You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
kerley
A key point to me. My attitude towards money is no different now that before when I was younger and if I have spare money it is just that, spare money. I don’t feel I need to spend it for the sake of it and could ultimately do without it. Spare money makes money less important, whereas not having enough makes it one of the most important things.
I wanted more things when younger so bought them, I want less now so don’t buy them.Saying that, my posts much like everyone else’s haven’t really helped the OP who feels he is too tight. Just saying “spend more” is like telling an overweight person to “just lose weight”
I dunno... because I wonder if what the OP is feeling is actually just societal pressure to spend.
To illustrate ... (just picking this one not trying to diss muffins) then get back to the point. (hopefully)
the muffin man
Now to me this is a bit sad. The ‘treat’ for kids is the walking up to the ice cream van, queuing excitedly while looking at the lolly pictures, changing your mind 4 times and then walking away with a big smile on your face unwrapping your lolly. Especially at the sea-side.
Being dragged round Iceland or Tesco to save a few quid isn’t quite the same! 🙂
If you are struggling for cash then I understand the need to same money of course.
But its not a treat if it happens all the time... but it's also not teaching the kids the value of money either.
Being dragged round Iceland or Tesco to save a few quid isn’t quite the same! 🙂
If you are struggling for cash then I understand the need to save money of course.
Another view is the kids get 3x the number of solero's... and when they are in the situation of needing to save a bit of money they have picked up the habits that will help them.
BACK TO THE POINT ??? (attempt)
I think the point here is why anyone should feel a "pressure" to spend more. (in general, not just currygate) and comments like "it's good for the economy".
I'm not criticising people who make those comments BTW... I'm questioning why it's become pervasive.
It's really not that long ago it was considered a good thing to spend less than you earn but for a whole load of reasons our economy can't. Governments (of all colours) used to announce the trade deficit (so how much the country earns vs spends) but they stopped doing this when it went from month after month to year after year of no positive trade deficit.
Now for multiple reasons we basically only get quoted the GDP as a "measure of the economy".
So it's not mentioned and instead it's about how much we spend since with a negative trade deficit the GDP only gets bigger by spending more.
What this means in practice is what I said earlier... it means a whole load of low income people buying services (after tax and NI) from people who are even lower paid than they are.
When I said "a whole load of reasons" one of the main ones is to support the nations payment of the interest on loans. This is pretty much a self fulfilling catch-22...
Anyway... to this end governments constantly tell us to go spend money to support the economy.
Personally I think this is borrowing more to pay the interest on loans.. but the point really is so many people seem to have bought into this.
I'm not criticising the people ... I'm really criticising the philosophy that people spending more is good for the economy. The extension of this I think, given most people here know there are lots of people struggling to pay their monthly bills is "well those with more money should be spending more".
Op, you clearly don’t need the money so why not go part time, take a pay cut
Working part time is one of those things very few companies let you do. My partner is a teacher and it's one of the few non low wage jobs where it's relatively common to be part time but it's still not easy to get a job as a part timer. I know there are exceptions but they are just that.
footflaps
That completely misses the point. It’s nothing to do with the money, it’s all about the attitude to money, which is ingrained and not easily changed and in many cases not a problem.
Frugal people don’t become more happy by spending more, they become less happy…..
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Completely 100% agree....
and perhaps see my last post for what I see as why the "attitude" is perceived as a problem.
Seeing as it was me who brought ice-cream into the discussion, I’ll point out that I was thinking of proper locally made ice-cream-parlour type stuff
Agreed, that was clearly the case.
Mr Wippy indeed 🤮🤧
then choosing to walk home however many miles in the pissing rain rather than “waste” a few quid on a taxi is not rational behaviour.
In what way is it not rational?
All you're doing is applying your value set to the situation and then assuming that any other value set is irrational.
Given that getting wet is no big deal, does it really matter that one person sees that as a viable option?
Plenty of drivers think riding a bike is irrational behaviour.....
