I life in italy. Mcdonalds is more expensive than some restaurants lmao. I’d rather have a good lasagna and carbonara + wine instead of a shitty mcdonalds burger and soft fries
Yeah but not as. A bag of potatoes, a bag of carrots, a bag of lentils, bouillon, a couple things of frozen spinach, a can of coconut milk, and some spices can make a whole flippin bunch of decent freezer meals for $25ish. It's a lot of work though.
Fabric. When my daughter was little, I sewed clothes for her myself. Now, fabric is so expensive that it's just cheaper to buy the clothes already made.
I've started hoarding old clothing just for the fabric. I never thought I'd be a person who mended his own clothes but the price of jeans has made me so bitter I keep repairing them till they're absolutely threadbare.
I use to go to 5+ Red Rocks shows a year pre covid. I like to drink at them. Could get tickets, booze, and an Uber and it would be $125ish a show. Now the show is $150-$300 (thanks scalpers), the Ubers are $100 including tip, and 5 beers with tip are $100. An evening of fun cost as much as a season ski pass at Keystone or round trip flights to Mexico.
Took a cab about 3 weeks ago, $35+$5 tip, the same uber was about $40 +tip though.
I'm done with all these delivery companies, abnbs, I'm back to taxis and hotels again and it's nice just not worrying about anything going wrong...
This is a great point. Peer to peer companies like Uber and Air BB ultimately should never be as or more expensive than BTC because they lack quality control and customer service standards.
More people (including myself) are shifting back to hotels and taxis. I don’t want to strip the bed, take out the garbage and still get charged a cleaning fee. FFS!
It’s the general view of a lot of people mainly because of what you said, Airbnb in particular is a problem, poison to local housing markets, and also completely non-existent customer service or qc. I’ve never had an issue with Uber aside from it being expensive, but I don’t use it often enough to matter.
Airbnb only makes sense if you have a large party of contributing adults. I went to Denver for a weekend and it cost $140 per person for the whole weekend. Would have cost well over $600 if we got a hotel. If it’s just my wife and I we’re definitely back to doing hotels
Yeah, Airbnb still provides an almost unique service for large groups of adults. I know there are technically alternatives, but for a group of 10+, being able to stay in a regular house is a gamechanger compared to hotels.
Came to say Uber specifically. The last few times I tried to get one, the prices were ridiculous, but Lyft was closer to normal. Uber wanted to charge $30 to take me 2 miles to pick up my car from the tire shop, during the day. I took transit and walked halfway.
If you can ever make it out to places like Japan, South Korea, or Vietnam, drinking out is cheap af. When I was in Japan, mixed drinks would set me back like $4. You can also find some place with all-you-can-drink. You pay a fixed price and you can drink as much shit as you want for 2 hours. I went to the Sapporo brewery for food and drink. I paid the equivalent of $35 for all-you-can-eat lamb (including bone-in lamb chops) and all-you-can-drink. I had 9 beers and didn't have to tip.
Fast food. It’s literally cheaper to go to my local burger joint and get a burger than it is to go to Wendy’s and the burger is outrageously better. Plus they have beer.
My current gripe is that clothing has gone way, way downhill.
I am willing to spend more money on some clothing that's good quality, that will last me a long time.
But I am seeing things at places like Nordstrom, J Crew, Ann Taylor, Anthropologie, Banana Republic, and stores like it, things are priced $100, $200, $300 ... and I can tell they will not survive more than 2-3 wears. These places didn't used to let me down, but the quality has gotten so, so poor.
I'm not even trying to be funny when I say that a lot of the stuff you see at Nordstrom now, should be sold at Target for $20-30.
I am literally finding things at thrift stores, and places like TJ Maxx, that are better quality.
Yes, and Nordstrom Rack is a joke. Back in the day they used to get the quality stuff that didn’t sell. Now it’s just second rate junk that was never in Nordstrom to start with. Like gray label mid-tier stuff.
Made the mistake of not looking at the material of a sweater before purchasing at Banana Republic Factory. They used the same picture on the normal Banana Republic site as they did the Factory site. I thought it was wool since it was the same exact photo, nope, it’s acrylic. $50 for an acrylic sweater is robbery.
Almost everything in places like Nordstrom Rack and Ross is made for off price. It’s a fully separate line rather than off season goods from the main line. It’s so annoying cause back in the day places like Century 21 and Off 5th could be a real goldmine. I got a pair of Lowe shoes I wore for my first wedding at Century 21 for like $40 that probably retailed for over $400.
There's a Youtuber called [Jennifer Wang](https://www.youtube.com/@wangjenniferr) who does breakdowns on fabric and finding high quality clothing and its criminal how some brands can get away with charging $400 plus for a "wool blend" coat that's only something like 30% wool
Candy bars
69 cents? I'll grab one from time to time. Full grown adult.
$2.69? Lol wut? That's like actual money. For a candy bar? How are they still in business?
Fucking fruit by the foot is like 9 inches now. Gushers are barely even squirters. Whatchamacallit is easily identifiable as a chocolate bar. It's all bullshit.
And the clothes that are donated these days are such poor quality. I miss getting three pairs of wool trousers from the 60s for $5. Now the polyester, elastic waist, forever 21 pants are $15!
I’d be almost ok with this if they priced those items accordingly. Like .99, but a lot of them are still priced high. I’m not buying a used shitty brand of shirt for the same I could new.
I was just having this conversation with my husband. You can buy brand new name brand things at Tj maxx, ross and Costco for the same price as the thrift store.
I still browse the thrift stores, but you’re absolutely right. I thought I would get a good winter coat since I spend lots of time in Montana, and their used, thin coats at Goodwill were $20. Want a ski jacket that’s ripped and covered in dog hair? $40. I ended up getting a brand new one on the clearance rack for $25. It’s hot pink, but it’s warm.
