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Excluding bikes, obvs. In fact, any specialist hobby type stuff, just normal day-to-day spending.
A couple of threads on here got me thinking. Obviously it's all about relative priorities, what different people deem important or desirable for different reasons etc etc, but some of the amounts people spend on some things boggles my mind. Likewise, I'm sure what we spend on some stuff would make others think "are you mental?"
So:
a) what do you spend more on than most seem to and why?
b) what can't you believe spend (what to you seems) so much money on?
I'll start
a) Meat. MrsIHN is a recovering vegetarian, and has decided that if she's going to eat meat, it's going be 'happy meat'. So, everything we buy is free range and, mostly, organic. That means it's not cheap; last Sunday's roast chicken was £16, which I'm aware some people will find, well, mental
b) Cars. I can't believe that people pay multiple hundreds of pounds on lease deals per month to drive a new car, when they could have an old car and spend that money on other stuff like holidays, or stick it in savings and retire earlier.
With you on cars for sure, that's the first thing that came to mind. Food wise too - we buy quality ingredients from local shops which cost perhaps a little (ok, quite a lot) more than supermarket equivalents, but they last longer before they "go off" and rarely reach that point as we eat almost everything anyway
not really, cheap meat is grim & doesn't do anyone any favours long term. What I found mental was that a live chicken, bought from the farm where it was hatched, costs me £20+, and a dead one which has been processed and shipped across the country can be bought for what, a fifth of that?last Sunday’s roast chicken was £16, which I’m aware some people will find, well, mental
wallpaper...
Clothes probably. My finance program tells me £155 over the past 4 years.
WHen I was looking at retirement costs the average was £700 a year!
My spend on bikes over the same time period was £22000
a) Music - I cannot get on with streaming apps. So I must spend at least oooh, £80 a month? on music. On CD, MP3 and occasional vinyl. Most folk with the £9 Spotify subs would find this a little bit crazy. But it's just ma thang.
b) yeah cars. My 11 year old Passat hardly ever goes anywhere. Have insurance by the miles so £6-£10 a month, and that's all it costs - fuel is almost negligent. £100s a month to have a posh thing sat on the drive would be insane.
More on stuff I keep and use like tools and cars
Less on stuff you don't like hair cuts and beauty 'essentials'
More on cheese and milk. Much like the OP, my missus is a recovering vegan, so everything is organic and ideally from small farms.
Less on phones (still using a Blackberry 9100, on GiffGaff PAYG).
Cars for sure, I don’t spend much on cars overall.
My last car cost 9k, but i fully expect 7+ years out of it, it’s japanese, so likely to be reliable.
Once it’s hit 200k miles, it’ll end up being cheap overall.
Bikes, I wouldn’t dare add up what I’ve spent on bikes.
Have insurance by the miles so £6-£10 a month,
Ooh, tell me more...
Ooh, tell me more…
It'll have to be a PM, cos I'd (and you'd) get a referral bonus
Sent you an essay (dunno if received? it stayed on my screen after I clicked send)
PM me baby, PM me good...
Honestly - most things. But I would be pretty confident I get many more years use out of most things than your average consumer. I feel my overall spend is similar or less over time, I get the pleasure of owning high-end stuff, and I'm less part of the whole 'disposable' culture - I feel it's a win win, but I seem out of step with most people so perhaps I'm deluding myself.
Bikes. Both high and low, I consider my Scandal to be my expensive bike and it cost me about £900 including the upgrades. So higher than probably average, lower than most of STW it seems (and about 15% of anything that the mag would consider reviewing).
Ohhh
Excluding bikes
Car was very cheap (£650), even my previous car was cheap by most standards (£5k at years old and kept for 10 years).
House was expensive, that's where all the nice holidays, car on finance, bike on 12 months 0%, trousers not from TKMax, food not from Lidl money went. Although 6 years on it's proved comfortably affordable for us.
Clothes - infrequent. I've usually only got one pair of "smart" jeans that get worn till they're filthy, then washed and dried overnight. Ditto office clothes. Tshirts and jumpers I get given more than enough at Christmas/birthdays. This is a bit like letting spotify pick your music all the time, eventually, it drifts off as it starts recommending stuff based on stuff it recommended previously. I own a lot of black/navy t-shirts despite only ever buying really bright ones!
