I haven’t seen someone say yet but used good. Like garage sales and thrift stores and auctions, everything is hiked up to be almost the same price as if you’d buy it new.
I stopped buying chips when prices doubled. I stopped buying minced meat and chicken. I only buy eggs and coffee when it’s finally discounted. Now frozen vegetables doubled in price. I can’t just stop buying things.
Also, came back to Netherlands after a few years. Cigarettes over €10 and €7.50 for a beer wtf
Phone service in America. A 1 month sim here in vietnam with a number and 8gb/day costs ~10USD. Its cheaper if you buy longer. Meanwhile Verizon is charging 35-50 dollars a month.
Okay, but Verizon is not the best option in the U.S. right?
I’m paying €15 for 200GB/month and 1500 minutes to all EU countries and the UK
utility bills, it has gone up because of AI datacenters, and all forms of insurance, health, car,etc looking at parents costs. we have the wierd property tax here, that the state likes to tax on for some reason, and target the actual billionaires.
also the cost of schooling for different grad programs, one grad program in health is under 15k for a state school but highly competitive as a result due to very limited space and schools(like most state schools ever only accept 30ish applicants per semester or year) out of likely hundreds or thousand+ people applying and the industry is a shortage(likely intentional to keep the salary high, much like with MDs licenses) they recent started a “abridged program” which i dont think it solves the problem. while pharm school very expensive yet earns almost the same as the grad program i mentioned and 4 times as long to finish.(1 vs 3/4 years), since everyone wants to come our state the shcools are severely impacted because theres only ever 9 unis that teach this program for CLS.
I thought home internet would get cheaper over time…
deleted by creator
Politicians, they used to be expensive. Now it’s almost downright affordable.
they still are the “bribes are just small cash donations” they dont account things like million dollar RVs, homes, yachts or investments(stocks, or real estate) which the public cant get the full scope of and other backdoor deals they do.
Oh, you!
SSDs as well. I stuck 2TB in my PS5 for under 100 quid.
Now they’re closer to 300.
Similarly, SD and microSD cards. Much like RAM and storage, I wished I threw away my adult responsibility a bit and stocked up on them
I actually had to look up M2 drives to see if the image above was those.
M2 has the connectors on the end rather than the side, but they don’t look too different otherwise.
RAM is the new component to become overpriced.
It is <2016, 2019, 2026>*. I’m using a 1050Ti.
* new, re-used in otherwise new build, and not buying anything respectively.
Careful about flashing that kind of cash
Apparently getting corrective eye surgery. Not that I ever had the procedure. How could I when I’d be dropping $7000?! I even tried applying for financial assistance, but my application was denied.
You can several decades worth of glasses for that price
You are not rich enough not get financial aid. It’s only applicable to people with $$$, not plebs like us.
Ice cream, right now it’s around 2.50-3.80€ per scoop. I remember from a few years ago it was at 0.80€
they are currently on sale in usa, WF stores by half all frozen desserts and ice cream. good deal right now.
Already said a lot, but should be said again. Food.
Food, my weekly grocery bill has risen from ~80€ to ~130€ and I’ve started to limit and reduce snacks. Store is the same, amounts have gotten smaller, only difference is time. Few years ago when the first Lidl(Aldi) was opened and became the closest store to my home. Overall weekly bill never reached to triple digits, nowadays it never stays below that.
And i bloody hate triple digit numbers, my heart weeps every time i need to pay it and think about quitting eating all together.
I’ve had to change the priority of stores I shop at. Not even gonna touch international stores at this point. Only going to Aldi first, then Lidl for anything not stocked at Aldi.
Lidl has a larger variety than Aldi, but Aldi’s groceries are more affordable.
I though those are the same brand? Mostly because every time i mention Lidl in online discourse people automatically switch over to using Aldi or every time there’s a picture of some goods that for me are sold in Lidl, the description says Aldi.
They’re different stores, but they cover the same niche with broadly the same market strategies (having very affordable in-store brands, packaging products in boxes to make re-stocking the shelves more efficient etc.) So a lot of people talk about them interchangeably.