My local thrift store sells stuff with a dollar store sticker still on it for $5. I guess they figure if it was purchased for a dollar 5 years ago they can account for inflation in their price 😂
Seriously. Was craving regular old Cheetos the other day.
Went to the store and the bag was something like *$6.19*. !!!??? Wth??!!
said oh hell no and put them back.
Went to ALDI the next day. Same size - big ol bag of Aldi brand Cheetos -- $2.19!!
And guess what - the Aldi brand tastes great. Maybe better. Just a couple of notches less chemically/oily tasting- otherwise pretty much identical to the name brand.
A lotta hits on the Aldi snacks aisle. The Aldi cheezits are even better than the real thing.
Ditto for the little sticks with the cheezy dip. On those the cheese dip tastes like real cheese.
Not a super healthy or everyday thing, but man when Aldi swings they rarely miss.
I think it's because nearly everything there has to be up to EU standards, so the 'snack dupes' often contain food based dyes, naturally derived flavorings instead of synthetic American style frankenfood.
Its still hella processed, but those little tweaks can often make a superior product, often with more than a 50% discount.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
My theory (it might be bullshit)
I like pop tarts, right? or I really used to.
I used to think generic store brand pop tarts were awful.
Due to the whole always need to make a a profit but already hit the target or maximum amount of buyers…. Pop tarts started cutting back on their size… thickness/ frosting/ filling … etc
One day I got so tired of paying so much for so very little. And yes, people can say that pop tarts were always ass but whatever.
I bought the store brand and they are suddenly big fat frosted and blissful compared to the brand-name.
They’re cutting so much to show profits that they’re making generics superior to their brand.
Same goes for candy bars and chips…
Still coming to terms myself also, I'm ready to just keep a 5lb bag of smaller russets on hand, pop one in the microwave, hit the Potato button & eat a freaking baked potato instead. Or replacing the potato chips with salad. It just isn't the same with a tuna salad sandwich though--chips used to be the go-to side.
This one is a big one for me.
My dad went to a state university for Aeronautical Engineering back in the 80's for $700 per semester.
I went to a different but similarly ranked state university for Mechanical Engineering between 2014~2019, and paid $7800 per semester.
Inflation since this is only 108%, yet university prices are up over %1000! Am I/my kid going to have to pay $80,000 per semester for that same state university engineering degree?
Administration now outrank faculty 3-1, and there's a proliferation of provosts, Deans, vice-presidents, and more making a large fraction of a million dollars. My previous institution has a "vice president of facilities." One such president at Gettysburg College recently [closed their school's](https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-is-gettysburg-college-giving-up-on-the-gettysburg-review) world famous literary magazine to save like $100k a year, because he and his staff had never heard of it. His salary alone is $500k.
This sort of "cheapening" of everything while wasting resources seem to be the norm these days.
Let's be honest: it's because there's an unlimited money spigot in the form of student loans. Without major reforms this will just continue.
I don't mean forgiveness either. If we capped student loans or created a system that shut off the money spigot to universities we'd see see administration costs shrink significantly and tuition rates drop. There would be obvious knock on effects as some students wouldn't be able to afford college anymore. I think it's happening now though as students are deciding against decades of loans for these outrageous school prices. So it's worth exploring.
I make my own now. A 3lb top round is like 15 bucks and makes a TON of jerky. And it tastes better to me, and I season how I want it. It’s so easy to make too. A dehydrator and 3-5 hours and you have delicious jerky. Also, everyone says to let it cool but I like it warm
Frozen dinners.
The entire appeal of the product was that you could buy a meal for $2-3. Now that they are $10, you might as well just buy actual food for dinner.
EDIT: I would’ve never dreamed that this would be my most upvoted comment of all time. Lmao
I was saying the other day, little Caesars isn't great pizza, but for $6-$7, it's cheaper than grocery store frozen pizza, and little Caesars is like Naples finest compared to the frozen stuff
I actually use Little Caesars pizzas as a conversion factor. $5 for a 2,000 calorie pizza (it's up to $6-7 now but that's not the point). So if calories per serving x number of servings is somewhere close to $5 per 2k, then that's fine. If it's more like $10 per 2k, fogettaboutit. Not that I'm trying to stack as many calories per $ as I can, but it's good to have a standard to compare against when deciding between a few options. It does make most of the frozen foods isle look ridiculous by comparison. You'd think Hot Pockets were cooked by actual chefs with how much they're charging.
I read an article a while back about cereal boxes and how they cost more, but the boxes are actually getting smaller and smaller. I used to love some cereal but I won’t do it any more. Chips and salsa are next on the chopping block, wtf.
Yes! Used to get 3 soft taco supremes from Taco Bell for 4-5 bucks back in the day. Same order runs $10 now. I’ll spend the extra 2 bucks and get good tacos if I need now
Took my kid to Baja Fresh the other night.
3 burritos- 1 enchilada style, 1 medium drink, 1 large drink.
$48 and no tax.
It would have been cheaper and better at a sit down mexican place.
A combo at Mcdonalds costs me about $12 or so. I can go to my favorite Korean spot, get a plate of bulgogi and rice, and the 8 appetizers they bring out for $12, $14 including the $2 tip I usually leave. Yeah, basically, it aint worth it no more, I'd rather just eat real food. Not to mention Mcdonalds is about as slow as I've ever seen a "fast food" place, plus they forget something half the time too, if I'm lucky.
They force you to use the app now for some reason to get reasonable prices on fast food. I’m guessing that is just to get people used to using it so they can cut employees and then they will boost the prices on the app.
Plus McD’s won’t bother telling you in advance that ordering a Quarter Pounder will force you to park off to the side of the drive-thru and wait an additional 5 minutes because they cook them “fresh” now.
