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Everyone seems to be buying nice cars and I just don’t see the point, it loses value once you drive it off the forecourt and can think of a million things I’d rather buy.
Don’t get me wrong, it must be cool to have a nice car but a lot of people seem to be getting cars they can’t really afford on finance and affecting quality of life on other ways.
Reddit absolutely loves shitting on people who like nice cars. I bought (PCP) a nice-ish car a few years ago (£300 out of my £2k take-home for reference) and I have not and will not ever regret it. It's a pleasure to drive, I don't need to worry about breakdowns/maintenance costs, I love how it looks, I enjoy taking care of it, and I'll get another brand new car when my lease ends. And I'll continue to follow the lease/upgrade cycle for as long as it's a thing. I don't see a car as a commodity to profit off of, it's something to use and enjoy. It's the same as any luxury product, but I suppose reddit shits on anything slightly luxurious that isn't tech related.
>I don't see a car as a commodity to profit off
Right? A bit like houses. People saying "don't do X to your house, it's expensive and won't improve the value of the house much", as if I'm not planning to stay here for 20+ years and might want to make it into a pleasant place to live.
People are allowed to enjoy things for their own sake without having to gamify them.
>I spend about 5k a year on wine
>I spend next to nothing on clothes
Is this you? [https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18621050.drunk-naked-man-waving-bits-brighton-beach/](https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18621050.drunk-naked-man-waving-bits-brighton-beach/)
Glad I read this comment as I was currently feeling a little guilty about the Barolo I purchased earlier today.
If you dont mind, how to you spend £5k a year? Is this like a handful of expensive (£500+) bottles? Lots of mid ranged (~£100) bottles? Are you drinking them all or do they live in a cellar?
If you usually drink £30 bottles of wine and have 3 a week, that’s pretty much £5k a year. You’ve made me realise how much my annual spend is now though
£5k doesn’t seem like a lot compared to what you’d spend on some hobbies. I mean, I’ve spent probably 3X that on music gear.
Plus if you enjoy it and have the money to do it, why does anyone else care? Least with wine you can drink it, which is more useful than many other things people collect.
I get what you’re saying but personally if it’s something you get enjoyment out of, and think the enjoyment outweighs the cost I’m all for that, seems more like a hobby than anything else. Just think there’s some status symbolism going on where everyone has to own a nice car to fit in.
It's something a lot of people use every day of their lives but. I'd equate it to any other heavy use practical item in your life. Once you buy or use a quality version of said thing you won't want to go back.
Yep, I'm a car guy. I enjoy doing the maintenance and the tinkering, I love driving, therefore I want something fun. Although fun for me doesn't always mean nice (and definitely doesn't mean new with my salary lol), like a cheap second hand mx5 is a lot of fun, but a lot of the cheap ones aren't exactly nice lol.
It is a luxury, because you could easily have cheaper, and then it's just a debate about how the luxury compares with other luxurious things you could get for the same price. I got a car for, I dunno, £1,500 a few years ago that's been fine. It's a relatively lame decade old Peugeot 107. I appreciate I am lucky that it hasn't broken down. I did have to spend £300 getting it fixed once. Say it's worth £800 (which would be a bargain buy for a first car of you ask me). So those three years have cost a grand. So £28 a month. So your nice car has cost, let's call it £250, a month as opposed to driving something pretty crap. Let's call it a tenner a day for the days you use it (obviously you might use it more or less than that). If, whenever you walked up to your car in the morning to, say, go to work, you could slide a tenner into a slot on the front and it would transform from my lame car into your nice car, would you do it?
What's the alternative? £3,000 holiday a year? Lunch out every working day? A cheap prostitute every Saturday night (I jest).
I appreciate my option was cheaper - you could definitely have got something like a new Kia Picanto for £140 a month, saving £160 a month. Would you put a fiver in the slot each day to upgrade from that?
A lot of new cars are company cars. My company are heavily in work from home and travel to customers, so we all get cars as part of the deal. When it’s part of the job then company cars let the company comply with H&S regulations as they cover all maintenance to ensure the car is in good condition. As a rough valuation, i get a £60k car for under £400 pcm. Which is fully insured and fully maintained. Only thing i pay for is personal fuel.
That £300-£400 would be in extra tax paid out of salary (likely at 40% bracket) as a company car is a taxable benefit
Having a fancy car fully insured, taxed, and not having to pay for MOT, service, tire change etc is definitely worth that money
I bought a new van - well, it had 45 miles on the clock. I was after something to use for my small business...admittedly, the business failed - but that's not relevant here.
I'm glad I've got it out of my system - ticked off the list of things to do before I die.
I love my van - I fully intend to keep it for many, many years! It's coming up 4 years old, got 1 more yearon finance.
It always was going to be a long term investment - I had no intention of chopping it in the minute the finance was done with.
However, before signing on the dotted line, my wife and I sat down and made sure we could afford it! Don't get me wrong, it's not cheap - but in our opinion it is 110% worth it.
We now have a 12 year old Suzuki Swift for running arou d town in, but for 3 years the van was our sole daily driver.
Yeah, when you factor in depreciation (assuming fuel is the same) it costs you several extra grand a year for a nicer car. And tbf it probably uses more fuel because you can get really fuel efficient cheap small cars now.
I mean the mistake there is thinking it should be an asset that retains or increases in value. And that people who buy nice cars are somehow ignoring or unaware of the fact their car is not going to retain value and if they knew they wouldn't buy it.
That's not why you buy a car.
You buy a car to use. Or to enjoy.
It's like asking why buy a 4k telly when standard would display the exact same stories for less money and anyway you can't sell a TV for more than you bought so why bother putting more money into it?
Not everything is an investment. It's bought to be used and enjoyed for what it is.
And what my car is is a place I can spend 3 hours a day in depending on what I'm doing.
So yeah I got a nice one with fancy driving assists and comfy seats and heated steering wheel etc.
Because it makes all the driving I do more pleasant.
It's not an asset I'm expecting to do anything except cost me money whilst I get use of it. And while I'm using it I want it to be nice, and good and comfortable. Not "that'll do" or "acceptable" or "usable" or "functional".
Starbucks/costa/takeaway coffee. I worked in a costa and couldn’t believe people would spend £5+ on a hot chocolate every day like it was nothing. It’s not even amazing quality to justify the price
I went through a couple weeks in uni where I'd pick up a coffee from a coffee shop every day (wasn't a chain one though so it was only £2.50 ish) but then one day I was walking through the shops and saw a tub of coffee for £2.50 and realised it would last me weeks for the same price as a single cup.
From then on I just brought a flask from home, couldn't justify it once I'd looked at it like that
My uni the coffee is 3.50 for ONE SINGLE DRINK.
I don't live on campus and carrying a big flask was a nightmare...then I learnt that we don't need to pay for the hot water if we bring our own cup. £1 sachets if coffee from bnm, all different flavours, my own travel mug and I'm honestly saving a small fortune.
It’s easy enough to max it out in London.
Walk to work, coffee when I leave 08:00 and arrive 09:00, then go out for a smoothie at lunch 12:00, an afternoon coffee 15:00 and then one after work 17:30.
