Common Cost Surprises
- Bandwidth overage — streaming or serving large files can exceed limits fast
- Forgotten servers — test/staging servers left running
- Resource scaling — upgrading for a spike and forgetting to downgrade
- Backup storage — automated backups accumulating without cleanup
Set Up Monitoring
# Track bandwidth with vnstat
sudo apt install -y vnstat
vnstat -m # Check monthly usage
# Set up disk usage alerts
df -h / | awk 'NR==2 {if($5+0 > 80) print "Disk at " $5}'Audit Running Resources
- Review your active Breezes monthly — destroy anything unused
- Check for idle development or testing environments
- Review if your current plan matches actual usage
Optimization Checklist
- Enable compression (Gzip/Brotli) to reduce bandwidth
- Use a CDN for static assets
- Optimize images (WebP, proper sizing)
- Set browser cache headers
- Clean up old backups and log files regularly
Budget Planning
VPS costs are predictable — fixed monthly rate for compute resources. Budget for your server plan plus any additional services (domains, SSL if not using Let's Encrypt, external backups).