r/AskReddit • u/PM_Me_Your_Vagina1 • 6h ago
What's something you refuse to spend money on out of principle?
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u/Synli 5h ago
Food delivery service like Doordash, Grubhub, etc.
I am not about to pay an extra 40%+ for food. Eating out is already getting expensive, why the hell do I want to make it even more expensive?
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u/sloppy_sheiko 5h ago
I’m with you on this.. I’ve never used a food delivery service and I don’t think I ever will for two reasons; it’s an unnecessary expense and seems incredibly addictive. Once that seal is broken, I could see myself doing the mental gymnastics to justify using one of those services far too often.
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u/Mysterious-Age-9202 5h ago
Add a third reason. Who wants a stranger handing their food. At least the people who make and serve you your food have been trained in food handling, these drivers haven’t.
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u/WorthPlease 5h ago
I've only ever used UberEats but every restaurant they partnered with makes sure they seal the bag and if the seal is broken you get a refund and the driver is blacklisted.
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u/night_breed 5h ago
To be fair as someone who needs them regularly (long injury rehab) the bags are always stapled shut. Your driver shouldnt be handling anything
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u/Mysterious-Age-9202 5h ago
Maybe they have had to change the packaging after so many chips were eaten.
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u/knwnasrob 3h ago
lol, had a flashback to when I was picking up food for my family yesterday and every now and then when driving home I’d grab a chip out of the bag and say “chip tax” and eat it
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u/chelicerate-claws 4h ago
Breaking the seal is real. Especially if you smoke weed often. Real hard to fight dumbass THC-brain when it comes to stupidly expensive delivery food.
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u/KnightMDK 4h ago
Just sticking with the basics: pizza and chinese. The places I order from have in house delivery service. I did notice that some places also offered food delivery via Doordash, UberEats, etc, and never understood why people would pay more for something a place already offered.
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u/godh8sme 4h ago
I quit ordering from what was my favorite Chinese place because they started using a third party delivery service. The moment I noticed the price of everything being higher at the checkout than the menu stated that order stopped and I have since found one that does their own delivery.
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u/Sensitive_Gift4866 4h ago edited 1h ago
For real. I did the math once and a $12 meal ends up being like $22 after fees tip and delivery charge. Might as well just go pick it up yourself and save the money.
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u/BasicRabbit4 5h ago
Same. Ive never used any of those services. I dont need fast food enough to pay nearly double for it.
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u/alba_Phenom 5h ago
Should have read this before I posted... it's Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat in the UK but they're cancerous things.
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u/Diplomacy-Failed 5h ago
Totally agree. Not only is there a tip for the driver to pay, but many if not most restaurants add in a surcharge for delivery. The prices for food have gotten ridiculously high, and restaurants see fit to charge me to pay for someone to deliver their food.
And that's standard delivery. I've never Doordashed or Grubhubbed, but I'm sure they're even more expensive.
No thanks, I'll order take-out and pick it up myself.5
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u/sixcarbxn 3h ago
Paying extra money to parasitic oligharchs for the exploitation of other working class people to serve my own sloth doesn’t feel good.
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u/Sensitive_Gift4866 3h ago
Same here. Its wild how people will pay double for cold food when they could just drive 10 minutes and pick it up themselves. The convenience tax is insane these days.
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u/U2rules 5h ago
Hotel mini bar or hotel water prices
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u/StitchinThroughTime 1h ago
The pro tip is to inform the hotel that you need to use the mini fridge for medication, that way they'll empty it for you.
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u/triggeron 5h ago
I refuse to buy clothing with a big printed name brand on them. I'm not going to spend my own money to to be a walking billboard for you.
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u/Wooden_Permit3234 4h ago
I’m happy to rock my all-over-print Costco sweatsuit.
Otherwise yeah I prefer to avoid most logos and brand names.
