Are you paying $15 for Hulu, $10 for Spotify, $5 for a forgotten app, and $7 for a cloud service you barely use? This is Subscription Creep, and it silently drains your bank account. Follow this simple, three-step audit to find that hidden cash.
The 3-Step Subscription Audit
FIND EVERYTHING (The Financial Hunt):
Review the last three months of your bank statements and credit card bills.
List every recurring charge. Include music, streaming, apps (Apple/Google), delivery services, and digital newspaper subscriptions.
Goal: Establish your actual baseline cost.
APPLY THE “USE IT OR LOSE IT” RULE:
Categorize each service: Essential (Used daily/weekly), Valued (Used monthly), or Waste (Used once or forgotten).
ACTION: Immediately cancel every item in the Waste category. If you forgot you had it, you don’t need it.
NEGOTIATE & ROTATE (The Savvy Saver Move):
Rotate Streaming: Only keep 1-2 video streaming services active at a time. Finish your show on Netflix, then cancel and switch to Hulu for the next month. This is one of the quickest ways to save $20–$40 per month.
Downgrade: Can you switch from a Premium plan to a Standard or ad-supported plan? This often cuts the cost by 30-50% for minimal viewing disruption.
Annual Savings Check
Cutting just four $10/month subscriptions saves you $480 per year. That’s a serious amount of money to put toward an actual financial goal!
