Unless you're filthy rich, you've probably noticed that movie theater popcorn costs an arm and a leg. Still, for some unknown reason, countless consumers shell out the big bucks for this greasy flick-food.

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Of course, movie theater snacks aren't the only budget busters. Just think about the exorbitant cost of greeting cards, printer ink and bottled water. The sky-high price tags on those products are enough to send today's cash-strapped consumers spiraling into debt. Yet, we continue to cough up the cash for these absurdly expensive items.

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Here are six outrageously overpriced products that consumers can't seem to live without.

1. Movie Theater Popcorn

At the grocery store, microwave popcorn runs about $3 per box, and each box includes three 3.5 ounce bags. So why on earth would consumers even consider paying a whopping $6 for a single medium-sized bag of popcorn in the movie theater? No one knows exactly why - but for some bizarre reason, movie-goers continue to drain their wallets to crunch on a bag full of those greasy little nuggets during their favorite film.

After considering that movie theaters purchase popcorn in bulk, the average markup of movie theater popcorn is a whopping 1275%! At that steep price, you'd think those buttery bags were laced with gold.

[See 15 Things You Should Not Be Paying For]

2. Greeting Cards

Since when does a folded up piece of paper cost $2.99? Since someone slaps a precious kitty picture and a cleverly written message on it and then stamps the back of it with a well-known logo. That's right - we're talking about those pricey greeting cards. Many consumers spend hours poring over the neatly arranged stacks in the greeting card aisle, searching for the perfect message for their sister's birthday, their parent's anniversary or "Just Because."

The average greeting card costs between $2 and $4, and we consumers don't seem to think twice about paying that precipitous price. The markup is between 100 and 200% - which is not quite as shocking as movie theater popcorn, but it adds up quickly. When you consider how many of those paper jewels you buy each year, it's enough to send you running for the construction paper and markers. After all, it only costs a few cents to create a home-made card.

3. College Textbooks

In 2010, the annual in-state cost for the typical state university soared to more than $15,000, and private colleges now charge an average of $35,600 a year. As if college kids (and their parents) aren't financially drained enough, there's yet another inflated price they face: college textbooks. College students pay an average of $900 a year on textbooks and other supplies.

College textbook prices have skyrocketed by 186% since 1986, and these expensive volumes of knowledge now account for 26% of the overall cost of college. Unfortunately, broke college students are required to purchase these costly books for their classes. At least they can try to sell their books back to local book store at the end of the semester - for a few measly bucks.

4. Bottled Water

You've probably heard that "Evian" is simply "nave" spelled backwards. OK, so the well-known company probably did not choose their name for that reason - but many people believe that consumers who buy bottled water are certainly nave. After all, water is one of the most abundant resources in the world and is available for free from countless water fountains and sinks across the nation. Yet, many consumers are still willing to pay $3 a bottle of it.

In 2009, the U.S. Congress revealed that about 45% of bottled water comes from municipal taps - and then the bottled water company may or may not do some additional filtering before pouring it in their logo-stamped bottles. Still, Americans continue to buy more than 500 million bottles every week, making it the second most popular purchased drink (after soda).

5. Printer Ink

You may be able to buy a surprisingly affordable printer at your local office supply store, but don't start celebrating just yet. The printer companies make their biggest bucks on ink.

Over the life of your printer, you'll probably pay more than 500% of the total price of the printer itself on ink refill cartridges. At $30, a 42ml cartridge of black printer ink comes out to 71 cents per ml. On the other hand, the Red Cross charges $200 for 500 ml of blood, which comes out to about 40 cents per ml.

6. Brand-Name Fashions

How much did you pay for those True Religion jeans, that Burberry scarf and those towering Louboutin stilettos? Probably a small fortune. But it was worth every penny, right? Not so much. When it comes to designer clothes, it's pretty obvious that you are paying for the label.

As a matter of fact, brand-name clothes are often marked up by 500 to 1000%. Yet, fashion-conscious consumers continue to drain their bank accounts and pile up massive amounts of debt to stay on the cutting edge of couture.

