AIBU to feel all out of sorts after a trip to John Lewis?!

[ButterPopcorn]

Got £100 of John Lewis vouchers for Christmas - lovely, thought we could maybe get something for the house etc. Never really go in there, occasionally to the gifty/cards department but don't venture any further in.

First we looked at kitchen stuff - fancied updating our mismatched and rusty saucepan collection... £70 for one saucepan! We started looking for a rug - even looking at bog standard plain rectangular rugs we couldn't find anything under £100. Next we tried curtains - £75 for one curtain! Thought maybe we could get a bedspread and couple of cushions to brighten up the bedroom - £42 for one cushion!?

I could feel myself getting irrationally would up just walking around - everything was so lovely and I wanted to all but knew I could never afford to have a beautifully John Lewis-ed bedroom. I'm never normally bothered about things like that, but I could feel a sort of illogical jealousy rising...!

DP eventually said, "Why don't we just look at the clothes, we could spend £50 each?". I went off into the women's clothes department and just felt SO out of place - women walking around in designer jeans and crisp white shirts, kids in Uggs and Holister hoodies with mums in Barbour. Everything I looked at was £80+.

In the end DP came away with a £40 pair of jeans, and I didn't get anything. He kept saying "Why are you complaining - you've got a free £50 to spend!?", so AIBU to have got into a fettle because I felt weirdly jealous of the beautiful people who must have beautiful homes and spend £70 on saucepans but also sort of disgusted by the ridiculous, materialistic lifestyle of the John Lewis shopper!? Argh!

FannyPriceless at your new dress!

I am definitely starting to realise that I should have done some research on the website first to avoid wandering around gasping at the most expensive items. Totally agree about not being able to tell the difference between a £25 or £250 item without looking at the tag.

This is the Oasis jacket I was looking at - and on the website its 20% off at £48! Perfect! But... only XS in stock!

Ooh, yes I remember seeing on the voucher that you can use them in Waitrose too. Hmm...

You got yourself all wound up I"m afraid.

You could easily have bought pans www.johnlewis.com/231402962/Product.aspx

or bedlinen
www.johnlewis.com/Home+and+Garden/Bedding/Duvet+Covers/Duvet+Covers/791/ProductCategory.aspx

I regularly buy clothes in there and rarely spend a lot. Bought a joules jacket which was expensive but it is tweed and tailoring. Their cashmere is good value.

I have a JL partnership card as my local supermarket is a wait rose. You get 1% back on all purchases. I LOVE spending my vouchers.

OP, there are 353 dresses on their website for under £50. You can use vouchers online.

i was in a queue in john L a while back and a bloke was having a rant to his wife about how expensive the clothing was, she was moaning about how much he spent on techy items.

he said 'yes but microchips are manufactured to high specifications and sent over the world, clothes are just plants'

"What if I got biro on an £89 bag!?"

Hairspray gets it off.

Wait for them to price match Debenhams / HOF again, then you'll feel better about getting value for money from your voucher.

Sometimes these moods just overtake you no matter what the shop or your salary - I remember going into the Royal Exchange (ludicrously expensive shops full of fripperies) a couple of years ago and coming out horribly depressed because even if I did cancel the family holiday / replacing our knackered car and bought the necklaces I fancied instead, I still wouldn't be the sort of person who went to the sort of parties where I could wear a 5,000 necklace. Whereas normally I'll just nip in, do a bit of leche vitrine, think "Ooh that's pretty/hideous" and carry on to get my new jeans from Gap none the worse for wear.

If you liked the £42 cushions why didn't you buy them? You have enough money for 2, plus a nice new lipstick, or some nice bathroom smelly stuff, or tea and cakes in the restaurant?

Yanbu- but I prob would have been able to spend it. Go back on yr own one day and try again, try harder next time.
N
But I also get that jealous feeling when I go in there, I just want it all!!!!

Always shop at John Lewis for: towels, household stuff, linen, kitchen ware, lighting,furniture, etc. IN THE SALE. Hardly anyone pays the full price for stuff like that.

Pops to kitchen to admire the set of stainless steel saucepans that cost about £120.00 as a wedding present almost 22 years ago. They are perfect. Not a dent, not a stain, not a scratch - worth every single penny.

Haberdashery department. I could easily spend an afternoon and £100 in there. Please, please send all unwanted John Lewis vouchers to a poor deprived Twig.

