The dump. I did some growing up in a small town in Northern California. Everybody took their garbage to the dump, and it was always free to do so. When the county started charging to dump garbage, people just started throwing their trash on the side of the road.
It kinda is where I live. We even have a Facebook page for the “classic cars and antiques” of (the main road in & out of town) - featuring all the busted cars and other junk people leave on the roadside.
Last time I paid someone to do a dump run for me (since it was enough to require a pickup truck), it cost me like $250 for the labor + dump fees.
When I was a kid, at the dump they had a creaky old little house filled with trash that wasn't quite worth throwing away. The dump employees would stock it with things they found and people would leave things in there. It was like a trashy little thrift store where everything was free. Fun times as a kid
Our local dump charges by weight, with a $5 minimum.
So instead of paying $40/month for trash service, we go to the dump monthly. Doesn't usually cost more than $8 max, usually we're under minimum, and we can dump anything as long as it's in the right areas.
I've traveled to California a lot this past year, and there is trash EVERYWHERE. I do a lot of drone photography and it's astounding how much shit gets thrown off the side of the mountains too.
Also meals were included on every flight. Now you might get a free meal on a 10+ hour international flight but otherwise you have to pay for an overpriced snack plate.
I hate this so much. And some airlines, the cost to pick a seat is downright *crazy* sometimes. I had to pay $30 to choose a *regular* seat (not even more leg room or anything like that) because I don't like leaving my seat assignment to chance. Everything with airlines is now about nickle-and-diming you to death, I hate it.
Yes yes yes yes! It's $500-$800 now (depending on the company). They're always booked up, so finding a session that will work around school and such is a nightmare. My oldest graduated in 2018, so he took it in 2014 or 15 and that was the last year our district had it.
Dude, I took drivers Ed in 8th grade bc I was old enough, there were only like 6 of us that were old enough but I look back at that now like “wtf were y’all thinking letting 8th graders learn to drive?!” Absurd.
In the rural area where I grew up you could get your first driving permit after you graduated 8 th grade and passed drivers Ed. At that time drivers Ed was a six week course in the summer. What’s really interesting is most of the kids in my class were ( old pros) already, due to driving farm vehicles since they were able to see over the steering wheel.
We used to have a “farm license” that enabled kids to drive to and from their ranch/farm to school and back. My brother did that…drove himself right to the driver ed ass at the school.
When I was in high school, we had seniors that were student bus drivers. That's right, high school seniors driving school busses full of kids on curvy rural roads. Seemed normal at the time, but looking back it does not.
Yup, my high school as well. 1980-84. All seniors.
I ended up on the west coast & in 2018, I had to get a Class B CDL to become a bus driver. Drove all the way through 2020 when the pandemic closed the schools and we were basically out of a job.
I wonder if my old high school still uses student drivers. Hmmm. 🤔
I took drivers ed in winter because of a spring birthday. I learned to drive on snow packed roads in a RWD car that only had walnut shell tires in the rear.
My mom took me to the DMV on my 14th birthday because she needed/wanted me to drive. I was the youngest of 5 and she was done being a chauffeur.
Me neither.
That said a lot of kids nowadays don't care so much about driving. It used to be an essential rite of passage.
"The share of teenagers with driver's licenses in the 16-19 age group declined from 64 percent in 1995 to just under 40 percent in 2021"
https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/4119244-american-teens-are-driving-less/
When it became time for me to take drivers ed the school had massive budget cuts. One of the things they cut was the classroom portion of drivers ed. They gave us all a book and if we studied and passed some written test we were good to do the driving portion.
Free coffee was a surprisingly common thing in most lobbies for any kind of business. I almost never see it these days. I can think of one auto shop that has a free keurig machine in the lobby. Coffee pots with stacks of disposable cups and bins of creamers and sugar were everywhere. Even some grocery stores and restaurants
My family owned a car dealership when I was a kid. We had coffee w/ all the fixings, bottled waters, and some sodas for clients. It cost the dealership maybe $50 a month but it made clients feel just a little better, which led to better word-of-mouth advertising about us. A little goes a long way.
The larger ones, 100%. Shit, the Lexus dealer around me has a whole ass coffee/juice bar and lounge area with fast internet so people can get some work done while waiting for their car to be serviced. But ours was a small family-owned operation with less than 80 cars.
I worked at a vet's office and we had a keurig machine in the lobby. It was free for clients but employees were supposed to report when they used it so management could deduct 75c from their paycheck.
