UNSUBSCRIBE

This month as I up my efforts toward saving money, I have rekindled my desire for simplicity.  An odd consequence of this desire is a sudden need to de-clutter my email inbox. 

The de-cluttering isn't really about saving money, except maybe tangentially in that occasionally an offer comes in via email that I deem too good to pass up.  And I'm talking about offers along the lines of "Buy 2, get 7 free at Bath & Body Works," not, "I am a Nigerian prince who will give you half my fortune if you send me $1,000."  The latter tends to go to my spam box along with offers for enlargement of organs I don't possess, which means I don't ever look at those messages.  But the solicitations of great offers from companies I have previously ordered from online, those show up front and center in my regular inbox.

So I'm going about my day, driving in my car or something, when I hear the exciting beep of my phone, indicating a new email.  Ooh, email!, I think, It must be something exciting, like that offer from a huge media outlet that wants to syndicate my blog and pay me lots of money!  And then I'm chomping at the bit to check my phone at the next opportunity that it is legal to do so, and ... Aww, it's about a BOGO sale at Toys 'R Us. 

And the emails range from being minor annoyances to legitimately making me feel bad about myself.  I mean, I know I overthink things, but every time that daily email offer comes in from Victoria's Secret, I feel bad that I have such ugly underwear. 

Also, when did I sign up for all these daily deal sites?  You know, Groupon and its ilk?  I have never, ever bought from one of these sites.  I realize there are some great deals to be found on there, but I sort of tend to think that Groupon, like coupons in general, leads to spending money on things you wouldn't otherwise have bought.  So unless you were absolutely going to go to that venue anyway, Groupon is costing you money. 

As for non-commercial email annoyances, I happen to be on the writers' list for this one particular site that somehow ends up sending no fewer than 12 lengthy newsletter emails every single day.  I am not exaggerating.  I read none of them. 

So it was time to scroll down to the bottom of every email, commercial and non-commercial alike, find the tiny print that says "UNSUBSCRIBE," and click away. 

The dumb thing is, unsubscribing is so easy that I should have done it a long time ago.  Most of the sites just require the click of a few boxes, and you're unsubscribed.  A couple of sites made it a little bit harder by sending an unsubscribe email that I had to respond to, but that really only added about 30 seconds to the process. 

I don't know why the influx of unwanted emails suddenly started to bug me.  I fully understand that it makes sense for companies to advertise promotions to people who have shown interest in their products before.  But I think it's something about the sheer volume of the email offers that bothered me.  I mean, you can't possibly have the Best Deal Ever at your online retailer every single day. 

I also think that now that many of us have the capability to get emails on our phones, it's annoying to have stupid offers interrupting our every daily action.  And I know there's some curmudgeon out there who will say that either I should turn my phone off, or else get a simpler, not-so-smartphone that doesn't have the ability to bombard me with pointless emails when I'm out in public.  However, for various reasons stemming from the fact that there are actually emails/calls/texts I want to get while I'm out in public, I have a smartphone and I keep it turned on. 

And in some ways, I like the ability to read and delete a pointless email on the spot, rather than come home to 25 pointless emails.  But it would be even better not to get those emails at all.  The ease and convenience of online shopping shouldn't have the consequence of a bunch of annoying solicitation emails for the rest of your life. 

So since I did all this unsubscribing, I now have 3 emails in my inbox first thing in the morning instead of 20.  Sadly, not one of those 3 has been from that important media conglomerate.  Yet.