I just spent $109 for a Valvoline oil change in the Los Angeles area. I found this old coupon from 2014. Crazy how much it's increased.

I just spent $109 for a Valvoline oil change in the Los Angeles area. I found this old coupon from 2014. Crazy how much it's increased.

In this economy I learned how to do my own maintenance. I refuse to pay someone else over a $100 to unscrew something then screw in something else.
Same. Did my brakes last weekend and saved like $700. And it’s about as hard as an oil change.
Its kinda crazy what mechanics charge in the US. I get that they have significant tooling costs to recoup, and every job isn't so straightforward and that all gets spread out, but shit I paid $5 for 2 new footpegs and bending my shifter back onto place with a torch, then $4 for an oil change after I got hit by a taxi.

Last year they said I needed a new turbo. Quoted me $2300. I got the part and tools for under $1200
Turns out that didn’t fix it and it was the catalytic converter - bad misfire clogged it with gas. Replaced the downpipe for $800 and then sold the old cats as scrap for $250.
Now I know that I can do all that stuff and I saved $550.
I knew how to change oil before I even had a license. You need to be able to handle your own shit because you'll be gouged every single time otherwise
The way I see it if anyone opened a drivers school that also taught basic maintenance they'd make a killing here.
Do oil changes yourself. It's very simple and kind of fun. First time took me 45 mins. Every time after that, about 10 mins, and most of that is sitting around waiting for the oil to drain before screwing the plug back in.
Really, for most cars, if you can pump gas then you can do the oil and oil filter, fluids (coolants, brake, power steering, etc), air and cabin filters. They generally involve unscrewing or unclipping something, then popping it back on. Brake pads are also very simple. These are parts designed to be replaced regularly so are quick and simple with 1 or 2 tools, if a tool is even needed.

