Realized I was paying for a gym membership I never used for 8 months straight

I was checking my bank statements last week to figure out why I kept coming up short on my grocery budget. That's when I noticed a $45 charge from a gym I signed up for in January but stopped going to in February. I honestly forgot I even had it, the card was set to auto-pay and I just never looked. That's $360 down the drain on something I didn't touch once. I called and canceled right then, and now I'm putting that cash toward my savings instead. Has anyone else had a similar "duh" moment where you realized you were bleeding money on something dumb?

3 comments

3 Comments

robinf5127d ago

I set calendar reminders on my phone to check every subscription every three months. I have a note saved where I list all of them with the amounts so I can quickly scan and see what's still worth it. It's saved me a few times from the same thing happening again.

felix_black26d agoMost Upvoted

Hear you on that, @robinf51. @roberts95 nailed it too - those automatic payments are sneaky. Solid system you've got there.

roberts9527d ago

The automatic payment thing is how they get you, it's a trap designed for people to forget. Setting up a reminder to cancel after the trial or dumping the gym card into a sock drawer would have saved you plenty of headache and cash. Putting that $360 into savings is a solid move, especially since you were already used to not having it in the first place.