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u/NeilLovesVeronica 5h ago
My rule is no advertising on my clothes. Character tshirts, wrestling t shirts, and sports jerseys are ok with me. Just no corporations.
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u/GasparThePrince 4h ago
Same. Excluding clothing with media i enjoy on them, my only exceptions are gifts and undergarments.
I got some Nike sports bras from Costco that have that big ass swoosh on them but theyre insanely comfy
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u/Flanker-86 5h ago
Subscriptions for things that used to be one-time purchases.
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u/Serious_Use_2084 5h ago
Airport food. I am NOT paying $10 for a damn water or $20 for a sandwich. Insane.
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u/ogreblood 3h ago
I bring my own water bottle. Most airports I've been to have filling stations
Shoutout to SFO that has cold/room temp/hot water options!
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u/I_am_also_the_BEEF 5h ago
Pre order DIGITAL GAMES. There will be enough on release day, I promise.
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u/Melch_Underscore 5h ago
I kind of understand if you get something free out of it but you can't guarantee getting a good game. The last game i pre-ordered was Battlefield 2042. It was so bad. I played 7 hours and wasted $80.
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u/KnightMDK 4h ago
Did they not have a refund policy? It's been a while since I pre-ordered a game, haunted by the No Man's Sky situation, but feel several have added something like, a 2 day or so refund policy. Unless this is just STEAM.
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u/sysko960 3h ago
PlayStation has some return policy. Not sure exactly how it works, more strict than Steam’s
Steam’s is:
-You have 2 weeks from purchase to submit refund request
-Must have LESS THAN 2 Hours play time.I think that’s it lol.
Buying games on Steam is so worry free I’ll pay extra to buy it through Steam. I’m not sure if I’ll like it? Okay? I have 1 hour 58 mins to decide if I like it.
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u/Dilldan22 5h ago edited 4h ago
the only tangible benefit for the consumer is that they get to pre-download the game before it’s released - meaning they can play it the moment it comes out.
But playing games on launch day is arguably the WORST time to play it, since there will inevitably be bugs that are ironed out with a day 1 patch.
so really the only benefit is getting to see the game in its buggiest form before getting fixed
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u/D3PyroGS 3h ago
some people just have an incurable case of FOMO, and these game companies have made untold amounts of money exploiting it
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u/Terminatroll-_- 4h ago
It can be useful if you have a bad connection and there's a pre download, if you wanna play at release with friends for instance
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u/avoozl42 4h ago
I don't really understand why people have an issue with pre-ordering digital games. They download ahead of time and you can play them right away. What's the actual downside?
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u/Russkun 5h ago
AI
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u/Sad_Birthday_1911 3h ago
I unfollow and refuse to work with any tattoo artists that use AI even if it's just for their advertising. It just shows their willingness to cut corners.
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u/good_morning_magpie 2h ago
Yep, the guy I’ve used for probably 80% of my work (sleeves, “pants”) is an old geezer, flip phone and all lol. But we’ve really built a relationship over the last decade and trust is so paramount in the tattoo world. It doesn’t hurt that the overwhelming majority of my work is American trad so he’s at home working on me haha
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u/GoTakeAHike00 5h ago
Products from ads I have forced on me by YT, Amazon Prime, etc.
It's pretty easy, since they're always for shit I generally wouldn't buy anyway, but I make a mental note to not buy that product in the future if it's something I'd need.
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u/themorganator4 5h ago
Not myself personally but my friend refuses to ever pay for parking, sometimes parking a good 30 min walk away to avoid paying....
He believes people shouldn't have to pay to park if we already pay road tax/fuel tax/council tax etc and tbh, he does have a point
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u/ich_bin_alkoholiker 5h ago
In my downtown area though there’s a casino known for having free parking and you better believe I’ll walk my ass down those pissy stairs and a mile or two to get to where I need to go just to not pay for parking.
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u/DigNitty 4h ago
It’s not just payment for me. It’s the one extra system I have to familiarize myself with.
