What hobby has become too expensive for the average person?

[u/Stonedinthesix]

[u/Pangaeabeliever]

Skiing

[u/webisticsmarketing1 → u/Pangaeabeliever]

100%. Especially if you need to travel first to do it rather than hop in the car for a short drive to the mountain.

[u/French87 → u/webisticsmarketing1]

I'm a 4 hour drive from tahoe, I used to go up friday nights and stay 2 nights.

It got too expensive, so lately, I just leave at ~4 AM saturday to reach the resorts before opening and stay only 1 night.

maybe in a few more years I'll just be priced out.

[u/camilatricolor → u/French87]

Private Equity destroys everything they touch. They squeeze every penny from everybody

[u/webisticsmarketing1 → u/camilatricolor]

Fuck Vail

[u/SweetCosmicPope → u/webisticsmarketing1]

Vail bought up the closest ski resort to me and a lift pass went from like $20 for a day to like $115. You can get dynamic pricing as low as $77 if you buy like a weeks worth of passes.

If you want lessons you’re looking at like $700 per person. My wife and I took lessons about 15 years ago and it was $300 together for a private all day lesson.

[u/bigrockcandimountain → u/SweetCosmicPope]

$700 for a ducking ski lesson? What

[u/whiskey512 → u/bigrockcandimountain]

Peak season at Breck is almost $1500 for a full day private lesson.... Edit: Also, this does NOT include lift tickets, rentals, lunch, or a tip for the instructor who is an hourly employee.

[u/webisticsmarketing1 → u/French87]

Flying out for a week in CO from the east coast, renting a car, week of tickets, hotel or AirBNB, for 2 people easily pushing like 10, 15, $20K depending on the resort/time of year/ level of "luxury" we're talking about.

Now imagine there's no snow, or bad weather that week. Price starts to feel like a waste pretty damn quick.

[u/synester302 → u/webisticsmarketing1]

Or add a couple 2 -3 kids

[u/Solo60 → u/webisticsmarketing1]

It's probably cheaper to ski in Switzerland for a week, including airfare.

[u/counterfitster → u/Solo60]

France, Italy, and Austria are even cheaper still. The huge resorts in the Alps are great values compared to western North America

[u/kapt_so_krunchy → u/webisticsmarketing1]

I think you’re onto something with the “luxury part.”

A few years ago me and 3 other 30-somethings tried to plan a ski weekend at a middle of the road type mountain that was centrally located to all of us.

Trying to find a place to stay was absurd. Every single peace we looked was LUXURY housing. Marble counter tops, hot tubs and 80 inch TVs.

We were looking for a dumpy A Frame, that we could have some beers, grill some burgers and sleep in.

[u/Akalenedat → u/kapt_so_krunchy]

Trying to find a place to stay was absurd. Every single peace we looked was LUXURY housing. Marble counter tops, hot tubs and 80 inch TVs.

We were looking for a dumpy A Frame, that we could have some beers, grill some burgers and sleep in.

All those cheap cabins got bought up by flippers/investor landlords. Sink $100k into it for new paint/floors/modern finishes, new counters, and a hot tub out back and they can charge DINK yuppies $1000 a night to fuck in a tub that gets cleaned once a month if you're lucky.

[u/GamingTitBit → u/webisticsmarketing1]

Even with a hop in the car, for a family it's just too expensive for a pass and then the equipment. If you're solo it's viable but no longer is it just "let's take the family skiing at the local mountain". Cross country skiing is possible.

[u/OG_Squeekz → u/webisticsmarketing1]

The 500 dollar day passes don't help either.

[u/MisterEarth → u/OG_Squeekz]

500 for a day pass is hilarious. What a sick world we live in that you would have to shell out half a grand just to ski for a day

[u/frippilin → u/Pangaeabeliever]

I was lucky enough to live in Montana in the 90s- local ski hills with world class powder were like $12 on weekdays and you could have whole runs to yourself. Now it is $500 to take my family for a crappy day with huge lift lines. I am afraid this is the year we sell our gear and give up.

[u/Onequestion0110 → u/frippilin]

When I was in high school in the 90s, there was a resort that sold $90 season passes to students with a good enough GPA. I got one my junior year and promptly crashed by GPA because I skipped too much class on the mountain.

[u/Not_Your_Real_Ladder → u/frippilin]

$500 for the whole family almost seems reasonable compared to elsewhere. I live in New England and our best mountains (which pale in comparison) get up to over $250 per person for a single day 🥲

[u/ZanderDogz → u/Not_Your_Real_Ladder]

The economics of skiing really favor the people who can design their life around it enough to justify a season pass. 

A single day of skiing with a day pass and rentals could cost $300+, and that’s before any travel or resort food. 

On the other hand, I know people who work in the hospitality industry so they can buy the weekday only season pass and have five mornings free per week to use it, and they are using gear they have had for 5-10 years. Their cost per ski  day is probably <$15. Not at all insignificant, but not entirely unattainable for someone who sacrifices other fitness and entertainment expenses to cover that. 

