The cost of subscription boxes

As the new year approaches, and I start to set my goals, I wondered how much has my subscription box habit grown? And then I promptly cancelled a few boxes.

I'm going to be on Maternity leave as long as I can - hopefully for the full year. There is some chance I may return to work a few months early, and some uncertainty that my position will remain. Academic restructuring is awesome. Not. I was lucky to have a job where I received some maternity benefit top-up for 12 weeks. Now, I'm looking for ways to get the most out of my EI pay.

As of December 1st, I had these boxes:

Beauty:
monthly
Ipsy $10 plus $4.95 shipping (US)
Beauty Box 5 $12 plus $3 shipping (US)
Top Box $12 plus taxes
Glamour Doll Eyes OTM $6 plus $8 shipping (US)
Birch Box $14.95
Indulge Me $20
Julep Maven $24.99 (US)

quarterly
Luxe Box box $26
Fortune Cookie Soap Box $20 plus $8 shipping (US)

Life Style:
monthly
Panty by Post $22
Indie Gift Box $24.99 plus $12 shipping

quarterly
Fab Fit Fun VIP Box $49.95 plus $8 shipping


I count 12 boxes total, some automatically renewing, some not. Many of these I paid for upfront which reduced the cost for a few of them, but also allowed me to forget about it in my budget. Much nicer than getting bills each month for all these.

Monthly total $141 (!!)
Yearly (Monthly only) $1692

Quarterly total $105
Yearly (Quarterly only) $420

Yearly total $2112 (!!)

Wowza.

If I added this to my student loan payment, in 5 years it would all be paid off. Not cool me, not cool.

I've cancelled a few of the ones that bill monthly, and I'm going to work on reducing or terminating completely the rest. GDE's OTM I really want to get again, but seems unlikely with the popularity of this subscription. It sells out in minutes, or seconds!

I love getting these boxes, and they were a way to help push me to blog again. So far, I've knocked 5 off the list. Even I miss them, I'll  just remind myself staying home with the new baby (and working on minimalism despite having kids) is important for me. Oh, and debt-free would be lovely!

Do you have any subscription boxes or a small purchase that got out of hand? How you decide it was time to stop or which ones to keep?