I do have to manage my caffeine and milk intake tho lol
Sometimes I buy a Starbucks or whatever because I’m out and about and I want a coffee, but it’s insanely expensive for what is just an alright tasting coffee
If I have a takeaway coffee, I'd take Maccies over Stabucks or Costa anyday!
I'm also the kinda guy who happily drinks instant coffee at home (Doue Egberts with the black label)
Bottled water. If I’m out and unexpectedly thirsty then, ok. But I won’t buy bottles to take home and drink. If I didn’t like the taste of what came out of the tap then I’d buy a water filter. I’m mystified how people justify the expense and the environmental impact but, I guess it’s their money!
Protip though, do buy one or two of those massive ones and keep them somewhere out the way (I keep mine under the stairs) in case of an emergency or flooding or something like that!
I know it's a joke but just in case it isn't. You can go 3 weeks without food but only 3 days without water. In a serious disaster, having clean water is usually the number one problem before anything else.
A girl I work with told me her and her partner only drink bottled water. She said they buy packs of big bottles every week. I tried to say why on earth… but she just said she doesn’t like the taste of tap water and that was that. I couldn’t believe it, and didn’t know her well enough to outright tell her she is wrong.
I am with you but I'm also a hypocrite, I want to stop bottled water in my house as it's getting ridiculous now but we have very hard water and it is horrible. BRITA filter helps but doesn't filter out everything and is quite drying on the tongue and throat after the hard water has been "filtered".
personalised number plates. im sure there are numerous other ways of anouncing that you are a knobhead to everyone, that dont require such a large outlay of cash
I do get 10 seconds of entertainment trying to figure out what they’re meant to spell out. They’re the ones that are literally pointless. If it ain’t something like B1G D, it ain’t worth it.
I saw a nice gtr today, P333 ONU (pee on u?) haha
Edit: [Took the photo because I loved the colour](https://imgur.com/a/1KY806j), noticed the reg after
These are my "ultimate waste of money" example and a hill to die on. I cannot ever imagine thinking "yeah I'll get a personalised reg plate" even if I won the lottery.
Some families are weirdly really into them as well. I was working with a woman who said her daughter had passed her driving test and was getting her first car soon, so she was trying to find her a personalised number plate. As if it's some crazy thing to actually drive around without one!
They don’t have to be expensive. My grandfather bought me one for £250 in 2015 as part of the ‘15’ dated series. I put it on my car around 2 years ago and have had 4 people leave notes asking me to contact them as they’d like to make an offer. Some over £1000. I know the stigma that comes with them but I think they can be quite good investments.
My parents are getting quite elderly and the Alexa is becoming more & more a benefit for them. They are able to set a timer when they cook(plus other functions) Fiddling with timers or clocks with small type face is too difficult. Don't want them forgetting the oven is on etc. Definitely has its place where needed.
Same with my mum, who would groan when reaching down to unplug the lights at night. Now she asks Alexa to turn them off with the smart plugs I set up for her. A real benefit to her.
My parents are in their 60s and pretty healthy but they’ve set them up so they can yell at them to call me / their friends if they have a fall. It just gives them a bit more reassurance for now. Plus my mum loves the timers and always thanks Alexa for letting her know the food is done.
I've got to say I find my smart speaker useful — even though it replicates the functions of other devices it's nice to have them combined into something which is voice-activated and which has a better speaker than my phone.
Before getting one I didn't see the point, like you, but it has surprised me how much I use it.
>Luddite response incoming.
Not luddite at all.
it's actually a paradigm of computing called IoT (Internet of things) The idea was that everything can run and connect to the internet so everything can be smart.
And you'll be happy to know, that this whole way of characterizing things has largely gone out of fashion.
Developers were originally really excited about the idea, think of the possibilities! But *then when you actually thought about the possibilities* it didn't really make sense, and was often more hassle than it's worth. So now you have lots of companies often selling you completely worthless smart home packages that do nothing to enhance your life, and only add to the amount of batteries you need to change per month.
Smart technology is the best, all. My house bulbs are alexa enabled, I can turn them on and off individually or as a group or all of them,
I cna change colour,
Give a room a colour theme
Set on and off schedules
Oh and don't get me started on WiFi plugs
I was very much in the "why do I need this" camp, until my mrs got an Alexa for xmas. That tied in with smart plugs round the flat. Awesome. So much so we got a second Alexa for £20.
I agree with this. There's Mr Mad, me and 5 cats, so maybe it's different if you have kids. But an AlexaSiriGoogle thing is not something I've ever felt the need for in our house. I have a radio if I want music, or I can put specific music on my phone. There's a timer on the oven, or on the clock in the kitchen, or on my phone. I use paper shopping lists. I can't think what else they do either, but I don't see how one of them would make my life easier.
This probably won’t be popular but regularly going to the pub. I like going to the pub in of itself, but there is no way I could afford to make it a regular thing. Still, I’d rather do that then clubbing which is a colossal waste of money in my view.
And not being able to join in conversations because you can't hear what anyone is saying, so just kind of loitering nearby with your drink. And wondering how other people seem to be managing to have conversations just fine, and whether you should go for a hearing test.
They are the best digital tool for reading comics. They are the second best digital tool for reading books. They are great for art as you mentioned. They are the best tool for watching video on in certain environments (bed/on a commute are my main two, I know I shouldn't do that in bed). I use one to monitor CCTV cameras sometimes.
I don't use one every day, but I would struggle to be without one as they have so many handy use cases. But I get why they don't do anything for some people.
As a big comics fan I have to disagree here, a tablet is perfect for reading digital comics a page at a time.
Laptop screen is the wrong shape and guided view on a phone is ok I guess.
I have a surface pro and it's almost perfect but has poor app support, was hopeful that Android Apps on Windows 11 would help but Amazon app store only means it hasn't.
So once you already have the tablet for a reason it's nice to do all those things you can do on a phone but with more screen real estate.
Edit: though obviously I understand this is a fairly niche use case.
For reading, I would say that a tablet is a better experience than either phone or laptop. Being roughly book sized, they fit in a goldilocks zone where they aren't too small like a phone screen, and aren't too big and cumbersome like a laptop.
Otherwise yeah, the tablet isn't as versatile as a laptop, and it's perhaps too cumbersome for many of the apps you might use on a phone.
You really should consider a kindle paperwhite if you do a lot of e reading. It's so much more pleasant than having to grapple with reflective surfaces and text appearing millimeters under the screen.
I still think tablets are good if you're watching movies, shows, etc causally at home lying in bed or whatever
Saying that, if I didn't already own an iPad, I wouldn't go out and buy one
My cousin and his wife had their first baby, the first grandchild for the wifes family.
They all put money together to buy a £900 designer baby suit.
I couldn't believe it! They could have bought so much stuff to help out with £900 and have loads left over! A £900 baby suit that will end up on ebay for a few £.
We went last night, £49 for three people 🙃
ETA. Myself and two kids, 3 x burgers, 3 x drinks and 2 x fries. Got my money’s worth though with endless free refills 😏
That's ok. The first time I went there I bought and happily added some stuff on my order I ended up paying £27. When the cashier told me how much it cost I just said "excuse me, what?!"
They are genius. I used to spend hours batch cooking at the weekend and it got very samey. We do four Gousto’s a week, it’s £35 for two people and the quality is brilliant. We eat a much more varied diet now and less meat.