Winter cycling (and to a lesser extent sailing) gear on the other hand...... I see no point in riding round with cold wet feet and hands, so for years I've had Northwave boots that cost more than my singlespeed!
a)more of? In the Before Times it was frothy coffee. Before, during and after work. Was embarrassing and expensive
b) less of - clothes and shoes. Worn till they fall apart or don't fit. To be fair, after lockdown I need a spending spree, but I'm starting with cycling shoes because, well, priorities
but some of the amounts people spend on some things boggles my mind. Likewise, I’m sure what we spend on some stuff would make others think “are you mental?”
priorities innit. some folk place value in things that other's wouldn't. I shan't tell you what I've just spent on tickets to see an opera but I'm reasonably sure it falls into your "Are you mental?" category
a) Failed experiments. I try lots of things, usually to do with something I think I can make into an small business so I can "make my own job" unfortunately in half hearted way and fail.
b) i) Hobbies. I just can't justify spending on pleasure in general as I feel guilty.
ii) Holidays. I love them but I am amazed at how much of a persona annual income people will spank on one holiday. Again justifying / affording them. Maybe its just income level?
a) Lego - currently got around £3k worth of the stuff dotted around the house. If finances allowed it would be a lot more than that.
b) I'm with OP on cars. I don't see the point of spending upwards of £300 per month on a car for 3 years and never actually owning it. Then what happens after 3 years? You get a new car but continue paying £300 a month, and so on and so on. I was thinking about this the other day and realised that most of the cars you see on the roads are less than 10-15yrs old. They have become yet another throwaway item.
I probably spend more on guitar lessons than most people, not so much on guitars.
3 of each
a) Lego, mortgage (although no idea what most spend on a mortgage, just know mine scares me), pension (I put as much as I can in, any 'pay-rise' I have got through job moves goes into pension).
b) Bikes (although to some I am sure my bike spend comes under a), other hobbies (£40 a year on my allotment, otherwise very occasional pair of walking shoes/boots when wear old ones out), maintenance of anything (if I can I do myself, even if it cost me more in 'time' than to get someone else to do it - which annoys the crap out of my wife).
I was thinking about this the other day and realised that most of the cars you see on the roads are less than 10-15yrs old.
Become is an odd choice of phrase.
At 15 years old my MG underwent its first restoration. This actually involved a whole new chassis and body. I think the owner intended to keep some bits as I still have the original door hinges in a box, but that's about it!
At 15 years old my current car has reached the point where rust is moving on from MOT advisory to he can't fail what he can't see, but it's definitely rusty where you can't see. Some car's do better than others as they age (my previous Ford was significantly better screwed together at 15 than this Citroen at the same age) but on average it probably averages out that for every Ford there's a Fiat
Make some sort of allowance for car's written off in accidents at a relatively constant rate through their life and 10-15 years starts to look like about as long as you'd expect a car to last on average.
ii) Holidays. I love them but I am amazed at how much of a persona annual income people will spank on one holiday. Again justifying / affording them. Maybe its just income level?
Actually, that's something we spend quite a lot on (well, did, when you could). Justification is both "it's big world out there" and "what else are we working for, if not to enjoy the time we're not working" (the latter also applies to the %age of income we put into pensions, which I'm sure is much greater than most, but I want to work for as short a time as possible)
Subscriptions. Recurring fees for anything, in fact. But the modern world is full of people that must pay hundreds of pounds a month for Spotify/Amazon/Sky/Netflix/Youtube Premium/Adobe Suite/Cloud Storage never mind their Phone/Car/Car Insurance/GAP insurance etc etc. Baffling.
And there's a special place in stupid-hell for people who prefer to pay monthly rather than yearly even though it costs them 20% more and they have the cash.
But yeah, also cars. I mean, I understand why some people might like driving fancy cars. I just don't understand how/why it's literally everyone!
a) Can't think of anything particular, maybe crisps?
b) Holidays, motor vehicles, furniture, random house tat.
I do buy a paper copy of a newspaper every day, which is silly expensive really, but I think we will have lost something significant when they all go under.
