To ask why everything is so f**kin' expensive?!

[MummyStruggles]

Just that really?

And, also, there's ALWAYS "something" that needs to be bought or replenished i.e new pillows and duvets for the whole household! Grrrr!

Meant to be a lighthearted thread but you know, I get really bloody stressed about it!

Anyone else?

Any vet practice will do it, long haired cats are often shaved in summer to help them stay cool or just have the knots removed.

Adulting is shit. Every month we think we will be able to save some money but then something happens. Car needs a new tyre, DS has a growth spurt and needs new clothes, cat needs emergency trip to the vet. There’s so much that needs done in our house but trying to find the time and money is so hard.

I hate my Henry hoover, it's shite.

I heard the phrase "Money hits my bank account like snowflakes hit a hot stove." So true.

And I've seen this posted on MN before but it bears repeating:

From Terry Pratchett's book 'Men at Arms'...

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

OP "I do think, especially for young people, there is an expectation to have all the mod cons and "shiney new things" in your home nowadays."

there's always been that expectation though, even before Instagram. Some people have a make do and mend approach and others don't.

I had a TV with a big back - not sure what else to call it! - for years before it packed up. No way was I buying a new TV just because there were fashionable new ones available.

I'm now wondering if my duvets have become thinner and I just haven't noticed.... My towels probably date back to leaving home about 25 years ago. I would have bought them from Argos or some such.

I've never had a Henry Hoover, so can't recommend personally, but I keep seeing people recommending them and am tempted to try when my current one gives up the ghost.

"There is always Something" should be my mantra - I say it several times a day.

Some weeks I feel like I'm just bleeding money.

I was moaning about this today to my mum lol
Are cooler is 14 years old and we need to replace that in the next couple of weeks because it's slowly going.
Kids needs some summer clothes and shoes.
The car needs servicing.
The van is almost due it's MOT.
Son needs a new chest of drawers.
Oh and the girls need new curtains because atm they have a sheet up at the window because the broke the blind 🙈

Always something in this house.

Oh and the dog needs a groom.

There is always something. New shoes for kids, broken machine etc. However I do think living expectations are really high these days. My patents moved into their first home and had no carpets for months only a bed and sofa and DF made other furniture. Second hand curtains bedding etc. I moved into my first place and was lucky to get a lot of second hand items from relations eg old tube tv, sofa etc. It seems now everyone wants brand new and they want it NOW.

I also don’t get the subscription system. I do have amazon prime as I order a lot from there so makes sense for me but I can’t justify sky, Netflix, expensive phone contracts etc.

Everything is expensive but i think it’s mainly our attitudes that are to blame. Need it and want it are confused too often. Eg the bedding example. Why replace expensive white sheets for a bit of scab blood (and how much could there have been?) clean them bleach them sundry them. The stain will fade surely.

Not if you buy a Henry. Fantastic quality and about £100

A Henry hoover costs £100?! I'm sure last time I bought one it was about £45 showing my age

I don't know why people are saying pillows last for years. I bought a new one that cost £55, supposedly better quality, memory foam. Within 4 months it was like lying on concrete and gave me bad shoulder and neck pain. I think that's a lot of money.

Things just aren't good quality or made to last now.

The trouble with the boot analogy is that it doesn't deal with the very, very different concepts of 'need' that people have.

The rich don't just have better quality boots than Vimes. They take a whole tranche of expenditure and define it as 'necessary' in the same way that boots are necesary, when it isn't, in fact, necessary at all. So they HAVE to have a large house in a naice postcode, they HAVE to have the right school, they HAVE to have two cars of a certain make, the right labels in their clothes, the right holidays. And they define all this as 'necessary' and then complain that they have nothing left of their £80k+ combined salaries at the end of the month. It's an insanely high level of expectation, especially when you consider that globally there are many women who cannot afford basic sanitary products each month.

I've got this £15 pillow from Ikea. I think it's about 10 years old, maybe older.

Still comfortable and in shape. It's probably full of bed bugs and mites but I don't worry about stuff like that.

Just realised I bought my duvet in 1989. Still working!

You mentioned vegetables OP. Do you have a market stall near you? I don’ t mean a poncey farmers market where they sell you a single heritage tomato for £4, just a bog standard one. They can often be cheaper than supermarkets (though you do need to check to make sure against Aldi etc).

SisyphusDad I do agree with you to some extent, and boots are a perfect example because of the heavy wear they get and the vast range of quality in their manufacture. But a lot of other things can now be bought cheaply and still be just as long-lived as their more expensive equivalents. Duvets, per the OP, are a good example. A cheapest synthetic fibre one will probably keep you just as warm for just as many years as a John Lewis down one, it just won’t feel so “luxurious”. In the way that a cheap car could drive the same miles at the same speed for just as many years as an expensive one, but it would just be a bit less comfortable.

And then you get things like silk clothes that cost a bomb and only last two washes.

They trick is understanding quality and knowing when it’s worth paying for it.

I’ve just had the insult of having to buy reading glasses as well as distance - which means I officially old - cost me £1000 for both.

Then my and my DH’s laptops died at the same time and we have to replace both. Ouch.

Just buy what you can second hand. Much cheaper and better for the environment. I rarely buy anything new these days.

Venus - Part of the problem is that people are convinced that the more they spend, the better the product. It's just not true of everything any more.

Check out these pillows from John Lewis. They are excellent. Better than far more expensive pillows I have had in hotels and (shamefully) bought myself when I was young and foolish:

www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-synthetic-soft-touch-washable-standard-pillow-soft-medium/p451357

Also, my £200ish Hovag mattress from Ikea is 100x better than the expensive mattress I bought from M&S ten years ago which was four times the price.

BarbaraofSevillle

I heard a fact the other day that said by the time you replace your mattress, say 8 years after you buy it, it's TWICE the weight it was when it was bought. How grim!

Ice

Sometimes but not always.

I've been poor and I mean properly poor. Homeless and not having even 10p to eat poor. That taught me what the real basics are so when I hear (some) people complaining (I don't mean this thread) and then hear what their examples are I don't say anything but I think to myself you have absolutely no idea, in no real world is that a basic! I then think that actually they are quite lucky that they have had a life where that example is a basic for them.

I am in a better position than years ago but I still probably live on a tiny amount compared to a lot of other people. All I'm saying is my experiences have shown me that many people genuinely believe that (imo) luxuries are basics and live struggling to try to finance them.

I wouldn't replace half decent sheets just because of some blood stains. DD drew all over her sheets a couple of years ago and she's still using them.
My entire living room is second hand.
My standards are probably very low .

One thing the Vimes boot analogy nicely demonstrates is how much cheaper consumer goods are now. Of course £50 boots are unaffordable on a £38 a month salary.

Assuming the £38 a month was the minimum wage at the time, those boots would probably now well over £1000 and people don't need to spend anywhere near that amount of money for durable boots that last.

I've practically lived in 2 x £100 (so not the cheapest but very very far from top end price and quality) pairs of boots for about the last five years and I've thrown one away at the end of this winter and the other pair are starting to look a bit worn and I'll probably look for new ones at the start of next winter.

£200 for a haircut???????????????

I can't get past that.

We aren't short of money but I've never spent £200 on a hair cut. Mine costs me about £30 every 6 months (or longer - the dog is done every 6 weeks but mine just goes on and on until I get round to visiting the hairdresser!)

I've been very short on cash for the last couple of years and haven't had my hair cut since summer 2016

My hairdresser charges £28 for a cut and blow dry, and he does a really good job. I’m not sure what extra spending £200 on a haircut would get me?