What adult purchase really shocked you once you saw the price tag?

[AmbsPhillps]

like when you became an adult , what things surprised you with by the cost

Fencing. Have just had a quote for 45 ft of fence and it is over £800, I was in shock when we got the quote. Thought it would be about £200 at most.

Mattresses. Not a whole bed, a solitary, single mattress.

A decent quality one, from a respected manufacturer doesn't give much change from £600. And that's not the most expensive.

£1000? Seriously?

computer monitor
a decent one of a decent size easily costs 700€. and ideally I would need 2.
at home I have neither the space nor the money...

@Susannahmoody

Why is cheese actually so dear?

I make cheese so can answer this!

I use 6 litres of high quality non homogenised, full cream Jersey milk to make 2 standard wheels of camembert (sort of hand size ones not the teeny bite size ones nor the massive ones!) It's 1.50 a litre so £9 to make two.

I also have to buy the cultures and i have already invested in equipment. They take a day of full time work to make into little moulds and the bastards are extremely needy and need squashing, washing and turning 4 times a day for a week. Then they go into their boxes for maturing in an ideal and sterile environment (a fridge bought for the purpose) for about two months, again washing, turning and airing every couple of days

Stilton and cheddar is even more demanding and takes bloody ages to mature. Think 3 -6 months. You can't just leave them though. Turn your back for 10 days and the fuckers can disintegrate in a pile of unwanted mould wasting money, time and emotional turmoil. Once you get to Parmesan and Comte that needs up to 10 years you need a bigger bloody storage facility and nerves of steel

My point is, £5 for a little Camembert or a chunk or Parmesan or even a supermarket cheddar is well earned and encompasses the high cost of raw ingredients, person hours, effort and care, risk of spoilage (frequent and distressing!) long term storage and many overheads to maintain the environment needed for a commercial enterprise.

I love making cheese though so I find it totally worth it. The long natures are so satisfying when the come out tasty.
Halloumi is my go to at the moment. I can get it done in the morning before a BBQ and holy hell it tastes amazing!

computer monitor
a decent one of a decent size easily costs 700€. and ideally I would need 2.
at home I have neither the space nor the money...

You use euros so perhaps you're not in the UK - but monitors are ridiculously cheap in the UK these days, you can get a decent monitor for far less than 700 euro. In fact, most computer stuff is far cheaper than it used to be, SD cards used to cost a fortune.

Petrol

Malin52 your cheese sounds amazing

Bras.I really resented having to spend that much on underwear,ffs
Also furniture though we have solved this problem by mostly having passed on/inherited furniture and some stuff from charity shops.I like the older furniture,and I like real wood,we didn't used to be able to afford proper wood new

Funerals
We cremated my mother in law due to covid we were allowed no flowers order of service of funeral cars and only allowed 9 mourners it still cost over £4000. I was also shocked to be given her ashes in just a plastic bag‼️

The cost of gas and electricity.
When I lived at home my dad was always telling us to turn lights off in unused rooms etc.
Then I got my first electric bill when I married and understood why.

Rugs
Kitchen Bins

A wedding one....Hiring chair covers.

Table and chairs
Mattresses
Curtains

The biggest one for me was funerals. Not just the actual funeral costs, but all the associated bits. Especially the newspaper notice. You see births, deaths and marriages in there all the time so when my Nana died I just assumed we'd be putting it in the local paper. I did not expect that to be over £100!!