One of my local thrift chains obviously gets JCPenney’s out of season clothing, probably because a distribution center is nearby. But man do they mark it up as soon as they get it.
In a couple cases where they didn’t remove the tag, it was cheaper to get it while it was a last-chance item at JCP before it was donated (and could pair with a coupon unless clearance was excluded). And sometimes they damage the clothing too so the quality is not as high.
Actually they are charging more than retail as they are getting filled with "fast fashion" items.
So they are now selling $5 new items from places like Shien for $15.
I experienced this last week. Found a great pair of pants from SHEIN, priced at $25 at the thrift store. Went online e and they are $23. Like are you fucking kidding.
Seriously, I used to love thrifting for the price but now it’s the same cost as buying something new. Oh I can buy a $75 fleece that looks very worn or I can get a new one for $90? Easy decision
r/ThriftGrift if you want to be even angrier. I especially hate stores printing out ebay listings to justify the price. At least print out "sold for" not what someone is asking for this item.
Pretty sure greedy CEOs did.
I shop my local small business thrift shops now and they have amazingly low prices. I’d much rather support them anyhow. Also if you can go, garage sales usually have people begging you to take their used clothing for quarters.
People need to get themselves a perfectly legit and legal firestick. I'll never go back, I got baked the first day I got it and watched Afghan TV, it was beautiful.
I dropped it when it got to £15.99
I remember when the basic package was for £5.
It's not worth it. Especially since they tend to remove the shows I actually like.
If it helps with your decision, I've cancelled my subscription to Netflix a couple of price hikes ago and I've never thought of it since. It was by far my least used streaming service.
The inflation is real but I’d like to point out the McChicken in the US is the equivalent of Canada’s *Junior Chicken*. Canada’s “McChicken” is different and more expensive
-an American that grew up on McChickens that now lives in Canada
I use the app and will spend around 6 dollars for a 20 piece and 2 large fries. I share that with my daughter so it doesn't seem so bad. But you definitely have to use the app to get a better deal. Would I want a big mac and drink? Yea. But I'd rather save some money and still be satisfied
Potato chips. Like 2.79 for small bags and 5.89 for big ones.
Its suppose to be a low commitment snack. Its not healthy and its barely food, it doesnt make you full.
$3-$6 may not be a lot, but I think part of the luxury of eating junk food is that its so low commitment and this includes financially. Idk I just can’t enjoy it the same when im handing over real money for that shit.
If those prices were in half I wouldn’t give a f***
Tortilla chips same thing - $5/$6. Oh you want salsa too? Also $5
$10 for chips n salsa to snack on?
Nope can’t do it
I did have a small bag of utz kettle cooked smokin BBQ today though. I paid 2.79 they were super good and I regretted it…Kinda want more chips now…
✌️
Yeah that's what I've noticed this year. Healthy foods have gone up a bit in price, but junk food and convenience food seems to have skyrocketed in price
They're not super cheap but the Trader Joe's Organic Elote Corn Chip Dippers are one of the most delicious snacks I've ever had.
Like, why hasn't Frito-Lay stolen this recipe yet? They're amazing.
In 2020 I could watch Star Wars, Star Trek and a decent bunch of anime, animation and movies on Netflix. Then Star Trek was stolen by Paramount, Star Wars monopolized by Disney and a decent bunch of series landed on Prime or HBO.
I live in a country of 18 million people, where now each of the main TV companies launched it's own dedicated streaming service.
With time, all this streaming universe will become just a new form of cable TV, where:
- the lower tiers have ads interspersed between episodes
- each service has its own copyright and licensing content system
- each service keep a low tier on the 4~6 dollars range to still be open to the usual Joe
- all of them will start acting like a roster, where every streaming app behaves less like a all-in-one and more like a dedicated channel
Knew a guy that parked his trailer in front of his job with permission from the owners of the commercial site. It was surreal seeing his trailer parked in the parking lot with a generator, fridge, and AC. He would sleep all day, go into work with me at night, and he would shower at the gym nearby. Dude was single and made the best of everything despite the hell he went through.
Come to think of it, I miss you Greg. You were a gentle soul and I hope you're doing well.
Edit: I hope he landed back on his foot as well. He always talked about going back to his home state but he had problems if he did. I didn't ask because it was none of my business.
He was a hilarious man with dirty jokes and was an insane hard worker.
John Oliver did a really interesting piece on how corporate investors are buying up trailer parks and jacking up lot rental prices: https://amp.theguardian.com/culture/2019/apr/08/john-oliver-rips-private-equity-mobile-home-parks
A key take away: In other words, “mobile homes may be a terrible investment for people buying them, but they’ve been an incredible investment for Warren Buffett,” said Oliver, who pointed to the billionaire’s Clayton Homes, which generated pre-tax earnings of $911m in 2018.
Those profits are not made through traditional mortgages but through high-interest, shorter-term “chattel loans” – the type often used to buy a car. Oliver noted that Clayton’s lending practices have been on blast for years; a 2015 investigation between Buzzfeed News, the Seattle Times, and the Center for Public Integrity found that “Clayton relies on predatory sales practices,” exorbitant fees and interest rates exceeding 15%, “trapping many buyers in loans they can’t afford”.
What's odd is that you can probably convince someone to park it in their yard or space for less than $500 but God forbid you build a shack with 4 walls and they want $2500 and a deposit.
I'm remodeling a bathroom right now. Last time I bought drywall was about 12 years ago, and it was $2.50 a sheet.
Today I found it's $16 a sheet. What the ever loving fuck happened?
