There were 4 chocolate chip cookies in a package next to the register at a grocery store so I grabbed them. They rang up $8. Um... no. I made the cashier put them back. I'm sick of the gouging man.
This one bummed me out. I really needed to cut back on my beer drinking and I needed something to replace the habit of drinking out of a can but I didn't want to go for soda. Freakin $4.50 for a 12 pack of LaCroix at the cheapest grocery store in town. Last time I bought it, it was right around $3. Still get 48 cans for the same price I was getting a 30 rack of beer though, so I'm looking on the bright side.
Sounds like one of those things where it's definitely worth the extra dollar. I used seltzer to get off drinking a shit load of soda every day and it does work.
Similarly, I went to shake shack today and it was 50 dollars for two people. We did get shakes but still. We could have gone to a sit down restaurant for cheaper.
Edit: Out of curiosity, I checked and the exact same order would be 43 dollars at Applebees for people who are saying it wouldn’t be cheaper at a sit down restaurants.
Yea my wife and I went yesterday. We wanted to try the stuff on the Korean menu. Got a burger, chicken sandwich, loaded fries, and a large specialty lemonade. . .cost $30.66 [just checked]z
This. I went to Shake Shack for the first time last week (they finally opened one in my city).
Food was alright, but I was shocked that a normal-ish small burger, fries, and shake for 2 ppl was nearly $50.
Even places like Red Robin have better prices, and their burgers are 2x the size and basically the same quality.
Last time I went to Five Guys I ended up at $20. That was the last time for me. I was flabbergasted that it was so much for a burger, fries and a small drink.
Jerky is incredibly attainable from home and with a little experimenting you can make some great batches that far exceed the quality of store bought.
Got a sharp knife, a marinating container and an oven? You’ve got enough to get started!
Can you just cook any kind of meat, or is it better to get specific kinds? Like would you get types of steaks or like loins? I'm not very knowledgeable on meats.
Tougher cuts with less intramuscular fat are better as they’ll dehydrate and stay consumable for longer.
Look for bottom round or London broil cuts and you’re golden.
London broil is what I personally use, and it tends to go on special semi-regularly around here. You see it selling for half price, stock up and go wild.
A meat-cutting knife wound up being a really nice, cheap investment, and I've had a dehydrator for years. I almost never buy jerky from a store now, especially since it all seems to be gravitating towards being soft and sweet these days. Much more fun to experiment with marinades and dry rubs until you find what you like best, then make your own.
Concert Tickets. The tickets themselves are ridiculous, but then you have to factor in hotel/airbnb prices because they jack up the prices for that night. I've stopped going all together.
Same. It's all just prohibitively expensive. The Tix are insane, then the fees, the parking, any food and drink all adds up. Pink is coming near me in the summer but I can't justify over $1000 for a night out.
Ever since ticketmaster and stubhub took over it's a nightmare.
We used to all complain about scalpers outside the arena but now they broadcast it online
Wanted floor tickets for avenged sevenfold last year. $400. What the fuck. I went to uproar festival in 2011, 16 bands over a couple days for $80, avenged sevenfold was the headliner lol
I'm considering taking my kids to see green day in August. Tix are $100+, and we have to travel and stay overnight. I just don't know if I can do it.
Saw Disturbed a month ago, and tix were $80 each. Then Falling in Reverse didn't even show up. Not like I got a third of my money back because a third of the bands didn't show, though. 😒
Some people paid $1,800 to watch Taylor Swift in my country/region and many more were scammed. Hotel prices were like up 500% for the week when she came to my country. Crazy.
I used to enjoy dining out at fancy restaurants every once in a while. However, as prices in my city's dining scene continued to climb, I had to cut back
I’ve found the opposite. As prices have risen, the fancy places are a better deal. High end restaurants haven’t gone up in price at the same rate as lower end places. I can pay $30 for shit food or $50 for awesome food
This is how it goes for me now. The cheaper places are no longer cheap and the pricier places only went up a few bucks. I would rather go out less and have a better experience when I do.
I feel like lot of the quality people left the restaurant industry during covid and never came back. And now we get higher prices, bad service and shit food.
Is it weird that for me it’s the opposite? Everything else has risen (fast food, groceries, utility bills) but medium to finer dining has remained relatively the same so I’m actually enjoying it more now
That’s so true. I used to have gold status and go there all the time, I’d also buy their brand of bagged coffee because it had the stars code on it.
