Small repeating costs are easy to underestimate. Enter what you pay and how often, and this calculator converts every subscription and habit to a monthly average and a yearly total, so you can decide which ones are worth keeping.
A worked example
Alex is hypothetical and the example uses US dollars, assuming unchanged prices and the same usage throughout the year.
Alex buys a 4.75 coffee every weekday, pays 15.49 a month for streaming, 39.99 a month for the gym and 99.99 a year for cloud storage. Over a year that is 1,235 for coffee, 185.88 for streaming, 479.88 for the gym and 99.99 for storage: 2,000.75 in total, or about 166.73 a month. Seeing the coffee as 1,235 a year, rather than 4.75 a day, makes the trade-off easier to judge.
How each cost is converted
- Every day: 365 times a year
- Every weekday: 260 times a year (5 days for 52 weeks)
- Every week: 52 times; every two weeks: 26 times
- Every month: 12 times; every three months: 4 times; every year: once
The monthly figure is the yearly total divided by 12 and rounded to the cent. The calculation counts what you pay; it does not estimate future price changes.
These are fixed annualizing assumptions, not exact calendar counts. Leap years, holidays, skipped purchases and billing dates can differ. A monthly average is not the amount of your next bill. Enter every charge in the same currency; Display currency does not convert mixed-currency subscriptions. Cancellation charges, discounts and refunds are not modelled, and the tool is general education rather than personalized financial advice.
Finding forgotten subscriptions
Go through two or three months of card and bank statements and list every repeating charge. The Federal Trade Commission’s guidance on free trials and auto-renewals advises watching your statements for charges you did not expect, and keeping a record of when and how you cancel a subscription.
Deciding what to keep
Cutting everything rarely lasts. Keep the costs you use and value, pause or cancel the rest, and point the savings at something specific, such as a goal in the savings goal calculator. For annual charges you keep, set aside the money monthly with the sinking funds calculator.