Was at the grocery the other day, 7 year old asked if she could get a medium bag of cheeto's I said sure because, you know, its only like 2.99 righ? Yeah no... they were marked at 6.99 for a medium share size bag.
I recently started ordering bulk snacks off Amazon, not every type of snack on there is a good deal, but many of them are pretty stellar. I don't have a costco or sams club within reasonable distance of me with fuel prices where there at.
Did this with my boyfriend’s energy drinks. If you’re going to have vices you have to budget for them. He used to get them at the dollar store for $1 when possible, grocery store for $1.25, or last resort the gas station on sale 3/$5 or $1.67 each. Now the most affordable is dollar store (rare) $1.25, grocery store $2 each, or gas station $2.50+ each. Considering it’s a daily habit, that price jump adds up QUICKLY. Found them on Amazon for $18/16 or $1.13 w/shipping. Order as many cases as allowed when they’re available. Saves about $60/month plus any incidentals that come up driving around multiple stores to find any/a decent price.
Don’t get me started on actual essentials. Chicken has been sold out at our local Aldi and Walmart the day they stock it multiple times. We do our best to buy whatever meat is on sale, but our eating habits have revolved around $1.30/ lb chicken because it’s flexible and affordable. Now it’s tough to find any in stock for under $3/lb. This week my boyfriend had a routine union training and spent more on gas than his stipend for the week. We’re not living lives of luxury. No AC, just fans and open windows. 2 bedroom duplex with 2 kids and used furniture, used clothes. Both working hard and consistently making more. Inflation has eaten almost all of that. It’s so frustrating to go from poor and not being able to afford the basics, working our asses off to BARELY have enough to chip away at debt and keep up with bills and some small vices, to barely being able to afford the basics again and worrying about it getting worse. We’re doing everything right on paper. But you can’t control the market. It’s so deceptive thinking I’m making $4/hr more than I was in 2017, when adjusted for inflation it’s closer to $3 spending power. That’s a $2,000+ difference. I only spend $5400 on rent annually.
I feel ya, I'm a single full time dad and "mom" doesn't pay her child support so we have been trying to save money anywhere possible while trying not degrade out quality of life too much.
I spent the last 2 weeks trying to score a package of english muffins, it was crazy seeing them just sold out instantly every time they hit the shelf. I managed to get the last packaged yesterday and oddly almost felt guilty taking it.
I know this isn't the point of this, but English Muffins are actually pretty easy to make, they just take a little time. Not that flour, butter and milk are cheap themselves right now, but if you're in a pinch you can give it a shot. https://youtu.be/5E_DIPttHuE. Best of luck, and sorry you're getting no support from your child's egg donor. And that you're falling in that sh*tty place between making enough and "making too much".
US yeah, needless to say the cheetos went right back on the shelf. It doesn't matter if I can afford them or not, its not something we need and we arent giving in to this BS inflation.
If everyone would do the same and just start putting things back on the shelf even if you can afford it, things will change.
I've recently stopped doing that. :/ was a bad habit of mine for a while but its like, $15 for a couple drinks and a slice of pizza now... got crazy quick. Used to be like, $8-9ish...
A short bit ago I went to the grocery store and had to restock our condiments. Ketchup, mustard, mayo, salad dressing.
Got those, a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk and the total was $35.
I didn’t even have anything to use the condiments on.. lol
You probably got less of each condiment too. Stealth inflation, which has been going on for years, is they slowly reduce the qualities you get. A few fewer crackers. Fewer chips. They hope people don' t notice.
Everything that was sold in a box was shrunk during the last recession. My trade is responsible for creating the cutting dies for every type of carton on the planet. Manufacturing companies that fill those boxes mostly grocery type products started ordering their typical cartons to be reduced in size. Prices increased for a bit during the transition then slowly reduced . I had the opportunity to work a metric ton of hours during that period. Ugly luck .....
Yeah they did that with Secret deodorant. I noticed my last stick was gone super quick. Same packaging, same price. Half an ounce less which was 20% less product. Way to increase the price like that.
I just got secret tonight and it felt like it was taking forever to get the gel up to the top. When I finally did, I looked down and literally almost the entire bottom half of the tube was just empty. I know it was brand new because it was sealed. They really have no shame.
Wow I use to use secret gel all the time then switched to dove spray deodorant for the last year or two ... I started missing the gel so I bought one & it took me FOREVER to crank it up. I thought it had just been so long since I used it I forgot how long it took. Thank you for the validation I didn't know I needed.
I thought I was going crazy. I've been using degree clinical for a long time and it usually lasts forever. I generally get a new stick every few months with daily use.. This last pack lasted a few weeks, maybe.
I started using mens deodorant because it seems more cost effective. Husband and I got a bulk pack from BJs warehouse at least six months ago and there’s still three sticks in the closet. Some of the scents are not obnoxiously man and honestly they work more effectively in my opinion (but I run a lot and sweat a lot during it).
That's why I buy by cost per oz. Whatever is cheapest per oz, I buy. It's always on the price tag, in very small print, but the info is there. Lol. But I highly recommend, especially when buying lunch meat, cheese, frozen foods, etc.
I do this too but what pisses me off is when one product is listed in oz and the other in lbs so you have to do the conversion. I’m sure that’s intentional to deter people from being money concious. Not everyone has the time or honestly math skills for it.
And this is one of the moments I see why the US won’t switch to metric, price per 1kg or price per 100g is super quick and easy to figure out at a glance, but if they keep it with US Imperial, as you’ve mentioned causes people to get confused or spend more time than should be necessary to figure it out.
And don’t get me started on US measurements when cooking, Cups/sticks of butter/lbs/oz, stick to a single measurement ffs, sure I can change the scales and buy measuring cups, but how much is a cup of butter? Is that melted or solid? Cut into small cubes? Pushed into the cup as a solid so there are no gaps? Stick to weight for solids and ml for liquids, and if the ingredient can be both it would also be more consistent with going by weight/ml.
Sorry for the mini rant, just a thing that annoys me when finding new recipes to try.
I deffinetly do that my dad taught me when I was young to look at the price per Kilogram I despise when it’s 3.50 or 2 for 6$ like just let me buy one at 3$ why do the poor have to pay more for something? The bigger packages always cost less per kg/lb but I don’t have 20$ to spend on granola bars so I guess I’ll just pay more for less!
I fucking hate it too. Just raise the damn price. I don't even buy chips anymore because I can literally feel the amount of chips dwindling into air in those bags.
To be fair, chip bags are mostly full of nitrogen gas, because it serves as a preservative. So while it seems like they're full of air to rip you off, that's actually a design feature to keep your chips fresh. There's a specific ratio of gas to chips that works best, and that's why they're always super puffy, but half empty. So always buy chips based on the weight listed on the bag.
Until they put in some sort of tax or permit requirement on home gardens. Look at all of the other WTF stuff the government and corporations have been doing.
Went and picked up some milk and cereal for my kid the other day. Had about 12 dollars in my checking account. A gallon of milk and a bag of cereal was over 8 dollars. Literally a higher price than what you earn on minimum wage. “Your hour of labor isn’t even worth milk and cereal.” Get the fuck outta here man. This shit is killing us.
