I’m going to get real with you today. I (used to) be a big fan of subscription boxes. Ever since signing up for my first one in 2012, I was hooked! I couldn’t believe that I could get brand name samples, healthy + organic snacks, and other cute lifestyle goodies for low monthly prices, every single month. It was mindblowing.

I loved racing to open up my favorite boxes as soon as they arrived on my doorstep, rushing to open the box to reveal all the treasures inside. Like others have felt, it was like opening up presents all the time…even feeling like Christmas!

It was fantastic! Truly, it was. I loved them so much, I used to write about my boxes and share what came in my boxes with you, my readers.

Though I loved and raved about these boxes, part of me knew that these subscriptions were just too good to be true. And I didn’t want to admit that for a looonnng time.

But I recently canceled my subscriptions. All of them. 

And there were quite a few reasons for doing it. But here are my main reasons:

I Didn’t Always Love The Items. In subscriptions that I couldn’t customize or skip for the month, I would often get items I just didn’t want. Items that either I already had, had no use for, or just thought were plain cheap. Basically, every month was hit or miss.

My nail polish subscriptions would repeat similar colors with different names. My snack subscriptions would sometimes be out of or even discontinue my favorites. My lifestyle subscriptions would have cheap items with ridiculous retail prices that would inflate the value of the box.

Sure, there are some GREAT items that pop up in those boxes, but is it really worth blindly spending exorbitant amounts of money on items you might not really like? It’s a gamble!

They Add Up Over Time. I’ve been a subscriber of many subscription boxes. A simple $10/month box will run you $120/year. $20/month box will run you $240/year. $40/month box will run you $480/year. The math doesn’t lie.

The figures don’t seem too bad when you look at them individually, but when you subscribe to multiple boxes, the costs add up FAST. You could easily be looking at $1000/year or more for subscription boxes.

That’s a lot of money to be spending on items you MIGHT like.

Too Many Products. One of my complaints about the beauty boxes is that there isn’t enough time to really give the products a trial period. Switching skincare products too frequently can cause a lot of problems for those with sensitive skin. Before I can test a product, I have the next month’s box landing at my feet.

I ended up with a basket of cosmetics samples. A FULL basket. And another full of nail polish. I had more things than I knew what to do with!

What’s the point of having more products than I can possibly use? They just take up space and of course expire!

And it wasn’t only the beauty boxes this was happening with. I have loads of stationery sitting around, catching dust. I had a pantry shelf full of “healthy” snacks on the verge of expiring because I couldn’t possibly finish them. It happens with all of them.

A few of the other smaller reasons? 

• Customer service issues – I’ve had boxes not ship out on time, or not arrive at all.
• Inability to skip a month without canceling the service
• Poor value/too expensive for what it’s really worth – I was tired of arbitrary, inflated values being assigned to exclusive items, only use to inflate the total value of the box.
• Broken Items – Products didn’t always arrive in the best condition. It’s a pain to ask customer service for new items.

After canceling my subscription boxes, I’ve actually found more money to spend on items I’m almost guaranteed to like! I now have more money for coffee shops and cool restaurants. Isn’t that what’s more important?

Now I’m going into 2016 with extra money! Do you use subscription box services? How do you feel about them?