Paying for things you never use? Ask a gym

How much are you paying, every single month, for things you never use?

Ask a gym. It's an old business, with a very simple sum.

January. We sign up full of hope. A monthly fee feels like a promise to ourselves.

In one well-known American study, two economists followed nearly eight thousand gym members, over three years.

Members paying over seventy dollars a month went, on average, about four times a month.

That's more than seventeen dollars a visit, when a pay-as-you-go pass cost just ten.

On average, those members gave up about six hundred dollars. They were paying for the person they hoped to become.

And the ones who rarely went were slow to cancel. A subscription never asks twice.

The British government estimated we spend about five hundred and seventy million pounds a year on subscriptions we've simply forgotten about.

Not because we're foolish. Because nothing reminds us. A payment that never knocks is easy to forget.

So once a year, read your bank statement, line by line. Every monthly payment should earn its place.

The cleverest bill is the one you never notice. So notice it. Keep your nose to the wind.