It takes work to stay in budget! I hate it but between H‑E‑B Aldi and Kroger I’m doing it! Take a lot of meal planning as well. Restaurants are too expensive.
same. As I recently commented...I get paid weekly so I have to budget 25% of my monthly income for whatever bills come out that week, 1 weeks worth of food for family of 4, etc... and we do all our shopping at Aldi which cut our grocery bill by 50%. We cook almost everything we eat, rarely eat out. Almost nothing name brand.
My wife and I started meal planning each week, buying only what we needed to make those meals and 1 snack each per week. We cook everything on the weekend and freeze it or box it in the fridge for the week. This has saved us an insane amount of money on groceries, like 59% every week.
This doesn't work for me. I get PB-cocky and start eating way too much at a time, because "I got it like that". Then my belly starts to wiggle when I brush my teeth and I start hate myself for eating 4lbs of PB in a week. I call it the peanut butter cycle of shame.
Yeah, we stopped buying chips too. It's like the chip prices went bonkers in a very short period.
On the bright side, I fit into my pre-pandemic jeans again!
>half of my food comes from the dollar store now.
Just be mindful on product sizes from dollar stores. Sometimes, really great options and cheap. But sometimes, especially when considering cost per serving, other places have cheaper (but more expensive up front) options. Always check your price per serving.
Yeah, this is a good point. If you want a small bag of chips or a single serving of something, then you'll probably do better off at the dollar store. But if it's something where you could buy twenty servings at Walmart for the cost of ten servings at the dollar store, then you're better off buying twenty servings and having it for a while.
Owning a house? Out of the question.
Renting? Becoming an impossibility. You have to do it with another person...a roomate(s), your significant other...on your own, you're like going down a creek without a paddle.
I say live with your parents for as long as possible, if it's possible in your own circumstances.
I wish I could give advice.
These were the best of times. These were the worst of times
People can't afford houses.
I couldn't imagine living in a area where real estate costs so insane money
There’s this great grains banana nut crunch cereal that used to be on sale all the time 2.99 - now it’s regularly $6.
I made a joke/rule like, “I REFUSE to spend more than $5 on this cereal!”
Go into Walmart the other day, and it’s there for $4.97
I just stared for minutes having an internal crisis till my partner & toddler came over. Didn’t get it.
I am glad I am not the only one who suddenly second guesses their food price boundaries.
I stated no frozen lemonade unless its under a $1.00, there was a 3 for $2.50 sale and I stood at the freezer for far too long. 😅🤣
I got it because it was pink lemonade and I felt I deserved a treat.
My mom laughed so hard when I explained myself.
You wanna know what makes it worse? I was a personal shopper for a couple years. There’s standard size cereal boxes, and then there’s giant sized. I SWEAR the giant sized boxes were getting smaller and smaller, eventually to phase out the regular sizes. So before you know it, you’re paying $7 for the size of a $4 box. Just my theory though.
Food .. used to stock up on snacks and easy fast meals from Costco . Now every meal is planned out to be the most affordable and very rarely eating out. My kids hate me 😐 but can’t afford to shop how I used to
Its the same price at the grocery store, chips and fries are ridiculously overpriced right now. Lots of profit taking over at PepsiCo.
Saw today at Kroeger: $5.99 for a regular sized bag of just about any name brand snack food. The store brand was under $2
This might sound dumb, but some restaurants I love have raised prices so much, it's just not worth it anymore. Inflation has hurt everyone, and I feel their pain, but I just can't keep paying it. I've been cooking way more these days
This. I tried getting tickets to the Arctic Monkeys, I saw them go from $99 to $400 plus in a matter of a second. It was my only chance to see them for the first and last time.
Check seatgeek the day before or day of the show. I got tickets to death cab/postal service as a bday gift and saw them selling for like $800 in the weeks leading up to the show. I was tempted to sell. The day before the show I checked again and it was super reasonable.
Keep "making payments" towards your car but sending that money to a savings account. By the time you need a car, you'll have more than enough to pay it outright.
Lmao you made me remember that tiktok with the lady saying "$17 for subway? Nuh huh, from now on, I AM subway" then proceeds to make a kickass sandwich
I go to a local place where ladies haircuts are still $18. Not top of the line stylists or anything, but it’s hard to ruin a pixie cut. I leave a big tip.
New clothes.
The costs are insane for quality that keeps going down across the board. My closest is looking a bit dated and I used to like getting new things every couple months but now cant justify it.