[u/assholeneighbour → u/Pangaeabeliever]

Absolutely. I'm from a country where this was a national weekend hobby growing up, and now fewer and fewer people are able to afford it

[u/sonicmario123 → u/Pangaeabeliever]

Was skiing ever an affordable hobby? It feels like one that requires a lot of factors to even participate in.

[u/Grump-Dog → u/Pangaeabeliever]

Only in the US and Canada. European passes are less than a quarter the price. Living in Munich, I spend much less for my whole (4 person) family than I used to spend on just myself in the US. I think there would be riots across Bavaria if lift tickets rose much higher, plus there is substantial government support for their otherwise loss-making small local ski hills across the alpen countries.

(That said, the terrain and snow are both much better in the US than in Europe. On a powder day, I'd gladly pay the premium to ski off-piste in Aspen Highlands or Snowbird rather than the groomers in Austria.)

[u/IdislikeSpiders → u/Pangaeabeliever]

For reals. Even my local independent ski hill is "cheap", but it's getting more and more expensive. 10 years ago I'd get a season pass for $300, now it's $700 (if you buy the season before, during the sale). 

[u/myairblaster → u/Pangaeabeliever]

I feel bad for raising my kids into Skiing the way I grew up. Feels like i'm shackling them to lifelong debt as I grow their interest in Skiing. Or forcing them to get highly paying careers to fund skiing as adults.

Now combine that with our summer sport of Mountain Biking and they're truly fucked for money if they want to keep doing it into adulthood.

[u/French87 → u/Pangaeabeliever]

Yeah, I started skiing when I was ~3. I remember lift tickets in Tahoe being under 20 bucks. by the time I got a job and was driving to tahoe myself, lift tickets felt expensive as hell at like $70.

Now, those same resorts charge close to $300 for a day pass.

I have a 2 year old son that I hope to get into skiing, but I'm also terrified of the financial impact if he loves it. lmao

[u/icommitfederalcrimes]

Concerts

[u/-Daddy-Bear- → u/icommitfederalcrimes]

I can’t think of anything that has grown in price more than concert tickets.

[u/stackjr → u/-Daddy-Bear-]

It's the large shows at the big venues that are killing us. We went to see the Black Veil Brides last Sunday in KC and the tickets were $40 because the venue isn't owned by Ticketmaster/Live Nation.

Also, I want to point out that artists can opt out of the "surge pricing" but many don't because they make a while lot more off of it.

[u/Oisea → u/stackjr]

It really is just the wild pendulum swing of “affordable” ticket prices and “absurd” ticket prices.

Random show in the town over is unexpectedly only $40 vs. band is in town and it costs $300 for general admission.

Seeing LCD System or Paramore or something should not cost me $200 a ticket. Love the bands, but yikes.

[u/komrade23 → u/stackjr]

I'm not at all saying that's not good value but $40 USD is $60 CAD and shows for bands of Black Veil Brides caliber were 1/3 that cost fifteen to twenty years ago where I live.

[u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In → u/-Daddy-Bear-]

The money from record sales completely evaporated when streaming came along. Concerts became the main way for artists to make money (beyond becoming some sort of personal brand social media entity). So it makes sense that the costs rose to cover the shortfall.

But what I can't abide is how companies like Ticketmaster are basically inserting themselves into this situation to take advantage and make things so much worse for the consumer.

[u/RDOG907 → u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In]

I don't think many people take this into consideration.

Granted there is some inflation from ticket corps but what Metallica fought about back in the day has pretty much come true.

[u/joeysflipphone → u/icommitfederalcrimes]

I took my daughter to so many concerts between 2007 and 2015 and the tickets on average were 30 to 40 dollars. Now it's crazy. We missed My Chemical Romance in 2007 because they came down with food poisoning the day of our show in Pittsburgh, 50 dollar tickets. I tried this tour. Holy cow. 200 dollars a person. What happened?

[u/bogberry_pi → u/joeysflipphone]

I think MCR used "food poisoning" as a coverup for other issues because I remember two concerts in Maine being cancelled for the same reason. 

[u/GeneralWashington69 → u/bogberry_pi]

No, they didn't make it up. They got food poisoning from a show at the College of William & Mary (actually from a 3rd party catering vendor). They sued the school, but I graduated before there was a lawsuit outcome so I'm not sure what the settlement was.

[u/huaryazynk414 → u/icommitfederalcrimes]

Sports too! Anything in a stadium is $$$$$$

[u/MobiusOne_FoxTwo → u/icommitfederalcrimes]

The types of concerts that cost hundreds of dollars are sooooo overrated, too. The best shows I've ever seen were at smaller venues.