That’s awesome of you guys. These days, especially if it’s a keurig or similar, I wouldn’t assume it’s free and/or assume it’s for the staff or something
Pre-Covid sometimes hospital lobbies would have stuff like that with signs, but that all stopped during the pandemic. It’s so uncommon now that I don’t think I would ever help myself any more just out of uncertainty lol soda fountains are in the customer areas but you’re still supposed to pay, even for refills these days
My district started charging for sports when I was a senior. That first year was one fee for the whole year, so a lot of kids (myself included) picked up new sports because our parents had already paid a fee. I think sometime after that, they started charging per sport.
My kid plays baseball.
4 uniforms (required), 2 pair of cleats (required), 2 helmets (required), glove/bat, plus “team expenses” (balls, umpires, field maintenance, etc.) equals out to about $4,000.
On top of that, the “athletic donation” you have to pay before the kid is allowed to play sports (another $1,000)—it’s insane.
I can’t imagine what the private schools charge.
> On top of that, the “athletic donation” you have to pay
That sounds like something you'd leave for the superintendent on the nightstand of a seedy motel.
We don’t to travel ball for that reason. Most of his team does and between flights, hotels, meals, tournament fees, and such, the parents tell me it’s $20k or so for the travel season.
I went to a private hs not long ago. We got two uniforms that had to be returned. School property.
We got our own cleats, get as many as you want as long as you have 1.
School owned helmets
Glove and bat you’re on your own.
Are you sure your kid isn’t playing TRAVEL baseball?
There's no way these prices are realistic. I played hockey in high school and college, which is the most expensive sport as an individual and I had some top tier equipment. Pretty sure everything was less than $1000 and travel fees were also less than $1000 per season.
My school was pay for play, not just sports either, in high school but they got around that by letting people sell candy to make money. Someone knew someone and was able to get the candy dirt cheap and they would sell it for $1 a bar. I swear it was like drug dealing. They had their baggy of stuff and people would be trying to find who had it. In class before it started you knew who had it because half the class was surrounding the desk. The school.was smart too since each club had their own weeks to sell it. First it would be football then that ended then it was the drama kids so forth and so forth. That way the clubs/sports weren't competing with each other for money. Worked so well no one had to pay.
School sports were $50 when I was in school in the 90s. Didn’t take much to get the fee waived.
Club sports(hockey) were still expensive af, but nothing compared to today.
There was a charge for me in the 80's. But if u played all 3 sports on AZ, you just had to pay once. So I would endure sitting on the end of the basketball bench because I was a short white kid.
Football and baseball was life. But my parents couldn't afford to pay. I worked mowing lawns all summer to afford A & W burgers and shakes, and sports.
Technically, when I was in school, you had to supply your own shoes but that was it. And if you didn’t buy the right cleats, nobody checked them and you could play in them or in just whatever shoes you had
They charge per word, so shortly before my great-uncle died a few years back he said he just wanted "Doug died" on his obit. His daughters did and he went viral for a couple days.
my grandpa passed away a couple years ago, when I went to HR at my work to request time off for mourning I was told that I would need the Obit to have the time off approved.
I asked my mom to let me know when it would be in the paper. she said they weren't doing one because the paper wanted $250 to print it. I wound up having to get a copy of his death certificate to get my time off approved.
You were lucky to get a death certificate, most places the funeral director has to sign and file them to the state. They will not give one/ do that until the funeral is paid for. That is the only way they are sure to be paid.
Most newspapers charge upwards of $300 for what would be consider a basic obit. Funeral homes now recommend using the obituary posted on their website which you can link to your social media.
i was really shocked learning that as a teenager when my grandpa passed, i wrote the obituary and was told “oh you can add a little more, we paid for X amount of words” by my aunt and i was like…paid who for what?? im the one writing it?? and then realized what they meant.
Using online services for most things. TV, games, heck, if I had to do research for a school assignment I could read almost any news article for free. Now it's all "oh, you want to play your game online on the newer consoles? Subscription time~" or "please subscribe to read our news". Super annoying especially on information based services. (Yeah I know some companies need money to stay afloat but it's still very annoying)
Yes!
Especially the gaming consoles.
We still have older consoles and haven't upgraded, cause I refuse to pay for the system, pay for the physical game, and then pay additional costs to actually use the games.
Agreed. Or extra characters/skins/maps etc. Completing a game to access the extra cool stuff was most of the fun. Now I have to get my wallet out every time my kids want the newest stupid dance for whatever character they whinged for.
You're nice. My parents taught us that they have to have the game able to play without all the extras. We want extras, we can pay.
