What little things do you buy if you are finally financially stable?

[catfunk]

I'm not talking big houses or flash cars. More innocuous things.
Mine is fresh lemons and limes. I'm extremely frugal when it comes to shopping and always bought the bottles of concentrated juice for cooking or drinks but realised in the past year or so I've added them to my grocery shop without a second thought about the extra couple of quid.

Anti pasti bits - like the olives, the charcuteries, all the wee little lovely bits. Melon & Parma Ham

When I am feeling poor I buy an essential quiche with some sandwich ham and the basic coleslaw.

Cook and baking ingredients for me. I love trying new recipes and it's lovely to buy a new cookbook and just buy the necessary ingredients without worrying. I've recently bought Dishoom and Ottolenghi books and am happily buying black garlic and Jaggery. A few short years ago I would have baulked at paying for things like that.

I also recently had my first professional pedicure. I'm not big on pampering but it was lovely and I'm going to make it a regular treat.

Flowers.

More expensive make up when I need it, without worrying about.

Nicer gin.

Clothes, if I see something I need and like I can buy it without worrying.

Shares, mostly in tracker funds.

Trying to think of the sub £30 treats:

Fresh flowers
Nice stationery - note pads and post-its
Malden sea salt
Fresh crab meat from the deli
Burrata
Sushi for lunch
Magazines

I still can’t bring myself to buy flowers despite becoming much more comfortable the last few years. Feels so wasteful. Also balk a the price of a bottle of gin!

Think nothing of an weekly fresh meal delivery - a pasta dish that costs almost as much as a restaurant!

Fresh fruit and veg
Flowers every Friday
Car valeting at home once every 3 weeks
Full body massage once a month

Good shoes. I don't have loads of shoes but the ones that I have are good quality. No longer sighing about the rain because my shoes leak. And I have the correct shoes for each occasion, like shoes for the beach, proper running shoes and warm winter boots.

Very nice coffee from Italian cafes.
Hotel breaks.'
Nice makeup.

Eat out more
Book a nicer cottage/Air B'nB
Not go camping so much at all
DC can go on extravagant school trips
More holidays abroad, not just UK
Clothes and shoes for me

I’m a little better off this year than last year and it’s so wonderful to be able to buy my DCs’ school kit without worrying whether I’ll make the credit card bill that month. They can have John Lewis shoes instead of M&S!

@PiffleWiffleWoozle

Shares, mostly in tracker funds.

I'm not worthy

American sweets. I was buying dark chocolate cherries from the local market stall but the stall sadly closed down.

I'm in the process of buying an electric bike and I realised that when I've bought it and the lock, helmet, car rack etc it will cost nearly 5 times more than my first car!!

Flowers and niache shower gel

Coffee beans from online stores or from coffee shops rather than instant. Also branded pasta. I don't actually know if it tastes better or if it's a placebo effect but I love some Marshall's macaroni.

A dog- gorgeous, furry money pit that he is!
Airport lounge access.
Weekly fruit and veg boxes.

Premium skincare and
Botox

@Lyricallie

Coffee beans from online stores or from coffee shops rather than instant. Also branded pasta. I don't actually know if it tastes better or if it's a placebo effect but I love some Marshall's macaroni.

Not much else tastes better than Marshall's macaroni!

I have some things that I definitely class as big treats - I have a cleaner and a gym membership and am very very grateful for both.

But I do really enjoy the little treats or the occasional ones - I have a bottle of lovely olive oil for dressing and dipping. Like a poster above, I also have a box of Maldon sea salt (which is a lot of money compared to normal salt but I only finished my first 350g thing of normal salt last year, which would be 8 years after I bought it, so I decided I can probably stretch!). I also bought myself a nice flip top glass bottle, it means I can always have chilled water in a lovely bottle straight from the fridge, which is a real day improver for me. Little things.

I grew up with no much money at all and it's taken me years to a) stop worrying about money, b) stop being really unnecessarily frugal and c) get used to the idea that actually I have really got enough money to enjoy myself/pay for help etc. It still feels very unnatural to me though.

I'll be weaning DD3 in the next couple of months so will be buying pouches and jars instead of homemade. Small fortune but obviously I'm paying for the convenience.

This thread is lovely. I can relate to lots of these. I guess one of the upsides of having ever struggled is that you can really appreciate the small things.

I had dinner with friends tonight and didn’t have to give a second thought to whether I could afford my share of the bill, I just enjoyed the evening

I think the biggest change in spending habits was not when I upgraded chain of hotel but when I didn’t automatically book the cheapest room that met my requirements.

Yeah I’ll take the suite/deluxe room/sea view etc. and I’ll enjoy

Anchor butter.

Takeaway when I really can’t be bothered.

I have a £50 a month spend limit on stuff I don’t really need like an eyeliner, perfume, new wine glasses….

Nice hand soap and shower gel from
TK Maxx.