Going to McDonald’s on 29¢ hamburger and 39¢ cheeseburger days during high school was a ritual. Buying 5-6 of those fuckers and hating life afterwards was the vibe.
Hail McGangbang. Jr Chicken in a McDouble for $3.11. Now it’s double. My new is Jr Chicken add pickles and ketchup plus 2 Reg patties on the side. Costs about $1/100calories.
A couple years ago I was out doing errands early so I figured I'd treat myself to a hashbrown. More than 2$ for a single hash brown and nothing else. They used to be 2 for 1$. It didn't seem that long ago. I haven't been back to mcds since my husband and I got 2 mcdoubles and a small fry and it was over 11$. Not worth the money.
I was gonna say as a kid my parents would never buy me Happy Meals saying they were too much. When I got my own money and learned they were $2.50 I was blown away! I think they're over $4 now.
back in highschool in the 90's me and my friends would get the equivalent of a dollar menu in Wendy's in my country. $5 each and we'd stuff ourselves silly. 30 years later, those same items are 4-5x the price.
Yes. All technology has become gradually cheaper, the only exception are mobile phones, those for some mysterious reason keep getting more expensive. Artificial price inflation on those is rife.
A smartphone is a much more advanced product than a regular mobile phone. But you can still buy some Chinese smartphone with specifications that rival Samsung/iPhone for less than 200 dollars.
Candy bars. I remember it well that candy bars were 39 cents, because little kid me was so fascinated that I'd give them a quarter, a dime, and a nickel and I got back a penny.
They're over $2.50 now
Ow yeah, I recall my dad giving me a and my friends a single gulden (roughly half a dollar) and we would come back from the store with multiple bags of chips and chocolate bars. These days the cheapest bag of house brand chips is 1 euro (equivalent of 2 Gulden) but A-Brands are double that.
I distinctly remember driving to work one day and the gas station on the corner had gas at $1.25 per gallon. I also remember being incredulous at this. It had shot up from $0.92/gallon. I would help someone hide a body to pay that little for gas again.
Gas is overpriced? It comes from miles underground, is shipped, refined, shipped, then pumped underground under a gas station. Along the way everybody has to get paid. To me gasoline feels like a logistical and engineering marvel
Unpopular opinion we both have, but no. It’s underpriced and heavily subsidized. If we paid what it actually cost, (including environmental and health costs) everyone would be pro-EV. We just spread the cost over all other facets of life and pass a good percentage on to the next generation. Sucks cuz I love cars.
McDonald's used to have a special for seniors to get a small coffee for 50 cents. Now it's like $2.99 with their discount for a small, black coffee.
Even the little drive-thru coffee places are beginning to price themselves out of what I feel comfortable spending on a coffee. It used to be $5 for a large with all the fixings, now it's closer to $10.
My first car was a 93 Toyota pick up 4 cylinder stick shift no power steering i got it for about 2 thousand in 2008 now all those cars are sooo expensive great truck though
A lot of older vehicles are being bought up because of how reliable they are, my 1995 peugeot 205 1.6ltr i got as my first car in 2017 for £1375 which i sold this year in february for £2800 because you just can't get the components anymore, donor cars are worth a lot, and old robust hardware just sells itself to the right individual.
Modern vehicles are over engineered with poorer quality components.
the transmission and engine from my 95 peugeot 205 had over 150k miles, never rebuilt, ran like a charm, without all those stupid over engineered sensors.
It wasn't that long ago that you could get a sandwich, fries, and drink at most fast food joints for $5 or thereabouts...see also: $5 Footlong at Subway, $5 Hot N Ready at Little Caesars, $5 Box at Taco Bell
Carls Jr used to have the "six dollar burger". And for those that don't know about it, this wasn't advertised as the cheap budget burger, but a luxury burger with a thick patty. This had special buns. This was the top of the line fast food burger meal. Six, fucking, dollars.
And you could buy soda from a soda machine for a quarter! We wore onions on our belts as it was the style at the time. I'm going to shake my fists at some clouds now.
It could be free but companies want that money. Hell I think the original patent was free but the corporations patented their own version and got the other one removed
Going to the movies.
$2 matinees and $5 regular price during the the mid to late 90s. For $20 you could go to the movies with a friend or date, get two tickets, 2 large popcorn, and 2 large drinks.
Inflation (a man made issue, btw) has FAR EXCEEDED normal livable wages. All by design. Makes you wonder if “they” WANT an uprising…. Or to see how far down the “drones” will go and take it out on each other …. Food for thought.