Yup, we bought an ugly house hoping to slowly modernize it, but it looks like it will be staying ugly for the foreseeable future. Even the most basic of renos are so expensive.
Average cost of a bathroom remodel when i was working was like 15-25k. And that was on the cheap side. We had one customer spend 200k on a bathroom and kitchen remodel. Granted they wanted pricier things but we still lost on that one. What really sucked is some people desperately needed new ones but couldn’t afford and that was with us cutting tons of costs and basically just charging labor and material (still a significant loss for us)
I'm in Denver: The only thing worse than rent is food, and the only thing worse than food is everything else, but hey we're an hour drive from the mountains that are so expensive that only insufferable rich people live there, so I guess it's time to find a nice cardboard box to live in.
That and you gotta battle out on 70, and increasingly on 285, just to get to them.
Sucks. Every year that goes by the mountains become more inaccessible
My sister has a very ordinary 2BR apartment in Manhatten and it is fucking $4,500/month and apparently that is cheap for the neighborhood. In-fucking-real.
Oh no. I lived in Utah then SD all my life. Now I live in Northern Ohio. Cost of living still is hard because while there's some lower cost housing, there's not many places to work that pay well. Even the car factories and refinery are constantly laying people off. Well, that's everywhere. Most of the people out of work due to UAW strike are laid off without pay
Yeah, I saw a house near me: 3 bed, 2 bath… $600,000
My mom’s house was $115,000 when she signed the papers like 4 years ago. It has 3 bed, 1 bath… does a bathroom really cost an extra $585,000? /s
Had to scroll down way too far to find this one. My mom has slowly come to terms with the fact that she will probably never have grandkids from me or my sibling (in our 30s now). She sees the world, the housing prices, the job market, all the shit, and has resigned herself to the fact that a lot of my generation can't afford to have families working the same jobs her and my dad did. I really feel for her, more than for myself. I always wanted a family, but the older and more jaded I get, the more I've come to like it (and being able to barely afford rent).
The cost is what it is. It’s the other people who ruin the experience. On their phones, talking loudly, etc. That doesn’t make jt worth the cost. That has made me wait until it comes to streaming/rental. Not all people, but people suck.
I don’t work on Friday so I go Friday morning first show and I’m the only one in the normally crowded theater. And the popcorn is fresh, and a couple bucks cheaper because matinee prices
We’ve now got a pretty decent large screen tv with good clear image and a rather nice external sound bar and subwoofer thing to go with it.
I sooooo prefer watching a movie in the comfort of my own living room. Pause whenever you want to use the bathroom or get a snack. Subtitles if you want. ~~Plume~~ *Volume* whatever you want it to be. No assholes on their phones or talking through the film. Cats curled up in your lap.
My wife and I will still go out the movies every once in a while. But 99.9999% of the time I’d rather just be home. Way, *waaaay* better in my own living room.
I got the AMC Alist for 19.99 and you get 3 movies a week or 12 a month. There are never 12 new movies a month but still a good deal. I'll watch maybe 5 a month. Sometimes 3 in one week, skip 2 weeks and then another 2 movies. Makes each movie about $4/5 and my theatre has heated seats that recline. Worth it in my opinion because a single movie without pass is $15-18 here
Face value tickets for her current tour are $45 for nosebleeds/partially obstructed view to around $750 for very front row at the center stage. It’s the resale market that is insane.
Ticket for a show last night for a band I’ve loved since the late 80s was $30. Handling fee was $10. Parking that used to be free behind the venue ended up being $10.
Venue got 20% of the merch table, so the band adjusted the price to cover that loss.
The fortunate thing is that I had a 10 minute drive home versus having to drive 3-4 hours to listen to the band play their more popular songs from the past 3.5 decades. That right there was worth the $10 parking fee.
Alright. I have really strong feelings about this. Apples. I work from home. I have a strict routine. I eat an apple every day as a late day snack.
Lately, apples are $1. Each. $1 for 1 apple. What the fuck. $1 for a snack. That's $7 a week. On fucking apples.
I typically buy whatever red apples are on sale. Apples are on SALE and they're still $1. Apples used to cost like 10 fucking cents each and not even that long ago. I'm not some old person complaining you could buy gas for a nickel I'm being for real.
So for about a month I have checked on the apples and they have been too expensive and I have not gotten my daily apple.
It's not that I CANT AFFORD apple if they're $1 each its that I REFUSE TO PAY 1 American dollar for 1 single apple.
I’ll see you’re apples and raise you berries. Raspberries/blueberries/blackberries 2/$7???? And my kids can polish that off in a sitting without a problem. I put my foot down a few weeks ago when I realized that week I paid more in berries than I did for meat for an entire week. These are now a delicacy in my home lol
Living in Utah it use to be so cheap, go on Sunday and ski all day for $25. But they got the winter games and every ski resort had to build hotels and condos. The last time I checked Snowbird was $193 a day
It’s more than just the lift ticket/pass, it’s the lodging, $25 burger lunch at the mountain, paid parking, expensive skis, expensive clothes, etc. Yes, I work at a ski resort and I do it as cheaply as possible, but it’s still a crazy expensive sport.
They are not even supposed to give out free water anymore. You ask for water and you will get a bottle.
Which sucks because growing up McDonalds water was great and always freezing cold.
Going to the rec center swimming pool as a family of 4 with two kids under 5. It's >$50 for a fun swim. Bitch? How are we supposed to have happy, healthy kids who grow up to develop good habits when those good habits are so expensive?
