The Subscription Graveyard

Welcome back to No Se Habla Taxes — the podcast where a CPA does her own bookkeeping... and finds financial skeletons in her closet. 

I’m Melissa Armstrong: fractional controller, solo practice owner, and your favorite financial translator for founders who’d rather invest in growth than leak money on duplicate apps. 

And today? I’m here with a confession that might sound familiar... 

💀 I discovered a subscription graveyard lurking in my books — two Canva accounts, duplicate Zoom charges, a forgotten Dropbox, and more. 

It started as a simple month-end review in QuickBooks Online… and ended in a digital horror story. 

In this episode, I walk you through: 

✨ How I realized I was paying twice for the same tools 

 ✨ Why these “just $15” charges quietly wreck your budget 

 ✨ A simple, CPA-approved audit method to catch and cancel the chaos 

 ✨ The real cost of cluttered expenses — beyond the dollars 

You’ll also meet my incredible VA, Nicole Leon of El Leon Virtual Assistants, who helps founders get out of the weeds with emotionally intelligent support. (Trust me, she’s a lifesaver.) 

And yes — I’m giving you a step-by-step system to run your own Subscription Audit, including: 

📌 How to pull and categorize your charges 

 📌 Spotting duplicates like a financial detective 

 📌 Ruthlessly cutting the noise 

 📌 Setting a quarterly reminder so it never happens again 

💡 Bonus Tip: I even shout out a virtual card trick that makes cancelling sneaky subscriptions a breeze. 

If you’ve ever said “It’s only $15, what’s the big deal?” — this one’s for you. 

🎧 Listen now to clean up your own subscription graveyard. 

 📥 Grab my free Subscription Audit Checklist here. 

 💬 DM me or tag me if this episode helped you cancel just one zombie charge. 

Until next time — stay scrappy, stay smart, and cancel that extra Canva account. 

Let's connect!

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armstrongmelissacpa/

Website: https://steadyhandaccounting.com/

Coaching Program Waitlist: https://steadyhandaccounting.myflodesk.com/ofgzp2o7tc

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Welcome to No Se Habla Taxes,the podcast where A CPA does her
own bookkeeping and occasionallydiscovers that my money has been
ghosting me in the form ofsubscriptions.
I didn't even know I still had.
I am Melissa Armstrong,fractional controller, solo

(00:31):
practice owner and financialtranslator for founders who
would rather invest in growththan waste money on duplicate
apps.
And today, as usual, I'm herewith a confession.
So I was doing my own month endreview.
Nothing fancy, just scrollingthrough my expenses when I

(00:53):
noticed.
Something was strange.
Two charges, same day, samedollar amount.
At first, I thought it was aduplicate entry because if you
know QuickBooks, you know it'lldo that sometimes, but nope,
there were two separate chargeshitting my credit card.

(01:14):
Turns out I had two Canvaaccounts, one tied to my
business email, and another isstill running under my personal
Gmail.
And it wasn't just Canva.
I had a Dropbox subscription andGoogle Drive Premium.
I was paying for Zoom Pro twice,one through my business account,

(01:36):
and one still tied to my oldpersonal PayPal.
And don't get me started on thefree trials.
I signed up for, forgot about,and then quietly gut billed 29
point 99 a month.
All in all, I was linkinghundreds of dollars every single

(01:57):
year on tools I wasn't evenusing and that my friend was my
subscription graveyard.
Now you might be thinking, okay,Melissa, it's only$15 here.
30 there.
No big deal.
But here's the truth, thoselittle leaks add up.
Every duplicate subscription ismoney that is not going to

(02:19):
paying yourself, saving fortaxes or investing in actual
growth.
And here's the bigger problem.
When your expenses are clutteredwith unnecessary charges, your
profit and loss stops being auseful tool.
You can't see your trueoperating costs.
You're making decisions based onnoise, and in some cases, those

(02:47):
just$15 leaks can add up tothousands of dollars over a few
years.
That's not chump change.
That's a vacation or acontractor hire or a new piece
of equipment.
I will share some tips to helpyou stay on top of these charges

(03:07):
before they turn into a mess.
But before I do, let's meettoday's highlight from my
network.
This episode from my network isdedicated to Nicole Leon, my
virtual assistant Nicole, is theowner of L Leon Virtual
Assistants, a boutique virtualsupport business, providing

(03:30):
administrative and executiveassistance to founders and small
teams with over a decade ofexperience.
Nicole helps business owners getout of the weeds by offering
proactive, emotionallyintelligent support that keeps
things moving so they can leadwith more clarity, focus, and

(03:52):
ease.
Nicole is also actively buildinga personal brand focused on
helping women reclaim theirvoice, visibility and power in
life, work, and business, bothher personal brand and Elon
virtual assistants.
Donate a portion of proceeds toorganizations supporting women

(04:12):
and children, survivors of abuseand children facing food
insecurity.
Reach out to Nicole on LinkedInif you share any of these
fashions or to schedule analignment call.
If you're looking for virtualsupport, you can find her at
linkedin.com/in/.

(04:34):
Nicole L.
Leon, that is N-I-C-O-L-E dash ldash LEON.
Now back to these subscriptioncharges.
How do you avoid ending up withyour own subscription graveyard?

(04:56):
Here's my CPA approved butfounder tested method.
Okay.
Number one, pull the list, runthrough your credit card and
bank statements for the last 60to 90 days.
Highlight every subscription.
Number two, categorize, make aquick spreadsheet or a little

(05:18):
note document or even a note onyour phone if that's easier for
you.
And group them by softwarestorage, communication design,
admin.
Whatever categories apply to youand your business.
Number three, spot theduplicates.
Do you really need Dropbox andGoogle Drive or two Canva

(05:43):
accounts or three differentscheduling tools?
I think not.
Number four, caught ruthlessly.
Pick the one you actually useand cancel the rest.
Don't hold on to just in casesubscriptions future, you won't

(06:04):
magically use them anymore.
Number five, set a reminder.
Make this a habit every quarter,do a subscription audit because
I promise.
You'll forget and those sneakycharges will creep back in.
Bonus tip.
Use a virtual card service thatway you can see them all in one

(06:25):
place and shut them down in oneclick if you need to.
Here is the bigger truth.
Subscription bloat doesn't justwaste money.
It will drain your energy.
Every forgotten subscription isone more reminder that you don't
have a handle on your backend,but when you clean that up, you

(06:46):
feel in control again.
You see your true expenses, youcan trust your numbers now, and
that clarity is in just aboutsaving 29.99 a month.
It's about making decisions withconfidence.
You deserve financial systemsthat support your growth, my
friend.
Not siphon off your hard earnedcash like digital vampires.

(07:10):
So that's my confession.
I had a subscription graveyardhiding in my books.
But here's your takeaway.
Audit your subscriptions, trimthe fat, and stop letting all
signups eat away at yourprofits.
If this episode gave you thenudge you need, subscribe to No

(07:31):
Se Habla taxes.
And if you want my subscriptionaudit checklist, the exact one I
now use every quarter, head tothe link in the show notes and
tell me how that goes.
Until next time, stay scrappy,stay smart, and cancel that
extra Canva account.