Plenty of drivers think riding a bike is irrational behaviour…..
Even worse, I have been known the ride bikes in the rain when a perfectly acceptable public transport option was also available!
I think the point here is why anyone should feel a “pressure” to spend more. (in general, not just currygate) and comments like “it’s good for the economy”.
I’m not criticising people who make those comments BTW… I’m questioning why it’s become pervasive.
And that's actually a good point. I don't think anyone should feel compelled to spend money that they don't have to, certainly not just to 'keep up with the Joneses' as it were. Meanwhile over in the blue corner, the tabloids are demonising people who don't otherwise have a pit to poss in but have the audacity to own a television. You can't win.
My parents' generation were of the mindset that if you couldn't afford something then you went without and waited until you could, whereas my generation's sudden ready access to lots of available credit to be able to buy a load of shit you don't need got a lot of people into trouble.
Like many things though, there's a balance to be had. I agree with the OP to an extent in so far as I don't like spending wastefully. When buying something I'll shop around even for relatively low-value items. When I was younger and we still had "shops", it'd knock me sick if I spent £12 on a CD and then found it half an hour later for £10.99 somewhere else. I might as well have just thrown money in the bin. At this level we're on the same page. Where we seemingly disagree is, I still actually bought CDs when I could afford to even though I could listen to the radio for free because they brought me hours of entertainment.
Or, the OP's £100 weekend away (where he presumably gets them to pick him up and share a bedroom whilst not eating or drinking for two days), my initial reaction to that sort of suggestion would be "is that the best spend of £100?" Maybe it is, maybe it'd be better spent on a family escape room or to replace that broken coffee table or Auntie Mable's birthday is coming up. Which sounds broadly like the OP's argument against curry night except, in his case there is no better spend of that money because he's not spending it. It's just sitting in some sort of bizarre spacetime anomaly bank account where five grand a month doesn't turn into savings.
You don't have to succumb to rampant consumerism in order just to live a little.
In what way is it not rational?
All you’re doing is applying your value set to the situation and then assuming that any other value set is irrational.
...
Plenty of drivers think riding a bike is irrational behaviour…..
Again, fair points.
I guess the assumption I'm making is that he's choosing to be wet and miserable rather than warm and dry for the sake of a couple of quid when he's sat on a pile of cash. It is, of course, wholly possible that the OP is a distant relative of Wim Hof and loves nothing better than to be cold and wet. In which case that wholly negates my argument.
Similarly with the bike. Why ride when we can drive? Because we enjoy it.
I’m making is that he’s choosing to be wet and miserable rather than warm and dry for the sake of a couple of quid
I hate taxis, they always make me feel uncomfortable, and they tend to drive poorly which often makes me feel nauseous. However, I only hate them a bit, and I'd do it if my wife wanted one.
Similarly with the bike. Why ride when we can drive? Because we enjoy it.
Do MrsT and LittleT enjoy being told to ride in the rain when they could take a taxi, though? I think we are in agreement on the answer.
I'm happy walking/cycling miles rather than using public transport. I don't expect my family to feel the same.
5 years ago I was probably on <£100k.
My heart bleeds – you should have said at the time, we'd have had a whip-round for you. FFS.
Now now.
It does answer one question - where's all the money going / gone. It's gone into overpaying a large mortgage.
so to answer a few questions\points..
Who’s making these decisions on behalf of everyone else, is it by committee or is it what he says goes? If I were her I’d be saying “off you go then, we’re getting the later flight and we’ll meet you there.” Assuming of course that Mr McDuck isn’t holding her to ransom via the purse strings and she’s got no choice. And if – IF! – that’s the case, there’s a word for that which the OP won’t like.
I am tight with family spending, but waay more tight with my own spending. I did spend 2k on a bike last year, and about £1500 on a whistler trip, but I probably also spent £10k on family holidays, with quick transport and from the airport (instead of getting the bus to save £30 like I do on my own). I don’t mind spending money per se, but there has to be value in it – eg I managed to get a week away for 4 of us in Croatia, half board\flights\car hire, for £500 as one of the trips last year.
