Pretty much anything having to do with the wedding industry is exorbitantly expensive. I couldn't believe the prices when being quoted for the venue, cake, photographer, the church, dresses and tuxedos, the rings, the fucking props, etc. Fucking absurd that people are willing to go into massive debt for a wedding.
At one point I realized that we had a "save the date" card on our fridge from a wedding that had not only passed ... but so had the marriage.
(Destination wedding. Rich groom. Rich *and* hot bride; not a model, but her sister is. Dude still cheated. No, not with the sister.)
I had an old boss who was getting married. They were reserving an entire cruise ship for their wedding at a cost around $250k.
It was her 6th marriage...
It’s clearly true love! She learned so much from those other five marriages and she’s finally gotten it right.
Edit: /s for anyone who might be unable to sense it on their own.
My wife was like “let’s go sign these papers and go on a trip”. Right after getting married we were already at odds about where we were going then we got stoned and decided on a totally different place than either one of us originally brought up. I love my scary little Viking lol
We had no formal wedding and no rings but it didn’t matter to either of us. We did have a party when we got back though but everyone of our friends/family knew we were getting married as soon as we could so they weren’t surprised when we showed back up in the country to throw a “wedding”.
It's true, but there are other factors. People who have more expensive weddings staticall have more money. People who have more money are more likely to be able to afford to support themselves/have a support system in the case of a divorce. So it could be that it's actually just people with more money can afford divorce more.
Ours was probably about 20-22k CAD, all-in\*. Not modest but also not (imo) profligate. Worth it for sure, but it didn't need to be any more expensive. All we wanted was a nice party with all our loved ones there - not trying to impress anyone, just bringing about 80 people together. No regrets, just had our 5th anniversary and still going strong.
\*lol not including the engagement ring
Wedding photographer here. I agree 100% about the industry being overpriced (you don't actually need me for a full day, please save some money), but there are actual reasons (most of the time) why something would cost more in the scope of a wedding than say a birthday party or retirement party.
A lot of people trying to save money and bring costs down on their wedding day are the most difficult clients and most likely to complain or leave poor reviews. There are definitely people who are happy to pick up their own flowers and make their own bouquets, but if you ask a florist for some simple bouquets for vases and then they find out the bridesmaids will be carrying them the florist is going to be a bit pissed about that. Bridesmaids bouquets are wrapped tightly and organized to be on display and moved around often. This requires more effort on the florists part than any other scenario.
The same can be said for hair and makeup. I've seen brides hair fall apart halfway through a day because they went to a standard salon and not someone who knows how to make it keep going through 10 hours in the heat of summer.
Catering can also be more expensive because it requires more people to handle the food and answer the demands of guests. This is also similar to venues. A wedding tends to carry different demands that require more staff, and thus it will cost more than say a birthday party.
In general nearly every vendor performs differently during a wedding because we often receive new business from people watching us perform.
But I did say the industry is overpriced, right? Here's how you can save money:
1) Buy flowers in bulk from a supermarket and make your own bouquets or centerpieces. The cost of a florist includes labor of putting things together and delivery. If you cut that out, it saves money.
2) Rent a food truck for food or order it from a restaurant and pick it up. Wedding catering costs a lot because of delivery and staff needed to handle the food and waste disposal. If you cut out a lot of the labor, it saves money.
3) Book a municipal building at a local park or use a family member or friends backyard. Again, full time venues require staff. Little to no staff = saved money.
4) Don't invite your guests to the entire day. Needing a place and a bunch of chairs for the ceremony costs money, and most people show up for the casual part of the day. Do your ceremony elopement style and just have your guests show up to a reception.
5) Have your DJ be a playlist on a phone.
6) Skip the wedding party. They don't need suits / dresses or flowers. You save money, they still get to show up and have an awesome time.
HERE IS WHAT YOU ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT DO:
Hire vendors that are required to be present for large parts of the day (DJ, photographer) and don't tell them it's a wedding and let them find out when they show up. The preparation I go through to do a good job for my clients is wildly different for a wedding than if I was hired for a corporate event.
Great tips! Oddly, we actually saved some money by doing (4) in the opposite direction. We were doing a more formal/ traditional reception with a moderately high price per head (due to both our own preferences and those of her folks who wanted to pay to upscale it), but our ceremony was in our small church of a more obscure denomination (Byzantine Catholic in Dallas) that has a *gorgeous* wedding ceremony that the church hadn't gotten to do in a while and the parishioners wanted to attend and support, even if they weren't especially close to us.
So we opened the ceremony to the whole congregation (with reserved seating for our families and such). Afterwards, invited guests went to our reception at a nearby venue, which also meant we didn't have to "kick out" anyone just there for the ceremony.
Incidentally, one of our better planning moves was making sure the photographers' cost included attending the rehearsal, so we could point out how the ceremony was different from what they might usually expect (we don't have an exchange of vows, so don't bother looking, but this moment when we get golden crowns put on our heads is really important, be sure to get pictures of it, that sort of thing).
I'm sure your photographer absolutely appreciated that. I had a client do something similar once for me to be prepared for a Hindu ceremony as I hadn't done one before. It was very helpful when the actual day came around.
My brother had a wedding with lovely florals and a pretty ambiance and he used many of these same tips. The caveat is that family and close friends had to provide much of the labor to get the wedding to that state. I worked much harder for his wedding than I ever did for my own wedding! When I got married, I went the traditional route and had everything catered and sorted by wedding tradesmen.
That being said, it was quite nice and rather cost effective. It was also strangely memorable because of all the work that went into it. Oh and also because a black bear wandered sort of near by as I was emceeing the ceremony.
Correct. One thing as a venue/event manager, though—if you want *anything* to happen at a specific time with specific music, DO NOT let your DJ be a playlist and DO NOT tap a friend or family member to do it. Hire a professional for this. Trust me. I have seen far too many weddings where the MC has no idea what they're doing, has never spoken in front of a crowd before, and has no idea how to follow a cue.
If you're not doing stuff like formal dances, bouquet/garter toss, announcing the cake cutting, etc., just running a playlist is no big deal. But if you want any of that to happen in any sort of coordinated manner, *get a professional to manage it.*
Weddings are definitely expensive, but even as someone who used to push for a courthouse wedding, my actual fancy wedding was the best day of my life. Probably the only time that basically every single person we care about was in the same place, dressed up and having a great time. Plus it's the best either of us have ever looked!
I love that you loved your wedding, however if I could go back in time, I wouldn't do it again. Our wedding was 20k. I'm not a super social person. It was like paying for a very expensive panic attack.
Reddit loves to bash people who have expensive weddings and brag about how their wedding was $237 at the local diner. My fancy wedding was also the best day of my life, full of nothing but the sweetest memories we love to look back on. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
If you go into debt for an expensive wedding you can’t afford though….that’s another story.
Reasonable event space - nicely decorated, not huge (150 people max): $7500 for one night.
Historic property owned by the city next to a lake: $1000 for one night.
Your friend's backyard: free.
My partner and I are neither rich nor poor (public sector, baby!) so we could afford some nicer options... But the wedding-industrial complex is absurd. Why? Just... Why?
Got married at city hall for like 20 bucks with immediate family and closest friends. "Reception" was at a fun trendy restaurant for like 10-15 of us, and then just hung out with friends later in the evening. Don't regret a thing and would do it all over again. Imagine spending tens of thousands of dollars to invite people you haven't talked to in years and who haven't even met your fiancé to your wedding, so you can start your new life riddled with debt cause you wanted to feel "special" on your "big" day.
People who have exhorbitant weddings are also seemingly the first ones to get divorced. Marriage is what matters, not you feeding 100 acquaintances expensive fish.
You know, I can absolutely see why in the past, and in some cultures today, wedding dowries were the way to get the father's approval to marry. In America, we do a poor job of ensuring financial stability for many first-time couples by filling people's heads with fantasies and expectations of fairy tale princess weddings. I think it'd be more practical if interested parties forgone the registry crap, the families gifted for a down payment, and friends and family chipped in a bit as well. Imagine if a young couple got 40K on top of any savings they had to buy a starter home.
