How to audit your subscriptions and catch price hikes
A subscription audit lists every recurring charge, normalises each to a monthly figure, totals them, and compares each one's latest price with what it cost before. Done once a quarter, it catches both the services you stopped using and the ones that raised prices without asking.
The four steps
- List every recurring charge from the last three months of statements. Include yearly ones.
- Normalise to monthly: yearly divided by twelve, weekly times 4.33.
- Total the monthly figure and compare it with your income. Two to five percent is common; ten is a signal.
- For each service, compare the latest charge with the one twelve months earlier. Note every increase and when it started.
An example audit
| Service | Charge | Monthly | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Streaming bundle | $15.49 / month | $15.49 | Up from $12.99 in April |
| Gym | $45 / month | $45.00 | Unchanged |
| Cloud storage | $99 / year | $8.25 | Unchanged |
| Phone | $65 / month | $65.00 | Up from $60 in January |
| Total | $133.74 | Two hikes worth $7.50 a month |
Deciding what to keep
- Used weekly: keep, and check for an annual discount.
- Used monthly or less: downgrade or pause. Most services let you come back.
- Not used in three months: cancel today. The audit is the reminder you were waiting for.
- Price hiked: decide on the new price, not the old habit.
Make it recurring
The audit only works if it repeats. Put it on the calendar quarterly, or let your money app do the comparison every time it shows your rules. Yearly renewals belong in a sinking fund so the January charge is expected rather than discovered.
How Worth Clarity does it
The recurring page opens with what your rules really cost: bills normalised to a monthly figure, the yearly equivalent, and the share of recurring income. Price-change detection compares each expense rule's past payments and flags hikes and drops with the month they began, and suggested rules spot subscriptions you pay but never set up as rules.
Common questions
- How often should I audit subscriptions?
- Quarterly is enough to catch drift without becoming a chore. Do an extra pass before any yearly renewal you know is coming.
- What is a reasonable amount to spend on subscriptions?
- There is no universal figure; the useful test is whether each one earns its place at the current price. As a share of take-home pay, many households sit between two and five percent.
- How do I find subscriptions I forgot about?
- Search three months of statements for repeating merchants and amounts. Payments that recur on a steady cadence with a steady amount are subscriptions even when the name is unfamiliar.