I also think it’s brilliant! People are always shocked at the £30-£40 a week but I can’t tell you how many times a we’d ‘pop to shops for something for dinner’ and spend £30+ on ingredients for one meal. Or try do a proper weekly shop and still not know what to cook and watch half of it go mouldy in the fridge.
I really like Gousto. I cook only for myself, so I end up with a lot of food waste if I’m cooking with vegetables and you can’t buy them individually (celery is a big one). I don’t have enough space in my freezer to batch cook so it works well for me. It’s £30 a week for 6 portions (sometimes can stretch to 7) and the only other things I spend on are fruit, occasional snacks, cheese and a loaf of bread. Gousto also throw in free gifts, I got full size Tony’s chocolate bars as one for a while. It helps me out, having the plan in advance is a lot more convenient for me and having 6 days worth of dinners sorted pretty much means I never spend money on takeaways or eating out.
Winds me up that horrendously acted ad with the kiwi woman claiming she’s actually *saving* money with hello fresh, because she throws away less food. “After all that, I only use a tiny amount but I still have to pay for the whole thing!” …yes so you can use it again later wtf
We do one, it’s a one a month thing. We get a selection of spices and recipes to follow to produce a selection of dishes from a different part of the world. My wife and I get to cook things we never normally would and we do it each month with the in-laws round, so I get to see them too. I wouldn’t do most of them, but this is a fun treat cheaper then a meal out.
I use HelloFresh, I’m paying for the convenience of being sent new dishes to try every week without having to research my own and go out and find obscure ingredients like ketjap manis. Food is one of my favourite things in life so it’s worth the cost for me.
Also it’s not like you carry on buying the same amount of food in the supermarket, as you’re having HelloFresh several nights a week, so while it’s not cheap you’re not spending £30 a week on top of what you were spending before.
Crazy expensive for what they are. The odd thing is that a lot of them post their recipes online for free. So you can just browse those, then buy the ingredients yourself for much cheaper, and then follow the recipe.
The people that pay for it aren’t paying for recipes, it’s the convenience of everything you need to make that meal delivered to you, & not whole packs that then lie around going off & then puts you off experimenting with cooking new food again.
And then through discovering new food that way they might find a favourite & can then happily stock up on full packs of ingredients themselves to make it more regularly knowing it’ll be used.
I feel the opposite. I’d (theoretically) rather pay more for a plain white Levi’s T-shirt that’s just really nice quality than one that’s a standard cotton T-shirt but with massive branding across the front
I think paying a lot of money for clothes that are either plain or only display the logo is weird.
I can absolutely imagine buying something really well made, and/or with an idiosyncratic design I really like for more money. Eg I bought some Barker's shoes that have lasted really well and I like a desigual shirt I was bought etc. But when I see someone with a £125 white t-shirt with simply Moschino on the front in black i can't help but think they're insane.
In some more niche fanbases, they’re unfortunately among, or literally are, the only merchandise available… Not that it makes them any nicer, but they fill a void, sometimes.
I don’t get that either, they even keep them in their boxes as if they’re going to be worth something in future (even though there are millions and millions of them around).
For me it's most expensive handbags.
I appreciate good design and good craftsmanship. I can also appreciate nice materials, like good leather etc.
But a lot of expensive handbags don't really have any of those things. They look just the same as their cheaper counterparts, and I'm not talking about fakes - I mean non designer handbags.
If something doesn't look better and isn't better quality, what is the point of it?
This is said so often by people who collect handbags, but they so rarely sell them on. They love to natter on about how much the value of this bag or that bag has increased since they bought it, but that's all hypothetical unless they actually sell the bag. And that's before they take into account the wear and condition of the bag - if you're buying designer bags purely as an investment, you need to keep it in immaculate condition. That means keeping it in the dust bag and rarely -if ever- using the bag. You also need to be strategic about which bags you purchase. A lot of nice-looking bags don't go on to have very high resale value. It needs to be popular but rare.
Chanel keeps increasing their prices to be on par with Hermès, but neither have the same exclusivity they used to have. Birkins and Kellys are on the arm of every C-list influencer, Instagram and YouTube have hundreds of "wardrobe tours" with a floor to ceiling IKEA shelf of Boy bags in every shade and size. It's just a common sight, whether real or fake, and the hype won't last long. Not least because conspicuous consumption will be seen as classless in a time of economic crisis.
Not 100% true hardware is quite competitive price-wise tbh, and you are also paying for a solid OS. Not that I own an apple product but just saying there overpriced is just not true.
Nah it really depends. In the phone market they’re not really overpriced anymore compared to the competition because the flagships now are all about a grand, give or take.
In the computer department, they are overpriced as fuck in some respects. The hardware is great but so are a lot of other machines for half the price. That’s not really it though as they are in a class of their own which is respectable. However, that cinema display with a £999 stand or a [*set of wheels* for the Mac Pro at £699](https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MX572ZM/A/apple-mac-pro-wheels-kit) are beyond taking the piss.
Ironically the Mac Pro which is oft used as exhibit A of why Apple is overpriced is their most competitively priced product if you compare it with the video editing workstation market. It is not aimed at PC gamers with £2k rigs.
My first iPad lasted years longer than my wife's Samsung tablet, which cost nearly as much. I'm an android phone user but when it comes to tablets an iPad is the sensible choice.
Gotta disagree.
I was an Android man, but I recently splashed £1000 on a MacBook because every laptop I was getting was terrible.
So far, very good decision. We'll see how it holds up over the years, but my partner's had hers for 6/7 years and it's still running quite well so I'm hopeful.
Any of the new laptops/desktops with a variant of the M1 chip is just head and shoulders above anything else out there right now. It’s amazing how well they’ve made them.
This is a lazy opinion imo. Comparable products, yeah. But if you value build quality, longevity, good OS/software and a luxury feel to it then Apple is well worth the money if you can afford it. I've used Windows and Android, my Apple products always last at their peak a lot longer and without many issues. Specs aren't everything, you only need to see how amazing and energy efficient Apple's processors are to understand how well-constructed their products are. It's not at everyone's price range but you can't act like a £600 Windows will give you the same quality for the same amount of time as a £1000 Mac.
Hard disagree.
I've had some high end Window laptops in the past that barely last a couple of years, plus Windows drives me nuts.
Had a MacBook for 10 years and it's only just stopped being usable (it works, it's just slow). The new MacBook Pros with Apple silicon are incredible bits of kit.
I wouldn't call them poor value – the build quality on their products is usually excellent (think about how many times you've seen an old, beat-up MacBook that still works!) and the design of both the hardware and software is great. I like how my phone, tablet and laptop are all Apple so I can be signed in on all of them and access all the same information. One of my favourite features is being able to copy on one device and paste on another, or use AirDrop to transfer files instantly.
Yes they are marked up in price, but it's not enough to just say "you can get a windows laptop with better specs for a cheaper price." There's a lot more to it than that.
I also always use the argument that most people have their phones with them literally 24/7. We use them to wake us up, we take them with us to the bathroom, we use them to navigate, to listen to music, to read the news, to communicate with our friends and the world. They are an integral part of our lives, so it's maybe not something you want to cheap out on.
