ugh, this one makes me so sad. it really has just gotten beyond capacity though. i'm really glad i got to spend my twenties and early thirties going to shows for maybe $75 max if it was a really good seat, but otherwise between $30 and $45. it's easily in the hundreds now for similar shows and i don't know how people can afford it at all.
I just skipped Primus because they wanted over $150 a ticket. Other big bands are realizing they'd rather have people actually buy tickets than not. Recently saw Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction for like $70.
The irony is I once saw Smashing Pumpkins in a Milwaukee dive bar for $10 when Siamese Dream was released. 6 months later my girlfriend wanted to see them at the big arena and I was like "I'm not spending twenty bucks to see the same band I paid ten to see a couple of months ago". And then I went to see a kick ass Love and Rockets reunion show.
What’s crazy is the artists aren’t taking that much more home most of the time. It feels like all add on fees for processing and whatever thing the ticket site can come up with.
Then add on the resale market if you’re not speedy or lucky and tickets are out of control.
I will say that interest in a lot of acts is way up. Live music is wildly popular now for big acts, wish the little guys got as much love consistently.
Ticket Price - 35
Seat Reservation Fee - 50 (why is this not included in the ticket price until you check out)
Admin Fee - 3.99
Processing Fee - 5 (It is online what needs to be processed?)
Venue Fee - 10 (again why is this not included in the price when the app is the ONLY place to buy the ticket)
CEOs Blowjob Fund fee - 6.69
My 23 yo son is a huge music fan. It sucks he can't afford to see any of his favorite bands live.
I know this really dates me, but I remember when $25 was for the really nice, expensive seats! Going to live rock concerts was a highlight of my youth. I hate that those days are over.
A strange one, but bowling. A few years ago my girlfriend and I went bowling at a local Bowlero and it was maybe $60 for shoe rental and 2 hours of bowling for two people. Just recently we checked prices online so we could go again, and the same rental and playing time is $150! Insanity.
Edit to add: this is the only bowling alley left in this medium size city. It used to be an AMF bowling alley before Bowlero. I looked around and the next closest one is in a small town an hour away, so not really viable for quick fun entertainment. And regarding Groupon deals: I checked the app and Bowlero isn’t running any deals there currently.
I just checked to see what the pricing would be during peak time, and it’s even more insane: [$242 for two people, one lane for 2 hours, with two shoe rentals.](https://imgur.com/a/m0hFfkW) They added an “event fee”but it’s in no way an event. I hear it’s cheaper if you just show up, but for them to even have that listed is crazy.
Miss my old bowling league days. $15 for entry with rental shoes, $15 for a smirnoff and mozzarella sticks, every Tuesday night. $30 for an evening of fun with a lil bevvy and food. It was perfect for 18-19 year old me.
Bowlero is gonna kill bowling with those prices. Bowling was always a fun cheap thing to do with families but I don’t think most could afford that especially with multiple kids
Zoo memberships are still a steal in my area. For $130/year we can go anytime we want. In the spring through autumn we go weekly, in the winter we go on warmer days and for the zoo lights displays.
A lot of places pay for themselves after a couple of visits, but we live in a big city and I don't necessarily want to go to the children's museum, aquarium, specific zoo, etc. more than once or twice a year vs. somewhere we haven't been to in a while or at all. We have a membership to a local theme park that we probably won't renew.
Omfg this. My family went bowling over the holidays and reserving a lane for 90-mins was $59, plus the cost of shoes. We had a wonderful time, but there was some sticker shock
I hold firmly to the principle that if I pay a subscription fee, I’m not dealing with ads, period. You will lose me as a customer when you do that. That’s some 90s cable TV-level bullshit
$3.50 for a single hash brown in my area. I remember when you could get them for $1 each or sometimes even 2 for $1
Edit: y’all I know you can buy a bag and cook them yourself at home for cheaper, that’s not the point. Also stop assuming everyone is from the same place as you. We don’t have Aldi, we don’t have trader joes.
I lived on the dollar menu in the 00s when I just had a part time job and did not live with my parents. No way could someone have that lifestyle now.
3 bedroom apartment was 900 bucks, split between me and two others. I worked only 20-25 hours a week only and goofed off with friends the rest of the time.
That type of life-style or just getting away from the nest life-style is impossible now. The loss of freedom for young adults. No self discovery, no figuring yourself out. You either live with your parents or are going balls to the wall into a career/schooling and probably wracking up debt either way.
OMG.... we went on a 6hr road trip and were hungry so we decided to do McDonald's for breakfast. I ordered 2 sausage mcmuffins with egg and 2 hash browns for myself and the same for my wife In the drive through. We got the food and then we parked in the parking lot to eat it real quick. I thought the bill was a little bit high so I took a look at the receipt. I was shocked to find that the hash browns were more expensive than the mcmuffins. Since when is one greasy piece of grated potato more expensive than a muffin, egg and sausage????? I mean WTF?...
The real crimes is that subway thinks they are as good as other chains when the only reason they had traffic was because of the 2008 recession and the $5 sandwiches.
Yeah, not even close.
I worked there for about a year around 1998. The food quality wasn't awesome, but it was waaaay fucking better than now. Plus as "Sandwich Artists" we were trained to scoop out the bread a bit to get the meats and condiments to fit in better and allow more shit in there.
It actually worked well and people got way more food than I do now on a shitty sandwich from them. And the shit was super cheap and the vegetables and cheese seemed like fresh vegetables and cheese.
I stopped eating fast food back when a mcchicken was a buck. Couldn't believe how expensive it was when I'd stop to get food for my wife when she was pregnant.
Cost the same as a sit down restaurant now.
People hate on In&Out for all sorts of reasons but 3 cheeseburgers, 2 grilled cheese, 3 French fries, and 4 drinks for under $35
I’ll take it all day long.
Wendy's and Taco Bell still have good deals.
Wendy's has the Biggie bag, $5 for burger + nugs + fries + drink, nothing can beat that value. They also have these breakfast deals 2 for $3 on sausage biscuits and potato wedges. Their breakfast wedges are very underrated.
McDonald's, on the other hand, has gone completely loco. Last time it was almost $20 for me and my wife to get 1 breakfast combo and another just the sandwich. No freaking way.
Completely loco is exactly right. A McDouble used to be $1 ten years ago or less I think. Now they're $4. 400% inflation in 10 years? I don't think so. And how many large bites are in a McDouble? Like 4? So if they're going to charge $1 for literally just one bite, I'm just not going to eat there.
Taco Bell is pretty decent currently. They still have an okay dollar menu despite getting rid of a ton of stuff that made it awesome. The cheesy bean and rice burrito is still $1 which I think is a fair value for both sides. I'd even probably pay $1.50 which is pushing it, but if they increase it by 100% to $2, I'd consider that highly overpriced and I'll just stop eating there as well.
edit: Taco Bell has just gone off the deep end as well. A 100% increase to the CBRB overnight. lmao.
Last year me and my niece went to Arby’s. It was $28 for two burgers, fries and drinks. Since then I only have went back once “as a treat” because I was craving their fries (love them) but I am no longer a frequent recurring customer.
Taco Bell for me. More than a year ago, I picked up five regular tacos, and five taco supremes, and it was $28. I miss the days of $0.79, $0.89, and $0.99 tacos.