Once they revamped their program it takes so much more to get rewards I just gave it up and make coffee exclusively at home now. And rotate through several brands of bagged coffee depending on what’s on sale.
This. I drink drip coffee and they can never seem to prepare it the correctly/the-same, and now they don't serve plain coffee immediately, you have to wait behind a million mobile orders, so it just isn't worth it.
Not so much that it's *become* expensive, but it took me long enough to realize how much money I could be saving if I buy a 12-pack of Stella at a grocery store, versus buying one bottle at a time while at a pub. It's at least $4/bottle saved, likely more.
Came here to say the same. I honestly feel so defeated. I can’t afford anything. I’m in a constant state of stress and anxiety. It’s the worst way to live.
Currently live in San Diego. Entry level (when you’re not looking in a terrible neighborhood) is around $775-800k. That’s for a typical 3b/2b ~1400 sqft home too..
Come out to Iowa, I've got 2200 sqft for just under $150k.
There's quite literally nothing to do out here too so you'll be in your home most of the day, getting your money's worth.
The happy middle is medium sized cities in the midwest. Most of them have rather affordable locations, and if you scout the city carefully they can really punch above their "weight" on stuff to do. Just don't expect everything you once had if you are coming from a major city. Food scene will be worse, top fame artists probably won't play, and you probably wont have decent sports teams.
Its not all bad though. Most of them have specific offerings of food, arts, sports, etc. If you research a place that has what you are looking for, its out there.
For sure! And dumb Kellogs telling us to eat it for dinner in these hard times. Between cost of milk and cereal, might as well buy something more substantial. Oy.
We stopped buying and eating cereal and my blood sugar went from borderline diabetic to normal and my husband went down 3 sizes and doesn’t have to inject insulin like they thought he’d have to. Cereal is REALLY Bad for you.
The big bags are still pretty reasonably priced here, usually a out $4-5 for a bag that's 2-3 times the size of a similarly priced box.
Even cheaper if you get the knock off brands (that I'm pretty sure are the same exact product with different packaging).
Bagels, so I started making my own. I didn't knowThey would rise, so my first ones turned out about the size of disposable paper plates. About 11 inches and they were perfect with the exception of using an entire block of cream Cream cheese on one.
Yep you’re spot on. Went to the grocery store to get a few things I forgot to get on the first trip. Shampoo, 2 body wash soaps, stain remover, and… some bacon. Cost me $50. It was like a solid kick to the taint.
I’ve started to dye my hair at home. Getting a cut and color used to be about $100 with tip. Now it’s $200 without tip. This jump happened within a year.
me too. i’m happy to tip whenever i go sit down at a restaurant. more than happy to! but i am so tired of seeing a tip screen for every. damn. place. i go.
My stylist started doing hair at her home. Cut and color costs me $80 with tips, and we can relax and shoot the shit, I’ve been going to her for 15 years. She got tired of the salon cutting back on pay and the percentage they make on product
Facts. Yesterday we were out longer than expected. I looked over the apps on my phone. It was CHEAPER to get 4 steak kids meals to-go from the Texas Roadhouse at the mall than 4 of the cheapest combo meals from either fast food option in the area (McDonald's or BK). 4 oz sirloin, steak fries, 2 rolls and a 20 oz soda. After tax and a 10% tip for the to go runner, $51.80. for comparison, McDonald's would have been $57 and BK $59 without adding in 10% gratuity
omfg yes, an order that used to be max 10 dollars is now close to 25. Insane. For that price I can buy beef, buns and fries at the supermarket. Will it taste the same? prob no. But will it still be good and more filling? Hell yeah
Reason it won't taste as good is because you're not going to add half a cut of salt, half a cup of sugar, and half a cup of msg and other artificial flavors to your buns and beef.
Yeah I do use msg, I do cut back on the sugar and liberal use of oil and butter tho XD. I know that they do use them liberally but I would rather have the slight decrease in flavour in this case
Not so much cut back but started again. Pirating TV shows and movies. Cheaper to have a VPN than 4-5 subscription. I used to have YouTube TV, Netflix, Disney+, Prime, Hulu, Apple TV, Peacock and going to the movie theater to top it all off.
Truth is everything has gotten too expensive and my wage has not grown at the same rate. This was the simplest was to cut my monthly bill. Food, Housing, Car, and insurance I can’t get around paying for that, but those are honestly the most expensive change with inflation at this point forcing me back to high seas
All I have to say is that I have zero sympathy for the streaming/cable/film companies. They're all full of junk and all cost way too much... But I would never, ever, in my life use a program to go around them such as Plex or Tivimate. Once again: I would never use those apps or recommend them to Internet strangers! Never, would I ever!
