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

[corkface]

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.

Just a few years ago? It’s surely 25 years since you could do all that for £30?

@ForPearlNewt I do get what you're saying about the creativity
I feel like I was already doing this before the COL crisis and now things are even more expensive that as you say taking the options away made a big difference

I've just recently discovered a local night out at a bargain price. £5 a ticket, tribute band on, cheap bar and cheap food. Can have a cracking night for less than £15! Not that I go out too much these days but if I do, it's usually a fortune, whereas this night costs the same as 25 years ago 🙌

I agree. We eat out a lot less than we used to, which is something I really miss. But the price of eating at even modest chain restaurants has escalated to such ridiculous levels that it has become very difficult to justify it. Nobody likes walking out of a restaurant feeling like have just been mugged.

I fully understand that the hospitality industry is struggling with multiple pressures on their own costs, but that’s not really the point. Eating out just no longer provides value for money.

So adding my tuppence. I've always thought coffee out was a bit of a luxury (even if it wasn't very good). I would do it to meet friends.

I have no issue at all affording coffee out or eating out - v fortunate I know. However I just don't think it's worth it anymore.

I'm happier taking our own drink cans out with us and a biscuit and relaxing in a quiet, peaceful place.

I think it's all been overdone and it's not special anymore going out (even for dinner now)

I have a little treats fund. This is separate from any household money. Over the course of the year, I sell old clothes on Vinted and books other stuff on e-bay. I use a cash back site for the online groceries shopping and I do market research projects. Last year, I stashed £1100 which I’ve blown on a reading group holiday, without feeling guilty about the family finances.

I think it all depends on what you consider a luxury and what you're prepared to spend money on. I've always been a flask and snack from home sort of person because I think it's a waste of money paying over the odds for a drink in the park despite being able to afford it.

I'd consider it less a luxury, more a waste of my money.

I'd consider a nice ice cream a luxury and I'd rather spend my money on that.

Slightly off topic, but when I am skint but want a treat I make a couple of cornflakes cakes. You can just make two at a time for not much money - I melt a freddo with a dash of golden syrup and a knob of butter then stir in some cornflakes. It’s cheaper than baking properly but still feels like a home made treat.

I do agree that life is very expensive these days.

Great tips!

That’s really good! In many towns and cities now it’s £10 a drink which is shocking

It sucks how money is not going anywhere near as far as it once did, especially as it seems standards and quality are lowering at the same time. I don't mind spending money on a coffee if doing so socially ie with DH & DS or friends to enjoy the coffee shop environment- but most are pretty grim at the moment. Appreciate they're struggling, but it doesn't feel worth the money to me anymore, so we take flasks and drinks when we go out and just find somewhere else to sit. Here there are tonnes of coffee shops, be sad if they close but a small village has never needed over half of the units to be coffee shops i fear.

I'm also confused by your post. I'm on just over a third of your income (I'm single). Moderate housing costs. Adult DC like you. Probaby go on holiday about the same. I can afford takeaways and meals out. Whether I choose to spend money on those things is another matter, but I can afford it.

Sounds like you really need a sit down and look at where all your money is going. You should have plenty of disposal income on those salaries and with low costs.

It is more than £3 to be perfectly honest hence a lot of coffee and sandwich shops have closed in the city. Even the big M&S that was always packed has closed. London remains extremely expensive.

Ive recently discovered borrow box which is fantastic, I wish I'd found it years ago! You can download ebooks and audiobooks for free if you're signed up to a library, I think the selection varys depending on your location, I've started using this instead of audible as we need to cut back too.

Yep - for the first time in years, I’m looking at this week up to payday with something akin to dread - after taking out two sets of commuting fares, I’ll have maybe £40 left to see me to a week on Tuesday. I’m supposed to be going down to London and meeting up with a friend for a coffee and cake this weekend to celebrate my pregnancy but honestly, looking at the prices on the menu, I’m shitting myself. But I haven’t seen her in over a year and it’s the only weekend we can both do for ages. I’ll have to live off my freezer, put off a bill I was due to pay and potentially even cry off one of my office days just to make it work. It makes me really sad that I’m somehow back here after so long, despite my other half and I being on decent wages.

I know I’m lucky - I have options, I’m not destitute, I’m not having to choose between heating and eating but it would be nice not to have to think before buying a cinema ticket or grabbing a coffee somewhere again. The little things.

Agree
Tbf I've always been more of a saver than a spender but 99% of the things people seem to think of as "little luxuries" I see as a complete rip off.

If you were buying cake and a coffee every week, even pre covid that's at least £6 on something that costs 50p, max to make (more like £8 now) And if you had it every week its not really a treat anymore, it's just the norm. Besides which most of the time it's not even that luxurious - the coffee can be weak and lukewarm, cake too sickly/dry etc. Plus the fact that a "little" coffee and cake treat can be up to 900 calories!

Either I spend more, less often on something that actually feels like a proper treat or find cheaper versions that are just as nice - lidls brownies are nicer than any I've ever had from a coffee shop and are about 70p each, for example

This is a great idea. Thanks.

I went to see a friend I haven't seen for a while and when I suggested going in for a coffee I noticed she hesitated so you added my treat. I think many people are cutting back a bit. My adult DS told me he'd cancelled Netflix because he doesn't watch it much so doesn't feel he can justify paying for it. I went down to see my DGC and gave them £20 each because Easter holidays is coming up and my DD doesn't let them eat lots of chocolate. It's one Easter Egg each so I said they could treat themselves to a small Lego set instead. I try to gift them annual passes for zoo or Sealife Centre so my DD has less to pay out when she takes them. I know everything is going up and pay rises just don't keep up.

Try and earn some extra pin money from the likes of ebay,vinted or etsy,thats whatbi did 4 years ago and its changed my life 😀

Asdado a lovely carrot cake for about £3 and aldi do a nice lemon on for £2.25 either would do 6 slices. Get one of those and take it

I have luxuries such as coffee out, and flowers, unlike some I have a progressive health condition, so doing what I can, while I can.
Go to family abroad, priority plane tickets expensive which for me means extra hand luggage, peak time due to family reasons

Co-op do a lovely range of cakes for £2.50 for Co-op members

Yes, the treats i used to get and throw in the trolley I consider carefully now. Things that were much cheaper and having a general budget, they would add up to at least £20 more.

I've always taken my own bait and make coffee at work so no issue there.

My DH works in the business sector so gets all expenses paid, whole different world 🌎

Sunday roast for 2, with 2 drinks each, was almost £55, and this was in an independent bog standard pub. Drinks good but food rather average. Unlikely to eat there again for a Sunday roast

Totally agree , people keep saying you need a holiday, !! the truth is I have not eaten out in 18 months, not even a cafe coffee, no more treats , newspapers no , flowers no wine no
dread running out of foundation etc , I used to by clothes when needed, shoes etc
now nothing
spent the winter bloody freezing
wish I could leave uk