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!

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.

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.

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.

*thief. Aargh.

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.

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.

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?"