When setting up infrastructure for a startup, cost control is not something to “add later.” It has to be built into the foundation from the very beginning.

AWS operates on a pay-as-you-go model. That flexibility is powerful, but it also means that a small misconfiguration, an unused resource, or an unexpected traffic spike can quickly turn into a serious bill.

On Day 1, we focused on security (root user, IAM, MFA).

On Day 2, we make sure we never get surprised by costs.

Avoid unexpected AWS bills by setting up:

Budget alerts

Cost anomaly detection

Billing alarms

Step 1 — Create a Budget

The first and most important control is a simple monthly budget.

Navigate in AWS Console

Go to:

Billing → Budgets → Create budget

Budget Setup

Choose:

Budget type: Cost budget

Period: Monthly

Configure Alerts

Creating a budget alone is not enough.

Alerts are what make cost control actually useful.

Recommended setup:

60% of budget → Email notification

80% of budget → Email + SNS notification

100% of…