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.

You need to find a garden centre for Sunday lunch! My local one does a carvery for a tenner.

To go where? Where do you think is miraculously better when you're not filthy rich?

Now I want some cornflake cakes! Yum

@MissMarplesGoddaughter£4.50 is nothing for a newspaper when you consider all the wages they’re paying, the transportation, the legal fees etc.

Yes I hear you and I agree with you. But just saying that at the moment sadly, it’s one of my economies.

I will soon leave as what a misery way of living just to pay taxes and bills in a country where you do not get much sunshine and is so windy. Quality of life is not on the radars of this country.

That is what the government want you to think for sure. Do you really think this is the best country and best quality of life? Trap with not savings when the shit hits the fan. To improve you need to open your mind and work towards it. However, yes emigrating is shit as it is not your country and you leave a lot behind.

I need to open my mind? You know nothing about me and my past, what I've done and where I've lived! I didn't say it was the best country or quality of life but tell me realistically where a Brit without significant funds or a shit hot job could move to right now? And what a strange post you make when you end by contradicting yourself by saying emigrating is shit anyway 🙈

I am going to try that for the kids. Often I make huge batches of stuff but then everyone eats lots and I am annoyed as no snacks for coming week.

If that's two alcoholic drinks, that's not expensive at all.

You could probably go somewhere like Aldi or B&Ms and get some kind of really cheap treat to take with your flask of tea. I agree baking a cake is expensive if you don’t have the ingredients in the house already. My DD has got into baking and it’s been costing me a fortune!!

That's cheap - had roast yesterday, albeit with a starter and two glasses of wine and it came to £60 each

It's just so depressing. I went to a cafe then other day and a chai latte was £4.75. almost a fiver! I decided against it, but the sad thing is if enough other people do, the coffee shop will close down.

Tea was £2.75. tea!! A teabag and hot water!

If it were me, I’d rather be poor somewhere warm.

This thread is just ludicrous. A bar of chocolate is a treat? People would rather be poor somewhere warm? Coffee and cake in a cafe is expensive? Well, as everyone is finding prices higher, so are the suppliers of goods and services. In a cafe you get more than just the coffee and cake. You sit in the cafe, someone makes the coffee and cake, someone serves you, someone collects your empties and then washes up etc. As for being poor somewhere warm 😆go and live in the Middle East and you can be warm all year and poor with it.

If the roast I had was a decent roast with more than 2 small thin slices of beef and 2 very tiny roasties, I may agree with you. But the roast meal was £16 and very poor value for money for a pub lunch.
Other pubs I eat in are generally much better for food quality, quantity and price.

…..It has and he’s called ED SILLIBAND, the net zero zealot.
We have the highest energy costs in the world which impact everything.
And to think we’re importing Norwegian gas….from the same gas fields directly beside our own 🤷‍♀️

This Government will drive the UK economy into the wall.

Ireland and Germany have the highest energy costs. UK is only just in the top 5

It's mostly due to fuel costs, particularly gas and electricity. But it's an entirely manufactured crisis. We have plenty of oil, but because of the "environment" our government closed all our oil fields. They also stopped gas extraction, we now import our Oil and Gas and are forced to pay extortionate prices for it.

The irony is that according to an article today in the Telegraph, our push for net zero and EV's is actually causing pollution levels to rise because we have no clean way to generate power. We also don't have any storage capacity in the UK so the National Grid is forced to pay solar and turbine farms for electricity that can't be used. You couldn't make it up.

Our energy prices could be a tenth of what we currently pay, but they keep forcing a failed net zero policy down our throats. It hasn't reduced cardon levels, and has made us all poorer.

Its madness.

We are the only country in the world that does this.

Same here! It's been a few years I've been taking a thermos flask plus packed lunch to work, no mani/pedi, DYI hair dye and home repairs. We had to let our cleaner go (although with 2 full time jobs and 3 kids it is hardly a luxury). Meals out are very rare, same for theatre, new clothes for adults... the list goes on and on. And we both have decent professional jobs! Since the disatrous mini budget 3 years ago everyone's mortgages went up, this was the biggest blow to our family budget.

A very thought provoking thread.

its important if one can, to have a treat when one can afford to but I agree with others at just how eye watering many prices are now and it’s a balance of not just the price but the value

100% agree. I'm on a pretty high income but often find myself saying, "how much?!" about things that used to be very affordable

I used to consider fragranced candles my little luxury but now understand how toxic they are. No guilt in spending money on it anymore.
Likewise coffee. Not paying £5 for a cup.

I guess I grew up quite poor and never got into the hang of “little luxuries” - I was too protective of my cash once o started getting some !

Although I can afford to do home baking ( and I tend to prefer it to shop stuff anyway )

But don’t blame the wrong things - we have to close down oil as much as possible - the reason chocolate and coffee is getting v so expensive is climate change not fuel costs and that isn’t going anywhere - burn the oil now and make your future life much much worse - it will be water not coffee and cake you worry about

there are already towns where you can’t get a mortgage // sell to anyone needing a mortgage because you can’t get home insurance because the flood risks are becoming too high …… the more you push back on climate change the more you push yourself towards harder and harder poverty