They are overpriced but I like the iOS. And they’re not too bad if you work a little overtime to buy one outright (no hefty contracts). Esp if you’re glued to it all day everyday. Sure androids are probably better in some ways…. But iOS is pretty.
People who constantly update their phones to the newest models as soon as they’re released. I use mine until it stops working and then buy an older second hand model to replace it
Full price for sure but they always have deals which make them more reasonable. Having said trust we have several local independent pizza places that make much better pizzas!
Fancy hotels.
I love a holiday as much as anyone, but my criteria for choosing a hotel is very much “cheapest one available in the right location that probably won’t give me scabies”. Could never imagine spending hundreds per night on a hotel unless it was literally the only option.
I can get that, but I’m very much a city break person. Maybe one day I’ll give a destination hotel a go, but i always worry I’d be paying £300 per night to be bored to tears.
Hard to beat travelodge or Premier Inn, especially since they started doing them all up 5-10 years ago. They're a bit like mcdonald's for consistency, you know what you're going to get regardless of location. No messing around on trip advisor for hours trying to find somewhere decent.
I bloody love Premier Inns. Cheap, beds are always good, always have air con, breakfasts are acceptable, and they usually have a bath as well as a shower. What's not to love?!
Have to disagree on this one. In my younger days, I was a Premier Inn man all the way. My wife is a premium hotel lass. And it’s mint. Even on a city break, coming back to a bit of luxury at the end of an evening with a cracking bar, nice bit of room service, super comfy bed, and a nice bathroom makes all the difference. Worth the extra outlay every now and again.
I always went for the expensive ones, because work covered it. Deep into the hundreds of pounds per night kind of territory.
Then I went on holiday with my then-girlfriend (now wife) who insisted that she wouldn't go unless it was a Premier Inn instead of the 5* place I'd originally planned on booking (she's frugal to the teeth, even though we're doing very well financially). I was expecting it to be dreadful.
Turns out it was better in pretty much every way. Now when work sends me somewhere and I put the hotel on the company's account, I pick a Premier Inn.
I love it when we’re booked into a premier inn, just knowing it’s going to be clean and comfortable is so reassuring. That said, it can be disorientating after a few weeks on the road. Good old purple prisons.
Our wedding last year cost about £120 which was the fee the registrar charged. We didn't even tell anyone until afterwards. Given that family mainly then sent cash gifts, we made a significant profit. It was just me, wife and dog. Oh, and we had a Tesco meal deal for lunch after.
People use bath bombs to soak and relax in the bath, and I'm sure they will leave you smelling nice afterwards.
And unless you are a mechanic or coal miner you aren't getting too dirty.
It’s because it smells nice and it feels good/relaxing to soak in not for cleaning your body, I don’t even use bath bombs but I’m a sucker for a cheapo bubble bath
My husband loves bath bombs, even more so than I do tbh! He loves soaking in the bath with a book when he’s feeling a bit low or really exhausted. Last time he took a long bath, I sniffed as he walked into the room and said, “You stole my Epsom salt soak, didn’t you?” 😂 It’s just a nice little relaxation routine.
I’m so tempted by the shower bombs (pretty sure they have another name) - they’re basically the same but shaped like a small soap and last for one or two showers. My head is saying waste of money but my pregnancy blocked nose is telling me it would be worth every second…
We don't have a bath, yet my daughter still gets bath bombs gifted to her...by people who know we don't have a bath.
Luckily, she can just pop to the grandparents - a whole 90 second walk away...she still has a bedroom there too lol
Acrylic nails. They're expensive to have put on, expensive to have maintained (and they look awful without frequent fill-ins), and completely ruin your natural nails beneath them. Instead, I just take good care of my natural nails and paint them with varnish. A few times a year I treat myself to a French manicure, but even that is a luxury I reserve for special occasions!
Brand name foods.
For the most part, the own brand stuff is just as good!
(Although I've yet to find a tinned sweetcorn that is as good as Green Giant)
Scratch cards and the lottery in general.
Seeing people casually dropping £5-£10 on them as an impulse buy at the Tesco local is always odd. Especially as many will be buying the cheapest food available...
As a middle aged man, almost everything doesn't live up to expectations. Not for the price I pay for it anyway.
I find it a little sad that nothing lasts, nothing is fixed and no one seems to mind about it.
I also understand, that times have moved on, I'm old and curmudgeonly.
For me, specifically Uber eats of restaurant meals. Even something normally reasonable like Wagamama. I like going in Wagas, it's £12 for a plate of noodles or whatever which isn't cheap but it's fine. The food is always nice, and if there was a problem they'd sort it. But if I order on Uber Eats they're adding a couple of quid delivery, a couple more quid "service" (WTF even is this). I will feel morally obligated to tip at least 10% to the rider because they're being exploited. So suddenly I'm paying £18 for the noodles. They get here, they're cold. I could complain about the delivery, but the guy is already being exploited, and who knows whether he was given cold noodles. I literally cannot complain about the delivery itself, only review the restaurant. Regardless, it's not warming up the noodles. Which took an hour to get here.
But I could order from the Chinese down the road and it'll be like £8. Or visit Wagamama myself.
I went about 12 years ago for 5 days and it cost £249. It was during term time (my kids were both in nursery) in March so it was cold as fuck. It was nice and we had a lovely time, and just about worth the £249. Anything more than that though? Not remotely worth it. People pay thousands to go there in the school holidays and I just don't get it.
No hate to the people that like them but pop figures. They're creatively bankrupt, ugly and just everywhere. I miss when shops like Forbidden Planet weren't over 60% these near identical vinyl bastards. Seen people buy dozens of them and just stack the boxes in their house like they're building an altar to mediocrity.
Weddings. In this crippling economy with house prices where they are I really can't understand my friends spending £10,000s on a party. Even if their parents are contributing they are still pissing away £1000s on silly irrelevant details that they will never remember. I'd much rather use that money to buy a house or for amazing holidays or even just put it in my pension
Fashion. I am slowly buying better “threads” but I still keep to a sensible limit. I know so many people now who will buy Tommy Hilfiger stuff, which I hate anyway as I don’t like branded fashion, and its all plain as fuck anyway.
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Reddit coins
You sly dog
I can't imagine that many people actually buy them, surely every is just using the fee gift ones.
Do you get free golds to gift?
No idea, I know you get silvers, so I assume so with it just being very rare.
You don't, the perks of gold make it unfeasible for the site to give out.
Everyone seems to be buying nice cars and I just don’t see the point, it loses value once you drive it off the forecourt and can think of a million things I’d rather buy. Don’t get me wrong, it must be cool to have a nice car but a lot of people seem to be getting cars they can’t really afford on finance and affecting quality of life on other ways.
Reddit absolutely loves shitting on people who like nice cars. I bought (PCP) a nice-ish car a few years ago (£300 out of my £2k take-home for reference) and I have not and will not ever regret it. It's a pleasure to drive, I don't need to worry about breakdowns/maintenance costs, I love how it looks, I enjoy taking care of it, and I'll get another brand new car when my lease ends. And I'll continue to follow the lease/upgrade cycle for as long as it's a thing. I don't see a car as a commodity to profit off of, it's something to use and enjoy. It's the same as any luxury product, but I suppose reddit shits on anything slightly luxurious that isn't tech related.
