“I Near Fainted”: 30 Things That Have Gotten So Expensive, People Just Can’t Ignore It Anymore
I recently took a trip to McDonald’s for the first time in years, and I was extremely disappointed. After waiting 45 minutes for a cold meal, my partner and I realized that for the same price, we could have had a much better dinner somewhere else! Isn’t the appeal of fast food supposed to be that it’s quick and affordable?
Well, as we all know, some things just aren’t what they used to be. Redditors have been discussing items that have become surprisingly expensive in recent years, so we’ve gathered some of their thoughts below. Enjoy scrolling through this list that will remind you how out of control inflation has gotten, and keep reading to find a conversation with Laura Turner, aka Thrifty Londoner!
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Fast food in general. Five guys and McDonalds specifically. How is the price of a burger, fries and a coke the same as a full service sit-down restaurant?
It's not though, sit-down restaurant prices also have gone up significantly.
Canned Tuna. (The cheaper stuff tastes like c**p and why do they put a picture of a cat on it?)
To gain some more insight on this topic from a personal finance expert, we reached out to Laura Turner, founder of Thrifty Londoner, who was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda.
"The most obvious items that I’ve noticed have become increasingly more expensive are food items," Laura shared. "I think this is because when we buy things frequently, we get to know the prices over time (plus, the cumulative cost becomes very obvious!)"
Rent.
SaltySpitoonReg:
It's insane how quickly it's gone up. When I started renting 5 years ago, my apartment was just over $1,000 a month.
Now it's just under 2k.
5 years and nearly doubled. Insane.
Im Florida, they can raise it to any amount with only a 60 days. Government sponsored price gouging at its finest.
Concert tickets.
I mean I don’t buy them anymore, but when I go to buy them… I don’t.
"The most expensive things in our baskets will also have the most obvious percentage increases," the Thrifty Londoner noted. "For me, I’ve seen salmon fillets costing £10 a pack in some stores, to other items like olive oil increasing by at least £1 per bottle."
"As someone with dietary intolerances, I also buy a fair amount of dairy free and gluten free products, and these are also more expensive than ever before," Laura added. "Whether it’s £3 for a chocolate bar, or £4 for a pack of wraps!"
I usually don’t brag about owning expensive things, but I just left the grocery store.
Petrus_Rock:
Just groceries. We used to be able to fill a cart to the brim with 200-250 euros. Now it’s *cheap* if we can fill half a cart for that price.
I sometimes have to go to the grocery store because my parents and siblings are busy. The cost regularly adds up to more than $200. I'm sorry for... just trying to survive...?
Fruit. How the f**k is a cantaloupe $8.00???
gayforequalrights:
I accidentally bought a $15 bag of grapes and a $15 bag of cotton candy grapes. Panicked when I got home but even worse the next day they were moldy! I actually returned them to the store. I’m not cheap but $30 is $30.
Best thing to do for your fruits and vegetables, especially grapes, is to take out all the grapes from a container. Line the container with a [paper] towel. soak the grapes in a solution of about 1/4 vinegar and water solution. Let them soak for at least ten minutes, then rinse and put them back in the container. The vinegar kills the mold spores and they last much longer in the refer.....You will be very surprised at how dirty the left over water will be.
Laura says she started to notice a shift in these prices around a year ago, but they have significantly accelerated in the last 6 months. "I have changed the way I shop a little to accommodate the increased prices," she told Bored Panda. "For example, instead of salmon being my choice of an omega 3-rich oily fish, I now opt for the cheaper, but still omega 3-rich, mackerel."
Potato chips. I’ve lost ten pounds. My doctor says that inflation is the best thing that could have happened to me. No joke.
I don't drink pop, I don't eat meat, I don't eat chips, but I used to years ago and the prices are shocking now. I just bought some protein bars and when I was putting them away I came across a long forgotten one from the same company that somehow got lost in the pantry. I swear it was 1/3 bigger than the new ones for the same price.