As it happens I always book the holidays as my other half isn’t very good with logistics, whereas I find them easy. We tend to go on her “kind” of holiday more (ie : beachy more than adventury), but I do the booking.
Hey, OP, when did you and your wife last go on a date?
was meant to be last week but one of our kids got sick and we didn’t feel like it was fair on him/the babysitter. So was probably a month ago. We’re not very good at prioritising that. I don’t love the cost of getting a babysitter, as you can probably imagine 🙂
do you have a prenuptial
no. I don’t believe in them, as I don’t plan on getting divorced.
I reckon you’re struggling to spend money because you currently have no savings,so are subconsciously feeling insecure
possibly, but I strongly suspect I’ll be like this regardless of cash in the bank. I’ve always had all my cash stashed away (ie even when I had a mortgage, I never had savings as it was slighly more financially efficient to have overpaid the mortgage). I probably have a buffer we could survive on for a year (ie : 12x£2k spending) if push came to shove. However, maybe there is a feeling that if I splurged now, and was poor later, I’d look back on my splurgey decisions poorly?
What has all the money been blown on ?
I didn’t earn this much till fairly recently – 5 years ago I was probably on <£100k. And in the mean time, I’ve shoved it all at my mortgage\paying for childcare for 2 kids etc.
What his wife may feel about this hasn’t entered once into the conversation in six pages.
we share the cooking, she does more than me, but I probably do less - 2 or 3 evenings a week. However when she wants a takeaway, I’d prefer to drive to the shop, buy some pizzas, bring them home and cook them (so same effort for her : ie zero). To me that’s an easy win, to her its not the same thing.
pissing rain rather than “waste” a few quid on a taxi is not rational behaviour.
don’t disagree, which is why I made the thread.
Do MrsT and LittleT enjoy being told to ride in the rain when they could take a taxi, though? I think we are in agreement on the answer.
we generally drive places as a family, and if its raining MrsT won’t be anywhere near a bike (we sometimes bike together as a day out, thats a bit different). However, for the last 5 years the kids have been carted to school\nursery and back on a cargo bike, come rain or shine. To be fair, it does have a roof..
the top 1%
I don’t disagree we have a lot of cash. but if you consider there are, maybe 5,000 members of this forum (??) there will be 50 folks as rich/richer on too if it were an average selection (and considering how middle-class biking is, the number is likely higher).
it seems some people can see themselves in me (maybe not the same financial circumstance, but the same pattern) – others can’t understand it at all.
I’ll try some of the suggestions to force myself to spend a little more. First off is do I spend £350 to get a fasttrack eurotunnel ticket for tomorrow (given the state of the traffic around dover) or stick with the non-refundable ferry I already bought..
edit : oops double post
Cougar
My point in its entirety is that whilst HE might not be able to see past the mighty pound note, there are things of value that don’t come with a price tag and there are other people involved who are directly affected. Eg,
“I don’t mind spending money… A takeaway for 2 is maybe £35 or £40 round here, a boys trip (2 uplift days, a travelodge) is what, £100-150? I can see waay more value in a boys trip (a whole weekend of fun) above getting 3 currys in.”
Right there in black & white. He sees wa(a)y more value in a weekend away with the boys than three quiet evenings with his wife where she doesn’t have to spend half her afternoon cooking.
This is what I mean...
I am assuming at this point Mr T has a big kitchen, big freezer and can at any point walk to the freezer and pull out a meal out of a large choice of pre-made meals for him and Mrs T and microwave defrost it.