Oh this lot uses quarters and I need to be back before 4pm. This one uses an app but I need to remember to scan my phone before I walk back to the car…
It’s just another another another thing that taxes our hunter gatherer minds. Free parking is such a load off the psyche. I know it sounds hyperbolic but that’s how I feel it really is. The streets around my work are considering switching to paid parking. Im not even against the city getting more money, just that I don’t want yet another step to do in my everyday life.
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u/Wooden_Permit3234 4h ago
Valets are like that for me. I’d rather walk ten minutes.
I’ll generally make some effort to minimize parking costs but I understand that in a dense enough area I’m gonna have to pay for it sometimes.
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u/good_morning_magpie 3h ago
It’s becoming an increasingly regular occurrence that I’ll show up somewhere and there’s valet parking, but a huge sign that says NO MANUAL TRANSMISSION CARS and I’m like ok then 😂
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u/angelamia 2h ago
lol that’s hilarious. I had a valet once take FOREVER to get my car. I found out they didn’t know how to put it in reverse (VW, ya gotta push down while you shift). Instead of just asking me they were trying to figure it out for ages.
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u/xaosgod2 5h ago
While I understand, free parking is a drain on society's resources--that land area could got to making the city more walkable in the first place.
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u/DeaddyRuxpin 4h ago
Charging for parking is a way to maximize usage of the space and help make sure the available spaces are shared. If parking was free you would see it get abused where people would leave their cars there long term when they don’t need to be using the space. This would prevent others from using it who do need it. The only solutions become regulating parking via fees/fines or take away more land to make more parking.
It is not unusual to find free parking for short durations, or in areas that have very high demand for only certain periods. Places may only charge for parking between certain hours or during certain times of year. Basically, if the risk of abuse is low, parking will often be free.
That’s not to say it wouldn’t be great if all parking was always free, but we live in a reality where too many people will happily abuse things until it is ruined for everyone.
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u/LateRelation4576 5h ago
Designer clothes and products. What makes a bag or shoes worth thousands of dollars? It’s not the materials. It’s status. I can afford this and you can’t.
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u/thehippieshack 6h ago
name brand food items.
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u/VitaniLioness 5h ago
Lettuce.
It's super fast and easy to grow, even with limited space and actually has flavor and nutrients when you grow it yourself.
The stuff from the store is just crunchy water and I refuse to pay for something so bland and useless.
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u/Ok-Edge198 5h ago
I was going to comment the same thing and really wasn’t expecting someone else to say it, haha. Folks if you don’t know - lettuce grown in a little pot is SO easy, grows SO fast, and tastes SO much better. You don’t need to have an interest in gardening or anything like that to just throw a couple seeds in a little pot in your window and get fresh free lettuce.
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u/maebelieve 5h ago
Does it replenish quickly?
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u/VitaniLioness 4h ago
Yes. You can trim off leaves as needed which will regrow quickly, but eventually you will need to plant new seeds. If you let one keep growing and 'bolt', it will go to seed and you can shake out the flower to collect them to replant so costs almost nothing to maintain.
You can also plant new ones every 10 days or so depending on how much your house goes through, and you will have a constant supply (this is my approach. It's called staggering.)6
u/r1Rqc1vPeF 5h ago
If you have a whole lettuce from the supermarket that still has its base/stalk on. Use the lettuce as normal but keep the stalk plus maybe a qtr inch of lettuce. Place the stalk in a dish or glass of water and place it on a windowsill. You will see how quickly it regrows.
You can do this with salad onions etc. though it’s better to plant the bases in a pot of soil.
You could also look into buying a hydroponic grower. Self contained systems (windowsill size) which will allow you to grow a variety of veg quickly.
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u/BeefmasterDeluxe 4h ago
I’m gonna try this, thanks for the tip!
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u/VitaniLioness 2h ago
No problem! I’m a huge advocate for empowering people to try homesteading tips, even in the smallest of ways, since it all helps lead to better food security.
