To ask, what's one item that you didn't realise was expensive until you became an adult?

[AvocadoHo]

Mine is toilet roll and cheese! 🙈

Tyres, washing powder and petrol!

Carpets!

Lightbulbs- and aren’t they supposed to last for ages these days? Ours don’t and cost loads.
Cherries as well.

All of the above plus children’s toys.

Curtains. And all the shit to do with curtains.

Parking, seafood (fish/ shellfish), council tax, meals out when you're paying for the whole family, plus tip (but always well deserved so I don't bregrudge it), anything from the Body Shop, decent underwear, batteries(!!!!), prescriptions, dental treatment.

@ghostyslovesheets
I could have written this. My last bill was £100 arrears after the monthly direct debit. I had stern words with them about that! They have been slightly more considerate but doubt it will last.

Laundry baskets, even in budget type shops.

The school bus and the school lunches! Nearly £2k a year!
I now feel awful for all those times I intentionally missed the bus so I could hang out in town and all the times I just had a bread roll.

My son knows to eat well and make sure he catches that damn bus!!

@BagORats

Gas and electric

Absolutely this !

Literally everything

@AutistGoth

Spectacles that don't make you look like Dennis Taylor in the 1980s! Indeed, having shortsightedness generally is expensive.

Why are basic, black framed glasses invariably £70 and up? By the time you have paid for your eye test, your new glasses, new prescription shades and the UV filters to prevent the sun frying your eyes, you're almost £200 worse off!

£400 worse off if you need varifocals!

Car insurance

Tuna

Eating out and holidays abroad.

I now know why as a family of six we rarely did the former and never the latter.

Bins. It's just something to put rubbish in

Nope, can't think of anything else other than being amused at how many PPs have found so many 'norm' stuff to declare that they had 'no idea' it cost money.

Dear fecking gowd almity.....

The List is replete with unstated suggestions - to add to my above suugggestion, what about a Home that's Yours?

The smugness and social illiteracy of the many post-55ers is an abomination - I'm 58/9 - so I know hat I'm talkin about.

Beluga Caviar. Used to spoon it on our Weetabix as kids. Have to cope with salmon roe nowadays

@LakieLady That's terrible. I knew varifocals were ridiculously expensive.

You have my utmost sympathy.

I've never worn contact lenses, but with the cleaning fluid, cases and other paraphernalia that goes with them, I don't imagine they're cheap either.

Things still take me by surprise now. I can't get over how much some freezer shit costs. Processed shite I can make better versions of for pennies at home 🤦🏻‍♀️

Living

Taps.

My daughter was surprised to find out you have to pay for driving lessons, she thought they were funded by the government as part of your education!