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.

Mine is having a cleaner. She starts tomorrow and I still feel guilty as I can obviously clean myself but can easily afford it.

The other thing is never having to think about how much I’m spending in the supermarket. A massive luxury not to have to tot things up as I go around.

sushi

Just bought a mega pack of luscious English cherries from M&S. Shall now have to make a 🐷 of myself - dh might help a bit - since they don’t keep for long.

Good thread! I can’t snap out of my frugality even though we’re pretty flush, so I rarely splurge. But I guess my splurge would be shopping at Waitrose.
I am exactly the same but even then I wont buy the basics I can get significantly cheaper at Tesco or Aldi and still be good quality!

Just thought as well...I sometimes buy a scratchcard or enter the euromillions. Some good ideas on here for frugal treats.

I guess it’s booze for us, we buy red/white/rose wine and Prosecco buy thr case and always have a fully stocked booze cupboard and fridge. We aren’t actually big drinkers, I drink on average once a week, my husband has a couple of beers most nights, but we usually entertain a lot.

We also use Ocado and eat a lot of Marks and Sparks food, we seldom go to a supermarket.

Lastly I like to randomly send my daughter treats as she works so hard, so for example last month sent her a hamper, and fhen last week sent her some bottles of premixed cocktails., other times irs nice chocolates etc. Just random treats really.

really enjoyed reading this thread.

I’m not there yet but when we have a better income I’d love to be able to have regular haircuts/styling. Right now my hair gets a cut once every 2 years or so and my DC get a hair cut once or twice a year, I’d love to be able to afford to keep on top it and to be able to buy decent products for my hair as it’s curly/frizzy and a pain to do anything with!

Take away coffee. Plants. Pets. Books.

Private physio treatment.

We're at the replacing furniture stage and are now looking at quality and comfort rather than value for money which is really nice.

I do love Ikea but we no longer have to get all our furniture from there which was a step up from the Argos purchases in our first home.

Little things, however I'm not sure. We have plenty in the bank but still live frugally. I'd never get a cleaner.

We will buy whatever we want on the weekly shop as long as it is at Aldi or Lidl. We buy the majority of our clothes from Primark or Matalan, they are just clothes and last as long as anywhere else. We don't really eat out or have takeaways as I can cook just as well (sometimes better) at home.

Generally though, I'm happy to buy what I want but as long as I am getting good value for it, I hate overpaying.

I now only buy good quality shoes and boots - expensive upfront but they are way more comfortable and with a little upkeep they last for years so actually works out about the same cost.

Not a little thing, but last year we were able to help out family with financial problems. They want to and have started to repay us but it was really great to be able to give them the money they needed and not actually worry about getting it back.

I'm not bothered about buying things but I like being able to pay Bill's as soon as they come in. March is a bit of a mean month because I pay the years council tax, the years water bill, TV licence and the years contents and building insurance as well as my car tax! But then theres no major Bill's to pay for a year!

@Itstheprinciple

A gardener every fortnight. I love him! He has probably saved my marriage

Are you shagging him @Itstheprinciple

To those who are saying about kitchen roll: what did you use to clean hands/wipe stuff with 15 hundred times especially with kids before? Yea towels I'm assuming? But then they'll washing so lots more washing to do.

I've never ever considered kitchen roll to be a non-essential but now I can see how it could be if money is tight.

@LostPencilSOS

To those who are saying about kitchen roll: what did you use to clean hands/wipe stuff with 15 hundred times especially with kids before? Yea towels I'm assuming? But then they'll washing so lots more washing to do. I've never ever considered kitchen roll to be a non-essential but now I can see how it could be if money is tight.

@LostPencilSOS I've always used a towel. You're wiping your clean (just washed) hands on it so it doesn't get dirty.

@Thecurtainsofdestiny

Take away coffee. Plants. Pets. Books.

Private physio treatment.

I'm not flush in the slightest but when my back "went" I paid for private physio treatment. She refused to take any more money off me after treatment 3, packed me off for an MRI and I had cauda equina and needed emergency surgery. Worth every bloody penny I paid her

@LostPencilSOS

To those who are saying about kitchen roll: what did you use to clean hands/wipe stuff with 15 hundred times especially with kids before? Yea towels I'm assuming? But then they'll washing so lots more washing to do. I've never ever considered kitchen roll to be a non-essential but now I can see how it could be if money is tight.

You are missing the point. There's cheap crap kitchen roll that disappears when it's wet and you need like 3 bits to clean up anything. Or theres the posh stuff, Regina blitz or similar, that makes you feel superior using 1 bit to wipe away the yucks.

Before kitchen roll was born i probably used a minging cloth.

Books. Brand new books, in hardback if I want, when I want. Bliss.

Waitrose and Ocado deliveries instead of hauling my arse around Aldi. Bulk-buying basics from Costco and Ebay and getting those delivered too.

Getting milk delivered.

Fortnum & Mason treats at Christmas.

Truffle honey and truffle oil

Cleaner is the main thing. Also not having to stay in Travelodge. Occasional first class train tickets and nice bath oils.
But I'm still buying yellow sticker food and generally looking for bargains in life even though am on a very good salary!
(And yes I realise how lucky I am though I do work bloomin hard for it)

A tiny little thing, but as soon as I open a fresh toiletry item, I buy a replacement. Means I never run out, and when packing to go away I can pack my sponge bag days in advance without being without anything, which is much less stressful than trying to do it at the last minute.

I treat citrus fruit and fresh herbs as cut flowers, so I always have them around just to decorate the kitchen.

We often go out for brunch on the weekend with son and grandchildren, our treat. The kids are teens now, but grew up eating dim sum and other Asian foods. We had to stop during the pandemic but went out on Sunday.

We had dim sum at our old favourite spot. It gets expensive as we always get tempted by the dumplings and other things on the carts going around.

But so worth it. It is nice to be able to treat them. And, bonus. We saved so much during lockdown we can afford the odd splurge.

Furniture from a shop instead of Facebook!!

Avocados with every shop.

Shoes from schuh for my teen kids school shoes instead of scouring the cheaper shops.

Decent conditioner

Regular haircuts

Doc Martens for me!

Decent Birthday presents for me and dh

Splash out at Xmas on kids main gift and spend more on stocking fillers

Having said all that covid has been an arse to our main business (linked to air travel 🤦🏽‍♀️) luckily a secondary business has kept the mortgage paid but quite a lot of penny pinching ways have returned!

Really nice candles. I love the Daylesford Organic ones, pricey but they smell so good!