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

Owning a car. I felt as though I was chucking £50 notes out the window every time I turned the ignition key. Monthly payments. Insurance. Tax. Maintenance/MOT. Petrol. And once your car's paid off and you feel you're getting a bit of relatively expense free driving, all of a sudden 'yer big end's gone, missus' and not in a good way.

Anything - ANYTHING - to do with your roof. Just move house. It's cheaper.

Holidays. I literally had no idea. We camp every other year.
Curtains
Glasses

Oh God, yes - holidays. Even if you get a cheap deal, or stay with family or sleep in a field and eat nothing but toast for two weeks, it winds up costing a bloody fortune.

Garden furniture.

I've been looking for some this week. Not sure if I've left it too late so all the reasonably priced stuff has gone, if the pandemic means companies are charging more because everyone's stuck at home or if it's just always been so expensive!!

Just the general cost of living. Rent, bills, food, running a car, etc.

Furniture. We bought an Ikea sofa second hand and haven’t been able to buy spare covers for it because they rarely come up second hand and new they cost more than double what we paid for the sofa itself!

Cheese.

Sad to say this , but funerals. It is a huge amount of money. Had too many to arrange recently and the cost ,for even the basics , is a lot of money.
:(

I didn’t even know that council tax existed until I moved out as a 19 year old about to be single parent! Was not written into my budget at all and completely threw me

Oh another one, not something that actually has to be expensive but I’m always shocked by how much people spend on weddings!

We bought a new bed a few years ago and even the lady in the shop agreed they were so much expensive than they used to be as well and she had been working there for a long time.

@RevolutionRadio

Garden furniture.

I've been looking for some this week. Not sure if I've left it too late so all the reasonably priced stuff has gone, if the pandemic means companies are charging more because everyone's stuck at home or if it's just always been so expensive!!

God yes, this.

Weddings are a rip off. Maybe many people won't bother now because of covid? It might make people think twice about wasting thousands on them?
They are a bit overblown these days.
( did feel sorry for those that had to cancel them this year though. )

Water! I naively thought if Oxfam can supply a whole village for £2 a month surely ours wont be much more.
Furniture especially if it's just bog standard machine made nothing hand crafted.
Unexpected Bill's! I used to think my parents were mad having loads in savings but it meant they could afford to replace anything at a moments notice.
Otoh I'm shocked how cheap carpet is. My parents spent almost £5000 having their hall stairs and landing carpeted (not even that big just normal 1 lane wide size) i paid under £300.
Fags. I used to spend £1.02 for 10 sovereign now its £9 for a pack of 20!

Stationary, especially paper. I thought my parents were stingy telling me to use both sides... but now I know! I have a child who goes through a pack of paper in a week and that has to be budgeted for!

Varifocal glasses - and they don't even work

I had never heard of council tax. Or insurance. I thought water was free. Even hot water. Rent was a shock too. And the cost of buying a house (still prohibitive for me). My parents always owned and had a mortgage. I thought that was basically automatic. Turn 30 and get a house, car, proper career job. None of those things happened for me. Still waiting. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Leaving the lights on is cheaper than I would have thought by the many years of being told that it cost a fortune leaving them on. Nope.

School bus for a year mostly not on the bus but in lockdown

• a modped or small car is cheaper once they are 16/17

Lego!

Not even the sets. Just the bricks.

My son was amazed you had to pay for a nursery place if you had a child in one when we were talking about bills once and water bills. Both are huge.

Garden furniture isn't cheap at all.
I'm shocked at how much basic table and chairs have gone up in price.

Anything that involves scaffolding.

Holy shit, is it made out of unicorn tears and dodo feathers? Mind-blowingly expensive.

Dyson anything.

Oh and wedding cake. It’s just an iced fruit cake but prefix with wedding and it’s ££££

Properties/cabins/rooms on Airbnb.
I was shocked the first time I looked (this summer).
I think I'd prefer to pay just that little bit extra/the same, and stay in a hotel

Kitchen bins. They are insanely expensive for somewhere to put rubbish.

Grass seed! Just paid 12 quid for a box. Maybe it's the time of year.

Kids activities. I've worked out we pay close to 80 a month for two kids to play football and swim. No wonder we had so much more money in lock down. That doesn't include the football boots, kits, goggles etc that need replacing all the time.