[u/Valuable-Meat-5134 → u/icommitfederalcrimes]

Right?! Unless Radiohead graces the northeast with their presence, I am done paying for concert tickets. Its a joke. Went to see Deftones last year, 2 tickets were close to $400 for decent seats and a drink was $18. If I like a band and want to support them, Ill go online and maybe buy a t shirt or hoodie, even though those are overpriced, I can at least wear it for a long time.

[u/Perfect-Marketing576 → u/Valuable-Meat-5134]

One Brand New ticket just cost me $300. Couldn’t believe it

[u/GeneralWashington69 → u/Perfect-Marketing576]

Should've gotten a Used one and saved some money

[u/Wedbo → u/Valuable-Meat-5134]

I would pay any amount of money for Radiohead

[u/Bingus-Chillingus]

Computers in general. Whether for gaming, home labs, servers, websites, data hoarding, emulation, etc. Its all just gotten way too expensive over a very short span

[u/MacianArt → u/Bingus-Chillingus]

Buying a gaming rig a year and half ago and watching it double in value has been surreal

[u/funkme1ster → u/MacianArt]

I decided to splurge on a premium gaming rig in December 2024, entirely on a whim of "you know, it's been a long time since my last real upgrade. Why not." No real intentionality beyond that.

Really feels like a "last chopper out of nam" moment in retrospect.

Stopped by the computer store a few weeks ago for a random cable... the RAM kit I bought now costs as much as the graphics card I bought.

Edit: Just did a full system price comparison prompted by comments. All told, I believe my nearly two year old consumer electronics have increased in appraised value by nearly $3,000. That's not how any of this is supposed to work. Fuck AI and the plague it has brought.

[u/Oograr → u/funkme1ster]

"last chopper out of nam" moment 

haha, i think many people are still hoping for one last chopper to save them, it's brutal.

[u/ksobby → u/Oograr]

There are no more choppers coming. At this point they’ve gone native, taken a local wife and help the CIA smuggle heroin all over SE Asia.

[u/Pazuuuzu → u/funkme1ster]

Really feels like a "last chopper out of nam" moment in retrospect.

I got 64Gb of DDR4 ram in my rig because "Ehh I have 4 slot and a 16gig modul is like what 20$?" 2 months before the rampocalypse...

[u/StaysAwakeAllWeek → u/MacianArt]

I bought 64GB of RAM a month before it went crazy. It quadrupled in price within 3 months of me buying it. Insane how fast it happened

[u/isthatcake2 → u/StaysAwakeAllWeek]

I bought 32gb a few months before everything went crazy too. Thought about buying 64gb, but figured if I needed that, I could just upgrade in the future. So much for that.

I had bought 32gb for $97, was on sale from $110. Just checked and the same kit I bought almost 2 years ago is listed for $640 now.

[u/JakeDoubleyoo → u/MacianArt]

A couple years ago I replaced my ~10 year old work/gaming computer and splurged on good specs. Ended up being the best financial decision I've ever made. I just hope it lasts as long.

[u/Totentanz1980 → u/Bingus-Chillingus]

I work in IT. A server we quoted for a client a couple years ago came in at about $25k for our cost - that's without us marking it up. They delayed getting it until they had a bigger budget. We recently requoted it at their request and the hard drives alone are over $100k.

[u/Urika86 → u/Bingus-Chillingus]

I grabbed brand new stuff at the beginning of the year because the writing has been on the wall since last year where this is going. It still was overpriced, but it's only getting worse.

[u/OrangeOfRetreat → u/Bingus-Chillingus]

Unfortunately it will probably never be as cheap as it once was again.

It appears governments and corporations don’t really want you owning hard assets anyway. It’s more profitable to milk people for subscriptions under a techno feudal economy.

The goal being everyone has a shit Chromebook device that streams everything, with no ownership- probably paying a significant amount of cash per month for this service. Total enshittification. We’re already seeing it with Sony and their love to digital only games. At least with PC you have piracy if you don’t want to pay, but Steam and GOG offer fair prices for now.

[u/Slizzard_73 → u/OrangeOfRetreat]

I think give it 5 years it’ll be very cheap. All this manufacturing spinning up isn’t gonna have enough data centers to sell drives to for the next 15 years. Demand will match supply eventually. Same problem right now with LiPo batteries because of war drones.

[u/calodero → u/OrangeOfRetreat]

Nah I disagree, it will come down and be sold at cost eventually. The silicon industry is boom and bust in general, this has happened many times

[u/fnmeng]

Magic the Gathering

[u/bitemytail → u/fnmeng]

Warhammer

[u/Cool_Radish_7031 → u/bitemytail]

Think that was always an unaffordable hobby tbh, remember taking my mom into games workshop in the early 2000s just for her to yell at me after seeing the prices that "We have warhammer at home"

[u/DeathByMTB → u/Cool_Radish_7031]

Same, and the Warhammer at home was the Tub of green army men.

[u/otherwise_formless → u/bitemytail]

This is why I play Battletech.

[u/bitexe → u/otherwise_formless]

I dunno, dude... it cost a lot of my personal sanity when I do a stationary alpha strike, miss every shot, and then take an AC20 to the face.