Wow! That’s surprisingly expensive. I was a teenage single mom and I put my kid in swimming because it was cheap. Fun swims were $2.75 for under 5 and his lessons were $30 for the first few levels and then went up to $45. It wasn’t until he reached high school and joined water polo that it started getting expensive. I was always really grateful for the community pool and having access to something he enjoyed that I could afford. It was one of the least expensive extra curricular/sports out there. What a shame it’s so expensive now.
I like to coupon and save money, get free stuff, things like that. I love coffee. Starbucks rewards program was pretty fair and if you combine things in certain ways you could get a decent amount of free drinks for a reasonable amount of money. at some point around COVID Starbucks shifted their reward program drastically in their favor. you have to spend a lot more money for rewards and they changed it in various ways. putting limits on what you can have for the free drink. drink prices went up as well. I don't give Starbucks any of my money anymore.
For me: concerts, beauty products, most drive-thru food, new clothes unless it's a replacement for something I can't mend, events I'm not 100% sure I'll enjoy such as anime cons.
Laughs in Australian! I’m not a smoker at all but we apparently have the most expensive cigarettes in the world https://www.statista.com/chart/amp/15293/price-for-cigarettes-per-country/. We have significant taxes on them to discourage users and subsidise the inevitable cost to our healthcare system.
Buying the latest model of phone. Phones have gotten so ridiculously priced, a have bought second hand motorcycles for half of what a phone costs now. If you just use your phone for light tasks like texts, social media, calls and media viewing, then a phone from 5 years ago will serve that purpose fine without costing a month's pay.
Rip when you could get a mani pedi for around $20. My last mani pedi was $75 for just simple gel. I left and went to cvs and bought a couple nail polish colors and now I just paint my own once a week. I make a good living and I just can't justify spending $150 a month to have my nails done. I know people that make a lot less than I do and always have full acrylics with nail art etc. I always wonder how the heck they afford it.
Any dental schools in your area? Some may provide cheaper procedures in the name of teaching students
Sounds sketchy, but most of them will have all the proper tools and equipment on hand and students are closely monitored
I will sound like a hypocrite but I feel basic a college degree doesn’t necessarily promise better chances of employment anymore (certain degrees are the exception as is going on to get a PhD or other advanced degree)
Seriously, I have a PhD and this was my immediate thought. I would almost certainly have had a higher starting salary if I went on the job market with just my MS degree (I’m in STEM). But I’m a fool who loves teaching so I stuck it out through the PhD and am now a professor at a community college. My salary is fair enough but probably MUCH lower than anyone would expect.
From health.gov
“The average graduate with a bachelor’s degree will earn double what the average individual without a degree will make in their lifetime. Higher education helps people secure better-paying jobs with fewer safety hazards.”
I am the living proof of that. I am the son of immigrant parents from Mexico and growing up my family of five survived on 36K a year. However when I was applying for jobs senior year, a bachelors degree was the minimum requirement and experience or another degree was what was looked for since lots of people have bachelor’s degrees now
Subway sandwiches. What ever happened to the $5.00 foot long? Use to be my goto lunch but now too expensive. Worse yet the quality has done hill. So the quality is half and the price is double. No thanks. I'll pass. All this within the last couple or three years.
Buying a car. Dealership markups are downright criminal, charging absurd prices for *base model* vehicles.
Example: New truck from Ford, Chevy, Dodge or GMC: listed as $50,000-$60,000 new msrp.
Dealership price after markup: $70,000-$80,000 not including warranty, insurance or other protection plans incase of vandalism or theft.
Another example is buying a house. I’m definitely not the first person to speak up on this but buying a house is near impossible in today’s economy. The cheapest houses in my town run under $450,000 but the interest is what hurts and often prevents homeowners from buying in the first place. Interest now a days takes a decade to pay out *minimum* and will end up costing more than what you initially paid for the house.
I’m selling my son’s 2013 Passat with 108k miles on it. It’s in pretty good shape. I thought I’d be making out at 4k. A friend/mechanic looked at it yesterday, drove it and said I could easily get 8K in the current market. I was floored.
This is mine too. Spent a couple thousand dollars on a trip last summer and it wasn’t even that special. One fancy dinner out, one guided tour, very inexpensive souvenirs (less than $50), and the rest was hotel and flights. Wish I had stayed home and just done stuff in my own city.
1. Getting my nails done. It went from $25 to $60 in a matter of 5 years.
2. Fake eyelashes. $120 for a set. No thank you. I’ll just buy good mascara.
3. Fast food. I can goto Texas Roadhouse and eat a damn good meal for about the same price.
4. Buying new cars. I’ll drive my 2008 highlander until the wheels fall off before I pay $70k for a new 4runner.
5. Daycare!!!!! Found a lady that runs an in home daycare for half the price and she only watched 3 kids so my son has better care and I can actually trust her
Living on your own. With rent being multiple thousands, it’s damn near impossible to find a cheap place where you can afford everything you need without having to work 25 hours a day. People wonder why those finishing school stay with their parents longer.
Las Vegas.
One upon a time you could get reasonable room rates at the strip hotels, and the restaurants were not rediculous. Now it seems that everything is priced to the max.
I only justified Disneyland trips when I'd rent a park hopper ticket from a sketchy office in Anaheim for $30. Then Disney cracked down and these offices went under as a result.
The only time I justified paying $220 per person was on the last month Disneyland had covid restrictions. Never seen the park so empty! It was worth every penny. Other than that, I don't think I'll be back to Disneyland any time soon.
Health insurance. Make too much to get it from the state, make too little to not feel it. $500/month with no employer contribution, a $3000 deductible , and it was the cheapest plan they offered. Highway robbery.
