Tips for a luxurious feeling lifestyle on a modest budget

[pengwig]

After reading a few threads on the cost of living I wondered if we could share tips for living a like that feels luxury on a bit of a budget?

My tips are home baking, even simple easy to make cakes are much nicer than even expensive store bought and served with a nice pot of tea or a coffee at home is more affordable and enjoyable than paying for a dried out, bought in cake sold in most cafes for 4 times the price.

Also instead of expensive candles I either use a little portable essential oil diffuser with essential oils or wax melts. I burn them in the hall and they seem to fragrance he whole house really nicely without being too strong.

Any other tips?

Use Vinted to buy brands you love but can't afford new. So many bargains lurking on Vinted.

make time for yourself. most women i know and me included tend to put themselves last. when it's busy or things are kicking off you take from yourself. you give up your phone call to your mate or the 10 minutes you wanted to spend alone or the fiver you'd saved for some hand cream.

one day someone said to me you can't pour from an empty cup. make changes or stop moaning lol - harsh but fair and it was bloody good advice. you have to have time blocked out for yourself and be ruthless about it. i spend 10 minutes at the start and end of every day doing stretches and relaxing moves to an audiobook. and nothing and nobody gets in the way of it. might sound daft but it's really helped me feel better plus all the niggly pain i was getting in my shoulders and back is starting to go as well.

I like the citrussy ones best for making the house smell good year round - bergamot or lemon, orange or clementine. In winter I like cinammon or frankinscence. If you like florals, lavender, rose or geranium.

A very, very clean house with good ambient lighting goes a really long way. Cleaning your home is free and a few carefully chosen low light lamps give the same atmosphere as candles but cheaper in the long run.
And I agree, I’m an oil burner because it’s so, so much more economical than candles.
I used to love a nice candle but now I just can’t stand the thought of burning £20 in front of my eyes.

Get a National Trust family membership. Only a few pounds a month and so many great places to explore. Personally, I would never go without my visits to our local independent café (cakes all made on the premises), that's an essential for me to stay sane.

I agree with this. We have cotton bedding from Richard Howarth in our holiday let. It’s washed VERY frequently because obviously we change between guests even if they’ve only been in 2 days. I suspect it’s washed very hot too. After 10 years, the sets which haven’t been ruined by something specific (like a nose bleed etc) still look almost good as new. It’s not cheap but not super expensive either. People often comment on the bedding specifically.

Love this and couldn't agree more.

Agree with the natural materials to wear (cotton, linen, wool), to sleep in, to cosy under.

I love my 100% cotton throws and linen bedsheets especially. They look better as well imo.

Quite pricey though so I've had to swap out my polyester fleece stuff gradually over time.

I am also a soap person too. I now ask people to buy nice soaps for xmas or birthday presents.

I so agree with this, use nice daily stuff else you never use it.
i used to have a special occasion perfume that I hardly ever used - few years later, bottle nearly full and I don’t like it anymore. So when treated myself to new ones I’ve been wearing them pretty much daily.

A relatively expensive body lotion that you love the smell of. You only need to use a little bit on the bits of you that you can smell, so it lasts for months, if not years, but smelling that delicious smell is so uplifting. I love the various Clarins body lotions.

Every year after Christmas I go shopping and buy up anything heavily discounted for nect Christmas I can find (that I like). I then wrap it up as gifts to myself and put it away for the year, then open it on the first of December. I've usually forgotten what I bought, and it's lovely to have Christmassy things at Christmas that I don't have to pay for. In previous years I've had nice candles, boxs of gift labels and bows, Christmas jumpers for me and the kids.

My SILs and friends have started doing it too!

This too. I always buy the kids coats for winter off vinted, usually from boden or north face or similar. Spend £5-£10 each, and they are usually great condition and last. The trick is to start looking around June-July and just wait for good ones!

TK Maxx can be surprisingly good for soaps, I had a lovely Italian one from there, beautiful fragrance and creamy lather. I looked it up and though it was about £2.99 from TK Maxx it was over 10x as much online. I haven't seen it since though I do pop in to check, and have bought other lovely (but not such a bargain) soaps from there since.

Great idea. We did this at Christmas. I’d go shopping with my mum & sister, we’d just choose the things we wanted & enjoy buying them for each other. Then go for a festive lunch. It was still nice to get them under the tree. Better than random gifts. So much tat in the shops now, I’m not even talking Primark or the likes. Most mid-range stuff is just shite…

The thing that has recently made me feel a touch of luxury is finding a shower gel and moisturiser combo that really works for me. Neither of them are luxe brands and not even particularly nice smelling, not nasty just neutral, but the feeling when you put clothes on and your entire body feels silky and not like itchy lizard skin is amazing.

Seatfiller websites for cheap theatre and dance. I use www.centraltickets.co.uk.
Have had £15 tickets to see top West End shows.

Making your own pasta. Delicious.

My goose down duvet from soak.and sleep love it ! Increibly light so easy to manoeuvre around .

-Growing and drying your own herbs
-A hook next to shower so you can grab towel or robe without stepping out.
-Plain epsom salts in bath plus a few drops of essential oil, instead of fancy bath salts
-Choose white towels and white bedding as it makes it feel more like a hotel

Nice bar soaps with natural scent (mostly Faith in Nature)
Baking my own bread on the weekend
British flowers. Not because of some weird nationalistic thing but because they are cheap and environmentally friendly. Daffodils in spring, sunflowers or gladioli in summer. Or anything else I spot. Obviously in an ideal world I’d be cutting them from my own garden!

Oh my favourite one: learn how to fold and stack towels like they do in hotels
-I bought some cheap hinge overlays that make all my existing cupboard doors close silently. Worth every penny

I’ve just thought of something - not exactly luxury, but it made a difference to me! Buying a pack of Bic biros, a pack of decent pencils and a pack of good quality erasers. I spent so much of my life scrabbling around looking for something that worked among crap freebie pens and crap pencils from kids’ party bags that broke every time you sharpen them. Then one day I thought “For God’s sake, you’re a grown up, go and buy some that work!”

There may be some great ideas, but perfume, soap, candles, is there any other way to have a luxurious feeling lifestyle that isn’t just about how things smell?

Taking time to plate your meals nicely.
Making time to sit down at the table.