Biggest scam you didn’t know was a scam

[Sillysausage2]

Lighthearted 😂
I saw an Instagram post earlier about the biggest thing you don’t realise is a scam and we all accept as normal.
We all have stories about how our parents raised 7 kids etc in a 3 bed if they were lucky, my grandparents had 9 in a 2 bed 😂
the aim for everyone now is buying or building massive houses, 3 en suites at least, we spend the weekends in Ikea, home bargain etc buying shit we don’t need and cleaning the houses with the 4 bathrooms!
I swear I’ve spent more Time cleaning the legs of chairs than is reasonable and I seem to wash the walls of my bathroom far more than people ever mentioned.
I don’t remember my mother ever cleaning the panelling on the walls.
is it all a scam? Are we busy fools?
sometimes I got to centre Parcs like places and think how simple my life would be if we al only had one suitcase each

I meant got a 25 year mortgage and kept it for 25 years - not 35! 😆

The wedding industry is ridiculous. I love weddings but they used to be simpler. Now they just seem out of control. I went to one recently where the bride told me it was £300 a head, honestly couldn’t see where that money was going

Yup! I was a silent partner in a wedding planning company for about 4 years pre Covid. It was a license to print money all round. Apparently the more bridezilla she was, the more lucrative the event turned out to be 😂😂

My mother died last year and the amount of stuff we had to clear from the house was horrific.It took ages and was a horrible,horrible task.
I have since been on a mission to declutter our house and have made dozens of visits to recycling and charity shops with bags of "stuff". Having 2 adult dcs still at home and a dh who is a hoarder doesn't help but I am determined to keep going.

Concert tickets, particularly in large arenas where the performer is so far away and tiny on stage you end up just watching them om the big screens. Even the cheap' seats run into hundreds of pounds!

Worse. There's a car bring advertised online that's not for sale. You can only lease it.

You'll own nothing and be happy and eat ze bugs.

I am totally behind you on the one suitcase thing!!

Handbags. I've just never....got it? I have a phone, maybe some tissues and a lip balm. They all go in my pocket. I can't be doing with a bag swinging about, knocking stuff around and having to have it in my hand or on my arm or on my shoulder and find somewhere safe to put it when I sit down...

Everything I need is on my phone or in my pocket. Car keys in a different pocket. This is why I tend to buy men's jackets with zip up pockets (and the REAL scam is why do women's clothes have teeny tiny little insecure pockets?)

The only time you need a handbag is when you have small children who need a huge amount of equipment and stuff (and even then most of it goes under the buggy). Pockets Not Handbags. That's my new slogan.

Subscriptions. Everything is a monthly payment. It adds up.
Also phone insurance. You used to just insure it, now you have to decide to insure it against damage OR loss or theft or all. And it’s expensive.

@Catza
Car payment plans are definitely a scam - you pay obscene amounts of money for the new car for three years and then you have to give it back

If there’s a scam in PCP, it’s surely that it’s designed to make you take out a new 3 or 4 year deal with a new car, again and again?

Oh my god, weddings now are absolutely crazy! The whole business has got so over inflated.

Same here. I have 1 handbag that is used for formal occasions only. Latest "fashion must haves" are the biggest scam going IMO. People pay ££££ to look "on trend" and just end up looking ridiculous.

University. Sending nearly every student to do pointless degrees, costing £K - to come out the other end of the education factory up to their eyes in debt with low job prospects.

This is the only thing in this thread that isn't a scam.
Councils need money to pay for services people use.Somw comes from the Government but not enough.
Even if you personally don't use then they are essential and make for a better society.
Council tax pays for among other things
Libraries. Galleries , museums, Parks, open spaces. Leisure facilities, including swimming pools and youth centres, . Social care for older people, children and other vulnerable members of the community. Social housing, consumer protection, traffic control , roads in collection, emergency services etc etc

Big weddings (not the nice cosy, cheap ones at the local community centre - they're great)
Private schools (I think they're maybe worth a bit more than state, but ~20K more? No, they saw you coming)
University (now that my DD is currently there. Doesn't seem to get an awful lot for the 10K she pays)
Everything being on subscription these days.
Baby stuff - you don't need all that shit.
Lego

Yes! 2 kids in a 2 bed here, DH is desperate to move to a 4 bed. All I can think of is the extra cleaning! I’m actually perfectly happy as we are.

I would say center parks is a scam!

Oh yay, it's got a swimming pool. Just go camping in the proper countryside at a site with a pool. Job done. 1/20th of the cost, and actual real countryside. Not the manufactured center park crap.

• Slimming world/weight watchers/slimfast et al. Yes, they work in the short term but encourage a disordered relationship with food. (I know, I've tried em and struggled all my life)
• Car finance
• MLM's
• Cleaning products/softeners/laundry steriliser ect and the huge marketing behind it. In reality you don't need much to clean. I use washing up liquid, ciff/jiff, cheap disinfectant and cheap wash powder for pretty much everything.

Lockdown.

Democracy: choose your professional liar.

Never done this but it's one of my goals 😂

En suite bathrooms. Promoted increasingly as "essential", no they're not. Unless you're disabled or have a serious illness, you can walk a few steps to a shared bathroom in your own home.
I saw property details of a new build on here, where every bedroom had an "en suite". No space for wardrobes though.

I can believe it. I worked with a woman who was planning her wedding 2 years in advance. It formed the basis of every social interaction with her. The wedding was huge and fancy.
They divorced after 4 years.

Monogamy. Why does having a long-term connection with someone, who you can be very happy with, mean desperately trying to make sex with them exciting for the rest of your life (or until something dries up or drops off)?

What are you doing to your chair legs that causes them to get dirty?

All those products to make your laundry smell fresh. I find a regular wash makes everything clean and fresh enough. It doesn't need added perfume.