Laura also provided some tips for those of us who need help budgeting. "The starting point of any good budget is to know exactly what your essentials cost each month (your rent or mortgage payments, bills, travel, fuel, groceries etc)," the expert noted. "Look at your bank balance to get a true picture."
"See if you can reduce any of these fixed costs- for example, negotiating your bills, as a head start on your budget," she continued. "Then, you can work from there to see what’s leftover for non-essentials and saving."
A house. I recognize this is different than "every time you buy it", but whenever I casually browse houses for sale in my area, I think to myself, "How does anyone these days ever save up enough to even pay a 10% down payment? Let alone pay the mortgage with interest rates these days."
Sanitary pads.
uffdathatisnice:
It costs me $16 and my sanity to get my period every month.
Use a menstrual cup! 30 bucks every 10 years as long as you take care of them.
"My best advice is to try and increase your income to help combat increased costs resulting from inflation," Laura added. "Things like asking for a pay rise, side hustling, or making sure that your savings are in a high interest savings account."
If you'd like to hear more wise words and financial advice from Laura, be sure to visit Thrifty Londoner!
Socks/Underwear.
Pretend_Star_8193:
Bras are freaking insane. And they’re not something you can cheap out on. I lost weight recently and had to replace my bras. I wanted to cry.
Anything for women should be listed here. We pay more for the "pink tax" then if the product was made for men. I hate how the less fabric there is in clothing, the more expensive it is!
Auto insurance.
Honeypott615:
I literally pay almost 300 for just liability on a car that is paid off and I’ve been in no accidents and my car is 11 years old !! That’s how much I was paying for full coverage when I was leasing my car. Their reason is just the cost of living. Okayy glad yall can jack that price up while I haven’t gotten a raise and I ask for a raise and I get laughed at (literally by the boss) DISGUSTING.
This one really gets me as I have just done the car insurance for me and my wife. Last year for both it was about £550, this year it was £750. That was the cheapest I could get it to. For the same thing I had last year. The reasons are that they can, it's extortion, and f**k you
Prescription medicine.
Inked_Chick:
My migraine medication, without insurance, is 2400$ a month for SIXTEEN pills (two 8pks). And there isn't a cheaper generic version. You also can't split up the amount to pay less in an emergency. It comes in an 8pk for 1200$. All of it or none of it.
It's criminal. I'm in debilitating pain. It's not like I want it for funsies.
Edit to add: my insurance does cover it so I only pay 11$ but every month insurance screws around for 10 days wanting to deny it so it's an agonizing waiting game where I can't get emergency doses :(
Old subway commercial was 5$ footlong, 15$ dollar foot long doesn’t quite have the same jingle to it.
Baby Formula.
insolentjuice:
Horribly expensive. Apparently, it’s the most commonly shoplifted item. So sad.
Netwytch:
A small can of hypoallergenic formula is $37.00. My 7-month-old goes through multiple cans per week. I pay more for my baby’s formula per week than I do groceries for me and my husband.
Looked at a magazine while standing in the grocery store check out. Magazine was $15!
i tried to buy a crossword puzzle book, but when i scanned the price, it was $17.98 and i had to put it back.
Diapers being $48 a box is wild.
cocofruitbowl:
My child is finally clicking with using the toilet and I’m so relieved (no pun intended).
Tuition
Used cars
Daycare
Insurance
Medicine
Groceries
Toys
Hygiene products
Games on Steam
Tips - when did 10 to 15% become not good enough?
Razor blades. What the hell? You would think these are individually forged by hand by master craftsmen.
Edit: the only cartridge blades I now buy are for my wife. I’ve grown a beard and use Wahl clippers for both my noggin’ and face. For the most part I use a Braun electric to trim and tidy (Mr. Neck Beard is not attractive to Mrs. Maverick).
Bras are freaking insane. And they’re not something you can cheap out on. I lost weight recently and had to replace my bras. I wanted to cry.
Good bras are so expensive! I replaced my bras in 2020. They were $60 a piece on sale. They’re wearing out but I can’t afford to replace. And as I’m well endowed, cheap Walmart ones don’t work.
