Why Do I Keep Losing Money to Forgotten Subscriptions?

Speaker A00:00:00

Netflix, Spotify, fitness apps, meal kits. You signed up for them once, you barely use them. But guess what, you're still paying for them and they're silently draining your bank account.Well, let me ask you this. What if a quick check could put hundreds of dollars back in your budget? Well, that's what I'm going to cover on today's show. I've got the answers.This is Financially Confident Christian, Your daily dose of gospel grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with conf. Welcome back to Financially Confident Christian. I'm Ralph. I am so happy that you've chosen to join me.We are middle of our series breaking those financial chains. We're really trying to get past those financial struggles that so many of us, let me be honest, deal with these on a daily basis.And today's show is no different than that. Listen, if you've got subscriptions, I've got subscription. I'm going to tell you a story in a couple minutes.You're never going to believe this, but that's what we're going to cover today.Now, yesterday, if you missed the show, we, we talked about those family money meetings and we talked about how to finally have that conversation with your family about money. Or maybe you and your spouse need to sit down and have that financial discussion. If you missed yesterday's show, I encourage you to go check it out.You can find all of our shows at financiallyconfidentchristian.com but today we're going to talk about those sneaky budget leaks. Yes, those sneaky little devils, aren't they those forgotten subscriptions? I remember. I'll give you an example. That's what I was going to talk about.I couldn't believe this. The other day when this happened, I, I remember signing up for a service, some kind of iPhone service.And it was one of those things that renews every year. And I remember last year when it came up for renewal, it was too late. It already hit me again. I totally forgot about it.It's been hitting me every year, year after year. Maybe you're feeling the same thing. Maybe you've got some monthly subscription, you just keep on hitting on auto charge.Hey, these people love these things. They just have a copy of your credit card or your bank account, boom, boom, boom, month after month. And they might be small, they add up fast.I've worked with clients, we put their subscription together, it's 100 bucks a month going out. They didn't even know what they were paying for. They don't use the stuff at all.For so many of us, a silent budget leak, it leads to frustration and it leads to a complete loss of control. Now here's the truth. Subscriptions are convenient. They're great. We don't go back and keep on buying stuff.But for so many of us, if we're being honest, they're wasteful. They're especially wasteful if we don't manage them.And if we're going to be good, wise stewards of what God has given us, we've got to even check the small stuff. We got to measure those small things. Let's get right into the word of God today, because I want to go right to this.Let's look at the book of Luke, chapter 16, verse 10. Use this on the show a few times, but it's so important and it nails exactly we're talking about. Says this again, Luke 16:10.Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. Wow. Take a hammer and hit me over the head with it.Because what's it saying here? If you can be trusted with just a little? Let's put little in terms of those subscriptions. $5 here, $7 or $12, it doesn't matter.Are you trustworthy with that?But if you're dishonest with that, if you're not being a wise stewards of those things, if you're not using them, you're not going to be trusted with much. Let's go around a little bit deeper. Let's go to the book of John, chapter 6, verse 12. Again, this is John 6:12.When they all had had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are left over. This is the most important part. This is the crucial piece of today's show. Let nothing be wasted. And see, here's the thing.I'm going to hit you over the head with a mallet. If you're not using subscription, if you're not managing those, you're wasting God's resources. And I'm not judging you.Listen, I'm right there with you. But small leaks matter.I've worked with so many couples, so many individual people, when their budget and they see small leaks, they just lead to big problems in the end of the month. Like I said, this one person, $100 a month if you in subscriptions. And the worst part, they weren't even using them. But God calls us to diligence.God calls us to be trustworthy and what did God just call us to gather up all the scraps, avoid waste. I can tell you right now. I remember one time you're going to tell this is a crazy story. I was working in this place out of town.It was about an hour drive up and an hour drive back. The kids were real young. And I said, you know what? I really got to get in shape.So I said, there's this new gym that just opened up just down the road from where I worked. I thought, hey, you know what? I. Every day at lunch, rather than going over to the cafe and getting something to eat, I can grab a quick bite to eat.I can brown bag it. I'll go join the gym, and I'll go to the gym and get a workout in. I was all excited.I went there, to the gym, got signed up, you know, the next morning, got up, packed my gym bag. Guess what? Never made it to the gym that day. And if I'm being honest, you're going to laugh at this one.I never actually stepped foot in that gym again. And I don't know what time of year was it, but I almost feel like it was the beginning of the year. You know what I'm gonna do?My first New Year's resolution, I'm gonna get in shape. I'm gonna go to the gym. So that night, before I packed my bag, told my wife, hey, I'm gonna go to the gym in the morning. She goes, that's great.She says to me one time, she goes, I noticed your gym clothes never come back. Do you ever go to the gym? I haven't been to the gym one time.But anyway, beginning of the year, first, second, third day of the year, whatever it was after the holiday, go pull up to the general thinking, wait a minute, there's nobody around here. Well, guess what? The gym had closed. Here's the worst