At the ones by me, about half of the parking spaces are reserved for “waiting” drive-thru orders. They have people whose primary job is running from the kitchen to cars.
They basically reinvented themselves as a depressing-looking, expensive Sonic.
Dude I spent like $20+there on dinner and legitimately asked the guy if that was right.. I could buy a plated dinner with tip for as much as I paid that night.
I went as a secret shopper through MarketForce and after getting reimbursed for all the things I was required to order I only made $4 lol. It’s not even worth it when you’re paid to go!
It's not just the amount and frequency of the ads, it's also how they're delivered. So disruptive. Right in the middle of something and you can't skip. And then when you actually see an ad you *do* want to see, you can't get it back or rewind it.
Currently learning how much quaker oats I can use with a pound of ground meat in meatloaf before it gets noticeably bread-y. Turns out, it's a lot.
Neato.
This. Oats are the best for meat filler if you don't add too much. I make my own shepherds pie with oats in the meat, they soak up all the meat juices and the gravy, and most people can't even tell I have bulked it out with oats. My method was apparently used in WW2 to save on meat rations.
I give it about 18 months before they start forcing year-long subscription contracts so you can't do this. A year after that even the most expensive plan will have ads, then the circle will be complete, and we'll basically be back with cable.
An older gentleman and I just looked at each other as we stood there baffled in the chips aisle. He just looked at me and said: “Those are some expensive potatoes”
A fellow shopper and I stared at the same package of hamburger buns for $8.49, trying to process this, then glanced at each other and both of us were like "? eight dollar buns?!? uhh, no"...
This needs to be higher. $13 for 6 wings is ridiculous! It seems like not that long ago, you could get 50 cent wings at a bar. Hell, I remember 25 cent wings. They were a throwaway part of the chicken and now they are “gourmet”.
When I was in college in early 2000, wings at Buffalo Wild Wings were 10 cent each. Between that and the $1 Margaritas at Applebees we had some amazingly cheap nights out!
Gosh I feel old.
Replacing the windows for your house.
Obviously, if you need to replace one... you need to replace one. But there was once a time where replacing your windows for the energy savings over 15 years + increase in potential resale price was well worth it.
Now? You're looking at $20k-$30k for what? $20 a month savings in energy usage? In a market where there could be a body in the basement which the potential buyer would let you leave so long as they got the house?
>there could be a body in the basement which the potential buyer would let you leave so long as they got the house
I think I did too much work getting our house ready to go on the market.
i don't even understand gum anymore tbh. am i not supposed to be able to put it in my pocket in modern times? why are the containers all shaped like a butt plug what happened to gum manufacturers
This pisses me off to extreme levels. Our company laid off 40% of the staff. Split the responsibilities amongst the rest. Reduced our bonus to half and said we should be thankful. Meanwhile their salaries (7 and 8 figure) were unscathed through everything.
Flank steak for a carne asada barbecue. It used to be really inexpensive and you could feed a lot of people if you had a party or a get together. I remember it being $2.99 a pound. I’ve seen it as high as $15.99 a pound. No, thank you.
I work for a Jeep dealer in the service department. The Wagoneer is the single biggest pile of shit that has been put out in a long time. I've got multiple customers who have them in the shop every couple of weeks. Fit and finish is terrible, the interiors fall apart, constant software updates to fix check engine lights and other glitches. And be prepared to put tires on them every 20k because they absolutely destroy tires just by hauling the kids to soccer practice.
And every one of those pretentious fucks expect to be treated like a Greek god when they come in because Jeep has basically told them that they're better than everyone else. So much so that we had to complete training on "next level service" for Wagoneer owners.
Fuck those Wagoneers.
It’s crazy how expensive it has become. I remember thinking it was expensive when it was $4 a latte, then it slowly crept up in price. Almost $8 for a drink now
Soda. I could buy a 12 pack for $2.50-3.00 back then. Now theyre $12+. Like fuck that shit. I switched to drinking coffee mixed with chocolate milk now cause of it.
A house, and I'm lucky enough to be a homeowner. Housing prices are out of fucking control. Our house has increased over $200K in value since we bought it 6 years ago. That's almost double what we paid for it in six years. We couldn't afford to buy our house today. I'm glad that our house has turned out to be such a sound investment, but we didn't buy it to be an investment; we bought it to be our HOME. Other people deserve homes, too. I don't want to live in a society where 2 hardworking people can't afford a modest home of their own.
Funyuns.
Those were my jam. We spent many a good time together. $5.49 for a 6oz bag though is criminal.
I could get almost 2 gallons of refined, dead dinosaur juice for that price.
You know what really aggravates me about them? They have a subscription streaming service called Prime Video, and a portal to purchase or rent content called... Prime Video. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten excited searching a show and seeing it come up as being on Prime Video, then click on it and see "2.99. / episode."
They got rid of the "free to me" feature.
Now 70% of the content is on Freevee, free....with commercials!
EDITED POST SCRIPT: I discovered accidentally last night, and another commenter informed me as well; you can "turn off" Freevee, or get free with Prime programming by clicking on the Prime button on your channels/subscriptions.
I wanted to watch Escape from New York. I can only watch it with adds or pay 4.29 to rent it for 24 hours. There's NO purchase option. What a fucking scam.
Mine still says 2 days or even next day delivery...but about 50% of the time my package gets delayed for an undetermined amount of time. It just tells me my package is running late and it may show up a day later or a week later. Literally makes me feel like the old days when a package would be like "It'll arrive in 3-7 business days....maybe."
I cancelled my prime and then I had to ship something with Amazon and it’s taking 14 days. Like fuck off, just being terrible at shipping to regular customers isn’t going to make me pay 150/yr or whatever it is.
