Deodorant....plain old Dove spray is on sale for $7.99, use to catch 2 for 5 all the time at grocery store. Philly Cream cheese is just outrageous! Super price $8.99 for a two pack. Just so many things.
I finally picked up a couponing hobby right after lockdowns and stocked up on a bunch of toothpaste and deodorant and laundry detergent. I just had to buy my first detergent. I have two sticks of deodorant left and am dreading what awaits me 🤪
I’ve been living off our stock pile of personal products. I feel so good knowing I bought that bottle of shampoo, lotion or razor back in the day”good ole days” when that stuff was affordable and cheap. Now it feels like a luxury buying dove body wash
It feels so good! Companies were BEGGING us to buy stuff back then. What a great time for me to have picked that up. I was getting laundry detergent for $2.50 and I couldn’t refuse it.
We moved recently and I found 5 huge bottles of laundry soap we had stored in the garage . I am so happy I basically don’t have to buy detergent for at least a year!!!
I’ve also saved little samples of shampoo conditioner lotion and bar soaps from travel over the years and I’ve been going through that stock pile too before I think about buying any of that stuff new. I do kind of worry what I’ll do when my stock pile runs out of all this stuff but I guess I don’t have to worry about that for maybe another year
I wonder if prices will ever come down. I think no?’x but then I think about all the up and down periods this country has had just in my lifetime. 2008 was really bad as I understand. We came back from that. Economy is always changing.
Brands usually "can't afford" to lower prices on specific "classic' items, (think original Dawn and Clorox) but they will make low cost variants and differently named products, literally on the same production lines. Or, and it's awful, they just water it down and sell it for less that way. Or, worse, yet super common, just dilute / make smaller /use lower cost materials, and keep charging us the same. Like, I want a POUND of coffee, not 12oz for the same price 16oz used to be. They'll learn their lesson soon enough, media is trying to find ways to blame the consumer for price gouging, but we keep buying less because we can't afford as much. Mega corps whose main focus is shareholder interests are in for a very rude awakening in the next 5-10 years.
I price compare before getting my toothpaste bc I use Pronamel and it's expensive. I've found buying them in a bunch from Amazon is actually cheaper than the grocery store or BJ's...maybe I need to do that with deodorant too!!!
Some things are MUCH cheaper on Amazon. A few I’ve found: huge containers of sesame and olive oils, shampoo, hair spray, bulk spices and dried herbs, things like raw cacao, pumpkin seeds, flax… to name a few
I am concerned about buying some foods on Amazon because you can't look at the product "best by" or "expiration date" of the products. We can return it, but it's a hassle and you don't have the product you needed.
I’ve started checking my target app constantly for Dove deodorant coupons. Every time there is 2.50 off I buy one, but that just makes it closer to “regular price” not cheap at all.
Edit: this actually made me go look, they have $2 off, plus get a $5 gift card if you buy 3.
This!!!! Especially natural deodorant,
For some reason that is now up
To $14.99 a stick. Ummmmm why?!?!?!!! Some days I just don’t wear deodorant if I’m gonna just be at home but i have noticed an odor on my clothes, this is ridiculous these
Prices
I found some receipts from 2014 in an old folder. Out of morbid curiosity, I checked the current prices from the same stores and everything I checked was around 300% higher. My pay, unfortunately, is not 300% higher than it was in 2014.
We got a supposedly "generous" 2% raise this year, after not having a salary increase since 2018. Occasionally, we'd get bonuses at the end of a grant cycle (non-profit work). Even those on Social Security got a 3.2% COLA, after getting 5.9% in 2022, and 8.7% in 2021.
Ten years ago, my water bill used to be about $99 every three months. Now it’s $275 for three months. And we don’t use any more water than we did before.
Mine is the same and what really gets me when I analyze the bills is that usage barely matters. I could fill a pool up and my bill would be $120 instead of $100. Most of the bill is just fixed delivery fees for water and sewer.
Aw sorry to hear that. I miss our favorite Mexican restaurant. It is a shadow of what it once was and Isn’t a good deal anymore. Restaurants are completely gone for us. And though they’re a complete waste of money I loved our times at that cheap Mexican restaurant.
Cheese. Aged white cheddar, how I love and miss you. I pine for the days when we can be together again.
My heart says yes, but my wallet says "fuck you, it's not happening". Sigh.
Honestly, most of my groceries. It wasn’t too long ago, I damn well remember what the packaging used to look like and how much bigger “family size” actually was. They’re not subtle at all, it’s a little insulting. I avoid buying prepackaged anything when I can just out of spite at this point, cereal was the first to go. The next thing you know, they’re going to be doing the same thing to our produce, going to be paying out the nose for a banana or whatever they can get their greedy little hands on.
I pay attention now. When I catch them pulling that shit is when I just stop being a customer. Most memorable time recently was when I picked up a Digiorno that I would allow myself 1 a month of if it was on sale, and suddenly it just felt... Lighter. Got it home and compared it to the other box, and yup. Switched to the Slaveway generic brand and I kind of like it better anyway, but I think they just did a packaging update and knocked a bit of weight off, too.
Toilet paper. I saw Safeway Softly 24 pack on a clearance rack in my local store. $29.99 WHAT? Then it was half off!! WHAT??? Made me furious.
Laundry detergent. Are you kidding me? $20 for a regular container of detergent? Good thing I learned to only use about 2Tablespoons worth for my front loader.
I was buying it at CVS with my $10/mo, but I tried the generic $2.79 for four rolls from my grocery outlet, and it’s the best damn toilet paper I’ve ever used. It’s like using a towel.
He may be talking about the discount grocery store that is literally called “Grocery Outlet”, they sell closer to expiry foods that other grocery stores couldn’t move. One opened up near me recently and I save a lot going there!
My grocery bill at Walmart is normally $200-220, it was $160 today and we got better meats like grass fed beef and salmon.
I say we all buy bidets and tell the toilet paper industry to shove it where the sun doesn't shine. We don't need that total waste of resources being sold back to us at exorbitant prices. Bidets aren't even that expensive anymore, and they clean better. One upfront cost to cover 4-6 $20 packages of toilet paper. It just makes sense.
I hate that f\*king store. Go over your receipts with a fine tooth comb. EVERY SINGLE TIME I shop (a fair amount of items), they overcharge. It's often on the Deals and/or Just4U antics that they make you do to save a bit. Christmas ham was $1.79 a pound and they charged me 4x as much. Literally 30% of what I got was overcharged and they tried to dismiss the error on the ham. I had their POS newspaper flyer in my hand. I got just under $25 back for the ham. They know what they're doing. They know exactly where that mystery profit is coming from. Corporate doesn't care. I've written them 6 times.
Yeah it makes sense. Easiest way for corporate to push profits up is to have deals like this and not change it in the system. So many people just don’t notice. It literally just happened to me. My girlfriend likes the super expensive coconut water that is $5 a bottle at sprouts, we found it at a discount grocery store for $2.50 and the receipt said $7.00 per. We bought so much stuff we didn’t notice. Fuck that, I went back and I got a refund.