I'm also assuming you don't have a 500l chest freezer and a couple of big fridge freezers... so you don't see the option that no-one needs to spend 1/2 an afternoon cooking because you have weeks worth of meals at any point you can just defrost. (I do so I see that option)
Who’s making these decisions on behalf of everyone else, is it by committee or is it what he says goes? If I were her I’d be saying “off you go then, we’re getting the later flight and we’ll meet you there.” Assuming of course that Mr McDuck isn’t holding her to ransom via the purse strings and she’s got no choice. And if – IF! – that’s the case, there’s a word for that which the OP won’t like.
It's a big IF and why assume .... and it's also not acknowledging any compromise he/she made up to that point.
(From those weekend costings presumably he also bums a lift off his mates to get there, top-and-toe beds with them and doesn’t eat or drink for two days.)
Me and 3-4 others should write a short book 😉 "10 habits of frugal people for MTB".
(2 uplift days, a travelodge) is what, £100-150?
Booked in advance (usually when you get the uplift ticket) Merthyr is usually £35 but I'm too tight for that so I just kip in the van. BPW is a bit crap for that as the Valleys don't lend themselves to easy/free parking... but you can find it.
Last trip to BPW I kipped in the van .. dinner/supper was a can of co-op chilli and a packet of rice. Breakfast in Merthyr Tesco parking. Lunch was whatever else I'd got from Tesco and after I went to the Coop to buy dinner before going to near Windhill and parking up. I Used the free truck services nearby but didn't stop as you had to pay for overnight so found free parking.
Morning back to the services to buy food for breakfast/lunch and off to Windhill. (So was only 1d uplift but that was really cos I was meeting mates at Windhill)
Excluding fuel <<£100 for 1d uplift and food so easily doable for 2 days <£200.
I believe you’re mistaking disagreement for misunderstanding.
Possibly .... but bear with me maybe?
I totally understand that he thinks it’s a waste of money, rather I’m suggesting that having a mortgage-free million pound house and a 200k salary, most of which they don’t know what to do with, then choosing to walk home however many miles in the pissing rain rather than “waste” a few quid on a taxi is not rational behaviour.
My point though is nothing to do with the having a mortgage-free million pound house and a 200k salary or more perhaps despite it that perceived value doesn't change in every way or of necessity involve larger amounts of money.
I'm sort of putting words into your mouth here... I realise you didn't say this exactly but a possible extension of what you are saying is:
"having a mortgage-free million pound house and a 200k salary" means you don't NEED to walk home in the rain.
AGREE - next step
"so if you don't need to why would you?"
ANSWER .. because you don't see £10 as representing value over walking home (in the rain or not)
When I was on a >>100k salary I'd walk to from the station nearly always and to from Waterloo to wherever .. thousands of times... in that time I probably got 5-10 taxi's... and I skimped on the travelcard if it was walkable vs tube. (a couple of miles)
Probably the 5-10 times I did get a taxi were because I was late or needed to be home quickly to have dinner with the kid etc. not because it was raining.
I totally could afford it .. I just perceive it as bad value and as such it's "a bit unpleasant" so in effect I'm paying for something that's unpleasant and I actively don't enjoy.
You actually described something really similar earlier with the takeaway tried to short change you and rip you off earlier... and regardless of how good or bad the food was you probably came away feeling of the experience "that was a bit shit"...
Let's assume the amount they short changed you wasn't life changing.... because that's not the point (is it?) the point is (I think) the experience of being ripped off and them then arguing was shit...
So it was a bad experience you paid for... you'll now walk past that takeaway because it left you with a bad experience.
So that's how I (and I guess Mr T) feel about the taxi.
It's unnecessary and it feels like a rip off - so it's a bad experience you pay for.
It's not puffing up a chest (or whatever your phrase was) any more than you walking past the takeaway ripped you off is...
tootight
stuff
So very little off what I thought, including the compromises on holidays (jeez I'd even typed the beach bit and deleted that part)
it seems some people can see themselves in me (maybe not the same financial circumstance, but the same pattern) – others can’t understand it at all.
My first reply to this I think I just said basically people have different "values systems"...