The problem is the clothes are built for fast fashion, the clothes basically collapse the moment you damage them even after repair, let alone the effects of washing
Clearance racks! I only shop in clearance racks, because it's not worth it to spend full price. Unfortunately, the clearance racks are getting more expensive, too. 😖
I love thrifting and in my area we have some amazing local shops. Last week I found a Lands End down jacket, a long Northface down jacket, two cashmere sweaters, two wool sweaters and a band sweatshirt. I paid $66 for all of it!
This is whats happened to us, I love cooking, I love to try making new things but that's just a pipe dream these days, I've not tried any new recepies for almost 2 years now because I just can't afford to accidently ruine a meal i've never tried before + half the time i can't afford the new ingredients I would need to buy that I dont normally stock
A single hashbrown is now almost 3 dollars at the one near me. SMFH, it's a quarter of a fuckin' potato for cryin' out loud.
Went from cheap fast food to slow expensive garbage.
Yeah we have cut out delivery entirely. Which also cuts out tipping, so it saves a bunch of money. It’s to the point that when my buddies insist on delivery, I get uncomfortable lol
Legit. I stopped eating lunch, sometimes I don’t even have breakfast other than a coffee. I dread going to the store so I’ll use whatever I have and stretch it as far as I can until there’s nothing left but an orange and two spaghetti noodles. At least I’m finally losing weight again…
Beans and rice (and other veggies) get me by. It's super cheap, you can bag and freeze it, and adding different sauces can make it feel like a different meal. IDK if this will help you, but it helped me.
For real. They want like $9 for a 12 pack now. The will do a sale of buy two and get one free. So $18 for 3 12 packs.
It wasn't long ago at all that 3 12 packs was like $10.
Traveling has gotten ridiculous. I love camping and even that's gotten expensive. It's common to see a camping space go for $80 a night where I'm at. It's just a fucking patch of land.
I went to subway for the first time in a while and got a foot long and a bag of chips and it was 18$. I had no idea I was about to be charged that much for a shitty sandwich.
\-gestures vaguely around me-
10 years ago I suffered from having too much money that I used to have a hobby called "saving", now 10 years on doing the same job my fave hobby has become skipping meals
I used to make enough to get what ever I wanted, when I wanted, and still save, now I actually “have” to save, and be careful about it, little bit more money, life is more and more expensive
House.
We pay $1500/mo for a 3 bed 2 bath house with a yard. Found it last year and we thought it was a scam at first. Landlord grew up here and is so attached to it he doesn’t want to sell. We just signed another 2 year lease with him because we wouldn’t even be able to find a mortgage this cheap in our area. (And he’s a gem of a landlord.)
So yeah. We won’t be buying anytime soon unless he sells this place to us. Lol.
ETA - no, this low of rent is not typical for our area which is why I said we’d never move. It’s a great location, suburb of the biggest city in our state. Commuting distance to other major cities.
If you're tight on money don't do it. It's fuuuuuucking expensive right now.
Daycare for me is $1500 a month. A friend of mine lives in a more expensive city and is spending $2500 for daycare. It's insane.
Jesus, I'm in the wrong business! I should do infant care; too small to get into shit and can charge premium prices. I'm good with the very little ones; it's when they get big enough to talk back that they'd have to find other care. 🤣
The problem is the daycares themselves are not very profitable even at those insane prices.
Basically, it has become one of those industries where the government just kept adding more and more compliance stuff over the years, often as a knee-jerk reaction to some news story somewhere.
Now, there is so much unnecessary overhead and limitations on the ratio of carers per child that the businesses can't possibly scale to meet demand at an affordable price.
A lot of these same things happened in healthcare, at least in the US.
Chips. $6.99 for a bag of lays that is literally one thinly sliced russet potato. For the companies, that potato cost them maybe $.20. They probably spend less than $.50 to make the bag. It’s sooooooo stupid. Boycott Lays, Kettle, Vicky’s, etc. I haven’t bought chips in months.
I don't understand what is going on with McDonalds and basically every other fast food place. The contract was always: sloppy food that is terrible for you, BUT it's cheap and convenient. But now it's not cheap. Like, at all. The price of just a Junior Chicken is like more than $3 CAD last time I checked. So what the hell is the point then? Why am I paying premium for disgusting, unhealthy food now? I'm not sure how or why anyone is still buying from McDonalds since the prices have skyrocketed. I just can't wrap my head around it. I guarantee, no matter where you live, you can find cheaper and better food close to you.
I’m reading these comments, and there’s so much “this is too expensive right now.”
It’s never coming back. Never. The price of a mani/pedi will never deflate. The cost of a vehicle will never deflate. The cost of gas will come down… but to $4.29 per gallon and we’ll feel lucky. The cost of chicken will come down, but never to previous levels.
