I knew i'd 'made it' in life when

[GrannyGrissle]

i realised 90% of the plant pots in my house/garden are terracotta, not plastic. I used to dream of this and have added to my collection year on year. I now feel immense pride in the quality of my plant pots! AIBU to ask what small/insignificant things signify to you that you too have made it in life? (Not interested in metal cans on wheels/dwelling structures made of bricks or stone/jewellery/trophy partners ).

Oh and when I went out and bought myself one of those steam generating irons , and was genuinely excited to use it !

Bulk buying nice toilet paper and not running out. Having a weekly bath with lavender bath salts listening to a podcast of desert island discs. Getting taxis and not worrying about the meter. Getting to the checkout in the supermarket and not worrying that I dont have enough cash. Not feeling sick when an envelope comes through the door ....

Having a teenage babysitter not being the teenage babysitter. Did so much bloody babysitting as a teen love it that I now get to bung them £30 and go dancing rather than being the one sat on the sofa with A level revision.

All of my furniture is solid wood, no flatpacks

I had my first child.

WHAAAAT??!! Who keeps mugs in a drawer?!

I do. A special drawer. Just for mugs. 😳

Graduating from ikea to John Lewis and having Missoni bath towels

The prints and art on my walls are in frames rather than hangers (or blutak).

I'm lusting over one of those glass kettles with blue LED lights. DH thinks I'm losing the plot.

I realised I had made it when I no longer worried about signing the kids up for any clubs or camps that went with them.
I got into work one night for a night shift and it was like a squat. I shut the cupboard door, said to my friend “I can’t do this any more” and started looking for another job which I got easily. After 15 months the shifts were awful and I was expected to work 3 weekends a month. So I applied for a new job and got it. Took a pay cut and upped my hours and have quality of life. I’m home for tea every day and have most weekends off.
I don’t worry about money too much and we could afford to pay someone to fit our new kitchen so it was finished in a week rather than still being unfinished 12 years later like our old one.

Buying my dining furniture from John Lewis, the one that I wanted rather than the set from the cut price warehouse down the road

Get yourself a soda stream @harriethoyle and you can your own whenever you feel like it!

Walking into a car garage to buy my new car and the salesman talking to me about what I was looking for even though my husband was there.

Probably being in a car crash recently and dealing with insurers and the like. Even more than having 3 dc, having a house, buying our first brand new sofa in 13 years and actually passing my driving test years ago . I’m associating all the other stuff with it being a joy. Dealing with insurance companies is not I tell you.

I got Miele appliance and a blooming let down, they’re bloody shit.

getting rid of the glasses that came courtesy of many pubs and buying one's i actually like

Bought myself a cordless Dyson.

I'm more pleased with it than I really should be. It's genuinely made me feel like a domestic goddess. I vac every day. DH thinks I've gone crazy.

I knew I'd made it when I didn't have to buy the cheapest ikea/Tesco value version of something. Now I buy things that I expect will (as mentioned on another thread "see me out" ie last until I die)

• a barbour jacket
• decent casserole dish
• leather couch
• good boots

And of course, these things end up cheaper in the long run.

Also when I could just about afford to pay for my car/home insurance in one go and not have to pay extra for the pleasure of paying monthly.

I will know I've really made it when:

1. I can do my weekly shop in M&S/Waitrose
2. I can buy clothes in Monsoon.

Second the fruit bowl @moofeatures 😂

The day I fell through the front door with a cat basket containing a very dirty, very large, feral tomcat. Everything in life - home, relationships, schedule - slotted into place.

I have lobster dishes. Used once every 5 years to serve lobster salad/Thermidore. Picture available on request.

I take taxis to and from the airport instead of lugging cases on the tube. Getting most of my shopping from Ocado with nice meat from M&S. Cooking in my LeCreuset pans whilst listening to Radio 4 on my retro John Lewis radio

I have lobster dishes. Used once every 5 years to serve lobster salad/Thermidore. Picture available on request.

Picture, please!

I don’t think I’ve made it yet, but looking out at my garden when the sunshine came this spring, at cut grass, my very own patio, tulips, fig tree starting to spout, orange blossom the same, I felt extraordinarily proud of myself. I turned it from a chest height wasteland of weeds with debris littering the ground to a real haven.

I think I’ll have made it when my doors are no longer made of chipboard and I can bear to buy bedroom furniture that isn’t my current varnished orange pine. I could afford to replace it now, I just can’t deal with the idea of spending that much money on something that isn’t broken.

When we got a Sky Box for my live at home mature student daughter's bedroom. No more recorded soaps or endless films on Sky, just the news, question time and newsnight, plus other programs we actually WANT to listen to.