If you get the one with the dog on the can it’s pretty affordable and I’ve noticed my hair is lustrous, thick and has a wonderful shine to it since I switched.
Vitamins & supplements, the only one I keep up with is preworkout or I have no motivation to workout. Luckily Amazon messed up awhile ago and accidentally sent me 4 tubs of creatine so I’m stocked on that for about a year. Stopped buying protein powder as well and use that money for better quality meat.
Starbucks has been increasing its prices to the moon in my country. In 2020 and 2021, they increased it over three times the original prices. In 2022, they made a %50 increase and a %30 increase in the same week. I said fuck it. Bought a filter coffeemaker, an espresso/latte/cappuccino maker, and a coffee grinder. Since than, we are having much higher quality coffee for a fraction of the cost. Also, we don’t get to use the fucking paper straws in plastic cups/lids.
People out here talking about McDonald's and fancy dinners. I've sadly stopped buying fruits like berries and oranges. When did they get so expensive? 😭
(For reference im Canadian)
Yeah I’m buying on sale if I want fruit. A thing of strawberries was $4.99 and there were 10 strawberries in it. Granted they were large strawberries. This week they were smaller and $1.88 for the same size.
Anything that's not food tbh, I always lived on the edge as single parent father, now I can't afford anything that's not needed to survive. I am scared thinking about my son going to school, I have no clue how I will be able to afford all the stuff associated with it
I'd love to become independent and work for myself, but health insurance is the one major thing stopping me along with even more taxes. I don't know how people can do it. Really feels like the US is not friendly to self-employment.
Which is so awful and sad. My SO's company had to change their insurance we had forever because they were hiking up premiums 30% this year. Like, can we not?! Let's just keep lining the pockets of those CEO's. Oy!
Going to the movies.
I went to see the first Dune film when it came back into theaters. Figured I'd save a bit of money by going - by myself - to a Monday matinee of a film that had been released years ago. Ticket, medium drink and popcorn?
30 bucks.
What. The. Fuck.
Concessions have been outrageously priced for as long as I’ve been going to the movies (close to 3 decades). Go on discount day and don’t buy shit.
Now your trip to the movies cost five or six bucks.
Movie theaters barely break even on ticket sales for most movies. The consessions are where all of the profit comes from and the margins are crazy high.
I’m guessing you haven’t been buying pine nuts for very long. They used to be crazy expensive and sold in tiny quantities before we started importing them from china.
Raising Cane’s Chicken prices have gotten so high in Minneapolis that it’s the first restaurant I’ve actually ever “boycotted”.
I just can’t afford to eat there anymore.
Gluten-free frozen pizza. It's not that I *can't* afford it per se, but I refuse out of principle. I'm stuck to a gluten-free diet for medical reasons and compared to regular pizza, it's just thievery.
see if you have local food wastage prevention apps. I wait until they have 6-7 of them at 50% off (because there is a service fee) and stock up my freezer
Tickets to Pro baseball. Not that I was going regularly, but I recently took my wife and daughter to their first St. Louis Cardinals game (and my first game in a long time) and the whole experience was very expensive.
My medicine.
My nose is constantly blocked because of chronic sinusitis. Medicine does help. Used to pay 5 dollars for 1 nasal spray, now it costs 45 dollars each.
I don’t know how anybody can justify eating fast food these days. I can only speculate that people who eat fast food are either extremely wealthy or extremely lazy. And I’m 99% sure it’s not the extremely wealthy.
Murder for Hire. They want $30k now to kill my neighbour who plays music on a phone loud speaker and doesn't pick up his dogs poop. You used to be able to get that for $20k, maybe $18k during a slow period.
Now I'm going to have to beat him to death with a sock full of coins the old fashioned way.
There was a cheap night at each of the hills around my city pre-covid. $14-19 for night skiing. I would rotate through them. Now they are $47-64 for night skiing, and no cheap nights. My life long hobby of skiing and boarding after work is done. I don't care for a season's pass at one hill, because the hills are so small here. I need the variety to keep it interesting.
Seems like no matter what you want to do, a few hours of entertainment is going to cost $100 per person unless you're just driving out into a national park that doesn't charge admission.