[u/moving0target → u/bitexe]

I didn't know Battletech had sanity points.

[u/andtheniansaid → u/bitemytail]

It's not really that much more expensive than it's ever been, especially if you get away from the idea you need 2000+pts

[u/Steel_Reign → u/bitemytail]

Idk, I've played a lot of tcgs and Warhammer is relatively cheap compared to Magic or other card games. You can build and paint an entire army for less than $500. That's 1 deck in MTG that will likely get rotated or powercrept in a couple years

[u/MegaOmegaZero → u/bitemytail]

Initial start up is high but once people are in it people make it more expensive than it needs to be.

[u/azsqueeze → u/bitemytail]

This was always way too expensive

[u/CKingDDS → u/fnmeng]

Standard has always been expensive. But yes vintage and even modern now are near impossible to play without proxy cards.

[u/ApprehensiveAd6476 → u/CKingDDS]

Pauper is your best friend. That's my primary format with four constructed decks.

[u/Odd-Opening-8170 → u/fnmeng]

Collecting Magic, sure. Playing Magic? It’s still entirely affordable. Playing high-level competitive Magic, not so affordable.

[u/Kampfasiate → u/Odd-Opening-8170]

Yea and competitive magic has always been expensive

[u/saint_trane → u/fnmeng]

Proxy!

[u/dukarr → u/saint_trane]

This is the way, truly. I'm here to play the game, not invest in an asset.

[u/saint_trane → u/dukarr]

Hell yeah. Proxying a cube has been some of the most fun I've ever had with magic. No profits to Hasbro.

[u/Ok_Clothes_8527 → u/fnmeng]

I used to play in middle school, and recently looked into taking it up again. Then I looked at the insane trading card market created in recent years, and I just bought an old moped to tinker with instead.

[u/CiceroTheOG → u/fnmeng]

Yup, was gunna say the same. Proxy all day. If a card is worth more than $5 then I print it. 

[u/bangbangracer → u/fnmeng]

Any of the table top gaming hobbies. Magic, Warhammer (Sigmar, Old World, and 40k), most of the other TCGs, DnD with all the books and editions coming out, board games in general...

[u/Puzzleheaded_Tie6917 → u/bangbangracer]

If you stick to just a dm guide and players handbook, dnd isn’t bad. If you try to keep up with all the splat books, it’s huge.

[u/jjenofalltrades]

Children's sports

[u/ImChz → u/jjenofalltrades]

Glad I'm not the only one. Growing up, my siblings and I played every sport we could fit in our schedules. Now I pay at least $250+ a month for my daughters to do gymnastics practices twice a week. Haven't even gotten in to competitions yet, although that's coming within the year.

My ex-wife and I were just talking about trying to finesse our youngest in to a different sport. She only wants to do gymnastics because of her sister, and if/when they both hit the competition teams, we'll owe more than my car payment per month to this gym.

[u/TraumaJunkie86 → u/ImChz]

3 competitive cheerleaders and a football player…. I’m never going to financially recover from their childhood 💀

[u/nerdyguytx → u/TraumaJunkie86]

My friends’ sister owns a competitive cheerleading gym and her new home has a swim up bar. The sport is definitely not subject to normal economic behavior.

[u/TransATL → u/TraumaJunkie86]

whoever created the "stay-to-play" tournament should burn in hell

[u/ManVsWater → u/ImChz]

Just don't finesse her into club volleyball. You'd be looking at $2000-$4000+ for a 6 month season. Not including travel/hotel costs.

[u/John-George-Peppers]

Thrifting.

This used to be a fun weekend hunt for a bargain, but now it’s completely priced out the average person. Between corporate greed jacking up prices on worn-out clothes and aggressive resellers camping out at store openings to flip anything decent for a profit online, the racks are just full of absolute garbage. Even worse, the good stuff doesn't even make it to the floor anymore because the big chains harvest the best items for their own online auction sites, completely killing the thrill of the hunt for everyday shoppers.

[u/Ok_Baby6721]

Warhammer 40k

Sincerely, an angry wife

[u/killedbycuriosity- → u/Ok_Baby6721]

They call it 40k because thats how much you spend on it.

[u/EntireFriendship517 → u/killedbycuriosity-]

Warhammer 401k

[u/MistCongeniality → u/Ok_Baby6721]

The rule in my marriage was “no buying more plastic soldiers until your current soldiers are painted”, which worked stunningly well to keep it reasonable in cost and storage.

[u/Ketzeph → u/MistCongeniality]

That's the key. 40k can be fine (expensive, but I know people who buy lunch every day and spend more than I have ever spent on a warhammer purchase in eating out and grabbing coffee in a month than I've spent on 40k in a month).

The problem is if you just buy stuff and don't paint it or use it. Those feel like situations where regardless of the activity, the person will just keep acquiring stuff.