I think some of your/my values are basically "unpopular"... (and cross post from Cougar I agree at lot of that is partly a this point in time/generational bias)
I walk home because taxi's are poor value so I don't enjoy it but I also walk home because "that's what I do".
don’t disagree, which is why I made the thread.
Counter argument is it's what YOU do... and besides if it's chucking it down there's probably a bloody long queue for the taxi's anyway. You might as well just get on with it at that point in my book. It's 20 mins walk for me and I could spend 20 mins trying to get a taxi... and it's just a bit of water at the end of the day.
Can people stop putting an apostrophe in taxis please.
🙂
Does anybody enjoy a taxi? Are their people out there who take taxis for fun? I’m struggling with the concept of seeing something as basic as a taxi journey as a bad experience due to the cost. First world problem of the highest order. PTSD because it cost a tenner to get home in a car driven by somebody else.
Cougar’s takeaway experience is a crap comparison. I’m guessing he hasn’t boycotted every takeaway in his home town as a result of the bad one. You’re applying it to taxis plural.
I hate taxis. At least one of the following, crazy fast, slower than a granny, ranty daily mail recital for the journey, listening to capital fm.
I almost never take a taxi. I'd much rather walk. The sort of time I might consider a taxi is after a boozy night out and taking a walk is a great way to get work it out of your system. No issues with doing it in the rain, I have a coat, and don't mind getting wet anyway, especially if on the way home. It's about 45-60 mins to the city centre. Walk that very often.
It's not about the OP not taking a taxi. It's about wether or not he pressured his wife to not take one to save money they didn't need to save to satisfy his parsimony.
I hate taxis. At least one of the following, crazy fast, slower than a granny, ranty daily mail recital for the journey, listening to capital fm.
or, crazy I know, just like being a passenger in any other vehicle. Caught a lot of taxis when I was younger and didn’t have any of the above mentioned issues. Don’t use them now due to not drinking/going on nights out far from home. Clearly most of you frugal types never got utterly smashed in cities twenty to thirty miles from where you lived. Taxis, or occasionally sleeping where I fell, were the only ways of getting home on a lot of nights out in my youth.
Loving how this thread has become takeaways, taxis and ice creams. The big, important stuff 😀
It does answer one question – where’s all the money going / gone.
I think OP is spending the £5k a month on paying thugs to intimidate ice cream van operators and taxi drivers, the bastards.
A few pages back was the comment about those with the most money are the most stingey. It's more complex than this; there are a lot of asset rich, cash poor gentry who live in their big houses with the lights and heating off, their maxim is "you musn't touch capital!". Then they peg it and their offspring can't afford the inheritence tax on the estate so they sell up. I've often found the most generous folk are those who have very little.
As my post has been deleted without any word from the mods (very rude) I guess I was right. It's not my fault he posted from the wrong account...
Is it not a values thing ? I was brought up on a world where we saved to have nice experiences and things and there was a load of things we simply could never afford nor want. That set of values is embedded and even if you can afford something you may not necessarily be able to take the step to either buy it or experience it as you’d been brought up that way. I have a bit of sympathy with the OP and can honestly say that I am also a bit like that but a lot less so these days as I realise I’ll be dead soon and a takeaway curry a month isn’t a big deal 😂
The number of people who both (a) inherit over the 1 million pound threshold at which tax starts to be due, and (b) can't afford the tax without selling the house they inherit, is vanishingly small. Though since the vast majority already own their own homes, it's only sensible that they would sell their unearned and undeserved windfall rather than keep it standing empty until it rots.
Taxis, or occasionally sleeping where I fell, were the only ways of getting home on a lot of nights out in my youth.
I've used loads of taxis. I just don't usually enjoy it. The only times I do is when it's one of those 'executive car' type services; you get a decent motor and someone who knows how to drive nicely.
