Track every subscription in one Google Sheet

The average person underestimates their monthly subscriptions by a wide margin. The fix isn't an app you'll abandon — it's one tidy sheet you actually look at.

Subscriptions are designed to be forgotten. Small amounts, automatic renewals, free trials that quietly convert. The antidote is visibility: get every recurring charge in one place where the total stares back at you.

The minimum viable tracker

You only need a few columns: service, category, amount, billing cycle, renewal date. From there the sheet does the maths:

• Normalise to monthly. Divide annual plans by 12 so everything is comparable.
• Sum by category. See how much goes to entertainment vs tools vs health.
• Flag renewals. Highlight anything renewing in the next 7 days so a trial never sneaks past.

Make the total impossible to ignore

One big number — your true monthly spend — at the top of the sheet changes behaviour. People cancel two or three things the first time they see it. A small chart of spend by category turns "I think it's fine" into "oh".

You can't cut what you can't see. A single honest total does more than any budgeting app notification.

Why a sheet, not an app

No bank linking, no privacy trade-offs, no monthly fee to track your fees. It's yours, it's portable, and you can bend it to your life in two minutes.