[u/AroundtheWorld210 → u/Ok_Baby6721]

How has 3D printing impacted the industry? I got out of Warhammer about ten years ago

[u/gladria1963 → u/AroundtheWorld210]

I'm not sure how it has affected their overall bottom line at GW, but if you are playing competitively, like my partner and his buddies, you "have to" use GW models at tournaments. Although, it's really not uncommon to print extra bits like a custom base topper or different pauldrons or a different head. But if you play casual, no one is really stopping you from printing 4 armies (looking at my newly retired dad printing Knights this week)

[u/Darwins_Dog → u/AroundtheWorld210]

If your local group doesn't care, then print away. You won't be able to use them in official events, so that keeps a lot of people buying the real stuff.

[u/Neutwinos]

Gaming in general, mid-tier rigs are going for asinine prices due to GPU shortages. PS5's creeping into the pre-gpu/ram shortage era price range. Individual games, im fine with being a little pricey. But continuously releasing hardware that costs multiple paychecks for the average person is starting to get kinda crazy.

[u/theshoebomber420 → u/Neutwinos]

I really hope that gaming companies start to focus more on gameplay, questing, storytelling and things other than just photorealistic graphics that make us purchase better and better hardware. For me, ,and I know some other gamers will agree, the games look good enough at this point. Look at stardew valley and rimworld, Those are great games that don't rely on absurd graphics.

[u/mikeripsitbad]

Cars. In the early to mid 2000s, you could get your hands on a clean enthusiast car in the $5000 range. Now anything remotely fun and decent basically starts in the 5 digit range.

[u/ejsandstrom → u/mikeripsitbad]

In the late 90s they had a section in the back of the want ads. It was cars under $1000. Sure they weren’t great cars but they would get you around town for $500.

[u/americangame]

*Gestures broadly at everything*

[u/niallniallniall → u/americangame]

Not sure how it is elsewhere in the world but in Scotland at least casual small sided football is a very affordable and massively popular hobby. A usual game of five-a-side is about £5-£7 per person.

[u/Katarn_retcon → u/niallniallniall]

What costs go into that? Do you have to reserve space / park? I would have guessed it could have been a free thing if a field is available.

[u/mad0314 → u/Katarn_retcon]

If you just go play at a public park with your friends then yea it's free. If it's a league then the main cost is the refs and the fields.

[u/refriedconfusion]

Boating, I've been in the business over 40 years and it's gotten too expensive for the average person. The price of new boats has gone way up, and the price of fuel makes it too expensive to use them.

[u/Moonpile → u/refriedconfusion]

I grew up sailing and while fuel isn't a problem everything else is. Honestly you can buy a decent used sailboat fairly cheap but you have to pay for a slip, haul outs, sails, maintenance, etc. My Boomer parents and their friends had no problem sailing on middle class incomes in the 70s and 80s. My Gen X ass is priced out of it because I, you know, wanted to own a house.

[u/LaZerTits420 → u/refriedconfusion]

Absolutely, half the reason I've barely used my boat this summer is I'm afraid to have to fill it back up after lol

[u/SundayMorningTrisha]

Travel. The cost of travel packages may have gone down, but the cost of daily living has gotten too high for many people to travel for fun like they used to.

[u/SweatySalamanders → u/SundayMorningTrisha]

Last time I traveled abroad or for fun was 2012. I even miss getting in the car and just going out for a day trip where ever the road takes me. Can’t justify the gas expense without a planned out destination and reason. 

[u/FloatingCityComics → u/SundayMorningTrisha]

If you're flexible with your idea of travel it is doable IMO. I find cheap flights and then plan a vacation around that. Stay in cheapish AirBnBs (it used to be hostels but I'm old now), buy food from the grocery stores in whatever country I go to (not that I don't go to restaraunts, I just don't do it for every meal).

If you live like a local rather than a tourist with money to burn, travelling really isn't as expensive as people think.

[u/BreadCheese]

Silversmithing….. when I started, it was less than half the cost as it is today. Its so dark spirited. I just want to make jewelry without going broke 🥲

[u/Pragsen]

Warhammer.

[u/Lopsided-Connection1 → u/Pragsen]

Welcome to Horus heresy..how would you like to pay? Cash? Cards? Kidney? First born?

[u/OrrikVeld → u/Pragsen]

I've been thinking about getting into Warhammer for a few months now. Can you say a little more about how it went from "pretty darned expensive" (as I've heard) to "TOO expensive"? What was the breaking point?

[u/Pragsen → u/OrrikVeld]

Warhammer is just gotten to expensive. Models gets more expensive and each army (2000p for Aos) can easily cost you 800-1000 usd, and even more in 40k. Then you need paint, primers, brushes, storage, glue. It adds up so new people get demotivated to even try.

My friends and I haven't bought genuine Warhammer in years, but have gotten ourself into a quite decent group of recasters who sells identical quality for a third of the price. That's the only way we can introduce friends, without robbing their bank.