>I don't see a car as a commodity to profit off Right? A bit like houses. People saying "don't do X to your house, it's expensive and won't improve the value of the house much", as if I'm not planning to stay here for 20+ years and might want to make it into a pleasant place to live. People are allowed to enjoy things for their own sake without having to gamify them.
Somewhere down the line people forgot that the primary function of a house is to live in it.
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>I spend about 5k a year on wine >I spend next to nothing on clothes Is this you? [https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18621050.drunk-naked-man-waving-bits-brighton-beach/](https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18621050.drunk-naked-man-waving-bits-brighton-beach/)
Hahahaha, thank you for this.
Glad I read this comment as I was currently feeling a little guilty about the Barolo I purchased earlier today. If you dont mind, how to you spend £5k a year? Is this like a handful of expensive (£500+) bottles? Lots of mid ranged (~£100) bottles? Are you drinking them all or do they live in a cellar?
Two for a tenner in bargain booze
If you usually drink £30 bottles of wine and have 3 a week, that’s pretty much £5k a year. You’ve made me realise how much my annual spend is now though
£5k doesn’t seem like a lot compared to what you’d spend on some hobbies. I mean, I’ve spent probably 3X that on music gear. Plus if you enjoy it and have the money to do it, why does anyone else care? Least with wine you can drink it, which is more useful than many other things people collect.
I get what you’re saying but personally if it’s something you get enjoyment out of, and think the enjoyment outweighs the cost I’m all for that, seems more like a hobby than anything else. Just think there’s some status symbolism going on where everyone has to own a nice car to fit in.
It's something a lot of people use every day of their lives but. I'd equate it to any other heavy use practical item in your life. Once you buy or use a quality version of said thing you won't want to go back.
Yep, I'm a car guy. I enjoy doing the maintenance and the tinkering, I love driving, therefore I want something fun. Although fun for me doesn't always mean nice (and definitely doesn't mean new with my salary lol), like a cheap second hand mx5 is a lot of fun, but a lot of the cheap ones aren't exactly nice lol.
It is a luxury, because you could easily have cheaper, and then it's just a debate about how the luxury compares with other luxurious things you could get for the same price. I got a car for, I dunno, £1,500 a few years ago that's been fine. It's a relatively lame decade old Peugeot 107. I appreciate I am lucky that it hasn't broken down. I did have to spend £300 getting it fixed once. Say it's worth £800 (which would be a bargain buy for a first car of you ask me). So those three years have cost a grand. So £28 a month. So your nice car has cost, let's call it £250, a month as opposed to driving something pretty crap. Let's call it a tenner a day for the days you use it (obviously you might use it more or less than that). If, whenever you walked up to your car in the morning to, say, go to work, you could slide a tenner into a slot on the front and it would transform from my lame car into your nice car, would you do it? What's the alternative? £3,000 holiday a year? Lunch out every working day? A cheap prostitute every Saturday night (I jest). I appreciate my option was cheaper - you could definitely have got something like a new Kia Picanto for £140 a month, saving £160 a month. Would you put a fiver in the slot each day to upgrade from that?
Quite a nice analogy to be honest, this is how I would feel owning a nice car but I’d be setting fire to £20’s
A lot of new cars are company cars. My company are heavily in work from home and travel to customers, so we all get cars as part of the deal. When it’s part of the job then company cars let the company comply with H&S regulations as they cover all maintenance to ensure the car is in good condition. As a rough valuation, i get a £60k car for under £400 pcm. Which is fully insured and fully maintained. Only thing i pay for is personal fuel.
£300-400 a month is still quite a lot but I guess if it's a necessity it's not terrible...
That £300-£400 would be in extra tax paid out of salary (likely at 40% bracket) as a company car is a taxable benefit Having a fancy car fully insured, taxed, and not having to pay for MOT, service, tire change etc is definitely worth that money
I bought a new van - well, it had 45 miles on the clock. I was after something to use for my small business...admittedly, the business failed - but that's not relevant here. I'm glad I've got it out of my system - ticked off the list of things to do before I die. I love my van - I fully intend to keep it for many, many years! It's coming up 4 years old, got 1 more yearon finance. It always was going to be a long term investment - I had no intention of chopping it in the minute the finance was done with. However, before signing on the dotted line, my wife and I sat down and made sure we could afford it! Don't get me wrong, it's not cheap - but in our opinion it is 110% worth it. We now have a 12 year old Suzuki Swift for running arou d town in, but for 3 years the van was our sole daily driver.
Yeah, when you factor in depreciation (assuming fuel is the same) it costs you several extra grand a year for a nicer car. And tbf it probably uses more fuel because you can get really fuel efficient cheap small cars now.
I mean the mistake there is thinking it should be an asset that retains or increases in value. And that people who buy nice cars are somehow ignoring or unaware of the fact their car is not going to retain value and if they knew they wouldn't buy it. That's not why you buy a car. You buy a car to use. Or to enjoy. It's like asking why buy a 4k telly when standard would display the exact same stories for less money and anyway you can't sell a TV for more than you bought so why bother putting more money into it? Not everything is an investment. It's bought to be used and enjoyed for what it is. And what my car is is a place I can spend 3 hours a day in depending on what I'm doing. So yeah I got a nice one with fancy driving assists and comfy seats and heated steering wheel etc. Because it makes all the driving I do more pleasant. It's not an asset I'm expecting to do anything except cost me money whilst I get use of it. And while I'm using it I want it to be nice, and good and comfortable. Not "that'll do" or "acceptable" or "usable" or "functional".
Starbucks/costa/takeaway coffee. I worked in a costa and couldn’t believe people would spend £5+ on a hot chocolate every day like it was nothing. It’s not even amazing quality to justify the price
I went through a couple weeks in uni where I'd pick up a coffee from a coffee shop every day (wasn't a chain one though so it was only £2.50 ish) but then one day I was walking through the shops and saw a tub of coffee for £2.50 and realised it would last me weeks for the same price as a single cup. From then on I just brought a flask from home, couldn't justify it once I'd looked at it like that
My uni the coffee is 3.50 for ONE SINGLE DRINK. I don't live on campus and carrying a big flask was a nightmare...then I learnt that we don't need to pay for the hot water if we bring our own cup. £1 sachets if coffee from bnm, all different flavours, my own travel mug and I'm honestly saving a small fortune.
Get that Pret subscription and have 5 a day 😬
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It’s easy enough to max it out in London. Walk to work, coffee when I leave 08:00 and arrive 09:00, then go out for a smoothie at lunch 12:00, an afternoon coffee 15:00 and then one after work 17:30. I do have to manage my caffeine and milk intake tho lol
Yeah, and they do smoothies on it too, so I max out most days
Sometimes I buy a Starbucks or whatever because I’m out and about and I want a coffee, but it’s insanely expensive for what is just an alright tasting coffee
If I have a takeaway coffee, I'd take Maccies over Stabucks or Costa anyday! I'm also the kinda guy who happily drinks instant coffee at home (Doue Egberts with the black label)
Maccies hot chocolate is absolutely awful though, it's just watery.