As a truck driver, I no longer eat any meal out of a truck stop restaurant anymore. A T-bone steak dinner at the Petro cost almost $40 out the door after taxes and a tip. I was able to justify investing in a vacuum sealer, a dometic 12 volt fridge/freezer and a gas one camping stove. All in all my total initial cost to start saving more money has been almost $1k to prep my own food and I'm going to make all of it back after 3 or 4 months if I just cut the restaurants out of my budget entirely. I've also found that brewing your own tea or coffee,and using drink mixes cuts back on costs significantly seeing as a bottle of Gatorade cost like $3.45.
Was at a convenience store and an older guy bought a carton of sort of bottom shelf 305s for around $38. Expensive habit.
You mean cigarettes? 305's are named after Miami area code, miss them cigarettes, you can't get them much further than southern Georgia.
Load More Replies...
My company trucks always had a fridge. A crockpot, microwave and grill cost under $100. Started cooking in the truck just before COVID hit. All those fat drivers I swear only grab fast food & sodas from the truck stops
Did the same thing with cigarettes. Bought a machine to roll my own at 1/4 the price.
Was just cheaper to quit. It’s gonna cost more to live longer and I got no kids to help when I’m older. Wait with all the extra money saved I can have a two shopping cart garage when I’m homeless. Living large.
Load More Replies... Congratualtions for takling intelligent action instead of just bitching. Most of the other responders and posters here should follow suit.
Toilet paper.
spiciestbeans:
Every time I see it’s like 25-30$ for a big pack of tp I question why I’m paying to wipe my own a**.
How many rolls are there in a "big pack"? If you buy the bestest softest TP in germany you'll spend no more than €5 for like 10 or 12 rolls.
Freaking oil changes! Wasn’t it like a few years ago they were $20? Now I get coupons for $75 and I’m supposed to act like I’m robbing them.
Cat food.
greenjilly:
Seriously! Within a year, the cat food I get went from $12 to $19. I literally could not believe it. I had to go back and check my receipts because I thought I was going crazy.
My poor cat had stones in his bladder. He had surgery and is better now. Both cats are now on a special diet. $96/case of 24 cans. They are worth it. (See picture of his stones) Resized_10...b-jpeg.jpg 
Cereal. Literally $9.50 a box with tax. Absolutely ridiculous.
Panera bread. It used to be like $10 for you pick two a few years ago. Now, it's $18. The quality has deteriorated as well.
I wasn't impressed with it before the prices went up...
McDonald’s! I mean it’s cheap compared to other things but now it’s just as expensive as Wendy’s or any other fast food joint. I’m Canadian it’s about $14 after tax for a Big Mac combo at my local McDonalds.
Lunch meat.
SquashDue502:
We used to live on cold cuts in school and idk how my mom would feed us if they were priced what they are today.
I went to make a birthday cake for my father in law and realized my vanilla bean paste (the good stuff - Nelson-Massey) expired in 2018 so it was probably time for a new one…
It still had a William Sonoma price tag on it for $12.95. I went back to William Sonoma for a new one: $36!
It was probably still good. Just finished my 2018 bottle yesterday and opened a new one (Amazon for less).
I saw a can of Spam at the grocery store for $7, almost $8, and I near fainted.
Car batteries! I bought one back in 2017 for like $125. Bought one back in November and my eyes almost popped out of my head—$378. And I have a smaller and s****ier car now.
I bought one at Walmart last year for $119, couple years before that a battery was $59.
"Cheap" hotels and restaurants. With the cheapest meals available it costs $200 per day to travel alone now, and that's staying in fleabag hotels where being robbed if I go outside is a real possibility.
Getting something framed. It's always way more insanely priced than I remember.
Buy a picture with the correct size frame - and matt board if needed - from an inexpensive shop - swap out picture.
Mayo, How is it $8.00 for mayo!!!
Mayo is mostly made with eggs, and egg prices have skyrocketed as well.
