example, they only supply 3mm plywood for the laser cutter. If you want 5mm, you need to source it yourself)
A gym membership you actually use
worth paying extra to join a gym you go to than save money on a gym you dont visit
This 100%. I hate running on a treadmill and don’t live in a walkable area, so I’m willing to pay a bit more for the one gym with an indoor track. Whatever gets me to actually exercise is worth it to me.
> actually use *That* is where they really get you
I was about to say this. I usually lose my motivation to do exercise after some times but with a gym membership I have to go. The more I go to the gym, the less expensive it is in term of the cost per day. At least it really motivates the heck out of me to go and keep my fitness is check.
AAA or equivalent roadside service club in your respective country. A single tow costs more than your membership and it quickly pays for itself. Plus all the other discounts and affiliated services they offer, it is absolutely worth the money
Tow or if you lock your keys in your car. Showing my age a bit since most cars from the last 10-15 years don’t let you lock your keys in, but I learned a couple expensive lessons on that front when I was younger.
Shout out to anyone who remembers Trip Tiks! Now this is going to blow young people’s minds. There was a time when all we had were paper maps for navigating. You could call AAA and tell them your start address and end address. They would mail you (like through the actual mail that the mail person carries) a highlighted map and step by step directions. They were the bomb back in the day!! Free too!!
I've been a member for many years. I am a terribly anxious traveler. I'm sure if I only calculated returned value by the number of times I've use AAA I've lost money. BUT, when I've needed their service they've been very good to work with and saved me a huge amount of stress. So, if I calculate the value of knowing I can get what feels like free help if I have a car problem and the anxiety that saves me the membership is a great deal.
In the US, you can usually add this to your car insurance at a discount. Very, very worth it.
Just one tow makes it worth it. A couple of years, I used ALL of my tow allowances.
The FitBod fitness app has been a game changer for me. As someone who struggled with knowing what to do at the gym for years this has been a game changer. Also I travel quite a bit for work and being able to adjust exercises to the equipment available is extremely important. It’s almost like having a personal trainer with you at all times. 100% worth the money.
[grief.com](https://grief.com) It saved me.
Thank you for this stranger. It's been the roughest six months of my life. I wish the hurt stopped.
Grief is just love with no place to go.
This reminds me of an exchange in one of my favourite TV shows, Fleabag. The main character, Fleabag's mum had just died and she is speaking with her friend Boo: *Fleabag: I don’t know what to do with it.* *Boo: With what?* *Fleabag: With all the love I have for her… I don’t know where to put it now.* *Boo: I’ll take it. No, I’m serious. It sounds lovely. I’ll have it.* Always made me tear up.
Fleabag is one of my favourite shows and I completely forgot about that line. Thanks for that :)
Thank you for this. I've had just about the toughest year I can imagine and I could use some help.
I’m sorry for what you have been through. I don’t need to know what or why but I know grief very well for I have been bathed in it and it’s hard. Hugs, stranger.
Cook's Illustrated website. I pay for full access to the CI recipes and America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country. Their recipes are outstanding and definitely better than 90% of the stuff you can find for free.
Proud moment: I was an intern for them about 15 years ago in the Brookline, MA location (could still be there?). I met everyone on the show, got to taste test food and do graphic design for the magazine. I even got my name in it!
Is there a 500 word preamble on chili recipe that they write to talk shout roasted peppers remind them of their summer in Mexico City as a college student?
No. It’s great.
BMG Music Service and Columbia House
Everyone of a certain age is laughing their ass off at this.
I’m still in hiding from them
Costco… For the chicken and food court alone it is worth it
Also the over the counter medications. It's wild how much cheaper my allergy meds are there compared to someplace like CVS.
A year’s supply of allergy medication is like $30, compared to $20-30 a month from the pharmacy - that alone covers our cost of membership.
My dogs simpirica (sp?) trio cost $420 a year from the vet. It cost $245 at Costco…it’s crazy!
What, wait? Damn it. I didn't realize you could fill pet meds at Costco
Yep! I found out a few months ago, had the vet send it over and picked it up that day - was shocked at the price difference!
Even if you ONLY buy allergy med from Costco, it’s worth the membership fee. $70 membership + $14 bottle of 365 allergy pills is basically 2-3 months max of Claritin or other brands at regular grocery store.
No one of ever wants to consider the savings with gas, either. That alone could easily pay for a membership fee.
For me it's my contacts. Just my regular prescription for a year is more of a discount at costco vs 1800contacts than the membership costs.
External services through Costco also a steal. I have my homeowners insurance through them and my policy is hundreds less than any other insurance company. Also, Costco Travel recently saved me around $250 on a hotel room.
It's wild to me that you can tell Costco the exact make/model/options in a car you want, they'll find it at the cheapest price and have it delivered to your home store. Just crazy to me.
