>>I don't have any subscriptions
If I really, really start to look at it, we have a lot. For example...
- Theresa's TSA Pre subscription is ending. It's "only" $70 for five years, but there it is.
- domains
- VPS
- fundamentally, my utilities are subscription services.
- so is car insurance and homeowner's insurance
- for "media" we "only" have Audible (which we are about to cancel), Netflix (which I actually keep partly for my dad who is on our subscription), and NYT (which we cancelled then restarted under Theresa's name for the $2/week deal).
- Starlink and Hughesnet and the Speedify service that makes them work together as a bonded connection
- Zoom for Theresa's business
- Google Workspace for Theresa's business and for our rental because I genuinely like GMail better than anything else I've used.
I even have my toilet paper on subscription from Who Gives a Crap (50% of profits go to building toilets in places that don't have them).
Admittedly, the toilet paper is fundamentally different. I actually *own* the toilet paper. But in the other cases, these are all payments for ephemeral services that I lose 100% as soon as I stop paying, which to me is the distinction between a subscription and owning something.
Utilities might strike you as odd, but actually maybe half the people I know *own* their water and sewer infrastructure. They have a well and a septic. Yes, there are ongoing costs and I don't necessarily want to own those things, but it is basically a subscription as far as I'm concerned.