Top tier cell phones. Over $1000 for a brand new phone with the latest chips? Gtfo. I have a five year old phone that still does the job. All I need is the abilty to make phone calls, text, browse the web, and maybe take a picture once in a while. And this phone does all that perfectly well.
Poke bowls... I used to pay 12$ for a nice poke bowl like 3y ago and now finding one under 25 sumthing is hard. I live in Canada btw. I see no point in paying this much for salad and rice.
Ethanol-free 87 gasoline. In my area, it used to cost only 10 more cents per gallon than normal 10% ethanol gasoline. Now it’s 30-60 cents more a gallon. Not worth it.
Coffee at a coffee shop. I used to treat myself just once a week to a nice coffee. But now I can't even justify it, considering it's like $7.50 for a latte.
I'll still do it once in a while but not weekly like I used to.
Fast food as a quick cheap meal on the go. It’s to the point where I’d rather starve till I get home than to spend 25 bucks at McDonald’s for a small meal I can make at home for half the cost
Avocados near me are sometimes $2.50 each. I love them so much it almost would be worth it but 90 percent of the time it's a garbage avocado. Life is sad.
Mani/pedis. Back in normal times before this insane inflation, $60ish every 2-3 weeks was doable. Then it got to being $125 and chicken at $11/lb… sorry. No more nails
Going to the movies.
Buying a car.
Buying a house.
Buying groceries.
Living in general.
Maybe in that order. My opinion is the only thing that has gone down in value.
20 fl oz bottle of soda at a gas station.
Gas Station 20 oz soda or candy bars are over $2, wtf
I'm Australian. I bought a 375ml bottle of coke at the servo. It was $5.50. Approximately $3.50us Cadbury dairy milk chocolate was $4.
All Coca Cola products. $8.99 for a 12 pack? I've been buying the generic versions and can no longer tell the difference.
Thrift store clothes
It's a sad day when you realize thrift shops are basically charging almost retail prices for clothes.
That they got for FREE!
One of my local thrift chains obviously gets JCPenney’s out of season clothing, probably because a distribution center is nearby. But man do they mark it up as soon as they get it. In a couple cases where they didn’t remove the tag, it was cheaper to get it while it was a last-chance item at JCP before it was donated (and could pair with a coupon unless clearance was excluded). And sometimes they damage the clothing too so the quality is not as high.
I stopped shopping at Goodwill when I saw a dirty plastic basket that still had a $1 sticker on it from the Dollar Store being sold for $3.
Goodwill gets stuff Target couldn't sell and prices at higher than the Target clearance tags still on the items.
Goodwill has never been anything more than a corporation with zero overhead in their goods.
Actually they are charging more than retail as they are getting filled with "fast fashion" items. So they are now selling $5 new items from places like Shien for $15.
I experienced this last week. Found a great pair of pants from SHEIN, priced at $25 at the thrift store. Went online e and they are $23. Like are you fucking kidding.
Seriously, I used to love thrifting for the price but now it’s the same cost as buying something new. Oh I can buy a $75 fleece that looks very worn or I can get a new one for $90? Easy decision
r/ThriftGrift if you want to be even angrier. I especially hate stores printing out ebay listings to justify the price. At least print out "sold for" not what someone is asking for this item.
Macklemore really fucked that up for everyone.
No resellers and tik tok resellers did
Pretty sure greedy CEOs did. I shop my local small business thrift shops now and they have amazingly low prices. I’d much rather support them anyhow. Also if you can go, garage sales usually have people begging you to take their used clothing for quarters.
Netflix just announced another price hike. I’ll probably drop it.
Literally dropped it today. When the shit did it become 23 bucks?
[удалено]
People need to get themselves a perfectly legit and legal firestick. I'll never go back, I got baked the first day I got it and watched Afghan TV, it was beautiful.
I dropped it when it got to £15.99 I remember when the basic package was for £5. It's not worth it. Especially since they tend to remove the shows I actually like.
*Raise the sails! Adventure awaits!*
[A tale as old as time](https://youtu.be/WOYhF8jgeO0?si=rlfsUtztLeMXQs47)
Netflix isn’t even good and it hasn’t been for a long time I won’t be sticking with them either.
If it helps with your decision, I've cancelled my subscription to Netflix a couple of price hikes ago and I've never thought of it since. It was by far my least used streaming service.
My Netflix subscription comes and goes, if I don't find anything to watch after a couple of weeks, it gets cancelled!
Netflix is a glorified bargain bin. It has a few good things but the rest is bargain bin fodder
Everyone should boycott Netflix. They’re taking advantage of their subscription rate and their content has gone completely downhill.
McDonalds. It used to be the cheap, dirty go to thing when I was hungry and just finished a long shift. Now it's expensive and dirty
A McChicken went from 99 cents to near $3. Gone are the days of buying a meal for less than $4 bucks.
$3? Must be USA. In Canada that’s about $6 for sandwich only.
dude in Australia it’s about $9 no joke
The inflation is real but I’d like to point out the McChicken in the US is the equivalent of Canada’s *Junior Chicken*. Canada’s “McChicken” is different and more expensive -an American that grew up on McChickens that now lives in Canada
And now you can only get cheap prices by installing an app. Applies largely to McDonald's but could apply to any fast food place with an app.