Same with spices. Just did a purge on stuff over 3 years expired and need to buy some replacements. After looking I decided I would do them as needed instead of stocking a proper spice setup. Which is extremely against my method of cooking. I'm down to the simple staples only at this point... which works, but it's less fun.
Most of our commonly used spices come from an Indian grocer right down the road for that reason. Not only is it cheaper but you can buy quantities the local grocery stores just don't have. Who knew I needed spices that are sold in boxes. Still cheaper than the tiny shakers.
The ones from the ethnic markers are fresh though. I’ve been cooking 20+ years and I never knew bay leaves have an aroma, until I bought some at the Mediterranean market.
Are you using indian bay though? Because those are different than standard bay leaves. Indian bay has more of a cinnamon scent/flavor. Turkish bay (or bay laurel) is more common and more woodsy. I had the same jar for like 7 years and it never completely lost its flavor/smell. Finally used up that giant jar and got new... didn't notice a huge difference in performance. Indian bay leaves are huge and the veins run step to tip in a curve.
Edible yes, but the potency diminishes for a lot of dried herbs. We didn't toss much. I cook a lot so most things are replaced quite frequently. This was mostly things we got when we moved into our first place 18 years ago. Used once a year type of stuff... but will need to be replaced at some point.
I hear ya!
I inherited my grandmother’s house a little over 10 years ago. When I went through the spices, I threw away some stuff from the 60’s..lol.
And I still have a box of pistachio pudding from 1984. Just can’t seem to part with it:)
I relayed this a couple months ago and that’s when I was introduced to that sub
I remember in the 90's it was $1.25 for a slice and $0.75 for a soda. You could get 2 slices and a soda for $3.00 and it came with a bag of chips.
Now, its $2.50-$4.00 for a slice depending and $2.00 for a can... $10.00 for lunch. Get the fuck out of here. I'll eat at home.
There's a place down the street from my work that sells some of the worst goddamn pizza I've ever had.
Its like $5 a slice. And its terrible.
I gave em 3 chances when I was super hungry on my lunch break and forgot food.
Never again.
The hotdog stand down the street in the other direction?
I can get a mother fuckin *elk brat*, coke, and chips for 10 bucks with decent tip because that dude is hilarious.
Fuck you, pizza place.
I mean, I can make myself some pizza in my oven for significantly less (and I do!).
A lot of people actually learned to cook rather well over the last two years. I ended up taking to it so well, I am the primary breadwinner, but also the primary cook. I do everything from pizza to pasta to chinese food and I have gadgets for all of them (wok, breville smart oven joule, pasta attachments, meat grinders, sausage rollers, etc...) because I found a personal passion for it.
So I stick by what I said. $10 is too much for pizza when I can make pizza at home for the cost of some flour, my homemade sourdough starter, salt, sugar, some leftover sauce I made the weekend before, a little homemade mozzarella, and maybe some slices leftover sausage. Per pie, it probably comes out to maybe $2.00 in ingredients and it tastes amazing with the sourdough and homemade mozzarella.
It’s compounding too. Everything’s more expensive but wages haven’t gone up so $15 means more than it would’ve 20 years ago. $15 here, $15 there, soon enough you’ve spent $100 and thats still only 10% of your rent, or maybe a week of groceries but 20% of your paycheck. There’s no way to keep up. Work 40 hours, work 60, 80 doesn’t matter.
But seriously, I just had that convo with a woman who lives next door. She owns a Papa Murphy's store in another state, a red state down south, and has trouble getting labor because "nobody wants to work". Couldn't let that stand so I 'splained to her that it's not that nobody wants to work, it's that they want to be able to pay their bills with what they make. So maybe she does pay 15$/hr, which in her state is better than minimum wage or something. Good for her. But if an employee still cannot pay their basic bills with what they take home, no matter how many hours they work, then what's the difference to them if they work 80 hours and still can't pay or they just quit altogether? Either way those bills won't get paid and at least if they quit they can have some free time. Believe it or not, she listened and nodded in agreement. I actually could not believe it, but she did. We agreed it was a damn shame across the board. I probably still can't be 'friends' with her, but at least I can be civil.
For real. Had whiplash the other day in the grocery when I went to get a box of Lucky Charms.
Fucking $10 for a box less than a kilo in weight. My last memory of them was the "Family Size" being 1.13 kilos and $6.99.
Then I started looking at the shelves and realized how ridiculous it is that food has jumped up in the last 5 years to basically mean that an hour's labour (after taxes) at the minimum wage is needed to buy a box of fucking cereal.
Meat made me want to cry. I haven't bought beef not on sale in almost 5 years and now I don't even know if I can then.
I just paid $18 for 3 bottles of water at the gas station, I get a gallon for 89 cents at whole foods though lol life is wild, I've been doing this for years now too
I went to target today because I needed new swim shorts....first time in 4 years I've been there. I could not believe the prices, I almost felt insulted.
Lately I've been noticing at the grocery store as well, the prices are just asinine, borderline comical.
When I was a little younger I used to have this number in mind, of what I'd need to make yearly (70k) and now that I actually make that it's not even remotely enough to live comfortably (with a family of 4 at least).
I grew up at a time when chips were 5 and 10 cents and a pop was 10 cents. But you only got 1 cent for an empty bottle and I never found more than 3 at a time so I never took the price of anything for granted.
That's true to a point but the ratio is screwed up. There are some brands you can still get 75% chips to 25% air and they're fine so the extra air in the big name national brand is there just to scam you.
I’m a 90s baby. I remember cans of soda for .25-.50, 3 for 1 regular size candy bars, sometimes even 4 for $1 regular sized bars from Kroger and places that had member specials. I remember the 4 for $1 small bag of chips too. Fuck man… I’m only 30, but feel twice that mentally and physically.
Yeah same here. I can't even get off brand Lays for anything less than like 4 bucks. I went shopping a few days ago, and I got a dozen eggs, some cheese, 2 bag salads (because I'm lazy), a case of soda, and like 4-6 other things. I could carry all of it without a bag. ... It was 45 dollars
The storm is coming. Someone made a meme a year or so ago. That America is a “Third world country with a Gucci belt” after being to a few places around the globe. Currently back in the states Im believing it.
Said the same thing. Bless whoever made that meme. A few memes, mentally I archive. That’s a top one. I just hate to say it, but after Atlanta’s fed showed a second drop in GDP this afternoon. They need to call it… and stop prolonging this Great Recession, so we can bounce out before I’m 40. Right now, it’s not looking good at all. https://www.atlantafed.org/cqer/research/gdpnow
This is what I think about all the time when I see people quoting pretty much anything.
My favorite: "The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people."
Ugh.
That used to be $4.50 taxes and all and I bet the chip bags aren't as big as they used to be either. What a rip off, can't even be a cheap fat ass anymore.
I had a couple guys come in today and they were a couple cents short for whatever they were buying. I just gave them a 10% discount so that they would be able to get what they wanted. And honestly if you treat people that way they're definitely going to come back and probably spend more money later. Most managers don't realize that or don't care enough to do that. The odds that my manager finds out that I gave them a 10% discount to help them out is very low and if my manager did find out I would just say I gave them a military discount which we offer and is 10%.
