Mullvad, and a strong internet connection from the spyware company of your choice. With that you can pirate any media, and browse the internet. I have never needed more.
The only extra subscriptions I have are a VPN while I’m at school, a domain name for my portfolio, and one game that is the main place I interact with my friends. Also have a slightly larger Google drive until I can afford to make my own NAS.
Honestly, I don’t see the need for much more. Costco is great if you live near one (they are one of the few decent companies left). Server hosting for games is another one I’ve done in the past.
Adobe used to be manageable a decade ago, especially if you were sharing the cost. Same with Game Pass when it came out. Now the prices for both are absurd. Streaming has been replaced by the high seas.
Email, Nebula, Dropout, Borgbase, a domain name.
I also have humble choice, but that’s a bit of a tossup. I’ve found some great games through it that I still play, but most months it still feels worth it to me
Edit: Forgot Mullvad VPN! Love that thing, 15/10 would recommend. Reddit doesn’t like it, but also I don’t like reddit so whatever
Grocery delivery
Electricity
Water
Mobile data.
VPN
And if you want a double whammy, get keepsolid, it’s a Ukrainian company. So you’re supporting Ukraine and getting a good vpn provider.
Electricity has been a pretty good subscription. Zero sales or promos ever though.
For the amount of work it does heck yeah.
But we also pay 40-50c per KWH so it really stacks up quick.
What? We get sales, like every night.
Not everywhere has variable electricity pricing like that. Actually I’d guess it’s still uncommon.
Your own email domain + an account at a privacy respecting email service is more than worth it. Avoids the privacy nightmare that is using Google/Microsoft for your email, and gives you the flexibility to change email providers on a whim if your current one starts doing anything you don’t like.
Library membership
Email to avoid email providers from companies like Google or Microsoft.
Whats some good ones?
I use Tutanota with a private domain, but you can get a free address with them also.
It’s a great deal too! My own domain was 50€ for 10 years, and Purelymail hosting is 10 bucks per year.
I’m still using the services of Big Email, which means I’m the product in this setting. From a philosophical standpoint, that sucks. From a practical point of view, I don’t really see any downsides. Surely there are some that I’m just not aware of.
If they want to show me some ads, I have ublock origin and NextDNS to take care of that. What else should I know about my situation?
Your email is the root of your digital identity, and pretty much everything in your digital life is tied to it. If your email is provided by Big Email, they own your digital identity and it exists at their whim, with no recourse if it gets taken away, compromised, or abused.
If you own your domain and pay for mail hosting, you can at least move your email between providers if something goes wrong, and have some recourse with those providers since you’re a customer instead of a product.
They get access to all emails used for banking, shopping, social media accounts, etc. Depends on if you are fine with them being able to build a detailed profile off your emails.
Ads is like the least problematic aspect.
You have zero privacy and also generate power for them to do the things they do, which is gargle trump’s sharty grey scrote and thus empower trump
Nebula is pretty cool, though I have the lifetime pass. Or patreon.
Nebula really is great.
For those (like me) who didn’t know what it was, Nebula is a creator-owned and operated video streaming service.
Dropout is one I enjoy and they do profit sharing internally, which is nice to see.
I’m happy to give Qobuz my money for providing an excellent music library and be the best paying streaming service for the musicians that I listen to.
Judging based on what I’m actually paying for myself I’d say Mullvad VPN, Protonmail and a nameless AI assistant.
Edit: I forgot I’ve got a website too, so hosting of that is another one.
Mullvad is stellar. I’ve been a user for years and it’s never let me down.
I strongly disagree on proton mail. If you use a custom domain with a catchall it’s absolute trash. Also possibly the worst email search ever. Don’t even get me started on the proton bridge.
I lasted a few months (about 8) and then switched to fastmail. Worlds apart.
I’m curious, since you’re already on Protonmail, why not use their VPN too?
Maybe too many eggs in one basket
Yeah, that would be the reason I wouldn’t switch now but it’s not why I didn’t go with ProtonVPN in the first place.
For no particular reason really. I don’t think Proton was offering a VPN service when I switched to their email so I used few different ones and eventually landed on Mullvad and have just stuck with it since.
Fair enough, thanks for the response
Health insurance, if you can afford it
Or, hear me out, tax that goes toward socialised healthcare.
Lmao!
Better healthcare than I’ve ever had for a tiny fraction of the price? You’re insane!
We have to work in reality