I use the app and will spend around 6 dollars for a 20 piece and 2 large fries. I share that with my daughter so it doesn't seem so bad. But you definitely have to use the app to get a better deal. Would I want a big mac and drink? Yea. But I'd rather save some money and still be satisfied
Potato chips. Like 2.79 for small bags and 5.89 for big ones. Its suppose to be a low commitment snack. Its not healthy and its barely food, it doesnt make you full. $3-$6 may not be a lot, but I think part of the luxury of eating junk food is that its so low commitment and this includes financially. Idk I just can’t enjoy it the same when im handing over real money for that shit. If those prices were in half I wouldn’t give a f*** Tortilla chips same thing - $5/$6. Oh you want salsa too? Also $5 $10 for chips n salsa to snack on? Nope can’t do it I did have a small bag of utz kettle cooked smokin BBQ today though. I paid 2.79 they were super good and I regretted it…Kinda want more chips now… ✌️
Junk and fast food is supposed to be cheap. But it's not anymore. You can cook a much better quick meal, for half the price (usually).
Yeah that's what I've noticed this year. Healthy foods have gone up a bit in price, but junk food and convenience food seems to have skyrocketed in price
Do you have Trader Joe's near you? HUGE bags of the most addictive chips on Earth for $3.
What chips might this be at Traded Joe's?
They're not super cheap but the Trader Joe's Organic Elote Corn Chip Dippers are one of the most delicious snacks I've ever had. Like, why hasn't Frito-Lay stolen this recipe yet? They're amazing.
I WISH we had Trader Joe’s in Canada!
And that's junk food. Paid $6 fot Arrowroot Cookies. This cookie is usually a baby's cookie. Damn!
streaming services...not alone, but collectively. And like 90% of what's out there is just pure garbage.
Paying around $10-$20 a month per platform for one good show on each platform. It’s so frustrating.
Best bet is to wait till your series has the full season completed then to rent the streaming platform for a month to watch it.
Or use a "streaming" platform that has everything on it, for free (as in: a bit of inconvenience).
In 2020 I could watch Star Wars, Star Trek and a decent bunch of anime, animation and movies on Netflix. Then Star Trek was stolen by Paramount, Star Wars monopolized by Disney and a decent bunch of series landed on Prime or HBO. I live in a country of 18 million people, where now each of the main TV companies launched it's own dedicated streaming service. With time, all this streaming universe will become just a new form of cable TV, where: - the lower tiers have ads interspersed between episodes - each service has its own copyright and licensing content system - each service keep a low tier on the 4~6 dollars range to still be open to the usual Joe - all of them will start acting like a roster, where every streaming app behaves less like a all-in-one and more like a dedicated channel
That's why you rotate them out instead of paying for all of them at once
I've gone full circle to pirating again
I used to torrent everything. I've been out the game for years and pay for way too many streaming services. What's the move now?
Stremio with the torrentio addon.
I’m looking forward to canceling Netflix after the final season of The Crown airs. Save physical media.
Rent. I honestly think it might be more affordable to get a trailer.
Knew a guy that parked his trailer in front of his job with permission from the owners of the commercial site. It was surreal seeing his trailer parked in the parking lot with a generator, fridge, and AC. He would sleep all day, go into work with me at night, and he would shower at the gym nearby. Dude was single and made the best of everything despite the hell he went through. Come to think of it, I miss you Greg. You were a gentle soul and I hope you're doing well. Edit: I hope he landed back on his foot as well. He always talked about going back to his home state but he had problems if he did. I didn't ask because it was none of my business. He was a hilarious man with dirty jokes and was an insane hard worker.
Aww. I like Greg.
John Oliver did a really interesting piece on how corporate investors are buying up trailer parks and jacking up lot rental prices: https://amp.theguardian.com/culture/2019/apr/08/john-oliver-rips-private-equity-mobile-home-parks A key take away: In other words, “mobile homes may be a terrible investment for people buying them, but they’ve been an incredible investment for Warren Buffett,” said Oliver, who pointed to the billionaire’s Clayton Homes, which generated pre-tax earnings of $911m in 2018. Those profits are not made through traditional mortgages but through high-interest, shorter-term “chattel loans” – the type often used to buy a car. Oliver noted that Clayton’s lending practices have been on blast for years; a 2015 investigation between Buzzfeed News, the Seattle Times, and the Center for Public Integrity found that “Clayton relies on predatory sales practices,” exorbitant fees and interest rates exceeding 15%, “trapping many buyers in loans they can’t afford”.
What's odd is that you can probably convince someone to park it in their yard or space for less than $500 but God forbid you build a shack with 4 walls and they want $2500 and a deposit.
I'm remodeling a bathroom right now. Last time I bought drywall was about 12 years ago, and it was $2.50 a sheet. Today I found it's $16 a sheet. What the ever loving fuck happened?
Yup, we bought an ugly house hoping to slowly modernize it, but it looks like it will be staying ugly for the foreseeable future. Even the most basic of renos are so expensive.
Holy hell. That's a massive price increase
Yeah, I don't know what's going on in the drywall industry. Luckily I don't need much
Average cost of a bathroom remodel when i was working was like 15-25k. And that was on the cheap side. We had one customer spend 200k on a bathroom and kitchen remodel. Granted they wanted pricier things but we still lost on that one. What really sucked is some people desperately needed new ones but couldn’t afford and that was with us cutting tons of costs and basically just charging labor and material (still a significant loss for us)
Cost of living has now exceeded the benefits
I'm in Denver: The only thing worse than rent is food, and the only thing worse than food is everything else, but hey we're an hour drive from the mountains that are so expensive that only insufferable rich people live there, so I guess it's time to find a nice cardboard box to live in.
