I saved money with YouTube Premium, and so should you

I keep falling into the trap of signing up for too many streaming services. I’ll see a movie or show I want to watch and sign up for the monthly fee, only to forget to cancel it until a year has passed.

It’s a huge money pit, and I’m always looking for ways to reduce the number of $20 chunks taken out of my bank account each month.

I’ve paid for YouTube Premium for years. I don’t like sitting through ads while watching videos, and the $14 a month payment seemed reasonable for the convenience.

However, I didn’t expect YouTube Premium to save me money. It’s allowed me to cancel several other subscriptions and keep more of my money in my pocket. Here’s how.

Netflix and HBO weren’t getting it done

I can never find anything to watch

I’m frustrated with Netflix. I can never find any of the movies I want to watch, and I’m not interested in Netflix original content.

I’m also constantly frustrated by starting a show or series, only to see it moved or removed when the licensing contract runs up.

I struggle to justify spending $25 a month on Netflix, and I’m annoyed that there isn’t a reasonable price tier that includes high-quality content without ads.

HBO Max is a similar experience. Aside from HBO series from years ago, it’s difficult for me to find movies I want to watch on a regular basis.

It was much cheaper for me to find old DVDs or Blu-ray sets for the shows I wanted to watch and cancel the subscription.

I could stomach it when streaming services only cost me $10, but paying over $21 a month for HBO didn’t sit well with me.

It’s really forced me to question cutting the cord from DirecTV in the first place, and it’s not long before the aggregate monthly cost exceeds what I was paying.

YouTube Premium is better than you think

Eliminating ads is important for movies

I don’t know who is on the team responsible for selecting the films included in the YouTube Movies section, but they deserve a raise.

I find more titles I’m interested in watching on YouTube than I do on any other streaming service. Yes, movies are cycled in and out, but I find favorites return constantly, and I’m impressed each time new films are added.

Recently, I’ve watched The Last Samurai, The Hunt for Red October, and Sneakers, without leaving my YouTube home page.

You don’t need YouTube Premium to enjoy free movies on the platform. However, the movie-watching experience is much better without constantly being interrupted.

Ad placement for the movies is aggressive, and I would rather not bother than sit through incessant breaks in the action.

If you don’t want to spend the full $14, YouTube Premium Lite does the job without the added cost, since it has nothing to do with YouTube Music.

If I don’t find a movie I want to watch, I can opt to buy or rent it. Even if I do that several times a month, it’s still cheaper than what I was paying for Netflix and HBO Max combined.

You won’t always find the latest titles on the platform, and you’re better off looking elsewhere for films just out of theaters.

However, for those cozy classics that are hard to find on just one service, YouTube is an ideal option.

Google doesn’t include YouTube Premium with anything

It makes for a fantastic bundle

It would be a lot easier to swallow some of Google’s other pay services if YouTube Premium were included. Unfortunately, the company doesn’t like adding it to increase value.

YouTube TV costs me around $90 a month, but inexplicably, it doesn’t include YouTube Premium. It would be the easiest way for Google to ease the pain of constantly raising YouTube TV prices, but it’s not part of the package.

Google One Premium doesn’t include YouTube Premium, but you can at least score a discount.

When signing up for Google One, there’s an option to add YouTube Premium to the package for a $2 discount — don’t spend it all in one place.

I’m not saying I’d go out of my way to pick up a Google service if it included YouTube Premium, but I’d feel much better about paying knowing the benefits I get.

YouTube Premium allowed me to go net positive

I still pay way too much on a monthly basis for subscription plans and services, but YouTube Premium allowed me to go net positive on my movie expenditure each month.

Any service that allows me to casually stream Lethal Weapon 4 in the background while I work is worth at least $14 a month.