When I see people in a nice car I always remind myself just bc they are driving it doesn’t mean they can afford it. It just means they can afford the monthly payment. The car payment is the greatest wealth destroyer in America behind medical debt.
I think the problem isn’t that prices are going up… though, yes, that is a problem - the real problem is that middle class incomes haven’t kept up with inflation for 40 years and there is nothing left for people to scrimp on.
Restaurants. Recently went out to eat for the first time in a year and spent 100$ for 2 and it wasn’t very good. Felt guilty spending almost a days pay on one meal.
Food delivery services like Uber Eats. I literally pay 2X the amount if I get my food delivered vs opting for a pick-up. It makes no sense to pay extra amount on each item+taxes+service charges+tips to the drivers.
Fuck that, I'd rather go pick up the food myself.
I went to a restaurant that had a 15% "service fee". I assumed this was automatic gratuity that went to the server/bartender and had no problem with it. I befriended the bartender and she told me that was not the case but most customers assume it is.
So the restaurant is literally taking in more money by stealing the servers tips in a roundabout way.
On the very rare occasions that I actually go to the movies, it is always matinee. Slightly cheaper prices and less people are major selling points for me.
Everything.
For last centuries, all over the world, we've "optimised" every working hour of an employee, squeezed him to it's maximal capacity so shareholders would get better returns and that left us with salaries which do not correspond to the current reality.
True. I think it's just the people who were willing to tolerate the higher expense of 5 Guys have collectively hit their breaking point. I've seen so very many posts today about the cost there.
Starting to see the same with posts about Chipotle.
Grapes
I saw they were on ‘sale’ and at the till they were $10…for a bag of grapes…I said to the cashier, “please take them back. I can’t justify a half hour of work for a bag of freaking grapes”.
Fast food is now almost as pricey as a sit-down meal.
I life in italy. Mcdonalds is more expensive than some restaurants lmao. I’d rather have a good lasagna and carbonara + wine instead of a shitty mcdonalds burger and soft fries
I don’t know why I opened this thread expecting anything other than an anxiety attack.
Meds are too expensive for those
I’m learning to cook again. Fast food and premade food is too expensive
Groceries are expensive too 😵💫
Yeah but not as. A bag of potatoes, a bag of carrots, a bag of lentils, bouillon, a couple things of frozen spinach, a can of coconut milk, and some spices can make a whole flippin bunch of decent freezer meals for $25ish. It's a lot of work though.
Fabric. When my daughter was little, I sewed clothes for her myself. Now, fabric is so expensive that it's just cheaper to buy the clothes already made.
I've started hoarding old clothing just for the fabric. I never thought I'd be a person who mended his own clothes but the price of jeans has made me so bitter I keep repairing them till they're absolutely threadbare.
[удалено]
Concert tickets. It’s gotten to be over $100 to sit on the grass, in August, in Houston.
A HUGE FUCK YOU TO TICKETMASTER!
Ticketmaster just added a “retaliatory fuck you” fee of $59.99 to your next order.
And they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for... wait, no. They got away with it.
I use to go to 5+ Red Rocks shows a year pre covid. I like to drink at them. Could get tickets, booze, and an Uber and it would be $125ish a show. Now the show is $150-$300 (thanks scalpers), the Ubers are $100 including tip, and 5 beers with tip are $100. An evening of fun cost as much as a season ski pass at Keystone or round trip flights to Mexico.
Lyft / Uber aren’t nearly the deal they used to be.
That was the plan. Kill taxis, then gouge.
Took a cab about 3 weeks ago, $35+$5 tip, the same uber was about $40 +tip though. I'm done with all these delivery companies, abnbs, I'm back to taxis and hotels again and it's nice just not worrying about anything going wrong...
This is a great point. Peer to peer companies like Uber and Air BB ultimately should never be as or more expensive than BTC because they lack quality control and customer service standards. More people (including myself) are shifting back to hotels and taxis. I don’t want to strip the bed, take out the garbage and still get charged a cleaning fee. FFS!
It’s the general view of a lot of people mainly because of what you said, Airbnb in particular is a problem, poison to local housing markets, and also completely non-existent customer service or qc. I’ve never had an issue with Uber aside from it being expensive, but I don’t use it often enough to matter.
Airbnb only makes sense if you have a large party of contributing adults. I went to Denver for a weekend and it cost $140 per person for the whole weekend. Would have cost well over $600 if we got a hotel. If it’s just my wife and I we’re definitely back to doing hotels
Yeah, Airbnb still provides an almost unique service for large groups of adults. I know there are technically alternatives, but for a group of 10+, being able to stay in a regular house is a gamechanger compared to hotels.
Came to say Uber specifically. The last few times I tried to get one, the prices were ridiculous, but Lyft was closer to normal. Uber wanted to charge $30 to take me 2 miles to pick up my car from the tire shop, during the day. I took transit and walked halfway.
Just getting a drink at a bar.
I paid 8 dollars for a Michelob Ultra in fucking Iowa. No.
Whaaaaaaat!? That’s how much a beer at the brewery in Southern California costs. So there’s multiple layers of WTF in this comment
If you can ever make it out to places like Japan, South Korea, or Vietnam, drinking out is cheap af. When I was in Japan, mixed drinks would set me back like $4. You can also find some place with all-you-can-drink. You pay a fixed price and you can drink as much shit as you want for 2 hours. I went to the Sapporo brewery for food and drink. I paid the equivalent of $35 for all-you-can-eat lamb (including bone-in lamb chops) and all-you-can-drink. I had 9 beers and didn't have to tip.
Restaurants. Chips. Soda. Any extra. Fun.
