Or refuse to buy
RAM used to be so cheap they basically gave it away.
Any soft drink that’s not Arizona iced tea.
I haven’t checked lately, is the price still on the can, though?
Pets ( vet was never cheap but was affordable) I’ve spent over 7k this year in vet bills for 2 cats and one dog.
Capitalism.
Bitcoin
I don’t know but in general I’ve just stopped consumering. I get what I need and that’s about it. It’s my way of protesting not just prices but just how shit everything is today.
I buy independent media now, thats still cheap. I can pay the monthly subs for two indie news orgs for the same price I pay for four beers.
Note: I’m Australian, yeah beers a bit expensive here, but come on, value for money!
SD cards. Used to be able to get 32 or even 64GB cards for basically pocket money, and now it’s something you’d have to save for
Yeah, I sure could use some cheap SD cards now. I feel like a lot of the more privacy conscious gadgets use SD cards to save you from the menace of manufacturer-controlled cloud storage, rightly so!
I remember USB thumb drives hitting crazy lows at one point too, to the point where I was getting some decently sized drives as promo items. I think I paid $40 or so for my very first 250MB USB stick, maybe it was even smaller than that. I also distinctly remember buying a 128GB USB stick for a very similar price in the last decade or two and seeing them even cheaper than that. You do notice a build quality difference between them when you hold them side by side. The old Sandisk feels solid, the led, the cap, the enclosure are all solid and feel super sturdy and like they’re one single piece. The newer 128GB PNY is cheap, rattly, trashy plastic wrapped around a circuit board with a goofy retractable usb connector, but obviously outperforms the old one by miles. Would love to have cheap and quality. :-)
Everyone’s talking tech, but I’ll add car parts.
Everything from aftermarket parts to basic things like filters or even windhsield wipers.
$25/blade. If you have a 3-blade car, that’s $75.
Had to replace a battery. They used to be $100-125 for a good one. Nope. $200 for a mid grade replacement.
It wasn’t cheap, but they were affordable. Not so much anymore.
Drinks in a restaurant. I always order water. One day I was in the mood for tea until I looked down at the $4.99 price. Strangely, soft drinks we’re $3.99. I guess many of you aren’t surprised, but like I said, I never really order drinks with a meal so it had been a while since I had seen the price.
Depends where it is. Wetherspoons still does £1.99 a pint. I also found a place recently that I can abuse their system to get double my drinks order but even with that little cheat its still like £3.50/pint so I don’t go there much. Its mostly a human engineering attack combined with a little bit of knowledge of POS systems.
I honestly just finds it absurd that soda is usually as expensive as water. Or water is a few cents cheaper. I mean i drink water anyway, but still.
Wait… you have to pay for water at a pub or restaurant or cafe? Where are you from?
Matinee movie tickets. Outback 6 oz sirloins. 12 packs of soda. I just watch Netflix, cook steak at home (still expensive but I get more bang for buck) and drink water.
Steaks at home are always better
GPU’s. I remember before the mining boom and the AI boom, three to four hundred bucks would get you a decent card. Managed to score a 9070xt for close to retail price recently and that will have to last me at least 3 more years, if not forever.
You considered $400 cheap?!
Yeah, at the time I had four times my current income.
Fast Food. Went in to Subway yesterday and got a single sandwich meal and it was 25 bucks. Hell, McDonalds isn’t even really cheap, the sandwiches that used to be on the dollar menu are like 4 bucks a pop now.
Who goes to Subway? Is it 2002?
I ask this question every time I’m reminded that it’s the most popular fast food chain in the US by some metrics.
Shit is disgusting.
You have to use the app. A footlong is like $7.
If things are cheaper in the app and the app is free, there is a hidden cost that makes them want you to use the app more than paying the higher price for sandwiches. Falling into this trap repeatedly is how we got here. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
If I have to use an app to use a restaurant, I’m not.
Using an app does seem to be the deal now.
Streaming services.
Thank god piracy is free and it’s easier than ever.
I love piracy. It’s never let me down.
Exactly. I’ve been pirating content for 20+ years, except for a small period where Netflix was actually good. Now, I regret even paying for that short period; they don’t deserve any of my money.
kebabs. i still remembrer they were 4.5€ before covid. now it’s 8€ at best
fuck that
16-25€ here… On the bright side, made me learn how to do them at home. And no, the ingredients don’t cost 25€ a portion!
I surely hope your salary is at least twice mine!
Beer. When I was in school a pint of domestic was $5. It’s around $10 now.
Silver linings: I’m consuming less garbage now because I simply can’t afford it.
I’m still consuming it, of course.
Just less of it.
