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.
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.
For conventional or synthetic? That’s pretty fair price for synthetic.
Was it synthetic oil? Synthetic used to be a little more uncommon and was more expensive, now it’s more common and the same price as conventional oil. But oil change places still charge double for synthetic.
Yeah, I’ve been making it a habit to budget $300 for routine maintenance when I have to go to Valvoline. At least the car runs well, even if I’m hungry.
Oh my god. I know that’s a coupon for a discount but oil changes became 10 times more expensive no wonder why it always felt like such a burden. We really need to break card dependency because it’s just playing old not affordable
Careful about flashing that kind of cash
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.
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
Politicians, they used to be expensive. Now it’s almost downright affordable.
Oh, you!
Sounds weird but, chocolate chips.
Oh, and a $70k Toyota Tacoma. $70,000, for a taco. The fuck is Toyota smoking?
Agreed on chocolate chips.
I found getting the small bags of ready-made cookie mix is more affordable at this point.
I thought home internet would get cheaper over time…
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.Having teeth.
Them luxury bones. Had to get a front tooth root canal and crown and it was $1,600 WITH insurance.
Bruh, go to mexico.
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.
It’s not that bad yet, but I feel like we’re on the way there. Luckily we still have a pretty good public sector for emergencies. But there is no public sector psychiatrists, at least not around here. So you’re covered for some things but not others, especially specialist treatment. That’s why I specified appointment, because most of the time appointment refers to private sector. And outpatient stuff, but the line is confusing and arbitrary.
For example,
- Dentists are essential but also elective.
- The hospital will cast your broken leg for free but you’ll pay a lot for the rehab physiotherapy privately.
- They’ll CT scan a tennis ball sized tumour for free, but refuse to remove it because even though it’s growing it’s “benign” i.e. if it won’t kill you then we don’t care.
- Two doctors will cost wildly different prices even though both use Medicare.
- You can go to the hospital 10 times for the same cardiac problem for free, but getting it investigated or fixed is private, unless you’re critically in danger.
It’s hard to know whether something will cost you or not until you try and get it treated. It’s very “reactionary” instead of “preventative” is how I’d describe it. Like they’ll chop off a diabetic foot for free, which is hugely expensive medical procedure requiring a surgeon, but seeing a dietician to learn how to manage your diabetes costs $200+ per appointment.
I almost feel like if I had to choose, the reverse should be true. Focus on preventing problems rather than putting out fires.
Having such a reactionary approach is counterproductive, I agree. I know people for who psychiatric care is not optional, they’re doing fine on the right meds though that requires monthly follow ups. That would cost a fortune! Also not covering physical rehabilitation is confusing as it’s pretty much needed after surgery, how are people supposed to regain as much function as possible?
Our health insurance here costs $600 per person per month but then it covers specialists with a $40 copay, includes vision and dental. Basically if you can afford private insurance it’s manageable but that’s a horrible way to design the system since you often loose your insurance if you change jobs.
I miss the French system, it’s not perfect but it was more affordable and teeth were not considered optional. The main inconvenience that I remember were the wait times so you just have to be organized for your routine care and it’s no problem.
Yeah exactly… It’s emergencies only really then you’re on your own. I needed 20 physiotherapist appts after a severe car crash, thankfully we have special insurance specifically for car crashes that is very good, but if the same thing happened from a random fall or something then idk what I’d do.
Interesting how insurance works differently around the world. It’s really weird here. Most people here in AU have private health insurance, even though it does absolutely nothing for them. I ran the numbers myself. As an example, you would pay $1200 a year for something you can max optimistically get $600 value per year from, and that’s after multiple years of building up “trust”. There’s clauses like, only these specific kinds of treatment, only $x per year, only x% of each treatment covered, etc… It’s extremely restrictive. But if you tell anyone, they’ll get mad and say you’re an idiot to not have this scam health insurance. It’s better to self-insure here and just try to have ~$1000 set aside for health emergencies.
Glad you were covered to get back on your feet.
That all sounds quite complex to navigate. Crazy with all the tech and resources that we have available now and these are the systems that were designed.
I see Rupert Murdoch has ruined your country as well.
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.
Gotta thank the screwworms that Trump let into the country over the borders.
It’s nearly $8/pound in Los Angeles
80/20 is around $6.00 per lb on the east coast (at least near me), and 90/10 was over 10 bucks a pound last I checked. Though I have not bothered to look in a while.
Fast food. I basically can’t leave a fast food restaurant without spending over $20 for my family of 4.
Family of 4? Dang, I’m happy if I’m under $40 for my family of 3!
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.
We can get around 15-20 but most aren’t interested in carriers that don’t have physical presences or aren’t “name brands”.
I kinda limited myself from overly mentioning it since people don’t bring up the subject, but I use Mint Mobile. I’m a solo subscriber, no family plan, and I pay $20 a month. It has to be paid through the year, but that’s not an introductory price; had the same one for years. They just gave me more monthly data for free as well.
Cigarettes.
I haven’t smoked in almost thirty years, but I remember thensuper discount brand cartons going for $7 back in the late '90s.
I happened to look at cigarette prices the other day - almost $12/pack here. Very glad I quit fifteen years ago.
I bought a friend some while in Australia. I know they have a heavy tax on them but was shocked to find $50 for a single pack of 20. Could not fathom how people were still smoking.
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
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.