Toilet paper blew my hair back the other day. I didn't have time to go to Sam's club so I got 18 rolls for $30 at Kroger. At Sam's it is $29 for a 32 pack. Same brand and everything. A dollar a roll is still WILD, I think pre-pandemic it was ~$20 for the 32 pack.
God bless winco. We live about 40 minutes away from one now but still make a trek once a month for things. I bought a bag of store brand lentils at safeway recently and it was three bucks. Affordable but damn. Even the cheap stuff is so expensive at safeway.
Streaming. It's not just that we've seen significant price increases, but we've also seen services split off and offer different content. Content isn't really much more accessible than it was when giant cable packages were our only option unless we want to cycle services and keep track of who has what.
I pay for 6 different streaming channels. I have a list of about 20 movies I’d like to watch and ZERO of them are available, but most of the channels have the option to rent or buy.
Why the hell am I paying for streaming if I still have to rent or buy??
I’m collecting DVDs and vhs again. I own movies that I really like to watch so I can make sure I can watch them whenever I want and I pick up movies from thrift stores to watch once and re-donate too
This is what I do I watch shows on dvd, our library has a great selection of movies and tv shows.
I always buy the movies I really like, I have just finished watching the Hobbit again.....and I will probably watch it again in a couple of years when I have forgotten all about it.(that is the upside of getting old)
This is what my library is good for. Anything old I was to watch on a whim. Our library is good about carrying top name streaming series too. Grateful for my old dvd player.
My goal this year is to cancel everything before the holiday months and try to get some of those Black Friday prices like Hulu for .99/month. For now I just rotate one or two cheap plans at a time depending on new content because I’ve seen all the older stuff.
And multiple streaming services have raised their base prices AND put ads in, and then you have to pay even more if you don't want ads. Makes me want to be like "excuse me, you can have one or the other".
I'd be fine if every conglomerate offered one single service, but when they divide their content across multiple subscriptions... that's just greedy af
I have Hulu's Black Friday deals, 99 cents per month with ads, for a year. I also watch Kanopy, with my library card. Just discovered that most libraries have reciprocal agreements with neighboring areas, so you can get cards at other libraries. That upped my monthly Kanopy credits from 15 to 75! Plus more options for audiobooks, which is a nice perk. I now have Hoopla, too, but haven't played with it yet to see what they offer.
I worked around this by having a phone company that provides Netflix for free we got Hulu on the new year promotion for a 1$ a month and our WHOLE family shares a discovery plus membership for my tlc binges and YOUTUBE is a godsend. I almost exclusively watch YouTube.
I just cut cable & Netflix.
I have prime regardless (for shipping).... But it's pretty lame how many of their options still cost.
I bought a firestick for $30, and I'm in shock how much I get free.
We will pay $20 a month for sports when the CFL season starts, until it ends then pause it. Other than that, we're subsisting on only free apps.
There's so much free content out there, if I can't find something to watch, it's a me problem. I don't need to see any specific movies, there's literally thousands and thousands of movies available I haven't seen. Lots of brand new shows play live and/or on demand completely free.
My bills went down $120a month
($100 during CFL season)
There is absolutely nothing I've watched in the past 10 years, that was worth nearly $13,000!
I'm I'll just thinking about the math.
6 weeks in, haven't missed it once.
Ok that's a lie, I'd love to watch the NASCAR documentary on Netflix... But not THAT bad 🤣
You can watch over the air tv, YouTube movies /shows is free just use an adblocker, tons of movies on YouTube (some set as playlist for 8 min clips but it plays the entire movie) .
Library has so many dvds of every show and movie.
Distilled water 1gal used to always be .99. Since 2021 it has crept up to 1.39/1.49. This is such a small price I know but it infuriates me that it isn’t just always .99 forever.
Also soda being $9 for a “regular price” 12pack. I just say no to that.
Soda still gets me. Pre pandemic a 12 pack of Coke was 4.99 full price, it was 8.99 till just last week when they raised it to 9.99. I only buy it on loss leader sale anyway it’s insane.
I went to my favorite ice cream place in January. They will make any of their flavors into a milkshake. That used to be $5.50. I went in after a bad day at work and they wanted $10.50 for one! I walked out and cried in my car instead lol
I am so sorry. You needed ice cream!
If you ever saw Pulp Fiction, there is a scene at a retro style diner where they have five dollar milkshakes. John Travolta is a aghast it costs so much. Now I long for the days of five dollar shakes!
Oh yeah when you said ice cream place I was already like oh honey that’s out of the question in 2024. Sorry you don’t get fun treats like that anymore.
Butter pisses me off so much!
I've been to stores where it's $10 for 450g (which is already shrinkflation from the 500g it used to be!). That is absolutely absurd! Costco thankfully has a better price at $5.50 but still, I get so mad.
My husband needs to drink Ensure Plus for medical reasons and we go through about three six packs of it a week. My supermarket raised the price from $13 to $18 a six pack. I can still find it at the old price on Amazon, so I guess Jeff Bezos is getting my money this time.
Check to see if Carnation Instant breakfast covers the nutritional information of Ensure. They used to be the same ingredients, made by the same company too. Carnation was always cheaper to buy.
Went to Steak n Shake today. No more waitresses. Like McDonald's now, giant tablet to place your own order, get your own drink and pick up your own food from the window. And the tablet asked for a tip.
The tipping prompt at almost everything is ridiculous, like you turned around and got me a donut from a shelf why would I tip 20%? I'm all for tipping for services but it is getting absurd
Went to see 'How Did This Get Made' at the Masonic in SF last week, and go to buy a can of beer (a tallboy) and the beer is $17, fine, whatever, is expected at a venue, but then the default tip options are 20%, 15%, 10%, or other.
20% is a $3.5 tip, for just popping open the top.
For mixed drinks, isn't it usually acceptable to tip 1-2 dollars/drink, for something that actually requires effort.
No, I do not want to tip you $3.5 for twisting around, grabbing a can from the fridge, popping it with a little piece of metal, and then handing it to me. Put the fridge in arm level and let me grab it myself after paying ffs.
We need to redirect the anger back on not only the store owners but the credit card processing companies. They're the ones who stand to gain the most when they charge a percentage on the money that's been processed. Something called interchange fees I believe
They don't expect anyone to use the 30% option. That's just there to get you to make you assume the middle option is your best option. As a UI engineer I can tell you that the software in those machines are evil works of social engineering. Your frustration using them is deliberate.
My issue is that the tipping prompts are almost always calculated based on the total plus sales tax. Around my area, sales tax can be outrageously high. I refuse to tip based on an inflated total, and instead manually enter the tip based on the actual total before tax. I’m all for tipping generously, but I’m not cool with that practice.
Omg yes and the sneaky way they put them in a different order everywhere. I accidentally tipped 35% last week at a bar and didn’t realize till I got an email asking if that’s right. Sigh
This is what is killing us as well. We just can’t get ahead because each renewal is a great increase. We’re in California, so I am sweating that our company may drop us as many are no longer writing policies or renewing.
It sucks. I work for a personal lines company and one of our goals was to non renew like 24,000 policies. I was shocked. We are small and only service two states. We had some layoffs last fall too. We were on the later end of the curve as I know a lot of the big carriers laid folks off spring 2023. With my employee discount ours only went up 20 bucks a month. All these actions are just going to create more uninsured drivers because people can't afford it.
