AIBU to think lifestyle expectations and spending habits have risen enormously?

Aren't UK holidays usually more expensive than abroad though?

Depends where you go. Long haul flights cost a bomb.

Maybe if you did know about cappuccinos and lattes you’d have spent money on them?
That’s the point I’m trying to make really. Back then, people couldn’t spend money on things that weren’t available to spend money on. So the fact that they didn’t spend money on takeaway coffee doesn’t mean that they were naturally more frugal or virtuous, it just means that it wasn’t a choice that they had to resist.
They did spend money on the luxuries that were available to them, such as fish and chips, drinks in the pub, cigarettes etc. I remember as soon as there was an Indian takeaway in our town my parents had it every Friday night, whereas we have takeaways about every 1-2 months due to the cost!
You can’t compare, because the entire landscape was entirely different. And every generation thinks the next one is somehow worse than them. I imagine the generation before you would have said similar things about your generation 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Depends on the type of holiday! We holiday in the UK and pay less than abroad but we don’t do 5* hotels or lots of expensive attractions etc. UK holiday home rental prices are similar to foreign for the size and standard we use and we save on not paying for flights, insurance, airport taxis, etc.

Expectations are too high but its been normalised by capitalism and advertising. Keep up with jones has always been a thing its just got worse since 80s. It will all come crashing down soon the UK is bankrupt & we will all have to pay back.
we have always had 1 new car because its a company vehicle & a second hand bought outright. Our Kids have second hand bought outright cars. 1 is sensible & managed to get on housing ladder was good at waiting & saving money 1 is opposite living the sm beauty regime dream. The mindset is a worry as there wont be any money to replace it & its needed for work already has eye on luxury cars.
we do well live in affluent area & pretty much everyone does drive big new expensive cars which we couldn’t afford some of these are £500 a month lease. It’s insane. A lot of people earn double us and i get that but other friends earn a lot less than us but are in debt credit card bills house remortgaged a few times to clear it.
id say we are prob typical of attitude to in this day and age we spent what we earn 2 holidays most years kids did loads of things & tutoring nice house. hope to downsize with equity very modest pensions but do have one each and very minimal savings. Trying late in life to overpay mortgage and save but feel trapped in pressured jobs now because of it & we best hope our health holds up. This is due to overspending really not prioritising regular saving although not in debt, we have options we have choices but if we had lived more moderately this last leg to retirement could have been better and could have seen us through a big financial crash to uk which i feel is imminent. October budget will bring tax rises for sure. If interest rates go zooming up even 8% normal in 90s so many people will lose everything like they did in 1989-1991. Real poverty for people who have never known it before is coming. I atcually feel worried about it like never before.

I wonder about this but we’ve always found UK holidays much much cheaper! I don’t know if it’s the type of holidays we take or not looking in the right places.

I must be a right povvo as I don't know anyone like that 😆

£100.on cheese?! 7 holidays abroad per year?! Brand new cars?!

Either you're in a wealthy area or people are living beyond their means.

The richest people I know (including people rich enough to send their kids to private school) drive second hand cars and maybe have 3/4 holidays abroad per year. I wouldn't be surprised if their coffee machine was £3k but not sure how much they spend at the deli on cheese.

In fact I can't think of any rich people who spend £££.in gay abandon. They might drop £££ in some areas but are careful elsewhere.

We sound very similar! I don’t feel hard done by at all, but do notice the difference.

Capitalism and Neo liberalism innit.

Agree, for us, UK holidays much cheaper. Would cost my family of 5 £4-£6k to go abroad "cheaply" in school holiday time... whereas UK holiday is 1/3 or 1/2 that.

Maybe it works out cheaper to go abroad it you're a smaller family though.o

This is true we prioritised holidays but never had takeaways and restaurant meal was rare occurrence for a family or friends birthday not ours. Dont buy each other xmas presents and took packed lunch to theme park etc. there are ways you can stretch money but not lose the whole experience.