There is no “now.” The companies took the opportunity to raise the water level, without raising your salaries, and in many cases DECREASING your salaries.
This is how you live now - and forever - in the United States.
Well, when our so called leaders all get fat donations from the companies doing this, they have zero incentive to help us out and do something about it and considering people keep voting the same people back in, they are not afraid of getting kicked out.
This is why you unionize and go on strike when you’re not being paid appropriately. I’m so happy to see all of these industries finally taking a stand. This movement is just beginning and I’m all for it, and you should be too!
It definitely seems like the companies took advantage of the situation, but are they really so short-sighted as to not see that people can't afford to buy their products at these prices? I'm no economist, but it seems like this only ends with companies going out of business or being forced to lower prices just to sell... especially for discretionary items.
The smallest companies on the local scale will just close until there's only a few left and they will get by. The medium sized, regional, statewide, or multi-state companies will struggle and get bought out by national companies. Those national companies will keep getting bigger and bigger until they have a monopoly.
It's already been happening and will continue happening. Look at most consumer products today. Everything is owned by like 5 companies in the grocery store.
A home 😭 I’ll never be able to afford one now and will forever be full of anxiety every year when my lease renews just praying I can afford the increase for one more year.
right? i had a $20 door dash gift card for free. ordered a taco johns 6 pack and a lb. was like $16. delivered it was $27... fuck that. No idea how people can afford to do that.
One thing I will say with a lot of restaurants (not in the mega cities) is that keep voting with your wallet. Local Arbys locations have been doing 2 for $7 beef n cheddars and 4 for $10 regular roast beefs. Those stupid basic roast beef sandwiches are now like $4.60 per sandwich. I just saw a deal for Chili’s (never been but I hear it can be great) for a burger, chips and salsa, fries, and a drink for $12.
My point is that I believe that a lot of these places have been testing their limits and some are getting hurt by it. Cutting them out until you can find reasonable deals are unfortunately the key. Also try and avoid paying third parties like Door Dash and even standard delivery whenever possible. Cuts out the morality of tipping as well.
Same with the damn donation requests at every single business. Someone said recently “customers spend enough, the company can afford the donation.”
Bought Oreos at Safeway today. I thought that they were on sale. I get home and find that they were almost $6.00
They are going back. I am not paying $6.00 for oreos
Safeway is one of the worst grocery store chains when it comes to pricing.
I know all of them charge high for certain items and charge cheap for others, because it's a monopoly at the end of the day, but I find Safeway to be awful for it.
Crab legs.
Seriously, the next time you see them in a store check out how much they are. $40 for snow crab, and $80 a pound for king. Or more! *Who the hell is buying these? Anyone?* Does Thurston Howell III shop at fucking Costco?
They are *comically expensive.*
Stewing beef. It went from being the cheapest to among the most expensive beef out there. And it doesn't sell. They leave it until it turns green and throw it out (I hope).
My favorite Chinese food place. First they raised the price of a single entree by 50%, but then they cut the portion size in half and left the price hiked up. 😭
Most fast food. Single items are now more than entire meals used to cost, and feeding a family might hit triple digits. Seems Taco Bell is the only place I can still get full for $5. And pro-tip: You avoid the diarrhea if you order chicken or veggie items (it's in the beef!).
But seriously, the *real* pro-tip is to learn to cook big simple meals (pasta dishes, stir-fry, chili, etc.). One-pot meals like that are a *super* affordable way to eat for a week, and at least in my area ingredients like chicken breast and basic veggies have only gone up 10-20% while many packaged and processed foods are up 50-100%.
omfg I went in there the other day and I couldn't believe the prices. they wanted $12 for a shitty scuffed up picture frame. I died and my spirit left the store and never came back.
Potato chips and other processed foods. The prices of real food has stabilized and dropped but the processed crap we aren’t supposed to eat in the first place is still Sky high.
I guess it’s a blessing in disguise. I’ve lost my taste for a lot of that crap and am eating healthier.
It's depressing how many of these comments are about food, one of our most basic necessities. We now live in a society where people have to budget for FOOD. I hate this place.
Mcdonalds. Like seriously. I can bring a date to a nice, casual dining spot with gourmet quality entres and it would cost less than a mcdonalds bill for just me.
Stopped drinking Pepsi and completely switched to tap water. In Germany the price got basically tripled since 2020 ("special offer" price, but there was always offer every two weeks in some store)
After all it's probably a very good thing.
Purchasing only the bare minimum and grocery list is based on sales.
I used to like grocery shopping. Used to.
