How many subscriptions are you paying for right now?
Don’t look yet. Just guess.
3, 4?
Okay, now open your bank app and actually count.
I’ll wait.
Yeah. That’s what I thought.
When you include all the entertainment services, and random apps, it's probably more like 10-12 isn't it?
fuck...
This happens on Financial Audit constantly. I ask someone what they spend on subscriptions and they say “like, forty bucks?” with the blind confidence of the ignorant.
Then we pull the statements.
Netflix. Hulu. Max. Disney+. Peacock. Paramount+. Spotify. Extra iCloud storage for 9,000 screenshots of memes. Two meal kits. A gym they haven’t walked into since February. And meditation app they opened exactly once, during a panic attack, at 2 a.m.
Let's be reasonable and say it's like $212 a month.
That’s over $2,500 a year on entertainment they don’t have time to watch, because they’re picking up extra shifts to pay for it.
Nobody wakes up and decides to spend $2,500 a year on streaming. You sign up for one show, and tell yourself you’ll “cancel after the free trial.”
You won't.
You never do...
Fourteen months later you’re paying $17.99 a month to a service you couldn’t pick out of a police lineup.
These companies are betting that you’ll forget. And they're usually right.
yatzee
So let’s check.
1.Pull 90 days of statements.
Thirty days isn’t enough. Some charges bill quarterly or annually, and those are the sneakiest ones.
Go back three months on every account and every card, and highlight every recurring charge. Even the $2.99 ones. Hell, especially the $2.99 ones.
Those never die, like cockroaches and Twinkies.
2. Sort everything into three piles.
Use it every week.
Use it sometimes.
Forgot it existed.
The third pile gets cancelled today. Not this weekend.
Today, while we've got some momentum.
3. Rotate your streaming.
You don't need six streaming services at once.
Nobody does.
Pick one, binge Game of Thrones, cancel, and pick a different one next month. They’ll take you back. They always take you back.
They’re like the ex who still has your hoodie and texts “u up” every few months. Fun for a fling, but not forever.
4. Find the annual renewals.
That $99 yearly app you bought to "finally learn Spanish”?
It’s renewing whether you remember it or not. Stupid fucking owl...
No clue how to say THIS in Spanish...
Put every annual renewal date in your calendar with a reminder a week before it hits.
Now here’s where most people blow it.
Doing this once feels incredible.
You cancel four things, you feel like a genius, and you brag about it at work.
Then six months later there are five new ones. All because you took your eye off the ball. And the second you stop looking, the leaks come back.
Kinda like how your debt can go from a $200 splurge to a $2,000 problem if you aren't paying attention.