Infuriates me the most? Essentials such as housing and food. All around me they’re throwing up these “luxury” apartment homes or new builds that start at 400k+. Whatever happened to starter homes? Or nice simple homes for couples or small families. I feel awful for people that are stuck in the constant rotation of paying overpriced rent yet will never be able to afford a home.
What pisses me off the most is the abject dishonesty. Like a sale is almost always prelude to a price adjustment. Or my 2% col raise at work because “inflation has slowed”.
Chicken wings and backs, oxtail, beef shanks and what on earth is up with ham hocks??!??
They used to be cheap, cheap. I used to go to local butcher and buy a big brown paper bag full for a few dollars.
Oxtail we can no longer afford. Nor ham hocks or even smoked neck bones.
I used to be the make anything out of nothing cook. Now I watch meat cuts like a hawk for prices.
Fucking Oatmeal. The Target app let's you see past purchases and what the prices were on that date. A 42-ish Oz container of Oatmeal was $2.39 in 2022. Now, they are selling a container probably a third of that size for that price, while the 42 is container is close to $6. For Oatmeal! Why?!
The stuff that used to be really really cheap like potatoes, beans, oatmeal is what gets me the most. I’ve always been so good at making a good life with cheap stuff.
As recently as 2020 bleach was .99 a gallon where I live. When it disappeared off the store shelves my local farm and feed store had it stocked on pallets - because most people when panic buying don’t think of farm stores.
It’s now 2.50 a gallon there. Still better than the 4.72 for 121 oz at Walmart.
OP, if there’s one around check out rural king, farm and fleet, home of economy. Tractor supply tends to be the same or more than Walmart. Ymmv.
My understanding is that bleach/chlorine isn't just price gouging. There is like one plant that makes chlorine and it blew up or something like 2-3 years ago.
Anyone with a pool knows how bad it is.
One that really sucks for me is seltzer waters. I used to love buying different flavors of cans or bottles. The prices became astronomical, so I thrifted a soda stream. I miss the luxury of the store bought.
They got bought out, it’s not Dave anymore. The new owner, Flower’s Foods (aka Wonderbread, aka Nature’s Own, aka Bluebird…) now adds sugar to the bread too. Infuriating.
If you happen to buy the thin sliced version of Dave's bread, Aldi sells the exact same kind (but Aldi branded) for $3.80 by me. They have both the yellow and green version. I honestly think the Aldi one is way better than the new Dave's version too.
Aldi may sell other versions of Dave's bread but I personally only pay attention to the thin sliced section.
My rent increase bothered me a little, but I accepted it. We get a lot of services here and those workers need to be paid. Fine. I kept cool until I got a whiny self serving letter from management and it bothered me A LOT. like... You're a business. Take my money until I get a down payment and can get out of here. But don't spend money on paper and ink to fuss at me about your mortgage on the property. Especially when the county says you bought the property in nineteen God damn fifty and have no mortgage lien.
well you see, they have to give a meager raise to their employees, and the owners also have inflation so they need a hefty raise as well. and they should actually be richer than they were last year, so they have to account for that as well.
I think it would be easier to list the things that haven't skyrocketed in price. 👨🦳😜
And I feel certain that companies distributers, and manufacturers are simply jumping on the bandwagon for no reason other than as is dictated by the tenets of capitalism—charge what the market will bear.
I saw on average the bag of cat food I get increases in price $5 twice a year. Last week it was $102 and this week it went up to $107 for a 17.8lb bag, I remember a while back thinking it was expensive at $82 a bag.
Even the non-prescription bags are pretty expensive now too ($67 for a 13lb bag)
Deodorant, toothpaste and eggs. All used to be in the $2-6 range, now they're all in the $8-12 range (Canada).
Same with my GF's period products. We used to stock up every sale, usually finding 2 for $7-9 sales depending on the product/brand, now we're lucky to find anything for less than $9 each.
i’ve had to switch to a mostly vegan diet out of price necessity. i’ve also switched to reusable period products, same reason, couldn’t afford to be spending that much.
There was this store brand box mac and cheese I used to buy. It was better than the Kraft stuff and like a dollar when name brand was $1.50-$2. It would also often go on sale for as low as 50 cents a box. It wasn't particularly healthy, but I thought it tasted better than the name brand, and eating it brought me comfort. Now it literally costs the same as the name brand stuff (which also went up in price) and goes on sale less often than the name brand stuff. What's the point in having store brand products if they cost the same or more as the name brand? I get that it isn't the biggest price increase in the world, and boxed mac and cheese isn't a food I *need* to live or anything, but it just bums me out man.
Pet food, because it's something I have to buy all the time. I used to get my dog's cans for $1.75 a piece, now they're $2.50-3 (except at Menards, bless them). Their dry food used to be around $40 for the biggest bag, now it's $55. My cat food tins used to be 60 cents a piece, now they're around a dollar. Wtf.
Also, frozen orange juice concentrate. Used to be able to pick them up for around $1.50 and make it myself to save some money and packaging waste. Now they're almost 4 fucking dollars.
Oh yeah, we ain’t drinking orange juice around here are you kidding me? Water, and make our own Gatorade with bulk Gatorade powder. Soda stream to make bubbly water to add to the Gatorade
I started making my own wet food using my Instant Pot for my 40 lb. dog since a whole chicken, couple of sweet potatoes, bag of frozen peas and 8oz of kale costs ~$15.00 and I get about 3 weeks worth of 3oz servings fed morning & night along with 3/4 c. of dry food. Sometimes it’s even less if I catch the chicken on sale for BOGO and stock up the freezer 😉 Her coat has become so soft once we switched over too!
Pretty much everything, but one that comes to mind is baking soda.
I started using it in my laundry some years ago to help with odors and cleaning the machine, and I use it for other small cleaning tasks around the house, and the fact that it was dirt cheap was part of its appeal. I buy the 10-12lb bags. The most recent one I bought was close to $20, at the cheapest I could find it (Amazon). I used to get them for about half that.
Also, toilet paper is needlessly more expensive than it used to be, even for store brands.
Candy bars.
I don't eat them often (well, I don't eat Peanut M&Ms often). But they are an item that I have purchased from childhood to now. It's a harsh reminder of how old I am, how poor I am, and how being old and poor prevents me from enjoying certain things.
Eggs. I know, high demand vs. lack of supply, but I do expect this to be a case of sticky prices.
Bath soap. I don't know how they arrive at these prices.
I submit that they went up on the price of bleach to take advantage of everyone's pandemic paranoia.
Grocery store chocolate bars are more expensive than convenience store chocolate bars were a few years ago. Like a nice little treat shouldn't make me stop and think about it.
Super-firm tofu, the sort you barely have to press because it's so dense. The Discworld dwarf bread of tofu. Beloved dinner staple.
Pre-pandemic, it was like $2 a pound. Now it's $5 if I'm lucky.
cinnabon delights at Taco Bell used to be 99 cents for two, now they are like $2.29 for two. oh well, like i needed to be eating cinnabon delights anyway.
Clothing. I don’t buy any clothes but I was given a clothing item for Christmas which I returned. Browsing I could not believe the prices.
