Things that are inexplicably expensive.

[malificent7]

Cauliflower...i paid nearly a pound for a tiny little thing in Aldi...daylight robbery.
Egg chairs...look lovely and fun but why are they hundreds of pounds ??
Halo top icecream...nearly a fiver for a tub...no thank you.
Please can i have some more nominations?

[CanadianJohn]

Replacement battery for my cordless drill - $48.00
New drill, complete with battery and charger - $49.95

Sigh.

[PawPawNoodle]

@HopefullyAnonymous sadly its worth every penny plus the tub has lasted me since January and I have a bit left.

They're bringing out a lighter version in a pump rather than thick cream in a pot soon too.

[Kazzyhoward]

Fungal nail treatment. DS has a toenail that looks like a rice krispie, so I bought a tiny bottle of god knows what that had to be applied twice daily until he leaves home. Hope he's worth the investment.

Most off the shelf toe nail treatments don't work. I was plagued with fungal toe nails for years and tried everything available. Just go to the GP and get a prescription for the proper stuff. It cleared mine up in 6 weeks and it's never come back.

[StealthPolarBear]

"Vegetarian food -"
There has been a recent growth in popularity of vegan food and as a vegetarian I'm really enjoying trying all the new things. However there are some vegi burgers that are £5 for two! I tried them (when I found some reduced) and they are lovely but surely at that price they're dearer than fillet steak! What can be in them that costs that much?

[Immigrantsong]

Most things aimed at women.

Examples:

Polyester clothing that costs a fortune for effectively plastic tat that makes you sweat like a swine
Cosmetics with absolutely no scientific research and active ingredients...

[BarbaraofSeville]

What strikes me is how cheap a lot of things are compared to what they cost 40 years ago

Indeed. A few months ago, I got a good brand washing machine (AEG) for under £400. That's less than I paid for my first washing machine, that was a slightly lesser brand (Electrolux or something) twenty five years ago.

Singles of crisps, chocolate bars, cans of drink

M&S do a lemon & ginger water that I like, small 500 ml bottle 90 p, but you can buy a litre bottle for 70 p, go figure.

[byvirtue]

Kids wellies and kids shoes. More expensive than my shoes!!

[StealthPolarBear]

Yes to dishwasher tablets.i buy lidl/tesco sainsburys own brand ones and the dishes are clean. What do you get for paying three times the price?

[44PumpLane]

Absolutely agree about headboards.... We recently bought a super king and got an offer through John Lewis for 30% off the bed and mattress which didn't apply to the headboard.... They wanted nearly £800 for the headboard!!!!

Needless to say I did not buy it, we bought a contrasting one from amazon for £80 and its really nice, not least because it was £720 cheaper!

Other over priced things....stuff from All Saints, never understood shelling out for t-shirts that cost 10x what an H&M t-shirt costs.

[puffinandkoala]

Yes dishwasher tablets and printer ink.

Printers are very cheap, they make their money on the ink.

No idea why dishwasher tablets are so expensive though. Even on offer they're not that cheap.

[Ginsodden]

Lego sets

[WaffleCash]

(Comparatively) fruit. I can get a kilogram of carrots for about 44p, yet the same amount of oranges costs around £1.40, so over double (almost triple) the price. Berries particularly are very dear

If you've ever grown fruit and harvested it it's quite easy to understand why berries are much more expensive than carrots. Not to mention that root veg can be stored for a long time whilst berries have a short shelf life.

[Immigrantsong]

Coffee places and their offerings. Daylight robbery for a coffee and croissant.

Ditto cinema prices.

[sqirrelfriends]

@Immigrantsong you're not wrong about the cinema. 2 adults, popcorn and a drink to share round here costs upwards of £40

[SpringSpringTime]

@Alyssum34456 re mattresses...what you want is IKEA Hovag. Cheap, super comfortable, WHICH Best Buy. We have them on all our beds. Brilliant.

[puffinandkoala]

What strikes me is how cheap a lot of things are compared to what they cost 40 years ago

Yes. In fact I saw a TV advert from about 1979 on youtube - it was a Christmas ad for Woolworths. I was stunned at the cost of a tin of Quality Street! Now i know they make those silly plastic tubs now which have about 10 chocolates in (I exaggerate somewhat) but even so, it was soooo expensive for the time.

Electricals have become much cheaper in real terms (and I think in absolute terms too in some cases) unless you go for something very top end and new like a large LCD TV.

I had a Sinclair ZX81 in 1980 which cost £80. You can get a decent enough tablet for that now with infinitesimally more processing power (ok you can also spend £800 on a tablet but the Hudl type works).

[sqirrelfriends]

And bloody legoland (which I despise anyway) the queues are long, the rides are crap and the Lego
Is old and tatty. Entry for a family of 3 - £180

[amusedtodeath1]

@AvoidingTheWineAisle

I was coming on to say glasses, but other people beat me to it. My prescription with a crap basic frame costs £300. I can’t see without glasses, so I’m forced to fork out. Grrrrrr.

Asda, I got two pairs (firetrap frames) varifocal lenses £120.

[BarbaraofSeville]

Cosmetics with absolutely no scientific research and active ingredients

Oh God, yes face cream. You can pay anything from a couple of quid to hundreds of pounds, but take away the branding and no-one has any clue which is which.

Iwalkinmyclothing

My favourite ever Habitat 'I saw you coming' product was a 'lamp' that was literally a bare bulb on the end of a piece of rope that you attached to your ceiling (by a hook?) and left a length of the sort of rope that you see hanging around the harbour, after being discarded by fishermen for being too tatty, trailing artfully across your living room and I think it cost Over One Hundred Pounds, so quite literally money for old rope.

I wish I could find a picture of it because it really was quite something.

[justasking111]

The egg chairs in Aldi were £150 I think, going on E Bay for £600 now. Aluminium seat Aldi, going on E Bay for £300. The chairs are still not delivered to the customers so they are selling ahead and changing delivery address.

[LakieLady]

Glasses frames...they must cost pennies to make

DP broke his last pair of reading glasses in the early days of lockdown. We went online and ordered 5 or 6 pairs of glasses for £30, so £5 or £6 each. I realise they're mass produced and a simple prescription, but I can't get frames for my prescription Varifocal lenses for 10 times that!

[SpringSpringTime]

Children's shoes. Yes, I know, their precious feet. I am absolutely willing to fork our £50 for my pfb's tender toes but his latest Bobux are falling apart after two months' wear. I have DMs that have lasted me a decade.

[justasking111]

Lego sets second hand are worth buying a £400 set goes for a quarter of that price if you are into architecture.

[Picklypickles]

Dettol wipes. I sent oh to the shops a few weeks back and had Floor Wipes on the shopping list, we usually get them from Lidl. He went to the co-op instead, couldn't find floor wipes so picked up some Dettol wipes instead. It wasn't until he got home that he began to wonder why the shopping had cost so much, checked the receipt and realised he'd paid 7 fucking quid for them. They weren't even what I wanted, they're like cheap thin wetwipes, I don't understand the price tag at all!