I Audited My Subscriptions and Found $127/Month in Waste

The $273 Shock

Like most people, I thought I had a pretty good handle on my subscription spending. Netflix, Spotify, maybe a couple of apps — I guessed around $60 a month total. That felt reasonable.

I was off by $213.

When I actually sat down with my credit card statements and added up every recurring charge — streaming services, productivity tools, cloud storage, fitness apps, news subscriptions, even that meditation app I signed up for during a stressful week in January and used exactly twice — the number staring back at me was $273 per month.

That's $3,276 per year. More than I spent on groceries in the entire previous quarter. More than my car insurance. Almost as much as I was putting into my retirement account.

And I'm not alone. Research from C+R in 2024 found that the average consumer spends $219 per month on subscriptions — and underestimates their total by 2.5x. That "I probably spend around $80/month" guess? It's probably closer to $200.

The Subscriptions I Completely Forgot About

The biggest shock wasn't the services I use daily. Those I could justify. It was the subscriptions I'd completely forgotten existed:

A VPN service I signed up for during a Black Friday sale two years ago — $11.99/month, quietly auto-renewing every month for 18 months. I'd switched to a different VPN provider after three months and simply never cancelled the first one. Total waste: $215.

Two cloud storage services running simultaneously — I was paying for both Google One ($9.99/mo) and iCloud+ ($2.99/mo), even though I only actively used Google Drive. I'd set up iCloud for photo backup years ago and forgotten about it. Total waste: $36/year.

A fitness app from my abandoned New Year's resolution — $14.99/month for a premium workout app I used religiously in January and February, then never opened again. But it kept charging my card through November. Total waste: $135.

A premium news subscription I barely read — $16/month for unlimited articles. I calculated I read maybe 4-5 articles per month. That works out to roughly $3.20 per article — more expensive than buying individual coffees at Starbucks.

A meal planning app — $7.99/month. I used it for two weeks when I was trying to eat healthier, then went back to my usual routine. Nine months of charges later: $72.

An audiobook service with rollover credits — I had 14 unused credits sitting in my account, worth $210, while paying $14.99/month for a new credit I didn't need.

The pattern was clear: I'd sign up with genuine intent to use something, use it for a few weeks or months, stop using it, but never actually cancel. The charges were small enough ($7 here, $15 there) that they didn't trigger my mental alarm bells when I glanced at my credit card statement.

The "Active but Questionable" Category

Then there were subscriptions I *was* using, but probably shouldn't have been paying for:

Three streaming services when I realistically only watched one regularly. I was paying for Netflix ($15.49/mo), Hulu ($17.99/mo with no ads), and HBO Max ($15.99/mo). But if I tracked what I actually watched, 80% was on Netflix. The other two were "just in case" subscriptions.

Premium tiers I didn't need — I had Spotify Premium Family ($16.99/mo) even though I lived alone. The individual plan would've saved me $6/month.

Overlapping productivity tools — I was paying for both Notion ($10/mo) and Evernote ($10.99/mo) when I could easily consolidate everything into one.

What I Actually Did About It

I didn't cancel everything. That wasn't the point. Some subscriptions genuinely improve my life and are worth every penny. But I made three categories:

### Keep ($106/month)

Services I use daily or weekly that provide clear, measurable value:

• Netflix — I watch it 4-5 times per week
• Spotify Individual — I listen to music every single day (downgraded from Family)
• 1Password — Essential for security
• Google One — Actually use the storage
• ChatGPT Plus — Use it for work daily
• NYT Cooking — I meal prep every week using recipes from here

### Downgrade ($40/month)

Services where I was on a premium tier I didn't actually need:

• Spotify — Switched from Family ($16.99) to Individual ($10.99): saved $6/mo
• YouTube — Switched from Premium Family to Individual: saved $5/mo
• Dropped the premium news subscription and switched to a basic tier

### Cancel Immediately ($127/month)

The forgotten subscriptions, the duplicates, the aspirational signups, and the "just in case" services. This was the biggest bucket and the easiest decision once I actually saw the list.

The 30-Minute Audit That Saved Me $1,524/Year

The entire process took about 30 minutes:

10 minutes: Went through my credit card statements for the past three months and wrote down every recurring charge

5 minutes: Added them to a spreadsheet (you can use LowerMySubs for this — it's faster)

10 minutes: Made keep/downgrade/cancel decisions

5 minutes: Actually cancelled everything in the cancel list

Result: Cut my monthly subscription bill from $273 to $146. That's $127/month back in my pocket — $1,524 per year.

To put that in perspective:

• That's a round-trip flight to Europe or Japan
• That's 6 months of my car payment
• That's 150 really good cups of coffee
• That's 10% of the down payment on a house (if I save it for a few years)

The Lesson: Subscription Spending Is Uniquely Hard to Track

Here's why subscription spending is so insidious:

Each individual charge feels small. $5 here, $15 there. Your brain categorizes them as "minor expenses" — barely worth thinking about. But they compound silently in the background, month after month, year after year.

A $10/month subscription you forgot about costs you $120/year. If you forget about it for five years, that's $600. For something you're not even using.

The billing is automatic and invisible. Unlike going to a store and physically handing over money, subscriptions just... happen. There's no moment of pain or conscious decision each month.

The "it's just $X/month" framing is designed to make things sound cheap. $14.99/month sounds reasonable. $180/year sounds expensive. They're the same thing.

The Fix: Audit Quarterly

You don't need to swear off subscriptions entirely. That's not realistic or even desirable. Many subscriptions provide genuine value.

The fix is simple: audit them regularly — just like you'd review any other recurring expense. I now do this once per quarter (I set a calendar reminder). It takes 15-20 minutes and I catch 2-3 subscriptions I'd forgotten about every single time.

Even once a year makes a huge difference.

Try It Yourself (It Takes 30 Seconds)

That's exactly why we built [LowerMySubs](https://lowermysubs.com). It takes about 30 seconds to add your subscriptions from our catalog of 106 services, and the dashboard instantly shows you the real number.

• No bank login required (unlike Rocket Money or Trim)
• No Plaid connection
• Works anywhere in the world
• Shows you the annual total (the number that matters)
• Free to use for the audit

I guarantee the number will surprise you. It surprised me, and I thought I was being careful.

The shock of seeing the total is what motivates action. Once you see "$2,847/year" instead of "a few subscriptions," cancelling the ones you don't use becomes obvious.

[Start your free audit now →](https://lowermysubs.com)