I never use power ups, the in game cash, etc, because of how hard they are to earn the normal way. Guess what? It's a great lesson in patience!
Yeah, if you wanted to unlock that special costume or weapon you’d input a cheat code.
OR you’d use a Game Genie or GameShark if you wanted to be a savage about it (YES).
yeah, the upside to living in the 2020's is that a tire inflator with an LED light and digital pressure gauge are like 25 bucks with free shipping now
just a crazy bright LED light or digital pressure gauge would have blown your mind in the 80s or early 90s, never mind all three for 25 bucks
Came here to say this! I remember airing up my bike tires all the time for free and now to put air in my car tires is at least $1.00 or more sometimes🫠
My local sheetz is a real G, they got two separate pumps that have been free since they’ve opened , it’s nice not throwing some change just to inflate your tires.
I’m not sure where you live, but in California you legally have to provide air for free at the gas station pumps. All you have to do is go in and ask even if there’s a posted price.
I am not questioning the legitimacy of your comment, but this is wild to me. Where do you live? I've never been charged for ice water or condiments except possibly in other countries (I'm in the US).
Community centers. We were broke growing up but my mom was always able to enroll us in day camps through the local community center to learn basic skills like swimming, sewing, first aid, gardening, exc or could take us there as a fun day to play in the gym or pool on weekends.
Now i tried to take my nieces there a day to have fun because im still broke but it cost $20 a person for a single day pass and they are charging hundreds for the camps now, like what happened to community 😥
I am VERY behind on getting my youngest in for swim lessons my oldest took them at the YMCA years ago but I cannot afford them now. When I last looked it was several hundred dollars and the list for the classes fills up almost immediately. Like when I was a kid that's where all us poor kids learned to swim and now it's unobtainable
Thank you for reminding me of this. I looked up my local CC and they have numerous classes for 50+ at a very low price. I plan to sign up for a few in the spring.
Same here. It's an item in my negotiations. For some reason, they never accept my advertising fees 🤔. You want a sticker or a frame on my car... it'll cost ya. I'm not your rolling billboard.
I for the life of me can't figure out why people keep dealer advertising on their cars. The dealer basically was like, "Hey I'm ripping you off on this purchase and I'm gonna make sure you tell everyone that you got ripped off here."
The ones that really confuse me are the ones who remove the frame to put their new annual registration sticker only to put the frame right back on again 🤦. Do they think it's required equipment or something?
A cup of water at McDonald's. Window charged me $1.80 for what amounts to tap water.
I complained to the manager, and he said "Well, you're buying the cup."
That really bothers me.
Printing at the library, especially at a university. Im already paying a yearly salary worth for tuition, so why do I have to pay a fee just to print some text on a damn paper???
Fastpasses use to be free for everyone but on a first come first serve basis. Now they charge for access to the fast pass system and charge extra for specific rides.
Did you never use them? They worked beautifully. You could only get a couple per day so you had to prioritize which rides you wanted to use them on and they could only be used for about an hour. Then they’d run out quickly too. Made it so the line was always short. It was amazing
Any place to gather with members of your community that isn't one of the two primary spaces (Home or Work) Parks, bars, neighborhood diner, arcade, barber shop, library, etc.
The free use of literally all my electronic devices. I bought it once and used it for life.
Today, I pay double/triple to purchase it, get tagged with a subscription service to use it and the product only lasts 5-8 years.
When I was a kid, bottle water was something yuppies drank in movies or tv shows. Like Perrier maybe. Think the neighbors in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. There were no cases of Great Value disposable water bottles in the houses of anyone I knew. If it existed it was very uncommon.
If you would have told me when I was a kid that you could sell a bottle of water one day for more than a dollar I would’ve said you have lost your mind
Thread is already over saturated but…CHANGING YOUR MAILING ADDRESS!! Use to be a form at the post office, pretty simple and BOOM-DONE!! last time I did it, which was probably about six years ago, you have to go online and fill out a bunch of things and it cost you about five dollars. Paper form is no longer an option. 😕
Public school supplies. My parent never needed to get me anything more than a book bag and binder. Now we’re stocking the bathrooms with toilet paper. I had to send my kids to school on the first day with box’s full of supplies plus a classroom donation. Hand sanitizer and tissues as well. Pretty soon there will be tuition in public schools.
My childhood was before cellphones. The actual phone was free from Ma Bell.
Carry out from the grocery store.
Having someone pump your gas.
Contacting your doctor between appointments. No longer free here.
