Look out for sneaky money leaks

Getty ImagesNo, this is not a post wagging a finger at you for unwittingly eating away at your budget by buying too many lattes or going to the grocery store without a list or without knowing what's on sale. This is a reminder to check your credit cards for recurring charges you didn't think were recurring, and to review your monthly expenses for services you are paying for that you don't need.

As I was going over our monthly credit card bill (we use one credit card for just about everything so we can earn a few airline miles while we consolidate most of our monthly bills in one central place), I noticed an annual charge for antivirus software I had no intention of using again, and a renewal for the dog magazine my daughter gets--at a substantially higher annual fee than we paid when we signed up for it. Clearly, I checked some boxes somewhere--online probably--when I made the original annual orders, but I did not want to automatically renew either.

So, I'll be making some calls and spending some time going through other monthly bills to make sure we are not paying for products and services we don't want or need every month. It's a good reminder to check your phone bills--cellular and land line--to make sure you are not paying for features you don't use or need. Also, it's always a good time to double check your cable/satellite/other TV service bills to see if you are paying for channels you don't want, or if switching to one of the other providers will save you a good bit of cash. We've been thinking about switching to FiOS TV service for awhile; I know it will save us money every month for at least as long as the contract promises, but I wonder what will happen after that.

Have you come across any extraneous charges you weren't counting on in your monthly budget but were there, nonetheless, because you just were not paying close attention? Or because someone made a mistake?