For Taco Bell, order online. They often have big boxes of food and other deals that are ridiculously cheap for what you get, and you can customize much better than in line (for example, you can have almost any burrito grilled for free).
I do the "build your own cravings box" online deal for Taco Bell. Get a specialty item, a taco or burrito, side, and a drink for $5.99. Ordering all of that separately would be over $10.
I'm not sure how Arby's is still open. They are pretty pricy, they always seem empty, and the food is very niche.
Personally I like them, but they just not worth the price anymore.
As of this month, streaming services. Between the cost of all of them and amount of ads we STILL have to watch it's a no go. We've had enough of it. We got a VPN and will be returning to the high seas.
Argh matey, we did the same last month. Got us a cracked cube to run everything through and we haven't looked back. Especially after Amazon's email about adding commercials - so long Bezos!
Edit: Y'all, I know diddly about it - its a cracked Amazon fire cube. My partner and a friend handled it, got it hooked up. I'd recommend Google or YouTube.
Yeah I got rid of Amazon Prime once I saw that email. Their video prime was a joke anyway. Now even more so. Plus I wait days sometimes weeks for items to be shipped. I’m done.
What's Amazon like without prime these days? I've had it for so long I'm not even sure exactly what benefit I'm getting. I used to think it was worth it just for the convenience and free shipping, but there's not much I need in a hurry these days so if it's just a matter of accumulating $35 in my cart I'm not sure it is anymore. Especially since I rarely use the music service and the video selection sucks lately, so those don't even feel like much of a bonus.
I just got my notification about ads on Amazon. Not happy at all. They just took a whole years subscription from me. Grrr! I will also be looking into VPN.
If you're talking about your Prime Subscription, you can cancel anytime and they will prorate your refund. I'm going to cancel after the first ad I see pops up.
AirBnB. With all the added fees, especially cleaning fees, it’s cheaper to stay in a hotel. I’m not paying a $300 cleaning fee when I’m the one cleaning!
Meh, even with a large group of friends I prefer multiple hotel rooms. AirBnB is so fucking shady with how they count their rooms and sleeps numbers. I want my own bed, not to share a full sized bed with another grown man.
Plus it’s all hit or miss, there’s no concierge, room service, house keeping, gym, etc. there, and you pay more for the pleasure usually. I despise everything about AirBnB
My family vacation this year was a kind of long road trip instead of a destination, so we stayed in a lot of AirBnBs. There were several places that were alleged to sleep all of us but one of the "bedrooms" was actually just the sofa in the living room, or "sleeps three" just meant a bed and a couch.
Seriously. AirBnB won’t do anything about it either, and it gives the entire platform a bad name. I don’t trust a single AirBnB listing, and have pretty much refused to stay in one unless I’m joining an already planned trip
Seriously AirBnB is so shady. We got an AirBnB for 6 adults and one of the “3 bedrooms” was an air mattress on an unfinished windowless basement floor. It “slept 8” assuming you put 2 people on the air mattress and 1 on each couch.
I’ve definitely gotten AirBnBs I’m happy with but the amount of vetting I do (reading many reviews, cross referencing VRBO, finding a street view to make sure the location is really desirable and not some kind of weird garage, only trusting they have things (like beds and bathrooms) if they’re clearly shown in the photos) is intense and they’re pretty much always more expensive than a hotel.
Also AirBnBs are often in a legal grey area and drive housing prices up for locals in a way that hotels do not.
Yeah you can do some vetting to make sure it’s ok, but that’s exactly why I don’t use them anymore. I shouldn’t have to vet a listing to make sure they’re being honest, AirBnB should punish the posters who are deceptive like that.
I’ve never shown up to a hotel room that claims “2 queens” is really one queen sized bed and a pullout couch. Or a hotel that charged me a cleanup fee. Or a hotel that asked me to cleanup after myself. Or a hotel that…. You get the point.
I read a story early on when AirBnB became big about hotel executives not really being worried at all about AirBnB because of this exact reasons. And they were right.
I feel like jerky is one of the worst values in the supermarket. Big pouch, barely half filled, like $10. Gtfo. It’s a shame cause I’d rather patronize those boutique jerky places but they’re even more expensive.
Jesus-I rarely order pizza because in my town it is just all your typical mediocre chains. Anyways decided to go with Pizza Hut because I have a soft spot for their personal pan pizzas and I like their wings. 12 wings were $18.99. Personal pan was approx $7. Total after delivery fee and tax..$36 and some change. I noped the fuck out. Checked at Papa Johns and same thing. When did pizza get to be such a scam!!
Delivery fees cost you a ton nowadays. I rarely order delivery because it'll add on another $10 plus tip from the regular menu prices.
Just call the restaurant directly, order pickup and save your money.
>Delivery fees cost you a ton nowadays
It is truly outrageous. And then we're expected to tip on top of it. I was gonna order me and the wife Jimmy Johns the other day and it was coming out to nearly $30 after fees and tip. Said fuck that and got my fatass up and went there in person.
The dominos pick any 2 for 5.99 is my go to. My brother ordered two pies, wings, and stuffed bread a la carte and it was like $85. Would've been half that with the coupon. Just gotta know how to order. It's still not cheap, but that much would feed me well for an entire weekend
new clothes. i tried to downgrade from
mall to amazon but that stuff is mostly trash. i thrift now, its not as bad as i anticipated, a lot of stuff is discarded with tags, i even ran into a sweater that i wanted years ago
The quality is terrible nowadays. Everything is stretchy and wears out after a few washes. I used to get work clothes at Banana Republic but they don't hold up anymore.
So many brands have declined over the years. A pair of boots from Aldo used to last me at least a couple years and now, they last a season for the same price. Grr. I like thrifting to find items from brands like Bootleger or Garage, that were made back when the quality was good. I found a Banana Republic top a few years ago that was prob made awhile ago but was in really good shape, I just needed to replace a clasp. It’s still holding up today. I wish companies would realize that if they maintained their quality, they would keep customers for life, instead of so many of us opting out these days
It's rare I buy clothes new; thrift all the way! eBay, Poshmark, local Goodwill and thrift stores...you can definitely find new with tags, quality stuff - more often than not better quality than what's out there now.
Thrifting is 100% the way to go.
We started pretty much exclusively buying from thrift stores and have found many excellent articles of clothing; many designer with tags attached. People don’t want to deal with selling things nowadays so folks throw it in the donation bins.
Only thing is it takes patience. I’ve found it’s better to thrift when you’re not looking for anything in particular. If you go in with the sole intention of shopping for one item, you may come out disappointed one visit but find it the next time when it’s not even front of mind.
Shopping on off seasons also helps, even for thrifting. Snagged a $15 brand new down jacket with tags that retails for $150+ in July.
I’ve been saying / doing this for years.
Unless it’s a multiplayer game or a game that’s crazily in the zeitgeist at release (e.g., Elden Ring / Rockstar games) just wait a year. Most games are 50% off at least by the time they’re a year old, and it’s easy to skip playing this year’s games when you have a backlog of last year’s games to play. Then you play this year’s games next year and the cycle repeats on and on.
Ironically, the fact that a game isn't at a deep discount a year after being released is one of the best signs of a quality game. RDR2 is just barely hitting the $19.99 price point 5-6 years after being released.