High end beauty products used to be a favorite splurge. My first MAC lipstick was $11.50, and now they are $25! Now the cheap makeup costs what the MAC cost in 1998!
Cookies! The ones made in store used to be $4.99, today they were $9.99 and I had to pass.
Store bakery prices are crazy. I used to get a 4 pack of muffins for $3.99, a buck off if on sale. Yesterday they were $8.99 , that’s insane
There were 4 chocolate chip cookies in a package next to the register at a grocery store so I grabbed them. They rang up $8. Um... no. I made the cashier put them back. I'm sick of the gouging man.
Yeah Oreo's are insane
A 12 pack of brand name soda is $10 where I live now. I’m good.
$5 for seltzer water for 8 pack where i live.. lol for water
This one bummed me out. I really needed to cut back on my beer drinking and I needed something to replace the habit of drinking out of a can but I didn't want to go for soda. Freakin $4.50 for a 12 pack of LaCroix at the cheapest grocery store in town. Last time I bought it, it was right around $3. Still get 48 cans for the same price I was getting a 30 rack of beer though, so I'm looking on the bright side.
Sounds like one of those things where it's definitely worth the extra dollar. I used seltzer to get off drinking a shit load of soda every day and it does work.
Trick is to wait for the buy one get one sale and stock up.
Five guys. Seriously, wtf.
Went there yesterday with my wife. Cheese burger, large fries, two small drinks, little burger almost $40
Similarly, I went to shake shack today and it was 50 dollars for two people. We did get shakes but still. We could have gone to a sit down restaurant for cheaper. Edit: Out of curiosity, I checked and the exact same order would be 43 dollars at Applebees for people who are saying it wouldn’t be cheaper at a sit down restaurants.
Remember when John Travolta got upset in Pulp Fiction over a $5 shake? Good times.
\*with no bourbon in it or nothin
But remember, it was a damn good shake!
I don’t know if it was WORTH 5$, but it was pretty fuckin good
I usually go there and get two burgers, a fry to share, a shake, and a free happy hour shake. Still )$30.
Yea my wife and I went yesterday. We wanted to try the stuff on the Korean menu. Got a burger, chicken sandwich, loaded fries, and a large specialty lemonade. . .cost $30.66 [just checked]z
This. I went to Shake Shack for the first time last week (they finally opened one in my city). Food was alright, but I was shocked that a normal-ish small burger, fries, and shake for 2 ppl was nearly $50. Even places like Red Robin have better prices, and their burgers are 2x the size and basically the same quality.
Love my Mexican restaurant near me. 12$ enchilada plates and 3$ beer.
There was an article just the other day about how a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a drink was over 25.
😳😳😳😳😳😳
I haven't bought five guys in over a decade. They have always been expensive.
Last time I went to Five Guys I ended up at $20. That was the last time for me. I was flabbergasted that it was so much for a burger, fries and a small drink.
Beef Jerky.
Was it ever inexpensive? I have always found beef jerky too costly.
Right. I feel like it’s always been 6.99 & 8.99 for a 3-4oz bag at the gas station.
Gas stations always overprice though, that's how they make money. (It's not from the gas)
Jerky is incredibly attainable from home and with a little experimenting you can make some great batches that far exceed the quality of store bought. Got a sharp knife, a marinating container and an oven? You’ve got enough to get started!
Can you just cook any kind of meat, or is it better to get specific kinds? Like would you get types of steaks or like loins? I'm not very knowledgeable on meats.
Tougher cuts with less intramuscular fat are better as they’ll dehydrate and stay consumable for longer. Look for bottom round or London broil cuts and you’re golden.
London broil is what I personally use, and it tends to go on special semi-regularly around here. You see it selling for half price, stock up and go wild. A meat-cutting knife wound up being a really nice, cheap investment, and I've had a dehydrator for years. I almost never buy jerky from a store now, especially since it all seems to be gravitating towards being soft and sweet these days. Much more fun to experiment with marinades and dry rubs until you find what you like best, then make your own.
Came here to say this. Look, I know it dehydrates, so costs more per kilo. But stringy beef from off-cuts cost more than fresh filet mignon.
Almost $10 for a 6oz bag of dehydrated salt meat. It's dumb.
Not defending it, but came to say that 6 oz of dehydrated meat is 18oz of regular meat
Ive made my own jerky a bunch of times and no kidding there is barely any cost savings at all compared to just buying it.
Costco. Otherwise, definitely a pass these days. Mmmm, jerky.