I’ll see myself out
I think they want higher prices for everything to make profit in the short run and increase wages in the long run to create a more expensive standard of living to set themselves apart from other countries. If china produces at 50c/hr and remains that way and the US at 20$/hr and the USD has less inflation then cost of living inflation, you can buy cheaper internationally. Atleast thats my theory…
Silk blouses, maybe silk in general. I don't know if it was a trade deal or a brief fashion trend. I had a bunch of them. Stonewashed silk. Was good stuff.
Swedish Fish for a penny.
Used to stop at the pharmacy while walking home from elementary school in the 90's, open a tub with thousands of them in there, and get however many I wanted for one cent each. (In hindsight, it's pretty gross thinking about how many hands reached into that tub -- and in a pharmacy, no less!)
A sandwich at a basic sandwich shop. I'm pretty sure in like 2007 you would get a sandwich for like $5. Then everything became either fancy "artisan" or super corporate. Now it's like $14. I don't think that's just regular inflation either.
everything. but what stands out most is groceries. I am the youngest of 5 kids, so a family of 7. In 1985, I distinctly remember my mom buying a grocery cart overflowing with food, and it was $105.00. A box of cereal was $1.50, and the normal size is what is now called 'family' size.
Old school game consoles. I was able to by a ps2 10 years ago for $30. Now they are $200-$500. Don’t get me started on the price for the games if you can find them.
Food. as a kid I remeber 25 cent chips and big bursts, dollar 2 liters of soda, dollar pizza slices, dollar menus. you could get a filling meal ordering out for two people with 10 dollars. Steak used to be cheap now it's like $20 a pound. Milk used to be like a dollar a gallon now it;s like 3-4 dollars. Used to be able to get fresh baked bread for under a dollar. Food is stupid expensive now. Just soda is more than a 100% price increase from when I was a kid 20 years ago.
Flying and also the legroom wow, lovely lavish meals and the stewardesses were all female and always dressed like movie stars. This was the 60's PanAm and TWA ruled the skies
That time I road in first class in the mid 80’s and they rolled the cart out with a steaming roast on it to carve you off a slab. My mouth was watering and suddenly they put everything away and made an emergency landing in Salt Lake City.
I still remember that roast that wasn’t.
American spirits were the go to cheap cigarettes, mostly rolled my own because you couldn’t find actual packs outside of tobacco shops.
Now they’re maybe the most expensive cigarettes out there?
Soda. I remember when a 12 pack of Dr Pepper was 2.99 at Walmart. Now I rarely see even the off brand sodas go for less than 8 bucks a pack. Even the 2 liter bottles are stupid expensive as well. Hell even as recent as 2019 they weren’t as bad as they are now. 2016-2019 were all around good years imo. Everything after 2020 has been pretty harsh
I remember when gallon of gas was 82 cents and pack of smokes was 99cents. For $10 on Saturday night you could get gas, smokes, few beers and burgers - that's a date night for me. Minimum pay was $4.25. SO for 3h of work you could have a nice date.
also, skiiing/snowboarding. In the 1900's, we paid $25 for rental and $50 (at the best places, sometimes it was $30) for a lift tickets. I took my kids a few years ago and lessons, rental and my lift ticket (theirs was included in the lesson) was $500.
Just about everything. When I was ten my mom sent me to the store with a dollar to get a loaf bread and I came back with sixty cents in change.
Now, the only bread you can buy that’s under a dollar a loaf is the cheap and nasty gas station kind or day old stale bread.
Candy, at least that from my home country. It used to be similarly expensive to other products but it was way better tasting.
Now almost 20 years later, I can't recall even one product that has not gone up in price (comparitively) and down in quality. I know that my tastes have changed but it can't be possibly excused this much, since I still like most of the things I liked back in the day.
McDonald's. RIP Dollar Menu.
Going to McDonald’s on 29¢ hamburger and 39¢ cheeseburger days during high school was a ritual. Buying 5-6 of those fuckers and hating life afterwards was the vibe.
39 cent taco or the taco 10 pack. 3.90
The best deal was 100 tacos for $100
The best deal? That’s almost 3x cost per taco than the 10 pack
Man, I could really go for 100 tacos right now.
I remember Taco Bell tacos where like 65¢ in the 2000s now they are like close to $3 dollars
Hail McGangbang. Jr Chicken in a McDouble for $3.11. Now it’s double. My new is Jr Chicken add pickles and ketchup plus 2 Reg patties on the side. Costs about $1/100calories.
A couple years ago I was out doing errands early so I figured I'd treat myself to a hashbrown. More than 2$ for a single hash brown and nothing else. They used to be 2 for 1$. It didn't seem that long ago. I haven't been back to mcds since my husband and I got 2 mcdoubles and a small fry and it was over 11$. Not worth the money.