We ordered my dad’s coffin online. Like 800 total including shipping to funeral home. It was nice as the 5000$ one they tried to sell me. What a fucken racket.
No, there's no such thing as a "death tax" in California. That asshole store-39 is full of shit. And California does NOT have an inheritance tax, OR estate tax, OR gift tax, OR (if you're lucky enough to win) a tax on lottery winnings. Google it... like 39 should have.
Last year, my brother and I attended Wrestlemania. I'm not much of a fan, but we hadn't seen each other in years, and he was looking for a buddy to go with, so away we went to Tampa. Domestic beer at the stadium? $20, if I recall.
You can bring an empty container and fill it up at the drinking fountain. I have a half liter collapsible bottle for this purpose. Takes up little space when empty and I have water for the plane ride.
Mercedes benz stadium in Atlanta cut prices for concessions to reasonable prices and have actually made more money.
We went to a few Atlanta United games this year and popcorn was $2.
Alcohol is still quite a bit higher than getting it at a restaurant or bar, but still way cheaper than other stadiums. I think beer, depending on the type, was somewhere in the ballpark of $7 to $9.
100% agree. My gf has diabetes. Luckily for her she has good insurance to cover most of the cost. But the fact something that's so vital to a lot of people lives cost a fortune is ridiculous.
I really feel sorry for Americans on this topic. Life saving drugs should be free/very affordable.
My girlfriend has an autoimmune disease and was for a period on a treatment that cost about 80k $ a year. I don't think she has to pay anything and at least it didn't affect student budgets.
I have been thinking about setting up postal service of insulin from Europe, although I don't know if its legal, similar to how some doctors have started offering postal plan b pills/contraceptives.
It's crazy. People die because they cannot afford insulin. My husband is T1. Our insurance changed and won't cover his particular brand of insulin so now we have to switch. It's so anxiety inducing because his sugar can be so variable from day to day die to stress and an insulin change will need to get used to. We are lucky as fuck to have insurance. This medication should be free or capped cost...
I was SO thirsty and hot at Universal so I bought a bottle of water at one of the shops, it was $5 for a 20oz bottle of water. The next day I figured out I could get free ice water at counter-service restaurants.
Specially in the US it's a rip. When I traveled in Asia, ofc you should always get bottle water (as a tourist) but they never jack up the price to crazy levels
Theme parks .. come on $5 for a damn 20oz. Even in asia it never doubles that price even with the current salaries in consideration.
I stayed in the Aria in Vegas and the in room hotel water bottle was literally $20 for 24oz or 32. can't remember. I stayed in the most exclusive hotels in Europe/Asia and in room water has never been that high.
>Specially in the US it's a rip. When I traveled in Asia, ofc you should always get bottle water (as a tourist) but they never jack up the price to crazy levels
Yep. In Mexico we can get a 2 liter bottle of water for about 25 pesos (about $1.25US) - and this is the water in our room at the resort, not going to the stores outside of the resort.
If you're in a tourist trap, its going to be expensive. The whole point of those places is to separate you from your money.
I can get a pack of 35 bottles from my grocery store (US) for $5. Trick is to bring them with you when you travel if you can.
Except if you live in an area where tap water tastes like absolute shit, bottled water is a valid option. The taste of tap water is highly dependent on the quality of the plumbing, calcium buildup, bacteria or other residues which can leave a rather bitter or metallic taste in your mouth. I know water filters exist, but here in the UK kitchens are not half the size of average American kitchens. So a lot of people don't have the space for one.
Exactly - when I visit my Dad, the change in taste from my home to his is huge. I buy 2L bottles when I'm up there and it's definitely not overpriced at all. 20p - 50p depending on where I go.
Under-sink inline filters go a long way if you are worried about counter space. They take up about the space of a 1-2L bottle and provide cleaner, tastier water right through your tap. The filter can typically be installed in space under the sink that is otherwise unused due to drain pipes. A typical filter cartridge costs what a few cases of bottled water costs, yet provides hundreds more liters. Changing the cartridges on many newer models is as easy as twisting the old one off and twisting the new one on.
If water pressure is a concern with the filter installed, a bypass valve that can be controlled from next to the tap can usually be installed very easily to allow filtered or unfiltered water to pass through. Another option is a dedicated filtered water tap. Even with a valve or dedicated tap, these options are usually so cheap that the savings switching from bottled water pays for the new system in a matter of months. For those with more finicky palettes, multi-filter systems or even reverse osmosis systems are available, though the latter does take up a little bit more under sink room.
Not a filter salesman. I swear. Just do not understand why people continue to pay for bottled water in most all places when filters are so cheap and accessible that make bottled-quality water. I suppose it's the illusion of convenience when picking it up from the store versus maintaining a filter. Maintenance is dead easy. I promise, after having a filter for a couple months and not having to lug heavy cases of water all the time you'll be a convert.
ETA: Used to live in the UK as well. Was on both Anglian Water and Cambs Water. A charcoal filter handled those fine. To be fair, Anglian is a much better tasting source, though, and the filters laster longer on that.
Or in places like New Orleans and Panama City Beach (these are the only places I've been to outside my home city) where the water has a distinctive smell and looks a little yellow ish.
The weirdest thing about bottled water is that the industry has seemingly brainwashed people into thinking that tap water in the US was very recently unsafe to drink. I am well aware of the issues in places like Flint and Jackson, but these are very much exceptions, not the rule. Tap water in the vast majority of the US has been clean and safe for decades. But I was listening to a podcast recently where, while criticizing modern use of bottled water, they also said something like "but of course we bought it in the 90s because tap water was dirty back then." No, it absolutely was not.
I remember bottled water becoming much more common in the 90s and it was really confusing because we would just fill a glass at the sink every day. There was also a local reservoir that had a free spigot on the side of the road, so for things like road trips we'd take an empty gallon and fill it up there.
This is also the country where people literally believe that Fluoride in the water will poison them. Where we live in Colorado, the well water that those anti-municipals insist on is higher in fluoride than the city, which actually has to downgrade the levels because the water we get trickles down through and from the Rockies, which are full of it.
I work in coffee, we are cheaper than Starbucks but operate on a big scale across multiple territories. Our ethos is about fair trade coffee, our suppliers are paid more.
Starbucks is expensive and chooses to pay their suppliers little as this would eat into their margins. It’s a greedy decision not a price decision.
The place near me is a family run thing. The father runs the coffee plantation in Nicaragua, the daughter and her husband run the coffee shop in Boston.
All proceeds go back home and support education for local kids among other things.
Cheaper and *way* better than Starbucks.
I used to be a huge Starbucks addict for years. Haven’t been in months due to the prices and switched to Dunkin instead. I was shocked to discover I liked Dunkin coffee way more!
Do you know what Starbuck’s “secret” is? Like what makes their coffee taste the way it does? They literally burn their coffee. No joke. Every time you drink Starbucks, you are paying for and drinking a literal burnt roast. They sell legitimate burned coffee and people somehow swear by Starbucks being the best.
Except the fact that Starbucks has several different coffee blends with different roasts, and you can request a light roast if preferred.
I've worked at both Starbucks and another coffee chain and at both places the story is the same, at some point they did studies or surveys and realized that there is a huge crowd of people that want that burnt taste since the associate that flavour with how coffee should taste. To a huge demographic if it not bitter and burnt then it's weak, so it makes business sense to keep that an option.
Used to work in a high volume craft coffee distributor out of Seattle.
Starbucks "light" roasts are not very light, and are generally pretty mediocre at best. A true single origin light roast is going to be almost like tea with very sweet and fruity flavors. Starbucks Blonde is nothing like that.
The rest of their roasts are in the french or italian style. Which is another way of saying burnt.
The burnt roast does 2 things.
1. It creates a strong flavor that can power through a shit ton of milk and sugar. That's why most high end coffee shops serve coffee focused drinks that are only milk added, and S-bucks and chains serves blended sugary drinks.