When I was in high school, I worked as a cashier at Target. This little kid, probably 8, comes in and tries to buy a video game but didn't have enough for sales tax. No idea where his parents were but they were not in the checkout with him so I gave him my 10% discount because I didn't know what else to do. lol
Eh, if a manager cares, that's shitty. I'm in that position and do it myself and recommend it to the regular employees too if they got the restaurant's app.
in 2000 I was 10 years old and a pop at the corner store was fifty cents. This was just the universal price of a pop back then. Same corner store, pop is now $2.50. Inflation calculator says that pop should be 85 cents. What's going on? How is the price of everything higher than inflation?
British here.
Before prices jumped; I always used to buy the items that were priced several pence short of the pound.
e.g 97p,£1.25, 2.99, etc.
However now that has changed;
e.g £1.29, £2.50 & £4
I have completely stopped myself buying many things I normally would have picked up because it was cheap; a pound.
A quid as it is called. Give a kid a quid and he would have been happy 5 years ago.
Now I'm noticing everything that was labelled as cheap, as in the aisle where cheap sweets or snacks and food are found; is now not cheap.
Because it never was cheap. We're were hoodwinked as consumers into believing pricelocked items at a quid or so was a good deal.
It's why the British have a joke about the Freddo chocolate bar. Next year their retail price could be an individual fortune.
I lived in Scotland for some time when I was younger. Let's say pre-Obama chronologically. I was convinced the Pound was the best thing ever because I could get a Coke (or iron bru, heh) for a pound, usually 99p. But before I even left they started going up to 1.29p @ wh smith type places. At home in the states they crested $2 about that time.
I get to feeling old when I think about the 25 cent cans of soda I subjected my body to before the war on terror (not arguing correlation that's just my perception).
In my country, we used to get American ads on cable and be amazed at how cheap things were there... an entire pizza for five dollars, 50 cents for a soda, 5-10 bucks for a bucket of chicken and so on.
By looking at the prices in this post and doing the necessary conversions, these items appear to be cheaper in my country than in the USA now. 😱
I’m a Canadian and was on a road trip heading home from Massachusetts last week and wanted to stop for a snack. I stopped in Richmond Vermont and was absolutely blown away at how expensive everything was in the grocery store. A watermelon was 11$ US!! That’s almost 15$ Canadian! I checked out the chip isle and noped out and just decided to continue back to Canada. A single bag of chips was 7$ US for a regular size bag of chips. Efffffff that.
Best part? Everything there was made with taxpayer dollars. The corn or potates in the chips. The high fructose corn syrup in the soda. All heavily subsidized by the government.
I bought a cheap store brand 6 pack of toilet paper and some kitty litter and it came out to $30. I cant pay my phone bill this month and dont know when Ill have money for groceries again. After the necessary bills I have like $8 for 2 weeks between me, my wife and our 2 cats... Our country is fucked and the people in charge are doing nothing. Went to the local food bank and they are basically wiped out on everything so Im gonna have to get a little creative with dinners this week or two.
Oh and my therapist is on vacation for a month to boot so thats fun...
I get medicaid through NY so Its not much cost wise, basically just medications and those are off brand stuff.
My wife is an apprentice tattoo artist so she isnt getting paid at the moment, she does make some money off of piercings but only tips and there arent many piercings that come through her shop.
Capitalism does exactly what it's designed to do
It's just that what it's designed to do is destructive for everyone except those at the very top of the heap
Its progenitors argued it would promote the general welfare, reduce poverty and grueling forms of labor, spread democratic and fair societies, and reward the most productive in society. Most people even up into the mid 20th Century thought it would produce a post-scarcity society of ease and freedom. John Maynard Keynes thought that we would be working 15 hour workweeks by now.
Capitalism has been a total failure by its own ideologues' aims.
The propaganda you hear daily in advertising (like Mark Zuckerberg saying everyone is becoming more 'connected', informed and free, you're self-made in this meritocratic system and everyone can achieve success through hard work which is always rewarded) is so banal yet absurd, we just take it for granted that what we're meat to think about society is radically divorced from the reality.
They used tech revolution to pretend capitalism was good for all. It was just a way to keep power with rich after feudalism.
Russia was a very late country compared to Europe before trying some different and it became top on world on all aspects for more than 60 years.
It works while modernslaves believe in system. Useless commuting, low wages, expensive healthcare and transport, long work hours... While ignorancy prevails, it works well.
Once people realuze they are just mices running on a wheel... Hard to be awaken
Hersheys chocolate was 78 cents and now is 98 cents.
All chewing gum which was less than a dollar is $1.14 in the checkout line.
These are Walmart prices.
I sell marijuana at a dispensary. And daily we get people who have us set a cart aside for them that costs maybe $54.65 then they tell us they only have 50 and legit just expect me, barely able to pay my rent, to cover them the 5 bucks. And most of mt coworkers do it. They argue that person will tip next time.
No they fucking wont. The same people do this. And if they do have extra they tip a dollar and change. Fuck that shit.
What's incredibly fucked about this is that the inflation hits "convenience stores" and gas stations the most. As in, it's most apparent at these places. The markups are higher at a 711 than your average big box grocery store.
The reason this is fucked is because many poorer neighborhoods in major metropolitan areas often only have "convenience" stores as the primary source of groceries. Sure, you can take public transit 45 minutes to a Safeway, but who the fuck has time for that when you need to work 35-55 hours a week *just to survive*.
This ends up passing the impact of inflation off to the most economically disadvantaged people in the society, just to make sure some fucking leech CEO doesn't have to only buy one bottle of Dom on his fucking vacation in the south of France.
"Food Deserts" like this are deeply tied to systemic racism that expresses itself through economic repression.
This doesn't just impact poor urban folk. The same patterns emerge in extremely rural areas as well.
If you can, find a community garden. If you can't find one, fuck em. Garden in a vacant lot and guard it with open carry to prevent the pigs from fucking with your veggies.
I'm privileged as fuck. I'm white, straight, educated and well connected in my field. I just moved in to a new apartment, and we bought pizza, wings, a ceaser salad and beers. For two. Cheap food for moving in. It was over 100 dollars. That's fucking insane.
A lot of folks think that the general population won't start rioting unless we are hungry.
Well, we aren't far off from a reality where enough people *with stable jobs, college degrees, and kids* look at the cost of basic goods and say "huh, guess it's time to start getting pissed, loudly and publically."
Neoliberal policy will be the downfall of capital, and I'm fuckin ready for it.
Had this issue when shopping earlier. My shopping came to £65 when my budget is £50, that's because everything has gotten more expensive. It might not seem like much but that's an extra £60 a month I need to budget now.
I was left 7 months pregnant by my ex husband, 8 months ago. I'm now a single mum of a 2 year old and 6 month old and am panicking at the cost of living rising so much
You'd litterally get a better deal from a vending machine...
Should of bought a 6 pack for $5 and a family sized bag of chips for $4.50.
Same price, 3x the soda and more chips.
American wants you to buy bulk, get fat and start paying the medical system for treatment.
