Add up your monthly subscription costs across categories and estimate the annual spend and the annual waste from services you rarely use.
Input Data
Results
At a glance:The annual waste is the rarely-used portion multiplied by twelve; the monthly and annual totals sum all categories.
Formula
monthlyTotal = streaming + music + software + fitness
annualTotal = monthlyTotal × 12
annualWaste = rarelyUsedMonthly × 12
$$Monthly = \sum Fee_i, \quad Annual = Monthly \times 12$$$$Waste_{annual} = Fee_{rarely} \times 12$$How to Use
- Enter each category's monthly cost.
- Enter the rarely-used monthly portion.
- Review the monthly/annual totals and the annual waste.
FAQ
Why do small monthly fees add up to a big number?
Each HK$10 or HK$20 subscription seems trivial, but they are billed on different dates and spread across statements, so the brain never totals them. Adding all monthly fees and multiplying by 12 often reveals thousands a year, much of it on services you barely use.
How do I find all my subscriptions?
Check the last 3–6 months of bank and credit-card statements, search your email for 'subscription', 'renewal' and 'receipt', and review the App Store / Google Play subscription list. Many forgotten subscriptions hide there.
When should I keep a rarely used subscription?
Keep it if cancelling then re-subscribing costs more, if you will use it heavily soon (e.g. a language app before a trip), or if it provides insurance-like value such as cloud backup. Ask yourself: knowing what I got last month, would I still pay for it today?
Why do we unknowingly accumulate unused subscriptions — what is the psychology?
This is 'subscription creep' — several mechanisms at work. First, the cognitive blind spot of small fees: each HK$10–50 looks like 'small money' and is never summed up. Second, auto-renewal inertia: subscriptions are designed to renew by default; cancelling takes effort, so inertia keeps the payments flowing. Third, free-trial-to-paid conversion: trials auto-roll into paid plans if you miss the deadline. Fourth, sunk-cost fallacy: 'I've paid so long, cancelling feels wasteful' traps you even when unused. Fifth, the illusion of ownership: having many services feels resource-rich even if unused. Counter it by auditing subscriptions quarterly, setting a calendar reminder at every trial start, asking the 'would I still pay today?' question, cancelling dormant ones, and managing subscriptions on a dedicated card for visibility.
Does the small saving from cancelling really matter long term — how do I turn 'saving' into 'earning'?
It does, if you redirect the saving. A HK$200/month unused subscription wastes HK$2,400 a year and HK$24,000 over ten years, before any price rises. If instead you invest that HK$200 monthly at, say, 5% annual return, compounding builds far more than the simple sum — over 10 years roughly HK$30,000+. The difference between 'saved and invested' versus 'spent' is whether small money grows or leaks. To convert saving into earning: (1) after cancelling, auto-transfer the freed amount into savings/investment immediately ('pay yourself first'); (2) fold it into your regular investment/savings plan for compounding; (3) use a budgeting rule (e.g. 50-30-20) so the saving flows to wealth, not other spending. Cancelling is not just 'saving a few hundred' — it plugs a recurring leak and builds long-term assets. This tool is for estimation only, not investment advice.
Content review: Calculatorism Finance Team. Results are for reference only; please refer to the relevant authorities for the official figures.