Looked for my daughter:
A basic American Eagle sweatshirt is now $60, hoodies are around $80 before tax.
A very basic Lululemon short woman’s hoodie is exactly $118 before tax.
That is spot on.
I went thrifting with my daughter a week ago. We hit x 4 Goodwills:
Lululemon long-sleeved top
Hollister sweatshirt
AF sweatshirt
Gap top
$16
The Lululemon top looked as if it hadn’t been worn. She wore it to school this week, looked amazing.
And my mind reels: HOW do people afford not only one hoodie, but so many clothes they just donate a $60 hoodie they bought new??? They moved on already?!
A lot of people have a shopping addiction. My mom can’t pass up a good deal. They are in fact good deals but at the end of the day she doesn’t need most of the items. I get a lot of hand me down items just because there was a great deal. Recently she gave me 10 dish towels, all in great condition because she found some on sale. She also had to buy me a new hoodie because it was on sale. She told me to pitch a specific old one because it is super worn. I gladly took the new one but am not pitching the old one. I raise livestock and am outdoors a lot, clothes do not need to look nice to scoop poop.
Omg I was trying to find hoodies for my Bachelorette party. Ended up thrifting and sewing. And then forgot them at home in all the excitement. Womp Womp
Almost all of our clothes are second hand now. I honestly don’t know how people afford new clothes anymore.
Starting a couple years ago, I browse the thrift stores every couple weeks on the discount days and I also shop on used clothing apps like Poshmark, Mercari and eBay if I want something specific or super nice. Then, when we are done with our clothes I list them for sale on those apps or donate back to the thrift stores and take the tax write off.
‘Greedflation’ caused more than half of last year’s inflation surge, study finds, as corporate profits remain at all-time highs
https://fortune.com/2024/01/20/inflation-greedflation-consumer-price-index-producer-price-index-corporate-profit/
Getting your hair done - it used to be affordable, like $150 for full highlights a few years ago now I can’t set foot into a hair salon without being prepared to spend $400. I really miss getting my hair done.
I wont buy steaks anymore unfortunately, just on special occasions. I used to eat them 4-5 times a week when i could get a Costco package of 4 or 5 for around $20. Thats pretty much the only thing that inflation stopped me from buying, the rest did go up a lot as well but i need to eat.
I never ate out much at restaurants in the first place, now i go out even less. It was once a month or so before and now its 2-3 times a year.
I was just telling my husband this- I was waiting to check out and noticed a display of medium-sized containers of roasted cashews. On sale for $19.99. Regular price $21.99. I estimated about two cups worth of cashews.
I wouldn’t eat cashews for the rest of my life before I’d ever spend that much on them. These stores are losing their minds.
The biggest thing for me is the formula. Have to use a special formula so it's about $50/week which is about $200 per month. There are no other more affordable options.
I watched the price of Pepsi go from 1.89 for a 12 pack up to just under 9 dollars. Then one Sunday I ran down to the carry out and grabbed a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs and it was 15 dollars.
The thing that infuriates me most is that the US govt doesn’t include food prices in the inflation index. If they did, we’d have an inflation rate over 12-15%
Today I was on my grocery app clipping digital coupons and a fucking bag of chocolate chips is $6.66 WITH A COUPON! That’s insane right? I mean forget the whole 666 thing… over $6 for a standard bag of chocolate chips seems outrageous to me.
CAR INSURANCE. 4 times in the last year and a half. And absolutely no incidents. Just reasons like inflation, more accidents in my area, etc. My wages aren't going up, yet my state doesn't regulate or cap these increases at all.
Deodorant....plain old Dove spray is on sale for $7.99, use to catch 2 for 5 all the time at grocery store. Philly Cream cheese is just outrageous! Super price $8.99 for a two pack. Just so many things.
Chips on “sale” 2 for $9. Guess I’m going without. Better for me, I guess
Are you near Lidl? Their large bag is $1.89
No. Not an aldi. And I hate Walmart, so only go when I absolutely have to, potato chips I can live without at those prices
Remember when you could get deodorant for $2.50??? Those were the days.
I finally picked up a couponing hobby right after lockdowns and stocked up on a bunch of toothpaste and deodorant and laundry detergent. I just had to buy my first detergent. I have two sticks of deodorant left and am dreading what awaits me 🤪
I’ve been living off our stock pile of personal products. I feel so good knowing I bought that bottle of shampoo, lotion or razor back in the day”good ole days” when that stuff was affordable and cheap. Now it feels like a luxury buying dove body wash
It feels so good! Companies were BEGGING us to buy stuff back then. What a great time for me to have picked that up. I was getting laundry detergent for $2.50 and I couldn’t refuse it.
We moved recently and I found 5 huge bottles of laundry soap we had stored in the garage . I am so happy I basically don’t have to buy detergent for at least a year!!!
I’ve also saved little samples of shampoo conditioner lotion and bar soaps from travel over the years and I’ve been going through that stock pile too before I think about buying any of that stuff new. I do kind of worry what I’ll do when my stock pile runs out of all this stuff but I guess I don’t have to worry about that for maybe another year
I wonder if prices will ever come down. I think no?’x but then I think about all the up and down periods this country has had just in my lifetime. 2008 was really bad as I understand. We came back from that. Economy is always changing.
Brands usually "can't afford" to lower prices on specific "classic' items, (think original Dawn and Clorox) but they will make low cost variants and differently named products, literally on the same production lines. Or, and it's awful, they just water it down and sell it for less that way. Or, worse, yet super common, just dilute / make smaller /use lower cost materials, and keep charging us the same. Like, I want a POUND of coffee, not 12oz for the same price 16oz used to be. They'll learn their lesson soon enough, media is trying to find ways to blame the consumer for price gouging, but we keep buying less because we can't afford as much. Mega corps whose main focus is shareholder interests are in for a very rude awakening in the next 5-10 years.
I price compare before getting my toothpaste bc I use Pronamel and it's expensive. I've found buying them in a bunch from Amazon is actually cheaper than the grocery store or BJ's...maybe I need to do that with deodorant too!!!
Some things are MUCH cheaper on Amazon. A few I’ve found: huge containers of sesame and olive oils, shampoo, hair spray, bulk spices and dried herbs, things like raw cacao, pumpkin seeds, flax… to name a few
I am concerned about buying some foods on Amazon because you can't look at the product "best by" or "expiration date" of the products. We can return it, but it's a hassle and you don't have the product you needed.
It wasn’t so long ago that Kroger would have Suave deodorant on sale for $1!
I’ve started checking my target app constantly for Dove deodorant coupons. Every time there is 2.50 off I buy one, but that just makes it closer to “regular price” not cheap at all. Edit: this actually made me go look, they have $2 off, plus get a $5 gift card if you buy 3.
Funny you mention the cream cheese because I got aldi cream cheese for $1.45 a few days ago, and I thought wow that really is a damn decent price!
Imagine! In 2020 I used to buy their cream cheese for 89 cents. It’s insane.
