Home Service Price Tracker

Lawn care, pest control, alarm monitoring, internet, the HVAC contract — services on autopay tend to rise a little every year without anyone deciding to pay more. One sheet, checked once a year, turns those increases into a list of phone calls.

What This Workbook Does

• Every recurring household service with last year’s and this year’s price and how often it is billed.
• Annual cost for both years, the change in dollars and percent, and a flag on anything above your benchmark.
• An overall increase weighted by cost, so a large rise on a small service does not distort the total.
• A notes column for scope changes, such as more visits or a surcharge.

The overall increase is calculated from the two annual totals rather than by averaging the percentages, which would give a small service the same weight as a large one.

How to Use It

1. List every service you pay for on a repeating basis, including the ones on autopay.
2. Enter the unit price and how many times a year you are billed.
3. Set the benchmark to the annual increase you consider acceptable.
4. Work down the Flag column; every flagged line is a phone call.
5. Read the overall increase at the bottom.
6. Next year, move the current prices into the prior-price column and start again.

What It Will Not Do

A higher price is not automatically a price rise. Check whether the scope changed — more visits, a larger area, a different product — before treating an increase as one.