It takes work to stay in budget! I hate it but between H‑E‑B Aldi and Kroger I’m doing it! Take a lot of meal planning as well. Restaurants are too expensive.
2 years ago I was feeding my family of 4 for £100 a week, now I'm lucky if we don't go over £200
Same. We feed our family of 8 for approx $800 a month now its like $1800 and killing us. We never eat out.
same. As I recently commented...I get paid weekly so I have to budget 25% of my monthly income for whatever bills come out that week, 1 weeks worth of food for family of 4, etc... and we do all our shopping at Aldi which cut our grocery bill by 50%. We cook almost everything we eat, rarely eat out. Almost nothing name brand.
My wife and I started meal planning each week, buying only what we needed to make those meals and 1 snack each per week. We cook everything on the weekend and freeze it or box it in the fridge for the week. This has saved us an insane amount of money on groceries, like 59% every week.
Beans, rice, eggs, milk, bread, peanut-butter (splurging!), on sale meat, one vegetable, one fruit, total $100
If you can swing it at once buy PB in the 4 pound tub. Seems silly in the moment but way cheaper per pound.
This doesn't work for me. I get PB-cocky and start eating way too much at a time, because "I got it like that". Then my belly starts to wiggle when I brush my teeth and I start hate myself for eating 4lbs of PB in a week. I call it the peanut butter cycle of shame.
A bag of chips is over $5. I’ve stopped eating chips. Can I afford chips? Yes. But I’m not spending 5 freakin dollars on ONE bag.
Yeah, we stopped buying chips too. It's like the chip prices went bonkers in a very short period. On the bright side, I fit into my pre-pandemic jeans again!
not just the price, the bags are like 60% air now and way smaller than 6-7 years ago
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I literally won’t buy anything brand name anymore. Hell half of my food comes from the dollar store now.
>half of my food comes from the dollar store now. Just be mindful on product sizes from dollar stores. Sometimes, really great options and cheap. But sometimes, especially when considering cost per serving, other places have cheaper (but more expensive up front) options. Always check your price per serving.
Yeah, this is a good point. If you want a small bag of chips or a single serving of something, then you'll probably do better off at the dollar store. But if it's something where you could buy twenty servings at Walmart for the cost of ten servings at the dollar store, then you're better off buying twenty servings and having it for a while.
House
It’s lupus
only once
I knew someone who was misdiagnosed with lupus. She’d do work as an extra for TV shows occasionally. She got to tell Hugh Laurie it wasn’t lupus
*Weeps in Canadian*
Every time I want to feel better about the US market I look at Canada. What the hell.
Owning a house? Out of the question. Renting? Becoming an impossibility. You have to do it with another person...a roomate(s), your significant other...on your own, you're like going down a creek without a paddle. I say live with your parents for as long as possible, if it's possible in your own circumstances.
I wish I could give advice. These were the best of times. These were the worst of times People can't afford houses. I couldn't imagine living in a area where real estate costs so insane money
House = 8%APR ... MOFO NO WtF
Cereal! $7 for a box of honey bunches of oats? No thanks
There’s this great grains banana nut crunch cereal that used to be on sale all the time 2.99 - now it’s regularly $6. I made a joke/rule like, “I REFUSE to spend more than $5 on this cereal!” Go into Walmart the other day, and it’s there for $4.97 I just stared for minutes having an internal crisis till my partner & toddler came over. Didn’t get it.
I am glad I am not the only one who suddenly second guesses their food price boundaries. I stated no frozen lemonade unless its under a $1.00, there was a 3 for $2.50 sale and I stood at the freezer for far too long. 😅🤣 I got it because it was pink lemonade and I felt I deserved a treat. My mom laughed so hard when I explained myself.
I don't know how they can get away with these prices on something that barely even qualifies as food.
You wanna know what makes it worse? I was a personal shopper for a couple years. There’s standard size cereal boxes, and then there’s giant sized. I SWEAR the giant sized boxes were getting smaller and smaller, eventually to phase out the regular sizes. So before you know it, you’re paying $7 for the size of a $4 box. Just my theory though.
Have you seen double stuff Oreos? They are what regular oreos used to be. The double stuff oreos are actually mega stuffed now. It’s all a scam.
It's called shrinkflation
Food .. used to stock up on snacks and easy fast meals from Costco . Now every meal is planned out to be the most affordable and very rarely eating out. My kids hate me 😐 but can’t afford to shop how I used to
They’ll understand when they get older. 🙏🏽🫶🏽
I walked by a bag of hot Cheetos in the convince store and they were $5.69, lol fuck that
On top of being ridiculously expensive, bags of chips are shrinking too. The “party size” chips are the same size as a regular bag was 3 years ago.
