What things do you think are ridiculously expensive and you don't know why?

[sharpclawedkitten]

I'll start.

Toothbrush heads for electric toothbrushes - just a bit of plastic!

Reprogramming keys for cars (why does it cost £100s)

Plastic bins.

I’ve not been on a train for about 18 years and recently had a look to see how much a potential journey would cost instead of driving. I was absolutely horrified! It was over double the price it’d cost me to drive there from home! My nearest train station is 12 miles away, so it’d cost me way more money for a shorter journey. Plus, it’s also less convenient as there’s no direct train route and less comfortable as I’d be having to share my space with strangers and I’d potentially not even get a seat!

not tried the Aldi ones, but the Lidl cherries and berries muesli is cheap, and better than the expensive brands like jordans or dorset cereals, and their version of coco pops are better than the real thing.

Cheese
Lamb

I don't think we have a shortage of cows or sheep here do we?

Someone up thread mentioned things that are insanely cheap. Value bacon and ‘Greek salad cheese’ both seem to have come down in price and are very good :) I know there’s more added water in the bacon but once it’s evaporated it’s fine.

Me to, home bargains has a fantastic range of heads

Really ? I bought some for 89p this week.

That I appreciate, but dairy-free dark chocolate being £4+ bewilders me.

Yeah I agree, my pet insurance only costs £20 a month which I don’t think is that expensive considering an operation for her would be thousands? It’s much more worth it than bloody car insurance!

Hoover bags, or in this case Miele ones. The alternative non-brand ones are rubbish in comparison, and the reusable/washable ones are disgusting. I know it's a 1st world problem but I'd rather spend £ on other stuff.

I think car insurance is a waste of money and if given the option to have it or not I would just take my chances! Two times my husband has been crashed into by someone else, the first time they chose to believe the driver who was a young boy and said my husband wasn’t there, despite there being police records of it! Then we switched insurance and he was hit by someone uninsured, the company did nothing about it! My husband is much nicer than me because I wanted to report her to the police!

Rental car insurance.

A lot of people have mentioned trains being very expensive. I have to disagree but I realise the circumstances are key. I travel alone into London off peak for fun. I have a disabled persons railcard. Costs me about £16 return which is great. Takes about 40 minutes. Plus I live 100m from the railway station.

£3.20 i quiet rightly agree is outrageous for a tea. £1.20 isn't, you aren't just paying for the tea, your paying for the staff member serving you, the staff member making it, the water used to make it, the electricity to run the hot water dispenser, the cup it comes in. If businesses charged the 3p it cost to make the tea there would be no businesses to serve you anymore as it wouldn't be feesable. X

Train fares
bonkers it’s cheaper to drive !!
all wrong , how on earth are we going to get folk using public transport!!!!

Like any other crop, olives are subject to fluctuations in the weather. Bad weather equals poor crop which equals expensive oil.

Truffles of the fungi kind. They taste revolting! Give me the rum ones any day! 🤣

It depends I think. We wanted to visit the coast... about an hour's drive. Train tickets were about £20 return. This seems reasonable but when we worked it out for four of us, driving was much cheaper.

Electric inset fireplaces. Why do electric inset fireplaces that look somewhat realistic cost so bloody much? I went to a shop and there was nothing under 600 quid! Like, fgs! I just want a nice log burner. It's not complex engineering!!

@Canwedoit4

VAT is on shoes above a size 5. Jealous of friends who are a size 3 and 4. As well as able to buy kids trainers, they have more choice in the sales!

Even school shoes have VAT on them. Was a size 5 aged 9 (now a size 8)

Tinned soup.

batteries and Lurpak -£4!

Clothes! I went to buy a jumper the other day- £45 for a thin bit of TAT!

Isn’t it because kids clothing is exempt from VAT?? So as soon as you get to a size resulting in adults sizing you get that massive hike. Same with my DD’s clothes in general. She wears ladies clothes and doesn’t fit into children’s. School uniform has been tricky to get. John Lewis is great for larger shirts/blouses (she has a very huge bust for a teen and age 15-16 just doesn’t cut it) so we are ok in JL buying kids. But for her trousers she requires a ladies 14 short length. So they’re double price of kids school trousers. She out grew a lot of kids stuff when she was 11/12. Puberty and all that. I noticed Asda have started adding some ladies sizes to their school uniform range so kids love but the bigger sizes are almost impossible to get hold of.

Curtains

Wood for fence panels