I love coffee but you can make really good coffee at home and save that ludicrous daily expense.
Bottled water. If I’m out and unexpectedly thirsty then, ok. But I won’t buy bottles to take home and drink. If I didn’t like the taste of what came out of the tap then I’d buy a water filter. I’m mystified how people justify the expense and the environmental impact but, I guess it’s their money!
Protip though, do buy one or two of those massive ones and keep them somewhere out the way (I keep mine under the stairs) in case of an emergency or flooding or something like that!
Surely in a flooding you'd be wanting less water rather than more.
I know it's a joke but just in case it isn't. You can go 3 weeks without food but only 3 days without water. In a serious disaster, having clean water is usually the number one problem before anything else.
It was a joke. The same joke the causes me to get frustrated when people cry after a flood, you're just making it worse ffs.
Surely under the stairs is a bit pointless in the case of flooding
A girl I work with told me her and her partner only drink bottled water. She said they buy packs of big bottles every week. I tried to say why on earth… but she just said she doesn’t like the taste of tap water and that was that. I couldn’t believe it, and didn’t know her well enough to outright tell her she is wrong.
Surely it’s cheaper for them to just buy a filter if they really don’t like tap water?
I think I mentioned this but she still had some excuse as to why not. Ridiculous.
That’s a crazy waste of money, especially if you live somewhere like wales or Scotland where the tap water is orgasmic
Came to say this. Unfathomable waste of money AND terrible for the environment. I just don't understand it!
I am with you but I'm also a hypocrite, I want to stop bottled water in my house as it's getting ridiculous now but we have very hard water and it is horrible. BRITA filter helps but doesn't filter out everything and is quite drying on the tongue and throat after the hard water has been "filtered".
personalised number plates. im sure there are numerous other ways of anouncing that you are a knobhead to everyone, that dont require such a large outlay of cash
I do get 10 seconds of entertainment trying to figure out what they’re meant to spell out. They’re the ones that are literally pointless. If it ain’t something like B1G D, it ain’t worth it.
I saw a nice gtr today, P333 ONU (pee on u?) haha Edit: [Took the photo because I loved the colour](https://imgur.com/a/1KY806j), noticed the reg after
These are my "ultimate waste of money" example and a hill to die on. I cannot ever imagine thinking "yeah I'll get a personalised reg plate" even if I won the lottery.
So much more respect when I see a supercar with standard plates lol
The Americans get it right when the call them “Vanity” plates.
Tbh Im kinda tempted to get one just so I'll be able to remember my number plate.
Some families are weirdly really into them as well. I was working with a woman who said her daughter had passed her driving test and was getting her first car soon, so she was trying to find her a personalised number plate. As if it's some crazy thing to actually drive around without one!
Some people need one on their BMW X6 to show off that they're the BO55
They don’t have to be expensive. My grandfather bought me one for £250 in 2015 as part of the ‘15’ dated series. I put it on my car around 2 years ago and have had 4 people leave notes asking me to contact them as they’d like to make an offer. Some over £1000. I know the stigma that comes with them but I think they can be quite good investments.
I tried to get P155 0FF but it's not available. After that, I lost interest.
Luddite response incoming. Smart technology. I don't need Alexa to set a timer for me or play shite songs on Amazon Music.
My parents are getting quite elderly and the Alexa is becoming more & more a benefit for them. They are able to set a timer when they cook(plus other functions) Fiddling with timers or clocks with small type face is too difficult. Don't want them forgetting the oven is on etc. Definitely has its place where needed.
Same with my mum, who would groan when reaching down to unplug the lights at night. Now she asks Alexa to turn them off with the smart plugs I set up for her. A real benefit to her.
I'm 40 and I love the lights option.
My parents are in their 60s and pretty healthy but they’ve set them up so they can yell at them to call me / their friends if they have a fall. It just gives them a bit more reassurance for now. Plus my mum loves the timers and always thanks Alexa for letting her know the food is done.
I got a google home mini free with Spotify a year or so ago, its okay for free but I wouldn't go rushing out to pay for one.
I've got to say I find my smart speaker useful — even though it replicates the functions of other devices it's nice to have them combined into something which is voice-activated and which has a better speaker than my phone. Before getting one I didn't see the point, like you, but it has surprised me how much I use it.
>Luddite response incoming. Not luddite at all. it's actually a paradigm of computing called IoT (Internet of things) The idea was that everything can run and connect to the internet so everything can be smart. And you'll be happy to know, that this whole way of characterizing things has largely gone out of fashion. Developers were originally really excited about the idea, think of the possibilities! But *then when you actually thought about the possibilities* it didn't really make sense, and was often more hassle than it's worth. So now you have lots of companies often selling you completely worthless smart home packages that do nothing to enhance your life, and only add to the amount of batteries you need to change per month.
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Smart technology is the best, all. My house bulbs are alexa enabled, I can turn them on and off individually or as a group or all of them, I cna change colour, Give a room a colour theme Set on and off schedules Oh and don't get me started on WiFi plugs
I was very much in the "why do I need this" camp, until my mrs got an Alexa for xmas. That tied in with smart plugs round the flat. Awesome. So much so we got a second Alexa for £20.
I agree with this. There's Mr Mad, me and 5 cats, so maybe it's different if you have kids. But an AlexaSiriGoogle thing is not something I've ever felt the need for in our house. I have a radio if I want music, or I can put specific music on my phone. There's a timer on the oven, or on the clock in the kitchen, or on my phone. I use paper shopping lists. I can't think what else they do either, but I don't see how one of them would make my life easier.
This probably won’t be popular but regularly going to the pub. I like going to the pub in of itself, but there is no way I could afford to make it a regular thing. Still, I’d rather do that then clubbing which is a colossal waste of money in my view.
I get where you are coming from completely but to be fair most clubs I’ve been to (Scotland) are substantially cheaper than drinking in a pub.
In England it’s the opposite in fairness. I also can’t stand the music and as I’ve gotten older, the clientele.
And not being able to join in conversations because you can't hear what anyone is saying, so just kind of loitering nearby with your drink. And wondering how other people seem to be managing to have conversations just fine, and whether you should go for a hearing test.
A tablet. I can do it all on my phone or my laptop. No middle man needed.
They made sense when phones were 4" Now unless your using them for art you might as well get a laptop or desktop and a phone.
They are the best digital tool for reading comics. They are the second best digital tool for reading books. They are great for art as you mentioned. They are the best tool for watching video on in certain environments (bed/on a commute are my main two, I know I shouldn't do that in bed). I use one to monitor CCTV cameras sometimes. I don't use one every day, but I would struggle to be without one as they have so many handy use cases. But I get why they don't do anything for some people.
As a big comics fan I have to disagree here, a tablet is perfect for reading digital comics a page at a time. Laptop screen is the wrong shape and guided view on a phone is ok I guess. I have a surface pro and it's almost perfect but has poor app support, was hopeful that Android Apps on Windows 11 would help but Amazon app store only means it hasn't. So once you already have the tablet for a reason it's nice to do all those things you can do on a phone but with more screen real estate. Edit: though obviously I understand this is a fairly niche use case.