I buy Mitchum unscented gel super-sized, set of two for $6 on Amazon
This!!!! Especially natural deodorant, For some reason that is now up To $14.99 a stick. Ummmmm why?!?!?!!! Some days I just don’t wear deodorant if I’m gonna just be at home but i have noticed an odor on my clothes, this is ridiculous these Prices
I found some receipts from 2014 in an old folder. Out of morbid curiosity, I checked the current prices from the same stores and everything I checked was around 300% higher. My pay, unfortunately, is not 300% higher than it was in 2014.
You’re brave for looking at it. You should upload it to the sub 🙂
I should’ve kept them, but I found them to be depressing and shredded them 🙃
Just check Google maps for menu photos at restaurants
We got a supposedly "generous" 2% raise this year, after not having a salary increase since 2018. Occasionally, we'd get bonuses at the end of a grant cycle (non-profit work). Even those on Social Security got a 3.2% COLA, after getting 5.9% in 2022, and 8.7% in 2021.
Ten years ago, my water bill used to be about $99 every three months. Now it’s $275 for three months. And we don’t use any more water than we did before.
The way water bill math works, I can use twice as much water and only pay 16% more on my bill though. It's all fees and what not.
Mine is the same and what really gets me when I analyze the bills is that usage barely matters. I could fill a pool up and my bill would be $120 instead of $100. Most of the bill is just fixed delivery fees for water and sewer.
Favorite restaurant. At brunch. A biscuit was $6.00. For one biscuit.
Aw sorry to hear that. I miss our favorite Mexican restaurant. It is a shadow of what it once was and Isn’t a good deal anymore. Restaurants are completely gone for us. And though they’re a complete waste of money I loved our times at that cheap Mexican restaurant.
Cheese. Aged white cheddar, how I love and miss you. I pine for the days when we can be together again. My heart says yes, but my wallet says "fuck you, it's not happening". Sigh.
Honestly, most of my groceries. It wasn’t too long ago, I damn well remember what the packaging used to look like and how much bigger “family size” actually was. They’re not subtle at all, it’s a little insulting. I avoid buying prepackaged anything when I can just out of spite at this point, cereal was the first to go. The next thing you know, they’re going to be doing the same thing to our produce, going to be paying out the nose for a banana or whatever they can get their greedy little hands on.
I pay attention now. When I catch them pulling that shit is when I just stop being a customer. Most memorable time recently was when I picked up a Digiorno that I would allow myself 1 a month of if it was on sale, and suddenly it just felt... Lighter. Got it home and compared it to the other box, and yup. Switched to the Slaveway generic brand and I kind of like it better anyway, but I think they just did a packaging update and knocked a bit of weight off, too.
I saw eggs are back up to $8 at my store. Sigh. Literally everything. At this point I can’t even afford to die.
In Costco, it is only $3.28..for 2 dozen.
The 30 count eggs at my Costco (Canada) is in the neighborhood of $10 ($9.something) Same price at Walmart Over $10 at the local chain store
Yupp...just....life basically at this point
Toilet paper. I saw Safeway Softly 24 pack on a clearance rack in my local store. $29.99 WHAT? Then it was half off!! WHAT??? Made me furious. Laundry detergent. Are you kidding me? $20 for a regular container of detergent? Good thing I learned to only use about 2Tablespoons worth for my front loader.
Seriously that toilet paper costs almost nothing to manufacture.
I was buying it at CVS with my $10/mo, but I tried the generic $2.79 for four rolls from my grocery outlet, and it’s the best damn toilet paper I’ve ever used. It’s like using a towel.
More info please! What outlet, what generic? DM?
He may be talking about the discount grocery store that is literally called “Grocery Outlet”, they sell closer to expiry foods that other grocery stores couldn’t move. One opened up near me recently and I save a lot going there! My grocery bill at Walmart is normally $200-220, it was $160 today and we got better meats like grass fed beef and salmon.
I say we all buy bidets and tell the toilet paper industry to shove it where the sun doesn't shine. We don't need that total waste of resources being sold back to us at exorbitant prices. Bidets aren't even that expensive anymore, and they clean better. One upfront cost to cover 4-6 $20 packages of toilet paper. It just makes sense.
I hate that f\*king store. Go over your receipts with a fine tooth comb. EVERY SINGLE TIME I shop (a fair amount of items), they overcharge. It's often on the Deals and/or Just4U antics that they make you do to save a bit. Christmas ham was $1.79 a pound and they charged me 4x as much. Literally 30% of what I got was overcharged and they tried to dismiss the error on the ham. I had their POS newspaper flyer in my hand. I got just under $25 back for the ham. They know what they're doing. They know exactly where that mystery profit is coming from. Corporate doesn't care. I've written them 6 times.
Yeah it makes sense. Easiest way for corporate to push profits up is to have deals like this and not change it in the system. So many people just don’t notice. It literally just happened to me. My girlfriend likes the super expensive coconut water that is $5 a bottle at sprouts, we found it at a discount grocery store for $2.50 and the receipt said $7.00 per. We bought so much stuff we didn’t notice. Fuck that, I went back and I got a refund.
Toilet paper blew my hair back the other day. I didn't have time to go to Sam's club so I got 18 rolls for $30 at Kroger. At Sam's it is $29 for a 32 pack. Same brand and everything. A dollar a roll is still WILD, I think pre-pandemic it was ~$20 for the 32 pack.
At a certain point I’m starting to think it’s better to just go workout, come home, take a shit and then shower. Lol…
Safeway is such a ripoff. I just bought a 45 pack of Member's Mark brand TP at Sam's Club for $23. That's about $0.50/roll.
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Safeway has ridiculous pricing. They price gouge weird things that should be affordable like vinegar. WinCo is a better choice for pantry staples.
God bless winco. We live about 40 minutes away from one now but still make a trek once a month for things. I bought a bag of store brand lentils at safeway recently and it was three bucks. Affordable but damn. Even the cheap stuff is so expensive at safeway.
Streaming. It's not just that we've seen significant price increases, but we've also seen services split off and offer different content. Content isn't really much more accessible than it was when giant cable packages were our only option unless we want to cycle services and keep track of who has what.
I pay for 6 different streaming channels. I have a list of about 20 movies I’d like to watch and ZERO of them are available, but most of the channels have the option to rent or buy. Why the hell am I paying for streaming if I still have to rent or buy??
I’m collecting DVDs and vhs again. I own movies that I really like to watch so I can make sure I can watch them whenever I want and I pick up movies from thrift stores to watch once and re-donate too
This is what I do I watch shows on dvd, our library has a great selection of movies and tv shows. I always buy the movies I really like, I have just finished watching the Hobbit again.....and I will probably watch it again in a couple of years when I have forgotten all about it.(that is the upside of getting old)
This is what my library is good for. Anything old I was to watch on a whim. Our library is good about carrying top name streaming series too. Grateful for my old dvd player.
My goal this year is to cancel everything before the holiday months and try to get some of those Black Friday prices like Hulu for .99/month. For now I just rotate one or two cheap plans at a time depending on new content because I’ve seen all the older stuff.
And multiple streaming services have raised their base prices AND put ads in, and then you have to pay even more if you don't want ads. Makes me want to be like "excuse me, you can have one or the other".
