It’s been more than 10 years it feels like since you could just buy a raspberry pi for a little side project.

Now you better have a good use for it, since it’s a good chunk of money.

I never liked going out to eat or drink, but its gotten insane lately. Seems like everywhere is $15 or more for a simple cocktail, $10 or more for a Miller Lite. Insulting when the staff might only be making $2.13 per hour, and I need to tip and add tax so that gets close to $20 for a drink I could have ppuree myself at home for probably $1. Bars and restaurants have also started to use Kore and more tactics to make themselves less pleasant to hang out in, enoucoraging faster consumption and quicker turn times to try to get more customers. Louder music, less comfortabke chairs, etc.

I used to build a gaming PC for both myself and my wife roughly every 6 or 7 years. I never needed anything top-of-the-line: I am perfectly satisfied with 1080p 60fps and playing older games. I liked to maximize value. I built myself a PC in 2019 and my wife one in 2020, just as the pandemic was starting to hit. At this point I am starting to wonder whether those will be the last PC’s I will afford in my lifetime.

I expect Streaming Services will be a common answer here. I started messing around with Jellyfin a few years ago, and my wife and I had slowly been buying DVD’s and Blu-Rays, occasionally supplemented by the high seas. This year we finally canceled our HBO and Netflix subscriptions. We also decided to try to cancel Spotify, so I went ahead and ripped all our CD’s, gathered our pirated collection (organized separately to make it easier to potentially decide to buy that music later), and started buying more music from artists directly. I’m good enough to cancel today, but my wife has become accustomed to the near-infinite supply of variety that Spotify has so… Yeah

LEGO. I’m going with other brands now, like Bluebrixx. They are like a third of the price.

I have a small garden for a hobby and mental health. I spent $30 on 2 bags of fucking DIRT yesterday. What am I doing? Dirt was $30!?!? I guess I can’t even afford dirt anymore. 😭

Practically everything. My phone, garbage, insurance, food, gas, electric, internet, cable . . . everything went up seemingly at the same time. There are a lot of products and businesses I just outright boycott based upon GOP reasons. I pretty much eliminate grocery stores in the summer and buy from local farms. I partition my trash into small bags and deposit them in trash cans and eliminated my garbage pick up. I compost all scraps. Started a vegetable garden. Grow my own cannabis. Switched to USMobile for $10 a month unlimited. Torrent everything. Cut cable. I used to eat out about three times a week and that is now zero. Overall, I am eating better and even lost about 15 pounds. I discovered bin stores. I find myself buying more stuff that I don’t need but want. I found a $500 Garmin watch on dollar day. The only wrong with it was it was missing the band so I found one that fit and got that for a buck. On $3 day last week I found a pair of ar6 walkie talkies sealed. On $12 day I found a 32" TV and leaf blower, both sealed. I can’t see myself ever paying full price again, shopping in a store or even online.

I refuse to pump my car tyres from petrol stations anymore because all the ones in my local area have started charging exorbitant prices. It always used to be free with petrol, then a few years ago it became 20p, but now it’s randomly shot up to £1.50. WHY??

You can buy devices that pump your car tyres up for you too. They tend not to last very long, so they’re not exactly “one time” purchases, but they’re far more cost effective than doing it at stations nowadays.!

Movie Theatre Popped Corn.

Cigarettes. Of course, there were other more pressing reasons to quit, but saving nearly £20 a packet helped.

Beef. 7dollars a lb for ground beef is silly. God help you if you want a nice steak or a brisket.

I buy maybe one or two “full price” video games per year. And even then those are probably not exactly “AAA”. Buying tons of indie stuff though!

Got rid of most of the streaming services and I’m seriously considering dropping the few that remain. (I’d need to, ugh, call the support to cancel.) The free streaming service from the national public broadcaster is pretty amazing and I have a wall of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs.

Mostly alcohol, I make it instead. The tax on alcohol is insane.

Coca Cola

Not so much stopped buying but never bought, but these bags in Japan that kids take to school.

They’re stupidly heavy and way over priced. In my kids’ school, using one is optional, so we just went with a regular back pack from Muji. Such a stupid culture imo.

This has been a blessing in disguise in some ways. I now make most of our food from scratch. Canned foods, bread, no more soda and instead I make Kefir (which is healthy, too). I bought tools and do the gardening. Same with home repairs. Dumped streaming and will buy second hand DVDs/blurays. It takes a lot of my time, but it’s also so fun, gives this feel good vibe. Ended up in way better shape, less pollution, cleaner food, reconnected with nature. Gaming/movie nights/etc took a big hit, but then again, time well spent with the family.

Games on PSN, tho that’s less for price & more out of protest against Sony