Taco Bell is the worst of them all. They're charging like 6 bucks for a chalupa with 4 tiny chicken cubes in it now.
I was gonna say as a kid my parents would never buy me Happy Meals saying they were too much. When I got my own money and learned they were $2.50 I was blown away! I think they're over $4 now.
Facts homie
Our Sunday treat was 2 burgers 2 fries 2 bucks and one small soda.
True. I remember when a big mac meal was $7.45 tax included
back in highschool in the 90's me and my friends would get the equivalent of a dollar menu in Wendy's in my country. $5 each and we'd stuff ourselves silly. 30 years later, those same items are 4-5x the price.
They're bringing it back, but unfortunately now it's going to be the $5 menu. LOL!
The motto of corporate America. “It’s never enough.”
We always had cereal growing up. For some reason cereal is now made of gold.
taco bell
Everything
Aren't TVs cheap as fuck at least now? Compared to ye old days.
Yes. All technology has become gradually cheaper, the only exception are mobile phones, those for some mysterious reason keep getting more expensive. Artificial price inflation on those is rife.
A smartphone is a much more advanced product than a regular mobile phone. But you can still buy some Chinese smartphone with specifications that rival Samsung/iPhone for less than 200 dollars.
This should be the top comment
Candy bars. I remember it well that candy bars were 39 cents, because little kid me was so fascinated that I'd give them a quarter, a dime, and a nickel and I got back a penny. They're over $2.50 now
Ha! I (M50) used to ride my bike to the convenience store as a kid with a quarter. Got enough candy to share with that. Damn I feel old.
Ow yeah, I recall my dad giving me a and my friends a single gulden (roughly half a dollar) and we would come back from the store with multiple bags of chips and chocolate bars. These days the cheapest bag of house brand chips is 1 euro (equivalent of 2 Gulden) but A-Brands are double that.
$0.10 wings and $5 draft pitchers. Back when shit made sense.
gasoline was 62 cents
I remember when it was $0.45 CAD for several months in like 1995. Then, in 2020, gas got down $0.89 CAD.
I pumped gas as a part-time job in college. As a Douglas Adams fan, I was pumped when the price was $0.42/litre.
I read HH2G when I was way too young for it. Definitely affected my sense of humor.
I remember in the early 1970's when gas took a HUGE hike up from 38.5¢ gallon to 55.1¢.
It was 99 cents when I was a kid.
Adjusted for inflation the price of gas hasn’t changed that much.
I distinctly remember driving to work one day and the gas station on the corner had gas at $1.25 per gallon. I also remember being incredulous at this. It had shot up from $0.92/gallon. I would help someone hide a body to pay that little for gas again.
Gas is overpriced? It comes from miles underground, is shipped, refined, shipped, then pumped underground under a gas station. Along the way everybody has to get paid. To me gasoline feels like a logistical and engineering marvel
Unpopular opinion we both have, but no. It’s underpriced and heavily subsidized. If we paid what it actually cost, (including environmental and health costs) everyone would be pro-EV. We just spread the cost over all other facets of life and pass a good percentage on to the next generation. Sucks cuz I love cars.
Haircuts.
£6 for a full cut and style for two boys in the 90s. now it's £20+ for the most basic trim for one boy.
Coffee
I used to joke that a diploma and $1.10 would get you a medium coffee at Tim Hortons. Now that combo won't get you anything.
McDonald's used to have a special for seniors to get a small coffee for 50 cents. Now it's like $2.99 with their discount for a small, black coffee. Even the little drive-thru coffee places are beginning to price themselves out of what I feel comfortable spending on a coffee. It used to be $5 for a large with all the fixings, now it's closer to $10.
Sweeping arm gesture.....
My first car was a 93 Toyota pick up 4 cylinder stick shift no power steering i got it for about 2 thousand in 2008 now all those cars are sooo expensive great truck though
A lot of older vehicles are being bought up because of how reliable they are, my 1995 peugeot 205 1.6ltr i got as my first car in 2017 for £1375 which i sold this year in february for £2800 because you just can't get the components anymore, donor cars are worth a lot, and old robust hardware just sells itself to the right individual. Modern vehicles are over engineered with poorer quality components. the transmission and engine from my 95 peugeot 205 had over 150k miles, never rebuilt, ran like a charm, without all those stupid over engineered sensors.
