Field note · October 18, 2026
Field note: what we pay for every month, and the one question we asked about each line
Before moving anything, we listed every recurring technology charge and asked one question of each. The list was longer than we thought, and the question answered itself more often than we expected.
What changed. We sat down with the bank statement and listed every recurring technology charge: the website platform, the domain, email and shared inboxes, the forms and email-sequence platform, the donation processor, two learning platforms, a video tool, a design tool, and three subscriptions nobody could remember signing up for. Fourteen lines. We had guessed eight.
The one question. For each line: if this disappeared tomorrow, what would we lose, and could we get it back from our own files? Three answers came back. For email and donations, the answer was “a lot, and no,” so those stay. For the website, the answer was “the site, and only if we export it first,” which told us the content was not really ours. For the three forgotten subscriptions, the answer was “nothing,” and they were gone by the end of the meeting.
What it taught us. Renting is fine when the vendor does something we should not do ourselves, like running mail servers or handling card numbers. Renting is a problem when the vendor holds the only copy of something we made. The cost audit is not really about money; it is about finding the places where we have quietly given up ownership. The money follows.
What is next. The website is the biggest line where we own nothing. That is the first thing to move.