To think budgeting culture has become joyless?

Likening a colour isn’t chucking money away on vastly overpriced high sugar drinks dressed up as something necessary and luxurious. That is the patter and falling for it is foolish.

That's it. People have been going to pubs for decades when you can buy a can of Stella Artois in Tesco. I appreciate if I want to sit with a coffee, hot, that I haven't made then I'm paying for the premises, power, staff, tax, delivery of milk/beans etc to the store, a cleaner, liability insurance etc. People are so literal.

Exactly. 💯

I’m WFH today and I walked to a cafe that’s sort of an adjoining cafe to a large deli and I bought an oat latte and a toasted pumpernickel bagel for more than the cost of the exact coffee beans as the latte and the exact bagel if I were to buy them from the deli next door. But consuming a freshly made coffee and a freshly toasted bagel while sitting at a window seat watching the world go by is worth the extra cost TO ME.

A waste of money it is not. A 90% mark up on poorly made , high calorie,over sugared drinks is. A Bialetti is hardly pretentious, takes
little effort to use and most of Italy own one, they cost next to nothing

It isn’t desirable TO YOU and therefore it would be a waste of YOUR money. Clearly people who buy it are looking for something different to you, as that affects your own choices in no way whatsoever, it’s a really odd thing to be taking issue with. Do what you like. Others can do what they like.

Arguing that people are wrong to like a certain type of coffee is about as meaningful as getting cross about a stranger’s favourite colour.

And yes, it absolutely is snobby to sneer at other people’s taste, regardless of what that taste is.

How else would she tell everyone else she’s a coffee snob

You're not paying for them and you are not drinking them so why do you actually care? It seems bloody weird.

One of my treats is an oat milk latte from Coffee#1. They are the best part of a fiver, but they are something I look forward to and the actual cafes themselves always have a nice ambience anyway.
Sitting in my cold house with an instant coffee does not cut it.

And I think your pretentious coffee thing is a waste of money

Ok but being fleeced and wasting money on cheaply made drinks that are priced way above and beyond what they’re worth is something that others can mention.

Money enjoyed is never wasted.

I’m so glad I don’t have anyone in my life who would consider buying a hot drink a “moral failure”! You need to reassess the company you keep OP 😂

I don’t think they are. My little weekly treat is £4 and it makes me happy on a grotty Friday afternoon. Every week.

I think it's just because it seems like such a crap thing to spend a grand a year on. Getting your hair done can make you feel and look great (not that it's something I do tbh) and is an occasional treat/necessity.

I have to admit I wouldn't spend a grand a year on either, I'd be 'wasting' it on flights abroad. But if a coffee a day gets you through the day and you can afford it, then that's fine too.

But they’re vile and the amount of money wasted is foolish.

Probably best to assume people would rather choose their hot drinks to suit their own preferences, rather than yours.

You don't have to buy or drink one. It is snobby to look down on people who do though. Don't yuk other people's yum.

If it brings the purchaser joy, does it matter?

It’s not snobby to think a cappuccino with syrupy artificial caramel and chocolate is not desirable at all and a complete waste of money.

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.

To be fair, in any thread about beauty treatments etc loads of people do always pile in with “What silly frivolous nonsense, complete waste of time and money, I wash my face in piss and vinegar and my six-year-old cuts my hair once a year with garden shears and everyone says I have great skin, my DH much prefers me looking like a shorn sheep anyway”.

Some people are really fucking weird about other people’s choices and I can’t really fathom why they can’t just accept that different people enjoy different things and that value for money is therefore dependent on personal preference. I hope you continue to enjoy your takeaway coffees; you’re perfectly entitled to spend as much as you want on them and people who insist on offering unsolicited advice or telling you your personal preference is somehow worse than theirs are, not to put too fine a point on it, cunts.

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!

I don’t often buy drinks to take away; I tend to sit in. But yes; I find all hot drinks from a Thermos, insulated cup etc vaguely unpleasant. I don’t know why. Those metal cups with lids… the actual worst, for me.

The ‘just have a hot drink at home before you go out’ advice also seems to be from people who don’t understand that I am always going to be consuming a hell of a lot more than one hot drink per day. The hot drink I drink in a cafe is much more likely to be consumed mid-afternoon, when I’ll already have had about eight cups of tea that I made for myself 🤷🏻‍♀️

I agree, but Caffè Nero is the exception to Starbucks and the like. Most of the coffee at the independent coffee shops in my city sell amazing coffee. Also, it’s not just about the taste - it’s looking forward to it, having time alone, a change of scenery, a chance to read or catch up doing something else for half an hour.

I wonder if the price gap is what people can’t get their head around - 20p or so per cup to make it yourself vs £3.30 at Caffè Nero.

Hello, I’m one such person!

I think some people are resigned to the fact they will never afford to buy a house, so are not aiming to save tens of thousands for a deposit.

Sure, but I’m not a snob and on a cold morning I want a nice hot cappuccino with caramel and chocolate.

But why do people need permission to do things, if people want to buy a hot drink do so people dont need permission, this never ending blaming society or 'culture' because can't make their own choices gets boring