AIBU to feel middle-class luxuries have become increasingly out of reach?

[cocobow]

I had to go to the local shopping centre the other day to pick up a click and collect for my husband, new work shirts so nothing fancy! I thought why not make an afternoon of it as I rarely go shopping and I could maybe get a coffee and cake and even treat myself to a little something as my birthday is coming up.

I loved some of the clothes in places like monsoon and seasalt but it was all way too expensive dresses were £80 to £100 or more same with skirts which seemed to start at £65 and I know that isn't even considered expensive today but for me it is! I went for a look in the sephora as I love skincare but again it was all really expensive. The queue for the till was full of school girls buying things I wouldn't be able to buy for myself!

To be fair they were probably there spending birthday money and probably aren't spending money like that all the time. I suppose it just feels like the goal posts on these admittedly luxury items have been moved since I was in my teens and early 20's when I imagined that by my 40's I'd be able to at least buy some of these things or buy nice clothes now and then. My husband and I both degree and post graduate educated and work in professional jobs but we have to prioritise bills, the kids and food over luxuries. To be fair we have no debt at all and we will save for an buy large purchases cash mostly but I admit to feeling a bit personally deprived at times! When my mum was my age she worked in a call centre part time in the evenings and would go round the shops most weekend and buy herself a new top or other item of clothes and exclusively used clarins skincare, I use the ordinary, cerave or boots and superdrug own brand mostly and my clothes come from charity shops. My parents were working class made good but their disposable income seemed to go a lot further than mine does. We don't even have a large mortgage.

DH and I recently looked at taking a short trip to London as a joint birthday present to each other but the cost was so expensive we seem to have quietly shelved the idea.

In the end I had a look in waterstones but even that was expensive, since when are paperbacks routinely £14.99! I never even had a coffee or bit of cake as the selection of cakes looked dry and unappetizing but would still have cost £10 in total.

Am I being unreasonable to think the cost of a middle class lifestyle with a few luxuries has had the goalposts moved by quite some amount?

You’re right, it is low. It does take her 10
mins though. It’s 2 inches off the bottom, no layers.l, no shampoo.

I can get a bit exercised about the value of work. IM not even slightly humble opinion, most people try to deliver too much too fast, and fall short. I'd rather pay a bit more to have the job done well. Probably in a minority though.

The average family saves 2k a month @foursquares 😆😆

So, £60 an hour. Which isn't half bad.

Do people save 2k a month ? Really ?

@dingodan , at which stages of life though? We saved, but very little. We made investments in our early 40s that are still delivering a sensible income now we're 70.

Sorry, me with my old thing again - there is no middle class - there is only bourgeoisie who live off their capital and don't have to work and there is working class - who have to work for a living - it includes doctors and university professors as well - because they WORK for a living. Obviously, there are richer working class people who earn more and poorer working class people, who earn less. Also, there are skilled working class people - surgeons, dentists, teachers and unskilled ones, even though I struggle to name a job that did not require a skill. And the sooner we realise that, the better for everyone - i.e. these mythical 'middle class luxuries' will stop playing on people's minds.

there is working class (it includes professionals, like doctors and architects and teachers)

But it's also a vicious circle buying stuff to keep people making stuff. It's a bit like perpetuating debt by taking out new loans to pay off old loans.

Yes, and it’s drop in.

@HollyhocksandPeons I do love a class warrior. Knock yourself out love.

I agree. I remember hearing about the professional class as a child, which I think covered educated people on an above modest income, but not actually wealthy like the middle class.

Working class never solely meant 'those that work'.

I do use my local library to the full extent I can and always have books out but my local library doesn't have many of the books I want to read, they cater to what has broad mass appeal which is fair enough so lots of crime fiction, fantasy and so on if I enjoyed James Patterson or Stephen King then I'd probably be happy but I want to read Claire Louise Bennett, Olga Tokarczuk or Michel Houellebecq, even classics can be hard to come by and once popular writers like Bernice Rubens or Angela Carter, they don't even have books by them! I do buy second hand and I always check charity shops but I am longing to read Olga Tokarczuk's The Empusium which is £14.99 for a paperback new. If I get a voucher for my birthday I will probably get it.

Sea salt uses high quality organic fabrics, so it’s always been expensive. They have quite good sales though.

It does sound low cost and fast still. Taking dc for a dry simple cut takes longer and is double plus that.

I am sorry, political economy clearly defines the working class or proletariat as those who have to sell their labour for wages. There has never been any other definition.

I get that, I even said I understand they are probably in there spending their birthday money. I am not deluded to think that everyone I see in at the shops is out spending like that every week or even every month.

Britain is not a wealthy country nor does it have a wealthy population.

Depends on your definition of 'wealth'. The accepted statistic is that we're the 'fifth wealthiest country in the world' but people often actually mean quality of life.

I am not a fan of shopping so usually miss the sales because I am just not aware of them but I will make an effort to check them out this year and maybe get a few things as what is in style this autumn is really nice.

So you assumed most middle class people didn't actually work?

Absolutely, I’m a high rate tax payer. I’m still as working class as anyone. I have to work for a living.

That's a good point. We think our parents started to come right at a certain age, even if they had more children then and mum maybe did not even work full time, but they probably had they family a decade earlier.

There is no middle class. I did not assume anything.

So how much is that after they've paid rent on the property, business council tax, heating, lighting, water (LOTS of water), other electricity costs like towel cleaning & drying, covering time off for holidays & sickness, replacing worn out equipment, scissor/blade sharpening. Or the cost of their "seat" in someone else's salon. And "dead" times when nobody comes in. Then tax & NI on what's left over.

It sounds okay but the cost of providing a technical service is far more expensive. DH has a teeny, but specialist, engineering company, and £60 ph is only the price of going to do the survey. Fixing the problem could well cost several times that per hour once the requirement for materials is included.