--- name: subscription-audit description: "Find and rank the recurring-payment leak — every subscription annualized, sorted by real yearly cost, with the keep/cancel/downgrade pass and the where-they-hide checklist. Use when asked audit my subscriptions, how much am I spending on subscriptions, help me cancel stuff, or what recurring charges am I forgetting. Produces the annualized ranking from the script, the hidden-subscription hunt list, the keep/cancel/downgrade decisions with the cancellation friction notes, and the re-audit cadence." --- # Subscription Audit Skill Subscriptions are priced monthly precisely so nobody computes them yearly — $15.99 is a sandwich; $191.88 is a decision. The audit is two passes: *find them all* (the hunt is the hard part — they hide across cards, app stores, PayPal, and annual charges that only surface one month a year) and *annualize and rank them*, at which point most of the leak turns out to live in the top three lines. This skill runs both passes and then the honest keep/cancel/downgrade sort — including the note that canceling is sometimes deliberately harder than subscribing, and how to do it anyway. ## What This Skill Produces - **The annualized ranking** — every recurring charge at its true yearly cost, from the script, with per-month and per-day totals - **The hunt checklist** — the places subscriptions hide, worked through systematically - **The sort** — keep (used, valued) / cancel (the honest list) / downgrade (the tier nobody remembers choosing) / negotiate (the ones that discount on cancel-intent) - **The re-audit cadence** — because the leak refills ## Required Inputs Ask for these if not provided: - **The recurring lines** — from bank/card statements (2–3 months back, plus one full year scan for annual charges); raw pasted statements are fine — extraction is part of the job - **The hunt surfaces** — which cards, app-store subscriptions (both platforms), PayPal/payment-app recurring, anything on a partner's card that's really shared - **Honest usage** — per service: when last actually used (the calendar answer, not the aspirational one — "I might get back into it" is the leak talking) ## Programmatic Helper ```bash python3 scripts/subscription_audit.py --sub "streaming-a:15.99:monthly" --sub "vpn:71.88:yearly" --sub "gym:45:monthly" python3 scripts/subscription_audit.py --sub "news:4:weekly" --sub "cloud:2.99:monthly" --json ``` Deterministic. Cadences: weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly; output ranks by annualized cost and reports the top-three share — usually most of the leak. ## Framework: The Audit Rules 1. **The hunt is systematic or it's partial:** card statements (all cards) → app-store subscription pages (both ecosystems — the ones subscribed via app store don't show as merchant names you recognize) → PayPal/payment-app recurring lists → the annual-charge sweep (scan 12 months, not 2 — domains, memberships, and software renew yearly and hide 11 months at a time) → the free-trial calendar (what converts next month?). 2. **Annualize before judging:** every decision is made against the yearly number; the script exists because $2.99 and $45 monthly *feel* the same and are not. The per-day total is the motivation number; the ranking is the action list. 3. **The sort has four bins, not two:** keep (used this month, priced fair) · cancel (the calendar says so) · **downgrade** (the forgotten premium tier — often the biggest recovery per minute of effort) · **negotiate** (services with retention offers: starting the cancel flow legitimately surfaces the discount; taking it sets a calendar reminder for when it expires). 4. **Duplicates and bundles get a pass of their own:** two cloud storages, three streamers rotated seasonally (the rotation *is* the strategy: subscribe the month you watch, cancel after), a bundle that quietly covers a standalone being paid separately. 5. **Cancellation friction is real and beatable:** note per-cancel what it takes (button / chat / phone call — the phone-call ones are that way on purpose); calendar the annual renewals two weeks ahead of their date, because the re-decision beats the auto-renew. Re-audit every 6 months — the leak refills at roughly one new subscription a month. ## Output Format --- # Subscription Audit: [N] found — [total]/year ## The Ranking [Script output: annualized table, per-month/per-day, top-three share] ## The Hunt Ledger [Surfaces checked ✓ · surfaces still to check · trials converting soon] ## The Sort | Subscription | /year | Last used | Decision | Action + friction note | |---|---|---|---|---| **Recovered:** [the cancel+downgrade total]/year · **Renewal calendar:** [annual charges, dated two weeks early] *Educational model, not financial advice — and the rotation move (subscribe when using, cancel after) is allowed to be the whole strategy.* --- ## Quality Checks - [ ] The hunt covered app stores and payment apps, not just card statements - [ ] The annual-charge sweep scanned a full 12 months - [ ] Every decision was made against the annualized number - [ ] Downgrade and negotiate bins were considered, not just keep/cancel - [ ] The recovered total and the renewal calendar both appear ## Anti-Patterns - [ ] Do not audit only the obvious card — the app-store and PayPal surfaces are where they hide - [ ] Do not judge at monthly prices — annualize first, always - [ ] Do not let "might use it again" survive contact with the last-used date — the calendar votes, aspiration doesn't - [ ] Do not cancel the negotiables without walking the retention flow once — the discount is sitting right there - [ ] Do not shame the keeps — a used, valued subscription is fine; the audit hunts the forgotten, not the enjoyed ## Example Trigger Phrases - "Audit my subscriptions." - "How much am I spending on subscriptions?" - "Help me cancel stuff." - "What recurring charges am I forgetting?"