I’m a sucker for a good sale, DIY project and bargain bin. Sometimes I don’t mind paying a little more for certain items, like gluten-free macaroons or a JCrew sweater that isn’t on sale. It’s nice to treat ourselves to top-shelf every now and then. But there are certain things that are forever costly, no matter where you shop, and it really messes with my financial planning. You know the ones: these items aren’t necessarily special or impressive or made by one specific company; they’re just universally expensive, and we’re supposed to sit back and fork it over. I still haven’t figured out why, but the list goes on, and here it is.
Candles. Wax? Paraffin? How do you cost so? Sure the cake batter candle smells so realistic I’ve fantasized about eating one for dessert, but even the smallest jar costs a fairly large chunk of change. And even then, some candles don’t have the nerve to come with a container. All that money, just to make a melted beeswax mess on my mantle? I don’t think so. The only financially reasonable member of this paraffin family is the tea light candle, but by the time you’ve set the mood, he’s already burnt out. I can never justify spending more than $10 on a ball of wax, and instead resort to stealing them from my parents’ house. (Sorry, dad.)
Bathing suits. The less material, the more expensive… ? I like designer clothes and fashion as much as the next Maxxionista, but I draw the line at bathing suits. Clothing stores know swim season is a sensitive subject for females, and capitalize on our insecurities when they’re at their worst. If we find the perfect bathing suit that makes us look good feel good, we’re probably going to pay any amount of money to own it. And they know it.
Diapers. I do my co-workerly duty and buy them for office baby showers. And then I remember to take my birth control, because I can’t afford not to. Not only are diapers expensive, but at the rate babies go through them, parents ought to get frequent buyer discounts. Talk about a necessary evil.
Textbooks. Are we charging by the character? If so, Infinite Jest agrees with your methods, but college students’ parents do not. Career counselors should offer incoming freshmen an average bookstore bill per semester along with each major, because there’s a significant cost difference between Latin American Studies and pre-med.
Ice cream. It seems reasonable at the time, but for the price of a cone, you can take home an entire half gallon from the store. Going to get ice cream is one of my favorite things to do with friends, on a date or as an alternative to being groped at a bar, because ice cream has a magical way of setting the scene for memorable, meaningful conversations. And while they say you can’t put a price on fun, but Baskin Robbins has equated it to roughly half an Edy’s tub.
Cereal. Upwards of $4/box for oats and grains and processed sugars? I don’t think so. The best cereals, the ones you treat yourself to every four months, come in tiny boxes and cost half your paycheck. Yet you pay, because have you ever tasted the delight that is an Oatmeal Square?
I know not everything can be as shockingly cheap as potatoes or ASOS shoes. But some things have no business being so overpriced. Down with candles! Enough, ice cream! What items plague you as shockingly, universally expensive?
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Food products with LESS sodium. Why am I paying more for the absence of a certain ingredient?
(Oh, and basically everything in Australia is 2 to 3X the price as anything in the USA, and it wrecks my head.)
Quality cereals like all-bran with strawberries, wholewheat cookies without sugar, lip balms (!), body lotions, nail polish with a colour different from the regulars (that one I really can’t get why). It is not like there are really big necessities, but it is outrageous! Not to mention normal fiction books or quality crayons! The list is long…
Concert tickets, liqueur and boozy drinks, footwear, feminine hygiene products (I have to use a special deodorant because I have sensitive skin under my arm pitts now.) Flowers…I feel like they have gone up a lot more from a few years ago and they try to charge you for the vase and special delivery dates and other crap. Half the time it’s not worth the money because half of them are dead or wilted. A Doughnut from Dunkin. (I miss the old days when there use to be actual doughnut bakeries.) Potato chips. Anything with the word “Diet or fat free” on it and I think frozen yogurt costs more then regular ice cream.
Gluten free food. I mean how hard is it to substitute one flour with another? I pisses me off that people have to go through their lives without delicious bread or pizza, or ice-cream, but we get to pay about three times more than all you lucky people!
I certanly agree with you about the cereals. I eat it every day, and a box is eaten in a few days. It’s so expensive. Not that I’m paying, my mother does, but they’re really expensive. She even forces me to eat disgusting ones just because they’re cheaper. That’s not cool!! I don’t know how I will afford my cereals when I move from home. And I can’t live without them. I think I have to make a big decision about my morning routinene with cereals. And that sucks!
Yes textbooks! Somehow they are more expensive in law school
Laundry detergent, toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, in fact female-bathroom related products in general, and BERRIES. Why are raspberries so damn expensive?? They aren’t even hard to grow out of season I have a bush flowering outside right now and it’s been hovering around Zero Celsius here for a month!
Truth is, its because everyone needs them that they can be so expensive. Which is confusing because generally the price on specialty items like gluten-free, etc comes down when more people start buying them. Economics class, you lied to me! You lied to us all!
Razors! I swear they get more expensive every time I buy them. It definitely makes No-Shave November more tempting every year.
YOU SAID IT. I just nicked my leg up something special the other day because I just can’t BEAR to spend like 10 dollars on a couple of razors!
As soon as I saw the part about expensive cereal in extra small boxes I instantly thought of Oatmeal Squares! They are sooo good but I only let myself buy them when they’re on sale haha
I think music is something that shouldn’t cost so much but is. Seriously, how much do people spend for concert tickets plus passes, albums, vinyl records and such? A lot. And in a way, it’s not fair. Sure, some people need it for a living but really, what happened to “Music is not about the money. It’s about letting people listen to something that has become a part of you and not asking for anything in return.”?
As someone who dates a struggling musician who works incredibly hard, I have to disagree a bit. Concerts tickets are spendy, sure. The thing is, though, that it’s incredibly difficult to have any sort of success in music if you don’t put a LOT of time into it. And why shouldn’t someone strive to make a living doing what they love? My boyfriend works a graveyard job at a grocery store so that he can put all of his daylight hours into pursuing music, and someday it may pay off, and he will get paid well for working so hard. You don’t have to buy vinyl, or passes or tickets to anything if you don’t want to. You can listen to bands that play weekend gigs and give away their music for free. But chances are, you’re going to have to search for them, because they aren’t marketing themselves.
I started going to Target for cereal, rather than the grocery store, because I discovered that their boxes are around $2.
I love oatmeal squares! But they are a splurge item because of their cost. I’m just happy someone else likes them. People usually think I’m weird when I tell them that that is my favorite cereal.
I listened to a podcast on the price of bathing suits (check out Stuff Mom Never Told You!) and they explained why they cost so much. The labor that goes into making a bathing suit is the same amount that goes into a shirt, plus they need to have adequate construction and fabric to withstand chlorine and salt water. Since they’re not a year-round item, companies need to make up for that in their pricing. Also, the average price of a suit is around $25 because of places like Wal-Mart and Target, so actually not that expensive. Do I sometimes lust after the $100+ bikinis? Yes, but I’ve found tons of cute suits at Target!
Can we add tampons to the list? Along the same lines as diapers, they’re a necessity — but they’re even worse because we don’t get to opt out!
Toys! Toys are expensive -be it a teddy bear, be it a quiet book. Stickers are also expensive! Oh, and let’s not forget about costumes… Paying 235€ for a Harley Quinn costume? Yeah, sure.
And I also found that they sell ‘water spray to style your hair’ and you can buy it for 3€ but if you read the ingredients it’s just water with fragance!