Products whose prices have soared thanks to inflation / supply chain strains / or pure bullshit reasons

[Bryce]

Personally, I feel the Kirkland brand is too high in non nutritional carbohydrates.

I'm somewhat a fan of American Journey. I use it, but supplement it with raw, (Costco boneless chicken thighs are cheaper than some dog foods) flaxseed, salmon oil and sardines.

Didn't even know the Wag line existed. I'll check it out.

[bmw]

Maybe this is worthy of its own thread, but I have a few things that actually continue to go DOWN in price compared to a year ago:

-Solid state hard drives
-Refurbished laptops and PC's (now with actually pretty decent hardware under the hood)
-Solar panels

[bmw]

This is my line of work, and most of my client base (at least locally) is elderly clients in the same boat as your parents.

Still my go-to refurbished model is the HP Elite 8300, Ultra Small Form Factor (USFF).



You can get one in Grade-A condition on ebay, 128 GB Solid state hard drive, 8 GB of ram, and a 3rd gen i5 CPU (i5-3470) for $129 shipped. It is basically a shrunken-down desktop that still has a CD/DVD drive and also has 10 USB ports, some of them being 3.0. It is also to date the easiest to repair model I've ever encountered - any part that could need replaced is super easy to get at.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313936699289

(note it is unclear from that particular listing whether the power supply (external) is included and also whether there's a Windows COA sticker which could be used to activate Windows 10 or 11. These came with either a Windows 7 Pro COA or a Windows 8 Pro embedded license, depending on the exact manufacture year - I think these were made for 2 or 3 years).

Now if you were interested in having someone like me set one up with WIndows 10 or 11, unbloated, message me. I believe I still have one or 2 of these left in my own stock. I could of course bump up the SSD size if necessary (though 128 or 240 is plenty for most elderly people).

[Bryce]

As a money saving tip for dog treats, because commercial dog treats are outrageously overpriced, pick up a pack of cheap store brand chicken hot dogs at whatever grocery you go to. They're usually somewhere around a buck buck and a quarter of package. Slice them into button size pieces maybe a quarter inch thick throw them in the microwave for about 20 seconds to remove the moisture and sodium and store them in the refrigerator.
Dogs love them, providing they don't have a chicken allergy, and you'll save a ton of money.

[Honeyman]

As a money saving tip for dog treats, because commercial dog treats are outrageously overpriced, pick up a pack of cheap store brand chicken hot dogs at whatever grocery you go to. They're usually somewhere around a buck buck and a quarter of package. Slice them into button size pieces maybe a quarter inch thick throw them in the microwave for about 20 seconds to remove the moisture and sodium and store them in the refrigerator.
Dogs love them, providing they don't have a chicken allergy, and you'll save a ton of money.

Great idea, Bryce....I'll try that today.

Baby carrots and regular carrots are great, inexpensive treats too. Most dogs love the crunch, they are nutritious and not high in calories.

[Turkeytop]

As a money saving tip for dog treats, because commercial dog treats are outrageously overpriced, pick up a pack of cheap store brand chicken hot dogs at whatever grocery you go to. They're usually somewhere around a buck buck and a quarter of package. Slice them into button size pieces maybe a quarter inch thick throw them in the microwave for about 20 seconds to remove the moisture and sodium and store them in the refrigerator.
Dogs love them, providing they don't have a chicken allergy, and you'll save a ton of money.

When we had our dog, I thought chicken wieners would be a nice treat for her. Turns out she was allergic to something in them and broke out in a skin rash.

We have friends who make peanut butter cookies for their dog and just leave the sugar out of the recipe.

[Matt]

As a money saving tip for dog treats, because commercial dog treats are outrageously overpriced, pick up a pack of cheap store brand chicken hot dogs at whatever grocery you go to. They're usually somewhere around a buck buck and a quarter of package. Slice them into button size pieces maybe a quarter inch thick throw them in the microwave for about 20 seconds to remove the moisture and sodium and store them in the refrigerator.
Dogs love them, providing they don't have a chicken allergy, and you'll save a ton of money.

When we had our dog, I thought chicken wieners would be a nice treat for her. Turns out she was allergic to something in them and broke out in a skin rash.

We have friends who make peanut butter cookies for their dog and just leave the sugar out of the recipe.

LL101 does something with peanut butter for his dogs too.

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

Dish soap. I could get an 18 oz bottle of Ajax dish soap for $1.49 6 months ago, it is now double at $2.99. Kroger dish soap and the "Check This Out" brand are conveniently unavailable and have been for 4 months. "Check This Out" was 99 cents for a 15 oz before the New Year, and it is now listed at $1.69.

Good news for me:
My Arm and Hammer anti perspirant is still $1.99 for the stick by the way for the same 2.6 oz. It has remained the same price the last 2 years after I switched from Speedstick when they jumped in 2020.

[audiophile]

This is my line of work, and most of my client base (at least locally) is elderly clients in the same boat as your parents.

Still my go-to refurbished model is the HP Elite 8300, Ultra Small Form Factor (USFF).



You can get one in Grade-A condition on ebay, 128 GB Solid state hard drive, 8 GB of ram, and a 3rd gen i5 CPU (i5-3470) for $129 shipped. It is basically a shrunken-down desktop that still has a CD/DVD drive and also has 10 USB ports, some of them being 3.0. It is also to date the easiest to repair model I've ever encountered - any part that could need replaced is super easy to get at.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313936699289

(note it is unclear from that particular listing whether the power supply (external) is included and also whether there's a Windows COA sticker which could be used to activate Windows 10 or 11. These came with either a Windows 7 Pro COA or a Windows 8 Pro embedded license, depending on the exact manufacture year - I think these were made for 2 or 3 years).

Now if you were interested in having someone like me set one up with WIndows 10 or 11, unbloated, message me. I believe I still have one or 2 of these left in my own stock. I could of course bump up the SSD size if necessary (though 128 or 240 is plenty for most elderly people).

Does the bios support IDE mode over SATA?

[Bobbert]

50 cents for a bubble gum ball. For some strange reason, that bothers me as much as any other price increase. Maybe because of my memories of the one cent bubble gum that I could always afford, no matter what age I was.

[Turkeytop]

We have inflation. I don't like it but have to accept it.

What really bothers me how some Companies try to keep the price the same by shrinking the package size.

I like V8 juice. I buy it by bthe case at COSTCO 30 X 355 ml cans.. I went in this week to get some and the cans are now 155 ml..

Just sell the same size can and charge whatever you have to. I'll either buy it or I wont. For sure I will not be buying the new size.

[km1125]

What I'm also seeing in addition to the raise in prices is that the discounts and sales aren't nearly as good. EVERY MONTH I used to see a whole list of things fall into the "two for the price of one" sales and now those same things are maybe only 20 or 30% off, if on sale at all.