How much would you spend on a single item?

[mermaidin]

Just curious really.
I earn a semi decent salary. More than average but not more than £50,000 so not high, but I'm single with no kids so I have a fair bit left after bills etc.
I was watching a documentary where someone said they'd had a £30,000 ring stolen and I was blown away! I cannot ever imagine spending that amount on a personal item! Obviously this person was very rich but I wouldn't spend that no matter how rich I was.
I'm not frugal at all as I believe life is for living and if you want something you should buy it. But really the most I've ever spent on clothing or jewellery for a single item is £200 and I thought that was expensive!
I understand people with higher incomes would/could spend more. So it just made me wonder...
What's your most extravagant purchase? Not including cars or houses obviously!

I don’t regularly buy expensive items - in fact I don’t shop that much and spend most of my money on travel, eating out etc. but I have bought a few expensive things over the years, certainly more than £200! My most extravagant personal items:

• A £1200 dress from a New York designer - a real classic which I bought to wear the day after my wedding and which I’ll have for life! I have made about £500 of the cost back from renting it out on Hurr.
• A £400 ballgown style dress from self-portrait - only worn once and regret spending so much!
• A Mulberry bag for £575 (I bought this from the outlet and it RRPed at £1000. I’ve used it almost every day since getting it 4 years ago and think I’ll have it for life so no regrets!
• A Mulberry winter coat for £600, also from the outlet and RRPed around £1000. It went bobbly after less than 10 wears - I continued to wear it anyway then a (distinctive) button dropped off and the cost didn’t come with spares. The style was a classic (camel, twill) so I thought I’d be wearing it for years but I only wore it one winter because the quality was so poor!
• A gold charm bracelet my grandma gave me - she used to give me a charm each birthday and Christmas - was valued at £2000, although I never wear it as it isn’t really my style.
• Not sure this counts but my wedding dress (£1800), wedding shoes (£300), engagement ring (£3000) and necklace as a wedding gift from my in-laws (£1000).
• I’ve had quite a few other coats around the £200-400 mark, bags around £200-300 and dresses around £200. It’s hard to get a winter coat for less than £200!

For context, I earn £70k, married, no kids yet.

I bought a vase last week - £1800.
It’s more art than vase really.
It’s beautiful.
I probably spend more on art and ceramics/glass than anything else.

Musical Instruments - Piano - £32,000
Bassoon £4000
various Recorders and Guitars £1000 each. Engagement ring £7500 15 yrs ago.

A large piece of preserved and shaped driftwood for the garden £2500 (23 years ago) it’s still beautiful.

bags

i spent £800 on a bag
and my husband has bought me 2 as xmas presents which were more

this was a few years ago though before we bought our current house
now all of our money goes on that

I'm the same as you OP, my most expensive purchase outside of household stuff like electronics was a £75 coat and it took me weeks to go through with it. My phone was £200. Our TV was £300 and we've had it 6 years. I get all my clothes from Vinted and really struggle with buying anything for myself. I own two bags from Tesco and H&M!

We both earn above average but I like to save for holidays or spend money on family days out.

I have a £5k engagement ring, £1.5k bag and a £2.5k piano. All gifts from my husband when I think about it (he’s a bigger spender than I am). We’re both high earners but not crazy money and didn’t grow up with money.

I think op deserves and is probably overdue a treat , i only earn half your salary most expensive personal item i have bought for myself was £700 it was a pendent i bought last year but jewellery does tend to hold its value 10 yr ago i bought a necklace for £300 and at the time was my most expensive purchase and it now worth over £1000 so i think does depend on what your buying as can also be a investment

I bought my husband a 5k watch for his 50th a few years ago .
Ive bought myself a 3k watch probably around 12 years ago

pair of louboutins 800
mulberry handbags most expensive was 1200 for a oak Bayswater
but I’ve also got an Alexa & mini Bayswater and 2 purses and 2 small credit type wallets as well so they probably all add up to around 4k In total

1800 for my dog 2 years ago but he’s worth every penny .