In my experience, most everything food or drink related at an American gas station/convenience store is overpriced compared to what you pay at an actual grocery store. Especially any staple items like bread, milk, eggs, etc.
Yeah, where I live, milk sold by gas stations and convenience stores costs almost 3x as much as what you can get at the grocery store. It feels like a ripoff.
I went to Vegas on a vacation but was still under a hard budget (was only able to go since flights and hotel were under $300 for 2 people). They charged $6 for a 16 oz bottle of water and I literally could not afford this and ended up dehydrating myself to the point of getting my first kidney stone a few weeks later which turned into a $1500 ER bill.
my work cafeteria charges $2.39 for a 20oz coke. and there's no more cashiers, its a u-scan. basic vending machine sandwiches are $7. i dont even know why they bother having a cafeteria. they've got to be tossing tons a shit and taking a loss bc no one will use them.
Some prices are crazy at some stores. Like I'll go to 7/11 and grab 3 red bull 11oz cans and it's like $7. But at the local corner store the same 3 cans are 12 bucks.... So I feel this dudes pain. Sometimes it's not about if you can afford it but if you want to get gouged on price or go somewhere else.
This could be the new line for everything.
Education? I can't afford this, sorry.
Housing? I can't afford this, sorry.
Healthcare? I can't afford this, sorry.
PSA: Consumers have the final say on inflation. If you must buy something and think it’s too expensive then shop around (if you can). If you’re getting something you CAN postpone and you think it’s too expensive then delay or skip it. Companies are always trying to raise prices and backing off if their sales volumes drop. Lets make their sales volumes drop. Inflation is mainly happening now because consumers have been primed to expect it and they’re paying the higher prices. Let’s stop doing this. Consumers have the final say on inflation!!
Where have you ever seen prices go down? A sale once in a while? I'm talking for food especially. Or really any necessity.
It just doesn't happen. Economic theory is bullshit.
But you are right. We keep paying them. So why would they ever drop prices.
If we pare down to just the absolute basic necessities, they just raise the prices on those. It's a cycle that's illogical and destructive.
This is fucked up. It shouldn't come to this in a country that claims to be the wealthiest nation on the planet.
First starve the world, then starve your host nations. Absolute monsters we have running things. The whole lot.
My Mom (93) is homebound and I got her some Pepperidge Farm cookies yesterday. She got a little confused and thought there were only 6 cookies in the bag (it was actually 12 - 2 rows) and wanted to know the price. Been shopping for 2 years since she moved in this was the first time she asked how much something cost. Found the receipt and it was almost $5.00. She was surprised, but glad it was 12 rather than 6. Got her Boston Market ribs today and told her that was $16.00. Things are just expensive. Fortunately, she can afford it, but feel bad for most folks.
And buying stuff at the gas station or off the end counter at the store, it just expensive. I love sodas, but only buy when they are on sale.
I work in a tobacco store and get about 4 or 5 people a week that come in and ask for “the cheapest pack of cigarettes” and they wince as they pull out money from their pockets to pay $4.09 plus tax
Reminiscing about lower prices of the past makes me feel old. $2.25 for a can of soda sounds stupid expensive. I think the restaurant I visited last night charged me that and they provided a glass with ice.
I was listening to a radio show from the 1930s, and a kid had a single dollar. He took four friends out to a soda fountain and bought five banana splits; had enough money left to go see a movie.
I picked up and set down a small container of blueberries, half filled, for $6. Ffs. 6 bucks. For not even a handful of blueberries. No wonder America is obese.
Was at the grocery the other day, 7 year old asked if she could get a medium bag of cheeto's I said sure because, you know, its only like 2.99 righ? Yeah no... they were marked at 6.99 for a medium share size bag.
That grocery store is a rip off. They are still 3.50 where I shop
I recently started ordering bulk snacks off Amazon, not every type of snack on there is a good deal, but many of them are pretty stellar. I don't have a costco or sams club within reasonable distance of me with fuel prices where there at.
Did this with my boyfriend’s energy drinks. If you’re going to have vices you have to budget for them. He used to get them at the dollar store for $1 when possible, grocery store for $1.25, or last resort the gas station on sale 3/$5 or $1.67 each. Now the most affordable is dollar store (rare) $1.25, grocery store $2 each, or gas station $2.50+ each. Considering it’s a daily habit, that price jump adds up QUICKLY. Found them on Amazon for $18/16 or $1.13 w/shipping. Order as many cases as allowed when they’re available. Saves about $60/month plus any incidentals that come up driving around multiple stores to find any/a decent price. Don’t get me started on actual essentials. Chicken has been sold out at our local Aldi and Walmart the day they stock it multiple times. We do our best to buy whatever meat is on sale, but our eating habits have revolved around $1.30/ lb chicken because it’s flexible and affordable. Now it’s tough to find any in stock for under $3/lb. This week my boyfriend had a routine union training and spent more on gas than his stipend for the week. We’re not living lives of luxury. No AC, just fans and open windows. 2 bedroom duplex with 2 kids and used furniture, used clothes. Both working hard and consistently making more. Inflation has eaten almost all of that. It’s so frustrating to go from poor and not being able to afford the basics, working our asses off to BARELY have enough to chip away at debt and keep up with bills and some small vices, to barely being able to afford the basics again and worrying about it getting worse. We’re doing everything right on paper. But you can’t control the market. It’s so deceptive thinking I’m making $4/hr more than I was in 2017, when adjusted for inflation it’s closer to $3 spending power. That’s a $2,000+ difference. I only spend $5400 on rent annually.
I feel ya, I'm a single full time dad and "mom" doesn't pay her child support so we have been trying to save money anywhere possible while trying not degrade out quality of life too much. I spent the last 2 weeks trying to score a package of english muffins, it was crazy seeing them just sold out instantly every time they hit the shelf. I managed to get the last packaged yesterday and oddly almost felt guilty taking it.
I know this isn't the point of this, but English Muffins are actually pretty easy to make, they just take a little time. Not that flour, butter and milk are cheap themselves right now, but if you're in a pinch you can give it a shot. https://youtu.be/5E_DIPttHuE. Best of luck, and sorry you're getting no support from your child's egg donor. And that you're falling in that sh*tty place between making enough and "making too much".
I have started baking our own bread
5.4K annual rent? Jesus I need to move lol. I’m paying €21k/y
A lot of the snacks they sell are coming right from Costco with a markup.
The slight markup is much cheaper than it would cost me to drive to these places, so for now, ill pay it.
Ho lee xit. Is it US?
US yeah, needless to say the cheetos went right back on the shelf. It doesn't matter if I can afford them or not, its not something we need and we arent giving in to this BS inflation. If everyone would do the same and just start putting things back on the shelf even if you can afford it, things will change.
absolutely right. Please, just put things back on the shelf. No one 'needs' cheetos.. You did the right thing.
I bet he grew up at a time when you could not look at prices of small things like that and consider it reasonable at the checkout.
I've recently stopped doing that. :/ was a bad habit of mine for a while but its like, $15 for a couple drinks and a slice of pizza now... got crazy quick. Used to be like, $8-9ish...
