I Just Added a 5th Streaming Service to My Personal Lineup. Here's Why I'm Not Sorry About It

It's an expense that's actually pretty easy for me to justify.

I'm the type of person who likes to stay busy during the day, and my kids and husband are the same way. On weekends, we like to spend time outdoors, play sports, take hikes, and explore our surroundings.

But once it gets dark, I turn into a big homebody. I like to park myself on the couch with a good book or streaming content at night, and it takes a lot to get me to leave the house after 8 p.m. And while my kids would probably stay out, and up, all night if I let them, well, I don't. As such, we all tend to spend the last hour or so of the day reading and watching TV.

The former activity is pretty inexpensive thanks to our wonderful library system. But over the past year, our TV-watching costs have grown due to the fact that we've added a number of streaming services to our personal mix. In fact, for a while there, we were paying for four separate services and recently canceled one. But we added two more in November for a total of five.

I know, I know -- it's a lot. But here's how I can justify the cost.

It's all about making everyone happy

In November, we made the decision to cancel HBO Max when we realized we weren't watching a whole lot of it. But we then decided to sign up for the Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ bundle, adding $13.99 a month to our credit card bills. (And actually, the cost is rising to $14.99 a month in December.)

Why'd we do that? We were already paying for Disney+ since it provides great content for my kids. I decided to pay for ESPN+ because my son and I are hockey fanatics, and there are certain games you can only access on ESPN+ during the season. My husband and I then decided that since the cost of adding Hulu to the bundle would be pretty negligible, we might as well just sign up and see what added content it gives us.

So here we are, with five different streaming services and cable to boot. But while I'm really not the type to just throw money away, I'm also okay with having so many services. That's because they provide entertainment for my entire family -- and we all have very different tastes in that regard.

Also, as mentioned, we're not big on going out at night. We rarely, if ever, take our kids to the movies on a Friday or Saturday night. Instead, we stay home and watch movies at our house. So while I'm spending a bit of money on streaming services, I'm not spending it on entertainment outside the home.

Striking a balance

I definitely acknowledge that five streaming services is a lot of content to pay for. But right now, we're getting good use of those services. And because we're spending more carefully in other expense categories, it's an expense we can swing right now.

If our other bills start to rise or our priorities change, we'll have to reevaluate. But right now, we're sticking with five streaming services and not feeling bad about it.