The 10 Minute Software Stack audit that Will Save you $2,000 Today

How to spot, sort, and slash your wasted software spend in under 10 minutes.

The Software Graveyard: A Horror Story in 23 Unused Subscriptions

It was 11:47 PM on a dark, wet winter night.

I heard my phone buzz.

I picked it up hoping to see a new sale or perhaps a new deposit into my account.

What I found instead made me want to hurl that phone into the wall.

$397 in subscription charges for a service I didn't even remember signing up for.

And because I’m a masochist, I decided to see what else was silently emptying my bank account.

As I began to scroll, I saw more, lots more.

Digital ghosts haunting my business account.

Loom Pro ($8).

“Workflow Genius,” which I swear I’d never heard of before, and Google storage on an email I didn't even use anymore.

Each charge felt like a stab (some bigger than others).

After a few moments, I frantically turned my phone off. Individually, the charges were manageable. But lined up together?

My banking app looked like a software graveyard, and I was the groundskeeper who lost track of how many bodies were buried there.

It made me realize the urgency of solving this problem. So I decided to conduct what I call a software stack audit.

This involved categorizing each of my expenses into distinct sections: Business tools, productivity and communication and personal expenses.

Then I sorted these into 3 categories: Need, Burn, and Swap. The Need and Burn tools were easy to deal with.

The Swaps?Not so much.

The same vicious cycle of indecision would come back to haunt me if I spent too much time exploring cheaper alternatives. So I knew I needed some help.

Level 1:Surface Discoveries

The first layer was embarrassing but predictable, the productivity graveyard.

Notion, Monday.com and ClickUp.

Apparently, 2024-me thought that the secret to organisation was buying more organisational software. The irony was not lost on me.

But then it got interesting. I discovered two sets of subscriptions, one of which I later named “Vampire subscriptions”

This was software that cost way more than cheaper alternatives and seemed to provide no extra engagement or revenue.

The second set was “Zombie subscriptions”.

Tools that were technically cancelled but respawned with “premium features” I’d accidentally activated during free trials.

Level 2:Forgotten Middle Ages

Digging deeper, I hit what archaeologists would call the “transition period”. I found evidence of debris and software casualties from business pivots and changes.

Each software was a portal to an entrepreneurial phase I went through.

Audio recording software for the podcast phase, and Course Creator Pro for the course creation phase.

We get so excited about the “next new thing” that we forget about the “old next new thing”.

It’s like moving into a new house and continuing to pay rent for your old apartment “just in case”.

Level 3: The Ancient Ruins

The deepest layer was the most painful to uncover.

Hopes, aspirations and expectations all bundled into a few purchases.

I was convinced that tools like “Profit Maximiser Dashboard” or “Customer Retention Wizard” could solve all my problems. These weren’t just software purchases; they were hope purchases.

Collecting mythical software tools like Infinity Stones felt reassuring. I treated software solutions like magic spells. Collect enough tools and surely one will yield a solution to the problem I have.

The audit forced me to face a harder truth: most software issues aren’t really software issues.

They’re strategy issues disguised as software issues.

The Outcome (AKA how I saved $2,000)

I asked myself: Do I really need 2 tools that complete the same task at the same time? Probably not. So I burned one and moved on.

The cost of indecision is often just as dangerous as making premature decisions.

The time and mental bandwidth I saved by quickly picking one tool to burn outweighed any minor technical benefits one tool might have over the other.

With all of my Need software, I could save 20/30% by switching to a yearly membership rather than a monthly one. I started saving $150 yearly on each tool, which quickly grew to over $1000 for all of my tools.

Finding more affordable and sustainable alternatives to some of the tools I needed was a stiff, uphill task.

Necessary? Yes.

But very mentally draining.

The reward of my efforts was sweet. I found a total of $800 I could save monthly on 5 of the main tools I used.

I either downgraded my subscription level on an existing platform or found a free/cheaper alternative that suited my needs.

But I almost fell into a massive trap…

The Twist: The one that stayed

Of the 23 digital ghosts that I laid to rest, there was one subscription that I nearly cancelled. A $37 per month tool that I almost wrote off as another way to save some money. It had a tool hidden deep in its settings that could save us 3 hours of client onboarding time and let us take on 30% more clients at a time.

