AIBU to feel middle-class luxuries have become increasingly out of reach?

I would like to think dresses cost 80 quid now because the seamstresses in India are getting paid a lot more than before, but that's probably not true.

I agree op, its shit.

I don't expect to be out shopping and getting coffee and cake out every week or month but maybe once a year in the run up to my birthday to maybe get a coffee out and buy myself something

I'm pretty frugal and don't buy takeaways coffees but I'm struggling to understand how you can be both be in FT jobs and debt free yet balk at the cost of a takeaway coffee and a mid-range dress once a year.

Haircuts are extortionate now. I used to pay 20 and it’s doubled in price since lockdown.
I hear what the op is saying though. I tend to try and find 99p kindle books and rarely buy new clothes.
I can’t buy Primark as they don’t do my size.
Everything is very expensive now and we have all allowed the big companies to royally screw us all over with their prices for insurance and everything else too.

Me too! Who wants overpriced UP shit? Families weren’t wasting vast sums of money on this rubbish that never fills kids up anyway.

The NHS refusing to help has already stripped me of every penny I had circa £1300 a month in private treatment without insurance because their waiting list is so long We had to seek out help elsewhere.

I used to believe it was amazing too like you. Now I have seen it in action…

I think you're confusing middle class with middle earner/income. Lots of people can still comfortably afford luxuries.

Yeah it's shocking. Mortgage rates have climbed too. No help from the state what so ever. Every penny more you ea. is at 40% rate. Not fair.

Health insurance is reliant on having a job and not losing it, not having pre existing conditions and also comes with big bills on top of the insurance premiums which put families into huge debt.

What’s your household income OP? With a high mortgage, even good salaries seem high these days.

You can’t ignore the 08 crash which we never recovered from growth wise.

Housing costs are the reasons taxes are low on lower earners, our housing market is a mess and disproportionately penalises younger people.

I'd rather spend silly money on good quality naice things/ingredients from the farm shop etc and make and have them at home nowadays.

What I can make myself is a whole lot nicer than the shit served out usually.

The treat is the nice ingredients/components rather than going out. Admittedly I have to make it but that's the trade off.

You log into library computers with your card details these days so can't see anyone's search history. There are people who look at porn but they are few and far between and I rapidly asked to leave by staff when spotted.

No we are not. At least if you know you have to have insurance when something happens and you had a job you will promptly see someone and be helped. The NHS promises to help but then when something happens it just abandons you to an indeterminate waiting list. Sounds like you haven’t had to deal with it yet but trust me the NHS no longer works. It’s killing people. Id rather be bankrupt than dead.

Clothes can be relatively cheaper than 40 years ago but they also last about like 15% of what they used to. My mum still has some clothes from before I was born! And trainers. That women whisked up perfectly looking leather trainers from like 30 years ago. She would be burned for black magic in times gone by😂
I once bought 150 quid trainers thinking they will last for ages and... They didn't 😒 and that's how "if I buy better it will last" spending idea ended

No it’s Brexit, every economist has acknowledged that.

It’s not possible with the ageing population though

I think it's more likely due to 20 odd years of socialism (I include the Tories in that). When Blair became PM, the national debt was 36% of GDP. It's 96% now. Trillions picked from people's pockets and spaffed on unproductive stuff like welfare.

Also the fact you need to help your dc with uni costs and then often they cannot afford to leave home.

Maybe? I don't dispute that.

I was more side-lined by the middle class distinction and the fact that so many view themselves, or ever viewed themselves, as middle class.

The false definition, when applied to self in error, results in disappointment in not being able to maintain a lifestyle that was never reality.

Like others have said, when they were younger, they didn't expect pastries and expensive clothes and cars every time they went out. That means they weren't raised middle class. As adults, if we are counting the costs of dinners and coffees etc, we aren't middle class. If we have debt, we're not middle class.

Nothing has changed about the class system. Perception on what we thought we had achieved might have shifted because they were false.

Most older generations knew they weren't middle class and didn't spend in the way we spend today.

If your lifestyle is contingent on wages and can't weather inflation, you're not middle class.

Budget, appreciate, be grateful or resentful, accordingly.

We do have appropriate healthcare and it’s a lot better than the medical bankruptcy families face in the US. It’s not perfect but we’re hugely fortunate to have the NHS.