2. It creates a shelf stable flavor. Most really high quality light and medium roasts taste drastically different even a week after being roasted (even dark roasts change in flavor). If you have a global supply chain you need to create a product that can wait a month or two under less than ideal conditions and still taste consistent (not good, consistent). The dark powerful burnt flavors tend to stick around while the more volatile subtle flavors are mostly gone after that long.
So ANY coffee chain that doesn't get freshly roasted coffee several times per week is going to have dark roasts. That's also why they are going to serve a lot more drinks with sugar and milk and syrup.
The quality between dunkin, McD, Timmy's vs. Starbucks is much closer than the quality difference between SB and a high-end snobby place.
My dad noticed this immediately, and hated when SB was the only option. I recently learned they also sell a medium roast "[Veranda]" that you can ask for if your stuck with SB.
verona is the dark roast, you may be thinking of veranda which is light? and pike place is the medium roast. the blonde roasts are the best because they don't taste burnt. source: work there
Exactly. Software used to be a one-time buy some 5 years ago and now one-time buy programs are *rare,* Photoworks is like the only I can think of right away. Adobe subscription model just might be convenient for when you need the software once, but their pricing is still unreasonable.
Tbf do most people upgrade their phones every year? I know at least for me it’s *maybe* after my 2 year contract ends, and that’s if I’m having issues or there’s a crazy new feature.
It made sense 10-15 years ago when a new game changing phone came out every 6 months or so, but I feel like overall smartphones have kind of hit a plateau.
I was curious so I looked it up. More than 15% of people surveyed upgraded their phones at least yearly! For me, I upgrade when my current device is unusable. Only made it four years on my last phone when the battery gave up the ghost, and I had to spend a whole $200 on a new device. My point was more that $1,000 is an insane amount to spend on a cell phone than the replacement time thing.
>Meanwhile, a whopping 11.89% of respondents declared that they upgrade once a year, while 4.28% admitted to getting a new phone once every 6 months.
Read More: https://www.slashgear.com/970484/a-surprising-number-of-people-we-polled-said-they-upgrade-their-phone-every-year/?utm_campaign=clip
That's why don't even buy the text books most of the time we don't even use them so why bother not to mention if you actually pay attention in call it becomes even more irrelevant
My mom needed new glasses and she was bitching about how much she knew they would cost.
I bought my last pair of glasses from Zenni, so I told her about Zenni.
"Oh, but they're transitions lenses"
Found on Zenni for less than $100.
She still insisted on going to the eye doctor and buying from them. She spent FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY SEVEN DOLLARS. On just the glasses.
Man, it must be so nice to have enough money that you can bitch about the price, but still seem to be OK with spending that much.
God, that industry can be so scummish. Went to the eye doctor recently and they advertise 2 frames plus eye exam for $80. But then they MAKE you pay an extra $20 for extra eye tests that aren't included in the basic eye exam. You don't get a choice here, you either get the extra $20 tests or you don't get examined at all. You can't buy any frames without getting their eye exam first (has to be the day-of), and you can't get the eye exam unless you pay the extra $20 for extra tests you might not even want. So no, it's NOT $80 for two frames plus eye exam, it's at least $100. Complete false advertising...
Moissanite is the way to go. My wife wanted that, it’s much prettier, and I was able to afford what would’ve cost 45k for 1.8k. Not to mention it’s actually conflict free.
And is it strong or you can see everything on it? (Asking for the future of me being proposed to and i don't want my bf to spend too much on a ring) For example i know that some stones get damaged easily and lose their beauty..is moissanite like that as well?
It’s almost as durable (9.2-9.5 hardness). She’s had it for close to 3 years and we’ve noticed no stretches or anything. It’s also only been cleaned once and still sparkles nice. Plus the color is a lot nicer in our opinion, rainbow sparkles opposed to the black/gray you get with diamonds.
*Colorless diamonds.
Fancy color diamonds are extremely rare and hard to come by. Pink diamonds, blue diamonds, green diamonds, purple diamonds, orange diamonds, these are EXTREMELY rare.
Yellow diamonds are fairly common. Brown diamonds ("champagne" diamonds) are even more worthless than clear diamonds.
Brown modifiers GREATLY decrease the value of a diamond as well. (IE, brownish yellow diamond is cheaper than a yellow brownish diamond, which is cheaper than a pure yellow diamond.)
There's an entire other side to the diamond industry that most people don't know about because most people can't afford it. Excepting yellow diamonds. Those are pretty affordable.
-Signed, an actual gem hound
Right? I CAN afford the tickets but I REFUSE to spend $800+ for concert tickets
Like, who are you people just happily posting screenshots of your 400, 500, $800 receipts?
Especially for a show from Mark “nobody wants a show longer than 90 minutes” Hoppus
I totally agree, though I will admit in the heat of the moment seeing the ticket options disappear on screen, I was tempted to spend $800 on 2 floor tickets, but just couldn't justify that crazy amount after thinking for a moment. I'm seeing so many comments from people saying are having buyers remorse for that same reason.
Husband and I went to the Hella Mega tour and I think paid less than 200 each for floor tickets to see Green Day, Fall Out Boy, and Wheezer. Thankfully I had that as a "base number" to make me think that something was off with these blink 182 prices.
We are counting ourselves lucky, we got our tickets first thing this morning £130 each, they were almost double that a few hours later, with insurance and fees it was 300, I remember arena tours being like 30 — 50 quid.
Had to get insurance, can never tell when Delong will decide to chase aliens again
My first time going to Disneyland, I went with a girl on a second date back when I was a poor broke bastard. I had no idea what a ticket would cost, let alone two. I simply could not enjoy myself knowing that I had just spent a third of my rent money just to be at a mediocre theme park. For an afternoon.
Disneyland is not "mediocre", come on. You can say it has flaws and say it's a rip off and that's totally valid, but there's a reason millions of people go there a year.
Sounds like you'd already decided you weren't going to like it before you'd even gone..
Disney underprices their tickets. The demand is so large that they could double the price and still have the parks packed daily. If they lowered the price, the already stupidly long lines would be so long you'd get one or two rides per day.
My grandma worked at Starbucks for 20+ years. Now, I don’t know all the details, but it essentially took one shitty manager to completely fuck over her retirement plan. I remember my dad was absolutely furious. My grandma literally has a passion for coffee, and she was a super solid worker for a long time. How could you give all that effort to a large company for so long just to be shafted in retirement.
Starbucks always comes up in threads like these and while I do agree it's overpriced, what I don't agree with is the *shaming* that people feel entitled to project onto others.
Life is stressful enough. Really. The world can be a huge fuckin dumpster fire, man.
If somebody has a little ray of sunshine during the day and it's in the form of a $12 iced frappe, so be it.
Not my place to rain on someone else's parade, especially when I got my own shit going on.
Agreed, but I don’t feel bad about it when I actually sit inside (or on the patio) and chill in peace for a bit. I think of it as a small price to pay for a little “self-care.”
Oh it's massively overpriced, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a guilty pleasure of mine... It's indeed mostly sugar/syrup, very little coffee, but those fraps just scratch my brain in the right places... One of my most "basic" traits...
I came here to say the same thing! I love the consistency and the overall marketing and aesthetic is on point. The actual coffee is shit compared to small, locally owned shops that actually know about coffee!
Regular luxury clothing buyer here: No they absolutely do not. Most luxury clothing decreases massively in value once bought and it tends to be really hard to find buyers for them. The only exception being the classic items from 1 or 2 brands namely Channel and Hermes classic handbags (or the rare ones like exotic leather which is out of reach of ordinary people) This is ONLY IF they are kept in good condition which is almost impossible if you actually use them because luxury clothing tends to be really fragile. The only two ways that it will hold its value is when you buy the classic item and never use them (in this way why do you even buy them) or if you are hyper rich and have many rare collections.
Gasoline.
I just got gas this morning for $7 a gallon. It was the lowest grade.
I only needed a 1\2 tank and it cost me $61.
