Another cost / money one…

[Honest23]

My husband and I earn ok and have disposable income after bills.

AIBU to feel like even though we have some spare money the price of leisure activities or meals out etc.. is so high we end up not doing much - not because we can’t afford it but because we don’t think certain things are worth it.

How has everyone readjusted to the CoL as it’s a bit of a boring life but lots of things we used to enjoy just don’t seem appealing with how much everything costs.

this comes after looking at the menu of a garden centre cafe and it was £8.50 for a bacon butty!

yanbu. We have a decent amount of disposable income, we could afford things like that but there’s no way I’m spending £8.50 on a bacon roll. We have young children so at the moment we are quite happy doing free/cheap children’s activities and then saving our money to spend on nice days out and holidays when we see something we want to go to.

Can you allocate a ‘treat budget’ per month, and use this money for anything, guilt free? Bacon butty, Cinema, etc

I think we've all bought into capitalism too much. You can find excitement, joy and happiness without having to pay for it.

Does not eating a bacon butty at the garden centre really change how happy you are? Enjoy the trip to browse and shop and go home for a bacon butty.

Some experiences can't be replicated - so save on bacon butties and spend on those instead

Totally agree.

I was going to take the kids bowling yesterday but it was £50 for three of us. Absolutely ridiculous. We didn’t go.

Same for mini golf - £27!

Neither activity would have lasted more than an hour.

I am happy to spend the money but not when I feel like I’m being ripped off.

Life is for living, you’re a long time dead.

I was watching one of the billionaire money gurus on diary of a CEO and he said you should allocate 20% of your money for fun every month. I thought that was really refreshing as usually they go on about savings first.

he was the opposite, he had 5 buckets and one of them was the 20% fun one.

Yeah this is a huge thing for me at the minute. The local trampoline park is £15 for an hour... £15! I just can't justify paying that and it's the same wherever you like you mention bowling and if they want to go to the cinema it's best part of £30 unless you go to the cheap kids viewings.

I can echo the feeling around activities like bowling and mini golf.

I enjoy both but all of a sudden over £50 has gone on 2 hours!!

The thing is, some people must be paying the prices, otherwise they’d reduce them (or go out of business).

I totally agree with you though. I don’t have children but there are still some things that I won’t do or buy because of the cost. Lots of things are a rip off.

The problem is everything has gone up... Apart from people's wages. If wages grew at the same pace then it wouldn't be such an issue