Subscription Creep
The Pause Button Is a Trap: Most Subscriptions Cannot Actually Be Paused
I looked for a pause option on every subscription I pay for. Most don't have one — a 'pause' often keeps charging a smaller fee, or still renews.
Nate Feldman
MoneyMy income arrives in lumps and my expenses do not. Most budgeting advice assumes a salary; I write about the version that has to work in a month where nothing lands. Everything here is what I tried on my own money — I am not an adviser and I do not know your situation.
Subscription Creep
The Same Subscription Is Two Different Cancellations: App Store vs. the Vendor
Cancelling on a vendor's website doesn't stop an App Store charge, and cancelling in the app often does nothing at all. Why a subscription you bought through Apple or Google is a separate billing relationship you have to close in a different place.
Subscription Creep
The Subscription I Keep 'Just in Case' Is the One Costing Me the Most
Not every recurring charge is for something you use. The hardest ones to cancel are the ones you keep for a version of yourself who never shows up. Here is how I finally priced them per use.
Spending Habits
I Logged Everything I Bought Under $15 for a Month. It Was $412.
Small purchases feel free, which is exactly why they are not. One month of writing down every sub-$15 spend, and what the total actually turned out to be.
Saving Experiments
Four Savings Goals Failed and the Fifth Worked. The Difference Was Specificity.
'Emergency fund' and 'savings' both stalled. A goal named after a specific thing, with a date, filled in eleven months. I do not think that is a coincidence.
Subscription Creep
I Cancelled Nine Subscriptions and Timed Every One
The fastest took eleven seconds. The slowest took nine days and a phone call. How hard a service makes it to leave turned out to predict something about the service itself.
Budget Systems
I Cut My Budget From Thirty-One Categories to Four and Lost Nothing I Was Using
Fine-grained categories feel rigorous and produce a report nobody reads. Here is what happened when I checked which of my thirty-one had ever changed a decision.
Money Psychology
By the Time I Was Holding It, the Decision Was Already Made
I spent a month recording where each purchase was actually decided. Almost none of them were decided at the point of sale, which is the only place I had ever tried to exert control.
Saving Experiments
Thirty Days Buying Nothing New: The Two Weeks That Mattered Were Three and Four
A no-buy month is a common experiment and the first fortnight is mostly novelty. What I learned came from the part where it stopped being interesting.
Subscription Creep
I Listed Every Recurring Charge on One Page. It Came to £2,904 a Year.
Not one of them felt like a significant decision when I made it. Seeing them together, on a single page with annual figures, is a different experience from seeing them monthly.
Spending Habits
The Category I Had to Invent Was "I Don't Know Why I Bought This"
Six months of categorising my own spending produced one bucket I did not plan for, and it turned out to hold more money than my grocery bill.
Budget Systems
Every Budget System Assumes a Salary. Here Is What I Do Instead.
Twelve years of freelance income means some months are triple others. The method that finally worked treats the good months as a reservoir rather than as income.