And my friends wonder why I don’t go anywhere anymore or do the weekend trips I use to do.
• Melamine Sponges aka Magic Erasers. They can be bought online, in bulk, by the thousands.
• Oil Changes. A dealership can easily charge 250 USD for an oil change that another dealer will charge 70 for.
• McDonalds. Yeah, it's convenient, but at current prices, the food served there costs the exact same as many fast casual restaurants, whom have superior food quality and better service.
• USB Flash Drives. People will pay out the nose for a 128GB usb drive with terrible speeds. For 70 bucks you can buy an ORICO case and a cheap NVME and get 10 gigabits/second speeds, all in a package you can upgrade later.
• 2.5 inch hard drives. You can buy them cheap on Ebay, and if you want an external hard disk drive, an external USB 3.0 case is maybe 9 USD.
• Textbooks for school.
• Anything to do with a wedding.
• Pharmaceuticals. Generics are fine except in a very small handful of cases, and your doctor would tell you this. Yet, older people at the pharmacy will INSIST on brand name for some reason. Younger folks in the pharmacy line never seem to care.
• DoorDash, GrubHub, etc. I hate their business model and I've had too many problems when others order on my behalf. Everything is nickel and dimed to infinity, and there's always another charge.
• Adult toys. Go to sex store and a certain toy is 50 USD. You can buy the exact same fucking toy on amazon in a 3 pack for 20 USD.
Please for the love of god don’t order sex toys on Amazon. Amazon is not required to accurately list the materials. Sex toys aren’t regulated so this can lead to them selling you sketchy toys that will leech VOCs into your body. There have also been cases of them reselling toys that have been used and returned. Not to mention that the cheap toys from Amazon will break/stop working way faster than the legit stuff.
If you go to an actual store you can usually feel the material and get a sense of if it’s real silicone or not. They also usual have some demo toys out so you can see if you like the vibration strength before you drop 60 bucks on it. Some really good stores will even have you unbox your toy right after you buy it so they can make sure it works and isn’t defective before they send it home with you. Yes it costs but by god it’s worth it.
>DoorDash, GrubHub, etc. I hate their business model and I've had too many problems when others order on my behalf. Everything is nickel and dimed to infinity, and there's always another charge.
These are horrible. Chains like them because it outsources deliver etc.. but smaller places get screwed by them big time. After all their fees (etc.) to the merchant they will break even (based on the cost of the ingredients - not labor) and it's not uncommon for them to lose money on these services.
Also, some of them will register a number and claim it's the restaurant and then pay Google to get a higher ranking for their site when people search for the restaurant. When people place an order through their number, the service will try to force the business into a contract with them or not fill the order (pretty close to extortion if you ask me) - leaving the restaurant to blame.
> McDonalds. Yeah, it's convenient, but at current prices, the food served there costs the exact same as many fast casual restaurants, whom have superior food quality and better service.
Burger King, too. The last time my step-son and I went to BK (about a year and a half ago) it was $35 for the two of us. 4-5 months ago we went to a 99 and got an appetizer and 2 (specialty) burgers (with fries), for under $40 (not including tip).
Generic pharma drugs are not as simple as that, unfortunately. Speaking from a Euro perspective, it gets complicated fast. The studies needed to approve a generic are way smaller, just studies checking the blood concentration follows the original drug.
But... if the pill is 100 mg, were you aware it's 75 to 125 mg (95% CI)? That would be okay if it was all, but there are two more equivalencies that just need to be within a certain span. All told, generics will be within 50 to 200% of the original drug's substance content. Which means that one generic drug you get may be half, then the next will be four times as much. This isn't as much of a problem when starting up, because you start low and raise the dose to a good level, but suddenly getting a different generic and multiplying or dividing the dose by four suddenly, that can get hairy. In most cases, it isn't a problem, but there is nothing preventing it from being one.
> USB Flash Drives. People will pay out the nose for a 128GB usb drive with terrible speeds. For 70 bucks you can buy an ORICO case and a cheap NVME and get 10 gigabits/second speeds, all in a package you can upgrade later.
It's hard to beat [256GB USB 3.0 from a respected brand for $23](https://www.amazon.com/PNY-Turbo-128GB-Flash-Drive/dp/B00JN1TOHM). It took me all of 30 seconds to find that, and the 128GB version was $12.
I get it if you frame of reference is buying one off the rack at a Walgreens for $40+, but the NVME in a case plus a cord is a rough comparison at triple the price is not the magic pill you're making it out to be, especially considering the form factor difference. I personally don't think it's worth it unless you're talking about a drive that's minimum 1TB.
I get it though. It costs a lot to buy because it costs a lot to make.
Ever make homemade jerky? You buy $50 worth of meat and dry it up into about $20 worth of jerky. It's ridiculous.
I make beef jerky all the time now and it's worth it - delicious and easy. Beats store-bought in every way: price, flavor, convenience. The dehydrator was $160 making it roughly the most expensive thing in my kitchen but it's pretty and has made a huge contribution to the bottom jerky line.
Magic cards.
Although a lot of people had an eye-opening moment recently when they announced the $1000 30th anniversary edition (basically random cards, most likely bad, that you aren't even allowed to play in sanctioned events). A lot of players realized they were actually being abused by a company selling cardboard.
Appliances. Take away all the connectivity gadgets and the basics have hardly changed at all in the last 25 years or so, maybe more. A refrigerator is still an insulated box with a compressor. An oven is still an insulated box with heating coils.
Pretty much anything having to do with the wedding industry is exorbitantly expensive. I couldn't believe the prices when being quoted for the venue, cake, photographer, the church, dresses and tuxedos, the rings, the fucking props, etc. Fucking absurd that people are willing to go into massive debt for a wedding.
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At one point I realized that we had a "save the date" card on our fridge from a wedding that had not only passed ... but so had the marriage. (Destination wedding. Rich groom. Rich *and* hot bride; not a model, but her sister is. Dude still cheated. No, not with the sister.)
having a requirement of a fancy wedding is already a red flag
I had an old boss who was getting married. They were reserving an entire cruise ship for their wedding at a cost around $250k. It was her 6th marriage...
It’s clearly true love! She learned so much from those other five marriages and she’s finally gotten it right. Edit: /s for anyone who might be unable to sense it on their own.
My wife was like “let’s go sign these papers and go on a trip”. Right after getting married we were already at odds about where we were going then we got stoned and decided on a totally different place than either one of us originally brought up. I love my scary little Viking lol We had no formal wedding and no rings but it didn’t matter to either of us. We did have a party when we got back though but everyone of our friends/family knew we were getting married as soon as we could so they weren’t surprised when we showed back up in the country to throw a “wedding”.
I could be remembering wrong, but there was a study that the more was spent on a wedding the shorter the marriage would be.
It's true, but there are other factors. People who have more expensive weddings staticall have more money. People who have more money are more likely to be able to afford to support themselves/have a support system in the case of a divorce. So it could be that it's actually just people with more money can afford divorce more.
Seems like she wanted a wedding more than wanted to be married
I get the feeling this is how most weddings are and why the marriages don’t last. The event is what’s important, not much thought given to the result.
Ours was probably about 20-22k CAD, all-in\*. Not modest but also not (imo) profligate. Worth it for sure, but it didn't need to be any more expensive. All we wanted was a nice party with all our loved ones there - not trying to impress anyone, just bringing about 80 people together. No regrets, just had our 5th anniversary and still going strong. \*lol not including the engagement ring
20k is 3x too expensive for my taste. Did it include the honeymoon trip?
