What is Subscription Creep?

If someone offered you $600 for one hour of work, you'd be wondering what the catch was.
Is it criminal work? Extraordinarily difficult? Embarrassing?
What I'm about to propose is none of the above.
Understanding Subscription Creep
As many companies have embraced subscription pricing on everything from streaming services to razors, our personal finances are getting silently squeezed by "subscription creep."
Almost anything can be purchased with automatic recurring payments. Why? For the same reason so many people have gym memberships that they don't use, even after the non-cancellation period has expired. Inertia. We're too lazy or too busy to notice all the expenses we have that we don't use efficiently, or at all.
Automotive retailers and even the car manufacturers themselves are offering subscription pricing on cars instead of traditional loans and leases. You can subscribe to meal preparation kits, beef jerky of the month clubs, and more.
Automatic expenses are killer for the same reason automatic savings are killer (but in a good way). Because after a while you don't even notice them anymore.
Let's take notice of those expenses, shall we?
The Subscription Creep Challenge: One Hour to Find $600 In Annual Savings?
If you can find one hour in the next week, I think many people can find hundreds of dollars in annual savings without feeling much of an impact on their lifestyle. I also know some of you will find over $1,000 in annual savings. Here's a step by step plan on how to do it:
1. Make a list of all the accounts you use to spend money (bank accounts, credit cards).
2. Download or collect the monthly statements for at least two months for each account.
3. On each statement, make a note of all the regularly recurring expenses (subscriptions, membership dues, insurance premiums, etc. that get charged to your accounts automatically).
4. Next, you'll go line by line over all the automatic expenses to see if you can either Eliminate Them, Reduce Them, or Keep Them.
If you can find $50/month in automatic expense reductions, that's $600 per year in savings.
If you can find $83.34/month in automatic expense reductions, that's over $1,000 per year.
Share your success. Post on your preferred social media platform how much money you found per year by doing a subscription creep audit, and most importantly share what you're going to do with the found money. Pay down a credit card? Save more for a down payment on a home? Retirement? Vacation?
Here's a video on how to turn your automatic payments into automatic savings.
Related posts



Legal Stuff
This article or video (the “Content”), as applicable, is provided by independent third parties that are not affiliated with Tangerine Bank or any of its affiliates. Tangerine Bank and its affiliates neither endorse or approve nor are liable for any third party Content, or investment or financial loss arising from any use of such Content....
The Content is provided for general information and educational purposes only, is not intended to be relied upon as, or provide, personal financial, tax or investment advice and does not take into account the specific objectives, personal, financial, legal or tax situation, or particular circumstances and needs of any specific person. No information contained in the Content constitutes, or should be construed as, a recommendation, offer or solicitation by Tangerine to buy, hold or sell any security, financial product or instrument discussed therein or to follow any particular investment or financial strategy. In making your financial and investment decisions, you will consult with and rely upon your own advisors and will seek your own professional advice regarding the appropriateness of implementing strategies before taking action. Any information, data, opinions, views, advice, recommendations or other content provided by any third party are solely those of such third party and not of Tangerine Bank or its affiliates, and Tangerine Bank and its affiliates accept no liability in respect thereof and do not guarantee the accuracy or reliability of any information in the third party Content. Any information contained in the Content, including information related to interest rates, market conditions, tax rules, and other investment factors, is subject to change without notice, and neither Tangerine Bank nor its affiliates are responsible for updating this information.
Tangerine Investment Funds are managed by Tangerine Investment Management Inc. and are only available by opening an Investment Fund Account with Tangerine Investment Funds Limited. These firms are wholly owned subsidiaries of Tangerine Bank. Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the prospectus before investing. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.