I’ve never caught a taxi expecting to enjoy it. That seems like an odd statement to me. It’s not a day at Alton Towers it’s a way to get somewhere that’s out of sensible walking distance when it’s the middle of the night and you’re shit faced 😂
Anybody in this thread catch taxis for enjoyment, the experience or as a payday treat.
“What you doing this weekend Geoff”?
“Taking the kids to the Zoo. What about you”?
“Pay day so I’m treating myself to a six mile taxi ride”
That seems like an odd statement to me. It’s not a day at Alton Towers
Tangent but no-one's saying they enjoy them, we're just discussing degrees of not liking them.
It’s a big IF and why assume
Again for the hard of reading: I'm not assuming anything, I'm throwing about wild guesswork. They could have catering staff and monkey butlers for all I know.
Me and 3-4 others should write a short book 😉 “10 habits of frugal people for MTB”.
...
Excluding fuel <<£100 for 1d uplift and food so easily doable for 2 days <£200.
That's sleeping in the van rather than a Travelodge, assuming teleportation is an option and still far in excess of the "£100-150" the OP quoted for two days.
My point though is nothing to do with the having a mortgage-free million pound house and a 200k salary or more perhaps despite it that perceived value doesn’t change in every way or of necessity involve larger amounts of money.
Of course it does.
It's late, it's hoisting it down, home is five miles away, and your options are throwing ten quid at a taxi or walking. Consider:
1) Your month's income left you with five grand in surplus cash.
2) Your month's income left you with fifty quid in surplus cash.
3) Your month's income left you with a fiver in surplus cash.
4) Your month's income left you with less money than you had last month.
Are you asserting that all these scenarios are equal?
Wealth, and the value of that wealth, is relative. It's very easy to go "oh, it's only a tenner" when you actually have a tenner. A mate of mine owed me a tenner last month, I'd have cheerfully written it off but he's too proud to let me do that; he insisted on repaying me but I had to wait till pay day.
--
Say you pull your keys out of your pocket and a penny follows them and rolls off. Would you even bother to chase it to go pick it up? What about a pound coin? A fiver?
Now say it plops down the drain. Would you go jemmy up the cover for a penny? A pound? A fiver? A £50? Your phone?
Same questions but now you're the guy sat outside ASDA with a paper cup and a dog on a string.
Same questions but now you're the CEO of an international corporation.
There's an old joke: A man approaches a woman in a bar and asks her, "would you sleep with me for two million pounds?" Her eyes light up and she says "sure!" He opens his wallet and then asks, "well, how about for a fiver?" She responds "of course not! What sort of woman do you think I am?!" He replies "we've already established what sort of woman you are, now we're just haggling over the price."
Tangent but no-one’s saying they enjoy them, we’re just discussing degrees of not liking them.
And saying that’s why they won’t use them. Nobody I’ve never met enjoys them. That’s not part of the equation when catching one though. At least not for anyone I know.
you’ll now walk past that takeaway because it left you with a bad experience.
No, I can handle a bad experience. Rather, I'll walk past that takeaway because of the subsequent shitty attitude. Everything else up until that point didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Mistakes happen, people are fallible. The measure of a business isn't mistakes, it's how they deal with those mistakes.
I ordered food, they overcharged me 10p. At that point I couldn't have cared less, for the sake of 10p I would never have mentioned it. I paid with a £20 note and got change from a £10 so I politely said "sorry, I gave you a twenty..." Without even checking what she'd just put in the till she huffed and puffed and pulled out a tenner, I thought her reaction was kinda rude so that was the point at which I said "and you overcharged me 10p" to which she yelled "YEAH, ALRIGHT!" like it was all my fault and hurled the coin across the counter at me.
Plus the chips were crap.
Didn't read it all but you sound like a robot. Buy a life? Find need, help someone poor. Ffs this thread is so stw when people can't even heat their homes. Maybe you should pursue religion. I hear it is as empty as pointless wealth.
Cheap boys weekend for 3..
