Subscription Audit: How Many Hours a Month Are Your Apps Costing You?

Subscriptions are the perfect spending trap. They are small individually, automatic by design, and invisible on your bank statement unless you go looking for them. But add them up and a surprising number of people are paying €150–250 per month on subscription services — much of which they barely use.

In work hours at €15/hour, €200/month in subscriptions is 13.3 hours of work. That is nearly two full working days per month, vanishing to services you may have signed up for years ago.

The Most Common Forgotten Subscriptions

• Streaming: Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime (€10–15 each)
• Music: Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal (€10–11 each)
• Cloud storage: iCloud, Google One, Dropbox (€3–10 each)
• Software: Adobe CC, Microsoft 365, Notion, Figma (€10–60 each)
• News: New York Times, The Guardian, local newspaper (€5–20 each)
• Health / fitness: Calm, Headspace, Peloton, MyFitnessPal Premium (€10–40 each)
• Games: Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, Nintendo Online (€10–15 each)
• Other: Duolingo Plus, LinkedIn Premium, NordVPN, etc.

Step 1: Find Everything You Pay For

Go through 3 months of bank statements and credit card statements. Look for any recurring charge — weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual. Write everything down.

Annual subscriptions are the most commonly forgotten. A €99/year charge looks small when it hits but it is 6.6 hours of work at €15/hour — every year.

Step 2: Convert Each Subscription to Work Hours

This is where TimeWasted helps. Log each subscription as a recurring monthly expense. The app converts each one into the work hours it costs you, so you see your total subscription burden in time, not just money.

Step 3: Apply the Usage Test

For each subscription, ask one question: "Did I use this enough last month to justify the work hours it cost me?" Not "can I afford it" — but "was it worth the time?"

• Used it daily and love it → keep
• Used it occasionally but it adds real value → keep or downgrade
• Barely used it and the value is unclear → cancel or pause for 30 days
• Cannot remember using it → cancel immediately

Step 4: Cut and Reinvest the Hours

Every subscription you cancel converts those hours back into your pocket. If you cancel €80/month of unused services at €15/hour, you have just saved 5.3 hours of work every month. Over a year, that is 64 hours — more than a full work week.

Use TimeWasted to track your subscription total month over month. Most users who do a serious subscription audit reduce their recurring charges by 30–50% in the first month.