Ask Lemmy

Honestly as much as possible I have just checked out of consumerism.

Most snacks. I only get them on sale because the servings get smaller and smaller

RAM sticks. This may sound cheesy but I have always upgraded my PC RAM. I Bought a laptop in jan. 2025 and told myself "okay I could buy these 64 GB RAM but I could also buy X instead, so I'll buy X then in a few months I'm gonna buy some RAM to do Gen AI, it's not like I'm in a hurry". Well, I guess this was a mistake because I can only run a limited set of models on 32 GB RAM and prices have... well... you know.

No more streaming subscriptions. No more chocolates. No more alcohol. No more decorations.

No dining out unless it's an occasion. We meal-prep regularly.

I don't drive anymore. Only public transportation or car-pooling.

Exercising more often so my body remains the same physique (less need for new clothes)

PC upgrades of course, but also I refuse to pay for a coffee out these days. Sometimes I do it if I'm with someone but never alone. It's very expensive.

Also burgers out, I never buy them, but also because they are not very good and the price is ridiculous. Last time I checked, Burger King double whopper menu was 14 dollars in my country. Probably more expensive now.

PC upgrades.

Oil change services for my vehicles. Despite doing tons of my own repairs, I hate dealing with the oil. It always gets on the outside of the container and my recycling locations are always full. The service (including oil) used to be about 50% more than the oil I could buy to do myself. It was worth it to me to spend an extra dinner's worth of money ~4 times a year. But now a service costs at least twice as much as the oil alone, even at independent shops. Plus, I now get oil in slight bulk, so the service is 3x what I pay in oil. I treated myself to a nice catch pan and dedicated funnels as a compromise, still costing less than a service on my first DIY in a decade.

E V E R Y T H I N G

Hard drives

Used to buy the 12 box from a local chocolatier that is absolutely fantastic. The owner was trained in France and Belgium and her creations are as good or better than anything I've eaten.

Six years ago, the price for a 12 piece box was $24. Today it is $36. I used to keep a box around almost constantly. Now it is only for holidays and birthdays.

Personal Computers: As an IT professional, I've always been a miser when it comes to computer hardware. I usually buy something 2 or so generations old and refurbish it myself, then use it for several years till it suffers a catastrophic failure. I'm not a serious gamer, so I don't care if it can run the latest games at trillions of frames per microsecond. Now, even 4 generations back the machines are abhorrently expensive. Costing as much as they did when new, which is ridiculous. The manufacturing burn through due to AI is idiotic. When the investment into AI finally crashes, which I'm shocked hasn't happened yet, these manufacturers are going to be scrambling to get back into the consumer market.

A lot. And it's not limited to money. Netflix: The best series are getting stopped produced or go into the shitter. And then they rised the price for non-ad versions. Reddit: Deleted my account when they stopped giving API away (RIF my beloved). And now I can't even read threads without an account. (Also: yay, finally made it here!) Facebook: Deleted my account years ago already and not looking bad. Bad and confusing algorithms, spreading of misinformation and conspiracies, fake globetrotter, stealing and selling personal informations to advertisers and whatnot... I don't need that in my life. Twitter/X: It already got slightly bad, but Musks takeover was like 5 of the 10 nails in the coffin. And seeing how quickly it went down... Good riddance. YouTube Premium: I thought I'd give something back to content creators for all the years of entertainment. But Googles fight against smaller creators, Ad-Blocker and apparently it's own user base made my back down, cancel my subscription and use Firefox instead. It's bad that the only choice is an Android or Apple Phone, the choice between a rock and a hard place. Microsoft: okay, I didn't fully transition. I took my gaming notebook and installed Linux CachyOS on it to try things out. It works great, and It feels better that using windows. But I guess for my PC, I'll do a dual boot or something first.

Pizza. Getting pizza for the family shouldn't cost over $70. Hell, eating out and fast food are exorbitantly expensive.

Razor blades. Much better to go with a single-razor housing, even if occasionally the multi-razor shaves feel like a smoother result.

Vehicles.

Most days my ride is a bike and when I do drive it's in a manual that's almost old enough to get a driver's license itself.

Streaming services of any kind. I've got a jellyfin server now that has everything I need.

It was fine when they were $5 a month, but this $20 a month bullshit is insane. And what do you mean I can't share one account with the family if we're not on the same network, get real.