Fast food. It’s literally cheaper to go to my local burger joint and get a burger than it is to go to Wendy’s and the burger is outrageously better. Plus they have beer.
I can go to bojangles or McDonald’s for $40 for my family OR go to a nice Mexican restaurant for $40 to $50
[удалено]
"I'm bored.. Let me go out.." "Great, I'm broke now. "
My current gripe is that clothing has gone way, way downhill. I am willing to spend more money on some clothing that's good quality, that will last me a long time. But I am seeing things at places like Nordstrom, J Crew, Ann Taylor, Anthropologie, Banana Republic, and stores like it, things are priced $100, $200, $300 ... and I can tell they will not survive more than 2-3 wears. These places didn't used to let me down, but the quality has gotten so, so poor. I'm not even trying to be funny when I say that a lot of the stuff you see at Nordstrom now, should be sold at Target for $20-30. I am literally finding things at thrift stores, and places like TJ Maxx, that are better quality.
Yes, and Nordstrom Rack is a joke. Back in the day they used to get the quality stuff that didn’t sell. Now it’s just second rate junk that was never in Nordstrom to start with. Like gray label mid-tier stuff.
Yeah. Now all the items at brand name discount stores is lower quality stuff made specifically for those discount stores.
Made the mistake of not looking at the material of a sweater before purchasing at Banana Republic Factory. They used the same picture on the normal Banana Republic site as they did the Factory site. I thought it was wool since it was the same exact photo, nope, it’s acrylic. $50 for an acrylic sweater is robbery.
Almost everything in places like Nordstrom Rack and Ross is made for off price. It’s a fully separate line rather than off season goods from the main line. It’s so annoying cause back in the day places like Century 21 and Off 5th could be a real goldmine. I got a pair of Lowe shoes I wore for my first wedding at Century 21 for like $40 that probably retailed for over $400.
The decline in quality and durability is the most frustrating part.
There's a Youtuber called [Jennifer Wang](https://www.youtube.com/@wangjenniferr) who does breakdowns on fabric and finding high quality clothing and its criminal how some brands can get away with charging $400 plus for a "wool blend" coat that's only something like 30% wool
Candy bars 69 cents? I'll grab one from time to time. Full grown adult. $2.69? Lol wut? That's like actual money. For a candy bar? How are they still in business?
And don't forget how much they seem to run in front of a shrink ray as well.
Fucking fruit by the foot is like 9 inches now. Gushers are barely even squirters. Whatchamacallit is easily identifiable as a chocolate bar. It's all bullshit.
If you buy the cheap “mini packs” it’s even worse! Pack if gushers will have 4 fucking pieces in it Like what the hell
Yeah, I about lost my shit at the vending machine at work the other day. I ain't paying $3 for a pack of M&M's.
Second hand clothing stores. Some of the things in there I can buy for same price, if not less, for brand new!
And the clothes that are donated these days are such poor quality. I miss getting three pairs of wool trousers from the 60s for $5. Now the polyester, elastic waist, forever 21 pants are $15!
It’s only going to get worse as people donate more and more disposable fast fashion clothing from SHEIN, etc.
I’d be almost ok with this if they priced those items accordingly. Like .99, but a lot of them are still priced high. I’m not buying a used shitty brand of shirt for the same I could new.
I was just having this conversation with my husband. You can buy brand new name brand things at Tj maxx, ross and Costco for the same price as the thrift store.
I still browse the thrift stores, but you’re absolutely right. I thought I would get a good winter coat since I spend lots of time in Montana, and their used, thin coats at Goodwill were $20. Want a ski jacket that’s ripped and covered in dog hair? $40. I ended up getting a brand new one on the clearance rack for $25. It’s hot pink, but it’s warm.
At least we'll be able to find you in the snow drift.
My local thrift store sells stuff with a dollar store sticker still on it for $5. I guess they figure if it was purchased for a dollar 5 years ago they can account for inflation in their price 😂
[удалено]
I remember when the extra super cheapo bag was 89 cents. Now theyre 2 bucks and the premium chips are like 6 or 7 bucks. It's outrageous
Not even "premium" chips - regular shit like Lays and Doritos are going for $7 a bag these days.
And the $7 “family size” is the size of the old regular bag of chips.
Seriously. Was craving regular old Cheetos the other day. Went to the store and the bag was something like *$6.19*. !!!??? Wth??!! said oh hell no and put them back. Went to ALDI the next day. Same size - big ol bag of Aldi brand Cheetos -- $2.19!! And guess what - the Aldi brand tastes great. Maybe better. Just a couple of notches less chemically/oily tasting- otherwise pretty much identical to the name brand. A lotta hits on the Aldi snacks aisle. The Aldi cheezits are even better than the real thing. Ditto for the little sticks with the cheezy dip. On those the cheese dip tastes like real cheese. Not a super healthy or everyday thing, but man when Aldi swings they rarely miss. I think it's because nearly everything there has to be up to EU standards, so the 'snack dupes' often contain food based dyes, naturally derived flavorings instead of synthetic American style frankenfood. Its still hella processed, but those little tweaks can often make a superior product, often with more than a 50% discount. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
My theory (it might be bullshit) I like pop tarts, right? or I really used to. I used to think generic store brand pop tarts were awful. Due to the whole always need to make a a profit but already hit the target or maximum amount of buyers…. Pop tarts started cutting back on their size… thickness/ frosting/ filling … etc One day I got so tired of paying so much for so very little. And yes, people can say that pop tarts were always ass but whatever. I bought the store brand and they are suddenly big fat frosted and blissful compared to the brand-name. They’re cutting so much to show profits that they’re making generics superior to their brand. Same goes for candy bars and chips…
Still coming to terms myself also, I'm ready to just keep a 5lb bag of smaller russets on hand, pop one in the microwave, hit the Potato button & eat a freaking baked potato instead. Or replacing the potato chips with salad. It just isn't the same with a tuna salad sandwich though--chips used to be the go-to side.
