Guide · Spend less
The 10-minute monthly money check-in that keeps small leaks small
Money problems rarely arrive suddenly. They creep: a subscription price rises, a bill quietly increases, spending drifts. A fixed ten-minute check-in each month catches these while they are still small.
1. Pick a fixed day and protect it
The first weekend of the month, the day after payday - any anchor works as long as it repeats. Ten minutes, same time, every month. A routine you keep beats a perfect system you abandon.
2. Compare this month with last month
Open your bank or card statement and scan for two things: anything new you do not recognise, and anything that costs more than it used to. New charges and quiet price rises are where the leaks live. Everything else can wait.
3. Check your recurring list
Look at your subscriptions and regular bills. Did the total go up? Did anything renew that you meant to cancel? Annual plans are the usual surprise - they appear once a year and are easy to forget they exist.
4. Note the one thing to act on
Do not try to fix everything in ten minutes. Pick the single most useful action - cancel one thing, query one charge, move one bill date closer to payday - and do it right after the check-in. One action a month compounds into real control over a year.
5. Write the number down
Keep one running note with the month's total recurring cost. Watching that number over six months tells you more than any single statement, and it makes the effect of each cancelled subscription visible.
The Daymark subscription planner is built for exactly this routine: list your recurring costs once, see monthly and yearly totals, and spot what changed. It runs in your browser with no account.