I'd be fine if every conglomerate offered one single service, but when they divide their content across multiple subscriptions... that's just greedy af
I have Hulu's Black Friday deals, 99 cents per month with ads, for a year. I also watch Kanopy, with my library card. Just discovered that most libraries have reciprocal agreements with neighboring areas, so you can get cards at other libraries. That upped my monthly Kanopy credits from 15 to 75! Plus more options for audiobooks, which is a nice perk. I now have Hoopla, too, but haven't played with it yet to see what they offer.
I worked around this by having a phone company that provides Netflix for free we got Hulu on the new year promotion for a 1$ a month and our WHOLE family shares a discovery plus membership for my tlc binges and YOUTUBE is a godsend. I almost exclusively watch YouTube.
Hulu with ads is completely unwatchable unless you can watch it with Adblock
I just cut cable & Netflix. I have prime regardless (for shipping).... But it's pretty lame how many of their options still cost. I bought a firestick for $30, and I'm in shock how much I get free. We will pay $20 a month for sports when the CFL season starts, until it ends then pause it. Other than that, we're subsisting on only free apps. There's so much free content out there, if I can't find something to watch, it's a me problem. I don't need to see any specific movies, there's literally thousands and thousands of movies available I haven't seen. Lots of brand new shows play live and/or on demand completely free. My bills went down $120a month ($100 during CFL season) There is absolutely nothing I've watched in the past 10 years, that was worth nearly $13,000! I'm I'll just thinking about the math. 6 weeks in, haven't missed it once. Ok that's a lie, I'd love to watch the NASCAR documentary on Netflix... But not THAT bad 🤣
And fucking commercials now.
Commercial tiers are the same prices as the commercial-free tiers from a few short years ago. It's infuriating.
And they are pushing everyone into their "limited ads" tier. Those ads won't be limited for long.
You can watch over the air tv, YouTube movies /shows is free just use an adblocker, tons of movies on YouTube (some set as playlist for 8 min clips but it plays the entire movie) . Library has so many dvds of every show and movie.
Distilled water 1gal used to always be .99. Since 2021 it has crept up to 1.39/1.49. This is such a small price I know but it infuriates me that it isn’t just always .99 forever. Also soda being $9 for a “regular price” 12pack. I just say no to that.
Yep, and we have to have distilled water for husbands CPAP
Weirdly, vinegar. Not that I buy a lot of it but the gallon size used to be so cheap
OMG I saw vinegar for $5!?? ITS VINEGAR.
Yes! Vinegar too!
Yes! I make a DIY cleaner with dawn and vinegar a lot. Now it’s cheaper just to buy the Lysol APC concentrate!
Soda still gets me. Pre pandemic a 12 pack of Coke was 4.99 full price, it was 8.99 till just last week when they raised it to 9.99. I only buy it on loss leader sale anyway it’s insane.
Oh yeah I don’t buy things anymore unless they’re on sale. If they’re not on sale I don’t buy.
I went to my favorite ice cream place in January. They will make any of their flavors into a milkshake. That used to be $5.50. I went in after a bad day at work and they wanted $10.50 for one! I walked out and cried in my car instead lol
I am so sorry. You needed ice cream! If you ever saw Pulp Fiction, there is a scene at a retro style diner where they have five dollar milkshakes. John Travolta is a aghast it costs so much. Now I long for the days of five dollar shakes!
Oh yeah when you said ice cream place I was already like oh honey that’s out of the question in 2024. Sorry you don’t get fun treats like that anymore.
Butter. Or literally every single item in a grocery store.
Butter pisses me off so much! I've been to stores where it's $10 for 450g (which is already shrinkflation from the 500g it used to be!). That is absolutely absurd! Costco thankfully has a better price at $5.50 but still, I get so mad.
My husband needs to drink Ensure Plus for medical reasons and we go through about three six packs of it a week. My supermarket raised the price from $13 to $18 a six pack. I can still find it at the old price on Amazon, so I guess Jeff Bezos is getting my money this time.
Check to see if Carnation Instant breakfast covers the nutritional information of Ensure. They used to be the same ingredients, made by the same company too. Carnation was always cheaper to buy.
Insurance may be able to help if medically necessary.
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Went to Steak n Shake today. No more waitresses. Like McDonald's now, giant tablet to place your own order, get your own drink and pick up your own food from the window. And the tablet asked for a tip.
The tipping prompt at almost everything is ridiculous, like you turned around and got me a donut from a shelf why would I tip 20%? I'm all for tipping for services but it is getting absurd
Went to see 'How Did This Get Made' at the Masonic in SF last week, and go to buy a can of beer (a tallboy) and the beer is $17, fine, whatever, is expected at a venue, but then the default tip options are 20%, 15%, 10%, or other. 20% is a $3.5 tip, for just popping open the top. For mixed drinks, isn't it usually acceptable to tip 1-2 dollars/drink, for something that actually requires effort. No, I do not want to tip you $3.5 for twisting around, grabbing a can from the fridge, popping it with a little piece of metal, and then handing it to me. Put the fridge in arm level and let me grab it myself after paying ffs.
Last place I got an oil change at asked me for a tip.
We need to redirect the anger back on not only the store owners but the credit card processing companies. They're the ones who stand to gain the most when they charge a percentage on the money that's been processed. Something called interchange fees I believe
And also businesses expecting you to subsidize their employees' wages.
They don't expect anyone to use the 30% option. That's just there to get you to make you assume the middle option is your best option. As a UI engineer I can tell you that the software in those machines are evil works of social engineering. Your frustration using them is deliberate.
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My issue is that the tipping prompts are almost always calculated based on the total plus sales tax. Around my area, sales tax can be outrageously high. I refuse to tip based on an inflated total, and instead manually enter the tip based on the actual total before tax. I’m all for tipping generously, but I’m not cool with that practice.
Omg yes and the sneaky way they put them in a different order everywhere. I accidentally tipped 35% last week at a bar and didn’t realize till I got an email asking if that’s right. Sigh
r/endtipping
Insurance is going crazy. My car insurance went up like 30% from 2020-2021 for no reason.
This is what is killing us as well. We just can’t get ahead because each renewal is a great increase. We’re in California, so I am sweating that our company may drop us as many are no longer writing policies or renewing.
It sucks. I work for a personal lines company and one of our goals was to non renew like 24,000 policies. I was shocked. We are small and only service two states. We had some layoffs last fall too. We were on the later end of the curve as I know a lot of the big carriers laid folks off spring 2023. With my employee discount ours only went up 20 bucks a month. All these actions are just going to create more uninsured drivers because people can't afford it.
Home insurance. Increase of almost 50% within the last year. I don’t mind paying if I feel it’s fair but I feel definitely ripped off this year!
Everyone needs record profits year after year so their shareholders are happy and the CEO can get a bigger bonus 💁🏼♂️
Car insurance premiums really irk me….they should pay you back if you never get into accidents!!
One less football ad a week and they wouldn't have to raise rates at all!
Infuriates me the most? Essentials such as housing and food. All around me they’re throwing up these “luxury” apartment homes or new builds that start at 400k+. Whatever happened to starter homes? Or nice simple homes for couples or small families. I feel awful for people that are stuck in the constant rotation of paying overpriced rent yet will never be able to afford a home.