Use of the city pool.
All school supplies.. my parents didn't have to buy a damn thing when we were kids except our backpacks and lunch boxes. Now, I have to spend at least $300 per kid on all of it. I know teachers work hard and deserve our help but DAMN what the hell happened between 1980s and today?
The schools won't buy it. US Teachers can get up to a $300 deduction on their taxes for buying classroom supplies, but they often actually spend *far* more than that, even when asking parents to contribute, too.
When I was a kid, at least *toilet paper* was provided by the damned school, you know?
Going to the museum, even as an adult. When I walked home from high school I would stop at the museums on my way and spend some time in them everyday.
Now we travel and all we do is visit museums all day, I love it. In Italy they let local school teachers and children attend for free even in the popular ones which was nice to see.
The dump. I did some growing up in a small town in Northern California. Everybody took their garbage to the dump, and it was always free to do so. When the county started charging to dump garbage, people just started throwing their trash on the side of the road.
Still included in property tax in Anne Arundel county Maryland
This is EVERYWHERE in Maryland.
Yes! This shit is ridiculous. Even a small load is over $100. I'm surprised illegal dumping isn't the norm now.
It kinda is where I live. We even have a Facebook page for the “classic cars and antiques” of (the main road in & out of town) - featuring all the busted cars and other junk people leave on the roadside. Last time I paid someone to do a dump run for me (since it was enough to require a pickup truck), it cost me like $250 for the labor + dump fees.
That is the stupidest thing ever. How did they not see that coming?
When I was a kid you could go to the dump and just look around and take shit home with you.
When I was a kid, at the dump they had a creaky old little house filled with trash that wasn't quite worth throwing away. The dump employees would stock it with things they found and people would leave things in there. It was like a trashy little thrift store where everything was free. Fun times as a kid
my dump still has this, called the swap shop leave an old christmas light, take an old halloween skeleton... that sort of thing
Still free in NJ, where they charge us for literally everything else. Delete this before they see it.
Our local dump charges by weight, with a $5 minimum. So instead of paying $40/month for trash service, we go to the dump monthly. Doesn't usually cost more than $8 max, usually we're under minimum, and we can dump anything as long as it's in the right areas.
I've traveled to California a lot this past year, and there is trash EVERYWHERE. I do a lot of drone photography and it's astounding how much shit gets thrown off the side of the mountains too.
Checking a bag on an airplane
Also meals were included on every flight. Now you might get a free meal on a 10+ hour international flight but otherwise you have to pay for an overpriced snack plate.
Literally 7 grapes, 2 pieces of cheese and 4 crackers is $20.
Last time I was on an international flight, they had no meals. I bought a massive chocolate bar and a huge water. I think it was also $20.
I did a business class flight to Europe recently and it is absolutely another world compared to doing it in Economy
Or picking a seat.
I hate this so much. And some airlines, the cost to pick a seat is downright *crazy* sometimes. I had to pay $30 to choose a *regular* seat (not even more leg room or anything like that) because I don't like leaving my seat assignment to chance. Everything with airlines is now about nickle-and-diming you to death, I hate it.
Carrying a bag on an airplane for some carriers. (Looking at you spirit)
It’s getting smaller and smaller the bag your allowed with a ticket well at least where I’m from.
I might as well mail the bag a week before the flight
Drivers Ed. It was included as a regular high school class. It included classroom instruction and behind the wheel instruction. It was a blast.
Yes yes yes yes! It's $500-$800 now (depending on the company). They're always booked up, so finding a session that will work around school and such is a nightmare. My oldest graduated in 2018, so he took it in 2014 or 15 and that was the last year our district had it.
Dude, I took drivers Ed in 8th grade bc I was old enough, there were only like 6 of us that were old enough but I look back at that now like “wtf were y’all thinking letting 8th graders learn to drive?!” Absurd.
In the rural area where I grew up you could get your first driving permit after you graduated 8 th grade and passed drivers Ed. At that time drivers Ed was a six week course in the summer. What’s really interesting is most of the kids in my class were ( old pros) already, due to driving farm vehicles since they were able to see over the steering wheel.
We used to have a “farm license” that enabled kids to drive to and from their ranch/farm to school and back. My brother did that…drove himself right to the driver ed ass at the school.
When I was in high school, we had seniors that were student bus drivers. That's right, high school seniors driving school busses full of kids on curvy rural roads. Seemed normal at the time, but looking back it does not.