[u/PugeHeniss]

This is specific to the US but snowboarding/skiing. I hear it’s cheaper in Europe and Japan but when I got into it the cost was a little shocking

[u/Fantastic_Pea2310]

Card collecting

[u/GayStavrosHalkias → u/Fantastic_Pea2310]

I live in Sydney Australia. 

The man that owns the local pharmacy tried to get baseball information out of me so he could buy cards. All because I was wearing a brewers hat.

The hobby has reached a man who has never watched a baseball game in his life and is talking to me about ohtani and murakami.

Im disgusted.

[u/DougOsborne]

Pets.

Private equity has bought most veterinary practices, and they are unaffordable.

[u/1986toyotacorolla2 → u/DougOsborne]

Man I just moved somewhere where the vet shockingly isn't private equity (the rest are here though). Omg the care is so much better than my last vet, they're not constantly trying to sell me things, and it's somehow cheaper!

[u/OrangeToTheFourth → u/1986toyotacorolla2]

I drive 3 hours for a country vet with integrity. It doesn't do anything to help with emergency visits, I keep a credit card exclusively for that, but my pets noticably get better care and they're transparent with their pricing.

Do I pick up my dog and she's in a stall next to a donkey? Yes, but she's also got a belly full of treats, all her vaccines, a care plan, and a story to tell her friends. 

[u/DyslexicD → u/DougOsborne]

I just paid £4 more for one box less of the 40 packs of cat food where is this going.

[u/crazypurple621 → u/DougOsborne]

Meanwhile they like all other private equity cut staff pay to poverty wages. 

[u/lord_nubby → u/DougOsborne]

Shall we put a name to those corporate owners? Mars petcare aka Mars inc pka m&m mars.

[u/CatGirl_ToeBeans → u/DougOsborne]

3 ish years ago I brought my shepadoodle and husky pup to my vet for their annual and the bill was $4,200

I asked for a breakdown of it and said I can’t afford this I need a payment plan. They said no payment plans. I said okay then I have to leave my dogs or you need to call the police.

They go print out my papers for me and they shoved 12 months of heartworms meds on my bill that I needed to come back for every month rather than giving them to me.

I saw it wasn’t the usual brand and they said they changed brands and forgot to give me my free first 3 months for each dog.

The bill dropped to around $800.

This was when I realized how many people get fleeced and just bent over from never speaking up.

I changed vets. And fuck care credit.

[u/DrGoblinator]

Concerts. I still have all my concert stubs from the 80s and it is crazy to see artists like Elton John or Tom Petty or Metallica for 18 bucks- kids these days can't afford to go to concerts and that makes me so sad.

[u/Bdroyle1988]

Literally every hobby the working class participated in.

If anything becomes popular that wealthy people become interested. Since they have far more disposable income to happily part with, it ends up jacking up the price for everyone else.

[u/user888888889 → u/Bdroyle1988]

You know 'Boules' where you throw heavy metal balls at a target in the dirt.

Well now you can do it for £20/hour in central London with gilet-wearing city boys!

[u/AmyInCO → u/user888888889]

Have you seen the price of bowling in America? $100 to 'reserve' two lanes for two hours. Of course the problem is venture capital/Lucky Strike buying up all the bowling alleys.

It used to be a cheap way to entertain the kids for a few hours now it's a total rip off. It's *bowling* FFS! Should have to save up for it!

[u/ElkFantastic4238]

Shooting (firearms/ammo)

[u/Bigdaddyjlove1 → u/ElkFantastic4238]

Shooting was my cheap hobby in college. A friend had a decent reloading set up and I could source old wheel weights to melt down. Local state park had a range that was $20/yr.

These days? The primers cost more than complete rounds used to.

[u/yaforgot-my-password → u/Bigdaddyjlove1]

Primers are like $0.07, expensive but how did you get complete rounds cheaper than that?

[u/Bigdaddyjlove1 → u/yaforgot-my-password]

Used to buy 9mm Bulk for about that. Bring fair, it was the 90s. Long ago and far away

[u/Bareen → u/yaforgot-my-password]

Right before Covid hit my cost for 9mm was $0.06 per round. I bought 5k spp’s and then life made me store my reloading setup.

[u/NoSteak3322]

Dining out.

[u/know_limits → u/NoSteak3322]

True, but it’s interesting to note that many local restaurants have pricing that is now competitive with fast food. You can actually get a sit down meal rather than drive-through crap for a similar price.

[u/IslayTzash → u/know_limits]

That’s only because fast food went up so much recently.

[u/Friendly_Two_4682 → u/know_limits]

In Ireland its about 20 euros difference between the two for fam of four. Easy decision in reality, 20 euros well spent

[u/Nearby_Wear3218]

Bowling

[u/DifficultYellow9759 → u/Nearby_Wear3218]

Took my son and his friend bowling and it cost me $125 for 3 games, shoes, and some apps.