[See 21 Ways to Save on Restaurants, Travel, and More]

Broke Consumers Are Saying No

The recession has hit many households hard, and thousands of broke consumers are passing on these and other overpriced products. So, does that mean the inflated prices of these items will eventually fall? Only time will tell. In the meantime, you may want to check your bank account before you hit the movie theater snack bar.

1. Ever noticed that while you can often get movie-theater popcorn without butter, you can't get it without salt? The purpose of movie-theater popcorn is very simple: to get you to buy their even more overpriced beverages. There are only a few cents' worth of beverage in those glasses they charge you $4 to $6 for. Even the Rivoli, the local $3 cinema, charges $10.75 for a pitcher of Spotted Cow. Of course, the once or twice a year I actually go to the Rivoli, I tend to buy that outlandishly overpriced pitcher. ;)

3) The primary reason for the extraordinary increase in textbook prices has been the advent of the DVDs that are included with them now. Even though the DVD costs all of, what, $0.50 to press, it's the DVD that students are paying so much for. Frankly, I would love to know where all the money goes. The publishing houses claim their margins are razor thin, and indeed many have gone into bankruptcy or merger over the past decade. The authors of those textbooks in many cases make next to nothing -- or even PAY the publishers to print them! I've talked to plenty of authors who tell me the main reason for writing college textbooks is the prestige, getting one's name out there; they barely make a dime on it.

4) Someone once said that the irony of American society is we spend millions of dollars every year providing our citizens with high-quality, municipal drinking water, yet we spend billions of dollars a year buying bottled water. The sad thing is there is little to no qualitative difference between many brands of bottled water and ordinary tap water -- since it's very often simply repackaged tap water -- and in many cases it's arguably worse, since plastics often leach damaging chemicals like bisphenol A into the water, which can damage the developing reproductive systems of young boys. Another factor we often fail to consider is that it takes a volume of oil roughly equal to one-third the volume of the container to make a plastic bottle; e.g., a 20-ounce soda bottle requires roughly 7 ounces of oil to manufacture. Every time we buy a plastic bottle, we're contributing to America's dependence on foreign oil. Stainless steel is a much better option, since it's durable, doesn't leach, and approximately 70% of the content of a stainless steel container is in fact recycled stainless steel. Aluminum is also a better option (though I imagine it would make water taste foul), since about 70% of aluminum cans in this country are recycled. By contrast, the vast majority of plastic containers are simply thrown in the landfills.

5. Printer ink is one of the greatest ripoffs ever to be foisted onto the American public. Most printer manufacturers follow the Gillette razor/Schwinn bicycle model: they sell customers the printers at a steep loss, then mark up the ink to astronomic proportions. At the prices quote above (71 cents per mL), customers are being charged $2687.64 per gallon of printer ink! Kodak is the only company that follows the reverse model: they sell their printers at prices high enough to make money, then sell the toner at a much more reasonable price. I recommending patronizing Kodak for this reason; it's a much more equitable model, in my opinion, and it will save you money over the life of your printer.

6. I freely admit I often overpay for fashion, though I do tend to get most of my clothes on clearance. I recently discovered that the same jeans I bought at The Buckle (the only jeans I've ever found that actually fit my body) could be obtained for at least $20 less at Boston Market. Markups are indeed outrageous these days.

"Nonstopdrivel" wrote:

Hmm...

Good ol' Siggy Freud would have something to say about that. ;)

1. Go to a movie with a girl/woman. Girls/women have purses. Sneak in candy. Popcorn sucks anyways.

2. Guilty. I love greeting cards and postcards.

3. For those of you in college, ha ha!

4. I'm sitting here with all kinds of bottled water at my desk. OK. I'll go buy some steel.

5. No alternative? Thanks a lot. Just rub it in and don't give an alternative. What are we going to do about it? Go swimming and grab some squid, then squeeze the ink out of him?

6. Has anyone ever heard of thrift stores? The one not too far from my house has nearly new Nordstrum shirts for $4. You can look rich for under $20 if you do your shopping there.

"zombieslayer" wrote: