To think you don’t ask for a present of this value…

" the silent generation and older Boomers will be dying off in the next 10-20 years so it will even out and the Millenials will become the richest generation as they inherit from their parents."

Are Gen X being passed over then?

@GrannyRose15 I do beg your pardon, I see you corrected yourself in another post soon after. Maybe I should have read more carefully too eh?

Send it back and get a Boots/Amazon/JohnLewis/FragranceShop voucher in your preferred amount - "towards an aftershave of your choice".

Yes, house prices have increased MUCH MORE than wages have increased.

(That doesn't necessarily mean I agree with OP's controlling attitude to her DH's spending).

@Tippexy , 4.5 times my salary. Interest rates were around 6%. I was on a temporary contract.

“They are not that close, we see them maybe twice a year” - could probably be why they don’t see your struggles.

Your wound up with the wrong people, his grandma was asked for a gift idea and she gave one. It’s down to your DH to decide whether the gift is to much money or not

@GrannyRose15 If you read the OP properly, it doesn't say it's his 70th, it says 'in his 70s'.

I agree OP, £70 would be outside my budget too, even for an actual grandparent, not grandmother's partner, who he's not that close to.

I would say £25 is about right, probably less. Tell him not to ask next time!

Have a google of the ratio between average house price and average salary when you bought your house, and come back to us eh?

I think you are being unreasonable to be angry with his grandmother - although you can rightly be angry with DH. The likelihood is that he asked for suggestions and she suggested an aftershave that her husband likes or wears, she probably didn't know how much it cost. DH did not have to go with the suggestion, he could have bought something else. You address it by agreeing a budget in future with DH, there's not much you can do about this present now, unless you return it and he orders something cheaper.

Well, I could afford this at a push, but it doesn't mean it's what I want to spend on someone I'm not particularly close to. I really hope this is a supposed to be a joke of some sort. My gift range is £10 - £30 max, and dependent on bargains/humour factor/relevance!

That's sounds like a reasonable amount to spend. Obviously you disagree. But why get mad? She doesn't know your circumstances if you are not that close.
Next time you ask for advice specify a price range.

Can he not swap it?

If he's bought it from.Amazon it's probably counterfeit.anyway.

Are you living on another planet? You think not being able to afford to spend £70-80 on a birthday present means things are 'very bad indeed'? Mind bogglingly out of touch with the budgets of ordinary people.

Oh FGS, not this nonsense. I was one of those with 15% in the 80s. And it was hardly all of the 80s. But there a hundreds of websites now that show the multiple between average wages and average house prices. Educate yourself. Plenty of us were still spending a lower percentage of our income on housing back then despite the higher interest rate. I’m embarrassed for you trotting out this nonsense.

No it isn't - the statement made by the OP said I’m also annoyed at his grandma for having little concept of cost? and even though there was no explanation to where they are going with this, it ties in with what @ViciousCurrentBun was saying about it not seeming a lot to the grandparents.

Surely that’s irrelevant 🙄

Maybe because in your OP you said...

They are not that close, we see them maybe twice a year

I bet he clicked on the wrong size. Easily done on Amazon.

Maybe she meant the small bottle when giving present ideas. £30 is a reasonable amount to spend. £70 is too much imo

Do it!

Very bad indeed? Lucky old loaded you. Wow.

No, their money doesn't go half as far as yours did. They don't even get to the point where they can't pay a rising mortgage or lose a home because rent is so high there's no way they can afford a down payment. It's the landlord class that is entitled.

@Ruderequest We’ve never really needed to watch the cash and as such have never had a present budget but we do need one now as my maternity pay is not going to be great and we’re both trying to save as much as possible, which has been a common understanding for months now.

So now something has happened which means you will have that conversation and budgets will be set - it is very, very common for change to occur only after an incident has taken place. In fact, it's pretty much how life works. In your case it's for an £80 gift which even yet might qualify to be returned.

I’m also annoyed at his grandma for having little concept of cost?

I'm annoyed at the trend of putting question marks at the end of statements, but I have strategies which help me cope.

Yes it is harder to afford a house now. But that doesn’t mean that the 16% mortgage rate in the 80s didn’t cause alot of hardship for people at the time. People lost their homes and went bankrupt. Young people do not have it worse than we had it. They simply feel more entitled.