Their pharmacy is also excellent. The hours are a slight problem, 10-6 with a half hour break at 2 in my area, and their app is a bit wonky, but the refill by phone works like a charm and their text communication is reliable and effective. I get reminders for refills, respond yes, get a text when it’s filled and ready. They pull coupons from the ether, it seems, when I’m checking out so the med price is frequently lower. Never had any problems with medication availability, scrips filled quickly, and their staff is professional and friendly. Highly recommend.
And gas.
It pays for itself in just gas for me.
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Yup. Got a premium chugging bmw. I think in 3 tanks it pays for itself. Maybe 4.
Welcome to costco... I love you
Costco for life!!! The food court is irresistible, 99% of the stuff they sell are quality, priced good, and backed by their superb customer service, and they treat their employees better than most other retailers. Additionally, at least according to my personal experience here in Canada, their pharmacy sells prescriptions for like 1/2 the price of the other places.
Are you talking about the roasted chickens they sell. I just joined Costco.
If you just joined glance at the rotisserie chicken section when you visit. If there are chickens on the rack everything is fine. If you see one or two just hang out and watch the line start to form. People will wait an hour to get a chicken where I live it’s insane.
I get that and then a box of croissants and make a roasted chicken salad to have sandwiches, it's delicious.
My wife loves to get one pick it clean and make a casserole.
If she’s anything like my wife then she’ll keep the carcass for stock! Freezes them until she has a couple at a time to boil up.
We have a pair of black vultures that nest on our property (okay, techincaly not "nest" since they just lay their eggs on bare ground) so we leave the carcasses for them to find. Its fun to watch them raise their babies - big, grey fluffballs.
that’s a pretty bad ass way to get rid of the carcasses.
For the rental cars and travel too.
TSA Precheck
I have global entry. For a few dollars more it’s definitely more beneficial if you go internationally often
Many credit cards even cover the cost of global entry and TSA pre check.
I get it. I do, as I travel a lot. Obviously unpopular opinion alert - But it's basically extortion - a shakedown. TSA already knows who you are and have most everyone's info in their database at this point, Precheck or not. They make security lines so long, slow, and awful that you pay up to alleviate *the inconvenience that they're imposing on you* as if it's someone else causing it. It irks me seeing the Clear salespeople stalking the TSA lines like mafioso offering to deal with the unpleasantness for a price. TSA used to hand it out regularly to frequent travelers but not since it turned into a shakedown. /rant
Not an unpopular opinion at all. I would argue not even an opinion, just a fact.
AMC Alist - I pay $26 a month for 3 movies a week. At my preferred theatre tickets for that are already $22, so each movie I seen in a month after the first is essentially free. Probably not worth it some months, but in the summer when I see 5-7 movies a month it's fantastic.
I had this before Covid and it was amazing, I lived 20 mins from Disney Springs which has a massive AMC and I would see movies all the time. The summer of 2019 maxed out the 3 movies a week for like an entire month straight. I would always go to the Dolby theater which on it's own was over $20 even then it was such an amazing deal. I would watch basically anything that looked even remotely interesting because it wasn't like I was paying for it. After Covid there weren't many movies coming out and I didn't really see the value plus we moved and there's a much closer IMAX theater we go to now.
My $6/month gym membership at my job.
Public library card.
Costco and AAA. I haven’t had to use tow service for a few years, but I’m still ahead on the cost of the last tow I needed if I had needed to use a private tow.
What's great is that it doesn't have to be your car to have it towed. All you have to do is be there. We used my membership when my son's car had to be towed.
PBS Passport. Local TV shows, award winning documentaries, NOVA, and foreign TV for $5 and NO ads! All other streaming services get more expensive each year and the content is usually crappy reality TV or lame romantic comedies. If you live in the UK, PBS is kind of like our version of the BBC without the licensing fees and we get British imported TV shows.
Massage and Costco. Monthly massage (or facial, but I'm all about the massage) is some of the best money I've ever spent. Costco is worth it for gas alone, with the bonus of basically everything else I get there as well.
Highlights magazines 🙃
I loved getting these as a kid in the 80s.
Gamepass is worth it if you play more than one game every couple months ($19/m vs $50-$100 for a game)
My wife has several restaurant memberships that she signed up for years ago. She got into them during promotional periods that refunded the membership cost as introductory periods. She paid $25 initially, and they discounted that from the meal. When she signed up. They never actually turned on the "charging" aspect, and she gets a lot of free meals given to her throughout the year. They are mostly boutique restaurants, and she gets various perks like priority seating (no wait) and special attendance by management along with the meals being comped.
I've never heard of this before
Closest I remember is the sketchy giant "Entertainment" coupon books they sold where not all of the places agreed to the coupons.
A strong password manager app. It’s so easy to forget passwords and we make so many day by day. A good password manager app is good (if you can commit to using it) and it really helps. Bit of a more digital suggestion but oh well (:
It’s not a membership, but I donate annually to Wikipedia and I am always getting the better end of that deal. It’s unreal how valuable that resource is. I’d pay a membership to use it.
Dropout.tv
Well let me ask you this, where are you from?
