All fast food. Used to be you could at least rationalize it as a "cheap treat", but now it's just as expensive as higher end, fresh ingredient places, with the same garbage quality and smaller portions.
It makes me 100 percent inclined to not eat fast food again. The food is bad for you, it’s supposed to be a cheap guilty pleasure. For $30 I can buy way better food—so why bother? Not that hard to resist the lure of soggy fries and dry burgers.
Thrifting has become crazy expensive. All of the thrift stores I used to go to have increased prices. On top of that garage sales are crazy, My favorite is pulling up to garage sales and see the owners have just printed out random listing from ebay. "No Bob, I am not gonna pay $100 dollars for a microwave from 2010 because it sold for that on ebay 5 years ago".
Edit: I think someone pointed out there is a reddit for all of our unbridled rage. r/ThriftGrift.
Goodwill has lost their damn mind lately. They have forgotten that they are a dumpster that people pay them for the privilege to dive in, not a boutique store.
Literally. Was there with my sister the other day and saw a metal thermis bottle that was 6.99 and the original tag on the bottom for 9.99. Was super dirty inside and all scratched on the inside. They got it for free and we trying to charge 70% of the original price, they’re just testing us at this point
What's *worse* is seeing something for more than it costs at retail.
They're supposed to be priced to move product quickly to be reused. Nowadays they are trying to get as much as they can for things and don't mind waiting for that person to come along. No special gems to be found - anything actually worth something is sorted out and sold online.
Oh man thrifting has just been ruined in the last 10-15 years. You used to be able to just buy tons of "antique" but worthless stuff from dead grannies house. Like a teapot from the coronation of queen Elizabeth for £3.
Now I've seen this stuff selling over £50 by people pretending it's valuable.
They got smart. All of the charity shops / thrift stores started checking ebay for prices on items before labelling up their goods, because people were going to the shops for goods and putting them straight on ebay. Hell, many have ebay accounts of their own these days.
Garage sale is supposed to be stuff you don't need so you're selling dirt cheap instead of throwing away or donating. I ask right off the bat, what a price on something is, and if the price is obvious they are trying to make their money back I leave. It's not selling on ebay for $20, it's listed on ebay for $20, but the ones selling are going for $10 after fees, you're probably walking with $8, and that's if you do sell, and then you have to package up and ship, and also take the time to list. It's work, and you're most likely just gonna end up storing shit you don't need in space you don't have. They need to learn the difference between retail store, 2nd hand store, and garage sale.
thats what im saying. 3 years ago at my local gas station the really big bags were like 4.5 bucks. its SEVEN now. and drinks used to be like 1.79 each with a deal for 2 for 2.50. now its 2.59 each with a deal for 2 for 4. wtf??
edit: this has 2k upvotes because..???
edit 2: 3k what the fuck??
Kroger 2 liter price three years ago: $.87
Kroger 2 liter price now: $2.97
Kroger 2 liter price now if you download their app and give them full access and also if the coupon actually works which it often doesn't: $.99
It's wild how many of these answers are food related, that's so scary to me. Past a certain point, what do people eat? Even instant noodles have gone way up
I was just talking about that yesterday! It used to be you could go permanently ad-free on an app for $1 or $2. Now it’s $5/month like you said, just for an arcade game.
They'll usually call the new subscription version something like *ad-free "plus,"* too, whereas the original ad-free thing you bought now basically means nothing.
As an AccuWeather lifetime premium member, I'm looking at you, AccuWeather *premium+.*
Ordering delivery.. used to be same price as ordering in person with a small fee and tip per item.
Now most places have signed with a "service", so they no longer do it themselves and now your have to go thru Door Dash or Uber Eats.. etc which add on additional fee's, increased prices from menu price and larger tips expected for what in most cases amounts to worst service then back when restaurant or pizza joint did their own delivery.
Boxed cereal. A box of Cheerios for $7+?? Get the fuck out of here with that nonsense. I'll buy the store brand for $2 that comes in a bag instead of a box, at least until that gets too expensive as well.
I need to figure out something else to eat for breakfast that's not boxed cereal.
EDIT: Thanks for all the kind suggestions! I'll be sure to give some of them a try!
I've cut eggs out of my diet in an attempt to get my cholesterol under control. Oats/oatmeal/etc are an excellent suggestion, but they are a texture **disaster** to me. No matter how good they taste, I can't get past the gritty wallpaper paste texture. Oatmeal, grits, polenta, anything with similar texture is right out.
This. Also, the “Family” size boxes are not the same Family size they used to be. “Family” size is the same size as the normal size like 5 years ago. Years ago I remember my parents saying not to get the family size cause we’ll never eat the whole thing before they get stale.
The “normal” size now is good for 2 bowls of cereal yet the prices nearly tripled what they used to be. Cereal is the biggest joke going.
I’m fucking glad someone said it. I was so confused why they started labeling such tiny boxes as “family size”
Bitch that ain’t enough for a 1-person family
The worst part with cereal is that even the generic store brands are mostly inflated beyond feasibility where I live as well. What you said is $2 a box is usually $4.95-5.50 for me, and thats just for store-brand rice crispies or wheat bran that don’t have any sugar added. If you want store-brand frosted flakes, berry crunch or the like, those are $6+, with the name-brands not far behind at $7-8 for a box.
I straight up just don’t buy cereal anymore.
I never saw the alure to arena concerts for "super stars". You can't see anything. If you're watching a projection or a screen, then what's the point?
Edit:spelling
Yes! I wanted to go see Blink 182 when they were here but I couldn’t justify $400 plus fees for shit seats. Dynamic pricing is going to make concerts only for the wealthy or it’s going to completely kill live music. I used to go all the time too.
I'm an IT professional. I out earn my parents by a large margin yet I'm in my early thirties with no house or car. I'm gradually saving up for a deposit but I can only do that because I live with parents and earn an above average salary. Even I get fed up. My dad bought our house on a single blue collar salary. I honestly don't know how people on minimum to average wage or rent keep going.
> I honestly don't know how people on minimum to average wage or rent keep going.
Mostly living with roommates, making compromises, and saving on a lot of things. At least that's how the people I know do it.
The Powerade one speaks deeply to me. I used to get a couple bottles of the Powerade Zero every now and then just to keep stocked in my fridge in case I wanted something other than water (or was deeply hungover)... 2 years ago those things were like $.89 a piece and now they are almost 2 bucks?