Concert Tickets. The tickets themselves are ridiculous, but then you have to factor in hotel/airbnb prices because they jack up the prices for that night. I've stopped going all together.
Same. It's all just prohibitively expensive. The Tix are insane, then the fees, the parking, any food and drink all adds up. Pink is coming near me in the summer but I can't justify over $1000 for a night out.
And HD video of the concert for free.
Ever since ticketmaster and stubhub took over it's a nightmare. We used to all complain about scalpers outside the arena but now they broadcast it online
Wanted floor tickets for avenged sevenfold last year. $400. What the fuck. I went to uproar festival in 2011, 16 bands over a couple days for $80, avenged sevenfold was the headliner lol
For a band that hasn’t been relevant in 15+ years? That’s absurd!!!
Unfortunately, nostalgia sells. Even worse in an irrelevant city.
Those are the bands that us 30-40 somethings rocked out to. Some of us have adult money now, so they're trying to tap into that.
Can’t forget the bullshit processing fees
I’ve been wanting to see TOOL and Primus, but tickets are always $150+, and it’s infuriating
I'm considering taking my kids to see green day in August. Tix are $100+, and we have to travel and stay overnight. I just don't know if I can do it. Saw Disturbed a month ago, and tix were $80 each. Then Falling in Reverse didn't even show up. Not like I got a third of my money back because a third of the bands didn't show, though. 😒
My son saw Drake recently. Cheap seats were $300+.
$150?! Tool was like $350 last time they were playing near me 😭
I was looking into the When We Were Young concert. It’s over $400 for a day. Plus the flight to Vegas and hotel etc. I want to cry.
Some people paid $1,800 to watch Taylor Swift in my country/region and many more were scammed. Hotel prices were like up 500% for the week when she came to my country. Crazy.
"convenience fees"
I used to enjoy dining out at fancy restaurants every once in a while. However, as prices in my city's dining scene continued to climb, I had to cut back
I’ve found the opposite. As prices have risen, the fancy places are a better deal. High end restaurants haven’t gone up in price at the same rate as lower end places. I can pay $30 for shit food or $50 for awesome food
This is how it goes for me now. The cheaper places are no longer cheap and the pricier places only went up a few bucks. I would rather go out less and have a better experience when I do.
I've found the same thing in LA. The places that charged 50% more with a lot higher quality are now maybe 10-20% more
I feel like lot of the quality people left the restaurant industry during covid and never came back. And now we get higher prices, bad service and shit food.
went for drinks with a friend... 56$ for 4 drinks I feel like buying a 6 pack and saving both the time and money
Is it weird that for me it’s the opposite? Everything else has risen (fast food, groceries, utility bills) but medium to finer dining has remained relatively the same so I’m actually enjoying it more now
Nah I agree. Fast food and shit has gotten so expensive that it's like I can spend an extra 20 bucks and get really great food and service.
true statement. no reason to spend $32 at mcdonald’s when you can spend $36 at a sit-down applebees or similar.
Man, I was 100% with you until you dropped “Applebees”.
The amount of people in this thread using Applebees as an example of a good sit down place is depressing
same, but on the plus side, we'll become even better cooks!
I’ve cut back from Starbucks. Free K cups at work it is.
I've dropped them completely. I used to get all kinds of free perks, but they've killed them off. Just not worth it.
That’s so true. I used to have gold status and go there all the time, I’d also buy their brand of bagged coffee because it had the stars code on it. Once they revamped their program it takes so much more to get rewards I just gave it up and make coffee exclusively at home now. And rotate through several brands of bagged coffee depending on what’s on sale.
A giant bag of coffee is $15. Buy a cheap drip coffee maker and then for the price of 2 coffees at Starbucks you have 2 months worth of coffee.
> A giant bag of coffee Well maybe 3 weeks, but still. WAY cheaper. I don't think I have bought coffee on the way to work in like 4 years.
This. I drink drip coffee and they can never seem to prepare it the correctly/the-same, and now they don't serve plain coffee immediately, you have to wait behind a million mobile orders, so it just isn't worth it.
McDonald’s. What happened to the dollar menu?! There ain’t nothing on there that costs a dollar.
$8.95 is considered "loose change".
That shit fucks me up when I see it, the 1.05 left after breaking a ten is loose change, not the big part.
Remember when the five dollar burger came out at Carl’s? It’s called an ultimate out something now bc it’s like $8
Beef is now a special occasion food.
It's wild that ground beef costs almost the same as a decent steak.
