TIL a simple spreadsheet trick from a cashier at Publix saved me $80 a month

I was standing in line at the Publix on 42nd Street last Tuesday, just staring at my receipt like always, feeling kinda bummed about how much I spent on groceries. The cashier, this older lady named Carol, saw me frowning and said "honey, you're probably paying for convenience fees without even knowing it." She told me how she tracks every single subscription and automatic payment in a basic Google Sheet, color coding them green for necessary and red for stuff she forgets about. I went home and did the same thing, and I found like 6 subscriptions I hadn't used in months: a random cloud storage I signed up for, some meal kit thing, and even a gym membership I swore I cancelled. By trimming those out, I'm saving roughly $80 a month, which is crazy for just 20 minutes of spreadsheet work. Has anyone else found random charges they forgot about on their bank statements?

2 comments

2 Comments

umab869d ago

Huh, that's wild. What was the weirdest subscription to see on your statement after you thought you'd cancelled it?

cole_mitchell89d ago

My buddy Dave found a charge for "Horoscope Plus Monthly" on his card a few months ago, like $9.99. He said he signed up for it as a joke at 2 AM back in college and completely forgot about it. The hilarious part was he found out his sign was supposedly having a "major financial breakthrough" that month... and it was literally just him paying for the subscription. He called their support and the lady was super confused, like "sir, you've been a member for 3 years.