Not a political discussion. But...
Damn!
I just paid near $14 for a qt of Mobil1 FS 5W-30 .
I've been changing my oil every 3,5 - 4k mi for the past 10 - 12years. I recently just needed a half qt @2,500k mi just to top off. I was astounded by the fact that last time I changed my oil (3months ago), I think was $11.50/qt.

Preparing to preform another oil and filter change at the end of the month, I decided to sidestep my local brick'n'morter and order 15qts Castrol FS 5w-30 GTX ($90) and 3 additional WIX oil filters ($26) off Amazon. That should do me through the end of the year.
I've been using Mobil1 in this car, almost 20 years, since brand new @ only 3mi on the OD. In the past; I've always used Castrol GTX in my former classics and now find myself switching back...silly as it may sound - purely for affordability and trusted quality.
It almost seems hard to believe that I can remember when a qt of full synthetic was a mere $7/qt during my ownership of my Mini.

The bright side to being pro active with respect to future fluid changes (approx 1.25 years ago):
I was fortunate to have the foresight (and a few xtra $$), to purchase 4 additional liters of Redline MTL @$12/liter - (recent avg price today @ $18 - $21/liter).
I also recently took advantage of a price drop on AC Delco supercharger oil. I purchased 4- 4oz bottles @ just under $9ea.- (recent price jump today @$11 - $14 ea)
3 qts DOT4 brakefluid @$7/qt (today's price?)
1 gal of Peak Euro 50/50 blue coolant @$17/gal ($24 @ local store)

Other preventative maintenance parts stocked up on last year:
8 NGK laser platinum BKR7EQUP spark plugs @$32/per set of 4
2 OEM (plastic) coolant expansion tanks @$50/ea (I prefer the plastic tanks), + 2 additional expansion tank caps @$12/ea

 

I'm totally with you. Inflation is something that bothers me for lots of reasons, but mostly because it is perpetuated by people in power (and folks think CRT isn't a thing - lol).

Wages have not kept up with the real cost of living (consumer price index) since the 70's - when we made stuff here. And it's a vicious cycle that most Americans can't or don't want to comprehend. It's the reason we don't make stuff here anymore and it's driven by corporate greed. It's why a significant proportion of Americans can't afford to buy American made stuff, and why there are so many walmarts selling cheap crap from overseas. You know that Levi only makes one or two styles of jeans in the US? And those start around 80 bucks a pair. Predatory lending, the ludicrous student loan maffia and commodity subsidies designed to make those commodities profitable allthewhile the lions share of the taxes that fund government come from the same segment of the economy (consumers) least able to spend money into it and increasingly hobbled by it. American consumers are going to NEED walmarts in a decade; won't be able to afford to shop anywhere else.

I gott grab a couple OE expansion tanks, too. I went with an aluminum one and it sucks. The plastic ones might fail more frequently, but they have those baffles on the bottom that I am convinced help reduce air getting sucked into the intake. The aluminum ones form a vortex from the recirculating coolant, and the bottom cone of that vortex (being not broken up by the baffles on the bottom - because they aren't there) routinely interacts with the coolant inflow into the motor. I don't think the rectangular tanks would be much better because of the lack of baffles on the bottom.

 

I am always open to learning somethings I haven't considered.
With regards to aluminum or ss tanks vs my choice to continue purchasing the OE plastic expansion tanks; I will agree that they do fail. In almost 20years I've replaced 2wo (the first original factory one literally exploded after 17years).
Just one of the many countless things that I'm grateful to learn from this forum is that part of the problem associated with these plastic OE is cap failure. Although I'm somewhat in the camp of this failure point as being a benefit before causing more expensive parts to fail. (that's just me).
Prices range from all over the internet landscape = from $6 a cap - to $25. It's a crap shoot at best; in quality, until you finally hit upon a reliable vendor/product....
But even then ....months/years later when purchasing a new replacement - there is no telling where it was made or of the quality.

Aside from keeping a 19 year diary of maintenance receipts and repairs; I discretely label/mark (black or silver sharpie) the date when installed on many of the replaced items.

Not to disparage; but from my experience I would not purchase the Dorman brand caps again. 2wo of the previous Dorman brand expansion caps I had replaced - only lasted 3months.
It didn't take long for the seal to fail (and yes, I marked it's fully locked/tight location point on the cap for monitoring purposes). However, It's most likely a mute point since I don't think the Dorman caps for an R53 are even sold separately anymore.

Like anything else man made = mileage may vary.

 

You probably know these places too, but Seattle Mini and Minipartsdirect (Winston-Salem Mini) *usually* have the best prices on OE stuff' 91 and 84 bucks respectively for new. I wish the BMW places still sold MINI parts... you could find awesome deals on OE stuff back then...