Beer in Australia. It's the national beverage for anyone above the age of 8 and you need to take out a mortgage just to buy 1 schooner.
It's a bloody disgrace it is.
Schooner is a type of drinking glass. I hate to think of the price of a yacht glass of beer (if such exists).
Went to buy those small black runner bands for your hair and couldn’t find any under $4.. they used to be 99cents???
Soda! A twelve pack on sale is $6… I remember buying full cases for that price pre-pandemic… And if it’s a Coke product, it’s even worse.
So glad I gave up soft drink. I've never felt better and after 5 years not drinking it I don't miss it one bit
Bleach. 2019 it was 0.99 a gal. Now it’s over $6 a gallon in most places.
Chicken, especially wings. Used to make wings at least once every football season but didn't this year. Used to eat chicken multiple times a week, only about once per week now.
Pork is now the cheap meat, but beans are starting to look like the new chicken.
Heinz baked beans have doubled in price. Source: my wife is English.
Frozen french fries. $7 for a regular 32oz bag of Ore-Idas. Now I'm like: Hey kids! Let's make our own French fries. They'll taste much better because we made them with LOVE!
My wife just bought a basic pack of floss for $6.95…
I use heavy sewing thread dipped in non scented candle wax. $2.99 for 150 yards.
I saw a meme about how decent trash cans are shockingly expensive. And it’s so true. I thought about getting a new one because mine is a little beat up. The metal ones are like $100 minimum.
What I've been using as a gauge for how expensive groceries have gotten is a can of Progresso soup and Near East Rice Pilaf; before the pandemic you could get each for $1 now the Progresso is $3.50 and the Rice Pilaf is about $2.70.
Olive oil.
notnexus
notnexus:
My BIL is in the import business, he was telling me yesterday that the price of EVOO will go up even further in the next 12 months. There’s now no profit left in the industry. So he is importing the product because he has supply contracts but actually losing money because the retailers can’t put the price up any higher. It will mean a huge number of growers/suppliers will go under and make the supply issue even worse in the next few years.
I am from Spain and the saddest thing is that we are the biggest producer of olive oil of the world but here now the cheapest price of the liter of virgin olive oil in one big cheap superstore is 7,89€. In 2023 it was discovered that some superstores have been agreeing between them on the prices (which is illegal) to keep them more expensive.
I was just looking at a pound of See's Nuts and Chews Chocolates and it was 29.50. No thanks.
Coffee. I hate feeling guilty for getting my little drinky drink but i spent $7 on a latte two days ago.
Quarts of motor oil. $8.50/..? That's almost $35.00 a gallon.
Peanut butter was $9 yesterday - one of the larger Jiff jars but I remember them being like $5 the last time.
Cat litter.
I'm trying to make the expensive but great cat litter to last longer by mixing with cheap-ish ones now
Greeting cards.
I always turn the card over to see the price..$3.95, $5.95, etc. regardless of card company and sadly that is part of my decision making of which card I will buy. My adult son gave me a wonderful wooden Mickey Mouse birthday card last year and I still am wondering did he go without food for a week and a half in order to pay for it. I always loved the handmade cards our son gave us...35 cents of material and a million dollars of love in the thought.
Beef jerky.
ButtMassager:
Yeah it's pricey so I tried making my own and it wound up costing not that much less. You lose so much weight jerking it
Olives. Pitted olives aren't cheap. Like... Wow. Also, honey too. The good stuff. And no, I'm not talking about Manuka honey.
Kiva Certified Raw Manuka Honey - New Zealand (250 gr) can be had for $85 Canadian. Amazon offers a payment plan. A payment plan for a small jar of honey!!
Plumbing fittings. What used to be .50 cents or a dollar is now 10 or 25 now. Valves that used to be $35. Are $150. Now. We’re talking overall price increase in a 20 year span, with the majority happening during Covid when everyone started price gouging.
OMG YES! The water bibs on my outside house faucets are those freeze proof ones that go back into the wall (a pretty common thing). I bought one a few years ago - $8-12 depending on length. Current prices at Home Depot for same thing - $35-50 EDIT: PS - these are not solid copper / brass valves. Just basic pot metal or whatever.