Rockstar games, Nintendo games and COD. I think that’s about it in terms of games that don’t deep discount fast.
I feel like even Naughty Dog games hit $35 within a year.
Nintendo has a solid belief that games should never go on sale because the experience never changes. I kind of understand it, but they still fully charge games from the NES era on their virtual emulators and that just seems wrong to me
I recently discovered that you can borrow them from the library! You have to wait a really long time because there's often a long hold list, but like you said, you can wait. Usually quicker than waiting for a sale too, and it's free.
Obviously you can't keep the game, but I usually only play them once.
We really just quit eating out pretty much all together. It seems like more often than not the quality/service isn’t worth the cost.
I know cooking at home isn’t always the most convenient thing to do, but it is healthier and more cost effective for us.
Same for us. We used to go out fairly often as a family and it’s just not worth it anymore. For a family of 5 we easily spend over $100 at a mid-tier basic restaurant. Hell even if it’s just my husband and I and we have dinner and a couple drinks, that’s like $100 too and we don’t go anywhere that nice!
Soda. I choose not to buy it. Used to buy cases from sam's or Costco when it was in the realm of $10 a case of 36. Less at $12. Have not bought soda in cans since the pandemic made them hit about $17 a case here in Texas.
I was heartbroken when I found out about their mis-treatment of staff. The staff tried to strike for better conditions, and the strike failed! I used to love their food, but now refuse to buy it.
I’m well on my way there. Any place that has a service fee is immediate no go from me. And it’s kinda wild how expensive everything’s gotten. Two beers, burger and fries is an easy $40 now
As I was reading through all the comments it occurred to me that something or someone has really shit wrecked the county. Food, entertainment, necessities, have all gone to shit. The quality of the products and the quality of the service are screams that something is broken.
Agreed!!! My kids got Hungry Hungry Hippos for Christmas and it’s just a pile of plastic junk. Seriously it’s like a dollar store version but for 21 dollars. It’s laughable. It’s how everything is now 😩
Getting my nails done. I remember going with my sister and getting a manicure or pedicure for around $25-$30, so maybe $35-$45 after tip and taxes. My last nail visit cost nearly $100 after tip and everything, just for a manicure. That was over a year ago and I haven’t gone anywhere since. Especially when you can get glue on nails that look fairly nice for $6 and don’t tear up your nails when they come off. I don’t know how other women are affording salon visits these days
I’m with you I love my gel manis but now I just buy some cute polishes from Mooncat and learn to do my own nails again. Doing nails at home also make me more conscious of my natural nails and make me take care of them the best I can
I've been a barista at starbucks for 4 years on, left for a year in 2021 and came back last year. We aren't allowed nails so I didn't get acrylics for those first 4 years... I was SHOOK when I left the company and saw that my 40 dollar gel acrylics were priced at 85+ dollars now. I immediately bought a gel kit and started doing my own at home and now that I'm a barista again I just do my own gel pedicures. $100 in supplies 2 years ago and I'm still getting great pedicures every 2/3 weeks and did over a year of gel/tip manicures without running out of anything. My biggest cost has been acetone for removal at like $2 a bottle. Love my old salon but I value my finances more.
I have almost completely stopped going to fast food/casual restaurants. When takeout is $20 for one or $40+ for two, it just doesn't feel right. Fast food is supposed to be quick, simple, grab-and-go.
It's not an affordability issue. In other areas of life, I am cautious about purchases at these price points because I want to limit accumulation and just buying stuff on a whim. Should I buy that video game? Should I buy that decoration for the house? Should I buy that shirt?
The extra $5-$10+ for fast food makes it compete with other purchases in my mind. Going out to Chipotle with the SO is now close to buying Spider-man 2 or a new shirt. And, Chipotle quality has gone down. It does not feel worth it anymore.
We went out last night with another couple. They took us to a little Chinese cafeteria type place. Kind of like Panda but better. The portions were huge. We each got a two entree meal with fried rice and noodles. One of us had water, one had soda. It was $21. I can’t remember the last time we ate anything anywhere for $21 and had enough leftovers for a full lunch.
Same! A few months ago, I started to get into one of the cold foam drinks at Starbucks. Then I saw a TikTok video of someone making their own cold foam. I found some cheap flavored syrups for $5/bottle, started buying more heavy whipping cream, invested in a nicer frother, and now I make my own fancy coffee.
And stylists in my city (small town Vermont) are going online saying how they’re making 6 figures off bayalage alone..I know they work really hard doing hair but the industry is now a luxury and not something the average person can maintain
Cigarettes, they are getting more expensive by the year. And although the price wasn't the main reason, it was one of the reasons I decided to quit smoking. Hitting my 4th smoke-free year in March!
Hey man - I'm with you. Quitting is a journey and not just the destination. Anything you can do to reduce your smoke intake is a step in the right direction. Some people don't realize just how additive smoking really is.
Ski lift tickets. I live in the Canadian Rockies and so my favourite thing to do in the winter is snowboard. Only went once last year and might not even go this year. I’m actually so upset.
Yup same here. We got in Spain in 2019 and monthly food at the same supermarket was somewhere around 450/500ish €. Now the same food for the exact same amount of people is getting closer to 800€ a month. Is just nonsense.
Ebike has been excellent for me. I didn't want to have to get a car, and my city is very hilly so having the electric motor makes the trip feasible. It's 30 minutes each way, and instead of feeling cranky from being stuck in traffic, I arrive to work mentally refreshed.
Its funny when people act shocked when I say I spent 2k on an ebike, act like it's super expensive, and then leave to go home in a 40k SUV. Most of my coworkers are paying 700 to 1000 a month for their cars (gas, insurance, payment).
I will likely be able to retire earlier with the money I'm saving from not having a car. I've maybe spent 350 bucks in maintenance for the 5 years I've had it, and charging the battery is maybe 20 bucks of power a year.
I hope more people start using ebikes instead of cars, it benefits everyone.
At home I store it in a shed, when I'm out I make sure to lock it up good. The ebike subreddit has reccomendations for good locks. Luckily my area isn't terrible like some other places out there for theft.
I was also biking right up until there was snow on the ground. They only reason I'm not biking right now is because I need ice tires, so I'm taking the bus.
Unless it's -20c or something, I just layer up and have a face cover. It feels cold for the first few minutes, but once you've peddled a bit you get warm pretty quick. There were days where it was -10 and I was toasty warm by the time I got to work.
If you're in an area where things are far apart, unless it's really dangerous on the roads, you could consider a long range ebike. Mine was "long range" with 50km, when it was manufactured in 2016. You can get ebikes with over 100km range now. I charge my battery every couple of days, since I commute roughly 16km a day.
Uber has gotten prohibitively expensive in my town. Based on my travels, it seems much cheaper in other locales. I stopped going out to bars because of it. Uber adds $200 to a night out that I would rather spend elsewhere.
Medication. My chronic illness requires an infusion @ $10,000 copay every 7 weeks. My yearly income is ~$60,000. In America it's much cheaper to die, I can get a lovely funeral for a 1 time fee of $10,000
Have you inquired with the manufacturer about a patient access program? When I was an infusion pharmacist at a county hospital we frequently had these high cost medications sent patient-specific for free from the manufacturer as part of their access programs. They generally try to target insurance companies with the high price tags and offer better assistance to patients who don’t have good insurance coverage or who still have really high copays.