1 Travelodge or premier Inn with extra beds. £50 tops, split 3 ways
Fuel (my car does 70mpg) £60, split 3 ways
2 lift tickets £70 each
Dinner at the onsite beefeater or whatever. £20 each.
£137 leaving £6 per day for lunch. Done
Why are you justifying your boy’s weekend? You are in a place I cannot comprehend.
Cheap boys weekend for 3..
So,
Hotel for three £50 'max'. (how?)
Fuel £60. (how does a 4k car get 70mpg?)
Lifts £210. (no idea here)
Dinner £60. (sounds reasonable)
Then divide by three, I get that at £127 each?
No drinks? No breakfast? No souvenirs for the family? No other expenses? It's the accommodation price that's killing me though, I've been charged more than that pp before now for a tent pitch.
Just be grateful you're not going.
"So...how many peanuts did you have?"
Check my maths here?
£60 of fuel at today's pump prices (around £1.80/L) = 33L of fuel.
33L = 7.25 (UK)gallons.
7.25 gallons at a claimed 70mpg = 507 miles.
Where are you driving from and to that's 250 miles away, has a Travelodge for fifty quid and is drivable there and back for a weekend break either with one night's stopover or costs £25 per night?
Revs is about 250 miles from me. Can team it up with dyfi for an awesome weekend. That might add a fiver more fuel. Uplift starts at 10 so it's an early start, but doable out sat back sun
Travelodge owestry is £56 for a room for 3 tomorrow night, I've seen it cheaper with a bit of notice.
https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/166/Oswestry-hotel?checkIn=29/05/2022&checkOut=30/05/2022&rooms [0][adults]=3&rooms[0][children]=0
Car is a diesel 1.6 Vauxhall. Official mpg for the astra with that engine is 88!
Wow really?! Worst thread ever, get a grip! If you are really genuine I feel sorry for your family. Pretty sure this is a massive wind up.
£6 per day for lunch. Done
a cheap loaf of sliced white and nick some of the little jam pots/wrapped butter from the restaurant the night before?
thats got to leave five pounds to put aside for a rainy day or give to your wife to take the kids out for a treat?
Travelodge oswestry is the pits. I live in that town. The premier in is nicer.
Lots of nice places to stay within your budget. Treat yourself.
There is no beefeater at Travelodge but there is a run down burger king. You'll get a microwaved frozen meal that's still frozen from the pub at the premier Inn. Why not book into Weston pools or Stonehouse brewery for food round the corner? More expensive and a lovely treat for the proletariat like me. Definitely worth it.
Fuel (my car does 70mpg) £60, split 3 ways
I’m not rich but if I was driving to ride with friends I wouldn’t ask then for money towards fuel. I’m going anyway, they’re just along for the ride.
So 250 miles, let's say an average of 50mph, that's five hours' travelling. You'll want to be ready to go at rope drop to get your money's worth so, arrive at 9:30, maybe a half hour stop halfway for (unbudgeted) breakfast and a stretch, you're leaving at 4am. Sooner you than me.
How about this. Go up the night before, have the next day's riding far more refreshed from not having just sat in the car for several hours, is that perhaps a 'value' spend of an extra £9?
What’s the budget for stretching?
Also, if I were driving my mates on a trip and I knew I had lots more money there's no way I'd ask for petrol money. I'd just turn up with a full tank and not mention it.
If said friends were comfortably affluent, we'd just take turns driving.
do you have a prenuptial -
no. I don’t believe in them, as I don’t plan on getting divorced.
*thumbs up smiley thing - I don't know how to do them on PC*
That and your recent contributions on family holidays tells me you're perhaps more generous than you think. You're tight with yourself more than others and are aware of your issues (hence this thread) You try not to let them spill into the lives of your nearest and dearest. You're working on it - keep trying.
Perhaps work on handing over more decision making to your wife.
Revs is about 250 miles from me
You can get your own Soleros mind 😉