This Quick Sit-Down Weekend Project Could Save You Money All Year Round
Apartment Therapy Weekend Projects is a guided program designed to help you get the happy, healthy home you’ve always wanted, one weekend at a time. Sign up now for email updates so you never miss a lesson.
It’s one thing to save money by not spending money. Everyone is well-versed in the usual advice, like packing your own lunch, brewing coffee at home, or splitting entrees when you go out to eat. But there’s a silent money suck that drains money straight from your bank account, even as you make a valiant effort to scrimp and pinch and not spend: All those sneaky subscriptions!
If you’re anything like me, you may have hit “subscribe” on a lot more apps and email lists and site subscriptions than you would have in normal life. By all means, keep the subscriptions that are still adding value to your life. But this weekend is a good time time to re-evaluate, to take a look at those subscriptions with a fine-tooth comb and cancel the under-appreciated ones as freely as you subscribed.
You might be surprised and hopefully delighted at how much money you’ll save per month once you get rid of the subscriptions that are silently siphoning your funds.
This Weekend: Check your subscriptions — and cancel as many as you can.
If the thought of remembering everything you’ve subscribed to seems overwhelming, you’re not alone. Don’t give up, though. There are tools that help you find and track all your recurring payments, making it easy for you to cancel anything you’re not using.
Before you resort to a tool, though, you can check app subscriptions on your phone. On an iPhone, go to Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions > Active to see what you’re currently subscribed to. To view and manage subscriptions on your Android device, go to the Google Play Store app, tap the menu button, and choose Subscriptions. Unsubscribe at will.
The really sneaky app subscriptions are the ones with yearly fees; you won’t see monthly charges on your credit card or bank statement for these and you might forget to cancel them before they renew and charge you a big chunk of change. I just checked all my subscriptions and canceled $76 worth of subscriptions I no longer need (including a few yearly subs).
To catch subscriptions that aren’t apps (although they can be used for app subscriptions as well), try a subscription tracking and management tool, such as Truebill.
Stopping the subscription money leak — and saving all that money — is something you’ll wish you’d done sooner, but that is a great accomplishment nonetheless.
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You can catch up with weekend projects right here. Share your progress with us and others by posting updates and photos on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #atweekendproject.
Remember: This is about improvement, not perfection. Each week you can either choose to work on the assignment we’ve sent you, or tackle another project you’ve been meaning to get to. It’s also completely okay to skip a weekend if you’re busy or not feeling the assignment.