Old XEONs are the answer to everything
You literally don't have to pay for all those subscriptions, dude. Think about it—Netflix, Disney+, Apple Cloud storage, Google Drive, VPN, AI, etc. All that shit adds up. Realistically, the average person in the US probably spends around $50-$70 a month on all that BS, and that's a lowball (im too lazy to look up actual numbers). So, what's a solution? OLD XEONS, BABY!
Go on eBay right now and just look up "Xeon e5 26xx," and you will find thousands of listings for old servers jam-packed with enterprise hardware for legit $100-$200. With just one of these machines, you can set up a basic virtualization lab and start creating your own home-hosted version of those services you pay for. Sure, you lose some convenience, but is the $1000 a year for those services worth it? A single server with 1 or 2 of these e5 models can easily virtualize tons of VM's and services that you may think need tons of infrastructure, but in reality a single tower server or rack can handle many entire setups.
Let's break down what you can actually do with one of these mfs. Forget paying for cloud storage when you can host your own personal cloud with Nextcloud or OwnCloud. Store all your photos, documents, and whatever else you've got hoarding up space on your phone, and access it from anywhere once you got your shit setup. You're in complete control of your data, and there are no monthly fees.
Tired of Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, and all the other 27 of them? its literally like you have to have each one to even watch what you want. just spin up jellyfin bro and setup an ARR stack (look it up for more info x). Jellyfins interface is genuinely extremely intuitive and allows for a "Netflix like experience". The setup is very easy as well, just install and launch the server app, and select your media libraries.
Even that AI subscription could potentially be replaced. For certain tasks, you can explore open-source AI models that can run locally on your server. While it won't replace ChatGPT overnight, it's a step towards self-sufficiency for specific needs like text generation or image processing.
The learning curve might be a bit steep at first, but honestly, there are tons of tutorials out there. The community around home labbing and self-hosting is huge and super helpful, even though a majority of the help you will find is on the worst site ever created (reddit). You'll pick up valuable skills, understand networking better, and be in control of your own data. Plus, the satisfaction of knowing you built and control your own digital ecosystem. It's not just about saving money, it's about taking back control from those endless subscription cycles. so like why havent u bought one yet? go buy old Xeons and start building your own services. you dont need 8 billion accounts and subscriptions to everything. you dont need them selling ur data. OWN YOUR OWN DATA! OWN YOUR OWN SERVICES! amen