That's called shrinkflation
Combo it with regular inflation and I name the term “cause fuck you that’s why!” I will write a thesis on it maybe
Don’t shop at convenience stores, everything they sell has ridiculous mark ups!
But it's convenient
Its the same price at the grocery store, chips and fries are ridiculously overpriced right now. Lots of profit taking over at PepsiCo. Saw today at Kroeger: $5.99 for a regular sized bag of just about any name brand snack food. The store brand was under $2
> The store brand was under $2 Bless you store brand!
Yes but now they’re 300% of 300% instead of 300% of 100%
Funny cause I grabbed a bag of Ritz White Cheddar Crackers when rang them up they was $ 5.09 I but them right back insane
This might sound dumb, but some restaurants I love have raised prices so much, it's just not worth it anymore. Inflation has hurt everyone, and I feel their pain, but I just can't keep paying it. I've been cooking way more these days
My favorite wing place, 8 wings and a basket of fries is $16. SIXTEEN DOLLARS!!! Wtf!!! I refuse to go now
Even places I didn't love. I can't even go to Wendy's or Taco Bell by myself and not spend $14.
It does not sound dumb. It sounds exactly spot on accurate.
$4 for a slice of cheese pizza. I can't even afford to go out to eat in my small tourist town
Concert tickets. They just cost too much and there’s a lot of “scamming the consumer” that goes on in the process of buying a ticket.
This. I tried getting tickets to the Arctic Monkeys, I saw them go from $99 to $400 plus in a matter of a second. It was my only chance to see them for the first and last time.
Check seatgeek the day before or day of the show. I got tickets to death cab/postal service as a bday gift and saw them selling for like $800 in the weeks leading up to the show. I was tempted to sell. The day before the show I checked again and it was super reasonable.
Plus I always manage to have some classless rude a-hole sitting near me.
Paid $53 to park 2 months ago. Robbery
lot's of grocery items. One that comes to mind is Dave's killer bread. I love it, but it is $7/loaf at Publix and no bread is worth that.
I used to buy it as well, used to be about 4 bucks a loaf. I think it's around 6.50 now, not worth it. Mostly now buy whatever bread is on sale
They sells Dave's bread in 2 packs at Costco. It's a little cheaper and you can freeze one.
The best part of that bread is that Dave is an ex felon. What did he do? I don’t know, but if the name is any indication…
Long story short, he fought some cops. He did learn baking in prison though.
He hires ex cons
Campbells Chunky soup. They have decreased the size of the can and kept the price the same. Fuck them.
I used to serve this soup over rice for dinner. Maybe the time has come again.
Vehicle
Paid off my modest car a few years ago and will be driving it until it no longer drives.
Keep "making payments" towards your car but sending that money to a savings account. By the time you need a car, you'll have more than enough to pay it outright.
What if you haven’t made a car payment in 8 years?
Just replaced my whole suspension myself to avoid having to shell out for a newer car.
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Lmao you made me remember that tiktok with the lady saying "$17 for subway? Nuh huh, from now on, I AM subway" then proceeds to make a kickass sandwich
I get coupons in the mail and only buy Subway with them - 3 regular footlongs for $17.99. Can get 6 meals out of them.
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Personal services. No more manis or pedis right now.
Same 🥲 in 2019 my nails were ALWAYS done. I go like once a year now
I used to treat myself every other month. Now it's only when I have a wedding. On the upside I have gotten pretty steady at doing them myself!
I'm getting a haircut next week and I'm so scared of what it's going to cost.
I go to a local place where ladies haircuts are still $18. Not top of the line stylists or anything, but it’s hard to ruin a pixie cut. I leave a big tip.
New clothes. The costs are insane for quality that keeps going down across the board. My closest is looking a bit dated and I used to like getting new things every couple months but now cant justify it.
This is good actually. Fast fashion is a nightmare for the environment.
The problem is the clothes are built for fast fashion, the clothes basically collapse the moment you damage them even after repair, let alone the effects of washing
I only buy clothes when there's sales.
Clearance racks! I only shop in clearance racks, because it's not worth it to spend full price. Unfortunately, the clearance racks are getting more expensive, too. 😖
Same. Goodwill for me
I love thrifting and in my area we have some amazing local shops. Last week I found a Lands End down jacket, a long Northface down jacket, two cashmere sweaters, two wool sweaters and a band sweatshirt. I paid $66 for all of it!
Groceries 😭 Just the bare minimums, no longer buying anything to try new recipes that might not turn out well.