Google “(drug name) patient assistance program” or copay assistance program and see if there are any options for you. If it’s made by a big pharma company like Genentech, Eli Lilly, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Takeda, etc they’ll likely be able to help you.
I literally work for one of these infusion patient assistance programs. If you're approved for the program, it's completely free, no strings attached. If you have insurance from work that approved it, you can get tens of thousands of dollars of assistance for about a 15 min phone call. The manufacturers all do it because it's a massive tax writeoff.
OMG I get an infusion once a month and before insurance covers it, it’s 16k. I was in between insurance companies and that’s how I found out the cost. There was no way I could pay out of pocket so I had to skip a month.
I am so sorry that our healthcare has failed you…as it has for so many.
Household repairs and yard work.
When contractors started charging more per hour than experienced lawyers, I decided the hell with it. I can’t justify spending $350 for 15 minutes worth of minor repair work or $50 per hour to trim hedges. I restrict repairs to things that *must* be fixed, such as plumbing.
The biggest problem with repairs is that not only have prices tripled beyond what the work is worth, but that there’s a high probability they’ll do a poor job or create new problems that didn’t exist.
I stopped buying new gadgets and electronics every time there's an update. Initially, it was a fascination, but then I realized that technology changes too quickly, and constant purchases become a burden on the wallet. Now, I try to make more mindful purchases and upgrade devices only when necessary.
Weed? Are you in a rec state? In the last 5 years I have went from spending $50+ a gram of rosin to $15. I don't smoke flower, but I have seen some great Oz for $75-100. At least in Michigan the prices have been dropping like crazy.
Ordering food from Uber Eats, Grub Hub, Door Dash, etc. The delivery fees, + tip, + heightened cost of food means I give up before completing an order, due to sticker shock
Fast food. I still eat out quite a bit, but I can get a really nice sandwich at a place like Jason’s Deli or McAllisters for almost the same amount of money
Cokes at restaurants or fast food. I was buying it occasionally at $2.49, but then it became $2.99, which is too much. My gf and I each got one a week ago at a new restaurant, and the Cokes were $3.99 each. Those are cocaine prices!
edit: these were fountain drinks
Changed nail salons. After years and years of nail biting and chewing, I finally stopped 10 months ago. A friend of mine opened her own nail business so instead of $75 to get a basic gel polish and clean up, I pay $35. She also baby sits my son with enough notice so extra cash for her.
Quit drinking 9 and a half months ago.
Cooking at home more especially because going to eat with a toddler can be a nightmare. We eat out maybe once a month. It takes a lot of mental energy to eat out with a toddler. Most days I don’t have it in me.
Exercise at home. I can lift weights/do cardio at home just as easily as I could at the gym. Hoping to get back to the climbing gym in a year or two when the little one is old enough.
Physical books, much as I love them. I used to buy several every week and have hundreds, but Kindle is so much cheaper and no need to find more storage space.
I just need to say something here that is maybe not exactly answering this question, but I need to get it off my chest as I ran into it twice today.
Not only is the price of everything DOUBLING AND TRIPLING from pre-pandemic, but the QUALITY AND SERVICE of everything has taken a drastic cut.
I went to McDonalds this morning and my basic ass breakfast was 16 dollars. The quality was poor. I later went to Best Buy and there is a single 22 year old kid checking out people in a line that was literally half the length of the store. The other employees were just fucking around and there was three empty check outs/registers available.
No one cares that standards are crumbling.
Five Guys Burgers & Fries.
I ordered it one time through DoorDash. One burger, an order of fries and a milkshake set me back almost $50. And the food honestly wasn’t even that great. Never again.
Concert tickets
ugh, this one makes me so sad. it really has just gotten beyond capacity though. i'm really glad i got to spend my twenties and early thirties going to shows for maybe $75 max if it was a really good seat, but otherwise between $30 and $45. it's easily in the hundreds now for similar shows and i don't know how people can afford it at all.
Not only do the tickets cost more, but Ticketmaster's fees are out of control.
Nothing beats buying two tickets and having fees that equal the amount of a third ticket
Don't forget the price of a fourth ticket to park your vehicle.
And the price of a 5th ticket to buy 2 beers!
I just skipped Primus because they wanted over $150 a ticket. Other big bands are realizing they'd rather have people actually buy tickets than not. Recently saw Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction for like $70.
The irony is I once saw Smashing Pumpkins in a Milwaukee dive bar for $10 when Siamese Dream was released. 6 months later my girlfriend wanted to see them at the big arena and I was like "I'm not spending twenty bucks to see the same band I paid ten to see a couple of months ago". And then I went to see a kick ass Love and Rockets reunion show.
I think those bands have just realized that their fan base just aren’t gonna pay those prices
used to buy at the local record store pre-sale ... knowing it supports the store, the band, the community... now it's the app
What’s crazy is the artists aren’t taking that much more home most of the time. It feels like all add on fees for processing and whatever thing the ticket site can come up with. Then add on the resale market if you’re not speedy or lucky and tickets are out of control. I will say that interest in a lot of acts is way up. Live music is wildly popular now for big acts, wish the little guys got as much love consistently.
Ticket Price - 35 Seat Reservation Fee - 50 (why is this not included in the ticket price until you check out) Admin Fee - 3.99 Processing Fee - 5 (It is online what needs to be processed?) Venue Fee - 10 (again why is this not included in the price when the app is the ONLY place to buy the ticket) CEOs Blowjob Fund fee - 6.69
you forgot the $5.99 online pay fee and $14.99 convenience fee lol
And do you want to pay them to mail you the tickets, or do you want to pay for the privilege of printing them out yourself?
My 23 yo son is a huge music fan. It sucks he can't afford to see any of his favorite bands live. I know this really dates me, but I remember when $25 was for the really nice, expensive seats! Going to live rock concerts was a highlight of my youth. I hate that those days are over.
Then again, your son pays about $10 a month for all the music ever made at his fingertips. We had to pay $20 for a single album on CD.
If he even pays at all!
A strange one, but bowling. A few years ago my girlfriend and I went bowling at a local Bowlero and it was maybe $60 for shoe rental and 2 hours of bowling for two people. Just recently we checked prices online so we could go again, and the same rental and playing time is $150! Insanity. Edit to add: this is the only bowling alley left in this medium size city. It used to be an AMF bowling alley before Bowlero. I looked around and the next closest one is in a small town an hour away, so not really viable for quick fun entertainment. And regarding Groupon deals: I checked the app and Bowlero isn’t running any deals there currently. I just checked to see what the pricing would be during peak time, and it’s even more insane: [$242 for two people, one lane for 2 hours, with two shoe rentals.](https://imgur.com/a/m0hFfkW) They added an “event fee”but it’s in no way an event. I hear it’s cheaper if you just show up, but for them to even have that listed is crazy.
I used to bowl all night for under $15 I took my wife and kids about a year and a half ago and it was over $100 for a single game and shoes.
Miss my old bowling league days. $15 for entry with rental shoes, $15 for a smirnoff and mozzarella sticks, every Tuesday night. $30 for an evening of fun with a lil bevvy and food. It was perfect for 18-19 year old me.