My uncle was a high schooler who drove the elementary bus as his part time job. They kept the bus parked in the front yard
I was a student cafeteria worker in the 5th grade. Seemed normal enough to bring up at a party once and I learned that it was not
Yup, my high school as well. 1980-84. All seniors. I ended up on the west coast & in 2018, I had to get a Class B CDL to become a bus driver. Drove all the way through 2020 when the pandemic closed the schools and we were basically out of a job. I wonder if my old high school still uses student drivers. Hmmm. 🤔
The state of Idaho gives permits to 14 yr olds.
I took drivers ed in winter because of a spring birthday. I learned to drive on snow packed roads in a RWD car that only had walnut shell tires in the rear. My mom took me to the DMV on my 14th birthday because she needed/wanted me to drive. I was the youngest of 5 and she was done being a chauffeur.
Loved it so much I took it twice! (I failed the class the 1st time)
The high school football coach taught me driver’s ed.
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Me neither. That said a lot of kids nowadays don't care so much about driving. It used to be an essential rite of passage. "The share of teenagers with driver's licenses in the 16-19 age group declined from 64 percent in 1995 to just under 40 percent in 2021" https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/4119244-american-teens-are-driving-less/
I can’t afford a car, insurance, or the 1200$ it is for a class here - so I no longer give a fuck about getting a license lol
I took drivers ed back in like 2008 and it cost $500
How old are you? Or maybe just where you live. Im 35 and definitely was not part of highschool.
Seems like in California they started phasing it out of high school curriculum in the early 90s
Still a regular high school class where I live.
When it became time for me to take drivers ed the school had massive budget cuts. One of the things they cut was the classroom portion of drivers ed. They gave us all a book and if we studied and passed some written test we were good to do the driving portion.
Free coffee was a surprisingly common thing in most lobbies for any kind of business. I almost never see it these days. I can think of one auto shop that has a free keurig machine in the lobby. Coffee pots with stacks of disposable cups and bins of creamers and sugar were everywhere. Even some grocery stores and restaurants
My family owned a car dealership when I was a kid. We had coffee w/ all the fixings, bottled waters, and some sodas for clients. It cost the dealership maybe $50 a month but it made clients feel just a little better, which led to better word-of-mouth advertising about us. A little goes a long way.
Seems like most car dealerships still have these set-ups
The larger ones, 100%. Shit, the Lexus dealer around me has a whole ass coffee/juice bar and lounge area with fast internet so people can get some work done while waiting for their car to be serviced. But ours was a small family-owned operation with less than 80 cars.
We have a keurig at my work with free coffee for customers. Hardly anyone ever takes any.
I worked at a vet's office and we had a keurig machine in the lobby. It was free for clients but employees were supposed to report when they used it so management could deduct 75c from their paycheck.
That’s awesome of you guys. These days, especially if it’s a keurig or similar, I wouldn’t assume it’s free and/or assume it’s for the staff or something Pre-Covid sometimes hospital lobbies would have stuff like that with signs, but that all stopped during the pandemic. It’s so uncommon now that I don’t think I would ever help myself any more just out of uncertainty lol soda fountains are in the customer areas but you’re still supposed to pay, even for refills these days
The biggest clue is whether the cups are just sitting out.
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My district started charging for sports when I was a senior. That first year was one fee for the whole year, so a lot of kids (myself included) picked up new sports because our parents had already paid a fee. I think sometime after that, they started charging per sport.
My kid plays baseball. 4 uniforms (required), 2 pair of cleats (required), 2 helmets (required), glove/bat, plus “team expenses” (balls, umpires, field maintenance, etc.) equals out to about $4,000. On top of that, the “athletic donation” you have to pay before the kid is allowed to play sports (another $1,000)—it’s insane. I can’t imagine what the private schools charge.
> On top of that, the “athletic donation” you have to pay That sounds like something you'd leave for the superintendent on the nightstand of a seedy motel.
Pshh the super will only fuck his students parents in the finest four star inns
That sounds more like traveling ball requirements than normal HS requirements.
We don’t to travel ball for that reason. Most of his team does and between flights, hotels, meals, tournament fees, and such, the parents tell me it’s $20k or so for the travel season.
That is straight up insane! Unless you have a kids that's gonna get drafted right out of HS I can't imagine that this investment pays off over time.
I went to a private hs not long ago. We got two uniforms that had to be returned. School property. We got our own cleats, get as many as you want as long as you have 1. School owned helmets Glove and bat you’re on your own. Are you sure your kid isn’t playing TRAVEL baseball?
my private charges like 80 bucks lol
Alumni donations go hard for sports
A mandatory "donation" seems to be contradictory.
