5 Steps to Slash Surprise AWS Charges with Automated Cleanup

AWS is powerful, everyone knows that.

But a lot of people also know how much it can rack up in costs.

And that’s where most falter and look for other cloud solutions.

However, moving to a new cloud solution is only a temporary fix. It is a lot smarter to understand and eliminate the root causes of your expensive cloud bills.

I looked at Shubham Verma‘s article and how he shows how you can learn to reduce your AWS cloud bills with these automated cleanup techniques:

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1. Tag Everything from Day One

Automation only works if it knows what to clean. Set consistent tags like:

• Project = test or Project = prod

• Owner = your-name

• TTL = 7days

Bonus: If you’re using AWS Organizations, enforce tagging with Service Control Policies.

2. Define Cleanup Rules That Actually Work

These simple rules helped cut down AWS clutter by 60%:

• Delete EBS volumes if unattached for 7+ days

• Remove S3 buckets if TTL = 7days

• Clear out CloudWatch logs older than 30 days

• Nuke security groups not attached to anything

3. Automate with Lambda + EventBridge

No cron jobs. No local scripts. Just serverless magic.

Example: a Lambda using Boto3 to delete unattached EBS volumes, triggered weekly by EventBridge.

This setup runs while you sleep and saves you money doing it.

4. Lock Down Permissions (The Smart Way)

Don’t give your Lambda admin access. Use tight IAM roles with only what’s needed:

• ec2:DescribeVolumes, ec2:DeleteVolume

• logs:DeleteLogGroup, s3:DeleteBucket

Minimum privilege = maximum security.

5. Monitor Everything

Send logs to CloudWatch. Bonus points if you:

• Archive them to S3

• Push summaries to Slack or email

• Set alarms for weird spikes or Lambda errors

Final Result?

Peace of Mind + Lower Bills.

By setting this up you can stop hoarding resources, avoid surprise charges, and gain confidence with cost effective AWS solutions.

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Curated Article

1. “The Hidden AWS Skill That Saves You Money Every Month (And No One Talks About It)”. Shubham Verma. https://medium.com/aws-in-plain-english/the-hidden-aws-skill-that-saves-you-money-every-month-and-no-one-talks-about-it-8c0e9bf7535c 

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