Is anyone on here fussed about status in life? Like what Car or House they have etc?

[Benny91]

As I live in South Surrey and all I’m seeing and hearing is people driving brand new cars and also being picky what house to live in. (It’s like they’ve got to show off to fit in with their friends and family!)

As with me I’m not fussy about any status in life and I’m happy with what I’ve got!

This is obviously quite common in Surrey. Does anyone else live there and likes to show off their status?

I love my house and it is quite big by most standards but there is 6 of us so that’s necessity rather than status.

can’t get excited about cars, we only ever have them for a couple of years on lease. Not super fancy but again, one needs to be large for practical family life reasons!

I find the whole conspicuous "status" thing amusing. Those who are really wealthy and come from wealthy families don't usually advertise their wealth. In fact they are often deliberately coy about it.

I'm financially self-sufficient but would hate to think that someone could tell how much I earned by my car, house or the watch I'm wearing. I wouldn't be judging anyone else that way either. Never assume......

You can’t move round here for badly parked white Range Rovers and the like. Cars are king here and most of the smug, entitled twats seem to have forgotten that pavements are actually for PEOPLE and not their huge chunks of expensive metal.

Not Surrey but pretty much its Northern equivalent.

Which is entirely your prerogative, no one could argue with that. You did use your £40k car though as a reference point for not all new cars being expensive - which a lot of people would argue with.

20k and a trade in though 🤣 didn’t feel like 40k

Everyone is fussed about something.

For some it’s a car or house.
For others it’s how clever their kids are or how many sports they play or how many friends they have.
For others it’s how they cook everything from scratch and bake amazing cakes.

Anyone who is genuinely not fussed about anything wouldn’t be on MN.

Some might not care what car you drive but turn up at the school fair with a shop bought cake and you might as well have brought ketamine.

I like a nice house but that’s because my childhood home was a damp hovel. Car not so fussed. It’s not about status for me.

I live in south Surrey too.

I am aware that status people exist, but I dont come across them much as we live in the 'rough' estate of my town and my child went to the school people move to get away from, so they have self selected out. I dont really know people with very expensive cars, although my neighbour has re-wrapped his white van in blue and it looks great. I can confirm waitrose car park is full of smart cars as is the local sixth form colleges. But I dont know if they bought them for status or because they liked them.

Not fussed at all.

We have a pretty old car my dad gave us (thanks dad!!), plus the ancient car I learnt to drive on.

House was bought because it suited what we needed. I don’t think it’s very impressive - money doesn’t go far in the southeast!

Genuinely don’t know why I’d spend my money (after tax!!) impressing people. I’m fine with people not realising we’re millionaires 😂

Not in the slightest. We've bought things we want, when we want them and don't give a shiny shit about what other people think, nor do we try to impress anyone.

One of our cars is a nearly new expensive Volvo and the other is an 18 year old Citroen C3! We drive whichever one is more suitable for the journey or if we both need a car at the same time, it's literally who goes out first gets whichever car is at the end of the drive unless there's a particular need for the other, simply because we can't be bothered swapping them around!

Same with our house. We've lived in it 30 years - it was our first home together, so relatively small, but it was big enough to bring up our son, (probably wouldn't have been big enough if we'd had two children), now he's left home, it's just the two of us again, so it's fine for us. It's the smallest house on our road. We could have moved and upgraded to a bigger/better house, but it's fine for us - it does what it says on the tin. Can't be arsed to move and wouldn't want to waste money on legal fees, removal costs, and all that time wasted farting around finding a new house and then packing/unpacking etc.

I find it sad that some people care so much about other people's view of them!

I expect the people who don't care about this stuff spend a lot less time on social media

Crikey - £40k is a fortune on a car to me! I agree you can spend more, but when can’t you 😂 Is it great to drive?

My preference would be to spend as little as I could for a decent safe car, ideally second hand, then invest the rest of the cash. Luckily we got given my dad’s old car so didn’t have to buy one!

