The One-Hour Bills and Subscriptions Audit

Somewhere in your bank statement there is a payment you don't recognise, a subscription you stopped using in February, and a broadband bill that quietly went up when the contract ended. You know this. Everyone knows this. The reason you haven't done anything about it is that "sort out my bills" is a vague, unpleasant task with no edges, so it sits on the list for a year.

This gives it edges. One hour, four timed passes, done once. Set a timer, because the timer is what makes it finishable.

Why it's worth an hour

Surveys of UK households regularly find that around half are paying for at least one subscription they don't use, and the typical waste comes out somewhere in the region of ten to fifteen pounds a month per household. Treat the exact figure loosely — it depends who's asking and how — but the shape is consistent and it matches what people find when they actually look. Add the out-of-contract broadband, the insurance that auto-renewed at a worse price, and the energy direct debit that's been over-collecting, and an hour's audit finding a few hundred pounds a year is ordinary, not lucky.

Notice what this isn't. It isn't an investing article or a side-hustle article. It's the boring end of money, the end where the gains are certain and nobody writes about them because "cancel the thing you don't use" doesn't sell a course.

Prep: five minutes

Download or open the last three months of statements for every account and card you pay things from. Three months, not one, because quarterly and annual payments hide in the gaps. Open a blank note or spreadsheet, or MoneyHelper's free budget planner if you'd rather have a structure handed to you. Make a cup of tea. Start the timer.

Pass 1: find every recurring payment (15 minutes)

Go down the statements and list every payment that repeats. Don't judge yet, just list. Name, amount, how often. You'll find the obvious ones in the first five minutes and the sneaky ones — the app you subscribed to on a free trial, the "annual" that was last year's impulse, the thing in your partner's name that you both forgot — in the last ten.

Then tag each line with one of three words:

Need. Rent, council tax, energy, insurance you're required to hold, the phone you actually use.

Use weekly. The streaming service you watched last night, the gym you went to on Tuesday. Keep, for now.

Haven't used in 30 days. Be honest. If you can't remember the last time, it's thirty days.

Pass 2: cancel the third column, today (10 minutes)

Everything tagged "haven't used in 30 days" gets cancelled before the pass ends, not added to another list. The test, if you waver, is: would I sign up for this again today, at this price? Not "might I use it one day". Today, at this price. Most of the column fails.

One genuine trade-off: a few things are good value even at once a month — a membership you use for one big thing in winter, say. For those, the move isn't "keep just in case", it's a calendar reminder: "Did I use this? If not, cancel." Dated, three months out. "Just in case" is how the column got long in the first place.

Use a two-line cancellation message for anything that makes you phone or email: "Please cancel my subscription effective today and confirm by email. I don't need a retention offer, thank you." The last sentence saves you from the script they're required to read you. If you signed up online or by phone within the last fortnight, you usually have a 14-day cooling-off right under UK consumer rules, which is worth knowing for the trial you forgot about.

Pass 3: the big three (20 minutes)

Subscriptions are the easy wins. The money is in the three bills most people never renegotiate.

Broadband and mobile. Find out whether you're in or out of contract. In the UK, Ofcom requires providers to tell you when your contract is ending and what their best deal is, and to remind you every year if you've stayed out of contract — so the information is in an email or a letter you ignored. Out of contract almost always means paying more than a new customer. Either switch, or phone and use this: "I've been a customer for six years and I'm out of contract. I can see [competitor] offering [price] for the same speed. What can you do to keep me?" Have the competitor's price actually open when you say it. Expect to be transferred to a retentions team; that's where the real offers live.

Insurance. Car, home, contents, anything that auto-renews. Get your renewal quote, get two comparison quotes, and if they're lower, phone your current insurer with the number. Loyalty gets you nothing in insurance; a quote gets you a match, or you switch.

Energy. Check two things. First, whether the tariff you're on is the best your supplier offers — prices move with the regulated price cap and a fixed deal may or may not beat it, so compare today rather than on memory. Second, whether your direct debit is building up a large credit balance; if you're hundreds of pounds in credit going into winter, you can ask for it to be reviewed or refunded.

Do what you can in twenty minutes. If broadband turns into a forty-minute phone call, that's fine; the audit's job was to get you to pick up the phone.

Pass 4: set the traps for future you (10 minutes)

You will end up here again in a year unless you lay a few tripwires.

Put every contract end date and annual renewal in your calendar, a month before, with the amount in the title so you feel it. Every free trial you start from now on gets a reminder two days before it converts. And add the three-month "did I use this?" reminders from pass two.

Then the line that makes the whole hour mean something: tally the annual saving and decide now where it goes. Not "I'll save it". A named destination: the emergency fund, the credit card, the thing you were putting off. Set up a standing order for the monthly amount to a separate pot on the same day. If you don't, the money dissolves back into the account and in six months you won't be able to prove the hour happened.

If you're not in the UK

The method is identical; only the names change. Every country with a regulated telecoms or energy market has a regulator with rules on contract notices and switching, and a government-backed money-advice service with a budget tool. Find yours, and run the same four passes.

What you'll have at the end

A single list of everything you pay for, with each line judged. A shorter third column. At least one phone call made or scheduled. A set of calendar reminders doing the remembering for you. And a monthly number, going somewhere on purpose.

That's an hour. It's less than the time most of us spend each week looking at things we might buy. Prices change and this article will date, so check current rules and tariffs when you do it — but the shape of the job won't change, and neither will the fact that nobody is going to do it for you.

Related: Emergency Fund 101 and How to Build Your First Budget.