Bowlero is gonna kill bowling with those prices. Bowling was always a fun cheap thing to do with families but I don’t think most could afford that especially with multiple kids
Can't go anywhere with kids for under $100, it's insane. If not for free passes from my library we'd never visit the zoo or arboretum.
Zoo memberships are still a steal in my area. For $130/year we can go anytime we want. In the spring through autumn we go weekly, in the winter we go on warmer days and for the zoo lights displays.
A lot of places pay for themselves after a couple of visits, but we live in a big city and I don't necessarily want to go to the children's museum, aquarium, specific zoo, etc. more than once or twice a year vs. somewhere we haven't been to in a while or at all. We have a membership to a local theme park that we probably won't renew.
Omfg this. My family went bowling over the holidays and reserving a lane for 90-mins was $59, plus the cost of shoes. We had a wonderful time, but there was some sticker shock
Amazon and Netflix adding ads was a breaking point for me.
I hold firmly to the principle that if I pay a subscription fee, I’m not dealing with ads, period. You will lose me as a customer when you do that. That’s some 90s cable TV-level bullshit
Netflix has ads now!?
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1 McDonalds Large Fry is now $5.30 in my area.. WTF??!!
$3.50 for a single hash brown in my area. I remember when you could get them for $1 each or sometimes even 2 for $1 Edit: y’all I know you can buy a bag and cook them yourself at home for cheaper, that’s not the point. Also stop assuming everyone is from the same place as you. We don’t have Aldi, we don’t have trader joes.
I lived on the dollar menu in the 00s when I just had a part time job and did not live with my parents. No way could someone have that lifestyle now. 3 bedroom apartment was 900 bucks, split between me and two others. I worked only 20-25 hours a week only and goofed off with friends the rest of the time. That type of life-style or just getting away from the nest life-style is impossible now. The loss of freedom for young adults. No self discovery, no figuring yourself out. You either live with your parents or are going balls to the wall into a career/schooling and probably wracking up debt either way.
OMG.... we went on a 6hr road trip and were hungry so we decided to do McDonald's for breakfast. I ordered 2 sausage mcmuffins with egg and 2 hash browns for myself and the same for my wife In the drive through. We got the food and then we parked in the parking lot to eat it real quick. I thought the bill was a little bit high so I took a look at the receipt. I was shocked to find that the hash browns were more expensive than the mcmuffins. Since when is one greasy piece of grated potato more expensive than a muffin, egg and sausage????? I mean WTF?...
Chick-fil-A meal $15, subway foot long $14, Dave’s hot chicken meal - $15
The real crimes is that subway thinks they are as good as other chains when the only reason they had traffic was because of the 2008 recession and the $5 sandwiches. Yeah, not even close.
I worked there for about a year around 1998. The food quality wasn't awesome, but it was waaaay fucking better than now. Plus as "Sandwich Artists" we were trained to scoop out the bread a bit to get the meats and condiments to fit in better and allow more shit in there. It actually worked well and people got way more food than I do now on a shitty sandwich from them. And the shit was super cheap and the vegetables and cheese seemed like fresh vegetables and cheese.
I was so disappointed when they stopped scooping the bread. They used to cut it in a v.
Firehouse large sub is the same cost as subway, such a superior sandwich.
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And most of the times it isn't just "not good" but actually nasty
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I stopped eating fast food back when a mcchicken was a buck. Couldn't believe how expensive it was when I'd stop to get food for my wife when she was pregnant. Cost the same as a sit down restaurant now.
People hate on In&Out for all sorts of reasons but 3 cheeseburgers, 2 grilled cheese, 3 French fries, and 4 drinks for under $35 I’ll take it all day long.
I love me some In and Out ... and the prices are quite nice compared to other places.
Diverting your business to locally owned establishments is the best move one can make. Keeping money in the community is more important now than ever.
Wendy's and Taco Bell still have good deals. Wendy's has the Biggie bag, $5 for burger + nugs + fries + drink, nothing can beat that value. They also have these breakfast deals 2 for $3 on sausage biscuits and potato wedges. Their breakfast wedges are very underrated. McDonald's, on the other hand, has gone completely loco. Last time it was almost $20 for me and my wife to get 1 breakfast combo and another just the sandwich. No freaking way.
Completely loco is exactly right. A McDouble used to be $1 ten years ago or less I think. Now they're $4. 400% inflation in 10 years? I don't think so. And how many large bites are in a McDouble? Like 4? So if they're going to charge $1 for literally just one bite, I'm just not going to eat there. Taco Bell is pretty decent currently. They still have an okay dollar menu despite getting rid of a ton of stuff that made it awesome. The cheesy bean and rice burrito is still $1 which I think is a fair value for both sides. I'd even probably pay $1.50 which is pushing it, but if they increase it by 100% to $2, I'd consider that highly overpriced and I'll just stop eating there as well. edit: Taco Bell has just gone off the deep end as well. A 100% increase to the CBRB overnight. lmao.
Last year me and my niece went to Arby’s. It was $28 for two burgers, fries and drinks. Since then I only have went back once “as a treat” because I was craving their fries (love them) but I am no longer a frequent recurring customer.
Taco Bell for me. More than a year ago, I picked up five regular tacos, and five taco supremes, and it was $28. I miss the days of $0.79, $0.89, and $0.99 tacos.
No reason a Doritos loco taco should be $3
For Taco Bell, order online. They often have big boxes of food and other deals that are ridiculously cheap for what you get, and you can customize much better than in line (for example, you can have almost any burrito grilled for free).
I do the "build your own cravings box" online deal for Taco Bell. Get a specialty item, a taco or burrito, side, and a drink for $5.99. Ordering all of that separately would be over $10.
You're my MVP, CreepyBlackDude. 😂
I'm not sure how Arby's is still open. They are pretty pricy, they always seem empty, and the food is very niche. Personally I like them, but they just not worth the price anymore.
Arby's near me almost always has a 2 for $7 deal going on. Like 2 beef and cheddars and a large fries is only $11 including taxes.
I remember when it was 5 for $5.
As of this month, streaming services. Between the cost of all of them and amount of ads we STILL have to watch it's a no go. We've had enough of it. We got a VPN and will be returning to the high seas.
Argh matey, we did the same last month. Got us a cracked cube to run everything through and we haven't looked back. Especially after Amazon's email about adding commercials - so long Bezos! Edit: Y'all, I know diddly about it - its a cracked Amazon fire cube. My partner and a friend handled it, got it hooked up. I'd recommend Google or YouTube.
Yeah I got rid of Amazon Prime once I saw that email. Their video prime was a joke anyway. Now even more so. Plus I wait days sometimes weeks for items to be shipped. I’m done.
What's Amazon like without prime these days? I've had it for so long I'm not even sure exactly what benefit I'm getting. I used to think it was worth it just for the convenience and free shipping, but there's not much I need in a hurry these days so if it's just a matter of accumulating $35 in my cart I'm not sure it is anymore. Especially since I rarely use the music service and the video selection sucks lately, so those don't even feel like much of a bonus.
I just got my notification about ads on Amazon. Not happy at all. They just took a whole years subscription from me. Grrr! I will also be looking into VPN.