I don't pay for any digital subscriptions - no Sky, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+. Just have Freeview and the free version of Spotify. My mobile is £8 per month. Don't spend much on clothes - the jeans I'm wearing now are about 5 years old, the fleece 10. Almost never eat out.
Cars; I don't get the 'badge' thing and if I want to go/feel fast, that's what motorbikes are for.
Holidays; we spend a tiny fraction of our income, though we did invest in a campervan so not cut-and-dried.
Bicycles; I've spent a fair bit but can't imagine ever buying an ebike just on cost alone.
Lunch/coffees etc; Mrs Routes and I like eating out together during the day, even if it's just tea and cakes. We've "saved" a fortune due to Covid.
Business class seats when flying (yes I know this is still a minority thing and not exactly relevant at the moment). For the sake of a few hours of a different level of discomfort, I'm amazed at the price people pay for those seats.
I sometimes think of the cost of something in terms of how many days work I have to do to earn the money to pay for it. I'll take an economy seat and a few extra days off thanks!
1) Cars - I like cars, current car was over £30k, albeit the loan represents a relatively small proportion of take home salary (certainly compared to my mortgage!).
2) Business class seats; who cares, you’re flying in a tin box waiting to get to the destination, spend it when you’re there.
the only things i have spent any sort of money on is bikes,guitars and gaming (consoles,games).
compared to some on here though i don't have a lot of bread to spend so it will be relatively cheap (although not cheap to me).
a) more on curtains - reason = wife
b) less on insurance - always max out the excess and only insure what would be life changing if I hadn't insured it - reason = you are ins co valued customer until you make a claim
Edit, also more on bread, bought a breadmaker last week, so far it's worked out at £80+ per loaf
**Spending lots**
Food/Cooking stuff -
We've become proper foodies over the last year -
Bought my wife a £450 Mixer for Christmas, and am waiting on delivery of a £650 Kamado BBQ.
I'm also a lot happier to buy better ingredients than before, as in i'd rather eat less meat but better stuff, and have really noticed the difference.
These days we'll buy the 'staples' from Lidl/Aldi but the nice stuff from farm shops or local butchers.
**Spending not a lot**
Clothes - i don't buy much, and struggle to justify big sums on certain things.
I don't drink tea/coffee so spending £3.50 in Starbucks every morning baffles me.
Set of 5 wood chisels = £358.
Electricity. i sometimes read the column in the paper about how someone manages their money and they always seem to spend around £20-£50 per month on their utilities bill. Our monthly direct debit is £238 for electricity.
a) Meat. MrsIHN is a recovering vegetarian, and has decided that if she’s going to eat meat, it’s going be ‘happy meat’. So, everything we buy is free range and, mostly, organic. That means it’s not cheap; last Sunday’s roast chicken was £16, which I’m aware some people will find, well, mental
b) Cars. I can’t believe that people pay multiple hundreds of pounds on lease deals per month to drive a new car, when they could have an old car and spend that money on other stuff like holidays, or stick it in savings and retire earlier.
weirdly similar on those
The car thing can be a catch22. Our last car was in some ways a disaster as it it has 3 bills over a grand in 5 or 6 years. It cost £6000 and was driven away for scrap. But it never failed to finish a journey. Call it 10,000 for five years I think it was. Could have been 6 years I know it was 100,000 miles. So £0.10 a mile or £166 a month (or £140 if it was 6 years). Which is cheap considering how badly it went wrong. But you have to have courage to survive the large bills which is harder of you have less money, even though its cheaper
The other car was given to me by my mum. Would have cost £1000. Did 10 years with no major faults. Never let us down. So that was under £10 a month!
ooh - I've taken to buying quality clothes and shoes. £320 on some lovely Barkers kicked it off but I've had some Loakes since than too. Got a locvely tweed jacket from the charity shop, but it's older than me and will probalbby last longer than I do. Bought some Hebtroco kex recently...
Like a lot of prev responders, I spend more on groceries to get better quality / welfare (they tend to go hand in hand).
I also spend more on tools than many people would think sensible as I no longer use them for my living.
Maybe booze on a £ per unit basis. We dont drink much, but we are happy to pay more for locally brewed (nice) beer, decent gin and (for me) nice whisky.
Spend less:
Again, to repeat what others have said it's car(s), clothes and holidays. Some of all of those is down to trying to reduce our environmental impact but some is just we dont see the point!
