What do you consider a treat?

[coulditbeme2323]

What do you consider a treat?

No right or wrong answer here - because it will mean different things to different people.

On another thread I have stated that a takeaway coffee or a basic chain lunch is more functional than a treat for me. I am not saying that it isn't a treat to others.

It was even suggested because I went shopping for a chopping board it was a treat.

So what does a treat look like to you?

The logic applied in our household budgeting would be:

Eating/coffee out = non essential = treat

Chopping board = essential = not treat

You can get into the nuances of whether you're just replacing a perfectly good existing chopping board, or whether the old one had lived out it's useful life, but that's not for today.

Not food or drink - Unless is a particularly nice restaurant (We use chain restaurants all the time)

A treat for me is something outside of my usual routine. A holiday, a weekend away, a spa day, a festival, ascot, even an afternoon in a beer garden with the girls.

This. As well as ‘poor baiting’ the op also posts a lot on other threads about how blended and ‘broken’ families damage kids and how happy she is she’s not in one…..doesn’t smack of happiness does it….

I stated fact.

Books 📚 are my treat and I indulge far too often

A takeaway coffee grabbed on the way from the train station to the office - not a treat.
A takeaway coffee to enjoy while going for a stroll on a nice day - definitely a treat.

Taking the train instead of driving so I can cram in some work or household admin - not a treat.
Taking the train instead of driving so I have an hour or two to read a book - definitely a treat.

Plopping down for lunch in a cafe while keeping one eye on my emails or prepping notes for a meeting - not a treat.
Plopping down for lunch at the same table while chatting to a friend or just watching the world go by for half an hour - definitely a treat.

Same thing, same cost - different context, totally different experience.

I dont consider things I can buy as treats, but 2 hours lying in bed with my eyes shut listening to audible during the day with NO INTERRUPTIONS is a weekend treat that i manage maybe once every couple of months.

I asked my grandchildren age 7 and 10 what a treat was and they were dumbstruck. My dad at 91 years said his best treat was getting a bedside lamp as a teenager as it meant he didn’t need to get out of bed to put the light out. Changed days indeed. 🤣

Any food I've not made

Just someone bringing me food I've not had to cook, whether it's a cafe, pub, friends house etc. That's a treat

Home cooked food that I didn't cook is always a treat. Thanks Mum, because its almost always Mum.

The M&S The Big Daddy peanut butter chocolate bar.
A trillion calories and huge fat content but oh sooo delicious.

@coulditbeme2323 , I've now taken a look at some of your other threads: the one about how money you spent doing nothing at the weekend, the one about your DC's private school skiing trip to Canada, the one about how landlords are running a business not a charity, you being a landlord, naturally.

Living in a wealthy area of the south-east, I regularly come across wealthy people. I notice that, particularly with those who were not born wealthy, how much in awe of their own wealth they are, often terrified of being cheated or their possessions being stolen or damaged by 'peasants'. Where I lived previously, every time I saw one neighbour at a social function, I would hear her telling someone that her house had three bathrooms. Another friend would do the same about the road she lived in which was known as the most expensive in the neighbourhood. I overheard a mother telling her 7 year old, that no, they couldn't stop at Tesco's because 'Tesco's is only for poor people.'

Of course, there are honourable exceptions.

@coulditbeme2323, are you one of those people who is obsessed by their own wealth and good fortune, and hungry to compare yourself advantageously to 'the poor'?

Do you direct any part of your wealth, or your charity to those in need?

You must be spending a great deal of your time on MN at the moment. What do you hope to learn from these threads?

Anything enjoyable that I don't do every day either because of the cost, lack of time or because its not good for my health. So it could be anything from a weekend away to a whole day reading in the garden, to a bag of battered chips.
Buying a chopping board wouldn't qualify because I'm not interested in them. I don't like takeaway coffee, so that wouldn't either. A 'basic chain lunch' might if I had something enjoyable but unhealthy.

That’s really lovely practical support! I think a lot of new mums would give anything for this kind of quality time! Very happy to read this and your mil sounds fabulous. ❤️

I do give to charity yes.

I don't always think a treat is about the cost. I love been able to sit outside and have coffee, wine, food and to me that would be a treat even though it's low cost.

Buying fancy wines to try or going out to a nice restaurant, bottomless bruch etc would also be a treat as would going on a nice shopping trip, holidays ect.

Buying a coffee on the go or a takeaway is normally for convenience rather than a treat.

Shopping for household items is just a necessity so I wouldn't class that as a treat.

I often travel via train and normally upgrade to 1st class which sounds like a treat but is more done so I can ensure a comfortable journey so I wouldn't consider that a treat.

I think everyone's different and each will have a different interpretation of a 'treat'

Someone else doing something for me because they want to.

I've been a single parent for the past 16 years, and for most of that time if I wanted a drink or even a biscuit I had to go and get it myself.

If a room needed painting I did it myself, the rubbish putting out was down to me and so on.

My son now sometimes cooks, or offers me a drink, or puts the bin out etc.., but even though it's become more common as he has got older it still feels like a treat every single time.

I have the money to buy pretty much anything I want and I'm not really a person who wants much so I don't regard purchases as treats really.

It's people doing things for me because they want to, not because they were paid to that I regard as a treat.

You missed out the one where she wanted to pay for her sister's family to go to DL Florida but didn't know how to broach the subject.

Or the one where she was complaining about tourists "who couldn't afford to live where she lives" coming down for the day and not clearing up after themselves. I'm not defending people who don't respect the countryside BTW but I found it telling that she felt the need to identify these people as being poor (or at least poorer than her) as if that somehow compounded their crimes.

For me a treat would be something like a McDonalds takeaway rather than a meal out. I tend to eat out a lot but McDs I would only do once or twice a year. So for me the rareity is the treat rather than the monetary value. But I am of the view if it makes you happy go with it and nevermind anyone else.

Also getting my makeup done professionally another great treat. 😁😁

Yes! For me, it's the labour - it's a treat that I've not had to use my energy and time to make it and clean up after it. That's the treat.

Once a week I go into work an hour late and go to my local coffee place for a caramel cappuccino whilst my daughter is at pre school. I do regularly buy coffee out but I treat myself with time to just stop for a moment.

I define treat probably in two ways.

I do treat myself to the big stuff like the handbag but I also treat myself to say something I probably shouldn't be eating for the calories etc.

Aw thank you, she is great for helping us with this! It’s lovely to have it as a weekly routine, and as well as it being a “night off” for us, she absolutely loves it too 🥰

There are big treats and small treats, surely?

Christmas spent with my best friend in Australia was a big treat. Getting a good cappuccino from the cafe at the gym after tennis is a small treat.

But big treats don’t have to be the expensive ones.

My ‘biggest’ treat was when on VSO in Tanzania, when someone would be going into town and I’d get a lift in the back of the Jeep to buy an ice cream. It was the best treat ever 🙂

I built and own my own home.

I own a mini Cooper.

I play tennis as a hobby and compeditively, and am quite good at it.

I visit tennis tournaments around the world, which is quite expensive. Yes, I've been to Wimbledon.

I've travelled the world from living in a hill tribe in Northern Thailand to cruising on the Nile in Egypt, to hiking up a volcano in Iceland.

I speak a couple of languages. I have 3 degrees.

If you start one more thread about "treats" and your shock at spending money that you don't seem to have (another thread started by yourself), and your awful replies with no context, ill fly over and take the phone off you.

Get a life!

Good for you.