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Do you feel sad at being priced out of little luxuries?

149 replies

corkface · 05/04/2025 12:42

Everything keeps getting more expensive and this month it is hitting home that little luxuries I used to be able to enjoy occasionally and never took for granted are just getting too expensive at a time when more and more of our income is going on bare minimum necessities.

This morning I met a friend for a walk, we used to go for tea and a slice of cake after to chat in the warm but its just too expensive now. I thought I'd bake a cake and take it with me next week with a flask of tea for after our walk but when I priced all the ingredients that was too expensive as well.

I am grateful I have a place to live and can still cover my bills but it just feels like every little bit of extra money we might have to do the odd nice thing is being squeezed out of us. Its quite depressing.

OP posts:
Sunshineandrainbow · 05/04/2025 12:49

I agree, but if you baked a cake you would get more than a few slices out of it.

I have always struggled to buy a drink while out as I just feel it's over priced for a coffee or tea. I have maybe 2 a year if a friend wants to meet and tend to see if there is a cheaper toasted teacake.

corkface · 05/04/2025 12:54

@Sunshineandrainbow Getting more slices is true, I guess I could make one that could be frozen to eek it out a bit more. I suppose that isn't really the point its just feeling priced out of what used to be fairly normal, inexpensive things. I feel like just a few years ago you could meet with friends in town have a bite to eat, pay your train there and back, have a drink maybe even do something like see a local band or a film and have change out of £30. Now the same night will cost you more than double that.

OP posts:
BlondeMummyto1 · 05/04/2025 12:59

I have been holding onto my luxuries but when the price of them is goings up near enough every time I’m starting to get to the point of thinking about having them less often.

corkface · 05/04/2025 13:01

@BlondeMummyto1 So true, I'm always reaching for something I usually buy then recoiling when I see the latest price increase.

OP posts:
theunbreakablecleopatrajones · 05/04/2025 13:05

Yes for sure.

I got quite into taking flasks to the park with friends during Covid so I think that’s a good idea, lots of cakes are cheap to make and you can freeze them in portions easily.

LeaveALittleNote · 05/04/2025 13:05

Yes, I definitely feel a bit sad about it. If I’m feeling fed up or low, I would usually try and pick myself up with things such as a nice coffee somewhere, some flowers, a bit of retail therapy or whatever. But i can’t often do that anymore. It’s ok in the summer when I can do lovely things outside for free and lift my spirits that way, but during a long winter I need a bit of a boost and everything’s too expensive!

AcquadiP · 05/04/2025 13:16

I still have my little luxuries just not as often. Your flask of coffee and cake is a good idea, I'm sure your friend would appreciate the gesture.

Bbq1 · 05/04/2025 13:17

I hang onto my "luxuries" - books, flowers. skincare, candes because little treats lift the spirits. Op, how about taking some cup cakes /Brownies from the supermarket? They are quite cheap but still treaty.

jewelcase · 05/04/2025 13:20

I have mixed feelings about it, to be honest. At the overall level, I’m a bit sad that I can’t unthinkingly buy food out like I used to (within reason). Same with clothes and trips.

But when I think about it on a case by case basis, it’s actually made me appreciate how expensive things were even before the recent price rises. In a cafe you’re not looking at much change from a fiver for a single slice of cake. Even at half that price, when I think about it, that’s ridiculously expensive. My desire for cake, it turns out, just doesn’t stretch to paying that. So I don’t. I don’t feel sad. I feel like I’m winning at life by not paying several pounds for a little bit of cake any more! So I feel like it’s opened my eyes rather than closed a door.

Same with clothes. Vinted has been a great discovery. Quality items, but at a fraction of the RRP.

And there are alternatives to days out that are much much cheaper and just as good, when I am forced to look.

I’m sorry if others feel like they’re being priced out. But it’s really as much of a gain for me as a loss.

Jellycatspyjamas · 05/04/2025 13:22

I feel like just a few years ago you could meet with friends in town have a bite to eat, pay your train there and back, have a drink maybe even do something like see a local band or a film and have change out of £30.