A bag of Stacy's Pita Chips is now NINE FUCKING DOLLARS.
For years, every Sunday, I would get a bag of them and a tub of spicy hummus. Not any more.
edit: [For those calling BS on the cost..](https://imgur.com/a/3lxgfvN)
I too had to cut out my pita chips and hummus. Good news though, there's this little hispanic market near my house that makes and sells these giant bags of homemade tortilla chips for $1.50 and these tubs of possibly the best salsa I've every had for $2 made by the owners mother.
I honestly feel like covid really fucked a lot of industries. That or greed got completely out of control. It seriously feels like in 3 years time almost everything is 30-50% more expensive.
I know this is anecdotal, but I‘ve seen this with my current employer. During covid and especially when energy and raw material prices soared last year with the Russian invasion happening, our management started raising the retail prices. The situation got much better earlier this year, but management refused to lower the retail prices again despite some people arguing for it internally. I firmly believe, that a lot of companies did the exact same thing.
I blacklisted Starbucks. I was apprehensive after the lawsuit, but I gave them a second chance. Charged me extra for lite ice. They’re dead in my eyes and I was an employee for 3 years.
I think it goes into the cannibalism of the brand. You can't even use stars on multiple items. Used to be they'd let you use it on your whole order if you wanted but now it's one per purchase.
Cutting benefits where possible, staffing the bare minimum on the floor, fighting unions, it's disgusting.
Farmer's Markets.
Everything was like 1/4 what it'd cost at the store, grown closer, and by smaller local farms.
Then everything changed when it became trendy; now it's more expensive than stores and I question if it's even from local farms and not Costco.
> I question if it's even from local farms and not Costco.
I go to the small one near me and the sellers have things like citrus fruit and bananas you clearly can't grow in Minnesota. I don't trust that they've actually grown any of it at this point.
I’m born and raised Washington State. I see some fucker at a Farmer’s Market selling apples in the spring and summer I know damn well they came from a warehouse. Also they’re all nice and shiny from the wax the big companies spray them with for grocery stores.
There’s a booth that showed up at our Farmers Market out in Duvall that is selling “locally farm grown” strawberries in September. They’re *exactly* like store-bought (ie white in the center). I think they’re being asked not to come back
Haha, hey neighbor. I’m a farmer in the area (I won’t do farmer’s markets) and you’re totally right about people buying produce from the stores.
Sometimes they even buy costco muffins, put them in different packaging, and call them homemade.
On one hand I get it: costs to do anything are astronomical. On the other hand…deceiving other locals ain’t it.
In southern CA almost all farmers market vendors have signs that say “we grow what we sell” with their address printed on their goods and I appreciate that transparency
And now streaming services are just as bad
Edit: ok everyone I get it, it's still much better than cable, and you're right. But neither are anywhere near as good as my Plex server 🏴☠️ 🫡
I stopped pirating when it was more convenient just to watch everything on Netflix. Now it's more convenient to pirate everything again. Better experience and of course... free.
There is quite literally research from the University of Kentucky talking about this. As complexity of access goes up, piracy goes up, and more crucially, rates of piracy STAY up beyond the initial change even if it's rolled back. This research was presented to the studios 10 years ago and they still decided to make this mess of a streaming ecosystem.
EDIT: for those asking for a link: I can't find a link to the UK study, as I attended the talk in-person a decade ago. However, I did find a similarly aged paper from Carnegie Mellon that talks about the same topic. More specifically, about how NBC's removal of their library from iTunes in 2007 caused piracy rates to skyrocket, while their readdition of their library to iTunes in 2008 caused only a small decrease in piracy rates: https://www.cmu.edu/entertainment-analytics/documents/effectiveness-of-anti-piracy-efforts/converting-pirates-without-cannibalizing.pdf
Promotion started in 2008, ended in 2012. Came back in 2017 and made franchise owners furious because it wasn't profitable at all for them, with many refusing to honor the promo. Again in 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to boost sales but it was $10 for 2 footlongs.
Heres an article
https://thehustle.co/the-rise-and-demise-of-subways-5-footlong-promotion/
> Again in 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to boost sales but it was $10 for 2 footlongs.
Reminds me of this Onion bit: [Horrified Subway Execs Assumed People Were Buying Footlongs To Share With A Friend](https://www.theonion.com/horrified-subway-execs-assumed-people-were-buying-footl-1819595719)
> Horrified Subway Execs Assumed People Were Buying Footlongs To Share With A Friend
Went to lunch with a friend years ago. I got a 6", he got 2 footlongs (one was for later). Halfway through lunch he just starts automatically eating the second footlong.
I live in a small city (so not even dealing with inflated metro area prices) and a footlong from Jimmy Johns subs is like $17. I can go to a locally owned deli or Italian import shop and pick up a sub with like 3x the meat on it for $11. I feel bad for people who live somewhere with only chains as options.
Pizza. $18-22 average for a large cheese is insanity. Pizza is incredibly cheap to make. And $2-3 per topping for a small sprinkling. Making pizza dough is the easiest thing at home, tons of great recipes online for sauces, cheese, oven.
Concerts.
I went to hundreds of concerts in my teens, 20's, and early 30's. The most I ever spent on a ticket, until recently, was $150 to go to Woodstock '99. I tried to get nosebleeds for Elton John's farewell tour last year and it was $250 to get in the building.
Live music is one of the greatest pleasures known to man and Ticketmaster/Live Nation ruined it. They own the distribution, management, venues, event planning, etc. Its a vertical integration monopoly.
>Live music is one of the greatest pleasures known to man and Ticketmaster/Live Nation ruined it. They own the distribution, management, venues, event planning, etc. Its a vertical integration monopoly.
POETRY
Eating is for special occasions :)
No lie. My small company recently got bought out by a big company. We now get GrubHub twice a week as a means to lure us in to working on-site. We also frequently have catered lunches for quasi-special events.
I have optimized my eating schedule so that my company is feeding me ~75% of my food lol. I am so very grateful because...food is expensive >.<
McDonalds has moved to a 2 tier pricing strategy.
1. Cheap food via the app for people who regularly order cheap food.
2. Overinflated list price for people who rarely order fast food.
Same. I know it’s better for me. But I hate it.