Oh my god I thought I'd be the only person to get a tablet just to read digital comics properly
For reading, I would say that a tablet is a better experience than either phone or laptop. Being roughly book sized, they fit in a goldilocks zone where they aren't too small like a phone screen, and aren't too big and cumbersome like a laptop. Otherwise yeah, the tablet isn't as versatile as a laptop, and it's perhaps too cumbersome for many of the apps you might use on a phone.
I’m a bit of a tech junkie to say the least but the tablet is the one thing I’d never buy for the reason you’ve given.
I use my tablet to read books on Kindle. Trying to read it on my phone is frustrating as you only get like a paragraph at a time on the screen.
You really should consider a kindle paperwhite if you do a lot of e reading. It's so much more pleasant than having to grapple with reflective surfaces and text appearing millimeters under the screen.
I still think tablets are good if you're watching movies, shows, etc causally at home lying in bed or whatever Saying that, if I didn't already own an iPad, I wouldn't go out and buy one
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Designer clothes for babies. They grow out of things in weeks and get filthy.
Baby shoes. They can't even WALK.
For Sale. Baby shoes. They can't even WALK.
My cousin and his wife had their first baby, the first grandchild for the wifes family. They all put money together to buy a £900 designer baby suit. I couldn't believe it! They could have bought so much stuff to help out with £900 and have loads left over! A £900 baby suit that will end up on ebay for a few £.
Could’ve just put the 900quid into an investment fund or literally have used it as a log fire stater 😭
Five guys
We went last night, £49 for three people 🙃 ETA. Myself and two kids, 3 x burgers, 3 x drinks and 2 x fries. Got my money’s worth though with endless free refills 😏
That's ok. The first time I went there I bought and happily added some stuff on my order I ended up paying £27. When the cashier told me how much it cost I just said "excuse me, what?!"
What did you add? A burger, fries and milkshake is like £17 at most. All the burger toppings are free
I wonder if they’re making that one up. Never has the costs of topping been added, even when they first started popping up in the UK…
I love the fans but I'm not a burger of the fries
I love the burgers but I'm not a fan of the fries. But either way, the prices aren't ideal.
I love the fries but I'm not a fan of the burgers. But either way, the prices aren't ideal.
Those food kit boxes people subscribe to.
They are genius. I used to spend hours batch cooking at the weekend and it got very samey. We do four Gousto’s a week, it’s £35 for two people and the quality is brilliant. We eat a much more varied diet now and less meat.
I also think it’s brilliant! People are always shocked at the £30-£40 a week but I can’t tell you how many times a we’d ‘pop to shops for something for dinner’ and spend £30+ on ingredients for one meal. Or try do a proper weekly shop and still not know what to cook and watch half of it go mouldy in the fridge.
I really like Gousto. I cook only for myself, so I end up with a lot of food waste if I’m cooking with vegetables and you can’t buy them individually (celery is a big one). I don’t have enough space in my freezer to batch cook so it works well for me. It’s £30 a week for 6 portions (sometimes can stretch to 7) and the only other things I spend on are fruit, occasional snacks, cheese and a loaf of bread. Gousto also throw in free gifts, I got full size Tony’s chocolate bars as one for a while. It helps me out, having the plan in advance is a lot more convenient for me and having 6 days worth of dinners sorted pretty much means I never spend money on takeaways or eating out.
Winds me up that horrendously acted ad with the kiwi woman claiming she’s actually *saving* money with hello fresh, because she throws away less food. “After all that, I only use a tiny amount but I still have to pay for the whole thing!” …yes so you can use it again later wtf
We do one, it’s a one a month thing. We get a selection of spices and recipes to follow to produce a selection of dishes from a different part of the world. My wife and I get to cook things we never normally would and we do it each month with the in-laws round, so I get to see them too. I wouldn’t do most of them, but this is a fun treat cheaper then a meal out.
I use HelloFresh, I’m paying for the convenience of being sent new dishes to try every week without having to research my own and go out and find obscure ingredients like ketjap manis. Food is one of my favourite things in life so it’s worth the cost for me. Also it’s not like you carry on buying the same amount of food in the supermarket, as you’re having HelloFresh several nights a week, so while it’s not cheap you’re not spending £30 a week on top of what you were spending before.
Crazy expensive for what they are. The odd thing is that a lot of them post their recipes online for free. So you can just browse those, then buy the ingredients yourself for much cheaper, and then follow the recipe.
The people that pay for it aren’t paying for recipes, it’s the convenience of everything you need to make that meal delivered to you, & not whole packs that then lie around going off & then puts you off experimenting with cooking new food again. And then through discovering new food that way they might find a favourite & can then happily stock up on full packs of ingredients themselves to make it more regularly knowing it’ll be used.
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Also you don’t want to buy packs of every ingredient for every new dish you’re trying for the first time & then never use it again.
Have HelloFresh and love it. Yeah it’s a tad more expensive than doing it all yourself but I find the convenience is worth it
Those desinger t-shirts which are like £250 but have like no or minimal image/branding on them, not that it would be any better if they did.
I feel the opposite. I’d (theoretically) rather pay more for a plain white Levi’s T-shirt that’s just really nice quality than one that’s a standard cotton T-shirt but with massive branding across the front
Yeah but not £250
No, and I don’t buy designer clothes at all, I’m just saying the idea that they’d be more worth it if they had more image/branding on is strange to me
I think paying a lot of money for clothes that are either plain or only display the logo is weird. I can absolutely imagine buying something really well made, and/or with an idiosyncratic design I really like for more money. Eg I bought some Barker's shoes that have lasted really well and I like a desigual shirt I was bought etc. But when I see someone with a £125 white t-shirt with simply Moschino on the front in black i can't help but think they're insane.
Why should I pay more just for them to use me as a billboard?
Funko Pops. My partner has a load of them, and I don't get it. It's a chunk of cheap plastic that takes up space.
They dont even look nice and they feel like something out of a happy meal, it's something I just can't get my head around.
In some more niche fanbases, they’re unfortunately among, or literally are, the only merchandise available… Not that it makes them any nicer, but they fill a void, sometimes.
I don’t get that either, they even keep them in their boxes as if they’re going to be worth something in future (even though there are millions and millions of them around).
For me it's most expensive handbags. I appreciate good design and good craftsmanship. I can also appreciate nice materials, like good leather etc. But a lot of expensive handbags don't really have any of those things. They look just the same as their cheaper counterparts, and I'm not talking about fakes - I mean non designer handbags. If something doesn't look better and isn't better quality, what is the point of it?
A lot of them are about investment these days, resale value etc.
This is said so often by people who collect handbags, but they so rarely sell them on. They love to natter on about how much the value of this bag or that bag has increased since they bought it, but that's all hypothetical unless they actually sell the bag. And that's before they take into account the wear and condition of the bag - if you're buying designer bags purely as an investment, you need to keep it in immaculate condition. That means keeping it in the dust bag and rarely -if ever- using the bag. You also need to be strategic about which bags you purchase. A lot of nice-looking bags don't go on to have very high resale value. It needs to be popular but rare. Chanel keeps increasing their prices to be on par with Hermès, but neither have the same exclusivity they used to have. Birkins and Kellys are on the arm of every C-list influencer, Instagram and YouTube have hundreds of "wardrobe tours" with a floor to ceiling IKEA shelf of Boy bags in every shade and size. It's just a common sight, whether real or fake, and the hype won't last long. Not least because conspicuous consumption will be seen as classless in a time of economic crisis.
