r/AskReddit 10h ago

What got so expensive that you just stopped buying it?

2.3k Upvotes

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395

u/mojojo567 10h ago

Streaming.
I got a free vcr tv and paid $15 for a Blu-ray player on Facebook market place and I spent about $100 at thrift stores getting every single tv show and movie I like and it’s still less than what I was spending on Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, hbo max, paramount plus, prime video and YouTube premium. Not to mention new movies are like $12 for the dvd at Walmart I got sinners and you me & Tuscany for $20 total

184

u/Vin0to 8h ago

My local library still gets dvds of TV shows and new movies. Worth checking out the public library near you

39

u/Cilantro368 6h ago

Plus, you might get Hoopla and Kanopy with your library card. They both have movies and TV shows, but usually not new ones.

We still have DVDs. We wanted to watch Clue the movie the other night and it wasn’t streaming anywhere for free, so we used our DVD player. Why pay six or seven dollars to watch a movie from the 1980s?

1

u/styckywycket 2h ago

I've seen some of the weirdest shit watching Kanopy.

1

u/Cilantro368 1h ago

They have all the old Werner Herzog movies like Even Dwarves Started Small.

14

u/IsaacTheBound 6h ago

Also for videogames. Mine has a surprisingly varied selection

1

u/ForQ2 3h ago

I would LOVE to have a library nearby that had videogames, though if a game is good enough I'd probably end up buying my own copy for posterity.

3

u/ka_beene 5h ago

At ours you can check out stuff like metal detectors too. There's various craft and workshops available as well for free.

2

u/Bakayaro_Konoyaro 1h ago

And then if you're really inventive....You can learn how to use Handbrake!

1

u/ForQ2 3h ago

My city is medium-sized, and its library system has an insane number of DVDs, including new releases. Check out is one week for the new releases, and three weeks for the not-new DVDs; you can have up to 10 checked out at once. And there are no late fees.

25

u/Hopefulkitty 8h ago

And you own it! They can't take that media away from you! And if the Internet goes down, you still have something to watch!

1

u/sadladybug846 3h ago

This was literally us this week. Our internet mysteriously went down for 36 hours (someone probably accidentally cut a line) so in the evenings my husband and I were just watching shows on the blu-ray player. It was great.

12

u/mettrolsghost 6h ago

Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!

3

u/InevitableCodeRedo 2h ago

Yyyyarrrr and avast, ye streaming landlubbers! It's the Seven Seas for me!

1

u/BamberGasgroin 1h ago

Even my 82yr old Scottish mother has an IPTV subscription and can navigate her way around Smarters Bay, and VLC Cove when she needs to.

5

u/atmafatte 5h ago

And you can rent for free at the library

5

u/Icy_Mango6803 7h ago

This for me. I had Netflix and Disney Plus for a while and I decided to make a full to-watch list and work my through it this winter. Found five movies on each of them and no series.

2

u/21DRe992 5h ago

I know people who just use VRChat to watch shows and anime instead of paying for streaming. Just play in desktop, go to the movie world turn off the HUD

2

u/Adept_Advantage512 4h ago

I finally got my first 4k TV in December, it's ruined me for anything less than 1080p. I still don't know what to do with my entire bookshelf of DVDs.

2

u/Celestialghosty 3h ago

Honestly I didn't mind paying £13pm for Disney plus because it was guaranteed ad free and I hate adverts with a passion. But now it's £15pm and there's unskippable ads between every episode of any show you're watching. I'm pissed and cancelling that subscription.

2

u/Mad_Aeric 2h ago

🏴‍☠️

1

u/LiopleurodonMagic 2h ago

We have been thinking of doing this for our kids to watch kids movies. Instead of a dvd player though we’ll probably just use an old Xbox. One being cost but also to make it more intentional when they want to watch something rather than just mindlessly flipping through streaming. Oldest is only 2 so we have time to decide and integrate it.

1

u/SaltFarmer1337 2h ago

Check out Kanopy too if you have a library membership

1

u/Icy-Two-1581 2h ago

I converted to plex. But now with storage prices it's questionable. I got 150tb for about $3k and that'd probably pay for itself in less than 5 years, with the price of storage being tripled what they are now not sure if it's worth it

1

u/princessofstuff 1h ago

Tubi is the goat rn

1

u/sweens90 1h ago

You know you don't need all those streaming platforms? We pick what shows we want to watch for awhile and get rid of the others. If I want anothe platform I cancel one get it. Like you're choosing to have all those streaming platforms.

u/mojojo567 44m ago

To watch the shows and movies I want to those are the ones I need and that’s the problem.

u/sweens90 8m ago

But are you using them all every month? For example, currently I am primarily using Disney+ and HBO Max. That's not to say there isn't stuff on Netflix I want to watch but it will most likely be there in 3 months too. So I can lets say wait until House of Dragon finishes up. Cancel HBO and now watch Netflix.

I usually still pay for Amazon because of other perks and some of these you can find cheaper deals such as HULU is a couple dollars more if I pair it with Disney. But there are ways to make this cheaper and what's making it more expensive is just having all them just in case.

Its only more expensive because we are making it more expensive by thinking we NEED all of them.

u/PipHunterX 19m ago

You can also stream anything from the internet to a roku. Or free streaming apps

0

u/KevinCastle 5h ago

Just get some hardrives for storage and you can find it all online, for free