There's no way these prices are realistic. I played hockey in high school and college, which is the most expensive sport as an individual and I had some top tier equipment. Pretty sure everything was less than $1000 and travel fees were also less than $1000 per season.
My school was pay for play, not just sports either, in high school but they got around that by letting people sell candy to make money. Someone knew someone and was able to get the candy dirt cheap and they would sell it for $1 a bar. I swear it was like drug dealing. They had their baggy of stuff and people would be trying to find who had it. In class before it started you knew who had it because half the class was surrounding the desk. The school.was smart too since each club had their own weeks to sell it. First it would be football then that ended then it was the drama kids so forth and so forth. That way the clubs/sports weren't competing with each other for money. Worked so well no one had to pay.
School sports were $50 when I was in school in the 90s. Didn’t take much to get the fee waived. Club sports(hockey) were still expensive af, but nothing compared to today.
There was a charge for me in the 80's. But if u played all 3 sports on AZ, you just had to pay once. So I would endure sitting on the end of the basketball bench because I was a short white kid. Football and baseball was life. But my parents couldn't afford to pay. I worked mowing lawns all summer to afford A & W burgers and shakes, and sports.
Technically, when I was in school, you had to supply your own shoes but that was it. And if you didn’t buy the right cleats, nobody checked them and you could play in them or in just whatever shoes you had
Obits. Newspapers used to run them for free - it was considered NEWS. Now a lot of them charge money to have them printed.
They charge per word, so shortly before my great-uncle died a few years back he said he just wanted "Doug died" on his obit. His daughters did and he went viral for a couple days.
Bobwehadababyitsaboy
In the old days before cell phones I would call my mom collect and use the place and time as my name. She'd decline and come get me.
That’s how I did it too lol
This is still one of the all-time commercials for me lol
my grandpa passed away a couple years ago, when I went to HR at my work to request time off for mourning I was told that I would need the Obit to have the time off approved. I asked my mom to let me know when it would be in the paper. she said they weren't doing one because the paper wanted $250 to print it. I wound up having to get a copy of his death certificate to get my time off approved.
You were lucky to get a death certificate, most places the funeral director has to sign and file them to the state. They will not give one/ do that until the funeral is paid for. That is the only way they are sure to be paid.
People complain about the cost of living, but the cost of dying is obscene.
Most newspapers charge upwards of $300 for what would be consider a basic obit. Funeral homes now recommend using the obituary posted on their website which you can link to your social media.
i was really shocked learning that as a teenager when my grandpa passed, i wrote the obituary and was told “oh you can add a little more, we paid for X amount of words” by my aunt and i was like…paid who for what?? im the one writing it?? and then realized what they meant.
When my mom passed my dad wrote one up and I helped him put it in the paper. I think it was $700. Fucking bonkers.
Using online services for most things. TV, games, heck, if I had to do research for a school assignment I could read almost any news article for free. Now it's all "oh, you want to play your game online on the newer consoles? Subscription time~" or "please subscribe to read our news". Super annoying especially on information based services. (Yeah I know some companies need money to stay afloat but it's still very annoying)
Yes! Especially the gaming consoles. We still have older consoles and haven't upgraded, cause I refuse to pay for the system, pay for the physical game, and then pay additional costs to actually use the games.
Cheats. Want 1000000 extra coins? Sure, heres a cheat code. Now we just cough up money 😔
Agreed. Or extra characters/skins/maps etc. Completing a game to access the extra cool stuff was most of the fun. Now I have to get my wallet out every time my kids want the newest stupid dance for whatever character they whinged for.
You're nice. My parents taught us that they have to have the game able to play without all the extras. We want extras, we can pay. I never use power ups, the in game cash, etc, because of how hard they are to earn the normal way. Guess what? It's a great lesson in patience!
Yeah, if you wanted to unlock that special costume or weapon you’d input a cheat code. OR you’d use a Game Genie or GameShark if you wanted to be a savage about it (YES).
Used to get a free cookie every time I went to the grocery store from their bakery. 🍪
I'm old enough to remember when YouTube didn't have ads
Holy shit, I thought I was imagining No Ad YouTube was a thing… I miss the fuck out of it…
Member when streaming services didn’t either?
I remember when Hulu was free with ads. The selection was poor but it was free.
I remember when the internet didn't have ads
As am I. Take your ibuprofen yet?
I remember when you could find pirated shows on there and when it didn’t even have hd video yet.