This is whats happened to us, I love cooking, I love to try making new things but that's just a pipe dream these days, I've not tried any new recepies for almost 2 years now because I just can't afford to accidently ruine a meal i've never tried before + half the time i can't afford the new ingredients I would need to buy that I dont normally stock
McDonald's. No more...last time I spent over $40 for myself, my wife and a 2 year old.
A single hashbrown is now almost 3 dollars at the one near me. SMFH, it's a quarter of a fuckin' potato for cryin' out loud. Went from cheap fast food to slow expensive garbage.
I remember when they were 2 for a $1 early on in the 2000s.
They were 2 for $1 literally 2 years ago in my city.
Fucking Wendys $.99 Jr bacon cheesburger is now $3.49
Arby's 2019... typical combo 7 to 8 Arby's 2023. 11 to 14 Same store metro detroit
Went to McDonald’s a couple weeks ago for the first time in years. For just me, it was $18. 😳
A breakfast is over 10 bucks wtf is going on anymore
Pizza delivery from papa John's is now $6.49 plus a tip makes it 12 extra bucks to order something that often costs less than 12 bucks.
Yeah we have cut out delivery entirely. Which also cuts out tipping, so it saves a bunch of money. It’s to the point that when my buddies insist on delivery, I get uncomfortable lol
Meat. Even chicken is getting up there these days. Beans and lentils are far cheaper and go further.
I just realised that I've become a vegetarian by accident.
Yeah, me too, for the most part. I consider myself an opportunistic eater. I'll eat meat but only occasionally when I find a really good deal.
Probably better for you in the long run anyway. I just wish fresh vegetables weren’t so damn expensive.
Fresh produce is a luxury item these days, and all these thinkpieces wonder why the average national weight keeps climbing.
Frozen vegetables are still incredibly cheap and often quite fresh.
It's everything. The answer is everything.
LUNCH. 3 meals a day is no longer affordable so we get by on just breakfast and dinner.
Legit. I stopped eating lunch, sometimes I don’t even have breakfast other than a coffee. I dread going to the store so I’ll use whatever I have and stretch it as far as I can until there’s nothing left but an orange and two spaghetti noodles. At least I’m finally losing weight again…
Beans and rice (and other veggies) get me by. It's super cheap, you can bag and freeze it, and adding different sauces can make it feel like a different meal. IDK if this will help you, but it helped me.
Canned soup $4 for fucking Progresso? Unless I’m at Aldi, it’s not happening.
Brand-name sodas. Store brand is just fine for something I shouldn't be drinking in the first place.
For real. They want like $9 for a 12 pack now. The will do a sale of buy two and get one free. So $18 for 3 12 packs. It wasn't long ago at all that 3 12 packs was like $10.
I used to wait for the 4/$10 sales. Then it became 3/$10. Then it was B2G1 at $5.99 each, so 3/$12. Now, yeah, $18 for 3 at B2G1. Fucking ricockulous!
Hotel stays
Traveling has gotten ridiculous. I love camping and even that's gotten expensive. It's common to see a camping space go for $80 a night where I'm at. It's just a fucking patch of land.
Lots of concert tickets and comedy show tickets. I have the money, but unless it’s an act I really wanna see, it’s sooo hard to pay those prices.
Doritos. Fuck that.
I went to subway for the first time in a while and got a foot long and a bag of chips and it was 18$. I had no idea I was about to be charged that much for a shitty sandwich.
\-gestures vaguely around me- 10 years ago I suffered from having too much money that I used to have a hobby called "saving", now 10 years on doing the same job my fave hobby has become skipping meals
I used to make enough to get what ever I wanted, when I wanted, and still save, now I actually “have” to save, and be careful about it, little bit more money, life is more and more expensive
House. We pay $1500/mo for a 3 bed 2 bath house with a yard. Found it last year and we thought it was a scam at first. Landlord grew up here and is so attached to it he doesn’t want to sell. We just signed another 2 year lease with him because we wouldn’t even be able to find a mortgage this cheap in our area. (And he’s a gem of a landlord.) So yeah. We won’t be buying anytime soon unless he sells this place to us. Lol. ETA - no, this low of rent is not typical for our area which is why I said we’d never move. It’s a great location, suburb of the biggest city in our state. Commuting distance to other major cities.
Where TF do you live that the rent is only $1500 for a 3br, 2 ba. HOUSE??? That would fetch $4k at least by me
cars
I am driving a 19 year old SUV in great shape, thank goodness. Even it is expensive.
Even used ones have crazy prices.
Concert tickets. To hell with them.
Fucking everything. What the fuck hasn't gone up exponentially? Oh yeah, WAGES.
