To be amazed at how much money some people seem to have?

[TinselOnTheTree]

My Facebook feed today has been totally awash with Gucci and Louis Vuitton bags, Laboutin shoes, tickets to Paris/Dubai/Bali, Tiffany jewellery and all other manner of nice expensive items, given to women from their husbands or partners. Generally these are people who work in seemingly average or low paid jobs, but who seem to have absolutely no shortage of money.

One couple in particular work in low paid jobs; he works as a shop manager and she works 2 days a week in a clothes shop as a sales assistant, yet they seem to have money to burn! They have constant holidays, shopping sprees, kids decked out in designer clothes etc. I just wonder how on earth they afford it.

Another couple have 6 kids; the woman is a SAHM and the man works as a teacher so presumably earns too much for tax credits but not a super high salary, and they too seem to have so much money. Again, kids all decked out in lovely clothes, the woman always has her hair done and has nice clothes, they have an expensive pram for their younger two children, and even went to Barbados a few months ago, all 8 of them!

Oh and another couple, who run a small business but say they make very little profit, got back from Florida 2 weeks ago and now the man has surprised the wife and kids with 2 weeks in Morocco for Christmas, and today she posted photos of their holiday of all the gifts he'd taken out there for her; Jimmy Choo shoes, clothes from Selfridges, a Tiffany necklace, and all kinds of other stuff, it literally filled the whole double bed in the photo!

I'm not jealous, before anyone says I am; I am perfectly happy with my life, and I'm pleased for people that they have and do nice things, and do enjoy seeing the photos of course, but it just totally baffles me that people seem to afford so much top end super expensive stuff!

[InTheDessert]

You only see the stuff people buy. Not the stuff they don't.
So, say you live at no1. No2 always has posh cars on the drive, no3 has the delivery drivers dropping off dinner twice a week, no4 is always jetting off on holiday, no 5 is dressed top to toe in designer stuff. So you see the cars, and clothes and holidays, and takeaways. And assume they are all doing all of it.
You save all year, and they all comment "how do they afford all those presents?"

[daisychain01]

Case in point, I'd bloody love one of those Dyson hair driers. I had a demo of one in John Lewis before Christmas. We could afford it, but just couldn't t justify the £300 and odd quid it would cost. I already have 2 hair driers.

DH said if I want it, I'll buy it for you, you use your hair drier every day. But we walked away, it's just more "stuff" we don't really need.

It's a mindset. Companies are all about creating a need, making people believe they'll be happier with goods which they can, in reality, easily do without. Some people succumb to the marketing bollox.

Judging by some of the threads on here, when people bemoan not getting more stuff, nicer presents from their nearest and dearest, what it actually reveals is that they need to deal with issues in their relationship not mask it by buying more crap. People can't always tell the difference, they look at symptoms not cause.

[Mummyoflittledragon]

Spending more than we can afford or trying to keep up with the Jonses is all very sad. I certainly wouldn't ask for an expensive present because my treatments are really expensive. (I have ME and chronic pain and was struggling to walk with crutches beforehand.). Dh and dd bought me some m&s smellies, which I asked for. I buy dds presents throughout the year when cheaper and shop around for any specific present. I spent more on dh because he deserves it - less than £100 btw. Perhaps these people spend very wisely on day to day life and so can afford to splash their money around. Maybe they are up to their eyeballs in debt. Let's hope not. We don't know.

[MangosteenSoda]

*thief. Aargh.

[tighterthanscrooge]

DH and I are in low paid jobs but have family money from my grandad. This means we go on lots of holidays, days out, theatre trips etc.
I don't care how people think we afford it.

[MangosteenSoda]

It's a shame that people spend so much time comparing themselves to others. I haven't noticed any braggy posts on social media, but can't imagine dwelling on them if any appear.

Like a pp said, comparison is the theif of joy.

[user1481838270]

In the figures for last Christmas, the Bank of England figures showed that unsecured lending (this doesn’t include mortgages) rose from £1.1bn to £1.6bn. As a nation we piled £500m onto credit cards last January.

What is worrying is that these high levels of debt will make it very difficuly for these consumers to survive the economic shocks likely to occur in the next few years.

[SantasTipsyHelper]

I remember wondering how a friend of a friend could afford so many expensive items, luxury holidays and dinners at high end restaurants (always posted on facebook). That was until she was convicted of £1m insurance fraud/scam and splashed across the daily fail.

[OliviaBensonOnAGoodDay]

Seem is the operative word I think!

