September 07, 2026
Greetings!
This one surprised me! I did not expect to find a charge for a meditation app I downloaded during one stressful week back in March. I used it for exactly two days, forgot about it completely, and it had been quietly pulling $9.99 from my account every month since. Nobody sends you a reminder when a subscription is still running. It just sits there, invisible, until you go looking for it.
That is exactly what a subscription audit is for. Once or twice a year, pull up your bank and credit card statements and scroll through every recurring charge line by line. You will likely find one or two things you forgot you signed up for, a streaming trial that never got canceled, an app you tried once, a membership you meant to pause and never did. Canceling what you don't use anymore is one of the fastest ways to free up money without changing a single habit in your day to day life.
September is a good excuse to do this. Summer trials tend to wind down or quietly renew this time of year, and back to school spending has a way of sneaking new charges onto your card without you noticing. Give your statements a few minutes this week and see what turns up.
Be Well,
Anisa
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Why Auditing Your Subscriptions Matters
Photo: Coffee in hand, scrolling my bank app at the kitchen table, this is where I found four subscriptions I hadn't touched in months.
Subscriptions are built to be easy to start and just annoying enough to cancel that most of us never get around to it. A free trial rolls into a paid plan, a service raises its price a dollar or two at a time, or an app you downloaded once just keeps billing you in the background. None of these charges are large enough on their own to catch your eye on a statement, but add up four or five of them and you could be looking at $30 to $50 a month leaking out for things you don't even use.
The fix isn't complicated, it just takes actually sitting down and looking, which is the part most of us skip.
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How To Do It
1. Pull up the last three months of statements. Log into your bank and credit card accounts and look back at least 90 days so you catch anything that only bills quarterly.
2. List every recurring charge you spot. Write down the name, the amount, and how often it bills, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. A lot of these names are vague, so look each one up if you don't recognize it right away.
3. Match each charge to something you're actually using. Be honest with yourself here. "I might use it again someday" is usually a sign it's time to cancel, not keep paying for.
4. Cancel or downgrade what doesn't earn its spot. Go straight to the account settings or app store subscriptions page and cancel. If you like the service but rarely use it, check for a cheaper tier before you drop it entirely.
5. Set a reminder for anything you're keeping on a trial. If you're trying something new, put a reminder on your calendar a few days before the trial ends so you get to decide, not the billing system.
6. Put a repeat check on your calendar. Every three to six months, run through this same list again. New charges creep in quietly, so a regular check keeps them from piling up.
It's a Small Scroll With Big Savings
Most people who do this find at least one or two charges they forgot about entirely. Canceling even $20 or $30 worth of unused subscriptions a month works out to $240 to $360 back in your pocket over a year, money you didn't have to earn twice or budget around, just money you get to keep.
That's what living thrifty is all about, paying attention to where your money is already going before you look for new ways to save it.
Got a tip of your own? Reply back to me, I love reading your tips and ideas!
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