Ten Most Over Priced Products

[pennypinch]

I just read a list that has the five most over priced products. I must say that this list makes a lot of sense to me. Companies are making a mint on these products and for basically nothing.

1. text messages. 6,000% markup.
To send a text message with 120 characters typically costs consumers.20 cents. It only costs carriers three-tenths of a cent which equals a 6,000% profit.

2. Bottled Water. 4,000% markup.
It takes five bottles of water just to make the plastic to hold one bottle of water. We pay for that. We are so much better off buying a refillable water bottle and filling it at home.

3. Movie Theatre popcorn. 1,275% markup.
Theatre owners don't get the money from the tickets sold so they make their money by selling snacks and drinks. At $6 for a medium size popcorn is a 1,275 profit for the theatre. You can typically buy three microwavable bags of popcorn for just $3.

4. Brand name drugs. 200% to 3,000% markup.
People who take three brand name drugs have typically on average paid $700 more this past year than previous years. Generic users have only increased their costs by $51.

5. Pre-cut fruits and veggies. 40% markup.
There is no doubt that pre-cut is quicker but thats where the benefit ends. You get charged as much as 40% more for pre-cut fruit and veggies versus cutting them yourself at home!

[2cents]

I totally agree with you with the movie popcorn, but what are you going to do? Put on a maternity top and stuff your belly full of microwave popcorn bags? (Wait a minute...). Seriously, though, if you're already forking over the ridiculous amount of money for a couple of movie tickets, do yourself a favor and get the big popcorn with the free refills. If you do it right, the movie theater will have lost money on your munching.

For those of you that frequent the movie theater (and if you subscribe to this forum, I'm assuming you're levying your habit by living with your parents), make absolutely sure that you belong to the movie watchers club. Membership is typically free, and you can usually score free popcorn (or the price of a small popcorn towards a larger purchase) on Wednesdays or Tuesdays or otherwise slow days. Not only that, for every purchase made, you can earn points for free tickets and food.

As far as the pre-cut food is concerned, I use this little do-dab almost every day with my kids:

http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_1...W010033020001P

This apple slicer makes my life easier in more ways than I can imagine, and it manages to make the most of every apple and increase the amount of fruit I can give the kids on an almost daily basis. There are several versions out there, but you don't need an expensive one to do the job. (This one is $4 at KMart, but I've seen them go for as much as $15. Silly people).