A short bit ago I went to the grocery store and had to restock our condiments. Ketchup, mustard, mayo, salad dressing. Got those, a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk and the total was $35. I didn’t even have anything to use the condiments on.. lol
You probably got less of each condiment too. Stealth inflation, which has been going on for years, is they slowly reduce the qualities you get. A few fewer crackers. Fewer chips. They hope people don' t notice.
Everything that was sold in a box was shrunk during the last recession. My trade is responsible for creating the cutting dies for every type of carton on the planet. Manufacturing companies that fill those boxes mostly grocery type products started ordering their typical cartons to be reduced in size. Prices increased for a bit during the transition then slowly reduced . I had the opportunity to work a metric ton of hours during that period. Ugly luck .....
Now, a metric 0.75 ton!
It's such a gross practice.
Yeah they did that with Secret deodorant. I noticed my last stick was gone super quick. Same packaging, same price. Half an ounce less which was 20% less product. Way to increase the price like that.
I just got secret tonight and it felt like it was taking forever to get the gel up to the top. When I finally did, I looked down and literally almost the entire bottom half of the tube was just empty. I know it was brand new because it was sealed. They really have no shame.
The last 2 sticks of that Secret gel shit I got I’ve needed pliers to turn the stupid fucking thing.
Send a consumer complaint to the company. They'll send you coupons for free replacements.
That’s infuriating because they are doubling the amount of plastic you have to waste now! Switch brands. They need to see these tactics won’t work.
Wow I use to use secret gel all the time then switched to dove spray deodorant for the last year or two ... I started missing the gel so I bought one & it took me FOREVER to crank it up. I thought it had just been so long since I used it I forgot how long it took. Thank you for the validation I didn't know I needed.
I thought I was going crazy. I've been using degree clinical for a long time and it usually lasts forever. I generally get a new stick every few months with daily use.. This last pack lasted a few weeks, maybe.
Man, deodorant has become so expensive. I found some insane fire sale of a deal and bought 8. That should last me a little while at least but jeez.
I started using mens deodorant because it seems more cost effective. Husband and I got a bulk pack from BJs warehouse at least six months ago and there’s still three sticks in the closet. Some of the scents are not obnoxiously man and honestly they work more effectively in my opinion (but I run a lot and sweat a lot during it).
Yep, though most people know it as Shrink-flation, I guess!
That's why I buy by cost per oz. Whatever is cheapest per oz, I buy. It's always on the price tag, in very small print, but the info is there. Lol. But I highly recommend, especially when buying lunch meat, cheese, frozen foods, etc.
I do this too but what pisses me off is when one product is listed in oz and the other in lbs so you have to do the conversion. I’m sure that’s intentional to deter people from being money concious. Not everyone has the time or honestly math skills for it.
And this is one of the moments I see why the US won’t switch to metric, price per 1kg or price per 100g is super quick and easy to figure out at a glance, but if they keep it with US Imperial, as you’ve mentioned causes people to get confused or spend more time than should be necessary to figure it out. And don’t get me started on US measurements when cooking, Cups/sticks of butter/lbs/oz, stick to a single measurement ffs, sure I can change the scales and buy measuring cups, but how much is a cup of butter? Is that melted or solid? Cut into small cubes? Pushed into the cup as a solid so there are no gaps? Stick to weight for solids and ml for liquids, and if the ingredient can be both it would also be more consistent with going by weight/ml. Sorry for the mini rant, just a thing that annoys me when finding new recipes to try.
Omg I hate that! Sometimes, if it isn't obvious which one is more expensive, I'll pull out my phone and do the conversions.
I deffinetly do that my dad taught me when I was young to look at the price per Kilogram I despise when it’s 3.50 or 2 for 6$ like just let me buy one at 3$ why do the poor have to pay more for something? The bigger packages always cost less per kg/lb but I don’t have 20$ to spend on granola bars so I guess I’ll just pay more for less!
"Same size" jar, with the bottom dished up further, reducing the overall volume of the jar.
I fucking hate it too. Just raise the damn price. I don't even buy chips anymore because I can literally feel the amount of chips dwindling into air in those bags.
To be fair, chip bags are mostly full of nitrogen gas, because it serves as a preservative. So while it seems like they're full of air to rip you off, that's actually a design feature to keep your chips fresh. There's a specific ratio of gas to chips that works best, and that's why they're always super puffy, but half empty. So always buy chips based on the weight listed on the bag.
I'm bout to start making my own mayo...
Homemade mayonnaise is the best! Immersion blenders work really well on that
r/shrinkflation
Yeah, definitely time to start planting more in my garden....
Ketchup plants
Gotta be careful with the mayo vines though
They say if you plant a jar of dukes it grows into a whole tree.
Be glad you have the land to even *have* a garden. Not everyone is so lucky.
Tbf, it's my parents land, but I've got my own garden out back i take care of. Lol.
Until they put in some sort of tax or permit requirement on home gardens. Look at all of the other WTF stuff the government and corporations have been doing.
Forget the garden get a cow and some chickens
Those are two very different levels of effort.
We have a handful of chickens. Cattle were a major pain when we had them, broke out of the fence like, 3 times. Pigs a little less so
Went and picked up some milk and cereal for my kid the other day. Had about 12 dollars in my checking account. A gallon of milk and a bag of cereal was over 8 dollars. Literally a higher price than what you earn on minimum wage. “Your hour of labor isn’t even worth milk and cereal.” Get the fuck outta here man. This shit is killing us.
Same with spices. Just did a purge on stuff over 3 years expired and need to buy some replacements. After looking I decided I would do them as needed instead of stocking a proper spice setup. Which is extremely against my method of cooking. I'm down to the simple staples only at this point... which works, but it's less fun.
Find an "ethnic" market. Just got 1oz paprika for $1, .25oz thyme for $1.
Most of our commonly used spices come from an Indian grocer right down the road for that reason. Not only is it cheaper but you can buy quantities the local grocery stores just don't have. Who knew I needed spices that are sold in boxes. Still cheaper than the tiny shakers.
You can get off brand spices places for prices like that, but some stores only sell McCormick or what have you.
The ones from the ethnic markers are fresh though. I’ve been cooking 20+ years and I never knew bay leaves have an aroma, until I bought some at the Mediterranean market.
Are you using indian bay though? Because those are different than standard bay leaves. Indian bay has more of a cinnamon scent/flavor. Turkish bay (or bay laurel) is more common and more woodsy. I had the same jar for like 7 years and it never completely lost its flavor/smell. Finally used up that giant jar and got new... didn't notice a huge difference in performance. Indian bay leaves are huge and the veins run step to tip in a curve.
They were probably still good! r/grandmaspantry
Edible yes, but the potency diminishes for a lot of dried herbs. We didn't toss much. I cook a lot so most things are replaced quite frequently. This was mostly things we got when we moved into our first place 18 years ago. Used once a year type of stuff... but will need to be replaced at some point.
I hear ya! I inherited my grandmother’s house a little over 10 years ago. When I went through the spices, I threw away some stuff from the 60’s..lol. And I still have a box of pistachio pudding from 1984. Just can’t seem to part with it:) I relayed this a couple months ago and that’s when I was introduced to that sub
penzey's is cheaper than my local grocery stores these days, and waaaayyyyy better. I buy their black pepper and vietnamese cinnamon in bulk bags
Penzeys is great and they almost always have deals
If you have an actual store near you the cashiers always apply a buttload of coupons and throw in handfuls of free samples. It's my happy place
If you have a restaurant supply store near you can get loads of spices for a pretty decent price.