The breakthrough came when I learned to spot which tools were silently earning their keep.

Investigation tools

Manually digging through two years of credit card statements felt like archaeological work done with a toothbrush. So I decided to get smart about it.

I started by feeding ChatGPT with a few ideas: the value proposition of my business, the core problem we aim to solve and directing it to analyse my business expenses.

The first few prompts it blurted out were too complicated and required endless preparation before I could enter a list of my expenses.

So I refined, iterated and programmed the prompt into a fully functioning audit tool. A single ChatGPT prompt transformed years of credit card statements into a diagnosis and a concise action plan.

Below is the exact prompt that I used:

Prompt:

I want your help conducting a 10-minute software stack audit for my small business. I want to identify:

• What subscriptions I should cancel
  
  

• What I can consolidate or downgrade
  
  

• Where I’m silently leaking money
  
  

My goal is to save up to $2,000/year with smarter decisions — but I want this to feel easy and fast.

You’ll be my expert guide. Here’s how I’d like you to walk me through this:

Step 1: Triage by Time
Let me choose how deep to go:

• If I have 5 minutes → just focus on Business & Marketing tools
  
  

• If I have 10–15 minutes → go deeper: add Productivity, Learning, and Life Spillovers
  
  

Start by asking which route I want, then continue accordingly.

Step 2: Help Me Surface My Tools (Use These Categories)

Guide me to list tools in these zones. Give examples to jog my memory.

1. 💻 Business Essentials (CRMs, proposals, client portals, schedulers)
   
   

   • e.g., Dubsado, Calendly, HoneyBook, TidyCal
     
     

2. 📈 Sales & Marketing (email, landing pages, analytics, chatbots)
   
   

   • e.g., ConvertKit, Leadpages, ManyChat, Hotjar
     
     

3. 🧠 Productivity & Comms (storage, meetings, team tools, wikis)
   
   

   • e.g., Google Workspace, Notion, Zoom, Slack, Loom
     
     

4. 📚 Learning & Growth (courses, memberships, templates, paid newsletters)
   
   

   • e.g., Circle, Kajabi, Copy School, Skillshare
     
     

5. 🧃 Life Spillovers (apps that blur work/life but are paid from biz accounts)
   
   

   • e.g., Dropbox, Calm, Instacart, travel rewards, personal finance apps
     
     

Ask me to list:

• Name of tool
  
  

• What it’s for
  
  

• Approx. monthly or annual cost
  
  

• If I use it weekly, occasionally, or not at all
  
  

Step 3: Categorize + Recommend

Once I give you my list, organize each tool into these buckets:

• ✅ Keep – High ROI
  
  

• 🧹 Kill – Unused or unnecessary
  
  

• 🔄 Swap – Better/cheaper alternative exists
  
  

• 👻 Ghost – I forgot I had this
  
  

• 🌀 Hopeware – Bought with big hopes, never used meaningfully
  
  

Step 4: Build My Savings Thermometer

As we go, track the potential savings and show me:

• Monthly savings so far
  
  

• Annual projection
  
  

• Progress toward a $2,000 goal
  
  

(Show it like: “You’ve saved $136/month = $1,632/year — 81% toward your $2K win!”)

Step 5: The One That Stayed Reflection

Ask me to name one tool I almost cancelled, but wasn’t sure.

Walk me through a strategic evaluation:

• Is it hiding value (like saving time, improving onboarding, or bundling features)?
  
  

• Could it become an MVP if used more intentionally?
  
  

• Or is it just “comfort clutter”?
  
  

Help me make the call: Cancel, Cultivate, or Replace.

Final Output

When we’re done, summarize:

• Tools to cancel
  
  

• Tools to downgrade
  
  

• Tools to watch or review again later
  
  

• Total estimated savings
  
  

• One insight or principle I can carry into future spending decisions
  
  

Let’s begin!

Want a 5-minute version? Ask me only about zones 1 and 2.

Want the full deep-dive? Take me through all 5.

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