Ask someone how much they spend on subscriptions and they'll usually count the obvious ones: a streaming service or two, maybe music. Ask them to go line by line and the number grows fast.

In a 2022 U.S. survey by C+R Research (amounts in US dollars), people guessed they spent about $86 a month on subscriptions. When they were walked through the categories one at a time, the real figure averaged $219 — a gap of $133 a month, or about $1,600 a year. Roughly three-quarters said it was easy to forget about recurring charges, and many had forgotten a subscription they were still paying for.

Why subscriptions hide

They're small, they're automatic, and they're spread across different cards and accounts. Free trials roll into paid plans. Annual renewals appear once a year, long after you've forgotten signing up. And many show up on your statement under a parent company's name, not the app you know.

A hand pointing a remote at a television showing the Netflix logo
Streaming is usually the first subscription people count — and rarely the last.Image: Netflix and chill by freestocks.org, CC0 1.0

The 20-minute audit

1) Gather the last two or three months of statements for every bank account and credit card. Recurring charges aren't always monthly, and some live on the card you rarely use.

2) Go line by line and highlight anything that repeats: streaming, music, cloud storage, apps, news, gyms, meal kits, software, memberships, donations and insurance.

3) Search your email for "receipt", "renewal" and "subscription" to catch annual plans that won't show up in a two-month window.

4) Write each one down with its monthly cost. For annual plans, divide by 12. Add them up — this is usually the moment of surprise.

5) For each one, ask: Did I use this in the last month? Would I sign up again today at this price? Is there a cheaper tier, or a family plan I'm already paying for elsewhere?

Cancel, downgrade or rotate

Cancel what you don't use. Downgrade what you use lightly. And for streaming, consider rotating — keep one or two at a time and switch when you've finished what you wanted to watch. Put a reminder in your calendar a few days before any free trial ends.

Keep it from creeping back

The audit works, but it's easy to let things drift back. SmartSpend AI finds recurring charges automatically from the statements you upload, groups them into one list with their monthly cost, flags price changes, and lets you mark the ones you mean to cancel — so the audit is always done. Price increases are a quieter leak: see how price creep works.