Skiing lift tickets in the US.
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Yep. Two years from now I wasn't worried about making it to end of the month, now I have to read twice my grocery list before going to the store.
Load More Replies...
This list is mostly US oriented bcz even though i agree about price inflation of houses, electricty and some other things. Most things are cheap in Europe and Asia. Medicines and education are price controlled by government here. Sure, its expensive even then but not as much as US for sure.
Supermarkets ( & a % of businesses) in the UK have been moaning about the drop in shopping levels, but their overt greed seems to blur out that peeps are struggling with constantly insane prices, and thus limits their purchases. Some would say they are too dumb to realise - but no. It's greed, plain & simple. It happened with other things, especially utilities. The UK Govts sold off our Water/Gas/Electric to private companies (1979-2012 period, begun by Thatcher), and we're massively overcharged. We also have the sh%ttiest waterways/beaches due to the water companies discharging it in them instead of processing it, to save money for their shareholders.
I agree with the list but not with the prices. I live in germany and everything listed here with price, is like 3 Times cheaper here.
Part of the truly nefarious thing about some of this is shrinking the package. Oh a can of soup is 1.50 and a couple years ago it was 1.25 which is a pretty significant increase alone, then take in the fact it's 10 or 15% smaller and it really starts to hit just how much prices increases. The shrinking of items is just an effort to hide inflation so people don't realize just how bad things are.
Algorithms are secretly fleecing consumers everywhere. When you look at the price of something going up you could be experiencing ai "upselling" where some algorithm somewhere has decided to modify price information based on your current location, or the device you are using to connect.
Dear Australia, you aren’t allowed to tantrum over the so called cost of living crisis in regards to grocery store food costs. The HFAB survey tool shows only an $8 increase in basket cost for food in 6 years. That’s less than general inflation.
You were warned this would happen, and precisely why. You hated the people warning you with every fiber of your being. But they were correct. (But not about the minimum wage, which barely factors into these price hikes.)
Yep. Two years from now I wasn't worried about making it to end of the month, now I have to read twice my grocery list before going to the store.
Load More Replies... This list is mostly US oriented bcz even though i agree about price inflation of houses, electricty and some other things. Most things are cheap in Europe and Asia. Medicines and education are price controlled by government here. Sure, its expensive even then but not as much as US for sure.
Supermarkets ( & a % of businesses) in the UK have been moaning about the drop in shopping levels, but their overt greed seems to blur out that peeps are struggling with constantly insane prices, and thus limits their purchases. Some would say they are too dumb to realise - but no. It's greed, plain & simple. It happened with other things, especially utilities. The UK Govts sold off our Water/Gas/Electric to private companies (1979-2012 period, begun by Thatcher), and we're massively overcharged. We also have the sh%ttiest waterways/beaches due to the water companies discharging it in them instead of processing it, to save money for their shareholders.
I agree with the list but not with the prices. I live in germany and everything listed here with price, is like 3 Times cheaper here.
Part of the truly nefarious thing about some of this is shrinking the package. Oh a can of soup is 1.50 and a couple years ago it was 1.25 which is a pretty significant increase alone, then take in the fact it's 10 or 15% smaller and it really starts to hit just how much prices increases. The shrinking of items is just an effort to hide inflation so people don't realize just how bad things are.
Algorithms are secretly fleecing consumers everywhere. When you look at the price of something going up you could be experiencing ai "upselling" where some algorithm somewhere has decided to modify price information based on your current location, or the device you are using to connect.
Dear Australia, you aren’t allowed to tantrum over the so called cost of living crisis in regards to grocery store food costs. The HFAB survey tool shows only an $8 increase in basket cost for food in 6 years. That’s less than general inflation.
You were warned this would happen, and precisely why. You hated the people warning you with every fiber of your being. But they were correct. (But not about the minimum wage, which barely factors into these price hikes.)