Nail on the head. My richest client, a multi millionaire, looks and lives like a tramp! Old clothes, scruffy appearance, drives a 20 year old Land Rover. and spends his days taking his two equally scruffy dogs for walks. Literally no one would have a clue as to his "true" monetary worth by looking at him walking around the village. Only those close to him will know what he does with his money, his expensive hobbies, his couple of holiday homes abroad, etc. In normal/real local life, he's the most humble man you could ever meet - no conspicuous signs of wealth at all.

I'm not sure if it's status exactly, but I do care about appearances. I'm not worried if people think I have money or not, but I don't like e.g. my front garden to look unkempt or my clothes to be scruffy.

Financially, security is what matters to me most. I like to know I have it, but I'm very private about it.

I suppose we’re in the fortunate position where we have a good bit of cash invested and saved. I wouldn’t have a notion how it is to drive because my DP drives it, but I can tell you that it has heated seats and that I enjoy very much 🤣🤣. I drive a 10-year-old car, it’s the car I use as I’m a nervous driver and I’m used to that car now. 😅

Re gardens, I changed my front garden to just being a lawn to make it easy to maintain, as I really don't give a toss about it. Prior to that it was flower borders all around the lawn which took up far too much of my time to look after and I didn't care about it as I never sat out front and didn't view it from my conservatory which is where we spend most of our indoor time. Now it's just a quick run round with the mower every couple of weeks just to stop it looking a mess.

My back garden is the opposite. I've spent years developing and growing it, but it's for no one's pleasure except our own. I now spend many hours tending to it in the Spring/Summer, but it's for MY enjoyment, no one else's. Neighbours can barely see in as we have relatively high shrubs/trees on each side along the borders.

My car is an 03 reg, so no, status not important here!

God lord no, we have two teens to teach how to drive shortly so that £s followed then by two teens looking at "not cheap" universities, which is £££££s, then whatever they need to set them up in early adulthood.

Couldn't care less about our house or car, or anyone else's.

I couldn't give some flying F

Not one bit. It’s more peaceful when you live in your own bubble and just worry about your own family unit to be honest. Someone I know is so hung up on what other people have, she’s bitterly unhappy, always trying to compete and very jealous, its a horrible way to be.

As long as both work for us that's good enough for me.

If people are that materialistic, that says more about them! I think it’s sad, but live, and let live, and each to their own!

I am a bit of a petrol head so, car, yes, very much care what I drive. Judge as you like….

House, my house is nicely presented by choice as that is what I need for me to function well mentally, but on the smaller side of what others might own for our age in the area (in our little cul de sac ours is the smallest) as we don’t need more than we have and I would rather live comfortably than overstretch ourselves to ‘keep up with the Jones’s’ and, given we need to bail my PIL out of a bloody mess right now I am rather glad we do take that stance. Interestingly one of my friends recently said to me ‘you did it right you know, our kids are going to be leaving home soon and we already don’t use half our house and it costs too much to keep on top of really’.

Me, well, I kinda roil out how I roll out TBH, I am not after impressing anyone I am just me. Clean and tidy, but usually without a scrap of make up and my hair tied back some way, some how. I vow every year to make more of an effort, but its just not something I really prioritise.

I think everything in life is a matter of your own personal priorities to be honest.

I used to try and keep up with the Jones’ in my earlies 30s. Drove a top of the range car which had a ridiculous car payment each month, lived in a big Georgian house that had a ridiculous mortgage etc etc.
I then hit my late 30s and thought ‘sod it’, I don’t care about any of this ‘stuff’ so I sold my house, took the children travelling around the world for 6 months and then settled into a rented house with a 14 year old car.
Could not care less about the car I drive or how big of a house I live in or whether or not I own it. I’m 40 now, don’t owe a single penny to anyone and it’s so liberating! Especially towards my job… I’m not a slave to an income because of the debt I owed.
I now spend my disposable income on memories, holidays, a bit of investing and savings for the children’s future.