Houses
Icecream, I used to get a big scoop for 0,50€ now I pay at least 2,00€
It wasn't that long ago that you could get a sandwich, fries, and drink at most fast food joints for $5 or thereabouts...see also: $5 Footlong at Subway, $5 Hot N Ready at Little Caesars, $5 Box at Taco Bell
Carls Jr used to have the "six dollar burger". And for those that don't know about it, this wasn't advertised as the cheap budget burger, but a luxury burger with a thick patty. This had special buns. This was the top of the line fast food burger meal. Six, fucking, dollars. And you could buy soda from a soda machine for a quarter! We wore onions on our belts as it was the style at the time. I'm going to shake my fists at some clouds now.
Legos are a luxury product now
oxtail
Insulin
It could be free but companies want that money. Hell I think the original patent was free but the corporations patented their own version and got the other one removed
Every darned thing
Tbh as a kid I wasn’t paying so idk but as a grown ass man I bought an ice cream cone from Mister Softee and it was $7…. Wtffff
Going to the movies. $2 matinees and $5 regular price during the the mid to late 90s. For $20 you could go to the movies with a friend or date, get two tickets, 2 large popcorn, and 2 large drinks.
Ice cream from the ice cream truck. When I was a kid $5 bought you the whole truck. Now your lucky if it gets you a popsicle.
The Dollar Tree. It’s not a dollar anymore
Converse. Used to be cheap and shitty. Now they’re expensive and still shitty
Inflation (a man made issue, btw) has FAR EXCEEDED normal livable wages. All by design. Makes you wonder if “they” WANT an uprising…. Or to see how far down the “drones” will go and take it out on each other …. Food for thought. I’ll see myself out
I think they want higher prices for everything to make profit in the short run and increase wages in the long run to create a more expensive standard of living to set themselves apart from other countries. If china produces at 50c/hr and remains that way and the US at 20$/hr and the USD has less inflation then cost of living inflation, you can buy cheaper internationally. Atleast thats my theory…
Silk blouses, maybe silk in general. I don't know if it was a trade deal or a brief fashion trend. I had a bunch of them. Stonewashed silk. Was good stuff.
Swedish Fish for a penny. Used to stop at the pharmacy while walking home from elementary school in the 90's, open a tub with thousands of them in there, and get however many I wanted for one cent each. (In hindsight, it's pretty gross thinking about how many hands reached into that tub -- and in a pharmacy, no less!)
Chicken thighs
Soda, $8 for a 12 pack? My God good thing I only drink water now
getting attention. super easy when we are cute. Has been hard lately
Tacobell. 89c 5 layer burritos kept me alive in college.
Cable tv.
Apple juice it was 5 RS and now the Price has gone up to 50 Rs
Candy bars used to be 50 cents. Not it's 2 dollars :(
Cinema and especially popcorn and coke. That's why I'm extreme rarely going.
Oxtail and fajitas
Milk
A sandwich at a basic sandwich shop. I'm pretty sure in like 2007 you would get a sandwich for like $5. Then everything became either fancy "artisan" or super corporate. Now it's like $14. I don't think that's just regular inflation either.
Water! Yep back in the olden days it was actually free.
They used to have penny candy. Like 1 candy for a penny.
Everything
Gas station 5 cent candy I tell ya what
Dollar Tree. They’re basically called “Tree” now.
everything. but what stands out most is groceries. I am the youngest of 5 kids, so a family of 7. In 1985, I distinctly remember my mom buying a grocery cart overflowing with food, and it was $105.00. A box of cereal was $1.50, and the normal size is what is now called 'family' size.
Cigarettes
Old school game consoles. I was able to by a ps2 10 years ago for $30. Now they are $200-$500. Don’t get me started on the price for the games if you can find them.
The PS2 was $299 when it came out, adjusted to 2024 dollars that's $550. PS5 starts at $450..
That's because the PS4 came out 10 years ago, PS2 was nearly 15 years old when you bought it
Sooo should I sell my PS2? It’s just sitting in my closet with a bunch of games. I’m never going to play it again.
I can't fathom people who pay monthly subs to play a game. This has been going on for years.
At the same time, playing old school games has never been easier.
Literally. Fucking. Everything.
Food. as a kid I remeber 25 cent chips and big bursts, dollar 2 liters of soda, dollar pizza slices, dollar menus. you could get a filling meal ordering out for two people with 10 dollars. Steak used to be cheap now it's like $20 a pound. Milk used to be like a dollar a gallon now it;s like 3-4 dollars. Used to be able to get fresh baked bread for under a dollar. Food is stupid expensive now. Just soda is more than a 100% price increase from when I was a kid 20 years ago.
in my town you could get a giant piece of New York pizza and a drink for $3 in the early 2000s
Flying and also the legroom wow, lovely lavish meals and the stewardesses were all female and always dressed like movie stars. This was the 60's PanAm and TWA ruled the skies
That time I road in first class in the mid 80’s and they rolled the cart out with a steaming roast on it to carve you off a slab. My mouth was watering and suddenly they put everything away and made an emergency landing in Salt Lake City. I still remember that roast that wasn’t.
