You’re paying for things you forgot existed. Right now, there’s a subscription charging your card that you haven’t used in six months (maybe longer). You’re hemorrhaging $10-50/month on forgotten accounts, and it’s time to find them.
Welcome to financial spring cleaning—where you discover money you didn’t know you were wasting.
The forgotten subscription audit
Grab your bank statements for the last three months and look for recurring charges.
Common culprits:
Streaming services: That free trial you forgot to cancel, the service you use once a year, the duplicate accounts (two Netflix logins because you forgot your password).
Gym memberships: You switched gyms but never canceled the old one. Or you’re paying for Planet Fitness and haven’t gone since February.
App subscriptions: That meditation app, the photo editor, the budgeting app you stopped using when you stopped budgeting.
Old utility accounts: Still paying for internet at your old apartment? Storage unit you emptied but never officially closed?
Magazines/newspapers: Digital subscriptions that auto-renew annually and you never notice.
How much you’re wasting
Average American has 4-5 forgotten subscriptions costing $15-25 each.
That’s $60-125/month. Or $720-1,500/year.
That’s a vacation. That’s an emergency fund. That’s literally anything better than paying for services you don’t use.
How to find and cancel
Check bank statements: Look for recurring charges
Use apps: Rocket Money, Truebill identify subscriptions automatically
Call your bank: Some banks will show all recurring payments
Search email: Keywords like ‘subscription,’ ‘renewal,’ ‘payment confirmation’
The bottom line
You’re paying for things you forgot about. Spend 30 minutes finding and canceling them, save $1,000+ this year.
Financial spring cleaning isn’t sexy, but finding money you were wasting feels amazing.