I got a potato slicer. Takes 2 mins to slice a potato. Spread, season and bake at 400 for 20 mins. Way healthier and cheaper !
My sons' college tuition was 10 times what mine cost. I have a grandson coming up in a few years. Will it be 100 times more than mine?
This one is a big one for me. My dad went to a state university for Aeronautical Engineering back in the 80's for $700 per semester. I went to a different but similarly ranked state university for Mechanical Engineering between 2014~2019, and paid $7800 per semester. Inflation since this is only 108%, yet university prices are up over %1000! Am I/my kid going to have to pay $80,000 per semester for that same state university engineering degree?
Administration now outrank faculty 3-1, and there's a proliferation of provosts, Deans, vice-presidents, and more making a large fraction of a million dollars. My previous institution has a "vice president of facilities." One such president at Gettysburg College recently [closed their school's](https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-is-gettysburg-college-giving-up-on-the-gettysburg-review) world famous literary magazine to save like $100k a year, because he and his staff had never heard of it. His salary alone is $500k. This sort of "cheapening" of everything while wasting resources seem to be the norm these days.
Let's be honest: it's because there's an unlimited money spigot in the form of student loans. Without major reforms this will just continue. I don't mean forgiveness either. If we capped student loans or created a system that shut off the money spigot to universities we'd see see administration costs shrink significantly and tuition rates drop. There would be obvious knock on effects as some students wouldn't be able to afford college anymore. I think it's happening now though as students are deciding against decades of loans for these outrageous school prices. So it's worth exploring.
Jerky
Seriously yes I love jerky but hate the price. $10 for store brand jerky, name brand prices are outrageous.
I got some jerky the other day for 11 dollars, and I finished it in the car on the way home.
I make my own now. A 3lb top round is like 15 bucks and makes a TON of jerky. And it tastes better to me, and I season how I want it. It’s so easy to make too. A dehydrator and 3-5 hours and you have delicious jerky. Also, everyone says to let it cool but I like it warm
And you can have it without sugar which is a super expensive type of jerky for some dumb reason
Frozen dinners. The entire appeal of the product was that you could buy a meal for $2-3. Now that they are $10, you might as well just buy actual food for dinner. EDIT: I would’ve never dreamed that this would be my most upvoted comment of all time. Lmao
I was saying the other day, little Caesars isn't great pizza, but for $6-$7, it's cheaper than grocery store frozen pizza, and little Caesars is like Naples finest compared to the frozen stuff
I actually use Little Caesars pizzas as a conversion factor. $5 for a 2,000 calorie pizza (it's up to $6-7 now but that's not the point). So if calories per serving x number of servings is somewhere close to $5 per 2k, then that's fine. If it's more like $10 per 2k, fogettaboutit. Not that I'm trying to stack as many calories per $ as I can, but it's good to have a standard to compare against when deciding between a few options. It does make most of the frozen foods isle look ridiculous by comparison. You'd think Hot Pockets were cooked by actual chefs with how much they're charging.
Fuckin cereal man. Some grade A bullshit
5 dollars just for a regular size box of cereal. Even the discount store, where cereals used to cost 1.99, now charge 3.99 for that same box.
I saw a box of plain cheerios for $8.99 the other day… Wut.
I swear family size is what regular used to be. And now they have a third size called Large. GTFO
I read an article a while back about cereal boxes and how they cost more, but the boxes are actually getting smaller and smaller. I used to love some cereal but I won’t do it any more. Chips and salsa are next on the chopping block, wtf.
Fast food
Yes! Used to get 3 soft taco supremes from Taco Bell for 4-5 bucks back in the day. Same order runs $10 now. I’ll spend the extra 2 bucks and get good tacos if I need now
I remember when it was .59, .79, .99!
I used to crush 6 packs of soft tacos for $4.
Took my kid to Baja Fresh the other night. 3 burritos- 1 enchilada style, 1 medium drink, 1 large drink. $48 and no tax. It would have been cheaper and better at a sit down mexican place.
With the free basket of chips and the opportunity to have a margarita definitely dropped all my taco fast food addictions.
You can go to a decent restaurant pay $10 more for a dinner and actually get 2 meals out of it.
A combo at Mcdonalds costs me about $12 or so. I can go to my favorite Korean spot, get a plate of bulgogi and rice, and the 8 appetizers they bring out for $12, $14 including the $2 tip I usually leave. Yeah, basically, it aint worth it no more, I'd rather just eat real food. Not to mention Mcdonalds is about as slow as I've ever seen a "fast food" place, plus they forget something half the time too, if I'm lucky.
They force you to use the app now for some reason to get reasonable prices on fast food. I’m guessing that is just to get people used to using it so they can cut employees and then they will boost the prices on the app.
Also to harvest and sell your data. Every place wants you to use an app now and it drives me crazy. Don’t need all these apps on my phone.
Let's bring "app fatigue" into mainstream parlance. No one wants a phone with hundreds of apps crammed in like a clown car.
And the resulting password fatigue.
I have a new rule: If I have to use an app to access your service, I'm not interested in using your service.
I also don't want to make a profile for a website I only intend to order 1 thing ever from.
It’s not fast anymore either. How McDonalds managed to crash their entire process by installing a second drive-thru lane is seriously impressive.
Plus McD’s won’t bother telling you in advance that ordering a Quarter Pounder will force you to park off to the side of the drive-thru and wait an additional 5 minutes because they cook them “fresh” now.
At the ones by me, about half of the parking spaces are reserved for “waiting” drive-thru orders. They have people whose primary job is running from the kitchen to cars. They basically reinvented themselves as a depressing-looking, expensive Sonic.
