Page 2 | Biggest rip offs/ridiculously overpriced things you’ve ever actually spent money on

Forgottenmyphone · 2025-07-07T19:35:53+00:00

Either because you had no alternative or you didn’t realise at the time. Just been to to Co-op and spent £3 on a pack of 4 kids yogurts. Wtf? Probably not the most overpriced thing I’ve ever bought but just feel annoyed.

TheChosenTwo · 07/07/2025 23:28

Buying the freehold for our flat. Yeah in the long run blah blah blah… still felt like a huge amount of money for essentially fuck all 😂

also winter wonderland at the millennium dome, anyone else get conned into that? Dh and I are still bitter about it 20 odd years on!

we were in Spain recently and a pack of proper (nice) butter was 5 euros. For a 250g pack. EXCUSE ME??? To be fair cheaper ones were available but they had extensive ingredients lists but still.

oh, one last one. My DDs went to an arts and crafts club after school once. It was £70 each per term but the shite that came home! A paper plate with some tissue paper stuck to it like a face. A marzipan pig. A wooden pencil they’d coloured in with pens. And a Christmas decoration that was made with bendy wire and beads. Every year that Christmas decoration comes out I feel bitter and recall the arts and crafty steal your £70 club 😂

Berryrasp · 08/07/2025 12:03

SprayWhiteDung · 07/07/2025 22:47

I think, if we have to have stamp duty, it should only be charged on the additional value of the house that you 'trade up' to.

It's horribly unfair that you have to pay to move to an identical-value house in another town, when you haven't actually improved your situation at all.

As for when people downsize, it seems criminal to have to pay a tax for moving to a more modest home; and a huge kick in the teeth if your financial circumstances leave you with no alternative but to move somewhere smaller and cheaper to keep yourself afloat, but the government believe that you should pay them thousands of pounds for the 'privilege'.

It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever in encouraging older people whose children have grown up and left, who want to move down from a large family house to somewhere smaller and more manageable.

It definitely falls into the category of 'we pay it because we do', as there's no actual justification that anybody could give for it in these circumstances.

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Yes!

lostinthesunshine · 08/07/2025 12:13

SprayWhiteDung · 07/07/2025 22:47

I think, if we have to have stamp duty, it should only be charged on the additional value of the house that you 'trade up' to.

It's horribly unfair that you have to pay to move to an identical-value house in another town, when you haven't actually improved your situation at all.

As for when people downsize, it seems criminal to have to pay a tax for moving to a more modest home; and a huge kick in the teeth if your financial circumstances leave you with no alternative but to move somewhere smaller and cheaper to keep yourself afloat, but the government believe that you should pay them thousands of pounds for the 'privilege'.

It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever in encouraging older people whose children have grown up and left, who want to move down from a large family house to somewhere smaller and more manageable.

It definitely falls into the category of 'we pay it because we do', as there's no actual justification that anybody could give for it in these circumstances.

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Yes, I agree (although aware I might be biased at the moment).

Ideally we’d like to downsize when the kids leave home to free up money for them for house deposits, but it just doesn’t make sense financially. We’d be throwing money away.

Flatbellyfella · 08/07/2025 12:25

TV licence & Stamps, both total rip offs.

ShiverMeLogs · 08/07/2025 12:37

TheChosenTwo · 07/07/2025 23:28

Buying the freehold for our flat. Yeah in the long run blah blah blah… still felt like a huge amount of money for essentially fuck all 😂

also winter wonderland at the millennium dome, anyone else get conned into that? Dh and I are still bitter about it 20 odd years on!

we were in Spain recently and a pack of proper (nice) butter was 5 euros. For a 250g pack. EXCUSE ME??? To be fair cheaper ones were available but they had extensive ingredients lists but still.

oh, one last one. My DDs went to an arts and crafts club after school once. It was £70 each per term but the shite that came home! A paper plate with some tissue paper stuck to it like a face. A marzipan pig. A wooden pencil they’d coloured in with pens. And a Christmas decoration that was made with bendy wire and beads. Every year that Christmas decoration comes out I feel bitter and recall the arts and crafty steal your £70 club 😂

Oh god, there's an arts and crafts kids place near me that a few friends had recommended. Took two DC and was charged £11 each for them to make a crown - bit of card, paint and some tiny bits of cut up tissue paper. And I had to supervise the whole time/show them what to do as the centre workers just wandered around refilling the paint and had zero interaction with the kids (fine, but just mean that's not what was being charged for).

Absolute daylight robbery.

