A method and system for managing cloud consumption including accessing a set of aggregate usage history data for a set of users each operating a set of machines consuming a set of resources in a host cloud, generating a set of variable consumption periods over which the consumption of the set of resources will be tracked for the set of users on a combined basis, identifying a set of subscription margins for a resource in the set of resources based on a comparison of the consumption of the resource to a resource subscription limit for the set of users on a combined basis over the set of variable consumption periods, generating a set of marginal consumption values for the set of users for a resource for the set of variable consumption periods in the host cloud, and generating a management action based on the marginal consumption value.