Individually small, collectively large: list your subscriptions and see the monthly total, the yearly cost and what a decade of that spending would be worth invested.
The invested-alternative figure is the eye-opener — €50/month of forgotten subscriptions is roughly €8,600 over ten years at 7% growth.
Audit twice a year: cancel what you have not used in a month, and re-subscribe later if you genuinely miss it. Annual plans only save money on services you demonstrably keep.
Cost per use settles most of these faster than the monthly price does. A €12 streaming service watched twice a month is €6 a viewing; the same €12 used most evenings is under 50 cents. The price is identical and only one of them is expensive.
Two mechanics are worth looking for specifically: annual plans that auto-renew at a higher rate than the introductory year, and services billed through an app store, which often do not appear on a card statement under their own name. Both survive an audit that only reads the bank feed.
Sharing changes the arithmetic on several of these. A family plan split four ways can cost less per person than the individual tier while offering more, and it is worth checking before cancelling — the honest comparison is per-person cost per use, not the headline price of the plan.
Frequently asked questions
How much do subscriptions really cost per year?
Multiply the monthly total by twelve and the number stings: an unremarkable €40/month is nearly €500 a year. Most people underestimate their true total by half or more.
Which subscriptions should I cancel?
Anything unused for a month is the classic rule. Cancel, and re-subscribe later if you genuinely miss it — that friction is the point, and re-joining takes minutes.
Are annual plans worth the discount?
Only for services you demonstrably keep using — an annual plan for something you abandon in March costs more than a monthly one cancelled in time.