Careful about flashing that kind of cash
SSDs as well. I stuck 2TB in my PS5 for under 100 quid.
Now they're closer to 300.
Prices in restaurants, cinema, and the fact im being laid off
Bread. Even bread is too expensive now. Rice has been climbing but is still affordable. For now.
I came here to comment "bread". We have gone from 99¢ to $3.99 for a loaf of french bread in a bit over a decade.
I'm thinking of just baking my own at this point
Where do you live that a 10 kg sack of rice is expensive?
Bread being expensive in the US is so awful, they gave us wonderbread and because it was cheaper and we have fuckall for bakeries, it let the few bakeries increase the price of fresh bread.
I am in a country that doesn't grow wheat, yet the price of fresh bread is less than I paid at the only non-cake bakery near me, Publix, in America
It’s been said a lot but food.
Really everything has gone up a lot. It seems like things have gone up a lot more than inflation numbers would tell you.
We’re fortunate that we can absorb it but we have tightened up anyway because I don’t see the raping of our wallets ending.
utility bills, electric gas,water all went up because of AI datacenters in most of the states, the govts, and utility companies will never tell the customers this.
I haven't seen someone say yet but used good. Like garage sales and thrift stores and auctions, everything is hiked up to be almost the same price as if you'd buy it new.
The non-Goodwill thrift stores around me are still affordable and they support local nonprofits
Fast food. I basically can't leave a fast food restaurant without spending over $20 for my family of 4.
That is incredibly cheap compared to my area... McDonalds, 1 medium sized burger menu is like $15
Family of 4? Dang, I'm happy if I'm under $40 for my family of 3!
Politicians, they used to be expensive. Now it’s almost downright affordable.
Oh, you!
I thought home internet would get cheaper over time...
Sounds weird but, chocolate chips.
Oh, and a $70k Toyota Tacoma. $70,000, for a taco. The fuck is Toyota smoking?
I bought two individual russet potatoes, came to about $5.50. In the past Ive always bought bags of potatoes, but they go bad sometimes before they get eaten, so Ive just been buying individual potatoes lately.
Fast food
I'm much healthier as a result
Edit: food is good, good is not food
Having teeth.
Them luxury bones. Had to get a front tooth root canal and crown and it was $1,600 WITH insurance.
In Australia, surprisingly and disappointingly, medical appointments. Seeing a specialist for anything is about $500 AUD, after Medicare rebate. So you need to have more than that much liquid cash on the day, and be able to tank the hit.
I still remember being in line behind this mother whose child was clearly extremely unwell mentally. When she heard the price for the psychiatrist appointment she's like, I can't pay that... Let alone 2 or 3 times because psychiatrists never diagnose on the first visit. She had her own (understandable) mental breakdown, and stepped outside to call family to borrow money.
You shouldn't need a payment plan to get antipsychotics. Somehow still cheaper than the scam that is private health insurance though.
Sorry to hear that. I didn’t realize the Australian healthcare system was as bad as the one in the USA. $500 to see a specialist is not ok, especially not for psychiatry when the medical support is literally life changing.
Phone service in America. A 1 month sim here in vietnam with a number and 8gb/day costs ~10USD. Its cheaper if you buy longer. Meanwhile Verizon is charging 35-50 dollars a month.
Coffee. It's about to go extinct too, I'm sure that will help things.
Already said a lot, but should be said again. Food.
Food, my weekly grocery bill has risen from ~80€ to ~130€ and I've started to limit and reduce snacks. Store is the same, amounts have gotten smaller, only difference is time. Few years ago when the first Lidl(Aldi) was opened and became the closest store to my home. Overall weekly bill never reached to triple digits, nowadays it never stays below that.
And i bloody hate triple digit numbers, my heart weeps every time i need to pay it and think about quitting eating all together.
Normalizing monopoly.
I stopped buying chips when prices doubled. I stopped buying minced meat and chicken. I only buy eggs and coffee when it's finally discounted. Now frozen vegetables doubled in price. I can't just stop buying things.
Also, came back to Netherlands after a few years. Cigarettes over €10 and €7.50 for a beer wtf
Lumber. I was planning out a project with teak wood and noped out as soon as I saw the prices.
Generally everything.
Have you seen how much you pay for "nothing special" groceries? $30 and you didn't buy anything.
Couple cuts of meat $6, cheese $4, a loaf of bread $4, a gallon of milk $4, carton of eggs $5, and some random greenery and maybe some sweets $4.
Cow. Ground beef got so expensive. Good for me in the sense that I am eating less red meat, but bad in the sense that meal prep takes longer now.
College. It was so much easier paying for my college education as a broke kid, then it is trying to pay for my kids college education at what’s supposed to be my prime earning years
Computer parts and computers.
utility bills, it has gone up because of AI datacenters, and all forms of insurance, health, car,,,,etc looking at parents costs. we have the wierd property tax here, that the state likes to tax on for some reason, and target the actual billionaires.
also the cost of schooling for different grad programs, one grad program in health is under 15k for a state school but highly competitive as a result due to very limited space and schools(like most state schools ever only accept 30ish applicants per semester or year) out of likely hundreds or thousand+ people applying and the industry is a shortage(likely intentional to keep the salary high, much like with MDs licenses) they recent started a "abridged program" which i dont think it solves the problem. while pharm school very expensive yet earns almost the same as the grad program i mentioned and 4 times as long to finish.(1 vs 3/4 years), since everyone wants to come our state the shcools are severely impacted because theres only ever 9 unis that teach this program for CLS.
Healthcare
Cigarettes.
I haven't smoked in almost thirty years, but I remember thensuper discount brand cartons going for $7 back in the late '90s.
This is going to have an asterisk because I'm in a fairly remote area on vacation. Like, in the Upper Peninsula, not a lot of grocery competition.
But we went to get some food for the week at this grocery store today, and I was staggered by the prices, many of which were crazy out of step with what I'd pay in my home state at a random Walmart or similar chain. The smallest Lucky Charms was over $6; the largest was on sale for $4 and change but only if you had the store loyalty card. If you use the store loyalty card it doesn't auto-discount anything, you have to use the credit card reader to scroll the available coupons and try to pick the ones relevant to your cart.
Normal sized Starbucks whole bean bag was $17. Extra big one was like $27. Of course I bought neither.
Twizzlers in the big bag was two for $8. Fuck off lol.
They extrude corn syrup and artificial flavoring for pennies and will do anything to increase or maintain profit margins as people can less and less afford luxuries like sweet treats with 0 nutritional value. They're going to price us all into diets with their inflexibility and greed.
Apparently getting corrective eye surgery. Not that I ever had the procedure. How could I when I'd be dropping $7000?! I even tried applying for financial assistance, but my application was denied.
Eggs are back to 1.90-2 per dozen, but velveeta slices are $6 and a gallon of milk is $5-6 also
Scallions are still cheap but fish and shrimp, chicken and beef are way up. I cook most of my family's food but if we want Uber Eats it's always like $60-100. We are in Manhattan, but honestly when I visit family in FL or GA it's not much better. Coffee is double what it was 2 years ago.
literally everything. I stopped getting fast food and lottery tickets because they were no longer inconsequential amounts. I mean its not exactly a bad thing for my health and well being but its kinda crazy. Ironically. Relatively speaking. Healthier stuff is cheaper because less and less people can afford it. I even see soda companies desperately trying to raise prices but folks don't have it. Every sale the shelves get cleared because everyone is stocking up to make it to the next sale. when no sale then none of it moves.
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