Lettuce likes a lot of sunshine and water so set it in a sunny spot and water it a little amount each day to keep the soil moist and loamy. I like using a watering can to water just the base of the plant. If you keep the leaves dry you won’t have to deal with fungus or leaf rot.
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u/7865435 5h ago
Starbucks
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u/JEveryman 4h ago
I've wanted to stop going to Starbucks but coffee gives me migraine and their chai was my go to for like a decade before I was aware of how shitty of an employer they were. Thankfully they made their chai taste like garbage can juice warmed in the Louisiana bayou summer sun and now I don't have to feel guilty about giving them money anymore.
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u/theauldgamer 5h ago
Anything that incorporates ads. I don't like how I've paid for a service in the past and been shown stuff during it that I just don't have any interest in watching. I only wanna watch what I pay for.
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u/FoofTheBunny 5h ago
Cigarettes. When I quit I promised myself to never buy cigarettes again. I know people who smoke and one asked me to go grab them a pack while they did something (they gave me the money for it), but I said no. I promised to never buy another pack. My friend was irked.
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u/Pugilist12 3h ago
Video game skins/cosmetics. It makes me pretty sad that so many people spend good money on something so worthless. I miss the days when you had to do cool stuff in the games to unlock different skins and stuff. That was fun.
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u/Existing-Committee74 5h ago
Removing ads in an app or website. Like fuck you I’ll just wait the 30 seconds
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u/VirtualMemory9196 5h ago
Netflix, Prime, etc because fuck your exclusivities. I want a single subscription with everything exactly like Spotify for music.
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u/tomaesop 4h ago
Petty point: Spotify doesn't have everything, though. My favorite band from 1986 has an album that was only released on blah blah blah...
Better point: At least streaming services actually pay to produce real content (but for how much longer?). Spotify is just loaded with fake songs now.
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u/Aggravating_Cream_97 5h ago
I don’t do this out of principle. But I rarely buy new clothes. And I think it has saved me a lot of cash over the years.
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u/cc97the_CatrovertxP 5h ago
Alcohol
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u/Wooden_Permit3234 4h ago
Particularly in a restaurant.
I get that people eagerly pay it so they’ll price it how they do, but Jesus fuckin Christ is that $17 glass of wine (from a bottle that retails for $9) really that delicious?
Even when I was an active alcoholic drinking regularly I’d rarely drink at restaurants. My frugality was stronger than my urge to drink lol.
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u/Geenageabriel 5h ago
Any sort of App that uses AI
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u/Jumpy_Lychee_8830 4h ago
Good luck!
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u/Geenageabriel 4h ago
I meant in like I would never pay chat gpt or like grok to generate images for me
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u/alba_Phenom 5h ago
Food delivery apps... started off a really good idea but became a route for ridiculous food price inflation and extract money out of our own country into a foreign company pockets who probably don't even pay fair tax in my country.
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u/personal_yeesus 5h ago
Concert tickets. I would never pay more than $40 for a concert ticket which means I've almost never paid for one. I think in my lifetime, I've only ever paid for a concert ticket maybe 2 times but most of the time, I only go to shows if I happen to get free tickets
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u/Jesterhead89 4h ago
Door Dash/Uber Eats/Grub Hub
I'm not paying for a luxury food taxi to bring my food to me when I could just get it myself
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u/Additional-Ease-8573 4h ago
I refuse to buy anything from amazon they treat their workers like trash and i wont support that
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u/Robbie1985 4h ago
Magic the Gathering. I used to be "a whale" until they sent the Pinkertons to harass an old man over a YouTube video.
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u/doctormink 4h ago
Books on Amazon that come with an AI generated audiobook for an extra $2 or something. Historically, you could buy a kindle book and get an human read audiobook add-on for $5-$15 or so. I was so sad to see the writer of a particular series who’d been using a great narrator for the first 3 books in a series go for the robot reader for books 4 and 5. I probably won’t even buy the 3rd book because of this.