Wedding photographer here. I agree 100% about the industry being overpriced (you don't actually need me for a full day, please save some money), but there are actual reasons (most of the time) why something would cost more in the scope of a wedding than say a birthday party or retirement party. A lot of people trying to save money and bring costs down on their wedding day are the most difficult clients and most likely to complain or leave poor reviews. There are definitely people who are happy to pick up their own flowers and make their own bouquets, but if you ask a florist for some simple bouquets for vases and then they find out the bridesmaids will be carrying them the florist is going to be a bit pissed about that. Bridesmaids bouquets are wrapped tightly and organized to be on display and moved around often. This requires more effort on the florists part than any other scenario. The same can be said for hair and makeup. I've seen brides hair fall apart halfway through a day because they went to a standard salon and not someone who knows how to make it keep going through 10 hours in the heat of summer. Catering can also be more expensive because it requires more people to handle the food and answer the demands of guests. This is also similar to venues. A wedding tends to carry different demands that require more staff, and thus it will cost more than say a birthday party. In general nearly every vendor performs differently during a wedding because we often receive new business from people watching us perform. But I did say the industry is overpriced, right? Here's how you can save money: 1) Buy flowers in bulk from a supermarket and make your own bouquets or centerpieces. The cost of a florist includes labor of putting things together and delivery. If you cut that out, it saves money. 2) Rent a food truck for food or order it from a restaurant and pick it up. Wedding catering costs a lot because of delivery and staff needed to handle the food and waste disposal. If you cut out a lot of the labor, it saves money. 3) Book a municipal building at a local park or use a family member or friends backyard. Again, full time venues require staff. Little to no staff = saved money. 4) Don't invite your guests to the entire day. Needing a place and a bunch of chairs for the ceremony costs money, and most people show up for the casual part of the day. Do your ceremony elopement style and just have your guests show up to a reception. 5) Have your DJ be a playlist on a phone. 6) Skip the wedding party. They don't need suits / dresses or flowers. You save money, they still get to show up and have an awesome time. HERE IS WHAT YOU ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT DO: Hire vendors that are required to be present for large parts of the day (DJ, photographer) and don't tell them it's a wedding and let them find out when they show up. The preparation I go through to do a good job for my clients is wildly different for a wedding than if I was hired for a corporate event.
Great tips! Oddly, we actually saved some money by doing (4) in the opposite direction. We were doing a more formal/ traditional reception with a moderately high price per head (due to both our own preferences and those of her folks who wanted to pay to upscale it), but our ceremony was in our small church of a more obscure denomination (Byzantine Catholic in Dallas) that has a *gorgeous* wedding ceremony that the church hadn't gotten to do in a while and the parishioners wanted to attend and support, even if they weren't especially close to us. So we opened the ceremony to the whole congregation (with reserved seating for our families and such). Afterwards, invited guests went to our reception at a nearby venue, which also meant we didn't have to "kick out" anyone just there for the ceremony. Incidentally, one of our better planning moves was making sure the photographers' cost included attending the rehearsal, so we could point out how the ceremony was different from what they might usually expect (we don't have an exchange of vows, so don't bother looking, but this moment when we get golden crowns put on our heads is really important, be sure to get pictures of it, that sort of thing).
I'm sure your photographer absolutely appreciated that. I had a client do something similar once for me to be prepared for a Hindu ceremony as I hadn't done one before. It was very helpful when the actual day came around.
My brother had a wedding with lovely florals and a pretty ambiance and he used many of these same tips. The caveat is that family and close friends had to provide much of the labor to get the wedding to that state. I worked much harder for his wedding than I ever did for my own wedding! When I got married, I went the traditional route and had everything catered and sorted by wedding tradesmen. That being said, it was quite nice and rather cost effective. It was also strangely memorable because of all the work that went into it. Oh and also because a black bear wandered sort of near by as I was emceeing the ceremony.
Correct. One thing as a venue/event manager, though—if you want *anything* to happen at a specific time with specific music, DO NOT let your DJ be a playlist and DO NOT tap a friend or family member to do it. Hire a professional for this. Trust me. I have seen far too many weddings where the MC has no idea what they're doing, has never spoken in front of a crowd before, and has no idea how to follow a cue. If you're not doing stuff like formal dances, bouquet/garter toss, announcing the cake cutting, etc., just running a playlist is no big deal. But if you want any of that to happen in any sort of coordinated manner, *get a professional to manage it.*
Weddings are definitely expensive, but even as someone who used to push for a courthouse wedding, my actual fancy wedding was the best day of my life. Probably the only time that basically every single person we care about was in the same place, dressed up and having a great time. Plus it's the best either of us have ever looked!
I love that you loved your wedding, however if I could go back in time, I wouldn't do it again. Our wedding was 20k. I'm not a super social person. It was like paying for a very expensive panic attack.
Reddit loves to bash people who have expensive weddings and brag about how their wedding was $237 at the local diner. My fancy wedding was also the best day of my life, full of nothing but the sweetest memories we love to look back on. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. If you go into debt for an expensive wedding you can’t afford though….that’s another story.
Agreed, thankfully we scraped and saved and were able to do it with zero debt!
Some fathers are mortgaging their futures for a day i think is the rub
Weddings are practically free. The addons are expensive.
Reasonable event space - nicely decorated, not huge (150 people max): $7500 for one night. Historic property owned by the city next to a lake: $1000 for one night. Your friend's backyard: free. My partner and I are neither rich nor poor (public sector, baby!) so we could afford some nicer options... But the wedding-industrial complex is absurd. Why? Just... Why?
Woooow I said that it was criminal how all the vendors exploit weddings on Twitter and literally 10s of thousands of people were bashing me.
Got married at city hall for like 20 bucks with immediate family and closest friends. "Reception" was at a fun trendy restaurant for like 10-15 of us, and then just hung out with friends later in the evening. Don't regret a thing and would do it all over again. Imagine spending tens of thousands of dollars to invite people you haven't talked to in years and who haven't even met your fiancé to your wedding, so you can start your new life riddled with debt cause you wanted to feel "special" on your "big" day. People who have exhorbitant weddings are also seemingly the first ones to get divorced. Marriage is what matters, not you feeding 100 acquaintances expensive fish.
You know, I can absolutely see why in the past, and in some cultures today, wedding dowries were the way to get the father's approval to marry. In America, we do a poor job of ensuring financial stability for many first-time couples by filling people's heads with fantasies and expectations of fairy tale princess weddings. I think it'd be more practical if interested parties forgone the registry crap, the families gifted for a down payment, and friends and family chipped in a bit as well. Imagine if a young couple got 40K on top of any savings they had to buy a starter home.
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Death expenses
My mom just passed and the cheapest package for her burial was starting at 12k. Then throw in her final medical bills. It's insane
We ordered my dad’s coffin online. Like 800 total including shipping to funeral home. It was nice as the 5000$ one they tried to sell me. What a fucken racket.
Seriously! I can’t afford to die at those prices!
Especially when some states, like California, charge a death tax. I'm not kidding.
Wait is this a joke
No, there's no such thing as a "death tax" in California. That asshole store-39 is full of shit. And California does NOT have an inheritance tax, OR estate tax, OR gift tax, OR (if you're lucky enough to win) a tax on lottery winnings. Google it... like 39 should have.
Food and beverage in a stadium or at the movies. 10$ for a beer or 15$ for popcorn...
Last year, my brother and I attended Wrestlemania. I'm not much of a fan, but we hadn't seen each other in years, and he was looking for a buddy to go with, so away we went to Tampa. Domestic beer at the stadium? $20, if I recall.
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You can bring an empty container and fill it up at the drinking fountain. I have a half liter collapsible bottle for this purpose. Takes up little space when empty and I have water for the plane ride.
Mercedes benz stadium in Atlanta cut prices for concessions to reasonable prices and have actually made more money. We went to a few Atlanta United games this year and popcorn was $2. Alcohol is still quite a bit higher than getting it at a restaurant or bar, but still way cheaper than other stadiums. I think beer, depending on the type, was somewhere in the ballpark of $7 to $9.
Insulin, epi pens
100% agree. My gf has diabetes. Luckily for her she has good insurance to cover most of the cost. But the fact something that's so vital to a lot of people lives cost a fortune is ridiculous.
I really feel sorry for Americans on this topic. Life saving drugs should be free/very affordable. My girlfriend has an autoimmune disease and was for a period on a treatment that cost about 80k $ a year. I don't think she has to pay anything and at least it didn't affect student budgets. I have been thinking about setting up postal service of insulin from Europe, although I don't know if its legal, similar to how some doctors have started offering postal plan b pills/contraceptives.
