How to Do a 15-Minute Subscription Audit (Without Opening Your Bank App)

That nagging feeling. A sense of financial fog, where you know money is leaving your account for various services, but you can’t quite picture all of them at once. The thought of untangling it all by combing through your bank statements is so overwhelming that you put it off for another week.

What if you could cut through that fog in the time it takes to drink a coffee?

Here is a simple, effective 15-minute framework for auditing all your recurring payments. It’s designed to give you maximum clarity with minimum friction, all while respecting your privacy—no bank login required.

Step 1: Grab the Right Tool (2 minutes)

A blank spreadsheet is a start, but a purpose-built template is a launchpad. Before you begin, make a copy of our free Recurring Payment Tracker for Google Sheets.

It’s pre-formatted with the right columns and an automated dashboard that calculates your monthly and yearly spend as you add items. This is the exact system our founder used before SubHound was an app.

Step 2: The Brain Dump (5 minutes)

Set a timer for five minutes. Open your new tracker and, from memory alone, list every single recurring payment you can think of. Don't worry about accuracy yet; just get them down.

Think broadly:

Digital Subscriptions: Netflix, Spotify, Dropbox, SubHound, SaaS tools.

Physical Subscriptions: Coffee delivery, magazines, meal kits.

Bills: Mobile phone, internet, council tax, rent/mortgage.

Annual Renewals: Car insurance, web hosting, Amazon Prime.

Step 3: Hunt the Paper Trail (5 minutes)

Here’s the privacy-first trick. Instead of your bank app, open your email inbox. It’s a treasure trove of payment confirmations.

Search your inbox for terms like:

"Your subscription"

"Your renewal is coming up"

"Invoice from"

"Payment confirmation"

"Direct Debit"

As you find services you forgot in the brain dump, add them to your spreadsheet. Update the costs and renewal dates for the ones you already listed.

Step 4: The 3-Box Sort (3 minutes)

Now, go down your list and assign each item to one of three categories. This isn't about complex budgeting; it's about a quick, decisive action.

KEEP: It’s essential or brings you significant value (e.g., your internet bill, a software critical for your job).

CANCEL: You no longer use it, forgot you had it, or the value is gone. Be ruthless. (That language app you haven't opened in six months? Cancel.)

CONSIDER: You’re on the fence. Maybe you use it occasionally, or perhaps there's a cheaper alternative. Flag these for review later. Our Cancellation Guide can help with the ones you decide to cut.

From a One-Time Audit to Lasting Control

Congratulations. In about 15 minutes, you’ve created a single source of truth for your recurring costs. That dashboard showing your total monthly and yearly spend is a powerful tool for clarity.

But here’s the reality: a spreadsheet is a static snapshot. It can't tap you on the shoulder a week before that expensive annual renewal is about to hit your account. It can't proactively warn you before a free trial converts into a paid subscription.

For that, you need alerts.

SubHound was built to be the perfect companion to this audit. Once you have this list, you can add your most important payments to the SubHound app and set mindful alerts via Email, SMS, or WhatsApp. It’s the simple, proactive layer of control that a spreadsheet can't provide.

Taking 15 minutes to do this audit is the first, most powerful step to taking back control of your finances. You’re no longer in the dark.