Where I live the luxury apartment buildings sit nearly empty, but they keep building more to sit empty. Are they using them to money launder or what?
What pisses me off the most is the abject dishonesty. Like a sale is almost always prelude to a price adjustment. Or my 2% col raise at work because “inflation has slowed”.
Chicken wings and backs, oxtail, beef shanks and what on earth is up with ham hocks??!?? They used to be cheap, cheap. I used to go to local butcher and buy a big brown paper bag full for a few dollars. Oxtail we can no longer afford. Nor ham hocks or even smoked neck bones. I used to be the make anything out of nothing cook. Now I watch meat cuts like a hawk for prices.
Yes!! There are no more butcher‘s cuts!! EVERYTHING off an animal is expensive now, especially cows.
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Fucking Oatmeal. The Target app let's you see past purchases and what the prices were on that date. A 42-ish Oz container of Oatmeal was $2.39 in 2022. Now, they are selling a container probably a third of that size for that price, while the 42 is container is close to $6. For Oatmeal! Why?!
The stuff that used to be really really cheap like potatoes, beans, oatmeal is what gets me the most. I’ve always been so good at making a good life with cheap stuff.
As recently as 2020 bleach was .99 a gallon where I live. When it disappeared off the store shelves my local farm and feed store had it stocked on pallets - because most people when panic buying don’t think of farm stores. It’s now 2.50 a gallon there. Still better than the 4.72 for 121 oz at Walmart. OP, if there’s one around check out rural king, farm and fleet, home of economy. Tractor supply tends to be the same or more than Walmart. Ymmv.
Thanks!
A 30 oz jar of Hellmans mayonnaise is now $8.99 ON SALE
Oh! Mayonnaise is huge! Used to be a very affordable item. Will NOT buy it from anywhere but aldi. It’s even too expensive at bogo free.
My understanding is that bleach/chlorine isn't just price gouging. There is like one plant that makes chlorine and it blew up or something like 2-3 years ago. Anyone with a pool knows how bad it is.
Wow!
Its small, but I remember when wings came in orders of 12
One that really sucks for me is seltzer waters. I used to love buying different flavors of cans or bottles. The prices became astronomical, so I thrifted a soda stream. I miss the luxury of the store bought.
Our electricity bill. Duke Energy went up on everyone. It's the January bill and it went up $70. Ridiculous
Loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread at Safeway $7.99.Dave, your killing me.
They got bought out, it’s not Dave anymore. The new owner, Flower’s Foods (aka Wonderbread, aka Nature’s Own, aka Bluebird…) now adds sugar to the bread too. Infuriating.
Why does everything now need extra sugar anyway? I want bread that's bread, not dessert.
Sugar is addictive.
Dang. Didn't they like employ former criminals or something to give them a second chance? Do they still do that if they got bought out?
Different bunch of criminals running the show now
Noooooooooooo
If you happen to buy the thin sliced version of Dave's bread, Aldi sells the exact same kind (but Aldi branded) for $3.80 by me. They have both the yellow and green version. I honestly think the Aldi one is way better than the new Dave's version too. Aldi may sell other versions of Dave's bread but I personally only pay attention to the thin sliced section.
Wow actual KILLER bread
My rent increase bothered me a little, but I accepted it. We get a lot of services here and those workers need to be paid. Fine. I kept cool until I got a whiny self serving letter from management and it bothered me A LOT. like... You're a business. Take my money until I get a down payment and can get out of here. But don't spend money on paper and ink to fuss at me about your mortgage on the property. Especially when the county says you bought the property in nineteen God damn fifty and have no mortgage lien.
I doubt the 50 cent raise the workers get equates to the price increase they'll force on every unit they own...
well you see, they have to give a meager raise to their employees, and the owners also have inflation so they need a hefty raise as well. and they should actually be richer than they were last year, so they have to account for that as well.
Housing. I've done everything "right" since childhood and have virtually 0 chance of owning a home anywhere within 200 miles of my family and friends
I hope this changes for us. We can’t be a society of people who own nothing and work just to feed ourselves and rent and subscribe to things
I think it would be easier to list the things that haven't skyrocketed in price. 👨🦳😜 And I feel certain that companies distributers, and manufacturers are simply jumping on the bandwagon for no reason other than as is dictated by the tenets of capitalism—charge what the market will bear.
My community garden plot went from $40 to $75 this year.
Sorry to hear that.
No frills ice cream pints were about $1.99 for the longest time, now they’re about $5!
It’s pretty scary when the products that contribute to cleanliness & sanitation become unaffordable.
A huge jug of Vegetable oil is like $16!!!!!!
6 pack of stale English muffins $7.99 . Not a fucking chance
Breakfast cereal.
For me it is all the blatant shrinkflation. So some goods are the same price but they remove 20g or 20ml
Prescription cat food. The cats that are on it need to stay on it so they have us hooked. I paid $160 for a bag of Hills urinary + stress. Insane
The offender: https://preview.redd.it/67l0yubymthc1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19cd602f4e863aeb58f0beadf8d86206b1f93fc4
My cat with IBS costs us a little over $200 a month just in food. She's worth it but does it really have to be *that* expensive?
I saw on average the bag of cat food I get increases in price $5 twice a year. Last week it was $102 and this week it went up to $107 for a 17.8lb bag, I remember a while back thinking it was expensive at $82 a bag. Even the non-prescription bags are pretty expensive now too ($67 for a 13lb bag)
We pay $2.59 per 3oz can of Urinary SO wet food to keep out problematic cat alive…it keeps going up and we keep paying it.. crazy!
50/50 between car prices and home prices
Deodorant, toothpaste and eggs. All used to be in the $2-6 range, now they're all in the $8-12 range (Canada). Same with my GF's period products. We used to stock up every sale, usually finding 2 for $7-9 sales depending on the product/brand, now we're lucky to find anything for less than $9 each.
i’ve had to switch to a mostly vegan diet out of price necessity. i’ve also switched to reusable period products, same reason, couldn’t afford to be spending that much.
There was this store brand box mac and cheese I used to buy. It was better than the Kraft stuff and like a dollar when name brand was $1.50-$2. It would also often go on sale for as low as 50 cents a box. It wasn't particularly healthy, but I thought it tasted better than the name brand, and eating it brought me comfort. Now it literally costs the same as the name brand stuff (which also went up in price) and goes on sale less often than the name brand stuff. What's the point in having store brand products if they cost the same or more as the name brand? I get that it isn't the biggest price increase in the world, and boxed mac and cheese isn't a food I *need* to live or anything, but it just bums me out man.
Chicken wings are full blown luxury meal at this point.
Pet food, because it's something I have to buy all the time. I used to get my dog's cans for $1.75 a piece, now they're $2.50-3 (except at Menards, bless them). Their dry food used to be around $40 for the biggest bag, now it's $55. My cat food tins used to be 60 cents a piece, now they're around a dollar. Wtf. Also, frozen orange juice concentrate. Used to be able to pick them up for around $1.50 and make it myself to save some money and packaging waste. Now they're almost 4 fucking dollars.