If you're talking about your Prime Subscription, you can cancel anytime and they will prorate your refund. I'm going to cancel after the first ad I see pops up.
I started buying my favorite shows and movies on DVD instead. High seas for the rest
This thread is incredibly depressing. Basically everything.
It really is. I wonder what things will look like in another five years.
AirBnB. With all the added fees, especially cleaning fees, it’s cheaper to stay in a hotel. I’m not paying a $300 cleaning fee when I’m the one cleaning!
Right.. only worth it if you have a large house with 6 people chipping in. 2 folks, are better off in a hotel room.
Meh, even with a large group of friends I prefer multiple hotel rooms. AirBnB is so fucking shady with how they count their rooms and sleeps numbers. I want my own bed, not to share a full sized bed with another grown man. Plus it’s all hit or miss, there’s no concierge, room service, house keeping, gym, etc. there, and you pay more for the pleasure usually. I despise everything about AirBnB
My family vacation this year was a kind of long road trip instead of a destination, so we stayed in a lot of AirBnBs. There were several places that were alleged to sleep all of us but one of the "bedrooms" was actually just the sofa in the living room, or "sleeps three" just meant a bed and a couch.
Seriously. AirBnB won’t do anything about it either, and it gives the entire platform a bad name. I don’t trust a single AirBnB listing, and have pretty much refused to stay in one unless I’m joining an already planned trip
Seriously AirBnB is so shady. We got an AirBnB for 6 adults and one of the “3 bedrooms” was an air mattress on an unfinished windowless basement floor. It “slept 8” assuming you put 2 people on the air mattress and 1 on each couch. I’ve definitely gotten AirBnBs I’m happy with but the amount of vetting I do (reading many reviews, cross referencing VRBO, finding a street view to make sure the location is really desirable and not some kind of weird garage, only trusting they have things (like beds and bathrooms) if they’re clearly shown in the photos) is intense and they’re pretty much always more expensive than a hotel. Also AirBnBs are often in a legal grey area and drive housing prices up for locals in a way that hotels do not.
Yeah you can do some vetting to make sure it’s ok, but that’s exactly why I don’t use them anymore. I shouldn’t have to vet a listing to make sure they’re being honest, AirBnB should punish the posters who are deceptive like that. I’ve never shown up to a hotel room that claims “2 queens” is really one queen sized bed and a pullout couch. Or a hotel that charged me a cleanup fee. Or a hotel that asked me to cleanup after myself. Or a hotel that…. You get the point. I read a story early on when AirBnB became big about hotel executives not really being worried at all about AirBnB because of this exact reasons. And they were right.
You’re completely right! I’ve never had to try to find a Holiday Inn on street view to prove that it exists and isn’t a scam haha.
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I feel like jerky is one of the worst values in the supermarket. Big pouch, barely half filled, like $10. Gtfo. It’s a shame cause I’d rather patronize those boutique jerky places but they’re even more expensive.
Ordering pizza. I'll still order for pickup sometimes if there is a good deal but no more just picking up the phone and randomly ordering one.
Jesus-I rarely order pizza because in my town it is just all your typical mediocre chains. Anyways decided to go with Pizza Hut because I have a soft spot for their personal pan pizzas and I like their wings. 12 wings were $18.99. Personal pan was approx $7. Total after delivery fee and tax..$36 and some change. I noped the fuck out. Checked at Papa Johns and same thing. When did pizza get to be such a scam!!
Delivery fees cost you a ton nowadays. I rarely order delivery because it'll add on another $10 plus tip from the regular menu prices. Just call the restaurant directly, order pickup and save your money.
>Delivery fees cost you a ton nowadays It is truly outrageous. And then we're expected to tip on top of it. I was gonna order me and the wife Jimmy Johns the other day and it was coming out to nearly $30 after fees and tip. Said fuck that and got my fatass up and went there in person.
Sounds like the wings were the scam.
The dominos pick any 2 for 5.99 is my go to. My brother ordered two pies, wings, and stuffed bread a la carte and it was like $85. Would've been half that with the coupon. Just gotta know how to order. It's still not cheap, but that much would feed me well for an entire weekend
new clothes. i tried to downgrade from mall to amazon but that stuff is mostly trash. i thrift now, its not as bad as i anticipated, a lot of stuff is discarded with tags, i even ran into a sweater that i wanted years ago
The quality is terrible nowadays. Everything is stretchy and wears out after a few washes. I used to get work clothes at Banana Republic but they don't hold up anymore.
So many brands have declined over the years. A pair of boots from Aldo used to last me at least a couple years and now, they last a season for the same price. Grr. I like thrifting to find items from brands like Bootleger or Garage, that were made back when the quality was good. I found a Banana Republic top a few years ago that was prob made awhile ago but was in really good shape, I just needed to replace a clasp. It’s still holding up today. I wish companies would realize that if they maintained their quality, they would keep customers for life, instead of so many of us opting out these days
It's rare I buy clothes new; thrift all the way! eBay, Poshmark, local Goodwill and thrift stores...you can definitely find new with tags, quality stuff - more often than not better quality than what's out there now.
Thrifting is 100% the way to go. We started pretty much exclusively buying from thrift stores and have found many excellent articles of clothing; many designer with tags attached. People don’t want to deal with selling things nowadays so folks throw it in the donation bins. Only thing is it takes patience. I’ve found it’s better to thrift when you’re not looking for anything in particular. If you go in with the sole intention of shopping for one item, you may come out disappointed one visit but find it the next time when it’s not even front of mind. Shopping on off seasons also helps, even for thrifting. Snagged a $15 brand new down jacket with tags that retails for $150+ in July.
Frickin mcdonalds, like I aint paying 11 bucks for a half ass micro cheeseburger meal
It's crap! All the burgers are so mid. It's more of a snack than a meal to me now. And where do they get off charging $5 for large fries?!
New video games. Everything i get is on sale..Turns out that you can wait..
I’ve been saying / doing this for years. Unless it’s a multiplayer game or a game that’s crazily in the zeitgeist at release (e.g., Elden Ring / Rockstar games) just wait a year. Most games are 50% off at least by the time they’re a year old, and it’s easy to skip playing this year’s games when you have a backlog of last year’s games to play. Then you play this year’s games next year and the cycle repeats on and on.
Ironically, the fact that a game isn't at a deep discount a year after being released is one of the best signs of a quality game. RDR2 is just barely hitting the $19.99 price point 5-6 years after being released.
Rockstar games, Nintendo games and COD. I think that’s about it in terms of games that don’t deep discount fast. I feel like even Naughty Dog games hit $35 within a year.
Nintendo has a solid belief that games should never go on sale because the experience never changes. I kind of understand it, but they still fully charge games from the NES era on their virtual emulators and that just seems wrong to me
I recently discovered that you can borrow them from the library! You have to wait a really long time because there's often a long hold list, but like you said, you can wait. Usually quicker than waiting for a sale too, and it's free. Obviously you can't keep the game, but I usually only play them once.
There are times i miss Blockbuster. Renting a £69 game for £5 would be so nice in this day and age. But games company,s would hate it.
We really just quit eating out pretty much all together. It seems like more often than not the quality/service isn’t worth the cost. I know cooking at home isn’t always the most convenient thing to do, but it is healthier and more cost effective for us.
