Went through my statements properly for the first time in ages and realized I was still paying for:
- an old fitness app
- extra cloud storage
- a streaming trial that converted months ago
Wasn’t even a huge amount individually which is probably why I ignored it, but combined it was stupid.
How are people actually keeping track of subscriptions now?
Do people genuinely monitor this stuff or just periodically clean things up?
Found out I’d been paying for 3 forgotten subscriptions for months. How do people keep track of this stuff?
byu/Slight_Suggestion434 inFrugal
Posted by Slight_Suggestion434
15 Comments
Don’t subscribe to stuff in the first place. Occasionally go through your phone, credit card records, and inbox to weed this kind of thing out.
And break yourself of the habit of subscribing.
dude you should be checking your bank statement regularly. its so easy now with apps.
I just turn notifications on for any transactions. that way nothing escapes my sight
Just look through your statement each time it arrives.
I use the calendar on my phone to remind me of when trials/subscriptions are going to expire. I’ve never paid for anything I didn’t mean to.
Ynab or Actualbudget or any finance tracking and budgeting system.
I cancel free trials immediately after I start them. You still get the whole free trial. And I don’t subscribe to stuff I don’t use in general.
Reviewing statements is good but another way is using your online banking and looking at your account activity. Usually you can filter it in a bunch of ways like date range, debits or debit card transactions.
It makes it really easy look at all my purchases.
Don’t do subscriptions, or keep them to a minimum.
I look at my banking app everyday
Honestly been there. I used to do a monthly “subscription audit” in a spreadsheet but it got tedious fast and I kept forgetting anyway.
What actually helped me was just going through my bank statement once and writing everything down — shocked myself with what I found. At some point I also built a small tracker for this because the spreadsheet thing never stuck for me. Happy to share if you’re curious.
But even without a tool: bank statement + 20 minutes once a month does wonders.
Everything I get by subscription goes on the same credit card. I get my paper statement every month and carefully review the charges. There are no surprises.
I’ve seen ads about an app that cancels subscriptions and always wonder how many ssubscriptions do people really have that they forget. I only have youtube, gym, and disney plus on promotion. But I calendar a couple days before it expires to alert me to cancel.
I don’t ssubscribe to stuff in the first place. Ever.
By not forgetting about how many subs you have. That’s ridiculous you don’t know.
My checking is reviewed every 2 weeks after I get paid. And every credit card bill gets itemized and I add up all the charges to make sure it’s correct. Nothing escapes my sight. It’s wild to me that people forget what they’re paying for