Or refuse to buy
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.
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.
Computer memory (RAM)
I bought a laptop when I migrated. EIGHT FUCKING YEARS AGO.
RAM used to be so cheap they basically gave it away.
Pets ( vet was never cheap but was affordable) I’ve spent over 7k this year in vet bills for 2 cats and one dog.
Bitcoin
Capitalism.
kebabs. i still remembrer they were 4.5€ before covid. now it’s 8€ at best
fuck that
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.
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.
I refuse to purchase anything from Amazon. Bezos is not getting any of my money.
I feel like I should stop buying on eBay.
Actually, I kind of want to see a price fixing lawsuit against eBay now. They are explicitly telling sellers what price to list their items at, raising the prices of goods sold on eBay to the detriment of buyers so that they can get more money out of the commission fees.
The funny thing is my income has risen dramatically in the last few years, but I’m still approximately at the same level of purchasing power that I was six years ago.
If you had told me in 2012 I would be making low-mid six figures and still feel poor, I would have laughed at you.
If you’ve never used SlickDeals, I highly recommend it.
Is SlickDeals only North America? Or do they deliver worldwide?
Hi there!
SlickDeals isn’t actually a retailer, but a community for bargain hunters. Basically someone sees a good deal and posts about it, and the community sees these posts and upvotes the best deals, but the best thing about it is you can create an email alert to yourself and add keywords, so you get an email when someone posts a deal matching that keyword. If you have a regular shopping list you use or staple products you know you’ll need interminably, like toilet paper (or for me, crew neck t shirts) it’s a really great way to get around price gouging or find a good bulk purchase to stock up.
I’m guessing there’s a non US equivalent if it doesn’t work in your country, since price gouging’s happening everywhere, but I can’t say for sure what it might be.
I just bought some things on ebay to avoid Amazon. They dropshipped Amazon to me, individual packages and all, for nearly 100% markup. I don’t know how to avoid that and find “real” sellers dropshipping non-branded warehoused Chinese goods like the good old days.
You went to one giant corporation to avoid another giant corporation. Buy directly from sellers, ideally locally. Find their own actual websites. Ask word of mouth for recommendations.
That typically doesn’t work well for hobby and craft supplies. Limited selection at the physical stores, if there’s any at all, and there’s no individuals selling raw supplies.
The funny thing is my income has risen dramatically in the last few years, but I’m still approximately at the same level of purchasing power that I was six years ago.
Fucking same. I basically doubled my salary a couple of years ago and it seems like I’m not getting anywhere…
Yep. Same boat, its insane.
I honestly do not know how anybody that is making less than $50,000 a year is even surviving right now.
I went on eBay for the first time in years the other cat looking for a few cookbooks. Holy fuck. No thanks. I’m not paying retail plus shipping on the cheapest USED book. Get the fuck out.
Where are you shopping these days? My area has a Walmart and a dollar general. Love the mega corps…
Did you try ThriftBooks by chance?
That’s where I got one of the ones I was looking for!
Glad to hear it!
I scored the $50 premium hardback of ‘World of Ice and Fire’ for $11 off TB earlier this year. It also has a really cool inscription on the inside cover from the previous owner. I love used books.
Yeah I have a couple I’m still watching over there because they’re still out of my price range (I’m broke lol) but we’ll see 🤞
Beer. When I was in school a pint of domestic was $5. It’s around $10 now.
Video games. Retro video games. All of it.
Sure, we have Steam sales and those are still cheap. But physical games? Gone bonkers since covid.
This is the first time in the history of the world that current Gen consoles have gone UP in price. Games hardly go down in price anymore.
Retro games used to be cheap. Now everyone and their mother knows they’re not just old children’s toys, and think everything is a collectible. And these days, they might not even be wrong! Not to mention thrift stores and sometimes even garage salers are trying to charge eBay prices for everything they have.
I’m just holding onto digital games and Steam sales and such…and, well, piracy of course. (But storage is expensive too…)
I was going to buy an old game that was not very good for nostalgia purposes as a gift. Since COVID it has tripled in price.
It was already not good, and at $150 I’d rather gift an Everdrive with an 8gb card full of the rom than spend that much on a shelf piece.
Was it “notoriously bad” or just lacklustre? That makes a difference! Lol
Edutainment mixed with mid-platforming… Most likely expensive because it didn’t have a wide release. Not “bad” but also not a hidden gem or “actually good despite” anything.
Beef. Beef used to be in the affordable to readily affordable range. Now for a pound of ground beef it’s about half as much for a bag of chicken breasts.