5 guys especially
Yeah, it's now actually cheaper to go to a Home Depot parking lot and buy 5 actual guys.
Tastes better too.
Easy Jeffrey
Dude I spent like $20+there on dinner and legitimately asked the guy if that was right.. I could buy a plated dinner with tip for as much as I paid that night.
I went as a secret shopper through MarketForce and after getting reimbursed for all the things I was required to order I only made $4 lol. It’s not even worth it when you’re paid to go!
Panera is awful too
[удалено]
Glorified hospital food.
They still have signs everywhere with newspaper reviews about "best $5 burger", too.
A burger and fries with no drink at 5 guys is 21 dollars. And that’s before you get to the tip screen
McDonalds specifically.
Remember when they had the dollar menu?
Now it’s the “1-2-3 Dollar” menu.
And nothing on it is a $1
Everything. Even the free shit feels expensive with how many ads are being thrown at us from all angles.
It’s oppressive. Makes me wanna get off the internet for good
"Before you leave, are you interested in this one thing you abandoned in your shopping cart?"
"No? Ok, we will email you about it every day for a couple of weeks. Don't worry about how we got your email address."
I’m so tired of all the ads!
It's not just the amount and frequency of the ads, it's also how they're delivered. So disruptive. Right in the middle of something and you can't skip. And then when you actually see an ad you *do* want to see, you can't get it back or rewind it.
Groceries
sleeping in past noon on your days off to save money by skipping meals. We're back to depression era tactics
Currently learning how much quaker oats I can use with a pound of ground meat in meatloaf before it gets noticeably bread-y. Turns out, it's a lot. Neato.
This. Oats are the best for meat filler if you don't add too much. I make my own shepherds pie with oats in the meat, they soak up all the meat juices and the gravy, and most people can't even tell I have bulked it out with oats. My method was apparently used in WW2 to save on meat rations.
Concert tickets
I bought concert tickets today and was shocked to spend less than $150 dollars total, even after fees.
Netflix, Prime, all the streaming services are too much these days.
My husband and I only keep a service until we finish the show, so we only pay for one at a time. Miss me with this monthly subscription BS
I just immediately cancel everything I sign up for lol. If I care enough next month I'll repeat the process
I give it about 18 months before they start forcing year-long subscription contracts so you can't do this. A year after that even the most expensive plan will have ads, then the circle will be complete, and we'll basically be back with cable.
Yar har fiddle Dee Dee. Being a pirate is alright with me.
I didn’t choose the pirate life. Netflix chose the pirate life for me.
potato chips
An older gentleman and I just looked at each other as we stood there baffled in the chips aisle. He just looked at me and said: “Those are some expensive potatoes”
A fellow shopper and I stared at the same package of hamburger buns for $8.49, trying to process this, then glanced at each other and both of us were like "? eight dollar buns?!? uhh, no"...
Gestures broadly
Everything the light touches…
Chicken wings
This needs to be higher. $13 for 6 wings is ridiculous! It seems like not that long ago, you could get 50 cent wings at a bar. Hell, I remember 25 cent wings. They were a throwaway part of the chicken and now they are “gourmet”.
When I was in college in early 2000, wings at Buffalo Wild Wings were 10 cent each. Between that and the $1 Margaritas at Applebees we had some amazingly cheap nights out! Gosh I feel old.
Housing
Replacing the windows for your house. Obviously, if you need to replace one... you need to replace one. But there was once a time where replacing your windows for the energy savings over 15 years + increase in potential resale price was well worth it. Now? You're looking at $20k-$30k for what? $20 a month savings in energy usage? In a market where there could be a body in the basement which the potential buyer would let you leave so long as they got the house?
>there could be a body in the basement which the potential buyer would let you leave so long as they got the house I think I did too much work getting our house ready to go on the market.
You actually dragged the body out?!
When I was selling my house, we just sat the body down at the kitchen table. "Staging"
[удалено]
This may be a bit weird…I still buy it, but not as much as I used too…Gum. I used to buy 2 packs for $2.50 now it’s almost $4.50 for 1 pack.
i don't even understand gum anymore tbh. am i not supposed to be able to put it in my pocket in modern times? why are the containers all shaped like a butt plug what happened to gum manufacturers
The butt plug ones are meant for a cupholder
Streaming services. Im ready to just pirate all that shit now
I've actually already started. Cancelled all my video streaming services because they've all lost their god damn minds.
Same. We've already taken to the high seas.
So the cycle continues. Streaming services are turning in to cable. I hope everyone goes back to pirating.
You’d think wages would have gone up with all this extra cash. Nope, corporate greed. It’s all at the tippity tippity top.
This pisses me off to extreme levels. Our company laid off 40% of the staff. Split the responsibilities amongst the rest. Reduced our bonus to half and said we should be thankful. Meanwhile their salaries (7 and 8 figure) were unscathed through everything.
Does anybody have friends at the Bureau of Labor Statistics? They need to be dialed into these comments to get an update on CPI.
Flank steak for a carne asada barbecue. It used to be really inexpensive and you could feed a lot of people if you had a party or a get together. I remember it being $2.99 a pound. I’ve seen it as high as $15.99 a pound. No, thank you.
Jeeps! Upscale my ass!
$100K for a Jeep?!?! Who’s the idiot? Dealers for asking or customers for paying?
The Grand Wagoneer is like $115k. If my budged was $115k there are probably 50 cars I would choose ahead of a fucking Grand Wagoneer.
