Things I didn't know were that fucking expensive

[HairsprayBabe]

I am happy to admit we are virtually the modern equivalent of peasants but it blows me over when I find out the cost of things that I had previously never considered.

Front doors is todays example, nearly a grand for the most bog standard door, I fear we shall just have to live with the leaky one for now!

Make me feel better, what did you not know was that expensive or maybe I am just dense!

Nice dog treats, the meaty sort or the 'dental' sort. About £8 or £9 for a small pack these days. Dogs get a value pack of the dry bone-shaped ones now as treats.

Life insurance!

Took it out 30 years ago with cover of £130k and been paying £6 a month. Expires this month. New quotes are coming in now at around £130! Do most people not bother once in their 50s? Still paying off the mortgage. About 40k left on it. DH is 65.

Re your front door. Ours stopped shutting. But we still had a wooden one with wooden frame. Got a new door from B and Q for under £300. Wooden again. To replace with composite or pvc we would have needed a new frame which was a very much higher cost.

Curtains have always been expensive.

But, they are supposed to stay put for decades!

They are hard to make, requiring precision. They take a lot of fabric and are often interlined. But - if kept for decades and used every night the cost per use is not actually that high.

The trend now seems to be for drapes - thin, long panels that decorate the sides of the windows. They have given us a false expectation of an actually curtain I think.

Window dressings. 5 years into living in our house and we still have paper Ikea blinds on most windows 🫣

I moved into a house just over a decade ago with nothing at any of the windows - 75% non-standard sizes. One of the smartest things I ever did was to buy a fairly basic sewing machine and go on a weekend course on how to make curtains and blinds. I got the hang of Roman blinds and slowly made new ones for every room in my 3 bed house apart from the bathroom. The cost of the sewing machine and the course was less than the quote for made to measure curtains in my living room bay window.

Self catering accommodation

I would get a second opinion, that sounds a lot (unless they are talking about really expensive procedures such as mri scans, joint replacements or radiotherapy etc)

A lot of referral practices do fixed price procedures now, and there is the animal trust in the north/midlands who are not for profit and might be able to work closer to your budget

Was it really two minutes, after they called you in, examined your pet, made a diagnosis using their extensive experience and expertise, gave you your options (including telling you that you could get treatment cheaper on Amazon rather than selling you something for more off the shelf), wrote up clinical notes etc?

Presumably you booked an appointment with a receptionist (or online with an IT booking system) waited in a clean, well maintained waiting room, and were seen promptly when you needed an appointment. All this costs money in overheads.

Energy, stamps, wages and new doors are expensive for vets too. Never mind the cost of a new blood pressure machine, capnograph or tonometer.

People have reported costs of hundreds for plumbers and thousands for solicitors. Complaining about £50 for a vet appointment is quite insulting actually

Spectacles.
Keys - standard Yale lock keys should be a few pence, maybe a quid. But no, £7 each. I can’t get my head around it.
Cherries.

Yessss to front doors and private teeth work. God teeth are expensive.

I’m afraid I refused to buy a new door for 6 years in our old flat, we just kept the old draughty one…

Where I live now - bloody tomatoes.

Not something a lot of people will ever need, and certainly not a regular cost, but...foundations. The kind an extension sits on, not the kind of support garment or face make up.

It was a few years ago (4 maybe) but I needed foundations dug for a very small one storey extension.

£8000. For a trench. Plus the concrete to pour in it- another £2k ish.

DP and I were fuming. We're both quite competent DIYers, and did a lot of the work on the extension ourselves, but somehow thought digging and laying foundations was much more complicated than it was.

Still, I did turn my hand to tiling the bathroom myself (first time ever) and still get chuffed with myself every time I sit on the loo 😂

Any garden landscaping now is horrendously expensive and waste disposal (skips/ tonne bags) really racks up costs.

We were quoted c.£12k to lay a patio and turf including groundworks in a small garden. Did it ourselves and it has cost £6k in materials and waste disposal so far, most of that was on installing drainage to stop flooding which won't even be seen!

knickers and socks!

I consider these a premium gift now when received!!!

I haven't bothered with a new key because I was warned of the cost. I did enquire about a respray because I'm so fond of my 20 year old convertible. It was between 6-9k. The car is only worth 2k 🙈

I used to make curtains, blinds thirty years ago. I'd go to the mill choose fabric, lining, headers and sew up on a basic electric machine. Then ready mades got cheap so the sewing machine was relegated to the garage. Ready mades are once again expensive so I bought the fabric and lining spoke to a seamstress who came to measure up. Took all the fabrics and made up curtains for a ten foot window not full length and patio doors full length. She charged £100 five years ago.

We bought a greenhouse off market place already taken down for £60. Our neighbours bought a shed for £50 which needed refelting. Our kids love market place for garden furniture. Just labour and paint needed. They also haunt charity shop depots. Have bought and updated a lot of furniture.

Our tip pulls out doors and sells them and other stuff. It's amazing how good it feels to transform junk. You tube is great for tutorials.

Yes!! I was just going to add this as I cannot fucking believe that the freezer drawers are some of the most valuable items I own!! WTAF?!?!

In consolation, it's one of the few times the kids have actually paid heed to my 'please be careful ' pleas concerning gentle treatment of household items - even they were shocked when I told them how much a new one costs! 😯😂

Haircuts. Chicken. The water bill.

Family railcard, book in advance, off peak, keep looking, Trainline, good luck

Oh and replacing a broken phone screen.

front doors - we bought ours from a Reclamation Yard, it was from a thirties house with letterbox attached, circular lead lit window intact - it was £40 then paid £40.
to have it fitted

our old door we more or less barricaded in winter or March when the wind was howling it was so ill fitting
my Dad fixed a sort of plastic plate along the door so that when it closed the gap
was covered
it looked bloody awful
one day in a charity shop I spied a really heavy curtain, red with gold swirls,
huge, lined, well made, new, price £20. reason for donating unknown

we bought a Swish curtain rail which bent around the hall wall on the hinged
side, so when the curtain is not closed it is against the wall and doesn’t hinder
the door opening.
what a difference it made! it looks very expensive, rich glowing colours
through the winter it muffled noise from outside, absorbed the draught from
the letter box, made the small hall cosy warm and quiet,
we used the side door through thewinter and kept the curtain closed, only opened
it occasionally to check for mail
now it is down for summer the door looks naked

I’m sobbing here

you might consider leasing?