I pay ~$15/mo for Usenet so I can get...news...easily.... 👀
this post was submitted on 27 May 2026
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First rule of Usenet…
I like getting my news delivered quickly without weird limitations.
Since you are paying, it seems to be worth it. I read a lot of mixed opinions online. What do you find there that you can't on torrent sites? Or is it just ease of use?
Ease of use (once it's set up). Getting it set up is the tricky part, but it's just tedious more than anything else.
I actually have two subscriptions, one for the newsgroup and one for the indexer. The newsgroup access is monthly while the indexer is annual, like $12/yr or something, stupid cheap.
Absolutely worth it.
Heh
0
Domain is about $15/yr
Email for my domain is $20/yr
VPN is about $50/yr
Yeah thats... Pretty much it for me.
Unless we want to include donations? But that doesnt fit the word "subscription" IMO.
For a stretch, subscription should include every rent seeking expenses(not specifically for homelabbing); house rent, water, electricity, gas, phone, internet, monthly bus pass etc etc
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I was tempted to say $0, but then I thought harder about the problem.
Technically I do have ongoing costs
- PAYG costs for Usenet-news (iirc, $22USD for 500GB block)
https://usenet-news.net/index1.php?url=home
- News indexer (I think...$60 every 5 years?)
Electricity (whatever tiny amount raspberry pi sips). At a guess, maybe $50/yr.
So, amortised over time - very low but not zero. In theory, if I dropped Usenet, it would even lower. And theoretically, I could run the pi off a single solar panel and a diy solar kit but I'm not busy pretending to be Robinson Crusoe just yet. Though... It might be a cool project.
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and here I thought the idea was to avoid to have subscriptions 🤣
There are subscription costs for homelabbing?
Electricity. Off-site backup. FOSS project donations. Thigh-high socks. Domains.
Thigh-high socks
They've even put programmer socks behind subscriptions, world is a fuck
Planned obsolescence means that the thigh high socks degrade quickly, forcing consumers to purchase new pairs more often than they really need too. The fabrics are now less resistant to excessive sweat, moisture, and oils. Shrinkflation also means you get less sock for the same amount of money, increasing the margins for the sock megacorporations. Additionally, the missing sock ghost (who routinely steals socks from a pairs leaving victims with just the one) has struck a deal with Big Programmer Socks to increase the number of lost sock pairs over time in exchange for a large share of the profits.
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Just domain for $11 a year.
The home server is running on old laptop so I guess slight electricity too. ISP doesn't really count since I work from home and need to pay for that anyway.
I have lifetime Windscribe VPN and Koofr 1TB, which are not subscriptions.
- Domain for about 15/year
- Proton unlimited (mostly mail, SimpleLogin, vpn) about 90/year
- Nabu casa (not that I need it, but to support development) 75/year
I spend a lot more money on donations to the open source stuff I’m running, but they are not strictly speaking “subscriptions”. Self hosting for me isn’t about cost, it’s about data ownership.
Hosting for two:
- Domain - $300/yr (it's a great domain, don't judge me.)
- Proton Duo - $180/yr
- Kagi Duo - $168/yr
- Nabu Casa (Home Assistant) - $65/yr
- Donations to FOSS projects & initiatives - $250/yr
- Lingering security camera subscription (next to go) - $120/yr
- ISP Unlimited Data - $600/yr gofuckyourselfISP
- Typical added network load ~50W - $131/yr
- ~10yr Hardware Upgrades - $200/yr
I just upgraded my home storage setup, so offsite backup is now running at my parents house, saving me ~$250/yr (but probably costing them ~$50/yr in added utility costs)
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Wonky Coffee, about £30 per month.
Hey, you did say anything and everything...!
Wonky Coffee
Never heard of them, checked it out. That's a noble cause. I think we Americans especially, waste so much food it's downright embarrassing. Yet we make laws that say it is prohibited to feed the homeless. That's unconscionable imho. I strongly feel, we as a society, have a moral obligation to our fellow man to help when help is needed, no matter who they are or how they came to be in need.
Yearly:
- ~80€ for 6 domains (using all of them)
- 125€ electricity (480kWh, 0,26€/kWh)
- 540€ VPSes (joint projects where other admins have access, not entirely paid by myself though, still planning to migrate one of them into homelab)
Not counting ISP since we have that anyways.
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Domain for $8 a year and 300Mbps fiber for $45 a month which snake ass AT&T keeps increasing in 5 dollar increments, so thank you for reminding me to call Spectrum for a quote so I can then call AT&T and harass them into giving me the correct price for another year.
AT&T just bought my fiber provider
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Aside from domain costs, I don’t pay for any extra services in regards to my homelab. I pay for email as well because I don’t want to manage that.
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