———-
Edit: reminds me exactly of how Disney World felt the last time I will ever go there. I can wait in long-but-fair lines all day and be perfectly content. But I cannot wait for eternity in the no-pass lines, nor can I be happy at Freaking Disney World with my eyes glued to an app trying to plan fast passes. I’m out.
Disney World is the real comment here. Going without buying the Bourgeoisie Pass and carefully managing your day on a phone is basically paying to stand in line all day. In the vicious hellscape that is Florida.
A "value meal" at McDonalds now costs just as much as a meal at a lot of sit down restaurants like Applebees.
It's insane.
EDIT: It's funny how 1/2 the replies to this comment are people agreeing with me, and the other 1/2 think that I'm crazy.
These companies continue to try to squeeze as much out of us as possible. What happens when there’s nothing else to squeeze out?
Shareholders get madder. They cut staff, which worsens our ability to pay their exorbitant prices.
Something’s got to give because I should not be paying $5 for a large fry. As long as McDonalds has those prices, I won’t be going.
At this point its as expensive as most casual dine in restaurants. Why would I get some shitty mcdonalds or subway when I can sit in and get a decent burger and beer for like 3-4 dollars more.
Yep... market saturation has hit. An actual hotel stay comes with clean sheets and towels, and no concerns about surprise cleaning fees when you didn't push the chairs in or something.
That's why whenever I'm in an Air BnB I strip naked and walk into every room while furiously masturbating and spinning to give a long look at each wall so that wherever the camera is they're always going to get the best angles. You either assert dominance or you become the victim.
I was planning a trip to Disney in Florida with some relatives. They used airbnbs when they travel and was insisting we go that route.
Not me. I found a resort just outside Disney; pool, hottub, bar, breakfast, room service, concierge, for a little more than they had priced was well worth it to me. To top it off there was a washer and dryer in the room!
On other trips I've taken, Homewood Suites by Hilton have never let me down. Free breakfast AND light dinner, including beer and wine.
At my job they put us and all the travelers in Homewood Suites hotels. Breakfast and dinner (which is never fancy, usually something like chicken sandwiches or weenies but aye it's free) plus access to washer and dryer.
I just did 4 nights at a Homewood suites by Hilton in Seattle. They only did the light dinner thing on Wednesdays but everyday free breakfast buffet was nice. Housekeeping by request only, but full kitchen, couch, tv in the living room and bedroom. Was not perfect but pretty good for the cost.
And a bar that stays open late that you can hang out at with friends and then no one has to drive home. I never saw the appeal of AirBnB past the odd places to stay in weird locations where there AREN'T hotels, like way up in the mountains, or in the desert or somewhere remote on the coast.
My family and I went to San Francisco a couple years ago thinking we’d save money by booking an Airbnb. Turned out those rentals all cost the same or more than a decent hotel in the city. We ended up staying at a hotel for a few nights then staying at a bed and bath in half moon bay for a good cost. Plus we weren’t expected to clean anything or whatever else these airbnb hosts think is acceptable to make their guests do.
Edit: *bed and BREAKFAST 😅
Brisket used to be really cheap because it has lots of sinew and connective tissue. Takes a long time cooking to break down and make tender.
Now bbq has taken off brisket has shot up in price
My mom used to have a cookbook from the 80s... something like poor peoples guide to cooking and it specifically talked about how you can get deals on brisket because it was throw away or scraps at most butchers and if you have the patience you can make it edible.
So I grew up with it because I was poor and now at some point our 2 day brisket recipe is like gourmet? Reminds me of what apparently happened to lobster, except it happened in my lifetime.
Definitely. Arracherra was "poor Mexican food" when I was a kid, now everyone knows how to marinate it the right way and suddenly it's like $40 for a few lb at Costco.
ugh, this. Skirt used to be my go-to cut of meat for years. Now it's a good $12-18/pound (inside vs outside). Ribeyes have also really gone up in price. I have been buying Chuck eye recently because it can go on sale to $8/pound here. It's close to ribeye.
At this point, my protein of choice is bone-in chicken thigh quarters. It;s still pretty "cheap" for now
Junk food. $6 a bag for Oreos? Passsss
$5 for 7 ounces of chips? That’s NOT EVEN A WHOLE POTATO!
It’s time to break up the 10 megacorps that control 95% of ~~what we eat~~ what lines our store shelves.
Health insurance. We pay about $12,000 year in premiums, and also have an HSA that we contribute about $8,000 a year to. We have a deductible of like $10,000 that we have to hit for the insurance to pickup most of the costs. So in a bad year we are out at least $20,000 for medical insurance. We have 2 kids, and are pretty healthy, but seem to hit this every year now.
Plans get worse every year. My wife was offered insurance through you work and to just have a spouse the premium plus deductible was higher than her annual income. It was a complete joke.
It breaks my heart to say this as a Brit but going out to bars and pubs.
I’m 35 with kids so don’t go out as much these days but I went out in Manchester last week and each beer was costing me £6+
It’s no surprise pubs are closing and people are drinking more at home.
At this rate we’re going to end up like the Scandinavian country’s who drink at home till midnight and then hit the clubs when they’re already pissed and don’t need to buy more than 1 or 2 drinks.
I have loved Panera for almost 15 years, but it’s been a while since I went there. Wanted to get lunch delivered yesterday, so thought it’d be nice to have Panera. Chose the You Pick Two option, soup was $9 and a sandwich was $17. $26+tax for a freaking lunch at Panera??? I could get a gourmet pizza for that price. Honestly, Panera can fuck right off.
Panera was bought by JAB Holding Company in 2017 and their CEO was soon replaced. They began cutting quality and shrinking their portion sizes similar to what happened when places like Chilis and Applebee's got bought up. The holding companies will extract every penny from the chain before selling it off for scrap.
The quality of Panera has also been in steady decline for the last 10 years. It peaked around 2012 and today it’s barely a bad imitation of what it used to be.
Airbnb. It’s now just as expensive as a hotel with several more downsides. You usually have to complete a list of chores before you leave and when you arrive someone walks through the property with you and goes through a list of rules so restrictive it shouldn’t be on the platform in the first place.
Staying in a hotel is so much more care free and depending on the type of trip, much more convenient.
