The 10-minute subscription audit

You don't need a spreadsheet or a budgeting overhaul to take control of your subscriptions. You need ten focused minutes and this checklist. Run it once and you'll almost certainly find something to cancel today — the average person spends an estimated $205 a year on subscriptions they no longer use¹.

The 10-minute subscription audit

1. List everything. Pull from Apple Settings → Subscriptions, your app stores, PayPal, and three months of bank statements.
2. Add the price and renewal date next to each. Convert annual plans to monthly (annual ÷ 12) so you can compare fairly.
3. Mark each used or unused in the last 30 days. Be honest — "I might use it" counts as unused.
4. Flag duplicates. Two music apps? Three cloud plans? Overlapping streaming? Pick one.
5. Spot upcoming annual renewals. These are the big, easy-to-miss charges. Note any renewing in the next 30–60 days.
6. Downgrade where you can. Many services have a cheaper tier, an ad-supported plan, or a family plan that's cheaper per person.
7. Cancel the unused ones now. Don't "think about it." If you haven't used it in a month, cancel — you can always resubscribe.
8. Set reminders for the renewals you're keeping, so next quarter's audit is even faster.

The "is it worth it?" test

For anything you're unsure about, calculate cost per use. A $12/month app you open twice a month costs $6 a session. A $10 streaming service you watch ten nights a month costs $1 a night. Cost per use turns a vague "it's only a few bucks" into a clear decision.

The usual suspects

The subscriptions people most often cut after an audit: a second or third streaming service, an unused fitness or meditation app, an AI tool they signed up to "to try", premium tiers whose extra features they never use, and free trials that quietly converted.

Make it a quarterly habit

Subscriptions creep back — new trials, price rises, that one app you needed once. A ten-minute audit every three months keeps the creep in check. The easiest way to make it painless is to keep a running list all year, so your "audit" is a quick review, not a treasure hunt.