We picked up Hulu as a cable replacement when we cut the cable cord in 2012.  

It was a nice alternative because at the time Hulu had current shows and we paid the premium for no commercials.  We were paying $8.55/month.

For the most part, money is no object when it comes to streaming services.  It's MH's thing.  It's the one thing he will want to spend money on (TV and movies).  But on the flip side of the coin, we have always been wary of signing up for contracts, we limit ongoing monthly costs of any kind, etc.

I probably just presumed if MH was paying for something, that he was using it.  But I mentioned to him that I noticed that Hulu just jumped up from $14.99/month to $17.99/month.  In the "If you're cool with it" vein...  It still beats cable.  But just wanted to be sure he was aware.

MH's response:  "Oh yeah, I got an email about that.  We should probably re-evaluate what we have and what we are using."  

The cost was enough to get his attention.  I told MH, "I don't think I am watching anything on Hulu."  We went through and there wasn't anything I personally would want to keep track of.  Most of the shows I had been more into, they wrapped up and had their series finale in the last year or so.

We quickly decided that we just weren't using Hulu and that the price was steep even if there was just one or two shows we would be into.  So MH 'paused' the subscription for 12 weeks.  That was the longest he could pause it.  Our overall plan is to maybe pause Hulu for 6 months and then pause Netflix for 6 months.  But if it was just me, I could probably do without Hulu.  

I put it on my calendar.  We will evaluate in another 12 weeks.  I expect we will just pause Hulu again.

Netflix, we pretty much always had.  It replaced Blockbuster at some point (we were mailed rentals, in the old days).  I never coded this as a 'cable' expense because it was an entertainment expense that MH had always paid for.  

I do watch a lot of stuff on Netflix and want to just keep it.  But I am totally fine with the 6 months on and 6 months off plan.  The shows will still be there.

MH bought a 1-year Peacock deal at some point.  I mentioned it to him when it renewed.  Wasn't sure if anyone was really using it, at the time.  I think it just fell off his radar.  But as we hashed it out this week, I decided I've actually been using Peacock a fair amount.  It only comes out to $5/month.  I think we should keep it.

I guess the only other streaming service we are paying for is Shudder.  It's $5.99/month.  I have been coding that to MH's allowance.  I didn't realize it was a monthly subscription thing.  I just moved it over to 'Cable TV', now that I realize.  He's pondering starting and stopping that too, periodically.

For reference, old cable was $100/month.

I guess technically we are only paying $10.99/month now.  For Shudder & Peacock.

Still have Netflix, but that literally had replaced our movie rental service.  In the old old days, we had both cable and movie rentals.  But if you want to split hairs, that's another $20/month.

So I look it up, for the apples to apples.  We used to pay $30/month for both Blockbuster and Netflix.  I don't remember why.  Maybe like current streaming days, they had different offerings?  Did we stream Netflix before we left cable?  

Okay, so old cable and video rentals was $130/month.

Today, all the streaming costs $30/month.  Which was how much it cost 12 years ago when we first cut cable.

Happy to say that it hasn't gotten all wild and out of control.  I doubt we've had any discussions about this in a very long time.  It looks like we just got lax about Hulu, and probably both presumed the other was using it.

Edited to add:  We've always paid for the premium Netflix so that the kids could log in, so that we could log in when we travel or when we visit our parents, so that everyone in my household can stream at the same time, etc.  If they get weird and stingy about that, we are happy to drop down our subscription to a cheaper offering.  So far, it hasn't been an issue.