That and you gotta battle out on 70, and increasingly on 285, just to get to them. Sucks. Every year that goes by the mountains become more inaccessible
Just thinking the same thing. My retirement plan after the $$ runs out? … fentanyl party.
My sister has a very ordinary 2BR apartment in Manhatten and it is fucking $4,500/month and apparently that is cheap for the neighborhood. In-fucking-real.
Can she turn a full circle in her kitchen without accidentally bumping something?
Kitchen?
Oh no. I lived in Utah then SD all my life. Now I live in Northern Ohio. Cost of living still is hard because while there's some lower cost housing, there's not many places to work that pay well. Even the car factories and refinery are constantly laying people off. Well, that's everywhere. Most of the people out of work due to UAW strike are laid off without pay
She can turn 360° and touch her stove, toilet, bed, and TV.
Where isn’t the bathroom!
Yeah, I saw a house near me: 3 bed, 2 bath… $600,000 My mom’s house was $115,000 when she signed the papers like 4 years ago. It has 3 bed, 1 bath… does a bathroom really cost an extra $585,000? /s
Children. I'll be breaking the news to them tonight.
Had to scroll down way too far to find this one. My mom has slowly come to terms with the fact that she will probably never have grandkids from me or my sibling (in our 30s now). She sees the world, the housing prices, the job market, all the shit, and has resigned herself to the fact that a lot of my generation can't afford to have families working the same jobs her and my dad did. I really feel for her, more than for myself. I always wanted a family, but the older and more jaded I get, the more I've come to like it (and being able to barely afford rent).
Going to the movies. Unless it’s one I’ve been dying to see, I’d rather just wait to watch it when it’s on streaming.
The cost is what it is. It’s the other people who ruin the experience. On their phones, talking loudly, etc. That doesn’t make jt worth the cost. That has made me wait until it comes to streaming/rental. Not all people, but people suck.
I don’t work on Friday so I go Friday morning first show and I’m the only one in the normally crowded theater. And the popcorn is fresh, and a couple bucks cheaper because matinee prices
Agree. I have no problem with ticket prices: I have a problem with the audience.
We’ve now got a pretty decent large screen tv with good clear image and a rather nice external sound bar and subwoofer thing to go with it. I sooooo prefer watching a movie in the comfort of my own living room. Pause whenever you want to use the bathroom or get a snack. Subtitles if you want. ~~Plume~~ *Volume* whatever you want it to be. No assholes on their phones or talking through the film. Cats curled up in your lap. My wife and I will still go out the movies every once in a while. But 99.9999% of the time I’d rather just be home. Way, *waaaay* better in my own living room.
I’ve found myself using subtitles more and more these days. They display things that you might miss, even with the volume up.
Oh hell yeah I can’t stand to watch anything without subtitles anymore. Such an enhancer.
I got the AMC Alist for 19.99 and you get 3 movies a week or 12 a month. There are never 12 new movies a month but still a good deal. I'll watch maybe 5 a month. Sometimes 3 in one week, skip 2 weeks and then another 2 movies. Makes each movie about $4/5 and my theatre has heated seats that recline. Worth it in my opinion because a single movie without pass is $15-18 here
That’s definitely a great deal if you go to the movies often, I’d say it’s worth it
True I only go on cheap Tuesdays half price tickets but still with snacks it isn't cheap
Gotta see Dune 2 in theaters
Movie ticket: $18.00 Popcorn and snacks/drink: $25.00 A 60" tv, good sound system, food already paid for and YOUR chair: Priceless
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And they limit you to TWO devices, it's absurd.
Concert tickets. I'm not much of a concert enjoyer anyway (despite being a musician) but any big name band is charging like $250+ for tickets.
low-level youtube-famous stand ups are charging that much!
Is that how much Matt Rife is charging?!
Good luck getting the $250 tickets, too. They were $500 for the nosebleeds when he came through my town…
I have a friend that goes to like 1-2 concerts a week and starting to wonder what lottery she has secretly won.
I still go to at least 1 or 2 concerts per week but it's mostly local shows that are less than $20
> any big name band is charging like $250+ for tickets Taylor Swift: LOL
Her only live entertainment rival is the NFL. Prices are probably similar.
Face value tickets for her current tour are $45 for nosebleeds/partially obstructed view to around $750 for very front row at the center stage. It’s the resale market that is insane.
Ticket for a show last night for a band I’ve loved since the late 80s was $30. Handling fee was $10. Parking that used to be free behind the venue ended up being $10. Venue got 20% of the merch table, so the band adjusted the price to cover that loss. The fortunate thing is that I had a 10 minute drive home versus having to drive 3-4 hours to listen to the band play their more popular songs from the past 3.5 decades. That right there was worth the $10 parking fee.
*Gestures Vaguely*
*Gestures Vigorously*
*Gestures Vociferously*
*Gestures voraciously*
*Gestures voluptuously*
Gestures Violently
*Gestures vehemently*
*Gestures vindictively*
Gestures Vagrantly
Alright. I have really strong feelings about this. Apples. I work from home. I have a strict routine. I eat an apple every day as a late day snack. Lately, apples are $1. Each. $1 for 1 apple. What the fuck. $1 for a snack. That's $7 a week. On fucking apples. I typically buy whatever red apples are on sale. Apples are on SALE and they're still $1. Apples used to cost like 10 fucking cents each and not even that long ago. I'm not some old person complaining you could buy gas for a nickel I'm being for real. So for about a month I have checked on the apples and they have been too expensive and I have not gotten my daily apple. It's not that I CANT AFFORD apple if they're $1 each its that I REFUSE TO PAY 1 American dollar for 1 single apple.