That makes more sense. Thank you.
Food is so expensive. I’ll be like I’m going to cut back and save money this week, so no meat, no fresh fruits or veggies, no snacks, no prepared meals and only 1 meal a day this week. I’ll leave the grocery store with one small bag of food and a $85 bill and I’m scratching my head going “how the fuck?” It feels like no matter what I buy it all costs the same
I just spent $109 for a Valvoline oil change in the Los Angeles area. I found this old coupon from 2014. Crazy how much it’s increased.
Americans seem to do oil changes way more often than anyone else… Maybe this is the sign that you should cut down!
In this economy I learned how to do my own maintenance. I refuse to pay someone else over a $100 to unscrew something then screw in something else.
It’s not the mechanic making the money, it’s their boss. Mechanics are undnerpaid as fuck. Go to independent mechanics if you can
I knew how to change oil before I even had a license. You need to be able to handle your own shit because you’ll be gouged every single time otherwise
The way I see it if anyone opened a drivers school that also taught basic maintenance they’d make a killing here.
Same. Did my brakes last weekend and saved like $700. And it’s about as hard as an oil change.
Its kinda crazy what mechanics charge in the US. I get that they have significant tooling costs to recoup, and every job isn’t so straightforward and that all gets spread out, but shit I paid $5 for 2 new footpegs and bending my shifter back onto place with a torch, then $4 for an oil change after I got hit by a taxi.
Last year they said I needed a new turbo. Quoted me $2300. I got the part and tools for under $1200
Turns out that didn’t fix it and it was the catalytic converter - bad misfire clogged it with gas. Replaced the downpipe for $800 and then sold the old cats as scrap for $250.
Now I know that I can do all that stuff and I saved $550.
You’re paying for the labor, the time to check everything else and giving you actual decisions. That’s where the rest of that 50 bucks is going. Yes you do need ONLY the oil change, and maybe you don’t need anything else but the one thing I learned about cars is that they’re like fickle people. They won’t open up unless you deliberately ask them all the right questions lmao!
I’ve only ever once paid someone to change my oil, and that was because I physically couldn’t do it. A filter is less than $10 and 5 quarts of full synthetic is less than 30. The whole job takes longer to find all my tools than to just do it.
Oh my god. I know that’s a coupon for a discount but oil changes became 10 times more expensive no wonder why it always felt like such a burden. We really need to break card dependency because it’s just playing old not affordable
Do oil changes yourself. It’s very simple and kind of fun. First time took me 45 mins. Every time after that, about 10 mins, and most of that is sitting around waiting for the oil to drain before screwing the plug back in.
Really, for most cars, if you can pump gas then you can do the oil and oil filter, fluids (coolants, brake, power steering, etc), air and cabin filters. They generally involve unscrewing or unclipping something, then popping it back on. Brake pads are also very simple. These are parts designed to be replaced regularly so are quick and simple with 1 or 2 tools, if a tool is even needed.
I’m with you, but keep in mind that some people live in apartments, so no garage to work in, or a driveway, and also they have nowhere to store any tools they buy.
And the initial investment is something, right? Get a decent jack, get a drain pan, learn how to dispose of the used oil, buy the wrench, buy the paper towels or degreasers or whatever.
And if you fuck it up, your car is ruined. All that being said, more DIY is probably a good thing, but we all gotta find out own comfort zones and decide what’s worth trying out.
For conventional or synthetic? That’s pretty fair price for synthetic.
Yeah, I’ve been making it a habit to budget $300 for routine maintenance when I have to go to Valvoline. At least the car runs well, even if I’m hungry.
Bread. Even bread is too expensive now. Rice has been climbing but is still affordable. For now.
I came here to comment “bread”. We have gone from 99¢ to $3.99 for a loaf of french bread in a bit over a decade.
I don’t eat much normal sliced bread, but buns got just as stupid.
same, im not a fan of any bread, because dont like all that sugar intake.
