Earning extra cash is always nice, but what if all it took was putting your own money back in your wallet? Think of it like "girl math:" making a return or canceling a forgotten subscription can feel like free money. If you're feeling tight on cash, here are a few unconventional ways we're freeing up some of it.
Check your subscriptions
It may sound like one of the trite pieces of personal finance advice, like "cut down your daily coffee" to save more money; however, the truth is that subscriptions are one of the easiest expenses to lose track of. It's easy to sign up for a free trial, forget about it, and then get charged when the trial ends. Sure, you can try to request a refund, but if you do it too often, your claim might get denied (I know this from experience).
Here's how to stay on top of it:
- Cancel right away: If possible, click "cancel trial" immediately after signing up. In most cases, the trial will still run until the last day, and you won't have to remember to cancel it later.
- Set a reminder: If that's not possible, add a calendar alert for the final day you can cancel.
- Check your settings: Depending on your phone, you can usually manage and cancel app subscriptions directly in your settings. An editor on our team realized she was paying for subscriptions she no longer needed once checking her Apple subscriptions.
- Use a subscription tracker: A subscription tracker can also help you stay on top of recurring charges and easily cancel services you no longer want or need. The Bobby app offers its basic service for free and sends reminders when payments are due. To track unlimited subscriptions, there's a one-time fee of $2.99. Another option is Rocket Money, which not only monitors subscriptions, but also tracks overall spending and can cancel unwanted services for you. Its basic plan is free, with premium features costing $7 to $14 per month after a 7-day free trial.
Bobby
Cost
Basic service is free. Unlimited subscription tracking is available for $2.99 in-app purchase
Standout features
This streamlined app sticks to tracking subscriptions, with an easy-to-follow interface and bright graphics and color coding. Users can select common streamers like Netflix or Spotify, or manually input their own, and get reminders about payment dates.
Availability
Offered in Apple Store for iOS
Pros
- Color coding makes it easy to custom categorize subscriptions
- Sends reminders when payments are due
- Can track subscriptions in international currencies
Cons
- Doesn't automatically pull recurring charges from your accounts
- Only available in the Apple Store
Rocket Money
Cost
The basic plan is free. Rocket Money Premium is $7 to $14 a month with a 7-day free trial. Bill negotiation services cost 35% to 60% of the first-year savings, if the negotiation is successful.
Standout features
Easily cancel unwanted subscriptions, track your spending and credit score, automate savings and get help lowering bills. Rocket Money Premium includes additional services like net-worth tracking, credit reports and a subscription cancellation concierge service
Security
Rocket Money accesses transaction data via an encrypted token, uses Plaid API so user credentials are never stored, provides bank-level 256-bit encryption and hosts servers on Amazon Web Services
Availability
Offered online and on both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)
Terms apply.
Pros
- Allows you to easily view and cancel unwanted subscriptions
- Offers a free version
- A+ from Better Business Bureau
Cons
- Nonrefundable bill negotiation fee can be up to 60% of savings
- Premium pricing varies
Return items you don't need
Just like forgotten subscriptions, online shopping can be another sneaky way to lose money. You buy something, it doesn't fit or you don't love it and returning it feels like too much work — so the money's gone.
Here's how to avoid that:
- Check the return policy first: Most retailers offer at least 30 days for returns, but some count from the purchase date while others count from the delivery date.
- Use a tracking app: A reporter on our team uses the Orderly app, which links to your email and automatically tracks your orders. It'll notify you when items ship, arrive and when the return window closes so you don't miss the deadline.
Orderly
Cost
Free
Standout features
Connects to your email to track orders and return windows, and lets you manually add orders.
Lower your 401(k) contribution
In a perfect world, you want to contribute enough to maximize your 401(k) each year. But if you're feeling a financial squeeze, temporarily lowering your contributions can give you some breathing room. If you can, though, make sure you're still contributing enough to get any employer match.
For example, I once contributed 13% of my income, but reduced it to 7% to free up extra cash. That small change gave me about $100 more in each paycheck while still letting me earn my employer match.
Many 401(k) plans have what's called a default "automatic escalation," where your contribution rate automatically increases each year, usually by 1% or 2%, until it reaches a limit — opt out of this so you're in control of how much you want to contribute and when.
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At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every personal finance article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of personal finance products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.
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