Si
a) coke
b) hookers
a) Tools/Wood. I don't spend much money in general, so even my tools aren't at the custom japanese end of things, or even the axminster power tool end of things (especially as I don't have the room), but I do like a good excuse to get a decent tool. If I can build it, even better (like the CNC router, but it's still way more than anyone else I know would spend).
b) Clothes and cars. Keep my cars until they die (current car is 10 years old and still feels like my 'new car'). Clothes are limited to about £100 a year. I know some people who spend £2000. Yes, I'm scruffy, but I don't care.
I reckon i spend less than pretty much everybody on here on most things.
Cars, holidays, bikes, gas, elec, clothes, booze, phones, monthly subs, food, computers (tech), Deisel,
I seem to spend around £150 a week though to cover all the above.
Although currently i am topping up my ppp so thats my biggest monthly spend by far.
Don’t spend much on:
Clothes, or rather, I spend a lot on a few things that will last me ages.
Car, I don’t have one. MrsTH does, it’s a practical box with wheels and comfy enough chairs.
Booze. I cut right back a few years ago, have stopped completely now.
Spend extra on:
Food, both at home and going out.
Lego, joint hobby with MrsTH.
Visual entertainment, mrsTH has all the subs, I have Sky, we both have unlimited cinema passes.
Bikes. Present company accepted.
I spend a lot on food and not much on anything else other than bikes of course. Wouldn’t have a car if it was up to me and we’ve had a hole in the bathroom ceiling for a year. Priority is basically bikes, I mean the kids!
Bills. Neighbour (older couple, grown up daughter living half at home still) asked me how much we also spend on gas.
I said our bills (family of 5 Inc 3 young kids) had just gone up to c.104 per month. He said, "and how much for electricity?".
Nope, that's combined. He was very taken aback. His was 130 for gas alone. And around 210 for them both.
I seriously can't work out how he spend so much. I'm not willy waving here - I'd love ours to be much smaller/more efficient. Anyway, it amazed me.
I have clothes older than my marriage. It was our silver wedding last year.
Expensive for us is food (like others we spend more on meat and good food rather than cheap stuff), lego and decent outdoor gear.
Tend to not spend much on going out (in normal times), and we but good clothes and they tend to last a long time
Spent a year on UC at £410 a month and always had some left over...
One thing that always amazes me is the cost of hotel rooms.
I cannot fathom why people pay multiple hundred $£€ per night just to sleep!
Fair enough it's a business trip and someone else is picking up the bill (I've stayed in some nice hotels whilst working away) but frankly I don't particularly care about the "facilities" a hotel has apart from a decent bed and a room big enough to bring my bikes inside, assuming I'm on a roadtrip.
My spending has drastically reduced in recent years. Our biggest expense will be annual holiday followed by mortgage payments. We have not other debt as a result of a change in ethics and are amassing some decent savings.
Not spending money is a bit dull though, the pull of shiny things still remains albeit restrained by discipline.
Bike bits and van bits mostly. Only had my current alloys on for afew weeks but find myself browsing the classifieds for more weirdly.
I don't understand how people can spend so much money on
-the weekly supermarket shop
-coffee, either bought from a cafe or using one of those stupid expensive coffee machine
-clothes
-micro subscriptions like Spotify, Netflix, prime etc
I probably spend more money than some would consider sensible on
-cars, but never use pcp or lease, always paid outright
-bikes
-holidays
-boats
I don’t understand how people can spend so much money on
People like things, and their definition of "nice" differs from yours.
I'm probably spending less than most on clothes (buy new ones when something wears out, and the worn out stuff goes onto my gardening/fettling pile), eating/drinking out and booze at home (pretty much zero, not eating out is easy when you've got an aversion to new food), mobile phones & bills (I don't need to be "connected" 24/7 thanks) , TV services (no Netflix sky amazon etc), gadgets in general (used to be a proper geek but have lost interest).
More than most? Maybe holidays, I'll decide where I want to go before checking the cost so sometimes that gets pricy.
People like things, and their definition of “nice” differs from yours.