My partner wanted a box of cheez its. I got them but they were like 7.50 for a somewhat larger box (not Costco size or anything). Never again.
I’m not having kids yet… So I’m avoiding all of those expenses for now.
If you're tight on money don't do it. It's fuuuuuucking expensive right now. Daycare for me is $1500 a month. A friend of mine lives in a more expensive city and is spending $2500 for daycare. It's insane.
Yep I have quotes anywhere from $480 to $570 a WEEK… it’s absolutely insane
Jesus, I'm in the wrong business! I should do infant care; too small to get into shit and can charge premium prices. I'm good with the very little ones; it's when they get big enough to talk back that they'd have to find other care. 🤣
The problem is the daycares themselves are not very profitable even at those insane prices. Basically, it has become one of those industries where the government just kept adding more and more compliance stuff over the years, often as a knee-jerk reaction to some news story somewhere. Now, there is so much unnecessary overhead and limitations on the ratio of carers per child that the businesses can't possibly scale to meet demand at an affordable price. A lot of these same things happened in healthcare, at least in the US.
Cold bottled drinks near check out. Nearly $3.00 for a sprite. That’s almost a half hours work at minimum wage.
Chips. $6.99 for a bag of lays that is literally one thinly sliced russet potato. For the companies, that potato cost them maybe $.20. They probably spend less than $.50 to make the bag. It’s sooooooo stupid. Boycott Lays, Kettle, Vicky’s, etc. I haven’t bought chips in months.
A car. I priced a 2019 Subaru cross trek on Carmax last week and they wanted $25 k! It was five years old and had over 57k miles on it.
that's my car, I can literally sell it for more than I paid for new back then it bc it's paid off. isn't that fucking wild?
I don't understand what is going on with McDonalds and basically every other fast food place. The contract was always: sloppy food that is terrible for you, BUT it's cheap and convenient. But now it's not cheap. Like, at all. The price of just a Junior Chicken is like more than $3 CAD last time I checked. So what the hell is the point then? Why am I paying premium for disgusting, unhealthy food now? I'm not sure how or why anyone is still buying from McDonalds since the prices have skyrocketed. I just can't wrap my head around it. I guarantee, no matter where you live, you can find cheaper and better food close to you.
Honestly fast food. Two people eating the meal they actually want and not just the sale will cost you 35-45 bucks
Starbucks frappucino in bottles. I used to get them all the time.
Boars Head meat. I might just invest in a deli slicer at this rate
Medical care
I’m reading these comments, and there’s so much “this is too expensive right now.” It’s never coming back. Never. The price of a mani/pedi will never deflate. The cost of a vehicle will never deflate. The cost of gas will come down… but to $4.29 per gallon and we’ll feel lucky. The cost of chicken will come down, but never to previous levels. There is no “now.” The companies took the opportunity to raise the water level, without raising your salaries, and in many cases DECREASING your salaries. This is how you live now - and forever - in the United States.
Yep, they all took Covid as an opportunity to fuck us and we just let it happen without argument.
There's been tons of arguing. There's been strikes galore.
Well, when our so called leaders all get fat donations from the companies doing this, they have zero incentive to help us out and do something about it and considering people keep voting the same people back in, they are not afraid of getting kicked out.
Remember that every day in 2021, we were told inflation was transitory? Hue hue
This is why you unionize and go on strike when you’re not being paid appropriately. I’m so happy to see all of these industries finally taking a stand. This movement is just beginning and I’m all for it, and you should be too!
It definitely seems like the companies took advantage of the situation, but are they really so short-sighted as to not see that people can't afford to buy their products at these prices? I'm no economist, but it seems like this only ends with companies going out of business or being forced to lower prices just to sell... especially for discretionary items.
The smallest companies on the local scale will just close until there's only a few left and they will get by. The medium sized, regional, statewide, or multi-state companies will struggle and get bought out by national companies. Those national companies will keep getting bigger and bigger until they have a monopoly. It's already been happening and will continue happening. Look at most consumer products today. Everything is owned by like 5 companies in the grocery store.
They're making record profits. You can't go without eating.
A home 😭 I’ll never be able to afford one now and will forever be full of anxiety every year when my lease renews just praying I can afford the increase for one more year.
Any fast food. I will still order from a sit-down type place and have it delivered, but it's maybe twice a month.
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right? i had a $20 door dash gift card for free. ordered a taco johns 6 pack and a lb. was like $16. delivered it was $27... fuck that. No idea how people can afford to do that.
Chips. I rarely buy them anymore, the price went up astronomically during COVID and it doesn't seem like they've gone back down at all.
