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^

Many moons ago, my wealthy boss asked me to book him and his mistress in at a French Chateau for a fortnight. Very expensive, made my annual salary look like the tip. It was booked as Mr & Mrs at his request. Anyway he and his mistress had a wingding and left after 7 days.

Two weeks later, my boss asked me to book the same French Chateau for him and his wife, again as Mr & Mrs (well she actually was the Mrs). I said, don't be daft, the hotel will notice that your Mrs has aged by 20yrs since your last visit and someone may recognise you and left the cat out of the bag.

His reply, no worries darling, they are French and they are very discreet, I have been going there for years!

We have a 16 year old Lexus and the only time it didn't start was due to a flat battery.

We could easily afford a new(er) car, but it's comfortable, practical, reliable and I don't need to worry about it getting scratched in car parks.

Perhaps one of the privileges of having a bit of money is not having to worry about 'keeping up' or caring about what others might think?

That’s how I would grade it too. If it’s specifically named on my insurance it’s expensive. £400 for a watch feels a lot of money for me, on a 30k salary, but it’s not expensive in terms of watches.

Respectfully if she's spending £17-40 on just veg a week, she's not exactly impoverished.

No one working class has ever bought a packet of batteries and not muttered "bloody rip off" under their breath.

Is that you dad?

(Although, to be fair Poundland did change that when they were charging £1 for 6 AA alkaline batteries)

My cousin who owns a horse cheerfully told me that it 'only costs about a grand a month'.
That's more than my monthly income. 🤣

Running the risk of sounding even more like a dad.... I feel like cheapo batteries are very "buy cheap, buy twice" because they don't last long

My money's so new half of it comes from universal credit, which has only existed since 2013 😉

Tbf £400 is cheap for a watch even if you add another zero.
Also what's 'wealthy' about a string quartet, lots of people hire / love live music 🤷‍♀️

Another person living in a privileged bubble.

I've never met a single person anywhere, who has hired a string quartet.

Precisely - my post was responding to the £100 takeaway post!

I grew up in poverty and as others have said it is all relative and what your base line is .

I think people feel "poor " not wealthy when they compare themselves to others e. g they work with / kids go to school with and state they can't afford holidays or a fancy car .

As others have said those that are comfortably off have a choice . They can choose to live modestly i;e run an old car, not be interested in buying new clothes .

I think people can be really tone deaf at times when they moan about hardships they perceive . I don't want to open that can of worms again , but the vat on private school fees was a recent example .

They can choose to buy a decent pair of shoes and not some cheap crap for them or their child that will fall apart in months if they are lucky .They aren't wealthy but aren't "poor " either .
Being in poverty is worrying about the essentials of having a roof over your head , having enough to eat , trying to keep warm .
I am grateful that the majority of people and children who grow up now do not have to experience this , but child poverty is still sadly an issue for too many .

I think a lot of people don't really get and are critical of those that are poorer than them who choose to spend money on what they would see as non essentials eg a netflix subscription , a few drinks in the pub once in a while . They see if they cut back on these then they would be able to save for x and y . This is not really the case as those that are poor are making a choice with the very little they have and cutting things elsewhere ( and some even don't have that ) . They are trying to eke out a little bit of joy in an otherwise difficult life where they are constantly worrying about bills , food and if something breaks down .

It is also about having buffers and a safety net . When you are poor , you don't have that . You don't have the well stocked food cupboard or are able to use savings , borrow from family.You don't economise by choosing not to take a foreign holiday this year /- you are making stark choices about food. / bills / heating .

Wealthy is a step way beyond being comfortably off when you are living a lifestyle that only a small percentage of people can appreciate .

£17 for a week’s worth of vegetables for 3 people? It’s less than many people who think they are hard up spend on Domino’s.

It's dear for what you get, you'd need a large wheelbarrow to transport £17 worth of veg from your local market stalls (not the bougie farmer's market types, the proper old school ones where they want to offload in bulk to you).

I have been very poor indeed. I am now comfortable, but nowhere near rich. My younger self is still amazed that I can just go and buy something if I need to. I'm not talking about things like new cars, but a new electric fan, or even a fridge. When I was poor I couldn't even buy an extra pint of milk.

Not from my local market stall. And there’d be a lot of waste as the quality is not as good. And I’d have to pay for the petrol to get there and go during working hours which I can’t do, as my local market is on a Friday morning, not a Saturday.

Irrespective of how much
the veg are I don't see a box of veg as a luxury.....

Most of us can only afford one man bands 😢

Not quite the same but it was a multimillionaire trying to identify with a normal person in the pub...everyone talking about money and cost of living problems in general, said normal person was saying that they might have to take some time off work for a week or so as they couldn't afford petrol until pay day (someone else had bought him a drink).

The millionaire said "yeah I've been a bit short of money this month too" after which he got into his bought-outright £250k car to go home to his mansion and pack for his business class family trip to his own second (third) home villa with pool in Florida 😂

Agree with this. I can remember when a coffee from a cafe felt like an unaffordable luxury. But I’ve now been working for 40 years and, yes, I am privileged enough to not worry about that and buy expensive vegetables ( but no meat or takeaways) because I choose to.

I think your in-laws could be my parents!

@NetZeroZealot the 3 person boxes start at £25-30!!!!

It's not the fact it's veg, it's the fact it's a because you buy as opposed to putting it in your normal weekly shop.

I did yeah, I was standing right next to her when she said it. She’s an amazing generous woman and it was so accidentally posh it was both funny and lovely. She had genuinely innocently forgotten she’d booked them.
The party was wonderful and it was a privilege to be invited.
Starting this thread wasn’t intended in any malicious way and I’m sad for you that you see it through that lense. I was hoping to illicit more of the same ‘so posh/wealthy they don’t even realise’ examples …and I see we’ve had some beauties 🤩🤩