To think a lot of people make poor spending choices and then blame everything else?

I agree, advertisements and marketing only work for the "gullible" people, not everyone. Plenty of people manage to control themselves and avoid being sucked in. At the end of the day, it's still down to personal responsibility.

I'm an accountant. I see people's spending and finances on a day to day basis, whether their business finances or personal finances. I despair at the way some of them literally waste money. We desperately need financial awareness education across the board. Even well educated people don't seem to understand money, even people like Maths graduates can't control their finances. Things like not shopping around, buying multiple items because they bought the wrong one (and too lazy to return for refund), leaving savings in accounts with no/low interest rates, "forgetting" to pay off a credit card despite having money to do so. And yes, most of the time, these are the people whingeing about cost of living, not having savings, running out of money before the month end, not having anything to pay the tax bill with despite being high earners, etc, having no "back up" plans if things go wrong, not having life insurance, not having a pension, not having health insurance etc. Of course, different at different income levels, but the problem spans ALL income levels, all educational levels, etc. By contrast, again, spanning all income and education levels, there are other people who are really in control, make the right decisions, etc. So it's not a "rich versus poor" thing nor "education standard" thing. It's a personality thing, backed by lack of formal financial awareness education. Despite there being so much info online, "you can take a horse to water etc", and some people just blame everyone and everything around them for THEIR lack of planning, lack of research, making poor decisions, etc.

We have relatives who are mortgaged to the hilt (£600-700k mortgage), earn at least £6k/month as a couple but I often hear how they ‘don’t have the money’ for things like filling their oil tank up. They will not cut back on the all inclusive holidays, the leased cars and are constantly doing their house up. Yet they are ‘struggling’ and are bankrolled by their parents all the time which enables their behaviour. Crazy!

Yes, to a point. My parents earned less than my auntie and uncle, but were very frugal so are very comfortable in their retirement, and my uncle keeps trying to borrow money from my mum for some emergency or other, but then they go on holidays etc, and haven't paid her back.

My brother is on NMW on a zero hours contract, but his bought his own house (in a cheap area for around 130k), but my cousin who earns quite well lost her social housing for not paying her rent and is back living with my uncle and aunty in her 50's. DH and I earn very mid level salaries (nhs clinical) but own a house worth nearly 1 million with a 200k mortgage, through working our way up the ladder.

But some people work really hard and make very sensible decisions and then lose their job and struggle to get another, or become disabled, or their partner dies and they struggle with bills on their own.

Ultimately, as long as someone is self sufficient and not asking you for money, it's no one else's business.

I disagree.

Everyone is being advertised to but some are still more sensible than others.

And some own their own irresponsibility better than others.

I get the feeling you’re talking about more than avocado on sourdough and lattes.
I don’t really know any of the people you’re coming up against, everyone I know is (or at the very least appears to be) financially quite sensible. Other than a few people more than 20 years ago, no one has asked me for money for anything because they’ve been frivolous and not got enough left for essentials.
But I accept that there are definitely people who do make poor financial decisions. There was a person on here in the last few days saying they had booked a holiday on a whim after a couple of drinks that the next day they bitterly regretted for a number of reasons and because it was a last minute holiday it was non refundable. I actually thought to myself then, “you stupid idiot”.

Personal responsibility is vanishing, it is a choice no one is forced too

So is this a basic, it's your own fault you're poor type of post. A sneering attack on the less fortunate?

I actually feel the opposite. It is far from black and white and circumstances aren't considered enough.

Never discuss your finances with anyone. I have a friend who pleads poverty. She is not rich but she certainly isn’t poor, she has spent £350 on a Festival ticket recently. I think her issue is her parents were significantly wealthier than
her but they were hospital consultants and her sister is an architect with her own practice in a very long marriage married to another architect. My friend has been divorced twice and works in a sort of middle range local government admin job. So compared to her closest relatives she is much poorer. Her parents needed nursing care for over a decade, they lived to mid nineties so all the money disappeared but I know her parents bought her a house.

Yes and no. People are advertised to at every turn and told to part with their money. It is clever and manipulative. You think you are above being advertised to and can see through it, you are not.
And everything is so much more expensive now. So a simple "you are buying too many wants it is your fault" is just insulting at this point.

Agree but now I dont discuss money with people in RL
Always " skint" and looking for sympathy, someone elses fault, someone needs to dooooooo something !

Nod and smile

Who are all these people and who are they blaming?

Completely agree. I have a rule now that I don’t lend money because of got sick of being the back up plan for people who chose to buy nonessential wants instead of paying their council tax or filling their car up.

A competent adults inability to budget correctly is not my problem. Now I send links to food banks instead of bank transfers.