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Your starting point for cats and dogs in Canada

ToolSubscription cash-budget worksheet

What does that subscription really cost in cash?

Advertised monthly prices hide prepaid terms. Enter your own numbers in Canadian dollars and see what leaves your account today, what you will have paid within your planning horizon, and how many prepaid months would sit unused beyond it.

Your inputs stay in this pageNothing stored, nothing sentArithmetic only — not advice

Works for device plans and any predictable recurring charge billed per cycle: a tracker plan, a self-cleaning litter box’s consumable subscription, a fountain-filter plan. It does not predict variable food or litter consumption or delivery frequency; for those, see the everyday guide.

The device or item price before tax. Enter 0 if there is no item.

Shipping, activation or accessories paid once. Enter 0 if none.

The amount actually billed each cycle — for a plan billed yearly, the yearly amount, not the monthly equivalent. Enter 0 if there is no recurring charge.

Billing cycle How often the recurring charge is billed.
Planning horizon How far ahead you want to count cash.

The example uses made-up numbers (item $100, upfront $10, $120 every 12 months, 24-month horizon) to show how the arithmetic works. It is not a real product or price.

This worksheet needs JavaScript to calculate in the page. Without it, the arithmetic is: cash today = item + upfront + one cycle charge; total within horizon = item + upfront + (horizon ÷ cycle, rounded up) × cycle charge; unused prepaid months = (cycles × cycle length) − horizon.

MethodHow the worksheet counts

The rules, in plain terms

  • Blank means unknown, not zero. A blank field stops the calculation; type 0 if the cost really is nothing.
  • Full cycles only. If the plan bills every 60 months and you plan 12 months ahead, you still hand over the full 60-month charge. The worksheet never prorates prepaid cash.
  • A charge on the exact end of the horizon belongs to the next period and is not counted. Twelve months of a monthly plan is 12 charges, not 13.
  • Cents are exact. Amounts are handled as whole cents so totals do not drift.

What it leaves out

  • Sales tax, which varies by province and is added at checkout.
  • Currency conversion if the merchant bills in another currency.
  • Future price changes at renewal.
  • Accessories, replacement parts, extra deliveries and cancellation fees.
  • Any judgement about whether the purchase is worth it or affordable for you.

Two worked cases: item 100, upfront 10, 120 every 12 months, 24-month horizon → today 230, total 350, 0 unused months. Item 0, upfront 0, 300 every 60 months, 12-month horizon → today 300, total 300, 48 unused prepaid months.