That's the whole point of this thread, isn't it! 😉
My last two holidays were 3 nights in a cheap hotel Paris in 2016 and 4 nights in a cheap ‘hotel’ in New York in 2005 that we later discovered was a bail hostel with a side hustle.
so... don’t really spend much money on holidays
edit- in fact thinking about it... the New York trip piggybacked a research grant my GF had so we only paid for one of the two flights and nothing for the hotel and the train tickets to Paris were a present.
I have no idea how much other people spendnon things. I'm a bit of a tightwad so my best road bike cost £400 off eBay, my gravel bike was £1500, most I've ever spent 3 years old now. Doubt I've spent 15k on cars in my whole life and am pushing 50.
No idea where they money goes tbh, although I am terminally lazy so don't earn much.
Some of these responses are pleasingly tightfisted
're expensive hotels they are nice, our sales director had to cancel a meeting in Brussels so his secretary asked me to go, first class air waste of money it's only 1 hour, lounge was nice though, hotel was amazing but over 500 per night, no wonder these people are so remote u get no sense of normality. Chauffeured about, 5 star hotels.
Meeting was a waste of time too.
We spend a lot on food; most of the food we eat we see wandering around outside local to our village. My wife also likes Michelin star restaurants on occasion. We also spend a fair amount on preparing for our daughters future, savings, house etc.
I don’t spend a fortune on my bikes, my most expensive is a Sentry I got on cycle to work for £1400 a few years ago and I have no desire to change that. I do spend quite a lot on my daughters bike, her next one will be a lot more expensive than mine. We don’t scrimp on things like helmets / outdoor gear, but then we get expensive stuff and it lasts a very long time. Generally.
Our cars are “relatively” cheap, in fact my wife’s yearly car allowance probably outweighs the cost of the cars since we bought them. I used to do lots of trackdays which makes me cringe now when I think about cost and petrol use.
We love where we live so spend very little on holidays.
Big extension to the house this year, but it’s added value to the house, expensive yes, lost money, no. It also means it’s easy to have friends and family stay when the world returns to normal and until then it’s been a working from home dream.
We buy refurbished phones, cheap sim only contracts and not much else from a technology perspective unless it’s via work.
And we’ve managed to get to nearly 50 years old and neither of us have ever bought a sofa. Odd but true. 🙂
I save a fortune spannering my own cars.
We drive a £400 2004Golf, a 2004Volvo that we've had for 12years and a 2007 Transit. I keep cars as long as I possibly can but have the tools and space to do so.
A work colleague leases a BMW M2, his wife's new BMW X4 and a KTM motorbike. He doesn't drive the M2 as it's rock hard suspension has damaged his back!
Madness
Mortgage paid, no kids, but probably spend more than most on dog food!
More - bikes and bike clothing I slightly suspect, bought two bikes new in the last few years and have a mild Rapha habit so total spend probably approaching £8k in the last 3 years or so, although I sold one for roughly £1k in that time as well and have frankly run out of things to get now that would have any sort of sensible cost/benefit ratio (in my opinion anyway).
Apart from that I buy coffee from Pact, and save a lot of money every month into my pension and ISA, certainly much more than I allow for disposable income.
Not much else in the way of expenditure really, eat mainly vegetarian, no car, have an 8 year old 32” tv, wear clothes and shoes to destruction. I do have a few subscriptions but went on a massive cull of those a few years ago and have no desire to add more. Time rather than choice tends to be the limiting factor in my experience, especially having a toddler around.
Art, tools, photography and chocolate. Oh yes. No vegetable fat mass produced rubbish for me; it has to be hand made, proper cocoa, the finest ingredients and most likely £3 per small mouthful. You only live once; why waste it on mediocrity?
Booze.
How do people afford so much of it (physically and financially)?
Hmm... more, probably gigs and events.
Less - definitely clothes (excluding bike kit). I might buy one or two t-shirts a year but I've still got some Howies ones from when Howies were new and exciting. Also TVs. We existed on cast offs from others for years, finally got a flat screen one about 5 years ago - a 28" one that was about £150.
EDIT - Also more - craft beers, I only have 2 or 3 a week so don't tend to look at the prices of the ones I pick up in the beer shop - £5/6 a can isn't unusual. Also spirits, again I don't drink much - maybe one or two doubles a week - but I'm happy to pay £50/60 for a bottle of brandy or Armagnac.
