How many subscriptions are you paying for right now? There are TV and music streaming services, cloud storage, subscriptions for clothing, productivity tools, and the countless random apps we download once and forget about. These days, it feels like we have to rent so many parts of our daily lives, often without the option to own them.Host Reema Khrais talks to Lance Ulanoff, a tech journalist and editor at large at TechRadar, and Hanna Horvath, a financial planner and the author of the substack “Your Brain On Money,” about how we got here and why it feels so overwhelming. Later in the episode, we’ve got another edition of “Alice Gets Her Life Together.” Producer Alice Wilder and Khrais look into their own subscriptions and decide what to keep or cancel.A few takeaways from this episode: It can be logistically and emotionally challenging to cancel a subscription. Companies often make it difficult cancel a recurring payment, and sometimes that challenge can be compounded by guilt. For example, you don't want to close the door on that person you hoped a gym subscription would help you become. “So much of consumer culture is built around aspiration,” says Horvath, “And so as soon as we get our emotions wrapped up in something, or we start to identify with something, it becomes really hard to untangle that.” There’s a tradeoff between subscription and ownership. At first, a subscription might feel more affordable because the upfront cost can be much lower than buying something outright, but you won’t necessarily value it the same. Horvath connects this to the idea of the endowment effect in consumer psychology: “Once we own something, we will value it more than we would if we didn't own it. Ownership kind of creates that psychological attachment.” So conditional access can feel distressing. Keep track of subscriptions before they add up. When Ulanoff started tracking all of his services, he was shocked by how much he was spending. “I realized that I'm now spending as much on streaming as I did on cable, which I had cut to try and save money!” Instead of subscribing, try sharing! Khrais is a fan of her neighborhood tool library. “I paid a one-time donation fee,” she explains, “And now once or twice each month, I go get a lawnmower, I get some power tools, whatever I need. It's amazing!” Similarly, Ulanoff recommends taking advantage of all the free resources available from public libraries, from Blu-ray videos to e-books. If you liked this episode, share it with a friend. And if you want to tell us what you thought about the episode or anything else, email us at uncomfortable@marketplace.org or fill out the form below.