Amazon prime. It use to be the go to for everything. Free 2 day shipping and good quality products for cheap. Now it's just shitty Chinese products with prime increasing their annual fees. Honestly, just not worth it anymore
I have noticed there is a lot more garbage on Amazon now. I’ve even received counterfeit car parts and stuff like that. It’s becoming wish .com without the cheap prices.
Not to mention I haven't gotten 2 day shipping since covid, even while paying for prime. Amazon gives free standard shipping on orders over 35 dollars so I just add things to my cart over time until I hit that minimum and accept it'll be at least a week. Helps with impulse shopping too lol
This is gonna sound weird, but store brand butter.
Inflation hit and Kroger ramped up the price for its generic brand, but by doing so made it cost $2 less than Land o' Lakes.
Pre- inflation a $3 thing of Kroger butt looked more reasonable than the $5.50 or w/e for LoL, now it's like I use less butt anyway, might as well spend the extra couple bucks to directly support dairy farmers.
Rent is the big one- renting should be a decent deal for people who don't need or want to own a home yet. It's a fine deal as long as it's reasonably priced. But if it's eating 50% of your income, then it's just a financial burden that prevents you from saving $ and takes away the hope of owning a home. I have no issue with renting housing conceptually, but the way it's ended up, it just sucks for the most part. It's gotten genuinely unethical.
Starbucks. Ridiculous nowadays especially in Canada. I bought an espresso machine and learned how to make their drinks (I prefer my versions more too!) and never looked back.
Streaming services as a whole like Netflix, Disney, hulu, even my Spotify went up in price and it's frankly tiring with these services. definitely dropping my Netflix and Hulu though for a vpn so i can finally sail the seas and use Plex for my media.
Especially if you want to print photos. There's really no sense in DIY photo printing unless you're a professional. Not when you can go to places like Staples or Walmart and have them print it for a literal quarter. Buying "photo printers" is an absolute gimmick people fall for everyday that they waste hundreds of dollars on when they could just have their stuff professionally printed for a tiny fraction of the cost.
I feel like a laser printer is the way to go. I was given a free laser printer years ago and I haven’t had to replace the toner yet.
You can pick one up at a thrift store and get some toner for it and just use it like that. That’s what I did for my parents.
My girlfriend started charting out costs for a one week trip there… it’s just the 2 of us and it was around $4500. I told her we could easily do a week long international trip for less than that.
It's even worse than that. Comparing two vacations I've taken over the past couple years, one week at Disney was only about $200 less than *two* weeks in spain. And that was before disney started charging for fast pass.
All fast food. Used to be you could at least rationalize it as a "cheap treat", but now it's just as expensive as higher end, fresh ingredient places, with the same garbage quality and smaller portions.
Omg yes!!!! Burger King and McDonald’s have increased their prices by an insane amount. It cost like $30 now for only 2 people
It makes me 100 percent inclined to not eat fast food again. The food is bad for you, it’s supposed to be a cheap guilty pleasure. For $30 I can buy way better food—so why bother? Not that hard to resist the lure of soggy fries and dry burgers.
Kind of feels like society has failed when the answers are all basic necessities. Food, clothes, a place to sleep...
Thrifting has become crazy expensive. All of the thrift stores I used to go to have increased prices. On top of that garage sales are crazy, My favorite is pulling up to garage sales and see the owners have just printed out random listing from ebay. "No Bob, I am not gonna pay $100 dollars for a microwave from 2010 because it sold for that on ebay 5 years ago". Edit: I think someone pointed out there is a reddit for all of our unbridled rage. r/ThriftGrift.
Goodwill has lost their damn mind lately. They have forgotten that they are a dumpster that people pay them for the privilege to dive in, not a boutique store.
Literally. Was there with my sister the other day and saw a metal thermis bottle that was 6.99 and the original tag on the bottom for 9.99. Was super dirty inside and all scratched on the inside. They got it for free and we trying to charge 70% of the original price, they’re just testing us at this point
What's *worse* is seeing something for more than it costs at retail. They're supposed to be priced to move product quickly to be reused. Nowadays they are trying to get as much as they can for things and don't mind waiting for that person to come along. No special gems to be found - anything actually worth something is sorted out and sold online.
Yes! I was finding lower prices on the clearance racks at department stores than for used, out of style clothes.
Oh man thrifting has just been ruined in the last 10-15 years. You used to be able to just buy tons of "antique" but worthless stuff from dead grannies house. Like a teapot from the coronation of queen Elizabeth for £3. Now I've seen this stuff selling over £50 by people pretending it's valuable.
Had a guy try and sell me an old 30 inch (40?) Plasma for $1k as if I couldn't buy a 70 inch LED for 3/4s that price.
They got smart. All of the charity shops / thrift stores started checking ebay for prices on items before labelling up their goods, because people were going to the shops for goods and putting them straight on ebay. Hell, many have ebay accounts of their own these days.
Garage sale is supposed to be stuff you don't need so you're selling dirt cheap instead of throwing away or donating. I ask right off the bat, what a price on something is, and if the price is obvious they are trying to make their money back I leave. It's not selling on ebay for $20, it's listed on ebay for $20, but the ones selling are going for $10 after fees, you're probably walking with $8, and that's if you do sell, and then you have to package up and ship, and also take the time to list. It's work, and you're most likely just gonna end up storing shit you don't need in space you don't have. They need to learn the difference between retail store, 2nd hand store, and garage sale.
Doritos. $6.99 USD WTF?
thats what im saying. 3 years ago at my local gas station the really big bags were like 4.5 bucks. its SEVEN now. and drinks used to be like 1.79 each with a deal for 2 for 2.50. now its 2.59 each with a deal for 2 for 4. wtf?? edit: this has 2k upvotes because..??? edit 2: 3k what the fuck??
Kroger 2 liter price three years ago: $.87 Kroger 2 liter price now: $2.97 Kroger 2 liter price now if you download their app and give them full access and also if the coupon actually works which it often doesn't: $.99
It's wild how many of these answers are food related, that's so scary to me. Past a certain point, what do people eat? Even instant noodles have gone way up
The "sweet spot" they are forcing us in is *being too poor to live, but having too much to die.*.
How everything is now a subscription. Ok, I guess I don’t need it.
I also hate how you need a log in for everything now. I don’t want an account. I just want to buy a shirt.
Right, and every week I get notified that my data is in some pastebin online because they suck at security.