A big holiday of a lifetime around 7 years ago for my husbands 50th
We did 2 weeks in Thailand and 2 weeks in the Maldives in a water villa I think that was around 10k

I just spent £1,500 on a tree for my front garden, but I intend to enjoy it for the next 40 or so years or until I die. Even if I move from here I’ll drive past to look at it (and have it worded into any house sale contract that have to sell it back to me if they want to rip it out lol).

9k for a bike? 68k for a guitar?! These figures are madness!😂

Maybe it’s because I’m poor but I don’t think I’ve spent more than £150 on one item. I think I spent it on a ring from H Samuel that I lost anyway. It’s really interesting to see what people spend their money on

I have a couple of pairs of practical Louboutins (sneakers, loafers etc) as heels are not the most practical in deep snow and -30. I also have a Dior tote.

Three business class flights with Singapore Airlines from Seattle to Singapore. If I was spending 17 hours in a plane, I wanted it to be comfortable.

Probably my first horse that I bought in 1990 for £1750 which is about £5.5k in today's money.

I was only earning about £6k a year at that time too 🤣

Rolex £10k

designer bags various brand from £400 to £5000

engagement rings £20k although this was my husband purchased it for me obvs.

£1000 iphone
£2000 MacBook
£1000 handbag
£2000-3000 jewellery

Honestly buy a nice bag or some sparkle it’s fun and you’ve worked for it.

Spending insane amounts of money on children including the enormously pricey baby gear and childcare has made me somewhat less reluctant to spend money on myself.

I would like a carrier tank watch about 10k I think and an oval cut diamond ring for 10-20k… whether or not that materialises I don’t know.

• Cartier!! 10-20k

Oh crap I forgot about the wedding

Dress 3.5k

hmmm £450 for a handbag?
ah no, I have a £700 watch (which was actually on sale - but not a REALLY high end watch)
Thats from good old days when I was also single and working in a City job

I take it things like iphones, ski equipment etc don’t count?

my wedding dress was £600!

otherwise I spend all on holidays 🤦‍♀️😍

I wouldn't spend that kind of money as I would be too scared to wear it in case I lost it or in this day and age it made me a target for robbery. My engagement ring is the highest value thing I own and that as £2500 and even that made me feel a target when I first started wearing it as I used to walk in my lunch hour which involved a few alleyways.

Since hitting the menopause, I'm not so interested in clothes, so I regularly buy £300 perfumes. I'm single and on a high salary, so this is my little vice

The person buying the £65k watch just to get a buying history with the watch company wins this thread 😂

I think these things slowly shift as you get richer. We are not "rich" but probably like most people we earn a lot more now than I did at aged 21. Back then, a dress would be a £15-25 purchase, make up would come from L'Oréal on a posh day, superdrugs own most days. Nowadays, I'll buy my clothes at Whistles or similar and are quadruple what I used to spend (although do try and do vinted), I recently bought boots for £220 and that was on vinted 2nd hand, my foundation costs £35 every 6 months and I get my nails done for £30 rather than buying a £2.59 sueprdrug nail varnish. None of these seem like loads, especially compared to some people, but back when I was 21 I would've been super shocked.
I suspect, if we had millions, you'd reach a point were 30k on a ring seemed "about right", you'd do what I already do and justify the quality make, the fact it was ethically made maybe etc. It probably doesn't start there, but my husband is currently eyeing up a watch for 3k, if he ever one day gets a large bonus. I think it's ridiculous, that would've been months of salary back in the day, but I'm sure I won't mind/comment if his bonus is large enough that I don't feel it! I suspect people just gradually spend more and more on stuff because they can, and there's always nicer/more expensive stuff out there that's marketed at them.

32k for a piano!!! <<faints>>

That’s not at all unusual for a very good quality piano. And a keen amateur, not to mention a teacher or professional might well want a piano of that quality. We auctioned late DFIL’s 1970’s Steinway baby grand and it sold for over 50k. It will hold its price if well cared for and I hope bring someone as much joy as it brought him.

Aside from sports equipment and technology? If we are talking jewellery and clothing then probably my £300 Alexander McQueen shoes from TK Max which my dog ate when we left her at home for 20 minutes. Never again am I going to spend money on something this frivolous. My salary is close to yours but I am still happily shopping at Primark and Costco.