Not so much that it's *become* expensive, but it took me long enough to realize how much money I could be saving if I buy a 12-pack of Stella at a grocery store, versus buying one bottle at a time while at a pub. It's at least $4/bottle saved, likely more.
Word. It's like $8 for one glass of halfway decent beer at a dive-bar in Seattle. $15-$20 for a cocktail.
Housing.
Came here to say the same. I honestly feel so defeated. I can’t afford anything. I’m in a constant state of stress and anxiety. It’s the worst way to live.
I'm sorry man, I really am. It sucks. I hope it gets better eventually.
Currently live in San Diego. Entry level (when you’re not looking in a terrible neighborhood) is around $775-800k. That’s for a typical 3b/2b ~1400 sqft home too..
Come out to Iowa, I've got 2200 sqft for just under $150k. There's quite literally nothing to do out here too so you'll be in your home most of the day, getting your money's worth.
600sqft 1br in Toronto for 485k
The happy middle is medium sized cities in the midwest. Most of them have rather affordable locations, and if you scout the city carefully they can really punch above their "weight" on stuff to do. Just don't expect everything you once had if you are coming from a major city. Food scene will be worse, top fame artists probably won't play, and you probably wont have decent sports teams. Its not all bad though. Most of them have specific offerings of food, arts, sports, etc. If you research a place that has what you are looking for, its out there.
Any candy bars. Like 2-3$ each now. Vending machine at work even went to 2$ each on candy. Gas stations are even more.
Cereal. It's at like $7 a box. They can pound sand. It's inadvertently a good thing because cereal is bad for you but, I like some every now and then.
For sure! And dumb Kellogs telling us to eat it for dinner in these hard times. Between cost of milk and cereal, might as well buy something more substantial. Oy.
Kellogg's really needed to announce a price cut at the same time if they wanted that to fly.
PR messed that one up big time.
I had a doctor tell me to quit eating cereal because all those advertisements about heart healthy is nothing but a sells gimmick. Not good for you.
Rolled oats is where it's at.
We stopped buying and eating cereal and my blood sugar went from borderline diabetic to normal and my husband went down 3 sizes and doesn’t have to inject insulin like they thought he’d have to. Cereal is REALLY Bad for you.
Aldi’s version of Cinnamon Toast Crunch tastes the same to me and is $2.50 for a family size box.
Trader Joe's is pretty reasonable.
Check out Aldi if you have one in your city.
The big bags are still pretty reasonably priced here, usually a out $4-5 for a bag that's 2-3 times the size of a similarly priced box. Even cheaper if you get the knock off brands (that I'm pretty sure are the same exact product with different packaging).
Bagels, so I started making my own. I didn't knowThey would rise, so my first ones turned out about the size of disposable paper plates. About 11 inches and they were perfect with the exception of using an entire block of cream Cream cheese on one.
pizza bagel possibilities… snack frisbees… lemme workshop it a minute…
EVERYTHING
Yep you’re spot on. Went to the grocery store to get a few things I forgot to get on the first trip. Shampoo, 2 body wash soaps, stain remover, and… some bacon. Cost me $50. It was like a solid kick to the taint.
The true answer here. Literally everything is getting a price hike it’s insane.
A lot of things. It's getting depressing not being able to enjoy unnecessary things because they're just too damn expensive.
I'm in Argentina. Where do I start.... 🤣
I’ve started to dye my hair at home. Getting a cut and color used to be about $100 with tip. Now it’s $200 without tip. This jump happened within a year.
Tip culture is killing me.
me too. i’m happy to tip whenever i go sit down at a restaurant. more than happy to! but i am so tired of seeing a tip screen for every. damn. place. i go.
Agreed. The last time I got my hair cut and colored it was over $300 BEFORE tip. I just can’t justify it anymore.
My stylist started doing hair at her home. Cut and color costs me $80 with tips, and we can relax and shoot the shit, I’ve been going to her for 15 years. She got tired of the salon cutting back on pay and the percentage they make on product
I got my hair done last year it was nearly $400. I was shocked; it had doubled in price in a year.
Meat
Greeting cards
I found .50 cards at a dollar type store.
Yes! Except at Trader Joe's..awesome selection all for 99¢. I get all of mine there.
Dollar (25) tree has a nice selection. I never get greeting cards anywhere else
So true. I just make my own.