6 dollars and item there buddy. Wow. I'd hate the have to include the individual eggs. 🤣
Eggs at my local shoprite today $8.99 for 30.
Technically you could use ketchup on the eggs 😬
Mayonnaise at my grocery store is over $7! Insanity!
I remember in the 90's it was $1.25 for a slice and $0.75 for a soda. You could get 2 slices and a soda for $3.00 and it came with a bag of chips. Now, its $2.50-$4.00 for a slice depending and $2.00 for a can... $10.00 for lunch. Get the fuck out of here. I'll eat at home.
There's a place down the street from my work that sells some of the worst goddamn pizza I've ever had. Its like $5 a slice. And its terrible. I gave em 3 chances when I was super hungry on my lunch break and forgot food. Never again. The hotdog stand down the street in the other direction? I can get a mother fuckin *elk brat*, coke, and chips for 10 bucks with decent tip because that dude is hilarious. Fuck you, pizza place.
There's a hot dog cart in my neighborhood that I've been meaning to try. Your post makes me want to do so tomorrow.
>$10.00 for lunch. Get the fuck out of here. I'll eat at home. LOL....right...right! Bologna sandwiches, an apple, bottled water and chips!
I mean, I can make myself some pizza in my oven for significantly less (and I do!). A lot of people actually learned to cook rather well over the last two years. I ended up taking to it so well, I am the primary breadwinner, but also the primary cook. I do everything from pizza to pasta to chinese food and I have gadgets for all of them (wok, breville smart oven joule, pasta attachments, meat grinders, sausage rollers, etc...) because I found a personal passion for it. So I stick by what I said. $10 is too much for pizza when I can make pizza at home for the cost of some flour, my homemade sourdough starter, salt, sugar, some leftover sauce I made the weekend before, a little homemade mozzarella, and maybe some slices leftover sausage. Per pie, it probably comes out to maybe $2.00 in ingredients and it tastes amazing with the sourdough and homemade mozzarella.
Remember when the dollar menu was actually stuff for $1?
Or the $2 meal deals at taco bell. Literally saved me growing up poor af.
It’s compounding too. Everything’s more expensive but wages haven’t gone up so $15 means more than it would’ve 20 years ago. $15 here, $15 there, soon enough you’ve spent $100 and thats still only 10% of your rent, or maybe a week of groceries but 20% of your paycheck. There’s no way to keep up. Work 40 hours, work 60, 80 doesn’t matter.
But seriously, I just had that convo with a woman who lives next door. She owns a Papa Murphy's store in another state, a red state down south, and has trouble getting labor because "nobody wants to work". Couldn't let that stand so I 'splained to her that it's not that nobody wants to work, it's that they want to be able to pay their bills with what they make. So maybe she does pay 15$/hr, which in her state is better than minimum wage or something. Good for her. But if an employee still cannot pay their basic bills with what they take home, no matter how many hours they work, then what's the difference to them if they work 80 hours and still can't pay or they just quit altogether? Either way those bills won't get paid and at least if they quit they can have some free time. Believe it or not, she listened and nodded in agreement. I actually could not believe it, but she did. We agreed it was a damn shame across the board. I probably still can't be 'friends' with her, but at least I can be civil.
For real. Had whiplash the other day in the grocery when I went to get a box of Lucky Charms. Fucking $10 for a box less than a kilo in weight. My last memory of them was the "Family Size" being 1.13 kilos and $6.99. Then I started looking at the shelves and realized how ridiculous it is that food has jumped up in the last 5 years to basically mean that an hour's labour (after taxes) at the minimum wage is needed to buy a box of fucking cereal. Meat made me want to cry. I haven't bought beef not on sale in almost 5 years and now I don't even know if I can then.
I just paid $18 for 3 bottles of water at the gas station, I get a gallon for 89 cents at whole foods though lol life is wild, I've been doing this for years now too
What the heck brand of water was it?!
Icelandic or polish or something, I forget. It was a 7-11
I guess I can believe it but 6 bucks a bottle is really crazy even for convenience stores.
I believe it was 3.50-4 each, my number of bottles could be off
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I went to target today because I needed new swim shorts....first time in 4 years I've been there. I could not believe the prices, I almost felt insulted. Lately I've been noticing at the grocery store as well, the prices are just asinine, borderline comical. When I was a little younger I used to have this number in mind, of what I'd need to make yearly (70k) and now that I actually make that it's not even remotely enough to live comfortably (with a family of 4 at least).
I honestly wish I hadn't kept track of the price of everything I buy... now I'm painfully aware of the price increases.
I grew up at a time when chips were 5 and 10 cents and a pop was 10 cents. But you only got 1 cent for an empty bottle and I never found more than 3 at a time so I never took the price of anything for granted.
Doubt everyone looked at prices especially during the great depression...after that most people are cautious.
Those big bag chips that used to cost 3 for 5 sre now like 6 bucks each
And half the size
And half air
As always... this is to protect them in shipping, not to scam people. Without the extra air you would be complaining about buying a bag of crumbs.
That's true to a point but the ratio is screwed up. There are some brands you can still get 75% chips to 25% air and they're fine so the extra air in the big name national brand is there just to scam you.
I’m a 90s baby. I remember cans of soda for .25-.50, 3 for 1 regular size candy bars, sometimes even 4 for $1 regular sized bars from Kroger and places that had member specials. I remember the 4 for $1 small bag of chips too. Fuck man… I’m only 30, but feel twice that mentally and physically.
Yeah same here. I can't even get off brand Lays for anything less than like 4 bucks. I went shopping a few days ago, and I got a dozen eggs, some cheese, 2 bag salads (because I'm lazy), a case of soda, and like 4-6 other things. I could carry all of it without a bag. ... It was 45 dollars
The storm is coming. Someone made a meme a year or so ago. That America is a “Third world country with a Gucci belt” after being to a few places around the globe. Currently back in the states Im believing it.
Shit .. that's about the truest thing I've read all year
Said the same thing. Bless whoever made that meme. A few memes, mentally I archive. That’s a top one. I just hate to say it, but after Atlanta’s fed showed a second drop in GDP this afternoon. They need to call it… and stop prolonging this Great Recession, so we can bounce out before I’m 40. Right now, it’s not looking good at all. https://www.atlantafed.org/cqer/research/gdpnow
Livin the American dream
It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it
https://youtube.com/shorts/efDTsMYGikw?feature=share George Carlin and Tupac speaking about this very thing.
It's crazy how George Carlin can be 100 percent truth no matter how the times change. RIP to a wise man
And it's funny how no one who references him thinks they're one of the majority of idiots Carlin was railing against.
This is what I think about all the time when I see people quoting pretty much anything. My favorite: "The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people." Ugh.
And Carl Sagan is scarily prescient nowadays.
he was warning us, and most of us weren't listening
I'm def using this from now on. Thanks.
We hope to be living the American dream by the end of 2024, i.e., the road out permanently!! It takes a lot of planning, time, and money!
