When I got deeper into building my SaaS app, I upgraded from Claude Pro to Max - a jump of $17/mo to $100/mo. Steep, I know. But at the time I was in 4-hour sprints squashing bugs and feverishly adding features and polishing up the UI.
I kept hitting rate limits and decided I was losing value by waiting for my tokens to reset. Felt totally worth it for that period.
But then that period passed…
…And I totally forgot I made that pricey upgrade.
I also previously set up a Squarespace that was live but largely unused for about 9 months. A little over $300 in waste. It hurts to type that.
THE FRICTION
I depended on memory and discipline to:
Remember these subscriptions existed - and at these prices!
Remember when each subscription renewed
Remember which email I used to sign up for the service (was it my personal or professional Gmail, or my Google Workspace? yes I have a Gmail problem but that’s a topic for another day)
Log into the account
Most times, go through the Forgot My Password flow
AND/OR the 2-Step Authentication flow (the hours of my life I’ve lost waiting for authentication codes to come in, then paste them into silly little boxes)
Navigate through the Cancellation flow they buried in some settings menu, 5 layers deep
Actually click Cancel
Pay attention to which button is actually Cancel and not Ok fine yes you can keep my money after all (the trickery!)
And so you just might understand why this $400 slipped away so easily.
This is what I think of as the Subscription Tax - the cost of subscriptions continuing by default unless you actively intervene.
It’s not always a big, dramatic expense. It’s usually quiet leakage. A few dollars here, a few dollars there - money leaving your account without a deliberate yes. And it adds up.
In fact, did you know most of us waste between $200 and $600 a year on "vampire" renewals and forgotten free trials?1
Not to mention the tech stack for business owners. One entrepreneur I talked to has over 23 tools in his stack. Many of them he thought were poor quality but paid anyway because he forgot.
And yet the real cost isn’t just financial.
There’s also the background mental load of maintaining things you’re no longer using. The friction of knowing you should clean it up, but not having a clear trigger or owner to do so.
Subscriptions are just one place we pay what I think of as a Maintenance Tax - the ongoing cost of keeping too many small systems alive without a clear owner, reminder, or boundary. Tools, tasks, inboxes, ideas, half-built systems.
THE FIX
The solution isn’t to be more disciplined or remember better.
It’s to stop relying on memory at all. Here are two simple systems that make subscription decisions explicit instead of passive.
1) Set up a regular check-in with yourself / partner / roommate / interested parties at a cadence that feels doable. Quarterly is probably sufficient, monthly if you’re watching your spend a bit more closely due to personal budget or business performance fluctuation.
Look through emails or credit card statements:
identify your recurring subscriptions for that previous month/quarter
reflect on how much value you got in exchange for the expense
Does it feel justified? This could be measured by utility (e.g. Stripe needed for business payments) or simply, joy!
My husband and I try to maintain only 1 streaming service at a time. And when there is a new season of Slow Horses, it’s an absolute must that we have Apple TV that month. If you’ve watched the show you know that Jackson Lamb’s retorts are worth it.
2) Set up a flow that automatically creates renewal reminders ahead of when subscription charges will hit so you won’t be caught off guard.
Set it and forget it!
Which leads us to…