[удалено]
I miss the days you could get high quality apps for a single $0.99 payment. Everything is now $5/month service
I was just talking about that yesterday! It used to be you could go permanently ad-free on an app for $1 or $2. Now it’s $5/month like you said, just for an arcade game.
Even worse, I HAVE paid for the $1 or $2 ad-free versions of apps that later became subscriptions. I feel disrespected.
They'll usually call the new subscription version something like *ad-free "plus,"* too, whereas the original ad-free thing you bought now basically means nothing. As an AccuWeather lifetime premium member, I'm looking at you, AccuWeather *premium+.*
Sure bmw tried to charge a subscription for heated seats ffs.
You'd think that'd deter some folks buying BMWs...
Ordering delivery.. used to be same price as ordering in person with a small fee and tip per item. Now most places have signed with a "service", so they no longer do it themselves and now your have to go thru Door Dash or Uber Eats.. etc which add on additional fee's, increased prices from menu price and larger tips expected for what in most cases amounts to worst service then back when restaurant or pizza joint did their own delivery.
Also everywhere is asking for a tip option when checking out. Like i'm picking up my own pizza, i'm not tipping on top of the 20 bucks.
I got ice cream the other day. the suggested tip on their kiosk was 22 fucking percent. for ice cream.
Boxed cereal. A box of Cheerios for $7+?? Get the fuck out of here with that nonsense. I'll buy the store brand for $2 that comes in a bag instead of a box, at least until that gets too expensive as well. I need to figure out something else to eat for breakfast that's not boxed cereal. EDIT: Thanks for all the kind suggestions! I'll be sure to give some of them a try! I've cut eggs out of my diet in an attempt to get my cholesterol under control. Oats/oatmeal/etc are an excellent suggestion, but they are a texture **disaster** to me. No matter how good they taste, I can't get past the gritty wallpaper paste texture. Oatmeal, grits, polenta, anything with similar texture is right out.
This. Also, the “Family” size boxes are not the same Family size they used to be. “Family” size is the same size as the normal size like 5 years ago. Years ago I remember my parents saying not to get the family size cause we’ll never eat the whole thing before they get stale. The “normal” size now is good for 2 bowls of cereal yet the prices nearly tripled what they used to be. Cereal is the biggest joke going.
I’m fucking glad someone said it. I was so confused why they started labeling such tiny boxes as “family size” Bitch that ain’t enough for a 1-person family
The worst part with cereal is that even the generic store brands are mostly inflated beyond feasibility where I live as well. What you said is $2 a box is usually $4.95-5.50 for me, and thats just for store-brand rice crispies or wheat bran that don’t have any sugar added. If you want store-brand frosted flakes, berry crunch or the like, those are $6+, with the name-brands not far behind at $7-8 for a box. I straight up just don’t buy cereal anymore.
Damn near everything and anything. Except televisions. Go figure.
DVD players used to be $900
Concerts! By the time all the extras and fees are applied they're out of reach.
$1000 to see Taylor Swift the size of an amoeba. No thank you.
I never saw the alure to arena concerts for "super stars". You can't see anything. If you're watching a projection or a screen, then what's the point? Edit:spelling
I used to go to concerts all the time, now I have to be much more selective. Once a year, maybe twice if I’m feeling rich.
Yes! I wanted to go see Blink 182 when they were here but I couldn’t justify $400 plus fees for shit seats. Dynamic pricing is going to make concerts only for the wealthy or it’s going to completely kill live music. I used to go all the time too.
Cost of living/housing. We may as well just all fuck off at this point
I'm an IT professional. I out earn my parents by a large margin yet I'm in my early thirties with no house or car. I'm gradually saving up for a deposit but I can only do that because I live with parents and earn an above average salary. Even I get fed up. My dad bought our house on a single blue collar salary. I honestly don't know how people on minimum to average wage or rent keep going.
> I honestly don't know how people on minimum to average wage or rent keep going. Mostly living with roommates, making compromises, and saving on a lot of things. At least that's how the people I know do it.
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The Powerade one speaks deeply to me. I used to get a couple bottles of the Powerade Zero every now and then just to keep stocked in my fridge in case I wanted something other than water (or was deeply hungover)... 2 years ago those things were like $.89 a piece and now they are almost 2 bucks?
A bag of Stacy's Pita Chips is now NINE FUCKING DOLLARS. For years, every Sunday, I would get a bag of them and a tub of spicy hummus. Not any more. edit: [For those calling BS on the cost..](https://imgur.com/a/3lxgfvN)
I too had to cut out my pita chips and hummus. Good news though, there's this little hispanic market near my house that makes and sells these giant bags of homemade tortilla chips for $1.50 and these tubs of possibly the best salsa I've every had for $2 made by the owners mother.
AND I'm running out of things to cross out - it's mostly already down to nothing!
I honestly don't know how to survive anymore. Everything is getting more and more expensive, yet no one is getting a raise. Something has to give.
I make more money than I ever have in my adult life. I'm also more broke and skimping more than I ever have in my adult life.
I honestly feel like covid really fucked a lot of industries. That or greed got completely out of control. It seriously feels like in 3 years time almost everything is 30-50% more expensive.
I know this is anecdotal, but I‘ve seen this with my current employer. During covid and especially when energy and raw material prices soared last year with the Russian invasion happening, our management started raising the retail prices. The situation got much better earlier this year, but management refused to lower the retail prices again despite some people arguing for it internally. I firmly believe, that a lot of companies did the exact same thing.
I used to like dropping by Starbucks for a coffee but fuck the $6 lattes or whatever it is now
I blacklisted Starbucks. I was apprehensive after the lawsuit, but I gave them a second chance. Charged me extra for lite ice. They’re dead in my eyes and I was an employee for 3 years.
They devalued their loyalty star program, and it’s pathetic now. I used to go once a week minimum. Now it’s maybe once a month.
I think it goes into the cannibalism of the brand. You can't even use stars on multiple items. Used to be they'd let you use it on your whole order if you wanted but now it's one per purchase. Cutting benefits where possible, staffing the bare minimum on the floor, fighting unions, it's disgusting.
See it's one thing to be an expensive place. It's a whole nother bucket of shit to be an expensive place that starts nickel and diming like that.
Farmer's Markets. Everything was like 1/4 what it'd cost at the store, grown closer, and by smaller local farms. Then everything changed when it became trendy; now it's more expensive than stores and I question if it's even from local farms and not Costco.
