10 expenses that no longer make sense in today's economy due to rising cost of living

The rising cost of living

The cost of living continues to increase steadily across the globe. Even people who are financially wealthy are slowly starting to feel the surge and are forced to adjust their lifestyle to save money. It could mean avoiding major purchases, such as buying a home, to smaller things, like going out to eat. Small or big, individuals end up having to forego things that they used to like simply because they cannot afford them anymore. Reddit user u/guywhostillhasnoname asked the community, "What is no longer worth it because of how expensive it has become?" Here are 10 of the most insightful answers that people had to offer.

1. Fast food 

All fast food. [It] used to be you could at least rationalize it as a "cheap treat," but now it's just as expensive as higher-end, fresh ingredient places, with the same garbage quality and smaller portions. u/Petraretrograde. Coupled with absolutely abysmal service, slow-moving lines, order takers that seem not to know the basic menu, a virtual guarantee that you will get missing items or wrong items, and they treat condiments like Fort Knox and it's like pulling teeth to get more than 2 cups of sauce with your 20pc nuggies. u/hypntyz

2. Thrift shops

Thrifting has become crazy expensive. All of the thrift stores I used to go to have increased prices. On top of that, garage sales are crazy. My favorite is pulling up to garage sales and seeing the owners have just printed out random listings from eBay. "No Bob, I am not gonna pay $100 dollars for a microwave from 2010 because it sold for that on eBay 5 years ago." u/xElementop. Goodwill has lost their damn mind lately. They have forgotten that they are a dumpster that people pay them for the privilege to dive in, not a boutique store. u/eldestdaughtersunion

3. Subscription models 

How everything is now a subscription. OK, I guess I don't need it. u/Soakitincider. I place the most blame on Adobe. Screw Adobe. When they successfully moved Adobe Creative Suite to Creative Cloud, it was over. Autodesk went subscription only. Someday, Microsoft will go sub only for Office. See things like calculator apps going sub only for removing ads. Cars and farm equipment, going for subs. Screw Adobe and Autodesk. It warms my heart anytime I meet someone that uses Krita, Darktable, Inkscape, GIMP, Kdenlive, Scribus, or Blender. u/tripplesuhsirub

4. Delivering food 

Ordering delivery. It used to be the same price as ordering in person with a small fee and tip per item. Now, most places have signed with a "service," so they no longer do it themselves and now, you have to go through Door Dash or Uber Eats.. etc., which add on additional fees, increased prices from menu prices and larger tips expected for what in most cases amounts to worst service then back when restaurant or pizza joint did their own delivery. u/Sestos. Also, everywhere is asking for a tip option when checking out. Like I'm picking up my own pizza, I'm not tipping on top of the 20 bucks. u/belovedfoe

5. Live concerts 

Concerts! By the time all the extras and fees are applied, they're out of reach. u/xenoclownpanda. My daughter and her friends want to go to an Olivia Rodrigo concert next year, so I was looking into tickets. I can't even buy the tickets on Ticketmaster because I wasn't "invited." Checked StubHub and the cheapest tickets I could find were $440 each and that's not even including all the ridiculous fees I'm sure we'd have to pay. When I was about my daughter's age, I went to an NSYNC concert with a group of friends. We got nosebleed seats for $60 apiece. u/penelope_pig

6. Housing costs 

Cost of living/housing. We may as well just all f*** off at this point. u/Taurus0594. I'm an IT professional. I outearn my parents by a large margin, yet I'm in my early thirties with no house or car. I'm gradually saving up for a deposit, but I can only do that because I live with my parents and earn an above-average salary. Even I get fed up. My dad bought our house on a single blue-collar salary. I honestly don't know how people on minimum to average wage or rent keep going. u/CryptograherMore944

7. Cable services

Cable Television. u/Human_Mechanic_2310. My mom has been asking me to cancel our cable service for a while now, but I always hesitate because my grandma does watch TV (even if she complains that there's nothing to watch), and while I've taught her multiple times how to use her smartTV and cellphone, she still finds it hard to use. I don't want to take from her one of her few sources of entertainment. u/LiliGlez14

8. Starbucks coffee

I used to like dropping by Starbucks for a coffee but screw the $6 lattes or whatever it is now. u/loztriforce. My wife and I got away from coffee chains. We now buy the full bean coffees at Costco and grind them at home. In our opinion, it tastes a hell of a lot better and the costs are not even remotely comparable. Occasionally, my wife treats herself to a skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks, but that is like once every three months or so. u/COSurfing

9. Buying from a farmer's market

Farmer's Markets. Everything was like 1/4 what it'd cost at the store, grown closer, and by smaller local farms. Then everything changed when it became trendy; now it's more expensive than stores and I question if it's even from local farms and not Costco. u/colbymg. My local farmers cracked down on this HARD. What was happening was some vendors were going to the grocery store and buying up a bunch of the produce and selling it for much more. A couple of times, they forgot to remove the store-name rubberbands. Now, vendors have to prove they grew it. u/Abstract_Logic

10. Staying at an Airbnb

Airbnb. All of the add-on fees usually drive the cost higher than an actual hotel stay in the same area. u/TheRealTinfoil666. My family and I went to San Francisco a couple of years ago, thinking we'd save money by booking an Airbnb. It turned out those rentals all cost the same or more than a decent hotel in the city. We ended up staying at a hotel for a few nights and then staying at a bed and breakfast in Half Moon Bay for a good cost. Plus, we weren't expected to clean anything or whatever else these Airbnb hosts think is acceptable to make their guests do. u/bunnyfloofington

Editor's note: This article was originally published on October 9, 2023. It has since been updated.