[GraceGildee]

The kids have had nice presents, DH and I buy each other one £10ish thing and that's fine. We are very lucky that the two sets of grandparents chip in towards buying a big present for the kids (console/laptop) which would be harder just for us. I put £10 a week in a savings account towards Christmas presents, food etc. DH and I relied too much on credit cards before kids and are still paying them off.

[Grindelwaldswand]

Credit cards,debts and an abysmal credit score i just laugh and scroll by

[Grilledaubergines]

squirrel yep because tax credits really fund a luxury lifestyle.

[CauliflowerSqueeze]

My cousin does this. Every present she's given her kids she has them posing with. Every new car, every holiday every night out in a new dress.

I think it's a bit pathetic to be honest. Especially as all her friends are really quite poor - seems to rub their noses in it.

[HolditFinger]

I had to buy my OH a bicycle bell. It was a fairly upmarket bell, but didn't compete with the Dyson hairdryer he bought me.

Still, I only told people I got a hairdryer.

[JerryFerry]

Not sneery at all to wonder if all these glamour goods are paid for by credit card, 'tis an informed opinion. Fact is, the world has never been more obsessed with material gain - and more in debt.

[Kateallison16]

Damn auto correct. Sorry.

[Kateallison16]

OK then.. I will comment from the "other side"

Last year was a beautiful Tiffany necklace among other things. This year some Chanel goodies among other things. I'm going on a 4 day spa trip January.

We are not in huge among recounts of credit card debt.
We haven't bought anything in catalogues, payment plans or sold ourselves unto prostitution to pay for it.

"Normal" jobs - in fact I don't even work at the moment now.

We are childfree so don't pay out for kids.
We live in a very small home in a nice area to keep costs down.
I shop for bargains all year round.
I have budgets and make all my own cleaning products.

We have nice things it's true.
My partner has some nice designer clothes and I have some nice experience site bits.
We are not in any way thrivolous. We do not waste and we live ok. We get by.

I'm starting to think spending habits play a bigger part than others realise.

[mygorgeousmilo]

I know someone like this. Very well. Vapid and pathetic narc, who ended up with a tonne of fancy fucking ugly bags and an IVA and repossessed car and nearly lost their home. Still bragging like the naff twat they are, or so I'm told as I'm Nc. I do know nice people though, who were lucky enough to inherit a house, mortgage free - so although in very normal jobs, their money is not as tight as it would be for others. I'm delighted for them, they deserve it, and make the most of it and share with their loved ones. No tacky fb posts or similar.

[NickMyLipple]

My DP is a shop manager and he's on 49k. (He works bloody hard though). I earn less than that as a nurse but we still enjoy the finer things in life!

[travellinglighter]

I have just told my lovely girlfriend off for buying me too much stuff. She worries me when she spends so much. The best thing about this christmas morning wasn’t the presents it was the fact we got to sit together on the sofa this morning and open presents together. I’ve told her this and next year I’m setting a spending limit.

My FB friends have not been bragging about their gifts, (one got a lego welsh dragon that I’m pretty jealous of).

I don’t resent others gifts, if it’s on credit then they are daft, if it’s existing funds then I’m glad they are so fortunate.

[cinnamonsnap]

Sometimes it's hard to tell how much people earn just knowing the basic information about their job. DH has a job title that has an average salary in the UK of about £35k, so people often assume he is on fairly average wages but he actually has a six figure salary as it's quite niche and senior.

We can afford quite extravagant things that families on the same income can't, as we've kept costs low in other areas, like having a small home (2 bed flat) and a small family (one dc), and have no childcare costs due to moving locations to be close to family. Mortgage is pretty large as we're in a very central bit of London but it's partly offset by zero commuting costs and no car expenses. We'd never brag about things we've bought though, and we don't really use FB, although we'll share news of holidays and events we've been to, in normal conversation with people close to us.

[FourKidsNotCrazyYet]

Money can't buy class though can it. Posting that on Facebook is common and rather vulgar.

[windygallows]

That's meant to read 'sneery' not 'sneezy'!

[windygallows]

I don't think its sneezy suggesting that these items are funded via debt.

There was a recent report saying that personal debt is at its highest level ever. So this supposition of debt makes sense.

[DarthPlagueis]

It is quite possible that people have other sources of cash or that they have financial circumstances you do not know of.

It goes both ways though, we are very financially secure and completely debt free, but we do our main shop now in Aldi because its a couple of streets away, I cook from scratch a lot so I don't notice much of a difference, and my deal with myself was that if I could cut down on my Waitrose habit, I could spend the difference on indulgent things ( like tickets to the Desert Trip festival)

I still get people saying: " Gosh wouldn't expect to see you here"