Its been a very long time since I could do train, food and drink for under £30, much less go to a gig or a movie. I think coffee and cake is more expensive than it used to be, I certainly buy coffee out very rarely but will when it feels worth it to me.

I guess it depends on whether it’s a case of I’d rather spend my money on something else or actually I don’t have £10/15 to spend.

Mylovemine · 05/04/2025 13:24

Yes. A bar of chocolate is £4+. Used to be £1-2. It all adds up. But for non food items eBay can be your friend.

Shinyandnew1 · 05/04/2025 13:24

I would have a cup of tea/can of drink without the cake. Maybe a kitkat! A flask is a good idea as well.

frozendaisy · 05/04/2025 13:32

Yes essentials are taking up greater and greater percentages of budgets.

It’s not the cake and tea for me, it’s being able to sit, chat, people watch somewhere different not go back to park benches like you did when a teenager.

And if the local councils set up areas that were nice to sit and drink flask tea you just know that they would be trashed, litter strewn, dogs, families setting up camps for a day with a BBQ, our society doesn’t have the behaviour for such places unless it’s an older place with a centre quad.

It’s the choice that is taken away.

corkface · 05/04/2025 13:35

@Mylovemine Exactly, I don't drink alcohol but I used to be able to buy a nice bar of dark chocolate or some nice tea for a couple of pounds now its unaffordable. I mean fair enough I do understand but it just makes life seem greyer. Like we are just working to keep a roof over our heads.

OP posts:
Gundogday · 05/04/2025 13:36

Thought the same about Easter eggs. Couldn’t justify spending £10 per egg on the more interesting ones, so spent half that (and where are the Green and Black ones this year?)

MissMarplesGoddaughter · 05/04/2025 13:36

I've stopped buying the Saturday edition of a national newspaper, it costs £4.50 which soon adds up.

I don't buy myself makeup treats anymore

Or flowers (except for £1 a bunch daffodils at the supermarket)

I don't buy books anymore, just borrow them from the library, as I'm 44th in the queue for Butter, a lot of other people must be doing this too.

I ration myself to one coffee out a week, when I meet up with friends, but I sip it slowly and really enjoy it.

I don't just jump in the car automatically now, if I can walk or use the bus I do.

I buy garden plants from the market and not the garden centre, it's all too easy to get to the till and find the bill is £££

DungareesTrombonesDinos · 05/04/2025 13:37

Absolutely! I bought myself some perfume today - £6.50 from Aldi - and debated putting it back because we can't really afford it.

I'm absolutely fed up to be honest.

corkface · 05/04/2025 13:53

MissMarplesGoddaughter · 05/04/2025 13:36

I've stopped buying the Saturday edition of a national newspaper, it costs £4.50 which soon adds up.

I don't buy myself makeup treats anymore

Or flowers (except for £1 a bunch daffodils at the supermarket)

I don't buy books anymore, just borrow them from the library, as I'm 44th in the queue for Butter, a lot of other people must be doing this too.

I ration myself to one coffee out a week, when I meet up with friends, but I sip it slowly and really enjoy it.

I don't just jump in the car automatically now, if I can walk or use the bus I do.

I buy garden plants from the market and not the garden centre, it's all too easy to get to the till and find the bill is £££

@MissMarplesGoddaughter Same here, books are so expensive and many are single use so I'm the same using the library which is very scaled back now to what it used to me. I looked for butter the other week but they just had a photocopy of the front cover on the stand with Japanese books saying you could add your name to the list of people waiting to read it.

Yeah I never get the bus anymore if I can walk it as its so expensive. I haven't had fresh flowers in ages but soon I'll be able to enjoy the flowers outside.

OP posts:
Birdseyetrifle · 05/04/2025 13:58

I’m so fed up of it that I’m now desperately trying to find a second job as just working and struggling is bloody miserable. May as well work that bit more and be able to treat myself.