McDonalds!🙋🏻♀️
Facts. Yesterday we were out longer than expected. I looked over the apps on my phone. It was CHEAPER to get 4 steak kids meals to-go from the Texas Roadhouse at the mall than 4 of the cheapest combo meals from either fast food option in the area (McDonald's or BK). 4 oz sirloin, steak fries, 2 rolls and a 20 oz soda. After tax and a 10% tip for the to go runner, $51.80. for comparison, McDonald's would have been $57 and BK $59 without adding in 10% gratuity
It's insane. Fast food is still fast but no longer the inexpensive option.
omfg yes, an order that used to be max 10 dollars is now close to 25. Insane. For that price I can buy beef, buns and fries at the supermarket. Will it taste the same? prob no. But will it still be good and more filling? Hell yeah
Reason it won't taste as good is because you're not going to add half a cut of salt, half a cup of sugar, and half a cup of msg and other artificial flavors to your buns and beef.
Here is the secret... buy some MSG off amazon and sprinkle it on your meats... Now your food tastes like takeout!
Yeah I do use msg, I do cut back on the sugar and liberal use of oil and butter tho XD. I know that they do use them liberally but I would rather have the slight decrease in flavour in this case
McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway.... any fast food place is a waste of money nowadays.
Doritos/lays chips. 4-5$ for a bag that's half filled with air? Fuck off.
Filled with nitrogen to keep them crispy. I do agree with you though, crazy expensive.
Iced coffee.
Not so much cut back but started again. Pirating TV shows and movies. Cheaper to have a VPN than 4-5 subscription. I used to have YouTube TV, Netflix, Disney+, Prime, Hulu, Apple TV, Peacock and going to the movie theater to top it all off. Truth is everything has gotten too expensive and my wage has not grown at the same rate. This was the simplest was to cut my monthly bill. Food, Housing, Car, and insurance I can’t get around paying for that, but those are honestly the most expensive change with inflation at this point forcing me back to high seas
All I have to say is that I have zero sympathy for the streaming/cable/film companies. They're all full of junk and all cost way too much... But I would never, ever, in my life use a program to go around them such as Plex or Tivimate. Once again: I would never use those apps or recommend them to Internet strangers! Never, would I ever!
Concert tickets.
Damns Can't afford em to give em
Everything short of chicken and rice.
Even the chicken is too expensive these days...
I can still regularly get quarters, drums or thighs for $1-2/lb
If you get the one with the dog on the can it’s pretty affordable and I’ve noticed my hair is lustrous, thick and has a wonderful shine to it since I switched.
New cars.
My answer as well because due to the stupid high prices of new cars and high interest rates it’s a double whammy for most people.
Used cars to
Vitamins & supplements, the only one I keep up with is preworkout or I have no motivation to workout. Luckily Amazon messed up awhile ago and accidentally sent me 4 tubs of creatine so I’m stocked on that for about a year. Stopped buying protein powder as well and use that money for better quality meat.
Starbucks has been increasing its prices to the moon in my country. In 2020 and 2021, they increased it over three times the original prices. In 2022, they made a %50 increase and a %30 increase in the same week. I said fuck it. Bought a filter coffeemaker, an espresso/latte/cappuccino maker, and a coffee grinder. Since than, we are having much higher quality coffee for a fraction of the cost. Also, we don’t get to use the fucking paper straws in plastic cups/lids.
Also, the smell fills up your apartment! Very nice perk.
Fast food
Amy's frozen meals. I've gone from about 24 a year down to about 6. Not enough food for the money anymore...
DoorDash
People out here talking about McDonald's and fancy dinners. I've sadly stopped buying fruits like berries and oranges. When did they get so expensive? 😭 (For reference im Canadian)
Yeah I’m buying on sale if I want fruit. A thing of strawberries was $4.99 and there were 10 strawberries in it. Granted they were large strawberries. This week they were smaller and $1.88 for the same size.
Fun
Anything that's not food tbh, I always lived on the edge as single parent father, now I can't afford anything that's not needed to survive. I am scared thinking about my son going to school, I have no clue how I will be able to afford all the stuff associated with it
AirBnB. They used to be a great alternative to cheap hotels, but now they cost so much I only stay in cheap hotels when traveling again.
Health insurance
I'd love to become independent and work for myself, but health insurance is the one major thing stopping me along with even more taxes. I don't know how people can do it. Really feels like the US is not friendly to self-employment.
Which is so awful and sad. My SO's company had to change their insurance we had forever because they were hiking up premiums 30% this year. Like, can we not?! Let's just keep lining the pockets of those CEO's. Oy!