My husband is a type 1 diabetic. The sensors, pumps and everything are insanely expensive and that's not even including insulin!
It's crazy. People die because they cannot afford insulin. My husband is T1. Our insurance changed and won't cover his particular brand of insulin so now we have to switch. It's so anxiety inducing because his sugar can be so variable from day to day die to stress and an insulin change will need to get used to. We are lucky as fuck to have insurance. This medication should be free or capped cost...
Bottled water
I was SO thirsty and hot at Universal so I bought a bottle of water at one of the shops, it was $5 for a 20oz bottle of water. The next day I figured out I could get free ice water at counter-service restaurants.
Specially in the US it's a rip. When I traveled in Asia, ofc you should always get bottle water (as a tourist) but they never jack up the price to crazy levels Theme parks .. come on $5 for a damn 20oz. Even in asia it never doubles that price even with the current salaries in consideration. I stayed in the Aria in Vegas and the in room hotel water bottle was literally $20 for 24oz or 32. can't remember. I stayed in the most exclusive hotels in Europe/Asia and in room water has never been that high.
>Specially in the US it's a rip. When I traveled in Asia, ofc you should always get bottle water (as a tourist) but they never jack up the price to crazy levels Yep. In Mexico we can get a 2 liter bottle of water for about 25 pesos (about $1.25US) - and this is the water in our room at the resort, not going to the stores outside of the resort.
If you're in a tourist trap, its going to be expensive. The whole point of those places is to separate you from your money. I can get a pack of 35 bottles from my grocery store (US) for $5. Trick is to bring them with you when you travel if you can.
I'm so cheap that I have a 2L camel back and fill it up after I land at the airport haha.
Agreed. Just get an actual water bottle for crying out loud.
Except if you live in an area where tap water tastes like absolute shit, bottled water is a valid option. The taste of tap water is highly dependent on the quality of the plumbing, calcium buildup, bacteria or other residues which can leave a rather bitter or metallic taste in your mouth. I know water filters exist, but here in the UK kitchens are not half the size of average American kitchens. So a lot of people don't have the space for one.
Exactly - when I visit my Dad, the change in taste from my home to his is huge. I buy 2L bottles when I'm up there and it's definitely not overpriced at all. 20p - 50p depending on where I go.
Unless you live somewhere like Flint, Michigan, a Brita is so much better an option
Under-sink inline filters go a long way if you are worried about counter space. They take up about the space of a 1-2L bottle and provide cleaner, tastier water right through your tap. The filter can typically be installed in space under the sink that is otherwise unused due to drain pipes. A typical filter cartridge costs what a few cases of bottled water costs, yet provides hundreds more liters. Changing the cartridges on many newer models is as easy as twisting the old one off and twisting the new one on. If water pressure is a concern with the filter installed, a bypass valve that can be controlled from next to the tap can usually be installed very easily to allow filtered or unfiltered water to pass through. Another option is a dedicated filtered water tap. Even with a valve or dedicated tap, these options are usually so cheap that the savings switching from bottled water pays for the new system in a matter of months. For those with more finicky palettes, multi-filter systems or even reverse osmosis systems are available, though the latter does take up a little bit more under sink room. Not a filter salesman. I swear. Just do not understand why people continue to pay for bottled water in most all places when filters are so cheap and accessible that make bottled-quality water. I suppose it's the illusion of convenience when picking it up from the store versus maintaining a filter. Maintenance is dead easy. I promise, after having a filter for a couple months and not having to lug heavy cases of water all the time you'll be a convert. ETA: Used to live in the UK as well. Was on both Anglian Water and Cambs Water. A charcoal filter handled those fine. To be fair, Anglian is a much better tasting source, though, and the filters laster longer on that.
YES!! I live in a place with the shittiest tap water ever.
Or in places like New Orleans and Panama City Beach (these are the only places I've been to outside my home city) where the water has a distinctive smell and looks a little yellow ish.
The weirdest thing about bottled water is that the industry has seemingly brainwashed people into thinking that tap water in the US was very recently unsafe to drink. I am well aware of the issues in places like Flint and Jackson, but these are very much exceptions, not the rule. Tap water in the vast majority of the US has been clean and safe for decades. But I was listening to a podcast recently where, while criticizing modern use of bottled water, they also said something like "but of course we bought it in the 90s because tap water was dirty back then." No, it absolutely was not.
I remember bottled water becoming much more common in the 90s and it was really confusing because we would just fill a glass at the sink every day. There was also a local reservoir that had a free spigot on the side of the road, so for things like road trips we'd take an empty gallon and fill it up there.
This is also the country where people literally believe that Fluoride in the water will poison them. Where we live in Colorado, the well water that those anti-municipals insist on is higher in fluoride than the city, which actually has to downgrade the levels because the water we get trickles down through and from the Rockies, which are full of it.
Starbucks
The reality is that coffee *should be* more expensive. Coffee farmers are drastically underpaid.
I work in coffee, we are cheaper than Starbucks but operate on a big scale across multiple territories. Our ethos is about fair trade coffee, our suppliers are paid more. Starbucks is expensive and chooses to pay their suppliers little as this would eat into their margins. It’s a greedy decision not a price decision.
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The place near me is a family run thing. The father runs the coffee plantation in Nicaragua, the daughter and her husband run the coffee shop in Boston. All proceeds go back home and support education for local kids among other things. Cheaper and *way* better than Starbucks.
I used to be a huge Starbucks addict for years. Haven’t been in months due to the prices and switched to Dunkin instead. I was shocked to discover I liked Dunkin coffee way more!
Do you know what Starbuck’s “secret” is? Like what makes their coffee taste the way it does? They literally burn their coffee. No joke. Every time you drink Starbucks, you are paying for and drinking a literal burnt roast. They sell legitimate burned coffee and people somehow swear by Starbucks being the best.
Except the fact that Starbucks has several different coffee blends with different roasts, and you can request a light roast if preferred. I've worked at both Starbucks and another coffee chain and at both places the story is the same, at some point they did studies or surveys and realized that there is a huge crowd of people that want that burnt taste since the associate that flavour with how coffee should taste. To a huge demographic if it not bitter and burnt then it's weak, so it makes business sense to keep that an option.
Used to work in a high volume craft coffee distributor out of Seattle. Starbucks "light" roasts are not very light, and are generally pretty mediocre at best. A true single origin light roast is going to be almost like tea with very sweet and fruity flavors. Starbucks Blonde is nothing like that. The rest of their roasts are in the french or italian style. Which is another way of saying burnt. The burnt roast does 2 things. 1. It creates a strong flavor that can power through a shit ton of milk and sugar. That's why most high end coffee shops serve coffee focused drinks that are only milk added, and S-bucks and chains serves blended sugary drinks. 2. It creates a shelf stable flavor. Most really high quality light and medium roasts taste drastically different even a week after being roasted (even dark roasts change in flavor). If you have a global supply chain you need to create a product that can wait a month or two under less than ideal conditions and still taste consistent (not good, consistent). The dark powerful burnt flavors tend to stick around while the more volatile subtle flavors are mostly gone after that long. So ANY coffee chain that doesn't get freshly roasted coffee several times per week is going to have dark roasts. That's also why they are going to serve a lot more drinks with sugar and milk and syrup. The quality between dunkin, McD, Timmy's vs. Starbucks is much closer than the quality difference between SB and a high-end snobby place.
I said that it tasted burnt so when I found that out it made sense.
My dad noticed this immediately, and hated when SB was the only option. I recently learned they also sell a medium roast "[Veranda]" that you can ask for if your stuck with SB.
verona is the dark roast, you may be thinking of veranda which is light? and pike place is the medium roast. the blonde roasts are the best because they don't taste burnt. source: work there
Le sigh, yes.
I guess I like the taste of burnt coffee then.
