The forgotten-subscription audit
A one-time sweep that typically finds $30-100/month of cancellable spend, repeated quarterly in ten minutes.
The problem
Money leaks every month through subscriptions nobody remembers signing up for.
What you get
A working system with the steps, tools, checkpoints, and expected return made explicit.
- Setup
- 30 minutes
- Back each week
- 0.5 hours
- Difficulty
- starter
Expected return
The working case
A planning estimate, not a guaranteed result. Measure the first four weeks against your own baseline.
24
hours returned per year
At 0.5 hours/week across 48 working weeks.
1
week to earn back setup
Compare the setup estimate with the weekly time returned.
Operating contract
Input
The source material, constraints, and examples a human would need to do this work well.
Checkpoint
A person reviews judgment calls, sensitive content, unfamiliar tools, and irreversible actions.
Success signal
Track time returned, corrections required, and exceptions. Keep it only if the measured result compounds.
Before you start
- ·Ability to export transactions from your bank
The steps
- 01
Export the last three months of card and bank transactions as CSV from your banking app.
- 02
Have AI find the recurring charges and rank them for review.
Copy this prompt
Here are three months of transactions. Identify every recurring charge, group by merchant, show monthly cost, flag: 1) duplicates (two music services), 2) anything unused-looking, 3) annual renewals coming up. Rank by "cancel first" and total the potential monthly saving. Data: [paste CSV]
- 03
Cancel the obvious ones the same day; set a quarterly calendar reminder to rerun this.
What it runs on
- Claude
Handles pasted CSVs well on the free tier.
Where this goes wrong
- Redact account numbers before pasting; merchant names and amounts are all it needs.
- Watch for cancel-flows that convert you to a pause; confirm the cancellation email arrived.
Definition of done
Run it for four weeks. Then make it earn its place.
- □ Baseline the manual time before launch.
- □ Keep a human approval step for consequential output.
- □ Record corrections and exceptions, not just successes.
- □ Expand, revise, or retire it after the first review.
Build the system around it
Related workflows
If this one stops working, tell us. Three reports in a month and it leaves the library until a person has looked at it again.