Frivolous things you used to spend money on?

[Lemon221]

What did you used to spend your money on that your now seems completely extravagant and frivolous? I’ll go first, jo malone candles ridiculous how much I spent on wax!

A dresser full of Emma Bridgewater that I didn't dare use.

Sold it all when pregnant. I still have some special pieces & lots of mugs as I'm a big tea drinker.

Loved how beautiful it all was.

Might* indulge in a much smaller collection to display once DC aren't charging around like bulls in a china shop!

@SewingWarriorQueen76

Dud you knew w tgat if you have a library card, they have a huge list if e magazines you can download for free?

Seriously!!! This is fab!!!!! You've made my day.

Beauty subscription boxes… I still have baskets of useless miniature lotions and potions in the bathroom.

hard backed books
complete works of shakespeare

i used to buy lunch every day, delicious salads/soups

Vogue subscription! Mad amount of money.

@wheresthejam

Beauty subscription boxes… I still have baskets of useless miniature lotions and potions in the bathroom.

Guilty 🙋🏼‍♀️

I used to spend £40-50 per month on having nice nails. I loved them but stopped getting them done when I got back into playing the piano and ploughed that money into piano lessons. I don't do either now, and I can't imagine ever again spending that amount of money on nails! Nothing wrong with it though and if I felt it would be worthwhile to me personally I'd still do it.

Lunches out. I just hate making packed lunches.

Cigarettes. For twenty years! May as well have just set fire to bundles of cash 😫

Taxis, nails, fake tan, expensive skincare, restaurants, travelling. I actually have the money, it just doesn't seem worth it now I'm older.

Yep, subscription beauty boxes which I love receiving but unfortunately can no longer justify.

In the past: magazines, Lancome Juicy Tubes, expensive skin care 'systems' where you had to buy all the products in the range for it to have any impact (that I never saw), candles, notebooks (which I have now replaced with diaries), cinema trips when I was bored.

As a pp pointed out, it is quite depressing to think that most of the things I used to enjoy buying are seen as frivolous but they really aren't things I needed. What I actually needed was some education into how to look after my skin properly and a lesson in how possessions don't make you happy. I've always been prone to shopping to make myself feel better and it really hasn't done me any favours.

I still spend quite a lot of money on books. They are probably frivolous to some people but I think they are important.

I used to buy a new outfit every time, for a night out! I used to get my roots and eyelashes/brows done every 6 weeks, nails every fortnight. Magazines and take away coffees, every week too! I now do my own hair and dye my brows/lashes. It's so easy. Even my hairdresser acquaintance, said I do a good job.

Budget gym membership
Haircuts
Cheap clothes
Dinners out with friends

I ordered a Chinese the other night and regret it so much. That was 4 days worth of money .
Oh well, maybe I'll lose the weight I desperately need to

I used to get excited for payday. Not anymore. It's just used on necessities really and I have to budget for everything

Clothes and shoes, including a lot of second hand clothes on ebay. Some have been great and well worth it but I bought so much stuff that never really fitted, looked right or got worn. Not such a bargain then, really.

Chocolate and sweet stuff. Small spends but adds up, and then I had to lose the weight.

Amazon Prime. Realised after cancelling it how much money it encouraged me to waste clicking on bits and pieces.

Ocado. Used to spend silly amounts with them.

Expensive haircuts are staying, though. I wear them every day, after all. As are nice children's clothes, most of them second hand. They give me a lot of pleasure, Ibmake far fewer mistakes than with my own wardrobe, and they're not little for long.

@groovergirl

Shoes-at one point I had 739 pairs

@Horaceandgus can you tell us what has happened with your shoe collection? Do you still have all your treasures?

No judgement here. I have Fluevog, Martinez Valero, Prada, Charles Jourdain et al which I hope will see me out. I don't expect my shoe size to increase between now and my graceful demise.

We moved so I sold or gave away most of them I still feel the loss to be honest lol

The popular one I find it hardest to get my head around is how much people spend on their nails, and how often they seem to have it done . It just seems like such a funny thing to spend such a lot of money and effort on! I mean... obviously it's objectively no more frivolous than a lot of other things on this thread, and a lot less unhealthy than some! It's just a kind of alien concept to me (and I say that as someone who wears make-up every day and used to sometimes buy fairly expensive stuff). I paint my own nails with normal nail polish maybe twice a year.

My only current extravagances are loose leaf tea from an independent tea seller (still not very expensive tbh), yarn (sometimes quite expensive but I get a lot of hours of pleasure out of using it, plus a usable item at the end) and an expensive notebook once a year.

Food. I always have a lot of food in the house that I could make something out of (freezer, cupboard foods, etc) but I had a horrible habit of fancying something nice, and going to Tesco to buy lovely fresh ingredients, nice breads, sides etc.. probably costing £15 or something, so cheaper than a meal out but still not necessary. I am slowly learning to just cook what I actually have in the house!

I’m pretty easy going about things and tend to just take things in my stride (including inflation etc) but petrol prices are crippling me. It is costing me an extra £30 a week and I now actively think about if a journey is worth it. We used to drive all over the place for days out but now it more thought about!

School fees. All peer pressure and FOMO. I should have put all my DC into the local state school from the start

Yup. I only did 5 years of it with ds but still...£1000s and £1000s and £1000s gone (even with a bursary!) He would've been absolutely fine in our local state secondary.

Also...perfume (I have drawers full of the stuff and should really put 90% of it on ebay), black cabs, magazines, cigarettes...

Magazines.
Hair colour/roots touch up every four weeks
Sky tv.

The popular one I find it hardest to get my head around is how much people spend on their nails, and how often they seem to have it done.

I know, really alien to me too! Absolutely not criticising anyone who gets their nails done, good on them if it’s something they want and enjoy. But I can’t imagine a world where I’d want to spend the time, money or social bandwidth on it.

@ManyATime

Paperbacks: between the ages of ten and about fifteen, almost every Saturday I bought a puffin book and sometimes two or three.

Oh I LOVED buying a new Puffin when I was from 8 - 11. You've brought back a lovely memory for me.
I don't buy many books any more: reserve them all from the library. ( In Oz and the local library service is very well funded).
Download magazines from the library too, but often forget to read them.
When I was younger I would buy 2-3 glossy mags every week - so much money!

@EdgeOfSeventeenAndThreeQuarter

A Grand Prix showjumping horse. Broke it within weeks.

OMG. What happened??

@marmitegirl01

Magazines. Many many magazines 🤦‍♀️

I used to spend loads on magazines in the 80s and 90s but they were generally much better then, more useful articles and interesting real life stories. These days they are all fashion, diets and celebrity gossip and zero substance.