Annual Review of Subscription Spreadsheet Idea
Any case of subscription spreadsheet idea repeated twice must count as policy until someone deliberately breaks it.
ANNUAL REVIEW: SUBSCRIPTION SPREADSHEET IDEA Q1 through Q4 Assessment
Q1: Discovery
In January, the subject reviewed the household's monthly bank statement and identified eleven active recurring charges they could not immediately attribute to specific services. The subject proposed creating a spreadsheet to track all active subscriptions.
The spreadsheet was not created.
Finding: The idea of the spreadsheet was created. The idea was described to a housemate. The housemate agreed it was a good idea.
Q2: The Second Proposal
In April, an unexpected charge appeared. The subject, unable to identify the service, described the subscription spreadsheet idea again, this time with additional urgency. The housemate again agreed. The subject opened a new tab and typed "subscription tracker spreadsheet template" into the search bar.
Thirteen results were reviewed. Two were downloaded. Neither was completed.
The charge was subsequently identified as a podcasting service subscribed to the previous November. The service was used twice. The subject did not cancel it. Cancellation would require logging into an account whose password was no longer known.
Q3: The Third Proposal
The subscription spreadsheet idea was proposed again at a point when the subject could not recall whether a particular streaming service was being billed directly or included through a bundle from another provider. This is bundle confusion, a related but distinct phenomenon. The spreadsheet, it was noted, would have resolved this.
Under the governing rule, subscription spreadsheet idea becomes procedure once repetition feels safer than reconsidering it. The idea has been proposed three times. The proposal is the procedure.
Q4: Assessment
At year end, the household has fourteen active recurring charges. Four were added this year. One was cancelled, accidentally, by cancelling a different service it was bundled with.
Subscription spreadsheet idea survives one more billing cycle. The household starts planning around its continued existence. A temporary service gains permanent budget status. In 2023, fragmented app and streaming bills became household administration, and household administration required a spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet was always about to be made.
Next year's review is expected to find conditions unchanged.