QueefQueen80s · 05/04/2025 14:06

Yes
All I can afford is bills, food, transport ☹️

ForPearlNewt · 05/04/2025 14:58

I know what you mean, OP. Gradually being able to afford less and less as prices rise and your income doesn't, is depressing. I think it's having the option removed that is the issue. It's not about a piece of cake or a coffee in a cafe specifically, it's about not being to treat yourself to a little luxury any more.

I was a single parent for many years and that situation was the norm for me. And mostly I didn't mind too much but sometimes it just gets to you that you can't afford to do anything, ever. You don't have that option of choosing to be a bit frivolous occasionally.

What I did learn is that there are often cheaper ways of doing things if you're willing to be a bit creative. I know to some extent that's not the point, but it's at least an alternative to being pissed off. For example, like many people during the pandemic, I took more interest in my garden. I'd had a garden for years and barely used it. I was amazed how it improved my mental health during covid, and I'm still a very enthusiastic gardener. But a combination of starting during lockdown and not having much money means I've had to be resourceful and do things as cheaply as possible. I could have been resentful and pissed off about that but I chose to embrace it and challenge myself to grow things from seeds (still cost money but much less), find cheap or free plants and all kinds of other things on Facebook marketplace and car boot sales (after lock down, obviously) and those sorts of places, then learn how to propagate those plants myself, etc etc. And unexpectedly that has been a lot of the fun of it and made it much more rewarding, in that I've achieved something more special (to me) than if I'd had the means to go to the local expensive garden centre and spend a fortune and just buy whatever I wanted. Or even spend a bit at the expensive garden centre. 🤣 (I do go there but only to check out the bargain section. 🤣) I'm also recycling and reusing lots of stuff that would have otherwise ended up in landfill, and I'm getting lots of (free) exercise too. And I've also realised how extremely fortunate I am, and have been, to have a garden at all.

You might not be the least interested in growing things but I'm just using it as an example of changing your way of thinking when you can't change your financial situation. The library (and also charity shops) is another good example of this. Saves you money and does a wider good. Social media definitely makes everything worse, with so much advertising promoted as ordinary content, and so many people posting apparently perfect houses, gardens and lifestyles. Even though we all know most of it is fake, it's still hard not to get sucked in.

Sorry if I've sounded all Pollyanna and irritating, but it's more that I know how easy it is to just feel pissed off and sick of not having enough money. If you are lucky enough to have access to a green space for your next walk with your friend and took a flask of tea or a bottle of soft drink and some homemade sandwiches and a KitKat with you, maybe you could enjoy the company and the warmth and being in nature and it would help? And maybe try to think differently about what constitutes a treat?

Odiebay · 05/04/2025 15:00

I get this. Iv had to part with my more lovely skincare products that I enjoy and significantly reduce it.

We also used to have a nice meal Friday and Saturday but now its just Saturday.

I'd buy a new book every month. Not doing that now.

None of this is the end of the world but they were just small things I looked forward to that made life better.

I never used to have to watch money like I do now. It's the freedom I miss. Throwing a £5/£10 on something wouldn't break my bank before.

Pedallleur · 05/04/2025 15:02

And yet I see people sitting out in the sun eating and drinking at bars/cafes/bakeries and there seems no end of people paying 100s for concert/theatre tickets. eBay is my friend these days. But a £5 coffee and a £4 doughnut is madness imo

TeaRoseTallulah · 05/04/2025 15:05

Buy a nice cake at Tesco or even cheaper Aldi to have with your flask of tea?

Lovelysummerdays · 05/04/2025 15:13

I do know what you mean. I thought I was already thrifty but now I am v. Thrifty. Books come from free shelves and phone boxes. I get my coffee habit funded. There’s a petrol station near me where you get a free Costa with 30l of petrol. I collect a point on the app, I drive for work. I stick my code online INIBB if anyone signs up for the Costa app for free beans!

Clothes are all from vinted except the odd multipack of pants/ socks. I learnt plumbing and changed the flush thing on the loo as it wasn’t working.

The saddest thing is rather than heating the whole hot water tank. I boil a kettle of water and take a basin in the shower. Scrub myself down and chuck left over water over to rinse. Heating water is really expensive (electric) Not for hair washing days obviously.

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