The cost that recurs quietly can shape a life more than the purchase everyone notices.

Attention goes to the large visible purchase, while the thing that actually shapes a life is usually the small amount going out every month without being decided again. Recurrence is a multiplier and it is never felt as one, because each instance is too small to argue with. The same holds for time: forty minutes a day is a fortnight a year.

Write down everything that recurs, in money and in hours, and look at the annual figure rather than the monthly one. Cancel one thing that no longer earns its place. Then do the same with a standing commitment that costs you an evening a week.