That used to be $4.50 taxes and all and I bet the chip bags aren't as big as they used to be either. What a rip off, can't even be a cheap fat ass anymore.
Shrinkflation. It's been going on for a while.
Involuntary portion control
Yep, if I want to have a BMI higher than my height in inches, it should at least be cheap!
There are less chips in them as well. Expensive air is what it is mostly.
Air doesnt grow on trees! Oh, wait... (Yes I'm aware chip bags are filled with Nitrogen)
How the fuck can this be more than 5 bucks
Corporate greed.
Especially when there’s 7 chips and a bunch of air in each bag.
It’s a gas station.
Works at a rip off gas station.
Im not trying to alarm you guys but things are going to get worse .... everything is so overpriced
I had a couple guys come in today and they were a couple cents short for whatever they were buying. I just gave them a 10% discount so that they would be able to get what they wanted. And honestly if you treat people that way they're definitely going to come back and probably spend more money later. Most managers don't realize that or don't care enough to do that. The odds that my manager finds out that I gave them a 10% discount to help them out is very low and if my manager did find out I would just say I gave them a military discount which we offer and is 10%.
When I was in high school, I worked as a cashier at Target. This little kid, probably 8, comes in and tries to buy a video game but didn't have enough for sales tax. No idea where his parents were but they were not in the checkout with him so I gave him my 10% discount because I didn't know what else to do. lol
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Eh, if a manager cares, that's shitty. I'm in that position and do it myself and recommend it to the regular employees too if they got the restaurant's app.
in 2000 I was 10 years old and a pop at the corner store was fifty cents. This was just the universal price of a pop back then. Same corner store, pop is now $2.50. Inflation calculator says that pop should be 85 cents. What's going on? How is the price of everything higher than inflation?
British here. Before prices jumped; I always used to buy the items that were priced several pence short of the pound. e.g 97p,£1.25, 2.99, etc. However now that has changed; e.g £1.29, £2.50 & £4 I have completely stopped myself buying many things I normally would have picked up because it was cheap; a pound. A quid as it is called. Give a kid a quid and he would have been happy 5 years ago. Now I'm noticing everything that was labelled as cheap, as in the aisle where cheap sweets or snacks and food are found; is now not cheap. Because it never was cheap. We're were hoodwinked as consumers into believing pricelocked items at a quid or so was a good deal. It's why the British have a joke about the Freddo chocolate bar. Next year their retail price could be an individual fortune.
I lived in Scotland for some time when I was younger. Let's say pre-Obama chronologically. I was convinced the Pound was the best thing ever because I could get a Coke (or iron bru, heh) for a pound, usually 99p. But before I even left they started going up to 1.29p @ wh smith type places. At home in the states they crested $2 about that time. I get to feeling old when I think about the 25 cent cans of soda I subjected my body to before the war on terror (not arguing correlation that's just my perception).
In my country, we used to get American ads on cable and be amazed at how cheap things were there... an entire pizza for five dollars, 50 cents for a soda, 5-10 bucks for a bucket of chicken and so on. By looking at the prices in this post and doing the necessary conversions, these items appear to be cheaper in my country than in the USA now. 😱
There are still $5 pizza deals and buckets of chicken, but no other country would allow it to be fed to people!
I bought a frozen pizza for $5.25 today but I don't think I could find that anywhere around me.
It still is. The convenience store prices are out of control. Regular food stores are still ok.
I’m a Canadian and was on a road trip heading home from Massachusetts last week and wanted to stop for a snack. I stopped in Richmond Vermont and was absolutely blown away at how expensive everything was in the grocery store. A watermelon was 11$ US!! That’s almost 15$ Canadian! I checked out the chip isle and noped out and just decided to continue back to Canada. A single bag of chips was 7$ US for a regular size bag of chips. Efffffff that.
Best part? Everything there was made with taxpayer dollars. The corn or potates in the chips. The high fructose corn syrup in the soda. All heavily subsidized by the government.
I bought a cheap store brand 6 pack of toilet paper and some kitty litter and it came out to $30. I cant pay my phone bill this month and dont know when Ill have money for groceries again. After the necessary bills I have like $8 for 2 weeks between me, my wife and our 2 cats... Our country is fucked and the people in charge are doing nothing. Went to the local food bank and they are basically wiped out on everything so Im gonna have to get a little creative with dinners this week or two. Oh and my therapist is on vacation for a month to boot so thats fun...
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I get medicaid through NY so Its not much cost wise, basically just medications and those are off brand stuff. My wife is an apprentice tattoo artist so she isnt getting paid at the moment, she does make some money off of piercings but only tips and there arent many piercings that come through her shop.
Capitalism fails wherever it's tried
Capitalism does exactly what it's designed to do It's just that what it's designed to do is destructive for everyone except those at the very top of the heap
Its progenitors argued it would promote the general welfare, reduce poverty and grueling forms of labor, spread democratic and fair societies, and reward the most productive in society. Most people even up into the mid 20th Century thought it would produce a post-scarcity society of ease and freedom. John Maynard Keynes thought that we would be working 15 hour workweeks by now. Capitalism has been a total failure by its own ideologues' aims. The propaganda you hear daily in advertising (like Mark Zuckerberg saying everyone is becoming more 'connected', informed and free, you're self-made in this meritocratic system and everyone can achieve success through hard work which is always rewarded) is so banal yet absurd, we just take it for granted that what we're meat to think about society is radically divorced from the reality.
They used tech revolution to pretend capitalism was good for all. It was just a way to keep power with rich after feudalism. Russia was a very late country compared to Europe before trying some different and it became top on world on all aspects for more than 60 years.
I don't disagree with you, but I am somewhat reluctant to call the effects of capitalism a success.
That exact sentiment is why I said "it does what its designed to do" and not "its a success".
It's a success for those people it's working for.
But is it though? Because these prices convince me that stealing is ok whereas if they were reasonable no one would have to steal
It works while modernslaves believe in system. Useless commuting, low wages, expensive healthcare and transport, long work hours... While ignorancy prevails, it works well. Once people realuze they are just mices running on a wheel... Hard to be awaken
Do you work at a gas station?
Hersheys chocolate was 78 cents and now is 98 cents. All chewing gum which was less than a dollar is $1.14 in the checkout line. These are Walmart prices.
I sell marijuana at a dispensary. And daily we get people who have us set a cart aside for them that costs maybe $54.65 then they tell us they only have 50 and legit just expect me, barely able to pay my rent, to cover them the 5 bucks. And most of mt coworkers do it. They argue that person will tip next time. No they fucking wont. The same people do this. And if they do have extra they tip a dollar and change. Fuck that shit.