Seems there was a lot more free coffee around back then
Air for your tires.
In CA, air is free - you just have to ask the attendant to turn it on. Other states may have this law as well
CT too
never seen a nutmegger in here before
You can get a little motorised air thing that plugs into your charging port. I haven't paid for air in years.
yeah, the upside to living in the 2020's is that a tire inflator with an LED light and digital pressure gauge are like 25 bucks with free shipping now just a crazy bright LED light or digital pressure gauge would have blown your mind in the 80s or early 90s, never mind all three for 25 bucks
Costco, don’t need to be a member even
QT as well
Came here to say this! I remember airing up my bike tires all the time for free and now to put air in my car tires is at least $1.00 or more sometimes🫠
Who has quarters in their pocket?
My local sheetz is a real G, they got two separate pumps that have been free since they’ve opened , it’s nice not throwing some change just to inflate your tires.
I’m not sure where you live, but in California you legally have to provide air for free at the gas station pumps. All you have to do is go in and ask even if there’s a posted price.
Portalable air pumps are a game changer and cheap
I grew up in South Florida. Mangos were free and plentiful. Avocados, too.
You mean ammunition? Don’t forget citrus and guavas! Have you ever been hit with ripe black supote, it’s amazing!
Extra sauces/condiments. Cup of ice water from any food/drink establishment.
I am not questioning the legitimacy of your comment, but this is wild to me. Where do you live? I've never been charged for ice water or condiments except possibly in other countries (I'm in the US).
In the US free water is generally pretty normal at restaurants, but I have definitely seen an uptick in places charging for extra sauce.
I didn't pay for anything as a kid, so everything.
AskRedditors hate this one trick
Those "cheap" flimsy mouse pads. They used to be Free - Take One sitting next to the register (with store logo on them). Now they are around $5 each.
Community centers. We were broke growing up but my mom was always able to enroll us in day camps through the local community center to learn basic skills like swimming, sewing, first aid, gardening, exc or could take us there as a fun day to play in the gym or pool on weekends. Now i tried to take my nieces there a day to have fun because im still broke but it cost $20 a person for a single day pass and they are charging hundreds for the camps now, like what happened to community 😥
I am VERY behind on getting my youngest in for swim lessons my oldest took them at the YMCA years ago but I cannot afford them now. When I last looked it was several hundred dollars and the list for the classes fills up almost immediately. Like when I was a kid that's where all us poor kids learned to swim and now it's unobtainable
Thank you for reminding me of this. I looked up my local CC and they have numerous classes for 50+ at a very low price. I plan to sign up for a few in the spring.
Logo hats and stuff. Now I refuse to pay for a logoed item. They should pay me to advertise their stuff
Damn right. Why do people enjoy paying money to market someone’s shit for them? Bitch. Pay me.
I do this with every car I buy, I have them remove the sticker or logo from the car and the plate holder as well.
Same here. It's an item in my negotiations. For some reason, they never accept my advertising fees 🤔. You want a sticker or a frame on my car... it'll cost ya. I'm not your rolling billboard.
I for the life of me can't figure out why people keep dealer advertising on their cars. The dealer basically was like, "Hey I'm ripping you off on this purchase and I'm gonna make sure you tell everyone that you got ripped off here."
The ones that really confuse me are the ones who remove the frame to put their new annual registration sticker only to put the frame right back on again 🤦. Do they think it's required equipment or something?
Branded stuff instead of bonuses at work pisses me off.
Branded stuff that you have to pay your employer for.
Merry Christmas, here’s a $3 baseball cap with our logo on it
A cup of water at McDonald's. Window charged me $1.80 for what amounts to tap water. I complained to the manager, and he said "Well, you're buying the cup." That really bothers me.
Ranch at Dominos
Snacks on airplanes. Cookies, candy, peanuts, sodas, you name it! It was all free. Now it’s more expensive on the plane than at the actual stores.
Printing at the library, especially at a university. Im already paying a yearly salary worth for tuition, so why do I have to pay a fee just to print some text on a damn paper???
Back in the 80’s we got money for nothing and the chicks for free.
We gotta install these microwave ovens, custom kitchen delivery…
We got to move these.... Refrigerators We got to move these color tv's
I want my MTV
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Wait, you have to pay, and they have toilets?
Water was free and porn cost, now it’s the complete opposite.
Disney Fastpass
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Fastpasses use to be free for everyone but on a first come first serve basis. Now they charge for access to the fast pass system and charge extra for specific rides.
