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How much do you really spend on subscriptions? Form SA-9

Ask someone what they pay in subscriptions and they’ll say eighty-six dollars. Ask the bank statements and it’s two hundred and nineteen. This page is the three-minute audit that closes the gap: guess first, list everything, and read the stamped total below the tear line.

Tool № 9 · Sunday, September 27, 2026 · free, always

Your guess vs. your bank statement.

Input slip · Form SA-9

First, the guess — then the ledger. List every subscription once and the page posts your true monthly and yearly totals, plus the cancel list, below the tear line. Everything stays in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.

    Posted entry · Form SA-9-R

    Estimates, not financial advice. This page converts the billing cycles you enter to one scale and totals them. It doesn’t check your bank statements, doesn’t cancel anything for you, and isn’t financial advice. Cancel inside each service itself; the ledger just shows you the number.

    Run the audit your own way Form SA-9

    Different doors into the same ledger:

    Why the guess is always low Form SA-9

    The C+R Research finding is worth sitting with: asked to guess, people answer $86 a month; itemized, the real number is $219 — a 197% miss. Three things do the hiding. Annual plans renew once a year and feel free the other eleven months. Bundled subscriptions inside phone plans and card perks never got a separate sign-up moment, so they never entered the mental budget. And free trials convert silently; 42% of adults are paying for at least one subscription they’ve forgotten about.

    This page’s seeded ledger is the median American in miniature: four everyday subscriptions and one trial that converted, totaling $612.52 a year — $51.04 a month against a $35 guess. Swap in your own rows and the stamp updates line by line. The shock isn’t the point; the cancel list is.

    Common questions Form SA-9

    Why is my guess always lower than the real number?

    Because the big chunks don’t feel monthly. Annual renewals, bundled perks, and converted trials all bypass the mental budget. Across surveys the pattern holds: the average guess is $86 a month, the itemized reality is $219 — off by 197%.

    What counts as a subscription?

    Anything that charges you on a cycle: streaming, music, gaming, cloud storage, apps, news, meal kits, gym memberships, meal-delivery memberships, and annual plans. If it auto-renews, it belongs on the ledger.

    Do annual plans count?

    They’re the single biggest source of the gap. Count every annual plan as price ÷ 12 per month. A $139 yearly plan is $11.58 a month of real spending, even in the eleven months it charges you nothing.

    Are bundled subscriptions hiding costs?

    Often. Apple One, the Disney Bundle, and carrier or credit-card perks can carry services you’d never pay for separately — and each bundle counts as one line you didn’t consciously choose. List the bundle as one row, then ask if you’d renew any piece of it alone.

    How often should I audit?

    Twice a year takes twenty minutes and catches the annual renewals. This page keeps your ledger in your browser, so the second audit is mostly pressing “add another line” for whatever joined since.

    Also in the ledger Form SA-9