The 15-Minute Money Ritual: Reduce Recurring Charge Clutter

Sponsored by Monarch Money 

This month, in partnership with our friends at Monarch Money, we're bringing you The 15-Minute Money Ritual: a four-part series to teach you how to take charge of your money without letting it consume your entire life. Each week, we’ll share one segment to help you refresh your money routine, without ever costing you more than 15 minutes of your precious time. (ICYMI: here is last week’s installment, all about getting in the habit of performing a simple monthly money check-in.)

This week: Identify unnecessary recurring expenses, and cut them out.

Recurring charges are one of the biggest budget-inflating culprits — especially when you completely forget about them, or simply don’t use them. Sometimes, recurring charges make total sense for your life. If you’re a yogi attending your local studio three or four times a week regularly, a monthly unlimited membership might make complete sense. But if you’re still paying the 10 or 25 bucks a month for the gym membership you bought for an idealized version of yourself but never feel motivated to use, it’s time to get real with yourself: that seemingly low monthly charge is going to add up over time. 

This week, take 15 minutes to comb through your budget and identify any of these recurring expenses that just aren’t adding to your life. Some super common ones include:

• Streaming services

• Newsletter and magazine subscriptions

• Local or online memberships

• Premium app subscriptions

• Meal kit or personal care delivery services

• Audiobook subscriptions

Of course, this is yet another money task to rinse and repeat every month or so. Luckily, Monarch’s Recurring feature makes this hassle-free by automatically tracking all your recurring charges in one place—no more digging through months of credit card statements. You’ll always know what you’re paying for, can cancel what you don’t need, and get alerted when new recurring charges show up. It’s an easy way to save both money and mental energy.

Once you’ve checked in on your recurring expenses (and maybe found a few opportunities to save), Monarch’s Budget page will help you stay on track with the rest of your spending. Visual progress bars make it easy (and oddly satisfying) to see how you’re doing across categories, so you can quickly spot where you might need to adjust for the month. You can even add a budget widget to your iOS device for quick check-ins on the go. And right now, our readers can get 50% off with code TFD50 — click here to get started! 

Remember, the goal isn’t to cut out every single “unnecessary” expenses; it’s to curate a recurring budget that actually reflects your priorities and interests. Next week, we’ll dive into our last 15-minute money ritual: setting — and actually sticking to — your seasonal savings plan.