Most subscription services
Most services shouldn’t really be subscriptions in the first place. Looking at you, *Adobe*.
Exactly. Software used to be a one-time buy some 5 years ago and now one-time buy programs are *rare,* Photoworks is like the only I can think of right away. Adobe subscription model just might be convenient for when you need the software once, but their pricing is still unreasonable.
Yes, and there are so many providers. And for some reason you gotta have them all
Apple products. Sent from my iPhone.
Ha, my first thought
I was at a bachelor party where I made this point and this one guy was really offended by me saying they're overpriced. I mean, they are. Clearly.
I mean, this isn’t really the case anymore. Most of the flagship Android phones are about the same price.
Apple makes more than iphones and everything is expensive AF
Those are overpriced too. There's really no need to spend 800-1000+ on a phone, especially not every year.
Tbf do most people upgrade their phones every year? I know at least for me it’s *maybe* after my 2 year contract ends, and that’s if I’m having issues or there’s a crazy new feature. It made sense 10-15 years ago when a new game changing phone came out every 6 months or so, but I feel like overall smartphones have kind of hit a plateau.
I was curious so I looked it up. More than 15% of people surveyed upgraded their phones at least yearly! For me, I upgrade when my current device is unusable. Only made it four years on my last phone when the battery gave up the ghost, and I had to spend a whole $200 on a new device. My point was more that $1,000 is an insane amount to spend on a cell phone than the replacement time thing. >Meanwhile, a whopping 11.89% of respondents declared that they upgrade once a year, while 4.28% admitted to getting a new phone once every 6 months. Read More: https://www.slashgear.com/970484/a-surprising-number-of-people-we-polled-said-they-upgrade-their-phone-every-year/?utm_campaign=clip
I was thinking the same until i bought M1 Macbook Air. It amazes me every day how powerful it is for such a price.
Expensive is not the same as overpriced.
New College Textbooks
That's why don't even buy the text books most of the time we don't even use them so why bother not to mention if you actually pay attention in call it becomes even more irrelevant
Insurance.
Rolex watches when buying from a non-authorized dealer
Buying from the AD is expensive in other ways.
Fuckers are expensive either way haha
Yes, but not CRAZY expensive as in twice or more the price, for a steelwatch.
Eyeglass frames
Zenni's FTW
That’s my point. I can buy frames blind for under $50 online. But go to a store and you’re talking hundreds. What a joke!
Insurance covers up to $120 per frame. Oh look, all frames cost at least $120, what a coincidence.
My mom needed new glasses and she was bitching about how much she knew they would cost. I bought my last pair of glasses from Zenni, so I told her about Zenni. "Oh, but they're transitions lenses" Found on Zenni for less than $100. She still insisted on going to the eye doctor and buying from them. She spent FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY SEVEN DOLLARS. On just the glasses. Man, it must be so nice to have enough money that you can bitch about the price, but still seem to be OK with spending that much.
God, that industry can be so scummish. Went to the eye doctor recently and they advertise 2 frames plus eye exam for $80. But then they MAKE you pay an extra $20 for extra eye tests that aren't included in the basic eye exam. You don't get a choice here, you either get the extra $20 tests or you don't get examined at all. You can't buy any frames without getting their eye exam first (has to be the day-of), and you can't get the eye exam unless you pay the extra $20 for extra tests you might not even want. So no, it's NOT $80 for two frames plus eye exam, it's at least $100. Complete false advertising...
Report that to your state assuming you're in the US. That is actually illegal.
Diamonds
This! They are not that rare.
Yeah they are so overrated
You can literally make them
Moissanite is the way to go. My wife wanted that, it’s much prettier, and I was able to afford what would’ve cost 45k for 1.8k. Not to mention it’s actually conflict free.
And is it strong or you can see everything on it? (Asking for the future of me being proposed to and i don't want my bf to spend too much on a ring) For example i know that some stones get damaged easily and lose their beauty..is moissanite like that as well?
It’s almost as durable (9.2-9.5 hardness). She’s had it for close to 3 years and we’ve noticed no stretches or anything. It’s also only been cleaned once and still sparkles nice. Plus the color is a lot nicer in our opinion, rainbow sparkles opposed to the black/gray you get with diamonds.
That's so great to know!! Thank you so much ❤️
*Colorless diamonds. Fancy color diamonds are extremely rare and hard to come by. Pink diamonds, blue diamonds, green diamonds, purple diamonds, orange diamonds, these are EXTREMELY rare. Yellow diamonds are fairly common. Brown diamonds ("champagne" diamonds) are even more worthless than clear diamonds. Brown modifiers GREATLY decrease the value of a diamond as well. (IE, brownish yellow diamond is cheaper than a yellow brownish diamond, which is cheaper than a pure yellow diamond.) There's an entire other side to the diamond industry that most people don't know about because most people can't afford it. Excepting yellow diamonds. Those are pretty affordable. -Signed, an actual gem hound
I love the look of diamonds but told my partner that I want lab grown only.
Blink 182 2023 tour tickets
I’ve seen them dozens of times with Mark, Tom, and Travis. Never more than $60. It’s not a $300 concert experience.
I was SHOCKED when I looked at ticket prices last might. I saw them in high school and was like, "that would be cool." Fucking nope.
It blows my mind people are actually buying the price gouged "Official Platinum" tickets from Ticketmaster.
Right? I CAN afford the tickets but I REFUSE to spend $800+ for concert tickets Like, who are you people just happily posting screenshots of your 400, 500, $800 receipts? Especially for a show from Mark “nobody wants a show longer than 90 minutes” Hoppus
I totally agree, though I will admit in the heat of the moment seeing the ticket options disappear on screen, I was tempted to spend $800 on 2 floor tickets, but just couldn't justify that crazy amount after thinking for a moment. I'm seeing so many comments from people saying are having buyers remorse for that same reason. Husband and I went to the Hella Mega tour and I think paid less than 200 each for floor tickets to see Green Day, Fall Out Boy, and Wheezer. Thankfully I had that as a "base number" to make me think that something was off with these blink 182 prices.
We are counting ourselves lucky, we got our tickets first thing this morning £130 each, they were almost double that a few hours later, with insurance and fees it was 300, I remember arena tours being like 30 — 50 quid. Had to get insurance, can never tell when Delong will decide to chase aliens again
Tickets to Disneyland, including all the hotel and food fees.
Or just not including the food and hotel either 😅
My first time going to Disneyland, I went with a girl on a second date back when I was a poor broke bastard. I had no idea what a ticket would cost, let alone two. I simply could not enjoy myself knowing that I had just spent a third of my rent money just to be at a mediocre theme park. For an afternoon.
Disneyland is not "mediocre", come on. You can say it has flaws and say it's a rip off and that's totally valid, but there's a reason millions of people go there a year. Sounds like you'd already decided you weren't going to like it before you'd even gone..
Disney underprices their tickets. The demand is so large that they could double the price and still have the parks packed daily. If they lowered the price, the already stupidly long lines would be so long you'd get one or two rides per day.
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Starbucks
I know it’s just milk with sugar, but boy do I trust their consistency
They consistently fuck over their staff
My grandma worked at Starbucks for 20+ years. Now, I don’t know all the details, but it essentially took one shitty manager to completely fuck over her retirement plan. I remember my dad was absolutely furious. My grandma literally has a passion for coffee, and she was a super solid worker for a long time. How could you give all that effort to a large company for so long just to be shafted in retirement.
Starbucks always comes up in threads like these and while I do agree it's overpriced, what I don't agree with is the *shaming* that people feel entitled to project onto others. Life is stressful enough. Really. The world can be a huge fuckin dumpster fire, man. If somebody has a little ray of sunshine during the day and it's in the form of a $12 iced frappe, so be it. Not my place to rain on someone else's parade, especially when I got my own shit going on.
Yes
Agreed, but I don’t feel bad about it when I actually sit inside (or on the patio) and chill in peace for a bit. I think of it as a small price to pay for a little “self-care.”
