From filling up your gas tank to paying your monthly electric bill, it’s impossible not to notice how much the cost of living is rising. No matter where you live, it feels like we’re paying more and more just to get by every month, and there’s plenty to complain about, but a glimmer of positivity is coming from an unexpected place: Reddit.
A recent post asks, “What is still cheap today?” and more than 3-thousand responses have come in to highlight things that are surprisingly affordable in 2026, including:⠀
- "Bananas. I eat one a day before I go to work, so breakfast for the week typically costs me about a buck fifty."
- "TVs and weed are the only things that have gotten cheaper and better during my lifetime."
- "Libraries. They're still free!"
- "Paper clips. I can still get like 100 of them for a dollar and some change. Do I need that many paper clips? No. But I can buy a crap ton of them if I want to."
- "Arizona Iced Teas and Costco hot dogs."
- "Potatoes."
- "AA batteries are cheaper than ever. Back in the '90s, they were super expensive."
- "Your local original music scene."
- "In-N-Out Burger."
- "Hot Wheels toys (specifically the one-car pack).”
- "Little Caesars. Compared to other pizza places, $7 for a large pepperoni is my go-to for just regular pizza."
- "Phones and phone plans. New releases will always be more expensive, but used phones are a dime a dozen."
- "I recently started drinking tea. Counting how many cups you get for the amount of money, it's incredibly cheap."
- "Over the last few decades, getting information has gotten super cheap (time and money) as tech got cheaper and more accessible and the Internet grew tenfold.”
- "Unwanted advice."
- “Being nice!”
Source: BuzzFeed