Where do you live that a 10 kg sack of rice is expensive?
Bread being expensive in the US is so awful, they gave us wonderbread and because it was cheaper and we have fuckall for bakeries, it let the few bakeries increase the price of fresh bread.
I am in a country that doesn’t grow wheat, yet the price of fresh bread is less than I paid at the only non-cake bakery near me, Publix, in America
maybe at asian stores? is more affordable if you buy it in 50lb bags?
50 lb sacks aren’t common in American grocers, presumably due to their size. I only ever saw them in the big Asian grocers.
Related, thats a 5L l bottle of water.
Having teeth.
Them luxury bones. Had to get a front tooth root canal and crown and it was $1,600 WITH insurance.
Bruh, go to mexico.
Sounds weird but, chocolate chips.
Oh, and a $70k Toyota Tacoma. $70,000, for a taco. The fuck is Toyota smoking?
Agreed on chocolate chips.
I found getting the small bags of ready-made cookie mix is more affordable at this point.
In Australia, surprisingly and disappointingly, medical appointments. Seeing a specialist for anything is about $500 AUD, after Medicare rebate. So you need to have more than that much liquid cash on the day, and be able to tank the hit.
I still remember being in line behind this mother whose child was clearly extremely unwell mentally. When she heard the price for the psychiatrist appointment she’s like, I can’t pay that… Let alone 2 or 3 times because psychiatrists never diagnose on the first visit. She had her own (understandable) mental breakdown, and stepped outside to call family to borrow money.
You shouldn’t need a payment plan to get antipsychotics. Somehow still cheaper than the scam that is private health insurance though.
thats sad, is she not low income enough and aus doesnt have a free healthcare for low income patients?
in the states, depending on the state you are in, you can go on medi-caid, if you are very poor like earning less than a certain amount.
Not in SA at least. There’s concession cards that sometimes helps, sometimes even makes it free, but it’s basically random how much a clinic will discount you, if at all. If you’re poor you’re generally expected to languish in the public system for years, assuming you can find treatment at all. A lot of medical stuff is in the private sector now. I see people using afterpay or credit cards for medical stuff. Some clinics offer payment plans, sometimes interest free.
Sorry to hear that. I didn’t realize the Australian healthcare system was as bad as the one in the USA. $500 to see a specialist is not ok, especially not for psychiatry when the medical support is literally life changing.
It’s not that bad yet, but I feel like we’re on the way there. Luckily we still have a pretty good public sector for emergencies. But there is no public sector psychiatrists, at least not around here. So you’re covered for some things but not others, especially specialist treatment. That’s why I specified appointment, because most of the time appointment refers to private sector. And outpatient stuff, but the line is confusing and arbitrary.
For example,
- Dentists are essential but also elective.
- The hospital will cast your broken leg for free but you’ll pay a lot for the rehab physiotherapy privately.
- They’ll CT scan a tennis ball sized tumour for free, but refuse to remove it because even though it’s growing it’s “benign” i.e. if it won’t kill you then we don’t care.
- Two doctors will cost wildly different prices even though both use Medicare.
- You can go to the hospital 10 times for the same cardiac problem for free, but getting it investigated or fixed is private, unless you’re critically in danger.
It’s hard to know whether something will cost you or not until you try and get it treated. It’s very “reactionary” instead of “preventative” is how I’d describe it. Like they’ll chop off a diabetic foot for free, which is hugely expensive medical procedure requiring a surgeon, but seeing a dietician to learn how to manage your diabetes costs $200+ per appointment.
I almost feel like if I had to choose, the reverse should be true. Focus on preventing problems rather than putting out fires.
dentists, dental procedures are barely covered in the states as well, only a very limited amount of dentist, or dental specialist will even accept medi-caid/care. so you might have to pay outof pocket anyways.
usually the dentists on these programs, are less than what you call decent, they may do something so-so, but might be not keen other things wrong with your teeth. and at least one here at has earned the reputation in our area, as peddling deep cleaning, which is a known scam.