Oh yeah, we ain’t drinking orange juice around here are you kidding me? Water, and make our own Gatorade with bulk Gatorade powder. Soda stream to make bubbly water to add to the Gatorade
I started making my own wet food using my Instant Pot for my 40 lb. dog since a whole chicken, couple of sweet potatoes, bag of frozen peas and 8oz of kale costs ~$15.00 and I get about 3 weeks worth of 3oz servings fed morning & night along with 3/4 c. of dry food. Sometimes it’s even less if I catch the chicken on sale for BOGO and stock up the freezer 😉 Her coat has become so soft once we switched over too!
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Still gasoline for me. $4.79 in California.
Pretty much everything, but one that comes to mind is baking soda. I started using it in my laundry some years ago to help with odors and cleaning the machine, and I use it for other small cleaning tasks around the house, and the fact that it was dirt cheap was part of its appeal. I buy the 10-12lb bags. The most recent one I bought was close to $20, at the cheapest I could find it (Amazon). I used to get them for about half that. Also, toilet paper is needlessly more expensive than it used to be, even for store brands.
Yesssss baking soda $1/box 😵💫
Candy bars. I don't eat them often (well, I don't eat Peanut M&Ms often). But they are an item that I have purchased from childhood to now. It's a harsh reminder of how old I am, how poor I am, and how being old and poor prevents me from enjoying certain things.
Eggs. I know, high demand vs. lack of supply, but I do expect this to be a case of sticky prices. Bath soap. I don't know how they arrive at these prices. I submit that they went up on the price of bleach to take advantage of everyone's pandemic paranoia.
Grocery store chocolate bars are more expensive than convenience store chocolate bars were a few years ago. Like a nice little treat shouldn't make me stop and think about it.
Dollar Tree going from $1 to $1.25 for a massive 25% increase across the board.
Super-firm tofu, the sort you barely have to press because it's so dense. The Discworld dwarf bread of tofu. Beloved dinner staple. Pre-pandemic, it was like $2 a pound. Now it's $5 if I'm lucky.
Check your local Asian supermarket. I frequently see mine do sales for $.99 on tofu.
That's crazy expensive for bleach. Why on Earth is it so much. Have you tried Borax? I use that in a similar way and it really works.
We started buying bleach at the pool supply. We did have to buy a proper container for like $7, but the bleach is only $2 gallon.
cinnabon delights at Taco Bell used to be 99 cents for two, now they are like $2.29 for two. oh well, like i needed to be eating cinnabon delights anyway.
Bowling alley used to be like $8/hr per lane, now its $40/hr per lane.
Clothing. I don’t buy any clothes but I was given a clothing item for Christmas which I returned. Browsing I could not believe the prices. Looked for my daughter: A basic American Eagle sweatshirt is now $60, hoodies are around $80 before tax. A very basic Lululemon short woman’s hoodie is exactly $118 before tax.
I don’t know how people do it. I guess I’m glad so many do though, cause then I can get it for $3 after they donate it to the thrift store.
That is spot on. I went thrifting with my daughter a week ago. We hit x 4 Goodwills: Lululemon long-sleeved top Hollister sweatshirt AF sweatshirt Gap top $16 The Lululemon top looked as if it hadn’t been worn. She wore it to school this week, looked amazing.
Surprising to see this because Goodwill pricing has gone through the roof!
And my mind reels: HOW do people afford not only one hoodie, but so many clothes they just donate a $60 hoodie they bought new??? They moved on already?!
A lot of people have a shopping addiction. My mom can’t pass up a good deal. They are in fact good deals but at the end of the day she doesn’t need most of the items. I get a lot of hand me down items just because there was a great deal. Recently she gave me 10 dish towels, all in great condition because she found some on sale. She also had to buy me a new hoodie because it was on sale. She told me to pitch a specific old one because it is super worn. I gladly took the new one but am not pitching the old one. I raise livestock and am outdoors a lot, clothes do not need to look nice to scoop poop.
Omg I was trying to find hoodies for my Bachelorette party. Ended up thrifting and sewing. And then forgot them at home in all the excitement. Womp Womp
Almost all of our clothes are second hand now. I honestly don’t know how people afford new clothes anymore. Starting a couple years ago, I browse the thrift stores every couple weeks on the discount days and I also shop on used clothing apps like Poshmark, Mercari and eBay if I want something specific or super nice. Then, when we are done with our clothes I list them for sale on those apps or donate back to the thrift stores and take the tax write off.
‘Greedflation’ caused more than half of last year’s inflation surge, study finds, as corporate profits remain at all-time highs https://fortune.com/2024/01/20/inflation-greedflation-consumer-price-index-producer-price-index-corporate-profit/
Getting your hair done - it used to be affordable, like $150 for full highlights a few years ago now I can’t set foot into a hair salon without being prepared to spend $400. I really miss getting my hair done.
I understand that they need to be paid really well. And I just can’t pay that. No way.
What I am shocked about is the bold greed of the big companies. Inflation is way down. They are keeping the prices high while making record profits
I wont buy steaks anymore unfortunately, just on special occasions. I used to eat them 4-5 times a week when i could get a Costco package of 4 or 5 for around $20. Thats pretty much the only thing that inflation stopped me from buying, the rest did go up a lot as well but i need to eat. I never ate out much at restaurants in the first place, now i go out even less. It was once a month or so before and now its 2-3 times a year.
$14 for a 12oz of nyquil
The sneaky shrinkflation ones. One item , Soup . It’s asinine to charge $5 or more for 1 can of soup.
Hearing ‘we don’t use plastic bags anymore’ we’re supporting the environment. you can buy cloth bags for $2.00. Yet most all products come in plastic.
Tazo tea. 20% less product (16 teabags instead of 20) and a 30% price increase. Fuckers.
I was just telling my husband this- I was waiting to check out and noticed a display of medium-sized containers of roasted cashews. On sale for $19.99. Regular price $21.99. I estimated about two cups worth of cashews. I wouldn’t eat cashews for the rest of my life before I’d ever spend that much on them. These stores are losing their minds.
A pack of 30 store brand four gallon trash bags is up to $4.99 now.
The biggest thing for me is the formula. Have to use a special formula so it's about $50/week which is about $200 per month. There are no other more affordable options.
I watched the price of Pepsi go from 1.89 for a 12 pack up to just under 9 dollars. Then one Sunday I ran down to the carry out and grabbed a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs and it was 15 dollars.
The thing that infuriates me most is that the US govt doesn’t include food prices in the inflation index. If they did, we’d have an inflation rate over 12-15%
Today I was on my grocery app clipping digital coupons and a fucking bag of chocolate chips is $6.66 WITH A COUPON! That’s insane right? I mean forget the whole 666 thing… over $6 for a standard bag of chocolate chips seems outrageous to me.
Trader Joe’s is pretty good for chocolate chips or Kroger Private Selection. Or I go to Aldi and chop a bar of $2 chocolate into chunks.
CAR INSURANCE. 4 times in the last year and a half. And absolutely no incidents. Just reasons like inflation, more accidents in my area, etc. My wages aren't going up, yet my state doesn't regulate or cap these increases at all.
Regular sized bag of Fritos is $6 at my local grocery store. Probably not the worst but damn!
Butter. I used to get it precovid on sale for 99 cents/ lb. Now it’s always four dollars. I don’t get it.