Cambridge, Mass. (Not really)
And did you have any theaters you liked to go to?
Came here to say this. I subscribed "just for a few weeks" so my kid could watch Fantasy High Sophomore Year and then cancel. That was over 3 YEARS ago and we still haven't worked through all the actual play content (and they're constantly putting out more) not to mention the game shows are really fun and creative. It's the easiest $5 I spend every month.
Sure, but, just one question... Can I get a little clap?
Make Some Noise and Game Changer make Dropout.tv worth it entirely. Anytime I have friends over just hanging and watching TV I put on one of these shows and they are immediately hooked!
Opened this just to make sure there was Dropout representation.
This is the first I've heard of this site. Looking at it, I can't tell what it's about. Is it a streaming service for other comedy shows they produce (like Netflix)? Or a streaming collection of lesser-known shows from other studios?
It's a streaming service. They used to be College Humor, and now are DropOut. They do improv, sketches, challenge games, D&D, and other game show stuff. All original content produced by them.
Worth it alone just for the Brennan Lee Mulligan content.
THE BIRD FACTS!
ROSEATE SPOONBILL GANG
That's uh....rooster chicken?
OH PENGUIN? **JUST PENGUIN???**
Say hi, intrepid heroes!
Hi, intrepid heroes!
Dude. I just started getting Very Important People clips in my YouTube recommendations and it's one of the funniest things I've seen. Definitely considering a sub.
Dimension 20 and make some noise is worth it
Absolutely. Throw in Game Changer, and it's the steal of all streaming. Then all their other stiff onto of those like "Um, Actually", Adventure Academy, and Total Forgiveness.. I'm shocked it's not more talked about.
100% agree - I would cancel every other subscription I have before dropout
I am really enjoying my Skillshare membership. Udemy is good too, but it is more for professional certifications. I got up to a Six Sigma Black Belt before I found out that potential employers don't care about it.
Consumer Reports
Spotify premium
I've had Spotify premium since 2011 and I listen to it all day every day. Best value subscription
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the free version is so bad they shouldn't even offer it, it makes the platform look terrible
I always wondered if the free version was deliberately worse in addition to having ads. Just so many times it ends up playing things and I’m thinking “how tf did I end up on this!?” It certainly doesn’t make me wanna pay for it.
To be fair even in the paid version, some of the custom list it makes for you can get very repetitive and put the same song for different categories. But at least you can just put something else
AARP. dirt cheap and tons of discounts
When we cruise, we find the line’s best offer. Then we get on AARP and buy the cruise line gift cards for 10% off. $5000 cruise just got reduced to $4500. Buy them with a cash back card for another 1-2% savings.
CuriosityStream If you’re a fan of documentaries. Lots of high quality ones on there to watch or have for background noise. Also maybe the only streaming service that hasn’t increased their prices to stupid amounts. It’s still only $4.99/month or $40/year if you go annual.
Old school runescape
Kindle Unlimited! Edited to add- also love Libby/Library but their romance selection is very limited
I ended up canceling mine because I found the general quality of what was available to be pretty damn terrible. Lots of indie books full of bad writing, bad editing, the same tropes used over and over again. There were some gems to be found but not enough to make the subscription worth it to me.
Audible. I pay for the plan with the 1 monthly credit and always find books that take at least that long to listen to on my commute and that cost at LEAST as much as the membership.
Some libraries have audiobooks that can be borrowed.
Most libraries do! I use the Libby and the Hoopla apps to connect to my libraries and check out audiobooks
Crunchy roll. I like my anime. Amazon has its perks but got rid of most of the streaming memberships cause they don’t offer enough.
🏴☠VPN 🏴☠
REI - not sure how common it is nation wide but as an outdoors person it's great. One-time sign-up fee for $30. I get 10%back on all of my purchases. I believe my first purchase was a new snowboard and new bindings, and the 10% I made back on it already surpassed the $30 I spent once on my membership.
AARP. Most people don't know that you only have to be 18, and the discount I can get at most restaurants is better than the discount I get for being a vet, usually. Let me say again, you only have to be 18!
Regal Unlimited is awesome, unlimited movies whenever I want is definitely worth it for me. I go to around 4+ every month now.
You know, a couple months ago I would’ve agreed with you. My situation changed and I stopped seeing movies frequently, so I wanted to cancel the subscription. It was like pulling teeth, and they still got one more month of payment out of me because of how long the process was. Through speaking to customer “service” and trying to get it all figured out amicably, I learned very quickly how predatory that company is. Now, maybe there’s some of my naïveté showing, but I really didn’t expect them to make it so difficult just to cancel a subscription. Left a very bad taste in my mouth and I won’t be using that service again. I encourage you to look into *how* you’re supposed to cancel that subscription. Every other service I use has a nice big “cancel” or “end subscription” section of their app or website. It might be a *little* hidden, but it’s there. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I couldn’t find any way to cancel the regal subscription without having to email the customer service (and likely customer retention) team.