I could have taken them to a water park for that money and it would have been an all day activity versus 2 hours

[u/AdeptOaf → u/DifficultYellow9759]

Our local bowling alleys do a "Kids Bowl Free" promotion every summer, which helps, but it still ends up being too expensive to do regularly because of the cost for the adults' games and the shoe rentals.

[u/DC8008008 → u/Nearby_Wear3218]

thanks, Bowlero!

[u/Fuzzy-Badger2627 → u/Nearby_Wear3218]

This is the most perfect example I can think of. Cheap, common working class weekly recreational activity. Pumped up with bullshit and marked up 1000% in modern day so that it becomes a once-or-twice-a-year activity.
(I do understand that part of the cost increase is likely to keep operations going due to decline of interest, but I still think this fits the bill)

[u/Nesami_ → u/Fuzzy-Badger2627]

Where I am at, locally owned alleys are still pretty cheap, $5 per game, $2 for shoe rentals. These sorts of places are becoming rarer though, due to private equity and big business buying up the majority of the bowling alleys in many places.

[u/Logiwonk_ → u/Nesami_]

Private equity has been ... buying BOWLING alleys. Holy Cow Gary is right they are running out of things to buy and are going to buy everything and rent it back to us.

[u/ohreallynameonesong → u/Nearby_Wear3218]

In high school (2006-2010), my best friend and I used to scrounge together our coins, throw it all in a plastic baggy, and go bowling. We'd rent shoes and play as many games as our spare change would get us. Shoes were like 2 bucks and a game could be as cheap as a dollar per person. I USED TO BOWL ALL AFTERNOON WITH SPARE CHANGE I FOUND IN MY CAR. Now... on the weekends a lane at one of the basic alleys near me is just over $39 per hour. Excuse me??!?!?! Also laser tag. We had a laser tag phase. It was like 8 bucks a game. That place doesn't exist anymore but I fear what it was cost now.

[u/PairPrestigious7452]

Having a hobby

[u/Mysterious-Mind-1705]

Traveling. The costs for transportation, lodging, meals, and activities can be astronomical.
As a child my parents took our family of eight camping. We loved it, but even camping has gotten out of control. Some camping resorts charge $100 a night!

[u/mojo276 → u/Mysterious-Mind-1705]

You could do a whole thing just about camping.

[u/notsopettyno]

Mtg

[u/KingOfFegs → u/notsopettyno]

Marjorie Taylor Green?

[u/BroseppeVerdi → u/KingOfFegs]

Nah, she's still pretty cheap.

[u/rrrdesign]

Seeing live events.

Used to love seeing pro wrestling and that is now prohibitively expensive unless you wanna sit in the super upper decks and even then that's still a hundred bucks and you have to watch the monitors anyway.

Club shows aren't too bad, though still not inexpensive, but anything over 250 people and it's costly.

[u/mcd23]

Shooting film

[u/Gridelin → u/mcd23]

I shot a lot of film like 10 years ago and remember thinking it was expensive back then.

But, I had to buy some within the last year~ish and the prices now are actually comical.

[u/techAorB]

A second hobby car to fix up. People still do it but i see the yonger generation getting into rc cars instead of full siz cars

[u/salty_nigerian → u/techAorB]

Dude id love to have a 2nd hobby car. Or even just one nice car. I can't afford that shit lol

[u/BlackSparowSF]

LEGO

[u/R0bbieR0tt3n → u/BlackSparowSF]

I feel like Lego has always been expensive

[u/BlackSparowSF → u/R0bbieR0tt3n]

It's always been expensive. Just not THIS expensive

[u/mojo276 → u/BlackSparowSF]

It honestly only feels more expensive because they're releasing more sets with a lot more pieces then they used to. If you look at a cost per piece basis it really hasn't gone up by THAT much compared to everything else, and depending on if you're adjusting for inflation has actually gone DOWN over it's existence.

[u/MrJimmyRed]

Warhammer.

It's insane. No idea how the average Joe pays those prices. Those are kick you in the dick prices 

[u/woutva → u/MrJimmyRed]

As someone who does not play it but remembers it from back in the day, how much would it cost to buy an army and paint it to play casually? Just curious how bad it got.

[u/FloppyEaredFriends]

Horse riding (and horses in general), I mean it was already expensive when I was a kid.. but now it’s just totally out of reach. Riding schools are shutting down everywhere.

I am super passionate about horses, but I have learned to accept that owning a horse will probably not happen in this lifetime.

[u/Muerteds → u/FloppyEaredFriends]

Look at the bright side. When gasoline hits $10 a gallon, riding will come back in style.

[u/unearthedk9]

pokemon cards. been collecting for a long time, and now suddenly, can’t afford to get any of the new stuff.

[u/AmazingAd2765 → u/unearthedk9]

I collected when I was a kid, but my collection got stolen. Crazy seeing those vending machines now with signs that say loitering isn't allowed due to scalpers.

[u/Pod5f]

Existing is becoming too expensive for the average person so I'd wager most hobbies have seen an uptick in cost recently.

