Lab · 45 min
Lab 2: Find and cancel forgotten subscriptions
Build a sheet of every recurring charge, cancel the ones you mark, and ask for one refund.
- Goal
- A spreadsheet of every recurring charge with an annual total, the ones you mark cancelled, and one refund request sent.
- You learn
- Searching Gmail at scale, making a spreadsheet, browser tasks with approvals, monthly recurring checks
- Needs
- Gmail. Optional: Plaid (reported, bank balances and transactions).
- Payoff
- Whatever you cancel, times twelve. Community reports mention finding forgotten subscriptions, a refunded book club, and a fraudulent recurring charge.
Why this lab
TechCrunch lists "track spending and audit subscriptions" among Meta's examples. In the first two weeks, users reported refunds and caught charges through this flow. reported
Steps
- Confirm Settings›Permissions is on Always ask. Cancelling and sending cannot be undone.
- Find the charges:
Go through my Gmail receipts and billing emails from the last 12 months. List every recurring charge: service, amount, billing cycle, date of last receipt, and whether a free trial turned into a paid plan.
- Optional, if you use Plaid. Start with one account.
Connect my checking account through Plaid. Compare card charges from the last 3 months with the list and add anything that is not in my email.
- Put it in a sheet:
Make a spreadsheet called "Subscriptions 2026" and save it to my Library. Columns: service, amount, cycle, annual cost, last used (your best guess from email), Keep or Cancel. Add the annual total at the bottom.
- Open the spreadsheet in your Library and decide. Then tell Muse:
Mark [service] and [service] as Cancel. Keep the rest.
- Cancel them:
Cancel the ones I marked Cancel, using each provider's own cancel page. Ask me before each one. If a provider blocks you or needs a code, stop and tell me which one.
- Ask for one refund. Sending uses a Gmail write action, so you will see an approval screen. You can also send the draft yourself.
For [service], which I did not use this year, draft a refund request to their support. Mention the dates of the charges. Show me the draft before you send.
- Keep it going:
On the 1st of every month, check my email for new recurring charges and add them to the Subscriptions 2026 spreadsheet. Message me only if you find one.
- The spreadsheet is in your Library with an annual total.
- A cancellation confirmation email arrived for each one you cancelled.
- The refund request went out after you approved it.
- The monthly check is in Your assistant›Upcoming.
- You compared the spreadsheet with one real card statement and found nothing missing.
- Amazon blocks Muse, so cancel Prime yourself.
- Some sites send a 2FA code. Keep your phone close.
- Muse can miss charges, especially ones billed through Apple or Google Play. Check your App Store and Play Store subscriptions by hand.
Write down your number
Add up the annual cost of everything you cancelled. You will use it in the capstone.