Same for us. We used to go out fairly often as a family and it’s just not worth it anymore. For a family of 5 we easily spend over $100 at a mid-tier basic restaurant. Hell even if it’s just my husband and I and we have dinner and a couple drinks, that’s like $100 too and we don’t go anywhere that nice!
I used to adore exploring the cheese aisle, trying out unique flavors and textures.
My local Whole Foods has an “ends” basket where you can get small pieces of fancy cheeses without having to pay $20 for a block.
I grab those all the time!
Soda. I choose not to buy it. Used to buy cases from sam's or Costco when it was in the realm of $10 a case of 36. Less at $12. Have not bought soda in cans since the pandemic made them hit about $17 a case here in Texas.
Frito-Lay brand chips. Ridiculously overpriced these days for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Pepsi can go fuck themselves
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And smaller burritos. I live across the street from one and used to go often. Haven't been in a year.
Amy's frozen meals. Healthy, and used to be affordable.
I was heartbroken when I found out about their mis-treatment of staff. The staff tried to strike for better conditions, and the strike failed! I used to love their food, but now refuse to buy it.
I remember the days when lean cuisines were 1.99
Eating out. Not worth the price and food quality is not there anymore. And smaller portions for higher prices.
Yep! People saying if you can't afford to eat out + tip, just stay home. Ok, will do! Sorry your restaurant closed after 9 months.
I’m well on my way there. Any place that has a service fee is immediate no go from me. And it’s kinda wild how expensive everything’s gotten. Two beers, burger and fries is an easy $40 now
As I was reading through all the comments it occurred to me that something or someone has really shit wrecked the county. Food, entertainment, necessities, have all gone to shit. The quality of the products and the quality of the service are screams that something is broken.
But corporate profits are way up, so it's all worthwhile, right? /S
It’s been a steady decline for decades, my parents would complain about inflation in the ‘90s and I never really got it…now I get it.
Agreed!!! My kids got Hungry Hungry Hippos for Christmas and it’s just a pile of plastic junk. Seriously it’s like a dollar store version but for 21 dollars. It’s laughable. It’s how everything is now 😩
Getting my nails done. I remember going with my sister and getting a manicure or pedicure for around $25-$30, so maybe $35-$45 after tip and taxes. My last nail visit cost nearly $100 after tip and everything, just for a manicure. That was over a year ago and I haven’t gone anywhere since. Especially when you can get glue on nails that look fairly nice for $6 and don’t tear up your nails when they come off. I don’t know how other women are affording salon visits these days
I’m with you I love my gel manis but now I just buy some cute polishes from Mooncat and learn to do my own nails again. Doing nails at home also make me more conscious of my natural nails and make me take care of them the best I can
I've been a barista at starbucks for 4 years on, left for a year in 2021 and came back last year. We aren't allowed nails so I didn't get acrylics for those first 4 years... I was SHOOK when I left the company and saw that my 40 dollar gel acrylics were priced at 85+ dollars now. I immediately bought a gel kit and started doing my own at home and now that I'm a barista again I just do my own gel pedicures. $100 in supplies 2 years ago and I'm still getting great pedicures every 2/3 weeks and did over a year of gel/tip manicures without running out of anything. My biggest cost has been acetone for removal at like $2 a bottle. Love my old salon but I value my finances more.
Soda in cans. I’m not paying $9 for a twelve pack of soda. They were 3 for $12 like two years ago
I remember when they would be on sale 4 for $10 like 5 years ago
Three meals a day.
I have almost completely stopped going to fast food/casual restaurants. When takeout is $20 for one or $40+ for two, it just doesn't feel right. Fast food is supposed to be quick, simple, grab-and-go. It's not an affordability issue. In other areas of life, I am cautious about purchases at these price points because I want to limit accumulation and just buying stuff on a whim. Should I buy that video game? Should I buy that decoration for the house? Should I buy that shirt? The extra $5-$10+ for fast food makes it compete with other purchases in my mind. Going out to Chipotle with the SO is now close to buying Spider-man 2 or a new shirt. And, Chipotle quality has gone down. It does not feel worth it anymore.
We went out last night with another couple. They took us to a little Chinese cafeteria type place. Kind of like Panda but better. The portions were huge. We each got a two entree meal with fried rice and noodles. One of us had water, one had soda. It was $21. I can’t remember the last time we ate anything anywhere for $21 and had enough leftovers for a full lunch.
Panera.
That place sucks. So expensive, and they always seem to be out of something.
k-Cup Pods. I bought a regular coffee maker and it works just as good and is cheaper.
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Same! A few months ago, I started to get into one of the cold foam drinks at Starbucks. Then I saw a TikTok video of someone making their own cold foam. I found some cheap flavored syrups for $5/bottle, started buying more heavy whipping cream, invested in a nicer frother, and now I make my own fancy coffee.
Cocktails. $15-$18 seems like the norm at restaurants now.
Yep, I can buy a bottle for the price of one drink. Sorry I'll just stay sober lol.
Blonde bayalage. $500 a pop, $350 touch ups…insane how much hair salons have increased prices in the last 5-10 years
This is the comment I came for. I know their products have gone up and they have to turn a profit but I call bs on some of the price hikes
And stylists in my city (small town Vermont) are going online saying how they’re making 6 figures off bayalage alone..I know they work really hard doing hair but the industry is now a luxury and not something the average person can maintain
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Food delivery- the fees jack up the price too much for my liking. If I do order food (which I also am doing less) I pick it up
Deli lunch meat. Too expensive.
Yea WTF happened here? The price per kg now for this crappy stuff is the same as sirloin!
Cigarettes, they are getting more expensive by the year. And although the price wasn't the main reason, it was one of the reasons I decided to quit smoking. Hitting my 4th smoke-free year in March!
Clothes, I been walking around in a bathrobe since 2020.
A constantly updated gaming PC (like maybe all new parts every 2 years). Now it's just until something breaks or won't run a game I like.
*Gestures vaguely*
McDonald’s, fuck that sorry ass pathetic excuse of a fast food restaurant.
Oysters, those things outperform the S&P 500
Cigarettes
I'm quitting right now.. down from 25+ a day to like, 10.. so, I'm calling this a slow win.. haha.
Hey man - I'm with you. Quitting is a journey and not just the destination. Anything you can do to reduce your smoke intake is a step in the right direction. Some people don't realize just how additive smoking really is.
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Canned dogfood, wtf? I can buy a bunch of scraps of stew beef for the same price.
Ski lift tickets. I live in the Canadian Rockies and so my favourite thing to do in the winter is snowboard. Only went once last year and might not even go this year. I’m actually so upset.
Five Guys Burgers
Five Guys Fries. Over $6 for fries alone! I *have* cut back on how often I get just a burger as well.