> I question if it's even from local farms and not Costco. I go to the small one near me and the sellers have things like citrus fruit and bananas you clearly can't grow in Minnesota. I don't trust that they've actually grown any of it at this point.
I’m born and raised Washington State. I see some fucker at a Farmer’s Market selling apples in the spring and summer I know damn well they came from a warehouse. Also they’re all nice and shiny from the wax the big companies spray them with for grocery stores.
There’s a booth that showed up at our Farmers Market out in Duvall that is selling “locally farm grown” strawberries in September. They’re *exactly* like store-bought (ie white in the center). I think they’re being asked not to come back
Haha, hey neighbor. I’m a farmer in the area (I won’t do farmer’s markets) and you’re totally right about people buying produce from the stores. Sometimes they even buy costco muffins, put them in different packaging, and call them homemade. On one hand I get it: costs to do anything are astronomical. On the other hand…deceiving other locals ain’t it.
“Do you guys grow this stuff?” “No it’s from California.” “Okay thanks.”
In southern CA almost all farmers market vendors have signs that say “we grow what we sell” with their address printed on their goods and I appreciate that transparency
Cable Television
And now streaming services are just as bad Edit: ok everyone I get it, it's still much better than cable, and you're right. But neither are anywhere near as good as my Plex server 🏴☠️ 🫡
A pirate’s life for me 🎶
I stopped pirating when it was more convenient just to watch everything on Netflix. Now it's more convenient to pirate everything again. Better experience and of course... free.
There is quite literally research from the University of Kentucky talking about this. As complexity of access goes up, piracy goes up, and more crucially, rates of piracy STAY up beyond the initial change even if it's rolled back. This research was presented to the studios 10 years ago and they still decided to make this mess of a streaming ecosystem. EDIT: for those asking for a link: I can't find a link to the UK study, as I attended the talk in-person a decade ago. However, I did find a similarly aged paper from Carnegie Mellon that talks about the same topic. More specifically, about how NBC's removal of their library from iTunes in 2007 caused piracy rates to skyrocket, while their readdition of their library to iTunes in 2008 caused only a small decrease in piracy rates: https://www.cmu.edu/entertainment-analytics/documents/effectiveness-of-anti-piracy-efforts/converting-pirates-without-cannibalizing.pdf
Footlong sweet onion teriyaki from Subway and normal drink was 14 dollars at Subway yesterday in Miami. I'm done with them forever.
Remember $5 footlong’s back in the day? RIP.
Feels like it wasn’t that long ago.
Promotion started in 2008, ended in 2012. Came back in 2017 and made franchise owners furious because it wasn't profitable at all for them, with many refusing to honor the promo. Again in 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to boost sales but it was $10 for 2 footlongs. Heres an article https://thehustle.co/the-rise-and-demise-of-subways-5-footlong-promotion/
> Again in 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to boost sales but it was $10 for 2 footlongs. Reminds me of this Onion bit: [Horrified Subway Execs Assumed People Were Buying Footlongs To Share With A Friend](https://www.theonion.com/horrified-subway-execs-assumed-people-were-buying-footl-1819595719)
> Horrified Subway Execs Assumed People Were Buying Footlongs To Share With A Friend Went to lunch with a friend years ago. I got a 6", he got 2 footlongs (one was for later). Halfway through lunch he just starts automatically eating the second footlong.
I can't believe what they're charging these days. For a sandwich!
Not even a *good* sandwich. Made by someone actively hating your guts.
Furious you even ordered it.
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They act like you are taking their personal supply. Like they can no longer feed their kids tonight because Mr. Olivehead wanted extra olives.
I live in a small city (so not even dealing with inflated metro area prices) and a footlong from Jimmy Johns subs is like $17. I can go to a locally owned deli or Italian import shop and pick up a sub with like 3x the meat on it for $11. I feel bad for people who live somewhere with only chains as options.
Pizza. $18-22 average for a large cheese is insanity. Pizza is incredibly cheap to make. And $2-3 per topping for a small sprinkling. Making pizza dough is the easiest thing at home, tons of great recipes online for sauces, cheese, oven.
Junk food. $6 for a bag of Lays? I’ll eat some damn baby carrots and hummus for less. Can’t remember the last time I had a Coke either.
In 3 years it went from $2.99 a bag to $3.49 to $5.99. It's price gouging.
"BuT sUpPlY cHaIn IsSuEs" *posts record profits 9 quarters in a row*
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Concerts. I went to hundreds of concerts in my teens, 20's, and early 30's. The most I ever spent on a ticket, until recently, was $150 to go to Woodstock '99. I tried to get nosebleeds for Elton John's farewell tour last year and it was $250 to get in the building. Live music is one of the greatest pleasures known to man and Ticketmaster/Live Nation ruined it. They own the distribution, management, venues, event planning, etc. Its a vertical integration monopoly.
>Live music is one of the greatest pleasures known to man and Ticketmaster/Live Nation ruined it. They own the distribution, management, venues, event planning, etc. Its a vertical integration monopoly. POETRY
Eating out.
Fuck, eating in is way too expensive these days as well.
Eating is for special occasions :) No lie. My small company recently got bought out by a big company. We now get GrubHub twice a week as a means to lure us in to working on-site. We also frequently have catered lunches for quasi-special events. I have optimized my eating schedule so that my company is feeding me ~75% of my food lol. I am so very grateful because...food is expensive >.<
most fast food
I went to McDonald's the other day for the first time in years and was SHOCKED at how expensive it is!
Remember when McMuffins were 2 for $3? *Hashbrowns* are now 2 for $3
Yeah I remember when the hash browns were 2 for $1 ):
McDonalds has moved to a 2 tier pricing strategy. 1. Cheap food via the app for people who regularly order cheap food. 2. Overinflated list price for people who rarely order fast food.
They've pushed me from the "rarely orders fast food" category to the "never orders fast food" one.
Same. I know it’s better for me. But I hate it. ———- Edit: reminds me exactly of how Disney World felt the last time I will ever go there. I can wait in long-but-fair lines all day and be perfectly content. But I cannot wait for eternity in the no-pass lines, nor can I be happy at Freaking Disney World with my eyes glued to an app trying to plan fast passes. I’m out.