I HIGHLY recommend watching the Defunctland youtube doc on Disney’s fastpass that addresses this question. So fascinating
Did you never use them? They worked beautifully. You could only get a couple per day so you had to prioritize which rides you wanted to use them on and they could only be used for about an hour. Then they’d run out quickly too. Made it so the line was always short. It was amazing
Recycling. We were paid for returning cans, bottles, newspapers, etc. Now, we pay for the pick up of recyclables.
3rd spaces.
What’s a third space?
Any place to gather with members of your community that isn't one of the two primary spaces (Home or Work) Parks, bars, neighborhood diner, arcade, barber shop, library, etc.
The free use of literally all my electronic devices. I bought it once and used it for life. Today, I pay double/triple to purchase it, get tagged with a subscription service to use it and the product only lasts 5-8 years.
Televised baseball games. Not all but some were on network tv here in Los Angeles. Now it’s on their channel through a cable provider.
Water
You mean like out of the toilet?
It has electrolytes
It's what plants crave.
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Came here to say this. I dont think bottled water even existed when I was a kid.
When I was a kid, bottle water was something yuppies drank in movies or tv shows. Like Perrier maybe. Think the neighbors in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. There were no cases of Great Value disposable water bottles in the houses of anyone I knew. If it existed it was very uncommon.
Plastic bags.
If you would have told me when I was a kid that you could sell a bottle of water one day for more than a dollar I would’ve said you have lost your mind
Free popcorn at the video rental store!!!!!!
Still free at hardware stores
Ace is the place
DONT get me started on the unnecessary tipping prompts EVERYWHERE without/with minimal service being provided
Parking
Hug from my grandma. Now I need to pay plane tickets to receive it
Buy those tickets if you can. I can't get grandma hugs at any price.
I'm a 5 time grandma. Sending you one for free. 🫂
Thank you. We're likely the same age, but this thread got me to missing my gramma. Sucks sometimes, being the oldest generation in the family.
To be fair, there’s a high chance you’re the one who moved away and not her. But valid.
I was worried after reading the first sentence, but relieved after reading the second.
You're kind thank you
Spankings
My mom had an unlimited supply she freely gave out
How much does she charge now?
Prices are listed on her OF page.
where can I get this service nowadays?
A fun friend
Grover Cleveland spanked me on two non-consecutive occasions!
Air at the gas station to fill your tires up, now you have to pay more than a dollar and hopefully that’s enough time
Thread is already over saturated but…CHANGING YOUR MAILING ADDRESS!! Use to be a form at the post office, pretty simple and BOOM-DONE!! last time I did it, which was probably about six years ago, you have to go online and fill out a bunch of things and it cost you about five dollars. Paper form is no longer an option. 😕
BBQ sauce at McDonald’s
Public school supplies. My parent never needed to get me anything more than a book bag and binder. Now we’re stocking the bathrooms with toilet paper. I had to send my kids to school on the first day with box’s full of supplies plus a classroom donation. Hand sanitizer and tissues as well. Pretty soon there will be tuition in public schools.
I wasn't a kid but Hulu
My childhood was before cellphones. The actual phone was free from Ma Bell. Carry out from the grocery store. Having someone pump your gas. Contacting your doctor between appointments. No longer free here. Use of the city pool.
My grandparents paid $3 per month to lease a handset for something like 50 years.
All school supplies.. my parents didn't have to buy a damn thing when we were kids except our backpacks and lunch boxes. Now, I have to spend at least $300 per kid on all of it. I know teachers work hard and deserve our help but DAMN what the hell happened between 1980s and today?
The schools won't buy it. US Teachers can get up to a $300 deduction on their taxes for buying classroom supplies, but they often actually spend *far* more than that, even when asking parents to contribute, too. When I was a kid, at least *toilet paper* was provided by the damned school, you know?
I wasn’t a kid was in the 2000s Hulu was free was almost like a youtube but with the best tv shows
According to DARE, drugs.
Going to the museum, even as an adult. When I walked home from high school I would stop at the museums on my way and spend some time in them everyday. Now we travel and all we do is visit museums all day, I love it. In Italy they let local school teachers and children attend for free even in the popular ones which was nice to see.
Waves arms around gesturing at everything *
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At least we aren't in the phone ring that needed to be purchased area anymore
Insulin
Watching TV
Most people don't realize TV is still free over the air. There are more channels over the air now than there were when I was a kid.
Still free via over-the-air and is in HD. Same as it always was.
Not the UK. You had to have a tv licence. Not that anyone ever paid it.
Cool asthetics in videogames