part. They had closed, like 30 days before that, but I was still paying.They were in some kind of bankruptcy thing, and nobody turned off the siphon. The hose was still feeding them my fees.And I learned a very valuable lesson there, because when I finally had the gumption to cancel that, it was an instant raise in my budget. So now you might be saying, ralph, I need that kind of deal. I need a raise in my budget. So how do I do that?Well, I'm going to talk to you right now about how to do that. And it starts by understanding what you're spending. So I'm going to encourage you right now.We're going to talk about the Actions up here in a minute. But review all those recurring charges and make sure those things cancel. Cancel those things that don't align with your values.So here is your one action step for today that will really help you get past this. I want you to go pull your bank statements. Pull your credit card statements for the last two or three months.Just pull them out, put them on the table in front of you and just look at those. Those are like your guide. Go through those and highlight all those subscriptions. List every single recurring charge I'm talking about.Be brutally honest with yourself and do it for three months. That way, if something's not quite billed every month, you're going to pick it up.Bank accounts, credit card accounts, if you've got cash, apps, whatever those things are, put them all down, Take a look at that and list every single one of them. Highlight them, whatever works for you. And then ask yourself this. Do I use this? You think about my example.If I'd have done that, if I'd have been honest with myself, do I use this gym membership? No, never been there. And then ask yourself this question, would I sign up again today?Here's where the rubber meets the road, is where the action actually does something beyond intention. I want to encourage you to cancel one unused subscription and do it today, because that's how you start to build this freedom.And listen, maybe you go through this and you're like, ralph, you. You know, some of these things I do kind of use. I don't know if they still have valuable. Here's one of the things you can really think about doing.It's like a little pro tip for today.Call them and tell them you're going to cancel because all of a sudden they're going to put their best people in the phone to try to keep it, those retention folks. And you might be able to get that price lower. I've done that with Sirius XM satellite radio more times than I can count.I would say to them, I call up because trying to cancel, that is insane. But because they put you on the phone with this retention person and you got a ring on the roll. Finally I said to the guy, make me a deal.And this is a crazy thing, but he was able to knock almost 75% off of that cost. So you might be in that same position. But as you look at those recurring charges, if you're not going to use it, get rid of it.But if still a chance you're going to use it, negotiate it. And if you're not going to use it. Cancel it. Be done with it. How about we pray together today? Lord, we thank you for provision.We thank you for all the things you've given us, Lord. You've provided for us in so many ways, Lord.And we got to confess right now that we've allowed small leaks to go unnoticed, Lord, we've those subscriptions or those recurring charges just be in our life, Lord, and we haven't really done a good job of stewarding those resources.So, Lord, we just ask you right now to give us the wisdom and the courage honestly to go find those things and to track those things, Lord, and to follow through and cancel those things. Lord, help us to focus on goals that honor you, that are aligned with our true Christian values.Help us to break this cycle of financial shame and do it with confidence. And we ask this in true confidence, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Subscription reviews aren't glamorous. This isn't glamorous, what I talked about today.It's not some exciting thing like, oh, this is a great thing, Ralph. No, but they are powerful. You want to stop those small leaks, those little drip, drip, drips. This is where you can do it.So I encourage you to do it today because you might just give yourself a raise and, hey, who doesn't want a raise? And while you're thinking about doing something, I want to encourage you to do something for me. This show means a lot to me.This is my heart that I put out here every day. And I would love for you to share this show with other people who might be wondering where their money goes as well.You might have somebody you're thinking about right now. They're saying, Ralph, they're always telling me, I can't figure out where my money goes.They're always hitting me up for 10 bucks at lunch or something like that. It's a great opportunity to share the show with them.You can send them right to our website, that's financiallyconfidentchristian.com and just say to them, hey, go listen to Ralph. He's got some great ideas. He does it every day. It's free. Not a lot to stomach. Just one thing at a time.Encourage them to do that and listen while they're there. And while you're there, you can actually get a copy of my latest book absolutely free, no strings attached.It's called Becoming a Financially Confident Christian. I want to give you a free download of that. You can go right to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming get a free copy of the book again.That's financially confidentchristian.com/becoming now, tomorrow on the show, we're going to talk about retirement planning.Specifically, we're going to talk about why it feels so overwhelming and how I can help you break it it down into simple steps so that you actually do it. Because that's the key. I say this on the show all the time. Intentions are great, but it's the actions that matter.And listen, today I know you can do this. Go do that one subscription. Go find that recurring charge that you're not using.Don't be like Ralph and stay connected to a gym that doesn't even exist anymore. Go find those things. Plug those leaks. I believe in you. Believe in yourself. Now go live as a financially confident Christian. God bless you.And you have a great day today.