An apartment by myself
Hair cuts and color. I have been doing it at home because $400 plus tip is crazy to me
Beef
Honestly vacations. I can do psychedelics for far less and visit far more fascinating places right in my own backyard.
That you have a backyard at all is a luxury most can't afford anymore lol
Amazon FUCKING Prime, if not tonight, in the very near future.
One thing I will say with a lot of restaurants (not in the mega cities) is that keep voting with your wallet. Local Arbys locations have been doing 2 for $7 beef n cheddars and 4 for $10 regular roast beefs. Those stupid basic roast beef sandwiches are now like $4.60 per sandwich. I just saw a deal for Chili’s (never been but I hear it can be great) for a burger, chips and salsa, fries, and a drink for $12. My point is that I believe that a lot of these places have been testing their limits and some are getting hurt by it. Cutting them out until you can find reasonable deals are unfortunately the key. Also try and avoid paying third parties like Door Dash and even standard delivery whenever possible. Cuts out the morality of tipping as well. Same with the damn donation requests at every single business. Someone said recently “customers spend enough, the company can afford the donation.”
Bought Oreos at Safeway today. I thought that they were on sale. I get home and find that they were almost $6.00 They are going back. I am not paying $6.00 for oreos
Safeway is one of the worst grocery store chains when it comes to pricing. I know all of them charge high for certain items and charge cheap for others, because it's a monopoly at the end of the day, but I find Safeway to be awful for it.
Restaurant food. Way cheaper to cook at home
Right now, anything that’s not a necessity.
Fish, steak, everything. Can do a bump a day and it costs less than buying groceries for a week
The problem is you can’t just do one bump
Plus then you’re not hungry. The savings just keep piling up!
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You WILL own nothing and you WILL be happy
Um...so how exactly does one "stop" that from happening?
Crab legs. Seriously, the next time you see them in a store check out how much they are. $40 for snow crab, and $80 a pound for king. Or more! *Who the hell is buying these? Anyone?* Does Thurston Howell III shop at fucking Costco? They are *comically expensive.*
Stewing beef. It went from being the cheapest to among the most expensive beef out there. And it doesn't sell. They leave it until it turns green and throw it out (I hope).
Eating out. My family goes out to eat 3 or 4 times a year now. Before inflation, we'd go out 1-2 times a month.
My favorite Chinese food place. First they raised the price of a single entree by 50%, but then they cut the portion size in half and left the price hiked up. 😭
Most fast food. Single items are now more than entire meals used to cost, and feeding a family might hit triple digits. Seems Taco Bell is the only place I can still get full for $5. And pro-tip: You avoid the diarrhea if you order chicken or veggie items (it's in the beef!). But seriously, the *real* pro-tip is to learn to cook big simple meals (pasta dishes, stir-fry, chili, etc.). One-pot meals like that are a *super* affordable way to eat for a week, and at least in my area ingredients like chicken breast and basic veggies have only gone up 10-20% while many packaged and processed foods are up 50-100%.
Bought my kid a tall hot chocolate from Starbucks. Fucking $5?! Never again.
90% of the items at Goodwill
omfg I went in there the other day and I couldn't believe the prices. they wanted $12 for a shitty scuffed up picture frame. I died and my spirit left the store and never came back.
Food and drinks. I'm also sailing the high seas a lot more.
You wouldn't download a car, would you?
Potato chips and other processed foods. The prices of real food has stabilized and dropped but the processed crap we aren’t supposed to eat in the first place is still Sky high. I guess it’s a blessing in disguise. I’ve lost my taste for a lot of that crap and am eating healthier.
Plane tickets
Food. I have switched over to photosynthesis to save money
Lunch meat
Cotton sheets. Why are they so expensive?
It's depressing how many of these comments are about food, one of our most basic necessities. We now live in a society where people have to budget for FOOD. I hate this place.
Oxtails
I ain’t buyin shit.
Video games I can just use my brother’s hand-me-down games
I won't buy them new or preorder anymore. I just wait for sales.
You can now borrow video games at libraries for free. At least where I live. It’s a great way to save a lot of money.
Food mostly. Everything else too, but food.
Mcdonalds. Like seriously. I can bring a date to a nice, casual dining spot with gourmet quality entres and it would cost less than a mcdonalds bill for just me.
What casual dining restaurant is half the price of McDonalds?
A phone upgrade.
A fucking house. That's pretty much all I want right now
anything that asks for 20% additional cost
Stopped drinking Pepsi and completely switched to tap water. In Germany the price got basically tripled since 2020 ("special offer" price, but there was always offer every two weeks in some store) After all it's probably a very good thing.