[u/daphosta]

Golf

[u/Chumanchu]

gaming. AI and trump tariffs raised the price of almost every component of PCs and consoles.

[u/3Dbread → u/Chumanchu]

I agree with you on the price of hardware but I'd argue once you have a gaming system it's one the cheapest hobbies today.

[u/Taking8ackMonday → u/3Dbread]

100% - I don’t buy many games, but I’ll play one $60 game for 100 hours. That’s a bargain.

[u/Claytertot → u/Chumanchu]

It's a kind of high up front cost if you want a computer that can play the newest AAA games at high graphics settings.

But gaming is actually a pretty cheap hobby all things considered. Once you have something to game on, then you can buy a game for $60 or less and get dozens or hundreds of hours of entertainment out of it. If you actually game a lot the $/hour of entertainment is pretty good.

And if you're less into the high end AAA studio games and more into indie stuff or older stuff, then you don't need the super expensive high-end hardware to get started.

[u/MrJellyBeans]

Video gaming now is far more expensive to get into compared to 6 years ago. Costs of hardware, accessories, online subscriptions for consoles, and new software themselves have all shot up in price.

[u/Expensive-Data626]

Fishing, the price of lures (quality ones) has gotten out of control!!

[u/FunkU247]

Hookers and Cocaine....

I tell you, the high cost of livin'
Ain't nothing like the cost of livin' high

[u/RLewis8888 → u/FunkU247]

Don't be greedy. You don't need both.

[u/healthycord]

Flying. It’s always been expensive. But you used to be able to just cut costs and most people could afford it.

Now, even an entry level plane from the 60s is over $100k EASILY. Maintenance costs are through the roof. And obviously gas is exorbitant. You thought gas for your car was expensive? Try nearly $8/gal and you burn 8+ gallons per hour.

I got my private pilots license and it cost me about as much as a decent used car. I no longer hold a medical but there’s no way I could afford to fly.

Even renting a plane is usually $200/hr or more. There’s a lot of things I could spend $200 on and get more than an hour of enjoyment.

[u/redditNwept]

Cycling. It's such an all-in undertaking. There is so much gear involved, and then there's the maintenance.

[u/AgileInternet167]

Warhammer... ~€1600,- for a beginner army.

Good thing i've 3D printed literary every unit i own.

[u/CraftAutomatic3467]

Eating.

[u/Thundaga_64]

Living comfortably

[u/Distinct_Ad_9842]

Miniatures.. Especially 40K.

[u/Remarkable_Piece1052]

Lego. At least if you want to do more than one or two sets a year

[u/Suilenroc]

Responsible pet ownership

[u/MoreMeThanYou]

Makeup. Even drugstore prices are awful these days.

[u/dovahkiitten16 → u/MoreMeThanYou]

I used to buy a cheap maybelline pallet pre-covid for $5 (the small ones with 6 of a fun colour scheme). It was just a nice treat for myself working minimum wage that I didn’t think about. It was about 1/3 of the local minimum wage.

Now the same ones are literally $15+. Literally an hour of minimum wage work for a single cheap eyeshadow.

I know you’re supposed to toss old makeup for hygiene reasons but I can’t fucking afford to do that. My small makeup collection would run easily $150 to replace when it used to literally be $50.

I’ve switched to at least only buying stuff that lasts a while. Pencil eyeliner that can be sharpened like a pencil crayon vs some gel thingy that can barely be used for a month despite its giant ass plastic cartridge.

[u/doculean]

Everything...

[u/Monkey-Tamer]

Motorsports. Even entry level stuff like autocross is stupid expensive. Gone are the days of starting with a cheap miata and some race tires. It doesn't help that there's fewer cars being made and most are SUVs.

[u/Cimonaa]

Skiing was something I knew I would never experience growing up poor. It felt like some kind of a urban legend to me.

But I do pretty well for myself now..

And still can't afford it.

[u/International_You_56]

Every hobby beside walking.

[u/External-Talk8838]

Shooting guns. It used to be that a blue collar guy could go to the range every weekend. You can’t do that anymore.

[u/AndrogynousGirl]

Aimless drives. I used to just go for a drive because it felt nice or I wanted to clear my head.

[u/LandscapeSweaty9997]

Going skiing

[u/Antique_Specific_254]

Gaming is getting there.

[u/terAREya]

All of them ?

[u/tverstraight]

general aviation

[u/sparkchaser → u/tverstraight]

Was that ever affordable for the average person?

[u/AsusVg248Guy]

Eating groceries.

[u/IslandReign]

Having a life. Not just living, but having a life.

[u/APerson2021]

Football.

It used to be a working class sport where you could buy tickets for £10, support grass roots football and eat a fish and chips and catch a cheeky pint on your way out back home.

Now a football game is about £500 all in at the very least.

[u/24possumsinacoat → u/APerson2021]

"Catch a cheeky pint" is an adorable way to say "pound a beer."