Unsub & Chill—Swipe Left on Sneaky Subs

Stop feeding zombie apps! Slice forgotten subs, pocket extra cash, and enjoy real treats instead of those invisible monthly drains.

The Sunday-morning shock

It always starts the same way.

You’re sitting on the sofa with a flat white, waiting for the latest watch to load, when a bank alert pings your phone. -$14.99 APPLE.COM/BILL. Shrug. Barely the price of two coffees. Five minutes later another chime: -$25.99 NETFLIX. Oh, right—price rise last year. You promise yourself you’ll look into it “later” and press play.

But that alert lingers in the back of your mind, so after the final whistle you scroll through last month’s statement. A fitness app you haven’t opened since summer. Cloud storage you never filled. A meditation app you tried exactly twice. By the time you reach the bottom of the feed, the total is more than $120 for the month—money that could have paid for a night away in Queenstown, tickets to a Crusaders match, or simply a less nail-biting buffer before payday.

And there it is: the real cost of subscription creep.

The invisible outflow

Subscriptions are designed to feel painless. They hide in small numbers—$7.49 here, $14.99 there—ticking away in the background while you live your life. But multiply any of those figures by twelve and the shine fades fast:

Netflix Standard $25.99 × 12 = $311 a year

Apple TV+ $14.99 × 12 = $180 a year

Spotify Premium – Individual $18.99 x 12 = $228 a year

Premium workout app $19.99 × 12 = $240 a year

Recipe-finder pro $9.99 × 12 = $120 a year

That’s $1,079 you might never have chosen to spend if you’d paid it in one lump sum. Yet drip by drip, here we are.

Prices checked June 2025

Why bother cutting back?

It’s an instant pay rise (sort of). Cancelling an unused service has the same effect on your budget as earning more—only it takes five minutes, no negotiation with the boss required.

Price creep keeps creeping. Streaming platforms love a good “small increase” email. If you’re not looking, those $2 hikes stack up across every service.

You’ve probably moved on. Remember that month you got obsessed with sourdough and downloaded three baking apps? Exactly.

Opportunity knocks. Every $20 saved could knock down high-interest debt faster, top up an emergency fund, or buy an extra flat white each week—guilt-free.

How to run your own subscription health-check

Follow the money trail. Open the last two months of bank and credit-card statements. Jot down every repeat charge, no matter how tiny.

Ask the two-question test. Have I used this in the past 30 days? Does it still bring clear value? If the answer is “no” or “not really”, it goes on the chopping block.

Cancel immediately, guilt-free. Most platforms let you finish the current billing cycle, so you’re not “wasting” anything you’ve pre-paid. Hit the button now while motivation is high.

Set a future nudge. Pop a reminder in your calendar for three months’ time titled “Subscription Check-in”. Future-you will thank you.

Make the habit stick

Piggy-back on an existing routine. Pair your review with the quarterly power bill or the change of seasons. If the daffodils are out, it’s time to prune your digital garden.

Bundle sensibly. A family music plan or a phone-internet-streaming combo can be cheaper than piecemeal subscriptions, as long as you actually use them.

Let tech do the nagging. Budgeting apps like PocketSmith or MyBudgetPal flag new or rising subs so you spot surprises early.

The upshot

Your money should be working for the life you want—whether that’s paying off debt faster, saving for a Campervan summer, or simply breathing easier between paydays. Subscriptions you’ve forgotten about don’t fit that brief.

So, before another month slips by, give your digital outgoings the same once-over you’d give an old-school power bill. Brew a coffee, open your banking app, and start scrolling. Fifteen minutes of pruning today could free up hundreds by this time next year—no side hustle required.

Disclaimer: Please note that the content provided in this article is intended as an overview and as general information only. While care is taken to ensure accuracy and reliability, the information provided is subject to continuous change and may not reflect current developments or address your situation. Before making any decisions based on the information provided in this article, please use your discretion and seek independent guidance.