Spend a lot:
Running shoes. New pair every month to 6 weeks, I run 300 miles per month and get injuries if the shoes are old.
Beer. Not the volume, but I do like a fancy craft beer at £6 a can.
Meals out. I like a Michelin star, and I like good wine.
Spend less:
Cars. Currently have a 12 year old and a 10 year old on the drive.
Houses. We have a small ish 3 bed semi, there’s 2 of us and it’s more house than we need. I can’t understand people in similar circumstances buying 5 bed places.
A) also Lego, probably over £25k worth in the house ranging from stuff I had as a kid, the lad's Lego, my UCS collection and the loose Lego in the Garage (alot bought on Ebay as job lots and from the Lego pick and mix so it didn't actually cost that much but thats it's second hand market value).
B) tools, I like a good tool.
C) bikes but not so much anymore, most of that spend was 10 years ago.
D) food, mainly supermarket but we tend to go for the nicer ranges plus a Gusto box once a week.
Not spendy
A) clothes
B) cars, only had one car for the last 18 months, trying to go as long as possible before buying a second one when I finally have to return to the office and it won't be expensive. Done the whole flash company car thing, was nice but the expensive Audi kept having minor issues which luckily I didn't have to pay for. Despite a load of tax paid I had nothing to show for it when it went back.
C) mortage, by luck and not being greedy, we moved at the right time (end 2001) to somewhere most people think is godforsaken moorland before the village became popular. Also moved the mortgage just before the crash and have paid negligible interest each month ever since. To me £400 a month is a decent size mortgage but I realise to many it's less than their interest payments.
Compared to some I spend a fair amount on gadgets but look for offers on things that will last a long time & keep their value - refurb Apple, Sonos in the sales etc. Amazed that people will shell out £800 for the latest samsung or iPhone.
Probably don't spend enough on clothes or furniture. Would like to, in some ways, for sustainability and erm, looks. But I'd ruin £150 jeans or a fancy sofa. Sensible people seem to have good solid furniture though so I think maybe I should do that.
Cars: I buy a rubbish Zafira for £3k every so often, once it seems like it will start to cost me actual money. Probably costs me £600 a year. Seems like an easy way of having money for holidays/pensions/savings and I spent quite a lot on cars in my youth so maybe i've grown out of it.
a) what do you spend more on than most seem to and why?
Other than bikes???
A bity like thebrick
Failed experiments. I try lots of things, usually to do with something I think I can make into an small business so I can “make my own job” unfortunately in half hearted way and fail.
I just buy "stuff" I can play with.. electrical, mechanical... chemical... stuff that's broken and non-economic to fix but spend and fix anyway... I sometimes buy broken stuff off ebay, fix it then end up throwing it away cos I only bought it to see if it could be fixed.
Tools ...
Um and bike stuff...
b) what can’t you believe spend (what to you seems) so much money on?
Cars (common it seems), contracts of any type... insurance that isn't a legal requirement (don't even have house insurance - can't see the point paying so someone can rip off the insurance and I end up paying)
Shampoo (don't buy, sometimes pick a sachet up from a hotel), haircuts (just use the shaver on #12), clothes (occasionally buy something in Sainsbury's) still have lots of clothes that are 30+ years old.. Threw out a shirt a week ago I bought before the bomb at Victoria (1991)
I don’t spend anything like as much money as many people I know on:
-eating out, either restaurants or pubs. Not eaten out since Feb 20 but probably only two or three times a year normally
-takeaways- not had one for three years probably
-clothes
-subscriptions like Sky, Netflix, prime etc
- foreign holidays
I probably spend more on
-cars
-tools
Oh, and bikes obviously
More on - the van. Must have spent north of 50k on it. If I worked out a price per night I could be in the Caribbean in a 5 star resort for less.
Less on - clothes (excluding outdoor stuff), beauty stuff like hair cuts, male waxing (I’ve heard it’s a thing).
Oh another more on would be canoes and sea kayaks which I freely admit I have spent a stupid amount on but I’m finally happy and have a stable fleet. (N+1 applies to these as well as bikes)
Mortgage is largest expense by a long way but an investment. Buy cars outright at about 5 years old and try to keep for 5ish, I can't believe the price of new cars and the finance that goes with them. Family holidays 4-5k a year, clothes last me years but the kids go through them at some rate. Daughter is into horses which is very expensive even when you don't have one. I do spent alot on bikes with both me and wife riding having a selection. I also like watches and have a few of them at a few thousand each which I have acquired over the last 20 years.