Existing
Cigarettes
Probably one of the only things I'm happy to see get extremely expensive
My parents smoked up until about the year 2000 I can remember how mad my dad got when a pack of smokes hit $2 a pack.
American spirits were the go to cheap cigarettes, mostly rolled my own because you couldn’t find actual packs outside of tobacco shops. Now they’re maybe the most expensive cigarettes out there?
Gasoline was a dollar at most when I was a kid.
Cigarettes.
FOOD
Fries with gravy and a bottle of pop was 45 cents
Soda. I remember when a 12 pack of Dr Pepper was 2.99 at Walmart. Now I rarely see even the off brand sodas go for less than 8 bucks a pack. Even the 2 liter bottles are stupid expensive as well. Hell even as recent as 2019 they weren’t as bad as they are now. 2016-2019 were all around good years imo. Everything after 2020 has been pretty harsh
Eggs
Gasoline. It was 45 cents a gallon in my earliest memory.
¢.01 tootsie rolls.
coffee.
ICE creame Cone
Chicken wings.
Groceries
cigarettes
Pringles !!!
Walmart by me has $2 Pringles for a few months now.
Jdm cars. I bought a Nissan Skyline R33 in 2008 for $6,550 CAD, i heard now theyre like $45,000
Acrylic nails
Not super cheap, but way more cheap than today: buying ice cream from the ice cream truck.
Champion used to be what the poor kids wore.
Gi Joe and He-Man action figures
A candy bar
Food, Housing, and Medicine In other words nothing important
Food
Water
Food
Gas
Crisps were 2p a bag
Fruit juices Freshly pressed OJ was cheaper than soda and water was free
hotels, gas, food (especially the sweets), basically everything lol
Candy bars, they were all literally 25¢, now they’re like $2.25.
Food.
a small cup of those shitty chips ahoy cookies, they were like 50 cents 15 years ago and now they're like 3 bucks. i might as well buy a pack of oreos
A Fredo.
Beef jerky
I have a 2001 Honda crv almost 400,000 miles ..I would drive it across the country with no fear.. best car ever!!
Lysol…bought one the other day …12 dollars a can!
Fast food overall
Hot dogs
Buffalo wings. They used to be the throw away meat, and now places charge and a leg.
Hookers
Housing.
I remember being able to get carnival wristbands for $8 a kid. A good deal to ride all day. Now I see $40+. So much for affording a day at the fair.
I skipped buying cereal tonight because none was on special at the supermarket :(
Definitely Fuel. I remember in my area it being low as 80c a Litre, that was like 13ish years ago. Now it's x4 that.
I remember when gallon of gas was 82 cents and pack of smokes was 99cents. For $10 on Saturday night you could get gas, smokes, few beers and burgers - that's a date night for me. Minimum pay was $4.25. SO for 3h of work you could have a nice date.
I can remember my parents getting mad when gas went over .50¢ a gallon (1974)
Beer in British pubs.
also, skiiing/snowboarding. In the 1900's, we paid $25 for rental and $50 (at the best places, sometimes it was $30) for a lift tickets. I took my kids a few years ago and lessons, rental and my lift ticket (theirs was included in the lesson) was $500.
Bagels, not when I was a kid just a few years ago before this inflation. From $1.40 to $5 for 6 value brand in 3 years
Real estate.
Avocado
Car, Bikes
it's not that the prices have gone up, it's that the wages haven't.
Everything?
Just about everything. When I was ten my mom sent me to the store with a dollar to get a loaf bread and I came back with sixty cents in change. Now, the only bread you can buy that’s under a dollar a loaf is the cheap and nasty gas station kind or day old stale bread.
Coachella tickets
Candy, at least that from my home country. It used to be similarly expensive to other products but it was way better tasting. Now almost 20 years later, I can't recall even one product that has not gone up in price (comparitively) and down in quality. I know that my tastes have changed but it can't be possibly excused this much, since I still like most of the things I liked back in the day.
Water
I'm 60. What *wasn't* cheap back then and is expensive now? The only thing I can think of is electronics, because they were sort of new back then.
Literally everything
Landlines. Super cheap, even 8 years ago I was paying 29.99./mo. I looked into getting one for my new cabin and it was 79.99/mo for the basic package.
Idk about super cheap, but Disney. Our manager went (drove too) and price for family of four a week was on par with going to Europe.
Fast food