To think budgeting culture has become joyless?

Lavazza is good coffee and better / same than many chains use.

So it’s not good coffee then! £15 a month on cheap coffee but you think you’re better than me because I buy mine ready made is kind of funny

The coffee I buy is not expensive. It’s £5 a bag (as opposed to £5 a cup), lasts me 10 days and is made in an ancient £30 device that makes good coffee far better than anything Costa makes.

You do you OP, I'll do me. I enjoy keeping a budget and we're a pretty high income high savings household. A couple of years ago we made a conscious decision to cut back on frivolous local spending so that we could increase our holiday budget, and it's been great. We've had some fabulous trips with the kids that we'll remember for a lifetime. When I realised we were spending a couple of hundred pounds a month on coffees/lunches/takeaways it made me question whether that was really what we wanted to spend it on, and we decided it wasn't. It's never been a question of whether we could afford it, but about how to get the most enjoyment and value out of our money. The only way to make this change was to track spending. This had had the knock on effect of me being able to plan finances throughout the year, as I know where the natural peaks and troughs are.
For what it's worth, I would never want my budgeting to affect us socially, so I'd never turn down the invite to meet a friend for coffee or a drink out and I don't discuss my budgeting habits with others.

Nobody has said they shouldn’t be allowed to do whatever they want with their money… people just think it’s a waste of money. It’s an opinion not an appeal to change the law to ban takeaway coffees.

She drinks expensive coffee she just makes it herself so it’s fine

It isn’t “wasting money” if it’s something you get enjoyment from and can afford though is it?

I was bored today and drove to the drive through Costa for a chai latte and croissant for something to do even though I wasn’t particularly hungry or thirsty. It got me out of the house and I sat in my car for a while enjoying listening to the radio and being alone sipping my drink and eating my pastry.

I also get my nails done once a month and my hair every 6 weeks bc I find it relaxing and I can afford it. I could do both these things at home.

I could probably afford an extra holiday or two if I stopped doing this but I don’t want to as I enjoy it and having one main holiday in the summer and a few weekends away is enough for me.

What I don’t understand is people who don’t understand that everyone is different and enjoys spending their time and money doing different things. I think those Dyson air wraps are a terrible waste of money. I think buying 5 grand tv’s/the latest iPhone is silly - but I understand that everyone enjoys spending their money on different things. Weird to be so virtue signally about hot drinks! I actually prefer my own homemade coffee also but sometimes I want to get out of the house and go and sit somewhere different - is that really so hard to understand? Where do you draw the line? Do you think it’s a waste of money to go out for meals because you could rustle up something similar in your own kitchen?

Weird.

I have a bean to cup machine at home and get that same double espresso for pennies… you can get an ok machine for £80. You’d have paid for it in 26 days. Less than a month. And you’d save £1000+ a year.

They are never nice cafes. Chains have extinguished the nice independent cafe sector.

When I got my first job I lived at home paying only a small amount and saved roughly half my salary. I still felt flush as I had been a student for three years with very little money. I could never understand the colleague I sat next to who was in the same situation but could not go out in the week before her pay cheque. I remember asking how much she contributed at home and being shocked when she said nothing.

Nobody has said they shouldn’t be allowed to do whatever they want with their money… people just think it’s a waste of money. It’s an opinion not an appeal to change the law to ban takeaway coffees.

Even if money is tight though, people should be allowed simple pleasures. I see absolutely nothing wrong with a care worker or supermarket worker buying a daily coffee at the end of a long hard shift. In fact we shouldn't just be accepting of a society where people working hard doing absolutely essential jobs can't afford even the most basic of treats.

I find it weird that takeaway coffees are always the thing that get demonised.

I buy a takeaway coffee most days - if I’m commuting it’s nice to have one on the commute in, and if I’m working from home I like getting out of the house, walking into town and buying a coffee.

I’m fully numerate and so know I spend over £1000 a year on coffee. That’s absolutely fine by me. There’s other things I never or hardly ever buy. I rarely drink alcohol so spend very little on that. I get my hair cut once or twice a year, and never get it coloured.

Yet threads like these never focus on the woman who pays over £100 every six weeks for a hair cut, or gets frequent other beauty treatments. It’s always about the bloody takeaway coffee.

We all make choices and I’m lucky in that I can afford a daily takeaway coffee. And no, a Thermos from my house just won’t cut it!

Do you ever buy anything unnecessary? Or do you only drink water and eat porridge?

Spending ££££ on landfill shite you don’t need is also a waste of money even if you like it.

Do you have any joy in your life

Spending ££££ on landfill shite you don’t need is also a waste of money even if you like it.

I haven’t got a coffee machine.

It is a waste of money however you want to justify it.