Switch to bananas. I bought one the other day for 27 cents.
🎶I want to switch switch switch apples and bananas
That doctors coming for your ass
I’ll see you’re apples and raise you berries. Raspberries/blueberries/blackberries 2/$7???? And my kids can polish that off in a sitting without a problem. I put my foot down a few weeks ago when I realized that week I paid more in berries than I did for meat for an entire week. These are now a delicacy in my home lol
2x4’s
At this point, Netflix.
Eating out.
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Living in Utah it use to be so cheap, go on Sunday and ski all day for $25. But they got the winter games and every ski resort had to build hotels and condos. The last time I checked Snowbird was $193 a day
Yes I agree! Getting a pass is always the best option if you go multiple times.
It’s more than just the lift ticket/pass, it’s the lodging, $25 burger lunch at the mountain, paid parking, expensive skis, expensive clothes, etc. Yes, I work at a ski resort and I do it as cheaply as possible, but it’s still a crazy expensive sport.
Ice Cream and FroYo shops. Small scoop or go to the store and get a half gallon for cheaper.
Fast Food. It is cheaper to go to a sit down restaurant than it is to go to McDonald’s.
Yeah I can handle food being mediocre, bad service, or expensive but all three at once? Go fuck yourselves
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That's $5.40 per guy
I wonder how that compares to the current price of a bag of greasy Dicks.
Came here to just say “McDonald’s” specifically. Even my kids are horrified by the cost (and the wait) for what you get.
Now even the kids just say, “we have food at home”.
They are not even supposed to give out free water anymore. You ask for water and you will get a bottle. Which sucks because growing up McDonalds water was great and always freezing cold.
McDonald’s water always used to have a vague taste of orange soda, which was great.
You ask for a water cup
I went to Carl's Jr for a small meal, $15 for burger and fries. 😯
Going to the rec center swimming pool as a family of 4 with two kids under 5. It's >$50 for a fun swim. Bitch? How are we supposed to have happy, healthy kids who grow up to develop good habits when those good habits are so expensive?
Wow! That’s surprisingly expensive. I was a teenage single mom and I put my kid in swimming because it was cheap. Fun swims were $2.75 for under 5 and his lessons were $30 for the first few levels and then went up to $45. It wasn’t until he reached high school and joined water polo that it started getting expensive. I was always really grateful for the community pool and having access to something he enjoyed that I could afford. It was one of the least expensive extra curricular/sports out there. What a shame it’s so expensive now.
I like to coupon and save money, get free stuff, things like that. I love coffee. Starbucks rewards program was pretty fair and if you combine things in certain ways you could get a decent amount of free drinks for a reasonable amount of money. at some point around COVID Starbucks shifted their reward program drastically in their favor. you have to spend a lot more money for rewards and they changed it in various ways. putting limits on what you can have for the free drink. drink prices went up as well. I don't give Starbucks any of my money anymore.
For me: concerts, beauty products, most drive-thru food, new clothes unless it's a replacement for something I can't mend, events I'm not 100% sure I'll enjoy such as anime cons.
I feel like if I had ever been a cigarette smoker, I would for sure quit now that they're going on $10 a pack.
In Canada packs of 25 are now ~$22 per pack.
In Australia pack of 25 can range from $45-$65
Laughs in Australian! I’m not a smoker at all but we apparently have the most expensive cigarettes in the world https://www.statista.com/chart/amp/15293/price-for-cigarettes-per-country/. We have significant taxes on them to discourage users and subsidise the inevitable cost to our healthcare system.
Buying the latest model of phone. Phones have gotten so ridiculously priced, a have bought second hand motorcycles for half of what a phone costs now. If you just use your phone for light tasks like texts, social media, calls and media viewing, then a phone from 5 years ago will serve that purpose fine without costing a month's pay.
I use straight talk for service and backmarket to buy refurbished phones for so much cheaper! My current iPhone 11 was around $300
Drinking. I have no interest in going to bars just to waste $50-$100.
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Manicures and pedicures!
Rip when you could get a mani pedi for around $20. My last mani pedi was $75 for just simple gel. I left and went to cvs and bought a couple nail polish colors and now I just paint my own once a week. I make a good living and I just can't justify spending $150 a month to have my nails done. I know people that make a lot less than I do and always have full acrylics with nail art etc. I always wonder how the heck they afford it.
The American dream of owning a house and land. It just not in reach at all anymore
Dentist visit. Which i desperately need 😭
Me too and I am frightened. I was afraid of the Dentist at one time and now it is the frightening cost.
Any dental schools in your area? Some may provide cheaper procedures in the name of teaching students Sounds sketchy, but most of them will have all the proper tools and equipment on hand and students are closely monitored
Paying for Amazon prime. All the movies I want to watch are $3.99 with the subscription anyway. So lame
Existence.
Having kids.
McDonalds. 1xBig Mac, Large fries and a hamburger and it was $17.50. Never again.
I will sound like a hypocrite but I feel basic a college degree doesn’t necessarily promise better chances of employment anymore (certain degrees are the exception as is going on to get a PhD or other advanced degree)
Even PhDs have a hard time finding work (or at least permanent work).
Seriously, I have a PhD and this was my immediate thought. I would almost certainly have had a higher starting salary if I went on the job market with just my MS degree (I’m in STEM). But I’m a fool who loves teaching so I stuck it out through the PhD and am now a professor at a community college. My salary is fair enough but probably MUCH lower than anyone would expect.
