The casual things that wealthy people take for granted

[KaleQueen]

Inspired by a thread that’s gone totally off topic….where someone suggested a £400 watch was cheap.

What’s the most casual (even accidental) brag you’ve ever heard a wealthy person say?

I can start as I know someone who celebrated a big birthday recently and is an absolutely lovely person but during their party (in the wonderful house) they said “oh! Here comes the string quartet. I had completely forgotten about them!”

^www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5174898-to-feel-slightly-suspicious-of-dp?page=35&reply=138771616^

There are adjectives that describe prices on a spectrum. A the prices of a 40,000 watch or a Lamborghini could well be described as exhorbitant. A ten pound watch would be cheap, a 400 pound pound watch would be mid range, reasonable, affordable to some or most? It wouldn't be cheap. Cheap in economics is usually relative to income and purchasing power, and other factors such as production costs. There are some people who would tell you that your example of a Lamborghini is "cheap" relative to their income and purchasing power.

Have you decided you are going to make value judgements on each example?
Do you just want a pop becuse you are envious of someone with a bit more money than you?

On the contrary, their functions are terribly clever

Go to Waitrose instead or M&S for better sandwiches?

(said in the spirit of the thread title 😊)

The local MP came and did a talk at the primary where I work.
They were talking to year 6 about careers and said the wage is not a lot for what they do (£91k).

The teacher and TA in class did raise an eyebrow at that, and we all had a laugh about how out of touch the MP was - whilst regretting our own life choices!

You need to stop now, you're embarrassing yourself.

It isn't that they have no concept of normal life. They know full well £400 is 'expensive' to far more people in the UK than it's 'cheap', they're just showing off - "I'm so rich I had no idea you could buy a watch for less than £10,000" etc. The wealth snobbery version of "Who are the Beatles?" type intellectual snobbery.

Not panicking if the car gets a problem. A light comes on on my dashboard and I get that sinking feeling of ‘god, what’s this going to cost’.
I drive a 22 year old car because I can’t afford anything else, so lights come on on the dash a lot!

yes I'm bored of reading about fecking watches

£30 is cheap for a watch. My watch was £80 and I consider that expensive. I have worn it for years and get the strap replaced when it wears out.

I think there is something in this. If my boiler broke I could buy a new one with no concerns, if my car broke I could buy a new car (outright) without sweating it.

i just did that online test someone linked to earlier and am in the top 10% of earners, the top 10% of savers but interestingly in the bottom 30% of spenders. We have quite a simple life I guess. We drive old cars, live in a modest house, can’t remember the last time I had a take away, dh hasn’t bought any new clothes in the last 15 years (his underwear is BHS). Me and Dd went to France for a holiday last year and we caught the train and stayed in a youth hostel. We could afford a lot more but we’re happy with what we do.

A little story to lighten the thread. I went to Uni with a lad who wore the same clothes every day for three years. Black jeans and jacket and a band t shirt.
Good looking, always clean, must have washed the outfit every night.
But still the same clothes.
He asked a few girls out along the way. But everyone turned him down. I can understand why - what if he had the same bedding on for three years?!!!
Graduation day - got out of a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce with his dad. It was the 80’s.
Had a chat to him. They lived in Switzerland. His dad was in banking they were clearly wealthy.
He was actually really funny - he’s bought a load of jeans and t-shirts that were the same. Wore them on rotation. He’d been to boarding school but didn’t want anyone to know his family were wealthy.
Wanted to meet friends on his own terms.
I think a few girls regretted their decision. Suited and booted he looked gorgeous.
I have looked him up online a few times and he’s done as well as his dad.

I think we're living in a country of low expectations when putting the heating on is considered excessive.

DH's office Christmas do, with partners. His boss had been on a Disney Cruise with his wife and daughter. Kept insisting that we should consider the same for our family holiday. Yep, that would cost 10% DH's pre tax salary, and he knew what DH earned.

It's more a sign of the times than anything else that being able to pay for necessities such as a replacement washing machine is seen by some as representing wealth. It's shocking that so many people accept the wealth inequality in this country.

The general standard of living should be much higher - everyone should be able to afford to have their heating on, at least at the point when you can't reasonably put on any more layers of clothes, and buy a basic washing machine when the old one conks out.

This is not £400 watch territory, this is being able to live in reasonable comfort without constant anxiety about money,

OMFG how can anybody care enough about watches to still be posting about them?! I feel like “£400 watch” is going to be imprinted on my eyeballs for the rest of my life.

Deciding whether or not to put your watch on your house insurance = perfect example for this thread, thank you 🤩

Bloody hell.

If you have that much money why wouldn't you pay someone to do that for you?

I think this question is subjective. The for example a family going on holiday to a caravan park v holiday to Spain v holiday to Jamaica. Each will think the other is really expensive and unreasonable if you get what I mean.

Doesn’t it go both ways though? Isn’t there an expectation that you make your seaside house available for example? Or are they happy to just be generous with no expectations?

I wouldn’t call buying a £400 watch as wealthy. Now buying a Rolex is an indulgence and a sign of wealth.
But then again being rich is relative and depends how much money you have left at the of each month.

What an odd thread, seems to be all about a 400 pound watch,

I think the excess on my insurance is £500 so yes no point putting a £400 watch on it...

I have a friend that brags about the amount of unworn things in her wardrobe that are brand new with tags...

She says things like oh I just found a pair of brand new boots I forgot I had. It's a bit cringe.

Same friend told me I need to outsource things on the home front more when I was stressed at work.

She lives in another world from me

I recently attended a work event. In a conversation about hols, someone said they were cutting right back because of school fees/cost of living. So they were going to Australia for Christmas hols and then doing nothing til February skiing.
Very different lives!

Mine is definitely an 'everything is relative' post but I do remember talking to a lady at work once who was telling me about her cleaner. I said I wished I could afford a cleaner and she replied 'oh but you can! You just need to give up something else'

She had no concept that some people really DON'T have anything they can give up. At that time for me ALL of my money went on very basic living expenses, and luxuries (or even really simple treats) were not an option at all

That comment on the news a few years ago about how young people could afford to buy a house if they would just stop going to Starbucks, very much reminded me of that as well.