to think living in an affluent area can be very depressing

[whiteandyelloworchid]

everyone i'm surrounded by on a day to day basis, are wealthy, everyone is on about where they are going for half term, all of them are going abroad or somewhere lovely, and they have all been on several holidays throughout the year etc

they all have larges houses and plenty of spending money etc

i don't know i just find it depressing sometimes.

someone kick me up the arse

I do know where you're coming from too, it is a first world problem but can get you down.

OTOH, the charity shops on affluent areas tend to be aces!

this is cliché central.the mc are actually unhappy and gun runners. ah aye
the wc are 'onest salt of earth guvnors
mn does love a good class thread

I'm with Scottish mummy! If you think affluent areas are depressing, swap...

We lived somewhere that was quite characterful - high street with local shops, small grocery stores, hardware shop... Within a few years the yahoos had discovered it and boom - waitrose, fancy candle shops, hand made kitchen shop and more jewellers than Hatton Garden.

It's all relative. I grew up in the Lake District most of my friends had posh houses overlooking lakes etc. we're they affluent? I don't know I never thought about it then because there was nothing to compare it to. Now I live in a major city where there are stark divides between rich and poor. We went to stay with a cousin in Portugal over summer who has maids. I didn't envy her lifestyle because she is quite lonely I think. We were glad to get home to our semi. Not too rich to be deranged. Not too poor to struggle. Not bothered about keeping up with the jones. It's a trap.

Why does it always come about on these threads that the rig must be miserable?

I biggest thing (only thing really) that dh and I argue about is money. Or lack of and the stresses it brings
If we were suddenly to become rich I actually think our lives would be fucking ace

You need a goat, OP.

It always puzzles me when you see lottery winners on tv moaning about how their big win has destroyed their life. Noooooo, a few million would make me and a lot of other people very happy! Just let me try it!

Around here there is a lot of Spam Valley - people keeping up appearances on the holiday and house front but really skint behind closed doors. Hence the need to eat spam.

In particular I know someone with £40 in the bank until pay day but they live in a £1.5 million house and drive a Porsche and an Audi Q7.

I've been there OP and i didn't like it either. Not envy but i couldn't afford the local caffes and my 'corner shop' was a very posh Italian deli. Passing that shop every day was torture for me as i like that type of food.

Anyway, now i live in a 'poor' area. Lovely neighbours, cheap corner shop, cheap cafes, poundshop 5 min away, window cleaning for £5! My neighbour poped in today with 2 bags veg, butter, cheese and meat saying 'we are going home (Turkey) for a month, its shame to throw away the food so i thought i 'll give it to you'. It makes life easier to be at the same level imo. I don't know why you got some hmm replies.

But you can downsize from a £1.5m house! You can slum it in a £1m house!

And having poor neighbours doesn't mean you live next to criminals.

I agree about things like local caffs etc. Our lovely local one was pushed out at the end of their lease and a new one opened. I stupidly said I'd take the little 'un and his pal out for tea (hot choc and a bun)... £27! Bugger me, never again! It would have been less than a third of that in the old place!

if op so wishes she can move to less salubrious area

Yeah, I think you've chosen the wrong affluent area op!

My grandmother lived in a big three hundred year old house in the middle of a very deprived area, one that is listed now as one of the top seven or something depressed areas now. We went to look at it as we were in the area and it is currently for sale (and is proving very difficult to sell). It looks like Camp Bastion, surrounded by barbed wire. She lived in constant fear of burglars (she was burgled; all jewellery). She had no contact whatsoever with her neighbours. I am fairly sure her neighbours did resent the faded opulence. I couldn't disagree with you more. She used to unplug the phone when she went out in case anyone heard it ringing.

I would feel deadly uncomfortable to be in that position.

I get you OP. The area I live in is not especially affluent but I'm a stones throw from those areas and it's where the majority of my friends, and the DC's friends live.

I am grateful for what I have, I have my own little patch, fab neighbours, a happy marriage but I do sometimes get a bit bitter and twisted when I have to duck out of things yet again. We get a weeks holiday in a caravan which was great fun but I bet the 3 weeks in Florida was better.

I know envy is not attractive and mostly I'm happy with my lot but sometimes it stings a bit.

seriously op do you really worry/envy so much over this

We are very lucky to live in a hugely affluent area and I'm almost certainly the "poorest" of my friends and the mums in ds class. But I am also by far the youngest, so maybe in 10yrs we will be in their situation. And who knows if they are happy? We are happy with our lot. We could be more comfortable if I worked but right now my time is best spent with the children, and we are happy about that. Sometimes I think "i wish we could go on holiday like X" or "i wish I had the money todecorate the lounge like X" but the reality is that we don't, but we are happy. I don't find it depressing living in an affluent area, its a beautiful place with great people!

E320, I insist on knowing on what points Zurich and East Germany are/were similar . Perhaps it was the Stasi infiltration in all areas of life? Did you spend much time in East Germany?

We moved from a really nice mixed area to a really affluent (and nice) area and we just can't settle. Money just seems to be in your face and theres uniformity to cars and holidays and stuff that gives me a mid life crisis haha. Probably down to to my ishoos but we can't wait to move. Get what you are saying op.

omg, omg. There are so many things I read about on MN that would be completely bizarre where we live. I often muse what would it be like to live in an area of poncetastic people, where children were routinely given celery sticks & humus in lunch boxes, where there were many lunchbox rules set by the school, Boden wearers. Where people held dinner parties & fretted openly about moving house to be in a better school catchment.

Where folk commonly went abroad on hols several times a year. And women with more than 2 children held down a job. Where most the people you talked to had university degrees and routinely listened to Radio4, or knew how to make a proper G&T.

It would be so fascinating to see any of this happen routinely in real life.