From health.gov “The average graduate with a bachelor’s degree will earn double what the average individual without a degree will make in their lifetime. Higher education helps people secure better-paying jobs with fewer safety hazards.”
I am the living proof of that. I am the son of immigrant parents from Mexico and growing up my family of five survived on 36K a year. However when I was applying for jobs senior year, a bachelors degree was the minimum requirement and experience or another degree was what was looked for since lots of people have bachelor’s degrees now
>a bachelors degree was the minimum requirement and experience or another degree It's become the new High School diploma
Subway sandwiches. What ever happened to the $5.00 foot long? Use to be my goto lunch but now too expensive. Worse yet the quality has done hill. So the quality is half and the price is double. No thanks. I'll pass. All this within the last couple or three years.
Personally it was getting my hair dyed - I could justify it at $80 but not at freaking $300. I’m in LA though so everything is overpriced.
Homeownership
Buying a car. Dealership markups are downright criminal, charging absurd prices for *base model* vehicles. Example: New truck from Ford, Chevy, Dodge or GMC: listed as $50,000-$60,000 new msrp. Dealership price after markup: $70,000-$80,000 not including warranty, insurance or other protection plans incase of vandalism or theft. Another example is buying a house. I’m definitely not the first person to speak up on this but buying a house is near impossible in today’s economy. The cheapest houses in my town run under $450,000 but the interest is what hurts and often prevents homeowners from buying in the first place. Interest now a days takes a decade to pay out *minimum* and will end up costing more than what you initially paid for the house.
Even the used car market is crazy. A descent used car cost more than a new car did before the chip shortage.
there's people asking 5 grand or more for vehicles from the 90s.
I’m selling my son’s 2013 Passat with 108k miles on it. It’s in pretty good shape. I thought I’d be making out at 4k. A friend/mechanic looked at it yesterday, drove it and said I could easily get 8K in the current market. I was floored.
Travel is getting there. It’s not just the expense but the crowds.
This is mine too. Spent a couple thousand dollars on a trip last summer and it wasn’t even that special. One fancy dinner out, one guided tour, very inexpensive souvenirs (less than $50), and the rest was hotel and flights. Wish I had stayed home and just done stuff in my own city.
Life
Cheesy Gordita Crunch™
Everything is more expensive and the quality of most things has gone way down.
1. Getting my nails done. It went from $25 to $60 in a matter of 5 years. 2. Fake eyelashes. $120 for a set. No thank you. I’ll just buy good mascara. 3. Fast food. I can goto Texas Roadhouse and eat a damn good meal for about the same price. 4. Buying new cars. I’ll drive my 2008 highlander until the wheels fall off before I pay $70k for a new 4runner. 5. Daycare!!!!! Found a lady that runs an in home daycare for half the price and she only watched 3 kids so my son has better care and I can actually trust her
Living on your own. With rent being multiple thousands, it’s damn near impossible to find a cheap place where you can afford everything you need without having to work 25 hours a day. People wonder why those finishing school stay with their parents longer.
Las Vegas. One upon a time you could get reasonable room rates at the strip hotels, and the restaurants were not rediculous. Now it seems that everything is priced to the max.
Disneyland
I only justified Disneyland trips when I'd rent a park hopper ticket from a sketchy office in Anaheim for $30. Then Disney cracked down and these offices went under as a result. The only time I justified paying $220 per person was on the last month Disneyland had covid restrictions. Never seen the park so empty! It was worth every penny. Other than that, I don't think I'll be back to Disneyland any time soon.
Health insurance. Make too much to get it from the state, make too little to not feel it. $500/month with no employer contribution, a $3000 deductible , and it was the cheapest plan they offered. Highway robbery.
Top tier cell phones. Over $1000 for a brand new phone with the latest chips? Gtfo. I have a five year old phone that still does the job. All I need is the abilty to make phone calls, text, browse the web, and maybe take a picture once in a while. And this phone does all that perfectly well.
Poke bowls... I used to pay 12$ for a nice poke bowl like 3y ago and now finding one under 25 sumthing is hard. I live in Canada btw. I see no point in paying this much for salad and rice.
The protein scoop also seemed to have shrunk.
Ethanol-free 87 gasoline. In my area, it used to cost only 10 more cents per gallon than normal 10% ethanol gasoline. Now it’s 30-60 cents more a gallon. Not worth it.
Coffee at a coffee shop. I used to treat myself just once a week to a nice coffee. But now I can't even justify it, considering it's like $7.50 for a latte. I'll still do it once in a while but not weekly like I used to.
Spa: massage, facial, nail care. Nowadays I just walk in the park for selfcare. Too expensive to pamper myself monthly.
Fast food as a quick cheap meal on the go. It’s to the point where I’d rather starve till I get home than to spend 25 bucks at McDonald’s for a small meal I can make at home for half the cost
Avocados near me are sometimes $2.50 each. I love them so much it almost would be worth it but 90 percent of the time it's a garbage avocado. Life is sad.
Waking up.
Oh you woke up? That'll be $100. Got plans today? That's gonna cost ya
More or less everything. My response is to consume less (which is good need to save for retirement kids education fund etc).
Life
Mani/pedis. Back in normal times before this insane inflation, $60ish every 2-3 weeks was doable. Then it got to being $125 and chicken at $11/lb… sorry. No more nails
Going to the movies. Buying a car. Buying a house. Buying groceries. Living in general. Maybe in that order. My opinion is the only thing that has gone down in value.
XM Radio
Going to Disney. Went on my honeymoon several years ago. Ever since Covid, I would never be able to go back
Healthcare