John Lewis is the mothership as far as I am concerned

I often shop at John Lewis, and don't think I have a 'ridiculous, materialistic lifestyle'. We're not super-wealthy either. I can well believe there was a £70 pan, but I bet there were lots of much cheaper ones as well.

I think you got yourself wound up, you sound very obsessed with the other shoppers and what brand names they and their children were wearing and getting jealous of their (imagined) superior lifestyle.

Well, I say 'often' - I don't actually do a lot of shopping, but when I do John Lewis is convenient and always has nice stuff!

YABVU - loads of things you could have bought for £100 (or £50) - yes they do stock expensive stuff but also do cheaper stuff.

re: saucepans, if you'd gone during the post christmas sales you'd probably have got a whole set of really good ones for £100 - they do clearance lines then.

Also I agree about doing research in advance.

I know, Ephiny you're right - I was getting all jealous and that was what was making me feel would up, iyswim.

Like I'm not asking AIBU to not be able to find anything for £100 in JL- I do know really that there are lots of things I could have got. I'm saying AIBU to have created imagined superior lifestyles for the people around me based on the brands they were wearing and the prices of things they were buying and to have compared my own life to theirs (whether real or imagined) and felt envious. I KNOW IABU to do this but somehow couldn't help myself and that's what got me would up - I wouldn't normally care whether a saucepan cost £7 or £70 or £700, but I just got so sucked in that I found myself wanting all these expensive items and feeling bad that I couldn't have them all.

I suppose more broadly speaking it's an interesting thought about our society and unattainable aspirations, pressures this can place on people and the status (real or perceived) that material items can bring. When I see magazine stories or hear about "friends of friends" who have run up huge amounts of credit cards debts on clothes, lifestyle etc I usually think "how silly, live within your means!" but walking around JL yesterday I could see how people can get wrapped up in spending recklessly.

Ok, getting too serious now - must go look at more handbags in the £50 to £70 range on the JL website

Ignore the other people in John Lewis, half are just browsing at what they want and not buying, the other half are prob just buying on credit anyway

But YABU as you should have bought some new lingerie!

I hate shopping in shops. I went to Westfield the other day and it sent me into gloom about the rampant materialism. All these people, shopping when they should have been out at the park or something.

I love JL but I had to leave really quickly because my mind was all boggled. Went to Lakeland for a nice calm-down

I also feel weirdly pressurised when I've got vouchers to spend.

All of a sudden nothing appeals to me. V strange. Bit like when the Sales are on.

YOu could have had a Radley purse for £50.....

I have a set of kitchen knives from JL that were £75 and were a wedding present............ in 1987, so there stuff does last!!

Oh how I miss having JL on my doorstep. When we lived in Cheshire it was just a short hop up the A34. Now it's like a day trip away. I used to be in there 3 or 4 times a week now it has to be planned weeks in advance.

I love JL,my BIL has worked there for 20+ years so we use his discount, I buy most of the childrens things from there,kitchen stuff, house stuff in general.

YABU - we would have loved to get JL vouchers for our wedding.

Instead we got Debenhams vouchers, (£400 in £25 vouchers) we could only spend one voucher at a time (debenhams policy) and ALL the stuff was shite.

I love JL and often find great bits and pieces from there.

JL is the ideal place to have vouchers for - they have everything!

Is the actual point of this thread that JL sell loads of really nice things, which is unfair, as you can't afford them all?

jL is my first port of call for everything.....all white stuff, tvs, kitchen stuff.
You must have picked up aRaymond Blanc saucepan(or another tosser chef) because I got a set of 3 for under £50.
I love the place and feel reassured that if anything goes wrong they will sort it out. I currently have £150 worth of vouchers from my PArtnership card this quarter....will probably buya new radio for my office.

I worked for jl for over 10 years, and of course they sell things that even with staff discount, I would never have bought (pair of 7 foot reindeer in resin for the garden? snip at £3000). It is difficult watching people spending huge amounts on every day stuff, knowing you can't. And yes, there is a certain type of jl shopper who start a phone conversation with you with 'I'm an account holder' like it is a special kind of debt

( Before that, I worked at the airport, watching people go off on unattainable holidays every day. I clearly like to torment myself.)

lovingthecoast think I must have worked in the one you went to - although it has had a radical facelift over the past year, it is not great (toy department is now shit) and I don't go in as much since I left, just Sainbos next door.