A) Skiing.
Good food.
Good quality clothes and especially footwear ( buying few items but they last for years).
Curtains - Get decent fabric, have them interlined and lined and it'll save you money keeping the heat in and draughts out. You'll get a good nights sleep if the room is darker and quieter.
B) Booze.
Cars (although in my youth I was petrol head, but became more environmentally aware)
Plastic tat.
I buy good food it doesn’t have to be expensive to be responsibly sourced, go to an independent shop.
Bicycles, I can’t believe what people spend on new bikes now. Why not buy secondhand and have a nice holiday with the money you save.
My two drains on my finance are my bikes (which was my only one until late last year) and my Mini.
The bikes pay for themselves in the adventures they allow, the people I've met because of them but mostly for the physical and mental wellbeing they give me. I genuinely would have left this world a few times now if it wasn't for what bikes have given to me.
The Mini is still worth roughly what I've sunk into it so far so it's definitely a Man Maths thing but even if I didn't get a penny back if it had to go it's been worth every one of those pennies for the fun, satisfaction and mental wellbeing it has provided me over the last 6 months I've had it. It was an itch I desperately needed to scratch!
I don't really spend any other large sums of money unless I have to, been down that road when I was younger and got into serious amounts of debt so prioritise the essentials these days.
As for what other splurge money on? Lease cars, expensive holidays on debt, lots of clothes, needlessly expensive tech, Sky subscriptions, houses (therefore mortgages) that are well above what they need and can afford, furniture on 0% only to change it the second it's paid off, etc.
Basically mass-consumerism. Oh and anything that is bought purely for bragging rights over others. Seriously, if that's what it takes to make you happy then you have much bigger issues to worry about!
Coffee. I really like good instant but i cam believe how money people spend on grinders etc.or buy a cup from starbucks etc. for 4 quid.
Spend a lot on heating and water. Don't like being cold and like long showers. Also food; like good quality ingredients. Spend a lot on my cat because he's greedy and eats like a goat. He's also fat.
Hardly spend anything on clothes, haircuts (do it myself most the time) and entertainment. I don't know how people spend more than £15 in a pub in one evening (pre covid). Tools too; tend to keep them till they fall appart. If a tool costs more than 10% of the cost of what its fixing I'll make my own tool. Phones and watches; phone cost £300 and its better spec than most others so why do people spend over £1000 on a phone? Also, why do people buy a new phone every year? Don't need a watch, phone has a clock.
Coffee. I really like good instant
heretic!!
More on
House (live in an expensive area - Would probably cost 750k to buy today, will be putting a 6-figure extension on it soon)
Holidays (fly cattle, but normally abroad for 6 weeks of the year. even managed 4 last year)
Pension (normally max out the allowance)
TV (oled is lovely)
Less on
Cars (last one was £1500, lasted 80,000 miles before selling for £500)
Clothes
Meat (not veggie, also not fussy)
I've just spent 40 quid on clothes pegs.
Does that count?
This thread has made me realise that I probably spend far too much money on pretty much every aspect of my life....
Sod it, can’t take it with you.
I am a bit surprised just how dismissive some people are regarding things that other people do choose to splurge on - some people just really like going on holiday, gadgets, fancy clothes and trainers, or beautiful small batch roasted Indonesian coffee. Doesn’t make them bad people or consumerist monsters. They just have different interests than you - and different personal/financial circumstances.
More than most:
Escape Rooms, prior to lockdown. It's my thing. I've just now booked three rooms for the first time in about 18 months and then had a bit of a cry.
Board games (and by extension, escape-rooms-in-a-box). I have a problem.
I'm furnishing following a house move so I'm essentially bleeding money on paint / shelves / chairs / toilet roll holders / etc etc.
Less than most:
I dunno, what do people spunk money on now when everything is shut? My house-to-mortgage ratio is likely lower than many because I'm Northern. I'm not going to be buying posh food as a veggie, expensive steaks and the like.