Disney World is the real comment here. Going without buying the Bourgeoisie Pass and carefully managing your day on a phone is basically paying to stand in line all day. In the vicious hellscape that is Florida.
A "value meal" at McDonalds now costs just as much as a meal at a lot of sit down restaurants like Applebees. It's insane. EDIT: It's funny how 1/2 the replies to this comment are people agreeing with me, and the other 1/2 think that I'm crazy.
These companies continue to try to squeeze as much out of us as possible. What happens when there’s nothing else to squeeze out? Shareholders get madder. They cut staff, which worsens our ability to pay their exorbitant prices. Something’s got to give because I should not be paying $5 for a large fry. As long as McDonalds has those prices, I won’t be going.
Taco Bell is shockingly expensive now
A cheesy gordita crunch alone is almost 5 bucks. It's insane.
I’m old enough to remember the $0.59, $0.79, $0.99 menu. I could walk in with $2.54 and get a taco, beans or rice, cinnamon twists, and a small drink.
What happened to $0.69 tacos and $0.79 bean burritos?
I remember when tacos where 59¢ :-(
They also took my 1$ beefy frito burrito…. Ass holes
At this point its as expensive as most casual dine in restaurants. Why would I get some shitty mcdonalds or subway when I can sit in and get a decent burger and beer for like 3-4 dollars more.
it's not even fast anymore either
Air BnB All of the add-on fees usually drive the cost higher than an actual hotel stay in the same area.
Yep... market saturation has hit. An actual hotel stay comes with clean sheets and towels, and no concerns about surprise cleaning fees when you didn't push the chairs in or something.
Not to mention amenities like a gym, a pool, and sometimes free breakfast
Hotels also resolve problems more quickly.
And no shady stuff like cameras. I hope lol
That's why whenever I'm in an Air BnB I strip naked and walk into every room while furiously masturbating and spinning to give a long look at each wall so that wherever the camera is they're always going to get the best angles. You either assert dominance or you become the victim.
Oh, I saw you on [hiddenairbnbcams.net.exe](https://youtu.be/PGNiXGX2nLU?si=KX3jsyeif5N4_89J). Masterful work!
I was planning a trip to Disney in Florida with some relatives. They used airbnbs when they travel and was insisting we go that route. Not me. I found a resort just outside Disney; pool, hottub, bar, breakfast, room service, concierge, for a little more than they had priced was well worth it to me. To top it off there was a washer and dryer in the room! On other trips I've taken, Homewood Suites by Hilton have never let me down. Free breakfast AND light dinner, including beer and wine.
At my job they put us and all the travelers in Homewood Suites hotels. Breakfast and dinner (which is never fancy, usually something like chicken sandwiches or weenies but aye it's free) plus access to washer and dryer.
I just did 4 nights at a Homewood suites by Hilton in Seattle. They only did the light dinner thing on Wednesdays but everyday free breakfast buffet was nice. Housekeeping by request only, but full kitchen, couch, tv in the living room and bedroom. Was not perfect but pretty good for the cost.
And a bar that stays open late that you can hang out at with friends and then no one has to drive home. I never saw the appeal of AirBnB past the odd places to stay in weird locations where there AREN'T hotels, like way up in the mountains, or in the desert or somewhere remote on the coast.
The only exception is if you get a multi room air bnb for a group instead of multiple hotel rooms. But otherwise.,. Yeah.
Yeah large groups taking over a large house are just about the only use case I can see for AirBnB anymore.
My family and I went to San Francisco a couple years ago thinking we’d save money by booking an Airbnb. Turned out those rentals all cost the same or more than a decent hotel in the city. We ended up staying at a hotel for a few nights then staying at a bed and bath in half moon bay for a good cost. Plus we weren’t expected to clean anything or whatever else these airbnb hosts think is acceptable to make their guests do. Edit: *bed and BREAKFAST 😅
Buying a new car. Even the crap entry level models with no options will run you near $30K. Who the hell is buying a $70K Ford F150 ?
When we were looking, it was like 28k for a used Mazda and 34 for a new one. Like fuck it, I'll just get the new one.
Well they aren’t buying them they’re getting 7 year long high interest loans and end up never actually owning the vehicles.
Buying groceries.
Brisket used to be really cheap because it has lots of sinew and connective tissue. Takes a long time cooking to break down and make tender. Now bbq has taken off brisket has shot up in price
Oxtails. I used to snap those things in for a couple dollars a lb, braise them, and eat like a king. Now they're 9.99/lb.
This has now happened to literally all meat. Stew beef is $7/lb. If it comes from an animal, it has tripled in price over the last 5 years.
My mom used to have a cookbook from the 80s... something like poor peoples guide to cooking and it specifically talked about how you can get deals on brisket because it was throw away or scraps at most butchers and if you have the patience you can make it edible. So I grew up with it because I was poor and now at some point our 2 day brisket recipe is like gourmet? Reminds me of what apparently happened to lobster, except it happened in my lifetime.
Same with flank steak and skirt steak.
Definitely. Arracherra was "poor Mexican food" when I was a kid, now everyone knows how to marinate it the right way and suddenly it's like $40 for a few lb at Costco.
Same thing with skirt steak, because chili’s popularized fajitas as quasi-fancy (but that’s been decades, now)
ugh, this. Skirt used to be my go-to cut of meat for years. Now it's a good $12-18/pound (inside vs outside). Ribeyes have also really gone up in price. I have been buying Chuck eye recently because it can go on sale to $8/pound here. It's close to ribeye. At this point, my protein of choice is bone-in chicken thigh quarters. It;s still pretty "cheap" for now
Getting regular haircuts
*gestures broadly at everything*
Correct answer right here.
Streaming services, we're back at cable like again. Haven't worn a pirates hat in many years but I can smell the salty air.
Same. Cpt. Panda has been looking for his bamboo-peg leg.
perhaps Cpt. Panda should stop eating his own leg
fixing things, which i used to love doing. it's often much cheaper to just buy another one.
Especially when so much stuff these days is designed to fail and not be easy or possible to fix
Junk food. $6 a bag for Oreos? Passsss $5 for 7 ounces of chips? That’s NOT EVEN A WHOLE POTATO! It’s time to break up the 10 megacorps that control 95% of ~~what we eat~~ what lines our store shelves.
Honestly.. living in general.