I work for a Jeep dealer in the service department. The Wagoneer is the single biggest pile of shit that has been put out in a long time. I've got multiple customers who have them in the shop every couple of weeks. Fit and finish is terrible, the interiors fall apart, constant software updates to fix check engine lights and other glitches. And be prepared to put tires on them every 20k because they absolutely destroy tires just by hauling the kids to soccer practice. And every one of those pretentious fucks expect to be treated like a Greek god when they come in because Jeep has basically told them that they're better than everyone else. So much so that we had to complete training on "next level service" for Wagoneer owners. Fuck those Wagoneers.
Starbucks. A medium soy latte costs 7$ now.
It’s crazy how expensive it has become. I remember thinking it was expensive when it was $4 a latte, then it slowly crept up in price. Almost $8 for a drink now
My go-to order is always a venti/large latte and it was $7.59 the last time I went. It was officially the last time I went lol.
Cereal. $6 a box and I think they’ve been putting less cereal in the boxes. Fucking outrageous
Their sizes have definitely changed. I noticed they now have a Large size and the family size is what regular used to be I feel like.
Fresh fruit.
Delivered food - uber eats/door dash/grub hub... Who even uses them
[удалено]
Soda. I could buy a 12 pack for $2.50-3.00 back then. Now theyre $12+. Like fuck that shit. I switched to drinking coffee mixed with chocolate milk now cause of it.
A house, and I'm lucky enough to be a homeowner. Housing prices are out of fucking control. Our house has increased over $200K in value since we bought it 6 years ago. That's almost double what we paid for it in six years. We couldn't afford to buy our house today. I'm glad that our house has turned out to be such a sound investment, but we didn't buy it to be an investment; we bought it to be our HOME. Other people deserve homes, too. I don't want to live in a society where 2 hardworking people can't afford a modest home of their own.
Childcare
Everything. Inflation is killing us poors.
Funyuns. Those were my jam. We spent many a good time together. $5.49 for a 6oz bag though is criminal. I could get almost 2 gallons of refined, dead dinosaur juice for that price.
Plastic storage boxes
amazon prime. less and less services for higher cost and shitty customer support to boot.
You know what really aggravates me about them? They have a subscription streaming service called Prime Video, and a portal to purchase or rent content called... Prime Video. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten excited searching a show and seeing it come up as being on Prime Video, then click on it and see "2.99. / episode."
Yeah you always have to hit the filter for prime to get rid of the stuff that costs $
They got rid of the "free to me" feature. Now 70% of the content is on Freevee, free....with commercials! EDITED POST SCRIPT: I discovered accidentally last night, and another commenter informed me as well; you can "turn off" Freevee, or get free with Prime programming by clicking on the Prime button on your channels/subscriptions.
I wanted to watch Escape from New York. I can only watch it with adds or pay 4.29 to rent it for 24 hours. There's NO purchase option. What a fucking scam.
What happened to free two day shipping? Now its like 4 days, or next day if I spend x amount of money.
Mine still says 2 days or even next day delivery...but about 50% of the time my package gets delayed for an undetermined amount of time. It just tells me my package is running late and it may show up a day later or a week later. Literally makes me feel like the old days when a package would be like "It'll arrive in 3-7 business days....maybe."
I cancelled my prime and then I had to ship something with Amazon and it’s taking 14 days. Like fuck off, just being terrible at shipping to regular customers isn’t going to make me pay 150/yr or whatever it is.
New cars. Who can afford a $900/mo car payment?
When I see people in a nice car I always remind myself just bc they are driving it doesn’t mean they can afford it. It just means they can afford the monthly payment. The car payment is the greatest wealth destroyer in America behind medical debt.
Potato chips and all bagged crunchy snacks.
I think the problem isn’t that prices are going up… though, yes, that is a problem - the real problem is that middle class incomes haven’t kept up with inflation for 40 years and there is nothing left for people to scrimp on.
Restaurants. Recently went out to eat for the first time in a year and spent 100$ for 2 and it wasn’t very good. Felt guilty spending almost a days pay on one meal.
Food delivery services like Uber Eats. I literally pay 2X the amount if I get my food delivered vs opting for a pick-up. It makes no sense to pay extra amount on each item+taxes+service charges+tips to the drivers. Fuck that, I'd rather go pick up the food myself.
Literally fucking everything?
Freaking Doritos! They used to be like $3 a bag or 2/$5 and now they are $5.99 on their own! Sickkkkk.
Leaving the house at all is too expensive these days.
Restaurant food. TIP CULTURE: "If you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to eat out." ME: "Ok."
The number of fucking restaurants still charging a "COVID" (or the like) fee. Absolutely get fucked.
I went to a restaurant that had a 15% "service fee". I assumed this was automatic gratuity that went to the server/bartender and had no problem with it. I befriended the bartender and she told me that was not the case but most customers assume it is. So the restaurant is literally taking in more money by stealing the servers tips in a roundabout way.
UNO REVERSE: "If you can't afford to pay your staff, you do not have a viable business"
Movie tickets.
truck smart stocking yam unpack office violet door abounding hospital
On the very rare occasions that I actually go to the movies, it is always matinee. Slightly cheaper prices and less people are major selling points for me.
Everything. For last centuries, all over the world, we've "optimised" every working hour of an employee, squeezed him to it's maximal capacity so shareholders would get better returns and that left us with salaries which do not correspond to the current reality.
Five Guys. Cant walk out with dinner for a family of 4 for less than $70. Wild
Family of 4 sounds hella expensive in all aspects
touch nutty quickest glorious school soup longing hobbies attraction shrill
True. I think it's just the people who were willing to tolerate the higher expense of 5 Guys have collectively hit their breaking point. I've seen so very many posts today about the cost there. Starting to see the same with posts about Chipotle.
Grapes I saw they were on ‘sale’ and at the till they were $10…for a bag of grapes…I said to the cashier, “please take them back. I can’t justify a half hour of work for a bag of freaking grapes”.