Even when being frugal, what's the one 'luxury' you HAVE to have?

[bbcessex]

disclaimer if the budget can physically stretch to it, of course...

I have to have nice instant coffee.. such as Millicano, Azera etc. Can't start the day without it (well - not without being a right grump, anyway!).

I will now happily shop at Aldi, and love everything I've bought so far, but I tried their Colombian coffee (not the same ground instant type anyway, but gave it a go)... bleeuurr.. cross between Nescafe & gravy!!!

What's the one luxury you factor in to your budget?

Black current and liquorice boiled sweets

Kleenex Balsam tissues. Nothing else comes close

Clarins moisturiser (can't face getting pores back again) and good tea. I can drink coffee that is like sludge but it's gotta be decent tea!

Decent ground coffee - I easily spend £10-15 a week on coffee to drink at home .

Glad to see so many other coffee snobs on this thread. . I always dress in charity shop stuff but could never economise on coffee!

Expensive olive oil and craft magazine subscriptions. Although I do get both for Christmas and a little goes a long way with the olive oil.

Also having my hair cut nicely. I spend £50 every 8 weeks, but I don't wear makeup and hate clothes shopping, so it is to feel nice about myself :-)

Patchwork fabric for making quilts. I have a bit of a jelly roll habit at the moment, and they are £20-30 each, but I do get 2 quilts out of each and they make lovely presents... That's my excuse!

Tea pigs and Illy coffee. Only have 1cup of coffee a day and you can't beat Illy. Although am going to buy Lidl coffee beans if in stock tomorrow just to see. Saved at least 30% on food bill by swapping Waitrose& sainsburys for Lidl.

Fairy washing up liquid. Accept no substitute.

I'm pretty ruthless - I've gone literally years without haircuts in hard times before now, happy to settle for value everything, go without wine and clothes no problem. But I buy expensive shoes for the DC (could probably have got 5 pairs each for them with what I spent on winter boots) as they walk loads, and I need hair dye.

Actually expat I completely agree with that one too. I have come to the conclusion that any other brand is a false economy.

Agree on the fairy liquid - but didn't count it in here because it's not a luxury - it's actually more economical than the cheaper brands as it lasts longer ( as cashew has said more succinctly).

Heinz tomato soup

I eat lots of own brand/ basics stuff and usually cook from scratch, but tomato soup has to be Heinz.

Some form of chocolate.

And hair dye.

Chocolate, hair dye, good haircuts, real coffee, soft loo roll - but not all at the same time or even on the same day.

Fairy Liquid is like the Magic Porridge Pot. even when the stopper has been used and the liquid diluted, the reside inside the bottle just keeps on going

It's also often on offer BOGOF.

Presidente butter, Tropicana oj, good dark chocolate and a decent haircut.

Bodyshop hemp handcream
Can't live without it.

Andrex toilet roll- spent 20 years buying supermarket brands but no more.
Yorkshire tea bags, fairly liquid and just changed from cheap brand soap to expensive soap and it does last much longer.

Sky TV
Netflix
Broadband

NoelofLorst... thanks for the Nescafe Gold Blend Barista review.. looked at it in Tesco today... 97% freeze dried coffee, only 3% ground coffee .. Azera doesn't say it's proportion, but bought 100g new Tesco Azera-esque knock off, £2.99 - that was 10% ground coffee, and not bad at all

Seems like us Frugal Mumsnetters, if washed up on a desert island, would be okay if they had good coffee, good loo roll and Fairy liquid .

Oh - and of course, some non-flabby smoked salmon and high thread count duvets for the more discerning amongst us !

Glad you didn't get caught out with the barista, thing is, its such a bloody big tin to find it's just meh

Coffee
Yorkshire tea
Wine
Real butter

Def agree on the soup - has to be heinz! Same with ketchup. I can't have cheapo chocolate either, I did attempt tesco value choc and it was vile.

Duvet heaven, definitely the almond shower gel, but I gave trained DH to buy it for me. I got 2 refill packs for Christmas. I'll start on them when the current bottle of shower gel is finished.