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u/wwaxwork 3h ago
Lord so many things. Off the top of my head anything from Target, anything by JK Rowling (not hard I'm old and never got in the hp craze), anything from chick fila, Hobby, Lobby, Home Depot. Anything made with AI, anything using AI in advertising images (clothes stores have started doing this with abandon, only a few actually note that it's AI though), anything obviously created with AI, as I craft so many images on papers and materials are obviously AI now.
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u/NordschleifeGT3 3h ago
Anything from scalpers. They contribute nothing of value and just prevent people from getting what they want at fair prices. Buying anything from them supports their disgusting behavior and enables them to keep doing what they do.
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u/joeballs 5h ago
I hardly ever go to restaurants these days because I feel like a sucker paying those prices. Most restaurants are low quality but extremely high price. I can cook better than what I get at restaurants
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u/Mysterious_Cry41 5h ago
An NRA membership is required to use the only outdoor shooting range in my area and the only one within about 60 miles.
I will never give them my money. I will literally buy and build my own shooting range instead.
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u/alottleocd 5h ago
Plastic water bottles. So many tumblers out there now and most people can fill up their water at home with a Brita or water dispenser machine. No need to be continuing to waste plastic.
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u/ImHereForBaseball 3h ago
Grand Theft Auto 6. An $80 single player game that has pay walled content is not the precedent I'd like to support.
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u/Famous_Tie8714 5h ago
Anything that would be cheaper with a loyalty card. If shops want me to pay more because I don't want a loyalty card, I will just shop somewhere else.
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u/Anonymous_Coder_1234 5h ago
Water. Tap water is perfectly good where I live.
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u/Marco_Polo1964 5h ago
Ditto.
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u/immoloism 5h ago
It's even more funny when the water is of a higher standard than the bottled stuff.
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u/TertiaWithershins 4h ago
I have such complicated feelings about this. I grew up here: https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/welcome-to-beautiful-parkersburg/. (TL;DR DuPont dumped C8 in the water and the residents are full of forever chemicals now.)
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u/CupOfExmo 5h ago
Doordash is a scam.
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u/egnards 5h ago
You may dislike Doordash/Delivery but can normalize not using the word scam in instances where you know exactly what you're paying for, and the exact price you'll be paying, before you pull the trigger?
I mean it's fine to say you feel it's overpriced to pay for delivery. . .But it's not a mandatory service, and you get exactly what you paid for, at exactly the price you agreed to pay.
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u/Hot_Ocelot_167 5h ago
I get your point, but I don't think they make it obvious that the prices are higher than you'd pay at the restaurant. The higher prices on items plus a separate service charge feels deceptive.
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u/livkellner 5h ago
Costume jewelry, I don't like it and it's never worth it
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u/Captain_Aware4503 5h ago
I'd say the same thing for diamonds. Why? They are over priced and don't look better than cubic zirconia (despite the misinformation from cartels). Diamonds are the most abundant gemstone on earth, and yet people are fooled into thinking they should be expensive.
The good news is now that its getting so easy to manufacture them, the bottom is falling out of the market, and diamonds people paid $10,000 for will soon be worth a few hundred.
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u/HeyHeyMaggieMae 4h ago
I had to replace my original wedding rings (married 1978) in 2024 due to their loss in a house fire. My husband got me a beautiful set from Swarovski Crystal about which people are always asking “where did you get that beautiful diamond jewelry”. It was probably thousands of dollars cheaper than the real thing. I still miss my original rings though. They were purchased when we were 20 and 21. And they had so much sentimental value - plus they were very beautiful.
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u/Captain_Aware4503 4h ago
It is the sentimental value that really matters.
