Subscription Audit
Twelve dollars here, nine there, and the number at the end of the year is always bigger than the number in your head. Put the whole list in one table, get the annual total and a cancel list you can act on.
Include the free trials that became paid, the app-store subscriptions, the annual ones that bill once, the software you forgot you were still paying for.
How the math works
- Annualize everything: monthly prices × 12, quarterly × 4, annual × 1. Quarterly plans hide a 3-month bill, annual plans hide one large bill that feels like nothing each month.
- Share of take-home: annual ÷ 12 ÷ monthly take-home. Above 5% of take-home, the subscription stack is a budget leak, not a rounding error.
- Top three is where the audit pays off. In a typical six-service stack, the two biggest subscriptions are more than half of the total spend.
- The unused count annualizes the cheapest win available: cancelling something you did not open in 30 days costs you nothing and returns the full annual price.
- Two-year view: subscription prices rise roughly every year and almost nobody re-shops them. The annual total is the number you pay before you notice.
How do I find every subscription I pay for?
Search your email for "renewal", "receipt", and "invoice". Then check the three places subscriptions hide: app-store subscriptions (iOS Settings → your name → Subscriptions, Google Play → Payments → Subscriptions), your card's recurring-merchant list, and the family plan you are paying for that two other adults use.
Is an annual plan cheaper than paying monthly?
Annual plans are usually priced at about 10 months of the sticker monthly price, so paying yearly is a two-month discount, if you will genuinely use it for the whole year. If you will cancel in month three, monthly is cheaper. The trap is the annual plan you keep because "I already paid for it".
What is the two-year number for?
Subscription prices move up, and the bill is spread out, so the pain signal never arrives. Multiply by two and you have the honest number for a stack you have not re-shopped in two years, which is most stacks.