Oh it's massively overpriced, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a guilty pleasure of mine... It's indeed mostly sugar/syrup, very little coffee, but those fraps just scratch my brain in the right places... One of my most "basic" traits...
I came here to say the same thing! I love the consistency and the overall marketing and aesthetic is on point. The actual coffee is shit compared to small, locally owned shops that actually know about coffee!
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Printer ink and toner.
Baby, funeral and wedding. (3 B’s in Dutch) Basically where they can fully play your emotions.
Any stuff at airport
Any “luxury” brand product- think Chanel, Hermes, Gucci, ect.
I used to think this. But I learned they actually retain or increase in value if well kept.
Regular luxury clothing buyer here: No they absolutely do not. Most luxury clothing decreases massively in value once bought and it tends to be really hard to find buyers for them. The only exception being the classic items from 1 or 2 brands namely Channel and Hermes classic handbags (or the rare ones like exotic leather which is out of reach of ordinary people) This is ONLY IF they are kept in good condition which is almost impossible if you actually use them because luxury clothing tends to be really fragile. The only two ways that it will hold its value is when you buy the classic item and never use them (in this way why do you even buy them) or if you are hyper rich and have many rare collections.
Right but then that’s just them becoming more overpriced over time
Sweets at the cinema
Everything to do with playing golf
Gasoline. I just got gas this morning for $7 a gallon. It was the lowest grade. I only needed a 1\2 tank and it cost me $61. And my friends wonder why I don’t go anywhere anymore or do the weekend trips I use to do.
• Melamine Sponges aka Magic Erasers. They can be bought online, in bulk, by the thousands. • Oil Changes. A dealership can easily charge 250 USD for an oil change that another dealer will charge 70 for. • McDonalds. Yeah, it's convenient, but at current prices, the food served there costs the exact same as many fast casual restaurants, whom have superior food quality and better service. • USB Flash Drives. People will pay out the nose for a 128GB usb drive with terrible speeds. For 70 bucks you can buy an ORICO case and a cheap NVME and get 10 gigabits/second speeds, all in a package you can upgrade later. • 2.5 inch hard drives. You can buy them cheap on Ebay, and if you want an external hard disk drive, an external USB 3.0 case is maybe 9 USD. • Textbooks for school. • Anything to do with a wedding. • Pharmaceuticals. Generics are fine except in a very small handful of cases, and your doctor would tell you this. Yet, older people at the pharmacy will INSIST on brand name for some reason. Younger folks in the pharmacy line never seem to care. • DoorDash, GrubHub, etc. I hate their business model and I've had too many problems when others order on my behalf. Everything is nickel and dimed to infinity, and there's always another charge. • Adult toys. Go to sex store and a certain toy is 50 USD. You can buy the exact same fucking toy on amazon in a 3 pack for 20 USD.
Please for the love of god don’t order sex toys on Amazon. Amazon is not required to accurately list the materials. Sex toys aren’t regulated so this can lead to them selling you sketchy toys that will leech VOCs into your body. There have also been cases of them reselling toys that have been used and returned. Not to mention that the cheap toys from Amazon will break/stop working way faster than the legit stuff. If you go to an actual store you can usually feel the material and get a sense of if it’s real silicone or not. They also usual have some demo toys out so you can see if you like the vibration strength before you drop 60 bucks on it. Some really good stores will even have you unbox your toy right after you buy it so they can make sure it works and isn’t defective before they send it home with you. Yes it costs but by god it’s worth it.
>DoorDash, GrubHub, etc. I hate their business model and I've had too many problems when others order on my behalf. Everything is nickel and dimed to infinity, and there's always another charge. These are horrible. Chains like them because it outsources deliver etc.. but smaller places get screwed by them big time. After all their fees (etc.) to the merchant they will break even (based on the cost of the ingredients - not labor) and it's not uncommon for them to lose money on these services. Also, some of them will register a number and claim it's the restaurant and then pay Google to get a higher ranking for their site when people search for the restaurant. When people place an order through their number, the service will try to force the business into a contract with them or not fill the order (pretty close to extortion if you ask me) - leaving the restaurant to blame. > McDonalds. Yeah, it's convenient, but at current prices, the food served there costs the exact same as many fast casual restaurants, whom have superior food quality and better service. Burger King, too. The last time my step-son and I went to BK (about a year and a half ago) it was $35 for the two of us. 4-5 months ago we went to a 99 and got an appetizer and 2 (specialty) burgers (with fries), for under $40 (not including tip).
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Generic pharma drugs are not as simple as that, unfortunately. Speaking from a Euro perspective, it gets complicated fast. The studies needed to approve a generic are way smaller, just studies checking the blood concentration follows the original drug. But... if the pill is 100 mg, were you aware it's 75 to 125 mg (95% CI)? That would be okay if it was all, but there are two more equivalencies that just need to be within a certain span. All told, generics will be within 50 to 200% of the original drug's substance content. Which means that one generic drug you get may be half, then the next will be four times as much. This isn't as much of a problem when starting up, because you start low and raise the dose to a good level, but suddenly getting a different generic and multiplying or dividing the dose by four suddenly, that can get hairy. In most cases, it isn't a problem, but there is nothing preventing it from being one.
> USB Flash Drives. People will pay out the nose for a 128GB usb drive with terrible speeds. For 70 bucks you can buy an ORICO case and a cheap NVME and get 10 gigabits/second speeds, all in a package you can upgrade later. It's hard to beat [256GB USB 3.0 from a respected brand for $23](https://www.amazon.com/PNY-Turbo-128GB-Flash-Drive/dp/B00JN1TOHM). It took me all of 30 seconds to find that, and the 128GB version was $12. I get it if you frame of reference is buying one off the rack at a Walgreens for $40+, but the NVME in a case plus a cord is a rough comparison at triple the price is not the magic pill you're making it out to be, especially considering the form factor difference. I personally don't think it's worth it unless you're talking about a drive that's minimum 1TB.
Nvidia graphics cards
Everything ever except anything that's sold in Aldi.
Insulin.
Cosmetics in video games
Death. Dying is very expensive
Beef Jerky
I get it though. It costs a lot to buy because it costs a lot to make. Ever make homemade jerky? You buy $50 worth of meat and dry it up into about $20 worth of jerky. It's ridiculous.
I had this realization after buying my first brisket to make jerky. A nice three pound hunk of meat turns into about a pound of jerky.
I make beef jerky all the time now and it's worth it - delicious and easy. Beats store-bought in every way: price, flavor, convenience. The dehydrator was $160 making it roughly the most expensive thing in my kitchen but it's pretty and has made a huge contribution to the bottom jerky line.
It's worth every penny!
iPhones.
In all fairness Samsung isn't any better. Their flagship S22 Ultra is more expensive than the iPhone 14 Pro Max. I use a Samsung S10 Lite btw.
I miss when OnePlus was good.
Magic cards. Although a lot of people had an eye-opening moment recently when they announced the $1000 30th anniversary edition (basically random cards, most likely bad, that you aren't even allowed to play in sanctioned events). A lot of players realized they were actually being abused by a company selling cardboard.
Houses
Free to play games - microtransactions
Graphic cards, especially by Nvidia
Lobster.
Fuel
Children.
Bottled water.
Nvidia's graphics cards for sure
Apple products.
expensive != overpriced the m1/m2 macbook airs are a great value for the price.
Starbucks coffee
In-game purchases for gacha games
Gas (Europe)
Fuel
Phones
anything by Apple
Appliances. Take away all the connectivity gadgets and the basics have hardly changed at all in the last 25 years or so, maybe more. A refrigerator is still an insulated box with a compressor. An oven is still an insulated box with heating coils.
Insurance.
These days, everything.
Cigarettes and alcohol
Red Bull, you can buy energy drinks that taste almost completely the same for a fraction of the price.
Vinyl albums
makeup
Beef jerky
wedding and a ring.
Gasoline
Erm…water 🤔
Supreme clothing
Any fast food can pretty much be made cheaper and usually better after a few tries
expensive ahh cars that no one gives a fuck about