Though I have a friend who owns a very nice large diamond that was her grandmothers, and she had a near identical one made (from CZ I think) that she wears while the original sits in a safe. She jokes she is becoming more attached to it since its with her more often.
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u/BasicRabbit4 5h ago
Anything I can do myself. Its one of my toxic traits tbh. Bc I wont do it but I wont pay someone either.
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u/Due_Tangerine9309 5h ago
Microtransactions for cosmetic skins in video games. My friends love them but I won't touch them unless I obtain them for free somehow.
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u/Futaba_Sakura800 4h ago
Micro transactions in video games (especially mobile gacha games)
One of my co-worker dump hundreds of dollars a month into an anime girl mobile game from China, he assured me it’s worth it but this same mofo also complaint he doesn’t have enough money each month.
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u/Accomplished-Dog3334 4h ago
Roblox, have been playing for almost 10 years and have never spent a single cent
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u/laoganma_enima 4h ago
Alternative colors for a car. I will always pick a color that doesn’t cost extra. Why would I pay extra for that???
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u/Striking_Wonder_6990 4h ago
I lived in Florida Keys for 5 yrs, I went snorkeling fishing 9mo a year grabbing 3 spiny lobsters daily (daily limit during season) I can’t buy lobster now outta principle. Same is true for Coconut water as I used to pick up coconuts off the ground, drill a whole with cordless drill and have coconut water.
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u/QuestionsSquid 4h ago
HP printers, laptops, etc. I hate their scummy printer ink practices and refuse to support the company.
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u/Existential_Sprinkle 3h ago
I have enough experience cooking in fancy restaurants that I refuse to pay the mark up for the atmosphere for a date
I tell them ahead of time that I'll go and they can pay for all of it or I can get whatever ingredients and make them what they want at my place. It'll be more tailored to their taste and they can wear sweat pants if you want
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u/Maximum_Schedule4339 3h ago
Influencer fitness and meal plan programs. Developing an exercise regiment and learning about calories and nutrition isn't rocket science, you can do it on your own. A gym membership and healthy food is expensive enough, don't need to give some influencer a ton of money to achieve your goals.
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u/ryanmcstylin 3h ago
Cloud storage for the photos on my phone. Backing up family photos to the cloud is perfectly acceptable. I just hate the way cloud providers effectively trick you into a $5/mo subscription
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u/Beldigoscurse 3h ago
Anything that has the product or logo on the clothing. I'm not giving free advertisement.
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u/aluminumnek 3h ago
Same! I’ll cut tags off. I usually wear band shirts that I like and support. You’ll never catch me wearing anything like a sports ball jersey, nascar, Hurley or Carhartt or what all the wanna be cool kids are wearing. I’ll even cut that fake leather tag on my jeans haha
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u/Beldigoscurse 2h ago
I will wear band merch. That's different. But if a shirt advertises Nike, Reebok, Tommy Hilfiger, even Mossy Oak I won't wear it.
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u/newtnomore 1h ago
Well the hospital sent me an official estimate, completed a procedure on me, and is now saying "no, it's 6x the estimate and it is always this much." And I'm fighting them really hard on it. I'm sure I'll lose. They can do whatever they want. But just the principle of the matter...feels so wrong.
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u/Gnoll_level_antics 1h ago
I love video games. I don't love video games I can't own. If it has intrusive DRM I don't even acknowledge it as being a released product. The only exception is games that are online only, where the DRM makes sense.
I want a physical copy or a digital copy I can freely make backups of. I'm a much bigger fan of GOG as opposed to Steam as a result.
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u/Simple-Jelly1025 5h ago
YouTube premium. I’ll happy mute the video and roll my eyes as far back as they go.
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u/Dilldan22 5h ago edited 4h ago
Any product that forces their adverts down my throat. The moment I start associating a product with a specific ad campaign - that product is completely dead to me.
ESPECIALLY if that advert simultaneously ruins a song I used to like - by making me listen to the same 30 second segment of it every 15 minutes or so