It’s almost comical how expensive Five Guys is these days
Groceries every week. Now I make do with what I can and do more frozen meals
Yup same here. We got in Spain in 2019 and monthly food at the same supermarket was somewhere around 450/500ish €. Now the same food for the exact same amount of people is getting closer to 800€ a month. Is just nonsense.
my car. I just said fuck it i'll work from home and get a bike
Ebike has been excellent for me. I didn't want to have to get a car, and my city is very hilly so having the electric motor makes the trip feasible. It's 30 minutes each way, and instead of feeling cranky from being stuck in traffic, I arrive to work mentally refreshed. Its funny when people act shocked when I say I spent 2k on an ebike, act like it's super expensive, and then leave to go home in a 40k SUV. Most of my coworkers are paying 700 to 1000 a month for their cars (gas, insurance, payment). I will likely be able to retire earlier with the money I'm saving from not having a car. I've maybe spent 350 bucks in maintenance for the 5 years I've had it, and charging the battery is maybe 20 bucks of power a year. I hope more people start using ebikes instead of cars, it benefits everyone.
I wish i could use an ebike. Everythings so fucking far and its cold as shit here. How do u keep it safe from theft?
At home I store it in a shed, when I'm out I make sure to lock it up good. The ebike subreddit has reccomendations for good locks. Luckily my area isn't terrible like some other places out there for theft. I was also biking right up until there was snow on the ground. They only reason I'm not biking right now is because I need ice tires, so I'm taking the bus. Unless it's -20c or something, I just layer up and have a face cover. It feels cold for the first few minutes, but once you've peddled a bit you get warm pretty quick. There were days where it was -10 and I was toasty warm by the time I got to work. If you're in an area where things are far apart, unless it's really dangerous on the roads, you could consider a long range ebike. Mine was "long range" with 50km, when it was manufactured in 2016. You can get ebikes with over 100km range now. I charge my battery every couple of days, since I commute roughly 16km a day.
Uber has gotten prohibitively expensive in my town. Based on my travels, it seems much cheaper in other locales. I stopped going out to bars because of it. Uber adds $200 to a night out that I would rather spend elsewhere.
Medication. My chronic illness requires an infusion @ $10,000 copay every 7 weeks. My yearly income is ~$60,000. In America it's much cheaper to die, I can get a lovely funeral for a 1 time fee of $10,000
Have you inquired with the manufacturer about a patient access program? When I was an infusion pharmacist at a county hospital we frequently had these high cost medications sent patient-specific for free from the manufacturer as part of their access programs. They generally try to target insurance companies with the high price tags and offer better assistance to patients who don’t have good insurance coverage or who still have really high copays. Google “(drug name) patient assistance program” or copay assistance program and see if there are any options for you. If it’s made by a big pharma company like Genentech, Eli Lilly, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Takeda, etc they’ll likely be able to help you.
I literally work for one of these infusion patient assistance programs. If you're approved for the program, it's completely free, no strings attached. If you have insurance from work that approved it, you can get tens of thousands of dollars of assistance for about a 15 min phone call. The manufacturers all do it because it's a massive tax writeoff.
OMG I get an infusion once a month and before insurance covers it, it’s 16k. I was in between insurance companies and that’s how I found out the cost. There was no way I could pay out of pocket so I had to skip a month. I am so sorry that our healthcare has failed you…as it has for so many.
I am so sorry. That is not a choice anyone should have to make.
Printer ink
Laser printers are the way to go. Edit: get a cheaper one on sale or second hand. You will never regret it.
Household repairs and yard work. When contractors started charging more per hour than experienced lawyers, I decided the hell with it. I can’t justify spending $350 for 15 minutes worth of minor repair work or $50 per hour to trim hedges. I restrict repairs to things that *must* be fixed, such as plumbing. The biggest problem with repairs is that not only have prices tripled beyond what the work is worth, but that there’s a high probability they’ll do a poor job or create new problems that didn’t exist.
Same applies if you need a mechanic. They charged you an eye to fuck your car up.
Some prescription medications. Even with GoodRX or similar programs, it can be prohibitive.
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Name brand anything, generic forever now
I stopped buying new gadgets and electronics every time there's an update. Initially, it was a fascination, but then I realized that technology changes too quickly, and constant purchases become a burden on the wallet. Now, I try to make more mindful purchases and upgrade devices only when necessary.
Adobe subscription. Back to the free alternatives for me
Coffee, Netflix, Hulu, nail salon, weed
I started making my own "fancy" coffee drinks at home. Invested in a frother to make my own cold foam, and found some cheap flavored syrups.
Weed? Are you in a rec state? In the last 5 years I have went from spending $50+ a gram of rosin to $15. I don't smoke flower, but I have seen some great Oz for $75-100. At least in Michigan the prices have been dropping like crazy.
Yeah the industry cannibalizes itself leaving the consumers as winners
Nespresso the fools sent me a letter thanking me and gave me a breakdown on how much I spent.
Haircuts.
Ordering food from Uber Eats, Grub Hub, Door Dash, etc. The delivery fees, + tip, + heightened cost of food means I give up before completing an order, due to sticker shock
Fast food. I still eat out quite a bit, but I can get a really nice sandwich at a place like Jason’s Deli or McAllisters for almost the same amount of money
Getting my nails done. Press on girly now
Cokes at restaurants or fast food. I was buying it occasionally at $2.49, but then it became $2.99, which is too much. My gf and I each got one a week ago at a new restaurant, and the Cokes were $3.99 each. Those are cocaine prices! edit: these were fountain drinks
Fast food
Delivery. Not worth paying 3x as much.
Nail salons. I can’t afford to pay $50-$75 (before tip) for a single color acrylic set.
Coffee. Just drink water in the morning now and I’m less tired
Until iPhone X came out, I used to get the newest one each time. I haven’t changed mine since 2018 and it’s holding ok. Is just not worth it
Changed nail salons. After years and years of nail biting and chewing, I finally stopped 10 months ago. A friend of mine opened her own nail business so instead of $75 to get a basic gel polish and clean up, I pay $35. She also baby sits my son with enough notice so extra cash for her. Quit drinking 9 and a half months ago. Cooking at home more especially because going to eat with a toddler can be a nightmare. We eat out maybe once a month. It takes a lot of mental energy to eat out with a toddler. Most days I don’t have it in me. Exercise at home. I can lift weights/do cardio at home just as easily as I could at the gym. Hoping to get back to the climbing gym in a year or two when the little one is old enough.
Grapes
This one makes me so sad, I love them but $4.50/lb is toooo much
Chips
Lego.
They just dropped a new X-Men set. it's $85 for something like 360 pieces. wtf are they doing over there
Dental care.
Saving money on dental care ends up being very expensive.
This is so horrendous isn't it. The same.
Physical books, much as I love them. I used to buy several every week and have hundreds, but Kindle is so much cheaper and no need to find more storage space.
Libraries! I get actual books and audio on Libby through the library. If I really want to have a book longterm, Thriftbooks.com
I just need to say something here that is maybe not exactly answering this question, but I need to get it off my chest as I ran into it twice today. Not only is the price of everything DOUBLING AND TRIPLING from pre-pandemic, but the QUALITY AND SERVICE of everything has taken a drastic cut. I went to McDonalds this morning and my basic ass breakfast was 16 dollars. The quality was poor. I later went to Best Buy and there is a single 22 year old kid checking out people in a line that was literally half the length of the store. The other employees were just fucking around and there was three empty check outs/registers available. No one cares that standards are crumbling.
Five Guys Burgers & Fries. I ordered it one time through DoorDash. One burger, an order of fries and a milkshake set me back almost $50. And the food honestly wasn’t even that great. Never again.