ShiverMeLogs · 08/07/2025 12:40

And! As if that wasn't bad enough, the crown took hardly any time so they tried to upsell by asking DC directly if they wanted to do another crappy craft activity without mentioning cost - when I checked it would have been another £11 each. Really cheeky to them make me the bad mum who's not letting her kids do something.

researchers3 · 08/07/2025 12:42

Wedding/subsequent divorce and solicitors fees. 30 plus k and counting.

Don't do it!!

tanstaafl · 08/07/2025 13:13

£86 for crossing the river Mersey twice.

yes I forgot to pay the toll online by the following midnight.
but adding a £40 fine per crossing stung. A lot.

BriefHug · 08/07/2025 13:19

£350 for a cut & full head of highlights when I’d booked for a cut & t-section (£100 ish) and foolishly agreed to the intimidating stylist’s suggestion to ‘add a few more here and there’. Too shocked/embarrassed at the till to argue. Never went back, still feel aggrieved about it ten years on.

fatgirlswims · 08/07/2025 13:21

£35 fine for not paying a bridge toll!

eqpi4t2hbsnktd · 08/07/2025 13:36

Cherries. Why are they so expensive?

languedoc1 · 08/07/2025 14:10

A beach holiday in Goa. Cost more than the one in the Canaries but everything was of worse quality in spite of it being a 5* boutique hotel. Food was cheap and mostly veg (no seafood) and kids couldn't eat it (too spicy), rooms were small and the pool was dirty. They had a great service though and the pool was almost empty as the local clientelle couldn't swim. Me and the kids sufferred food poisoning though and diarrhea on our last night...

WildJustice · 08/07/2025 21:02

Today, I went to a Radisson red for a coffee and a scone while I waited for my DD to finish an art class. It was €9.70.....the scone was €5.50. The girl on the till was even a bit embarrassed when she told me.....

Platypusdiver · 08/07/2025 21:06

My second-hand car. Extremely overpriced and shit.

I suppose i could blame myself, but will stick to calling the dealership a brunch of effing cowboys. They saw me coming!

SharpWriter · 08/07/2025 21:10

eqpi4t2hbsnktd · 08/07/2025 13:36

Cherries. Why are they so expensive?

Yes. I can remember nearly fainting with shock in M&S in the City of London when I bought a pack of cherries and one other lunch item and it was £12. This was about 10 years ago!

At the weekend I paid £5 for an ice cream at a festival.

FanofLeaves · 08/07/2025 21:16

Those bloody bastard children’s magazines that are always fully visible in the local shop and they are about £6.99. I bought one for DS at the weekend as I stupidly thought it might keep him amused on a long train journey. He chose a shark one and has not even turned a page of it. The plastic shark grabber as the ‘free’ toy was too stiff for him to operate so was tossed aside. He was more amused by collecting up people’s discarded coffee cups and lobbing them into a bin.

1AnotherOne · 08/07/2025 21:19

BatFaceChops · 07/07/2025 23:02

I mentioned this on another thread but a Loewe puzzle bag. It’s amazing and was 3k.

I then fell down a Reddit rabbit hole of replica bags, scoffing away as I did so - I mean, I’d never in a million years buy a bag from china from some random on WhatsApp and have some temu special plastic thing turn up

long story short - I did. Had a Loewe puzzle bag made in tan for less than £200. It turned up and it is identical in every single way to my authentic one. And when I say identical, I mean it. A mirror image.

So yeah. For me it was spending 3k on a bag

I had a Chanel WOC from Mia and it’s stunning. I have a real jumbo flap and I’m so tempted to sell it and buy reps.

Allthebubbles · 08/07/2025 21:41

Fake ceramic logs for decorating a liquid fuel fire- they cost £80 and I thought they’d be quite large- they were tiny and looked rubbish.

Phoebesparrow · 08/07/2025 21:46

We went to the seaside on Saturday and it was a rip off at every turn

£6,50 for one ice cream (we had one each)
£4.50 for 4 doughnuts (just me as dp hates them)
£7 to park the car (2 hours)
50p to use the public toliet (x2-we where both bursting)
£8 for 2 cups of tea

I wanted to buy some seafood but yhey didn't seem to have any prices displayed and I'm not falling for that one again

The only thing that seemed to be free was a walk on the beach and the punch and Judy show!

BatFaceChops · 09/07/2025 12:36

@1AnotherOne. Ooh that sounds amazing. The only reason I don’t think I could go for a Chanel is that I’d feel I had to be dressed up all the time so people didn’t think it was a rep 🤣

I’m tempted by a Cartier love bangle from Mia next. Always wanted one and ‘nearly’ went for it a couple of years ago but it just seemed like a ridiculous amount to spend. But after my bag success, I’m curious as to just how good a Cartier replica is!