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.
I’ve only ever once paid someone to change my oil, and that was because I physically couldn’t do it. A filter is less than $10 and 5 quarts of full synthetic is less than 30. The whole job takes longer to find all my tools than to just do it.
You’re paying for the labor, the time to check everything else and giving you actual decisions. That’s where the rest of that 50 bucks is going. Yes you do need ONLY the oil change, and maybe you don’t need anything else but the one thing I learned about cars is that they’re like fickle people. They won’t open up unless you deliberately ask them all the right questions lmao!
It’s not the mechanic making the money, it’s their boss. Mechanics are undnerpaid as fuck. Go to independent mechanics if you can
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.
I’m with you, but keep in mind that some people live in apartments, so no garage to work in, or a driveway, and also they have nowhere to store any tools they buy.
And the initial investment is something, right? Get a decent jack, get a drain pan, learn how to dispose of the used oil, buy the wrench, buy the paper towels or degreasers or whatever.
And if you fuck it up, your car is ruined. All that being said, more DIY is probably a good thing, but we all gotta find out own comfort zones and decide what’s worth trying out.
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.
Yep
Non-synthetic is $50
For conventional or synthetic? That’s pretty fair price for synthetic.
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
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.
Americans seem to do oil changes way more often than anyone else… Maybe this is the sign that you should cut down!
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.
Me getting excited for a deal on an NVMe SSD for under 400USD total recently was… sad. I have a receipt from when we built my partner’s computer… two 2TB NVMe drives for 85 each. Can uhhhhhh I please have bought ten instead of two?
I’m actually quite glad the pricing hasn’t hit internet connections. 1Gbps means I can just delete games and put them back in minimal time if I fancy playing them again…
Similarly, SD and microSD cards. Much like RAM and storage, I wished I threw away my adult responsibility a bit and stocked up on them
I actually had to look up M2 drives to see if the image above was those.
M2 has the connectors on the end rather than the side, but they don’t look too different otherwise.
RAM is the new component to become overpriced.
It is <2016, 2019, 2026>*. I’m using a 1050Ti.
* new, re-used in otherwise new build, and not buying anything respectively.
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
I don’t eat much normal sliced bread, but buns got just as stupid.
same, im not a fan of any bread, because dont like all that sugar intake.
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
maybe at asian stores? is more affordable if you buy it in 50lb bags?
50 lb sacks aren’t common in American grocers, presumably due to their size. I only ever saw them in the big Asian grocers.
Related, thats a 5L l bottle of water.
yes i meant asian stores.
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
Politicians, they used to be expensive. Now it’s almost downright affordable.
Oh, you!
they still are the “bribes are just small cash donations” they dont account things like million dollar RVs, homes, yachts or investments(stocks, or real estate) which the public cant get the full scope of and other backdoor deals they do.
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
A big Mac combo is $9.xx after tax where I’m at
Family of 4? Dang, I’m happy if I’m under $40 for my family of 3!
I thought home internet would get cheaper over time…
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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.
A SR5 5x5 still cost 36K. The 4x2 is 32K.
The 70K one is Pro level one that’s full of incredibly expensive add-ons. The seats alone in that car cost like 5K. It’s basically a factory modded vehicle, nobody with any sense will buy that one. It used to top out at 50K, but that was before they offered it as racing truck from the factory. It’s basically trying to be a Ford Raptor.
They buy the mid-range ones that are around 40K, which is right in line with the average new vehicle cost.
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.
I’ve found transferring potatoes, onions, and other produce from the default bags to Ziplog bags and leaving them in the fridge helps to preserve them.
likely the ripening, they are releasing volatile compounds that are quickening the ripening process.
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.
Fast food
I’m much healthier as a result
Edit: food is good, good is not food
buying raw vegtable(raw coleslaw)food and some low calorie wraps and vegan alternatives to meat and cheese.
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.
dentists, dental procedures are barely covered in the states as well, only a very limited amount of dentist, or dental specialist will even accept medi-caid/care. so you might have to pay outof pocket anyways.
usually the dentists on these programs, are less than what you call decent, they may do something so-so, but might be not keen other things wrong with your teeth. and at least one here at has earned the reputation in our area, as peddling deep cleaning, which is a known scam.
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.
thats sad, is she not low income enough and aus doesnt have a free healthcare for low income patients?
in the states, depending on the state you are in, you can go on medi-caid, if you are very poor like earning less than a certain amount.
Not in SA at least. There’s concession cards that sometimes helps, sometimes even makes it free, but it’s basically random how much a clinic will discount you, if at all. If you’re poor you’re generally expected to languish in the public system for years, assuming you can find treatment at all. A lot of medical stuff is in the private sector now. I see people using afterpay or credit cards for medical stuff. Some clinics offer payment plans, sometimes interest free.
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.
people are switching to us mobile, or a VIRTUAL network? since tmobile recently pulled some shennangans with grandfather plans.
Okay, but Verizon is not the best option in the U.S. right?
I’m paying €15 for 200GB/month and 1500 minutes to all EU countries and the UK
Best option for coverage. Best option for “not as sleazy as other phone services”.
Very much not best for price
—-
But i can’t decide if this is good behavior or bad behavior …
- recently i had a $100 call to London because my plan doesn’t include international. Yikes!
- but I could retroactively sign up for international service for like $10, and my $100 call became like $5. Yay!
- but that service is auto-renewal and you have to cancel it by specific day. Dammit!
Best option in price? No. Best option in coverage? Yes.
At least that was true at one point. Not sure if its still holds true today. For awhile they were basically the only ones with coverage in many rural areas.