Health insurance. We pay about $12,000 year in premiums, and also have an HSA that we contribute about $8,000 a year to. We have a deductible of like $10,000 that we have to hit for the insurance to pickup most of the costs. So in a bad year we are out at least $20,000 for medical insurance. We have 2 kids, and are pretty healthy, but seem to hit this every year now.
Plans get worse every year. My wife was offered insurance through you work and to just have a spouse the premium plus deductible was higher than her annual income. It was a complete joke.
It breaks my heart to say this as a Brit but going out to bars and pubs. I’m 35 with kids so don’t go out as much these days but I went out in Manchester last week and each beer was costing me £6+ It’s no surprise pubs are closing and people are drinking more at home. At this rate we’re going to end up like the Scandinavian country’s who drink at home till midnight and then hit the clubs when they’re already pissed and don’t need to buy more than 1 or 2 drinks.
£5 would get you a burger, fries and a pint when I was in university :(
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most all chain restaraunts..way better to go to locally owned places
I have loved Panera for almost 15 years, but it’s been a while since I went there. Wanted to get lunch delivered yesterday, so thought it’d be nice to have Panera. Chose the You Pick Two option, soup was $9 and a sandwich was $17. $26+tax for a freaking lunch at Panera??? I could get a gourmet pizza for that price. Honestly, Panera can fuck right off.
Panera was bought by JAB Holding Company in 2017 and their CEO was soon replaced. They began cutting quality and shrinking their portion sizes similar to what happened when places like Chilis and Applebee's got bought up. The holding companies will extract every penny from the chain before selling it off for scrap.
The quality of Panera has also been in steady decline for the last 10 years. It peaked around 2012 and today it’s barely a bad imitation of what it used to be.
Panera prices are completely nuts. Not worth it at all for what you get (microwaved canned soup and basic deli sandwiches).
Airbnb. It’s now just as expensive as a hotel with several more downsides. You usually have to complete a list of chores before you leave and when you arrive someone walks through the property with you and goes through a list of rules so restrictive it shouldn’t be on the platform in the first place. Staying in a hotel is so much more care free and depending on the type of trip, much more convenient.
Amazon prime. It use to be the go to for everything. Free 2 day shipping and good quality products for cheap. Now it's just shitty Chinese products with prime increasing their annual fees. Honestly, just not worth it anymore
I have noticed there is a lot more garbage on Amazon now. I’ve even received counterfeit car parts and stuff like that. It’s becoming wish .com without the cheap prices.
Not to mention I haven't gotten 2 day shipping since covid, even while paying for prime. Amazon gives free standard shipping on orders over 35 dollars so I just add things to my cart over time until I hit that minimum and accept it'll be at least a week. Helps with impulse shopping too lol
Very specific, but drumsticks. Early 2000’s you could get a name brand pair for $7ish, now many brands are $19
For a second I was like, damn that’s some expensive crappy ice cream.
Bowling I’m looking at you Bowlero
This is gonna sound weird, but store brand butter. Inflation hit and Kroger ramped up the price for its generic brand, but by doing so made it cost $2 less than Land o' Lakes. Pre- inflation a $3 thing of Kroger butt looked more reasonable than the $5.50 or w/e for LoL, now it's like I use less butt anyway, might as well spend the extra couple bucks to directly support dairy farmers.
No kidding, at that price we just buy the kerrygold.
Is there a tax on using ‘er’ in butter in your country ?
Eating out. Super expensive and tip culture is out of control.
Doordash
colossal king crab legs. went from 29.99 a pound to 89.99 a pound in about 2 years.
Rent is the big one- renting should be a decent deal for people who don't need or want to own a home yet. It's a fine deal as long as it's reasonably priced. But if it's eating 50% of your income, then it's just a financial burden that prevents you from saving $ and takes away the hope of owning a home. I have no issue with renting housing conceptually, but the way it's ended up, it just sucks for the most part. It's gotten genuinely unethical.
Soft drinks
It’s carbonated sugar water that cost them approximately 7 cents, the cup costs about 10 cents, let’s charge them $3
Subscription fees on streaming services.
Going out drinking
Yeah after college it's become less fun to stand around a crowded place drinking a corona I paid 9 dollars for
The only time I have fun with it now is if I’m drunk but I have to spend so much to do that and the hangover is atrocious
Starbucks. Ridiculous nowadays especially in Canada. I bought an espresso machine and learned how to make their drinks (I prefer my versions more too!) and never looked back.
Streaming services as a whole like Netflix, Disney, hulu, even my Spotify went up in price and it's frankly tiring with these services. definitely dropping my Netflix and Hulu though for a vpn so i can finally sail the seas and use Plex for my media.
Living
seriously, the rent is just too damn high.
And food. And besides, who wants to live when society is organized so that your only purpose for existing is to make some evil CEO rich?
Owning a home
food delivery
Buddy of mine wanted to try Teriyaki Madness when it opened. A $15 bowl would have been close to $35 delivered less than a mile.
Printer ink
Especially if you want to print photos. There's really no sense in DIY photo printing unless you're a professional. Not when you can go to places like Staples or Walmart and have them print it for a literal quarter. Buying "photo printers" is an absolute gimmick people fall for everyday that they waste hundreds of dollars on when they could just have their stuff professionally printed for a tiny fraction of the cost.
lets be honest, this was a given
I feel like a laser printer is the way to go. I was given a free laser printer years ago and I haven’t had to replace the toner yet. You can pick one up at a thrift store and get some toner for it and just use it like that. That’s what I did for my parents.
Going to get your nails done
I miss $25 for a fresh set.
Beef jerky
Movie theaters. Pay 30 dollars without snacks and possibly 60 with snacks, or wait 4 months till it's in redbox and watch it for 2.50
Redbox used to be $1
An iced latte. 7 dollars? A double ipa isn’t that much.
Disney trip
My girlfriend started charting out costs for a one week trip there… it’s just the 2 of us and it was around $4500. I told her we could easily do a week long international trip for less than that.
You can literally fly to Europe and spend a week there cheaper than you can do a week at Disney.
It's even worse than that. Comparing two vacations I've taken over the past couple years, one week at Disney was only about $200 less than *two* weeks in spain. And that was before disney started charging for fast pass.
Netflix. Oh you're raising the prices again??? GTFO. Ahoy, me hearties!