The book The affluenza Virus described all of this but before social media and reality tv had taken off.

I often wonder what that book would be like re written for today’s society.

Yes this is how it is around my way.
I can afford to upgrade my car but, despite it being 10 years old, it works well and I don’t do much driving. I am an anomaly around here.

Over consumption is absolutely rife

Yeah, my kids are at independent school and I don’t know anyone who spends like those in the OP either. Most of them are pretty careful with money (outside of school fees!). We still live in the first house we ever bought. We have just had our kitchen done, but that’s because it was 40 years old and literally falling to pieces! We have one car, second hand. Our coffee machine was £400 and I thought that was frivolous 😂. We do go on holiday twice a year, one abroad and one UK, however the abroad holiday only costs us the flights and a hire car as we visit family who live there. Takeaways around every 6 weeks, and we shop in Aldi. I’ve never had a beauty treatment! Actually I had my nails done 16 years ago when I got married, but that’s it.

Yeah but they were super cheap compared to now (as was a lot of booze - wine relatively way more expensive than now but spirits or a pint in the local relatively at lot cheaper).

Given how much lower rates of obesity were, how much rarer it was for people to be able to access illegal drugs, how limited tech was, how much more restricted the options were for tv, and how much more difficult and expensive it was to go abroad or to buy new clothes or to get whatever food delivered to you whenever you fancied it, it isn't surprising to me that rates of smoking and drinking were way higher than now. That's to say nothing of the lack of openness about mental health difficulties and the limited spaces for victims of abuse or people living with trauma or in distress to get support or compassion.

It's almost as though people have always had a propensity to addiction and a desire for emotional outlets and stimulation and novelty and distraction from the stress and challenges and tedium of life... The format has just changed.

People have been boozing and getting drugged up and over-indulging and spending beyond their means etc for as long as historical records exist.

Totally agree with the original post that people's expectations have risen hugely. It is setting us all up for a horror show of disappointment because it isnt sustainable, financially or environmentally.

Well yes, I suppose if we are comparing Miami or Thailand with Bournemouth, then of course. Maybe I'm doing UK breaks wrong, but for me, a long weekend in Spain, Italy or Portugal, staying in an Airbnb or small family hotel with two kids, has pretty much always worked out cheaper than going somewhere in the UK (never mind quality). Ryanair or easyjet flights are nearly always cheaper than local train tickets alone. And I am a single parent, so I am hardly arranging holidays without looking at the price tag. Our last weekend trip to alton towers was something like £500, compared to a massive waterpark in portugal which was £300 something.

We live in a consumer society and expectations will always be going up because of marketing pressure. My parents scoffed at my generation for expecting carpets on the floor!

What i remember most about reading that book is the rise of mental health conditions associated with perceived affluence and consumerism….

I wouldn't say Takeaways were a luxury in the 80s and 90s, definitely not in the 00s, it depends where you lived. I grew up in London and there was quite a bit of choice but IMO those with a bit of money looked down upon takeaways as they would go to restaurants. We could afford takeaways but my Dad hated them, if we ever had a MacDonalds or Burger King which y Mum would give into buying for us he refused to eat it. Amongst the middle-classes restaurants were something you would go to IME, DH and I have equivalent income but in the current climate we can't match the lifestyle our parents had with regards to visiting restaurants or even when visiting an Art gallery or museum, we often wouldn't bother with the cafes as it's too expensive for what it is, our parents wouldn't have hesitated. If you have ever watched Only Fools and Horses, Del Boy will get a takeaway or go to a cafe for an English breakfast or eat at the Pub as it wasn't seen as middle class extravagance at all!

Well that’s just being young isn’t it. ?

At 20, spending your money in Miss Selfridge and heading out is part of being young, I wouldn’t trade that but holidaying 4 times a year, upgrading your Land Rover every 3 years and re doing your kitchen every 10 is a little different!