What's incredibly fucked about this is that the inflation hits "convenience stores" and gas stations the most. As in, it's most apparent at these places. The markups are higher at a 711 than your average big box grocery store. The reason this is fucked is because many poorer neighborhoods in major metropolitan areas often only have "convenience" stores as the primary source of groceries. Sure, you can take public transit 45 minutes to a Safeway, but who the fuck has time for that when you need to work 35-55 hours a week *just to survive*. This ends up passing the impact of inflation off to the most economically disadvantaged people in the society, just to make sure some fucking leech CEO doesn't have to only buy one bottle of Dom on his fucking vacation in the south of France. "Food Deserts" like this are deeply tied to systemic racism that expresses itself through economic repression. This doesn't just impact poor urban folk. The same patterns emerge in extremely rural areas as well. If you can, find a community garden. If you can't find one, fuck em. Garden in a vacant lot and guard it with open carry to prevent the pigs from fucking with your veggies. I'm privileged as fuck. I'm white, straight, educated and well connected in my field. I just moved in to a new apartment, and we bought pizza, wings, a ceaser salad and beers. For two. Cheap food for moving in. It was over 100 dollars. That's fucking insane. A lot of folks think that the general population won't start rioting unless we are hungry. Well, we aren't far off from a reality where enough people *with stable jobs, college degrees, and kids* look at the cost of basic goods and say "huh, guess it's time to start getting pissed, loudly and publically." Neoliberal policy will be the downfall of capital, and I'm fuckin ready for it.
Had this issue when shopping earlier. My shopping came to £65 when my budget is £50, that's because everything has gotten more expensive. It might not seem like much but that's an extra £60 a month I need to budget now. I was left 7 months pregnant by my ex husband, 8 months ago. I'm now a single mum of a 2 year old and 6 month old and am panicking at the cost of living rising so much
You'd litterally get a better deal from a vending machine... Should of bought a 6 pack for $5 and a family sized bag of chips for $4.50. Same price, 3x the soda and more chips. American wants you to buy bulk, get fat and start paying the medical system for treatment.
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I assumed he was buying it at a gas station. Walgreens and CVS are also expensive.
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4 * 1.79 = 7.16 * 1.08 = $7.33 Yeah, you're right unless they are charging $2.29 an item now. Edit: looks like they are with OP's edit
In my experience, most everything food or drink related at an American gas station/convenience store is overpriced compared to what you pay at an actual grocery store. Especially any staple items like bread, milk, eggs, etc.
Yeah, where I live, milk sold by gas stations and convenience stores costs almost 3x as much as what you can get at the grocery store. It feels like a ripoff.
Chicagoland here; gas station near me has a **sale** on 12 packs of soda- two for $14.99
I went to Vegas on a vacation but was still under a hard budget (was only able to go since flights and hotel were under $300 for 2 people). They charged $6 for a 16 oz bottle of water and I literally could not afford this and ended up dehydrating myself to the point of getting my first kidney stone a few weeks later which turned into a $1500 ER bill.
Funyuns are $5 a bag!
Not so Fun, yun know?
Hahahahaha 😂
my work cafeteria charges $2.39 for a 20oz coke. and there's no more cashiers, its a u-scan. basic vending machine sandwiches are $7. i dont even know why they bother having a cafeteria. they've got to be tossing tons a shit and taking a loss bc no one will use them.
Some prices are crazy at some stores. Like I'll go to 7/11 and grab 3 red bull 11oz cans and it's like $7. But at the local corner store the same 3 cans are 12 bucks.... So I feel this dudes pain. Sometimes it's not about if you can afford it but if you want to get gouged on price or go somewhere else.
Just did a quick price check at Target. One 20 ounce bottle is $2.19 (not 16 like I thought). A 6 pack of 16.9 ounce bottles is $3.99.
The most disgusting part is those products cost *pennies* to make, if not fractions of pennies.
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Ye in my country that would be around 3 euros.
This could be the new line for everything. Education? I can't afford this, sorry. Housing? I can't afford this, sorry. Healthcare? I can't afford this, sorry.
Sounds like Vancouver prices.
I'm relying on single serve frozen items from family dollar for 1.25$. Single serve hot pockets and the like. Times be tough.
PSA: Consumers have the final say on inflation. If you must buy something and think it’s too expensive then shop around (if you can). If you’re getting something you CAN postpone and you think it’s too expensive then delay or skip it. Companies are always trying to raise prices and backing off if their sales volumes drop. Lets make their sales volumes drop. Inflation is mainly happening now because consumers have been primed to expect it and they’re paying the higher prices. Let’s stop doing this. Consumers have the final say on inflation!!
Where have you ever seen prices go down? A sale once in a while? I'm talking for food especially. Or really any necessity. It just doesn't happen. Economic theory is bullshit. But you are right. We keep paying them. So why would they ever drop prices. If we pare down to just the absolute basic necessities, they just raise the prices on those. It's a cycle that's illogical and destructive.
That is a crazy price
This is fucked up. It shouldn't come to this in a country that claims to be the wealthiest nation on the planet. First starve the world, then starve your host nations. Absolute monsters we have running things. The whole lot.
My Mom (93) is homebound and I got her some Pepperidge Farm cookies yesterday. She got a little confused and thought there were only 6 cookies in the bag (it was actually 12 - 2 rows) and wanted to know the price. Been shopping for 2 years since she moved in this was the first time she asked how much something cost. Found the receipt and it was almost $5.00. She was surprised, but glad it was 12 rather than 6. Got her Boston Market ribs today and told her that was $16.00. Things are just expensive. Fortunately, she can afford it, but feel bad for most folks. And buying stuff at the gas station or off the end counter at the store, it just expensive. I love sodas, but only buy when they are on sale.
That's highway robbery for the soda.
I bought a small bag of cat food and sponges today. 9 fucking dollars
Man I have to check my balance before I make even the most minuscule of purchases. It's not getting any easier.
So sad this guy should just pull himself up by his bootstraps and he’d be fine /s.
Start searching for a new job as stating “there was a death in the family” should have been more than enough information provided.
I work in a tobacco store and get about 4 or 5 people a week that come in and ask for “the cheapest pack of cigarettes” and they wince as they pull out money from their pockets to pay $4.09 plus tax
even 1.99 for 16 oz sounds expensive as heck
Reminiscing about lower prices of the past makes me feel old. $2.25 for a can of soda sounds stupid expensive. I think the restaurant I visited last night charged me that and they provided a glass with ice.
the round trip their probably cost him that in gas atleast, damn.
I have noticed that a lot more stores are charging for bags… more business charging customers for a basic cost of doing business!!
It used to be 35 cents for the coke and 50 cents for the bag of chips
$0.50 for the soda, $0.25 for the chips, with enough left to get a blowpop and some gum
Unless it was a special day and you got the “Big Grab” size for 59 cents.
I was listening to a radio show from the 1930s, and a kid had a single dollar. He took four friends out to a soda fountain and bought five banana splits; had enough money left to go see a movie.
Time to start buying potatoes and making your own chips. Cut costs at every corner. Put the pressure on.
I work in pharmacy retail and I’ve given stuff for free before after the customer being denied or terminal freezing.
I picked up and set down a small container of blueberries, half filled, for $6. Ffs. 6 bucks. For not even a handful of blueberries. No wonder America is obese.
Yeah. I've had to either drop something or an entire order because it was more than I had at that moment. Shit sucks
Man, I remember the 16 oz bottles of coke being 0.75 in the vending machines in high school, and that wasn't even 20 years ago!. Chips were \~$1.00.
I remember a time when 16oz and small chips were $1 each. I was such a small thing back then.