Biggest Rip Offs That You've Probably Been Tricked Into Buying

#1 Branded Medicines

When you buy store brands and other generic items from the store, only some of them are actually lower in quality. In fact, most of the store branded items are made by the same manufacturer as the top selling brand sitting beside it. The only thing different is the labels and price. The biggest culprit is medicines or health aids like Tylenol and Advil. That generic ibuprofen is the same strength and dosage as the branded version. Check the active ingredients on all your sinus, digestive, and cough medicines before buying the expensive brands.

#2 Bottle Water

As baffling as it seems, people still believe that there is a big difference in the various expensive brands of bottled water. There is no magic mountain where icebergs melt from the glow of the unicorn's halo and trickle down into waiting bottles for your consumption. All the water is the same.

#3 Premium Gasoline

Your automobile handbook might tell you to use the premium blend of gas, but that's because they want you to think it's better for your cars maintenance and life. Premium gas isn't magically better for your car and it doesn't clean out your engine. The only difference between premium gas and regular gas is that premium gas is higher octane, or less combustible, which is necessary in very specific high-performance engines. You most likely do not have a very specific high-performance engine. The higher octane is good for the environment, so if you don't mind spending about $.45 more per gallon of gas to keep the air a little fresher, then go right ahead.

#4 College Textbooks

Not only have they gotten more expensive, but their price tags have also increased at twice the rate of inflation over the past 20 years. With online books available these should have dropped in price instead of increase, but the publishers give instructors and teachers a kickback for all the sales they send their way. And just ask any college kid how often they use their books anyway.

#5 Movie Theater Popcorn

You probably curse the movie theater every time you take the kids to see a new movie, but in reality, it's the big corporations and the movie studios who are to blame for this one. In order for a movie house to make a profit on a new release, they must overcharge on concessions because over 78% of the profits from the ticket sales go back to Hollywood bigwigs.

#6 Fountain Soda

A 16 oz. bottle of Pepsi costs about $1.59 in the store. So you want ice in your drink, and who doesn't, you go to a fast food joint or a convenience store and pay $2.50 for a 32.oz fountain soda with ice. That drink cost the restaurant about fifteen cents, and it's full of ice. You can pour a 16-ounce bottle into that cup when you're done drinking from it, and it won't even fill the cup up halfway. Feel cheated yet?

#7 Ink Cartridges

You can get a new printer for $19.99 but use it just two or three times and be prepared for a shocker! The ink to replace it costs around $50 bucks, and that's just for black ink. If you use color, then you're going to need to take out a small loan. You may be better off just buying a whole new printer.

#8 Gym Memberships

Who hasn't fallen for this scam before? While it's understandable that many people start gym memberships and then quit, the fine print in many gym contracts usually includes steep fines for cancellation. Some, like Bally's Total Fitness, even state that you can't cancel your membership unless you die or move to a city without a gym. Stick with franchises that require no membership, like Planet Fitness, or better yet, use the stairs more often, take advantage of that track in the park, or get a bike.

#9 Warranties On Electronics

If they ask you if you want a warranty or even have the gall to ask you to purchase an 'extended' warranty, just smile and walk away. Everything you buy is returnable no matter what they tell you. Most electronics are outdated before you even get your money's worth out of them, and you probably wouldn't require a repair on them anyway. Over 90 percent of the time, the price of the warranty is equal to or slightly more than the average price of a repair. Now, how much sense does it make to pay for a repair before you break something?

#10 Travel Sized Products

If you need a smaller size for travelling, which you may if you take the products on a plane, you are paying four times what the product sells for in the largest package or bottle. Four times more! Travel sized anything is a big scam. If you require the small bottles, but the item just one time then just refill it for carrying with you each time you go away.

#11 French Fries

Contrary to what the commercials for fast food chains might want you to believe, french fries are not really all that different from place to place. It depends on the oil they are cooked in nd the seasoning used. Potato distributors charge fast food chains roughly 10 cents per pound when it comes to regular french fries. You about pay $2 dollars for a 'large' box barely containing a quarter of a pound.

#12 Razor Blades

If you're a guy and use even a cheap razor that requires you to change blades every so often, you know how ridiculous this is. Several years ago stories broke in the US and UK about how companies were colluding to raise prices on razor blades illegally. The stories may have made a slight dent but those razor blades are marked up by nearly 5 thousand percent. Yes, 5,000%!!!!

#13 All You Can Eat Buffets

So here's the deal.. it seems like a feast too good to be true. You can eat all you want, for just $19.95, and nobody cares. But are you getting a good quality meal for your money? Very doubtful. Most buffets are filled with the lowest quality foods, including canned and precooked frozen dinners and vegetables. The average dinner buffet is costing the restaurant about $2.85 per person since most people don't stuff themselves like hogs even though they are presented with all that food.

#14 Hotel Mini Bars

The classic 'gotcha'! Hotels know that once you are in your room you probably don't want to leave and you probably didn't bring along any specialty beer, wine, or nuts. It is for this reason that they trap you with the smallest, most ridiculously expensive bags of potato chips and soft drinks you have ever seen. Don't fall for it! They will add the cost of that $10 can of soft drink to your charge card if you don't pay up upon checkout.

#15 Free Credit Reports

Nothing is ever really FREE. You don't need a special website or polished television commercials to alert you to get a free credit report. If you apply for anything the company will check it for you before they give you any credit. Why would anyone fall for this anyway? In the US you are allowed one free check per year as it is. Companies trying to peddle this service are actually going to sell you on some other product you don't even want or need.

#16 Starbucks Coffee

Any coffee from a specialty shop is really a rip-off. A recent study found that 72% of all coffee served in specialty coffee shops that claimed to have quality beans and brewing, were all the exact same. If your morning pick-me-up is costing you more than your entire lunch, it's time to give that drink up and stat packing a good old thermos full of home-brewed java.

#17 Lottery Tickets

One of the greatest ripoffs of all time is the lottery ticket. Especially the game where there are millions of dollars at stake, and billions of tickets have been sold. You have a better chance of finding oil in your backyard than winning the jackpot.

#18 Funerals

It's not too often that funerals get mentioned in the same sentence as rip-offs, probably because no one wants to complain about how expensive it was to bury their loved one and when in mourning no expense is too high. At an average price of $9000 though, that's an awful lot for a hole, a rock, and a 30-minute car ride.

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