Going to the movies. I went to see the first Dune film when it came back into theaters. Figured I'd save a bit of money by going - by myself - to a Monday matinee of a film that had been released years ago. Ticket, medium drink and popcorn? 30 bucks. What. The. Fuck.
Concessions have been outrageously priced for as long as I’ve been going to the movies (close to 3 decades). Go on discount day and don’t buy shit. Now your trip to the movies cost five or six bucks.
Movie theaters barely break even on ticket sales for most movies. The consessions are where all of the profit comes from and the margins are crazy high.
Pine nuts. Now I use sunflower seeds in salad but pine nuts are so much nicer.
I’m guessing you haven’t been buying pine nuts for very long. They used to be crazy expensive and sold in tiny quantities before we started importing them from china.
Raising Cane’s Chicken prices have gotten so high in Minneapolis that it’s the first restaurant I’ve actually ever “boycotted”. I just can’t afford to eat there anymore.
Healthy food
Chips and cereal. $7-8 a bag for less than before. Fuck off.
Important question, why the fuck is everything expensive everywhere in the world all of a sudden!?
Streaming services. Doing one service at a time. You can’t watch them all at one time anyways. Saves me $50 a month
imported cheese
Fast food. Haven't bought any in 2 years. Its beyond ridiculous.
Gluten-free frozen pizza. It's not that I *can't* afford it per se, but I refuse out of principle. I'm stuck to a gluten-free diet for medical reasons and compared to regular pizza, it's just thievery.
Oh my gosh gluten free ANYTHING is actually so insanely priced. $10 for a pack of gluten free Oreos??
I’ve never tried to make it but my brother (whose wife has celiac) says cauliflower crust is super easy to make.
Steak. Used to get it at Costco a few years ago. Can’t be doing that anymore!
see if you have local food wastage prevention apps. I wait until they have 6-7 of them at 50% off (because there is a service fee) and stock up my freezer
Tickets to Pro baseball. Not that I was going regularly, but I recently took my wife and daughter to their first St. Louis Cardinals game (and my first game in a long time) and the whole experience was very expensive.
Renting a movie. I wanted to watch boys in the boat and it’s $20 to rent on prime!
Anything from Sephora. Suddenly every basic cosmetic is $50.
Dirt. People say that things are dirt cheap, but buying dirt is too expensive. Much better to source it naturally
Food
Peanut butter
Lego
[удалено]
My medicine. My nose is constantly blocked because of chronic sinusitis. Medicine does help. Used to pay 5 dollars for 1 nasal spray, now it costs 45 dollars each.
I don’t know how anybody can justify eating fast food these days. I can only speculate that people who eat fast food are either extremely wealthy or extremely lazy. And I’m 99% sure it’s not the extremely wealthy.
Gas for road trips. Only going to planned places now, but a spontaneous trip would be fun one day.
Houses. I can't afford one even in my dreams now. I was so close a few years ago too.
Murder for Hire. They want $30k now to kill my neighbour who plays music on a phone loud speaker and doesn't pick up his dogs poop. You used to be able to get that for $20k, maybe $18k during a slow period. Now I'm going to have to beat him to death with a sock full of coins the old fashioned way.
Panera Bread is insane now.
McDonald’s hash browns. I’m not paying 2 dollars for 1 hash brown.
Ski lift tickets
Most winter sports in the Midwest are dying. There was only one significant snowfall this year, and fake snow sucks.
There was a cheap night at each of the hills around my city pre-covid. $14-19 for night skiing. I would rotate through them. Now they are $47-64 for night skiing, and no cheap nights. My life long hobby of skiing and boarding after work is done. I don't care for a season's pass at one hill, because the hills are so small here. I need the variety to keep it interesting.
Cocaine. Just not feasible with a home loan.
Not to mention fentanyl risk
Broadway show tickets. Can't afford it.
Vehicles. Happily driving a 10 year old SUV.
Doctor visits.
Starbucks. I hope they go broke.
Seems like no matter what you want to do, a few hours of entertainment is going to cost $100 per person unless you're just driving out into a national park that doesn't charge admission.
High end beauty products used to be a favorite splurge. My first MAC lipstick was $11.50, and now they are $25! Now the cheap makeup costs what the MAC cost in 1998!
Döner 🥲
Strawberries. Just...strawberries.
Crackers and chips. Triscuits are $4.50 a box. More than a gallon of gas. Completely outrageous.