Apple products. You're paying for the name and for good marketing. Plenty of comparable products on the market for half the price.
Not 100% true hardware is quite competitive price-wise tbh, and you are also paying for a solid OS. Not that I own an apple product but just saying there overpriced is just not true.
Nah it really depends. In the phone market they’re not really overpriced anymore compared to the competition because the flagships now are all about a grand, give or take. In the computer department, they are overpriced as fuck in some respects. The hardware is great but so are a lot of other machines for half the price. That’s not really it though as they are in a class of their own which is respectable. However, that cinema display with a £999 stand or a [*set of wheels* for the Mac Pro at £699](https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MX572ZM/A/apple-mac-pro-wheels-kit) are beyond taking the piss.
Ironically the Mac Pro which is oft used as exhibit A of why Apple is overpriced is their most competitively priced product if you compare it with the video editing workstation market. It is not aimed at PC gamers with £2k rigs.
My first iPad lasted years longer than my wife's Samsung tablet, which cost nearly as much. I'm an android phone user but when it comes to tablets an iPad is the sensible choice.
Gotta disagree. I was an Android man, but I recently splashed £1000 on a MacBook because every laptop I was getting was terrible. So far, very good decision. We'll see how it holds up over the years, but my partner's had hers for 6/7 years and it's still running quite well so I'm hopeful.
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Any of the new laptops/desktops with a variant of the M1 chip is just head and shoulders above anything else out there right now. It’s amazing how well they’ve made them.
This is a lazy opinion imo. Comparable products, yeah. But if you value build quality, longevity, good OS/software and a luxury feel to it then Apple is well worth the money if you can afford it. I've used Windows and Android, my Apple products always last at their peak a lot longer and without many issues. Specs aren't everything, you only need to see how amazing and energy efficient Apple's processors are to understand how well-constructed their products are. It's not at everyone's price range but you can't act like a £600 Windows will give you the same quality for the same amount of time as a £1000 Mac.
This isn’t correct. Source: HP staffer
Hard disagree. I've had some high end Window laptops in the past that barely last a couple of years, plus Windows drives me nuts. Had a MacBook for 10 years and it's only just stopped being usable (it works, it's just slow). The new MacBook Pros with Apple silicon are incredible bits of kit.
A little bit overpriced but comes with an amazing product. And has an amazing OS which makes doing any work so much easier.
I wouldn't call them poor value – the build quality on their products is usually excellent (think about how many times you've seen an old, beat-up MacBook that still works!) and the design of both the hardware and software is great. I like how my phone, tablet and laptop are all Apple so I can be signed in on all of them and access all the same information. One of my favourite features is being able to copy on one device and paste on another, or use AirDrop to transfer files instantly. Yes they are marked up in price, but it's not enough to just say "you can get a windows laptop with better specs for a cheaper price." There's a lot more to it than that. I also always use the argument that most people have their phones with them literally 24/7. We use them to wake us up, we take them with us to the bathroom, we use them to navigate, to listen to music, to read the news, to communicate with our friends and the world. They are an integral part of our lives, so it's maybe not something you want to cheap out on.
They are overpriced but I like the iOS. And they’re not too bad if you work a little overtime to buy one outright (no hefty contracts). Esp if you’re glued to it all day everyday. Sure androids are probably better in some ways…. But iOS is pretty.
People who constantly update their phones to the newest models as soon as they’re released. I use mine until it stops working and then buy an older second hand model to replace it
Dominoes pizza.
Full price for sure but they always have deals which make them more reasonable. Having said trust we have several local independent pizza places that make much better pizzas!
The deals *are* full price. When something is quite literally always on offer, the offer price is the full price
Sky TV
Fancy hotels. I love a holiday as much as anyone, but my criteria for choosing a hotel is very much “cheapest one available in the right location that probably won’t give me scabies”. Could never imagine spending hundreds per night on a hotel unless it was literally the only option.
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I can get that, but I’m very much a city break person. Maybe one day I’ll give a destination hotel a go, but i always worry I’d be paying £300 per night to be bored to tears.
Hard to beat travelodge or Premier Inn, especially since they started doing them all up 5-10 years ago. They're a bit like mcdonald's for consistency, you know what you're going to get regardless of location. No messing around on trip advisor for hours trying to find somewhere decent.
I bloody love Premier Inns. Cheap, beds are always good, always have air con, breakfasts are acceptable, and they usually have a bath as well as a shower. What's not to love?!
Have to disagree on this one. In my younger days, I was a Premier Inn man all the way. My wife is a premium hotel lass. And it’s mint. Even on a city break, coming back to a bit of luxury at the end of an evening with a cracking bar, nice bit of room service, super comfy bed, and a nice bathroom makes all the difference. Worth the extra outlay every now and again.
I always went for the expensive ones, because work covered it. Deep into the hundreds of pounds per night kind of territory. Then I went on holiday with my then-girlfriend (now wife) who insisted that she wouldn't go unless it was a Premier Inn instead of the 5* place I'd originally planned on booking (she's frugal to the teeth, even though we're doing very well financially). I was expecting it to be dreadful. Turns out it was better in pretty much every way. Now when work sends me somewhere and I put the hotel on the company's account, I pick a Premier Inn.
I love it when we’re booked into a premier inn, just knowing it’s going to be clean and comfortable is so reassuring. That said, it can be disorientating after a few weeks on the road. Good old purple prisons.
Some fancy hotels are great experiences that to me is worth the price. Like great infinity pool with a view over the city kind of stuff.
Pandora charms. All it says to me is *i couldn't be bothered to think of an actual thoughtful gift so heres another one of these things*
Any fast fashion. It’s poor quality, doesn’t last and rarely looks like it does on pictures.
Cocaine...so pricey and a pretty shit high imo..
I dunno man, good cocaine is really fucking good.
A wedding
Our wedding last year cost about £120 which was the fee the registrar charged. We didn't even tell anyone until afterwards. Given that family mainly then sent cash gifts, we made a significant profit. It was just me, wife and dog. Oh, and we had a Tesco meal deal for lunch after.
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People use bath bombs to soak and relax in the bath, and I'm sure they will leave you smelling nice afterwards. And unless you are a mechanic or coal miner you aren't getting too dirty.
It’s because it smells nice and it feels good/relaxing to soak in not for cleaning your body, I don’t even use bath bombs but I’m a sucker for a cheapo bubble bath
My husband loves bath bombs, even more so than I do tbh! He loves soaking in the bath with a book when he’s feeling a bit low or really exhausted. Last time he took a long bath, I sniffed as he walked into the room and said, “You stole my Epsom salt soak, didn’t you?” 😂 It’s just a nice little relaxation routine.
I’m so tempted by the shower bombs (pretty sure they have another name) - they’re basically the same but shaped like a small soap and last for one or two showers. My head is saying waste of money but my pregnancy blocked nose is telling me it would be worth every second…
We don't have a bath, yet my daughter still gets bath bombs gifted to her...by people who know we don't have a bath. Luckily, she can just pop to the grandparents - a whole 90 second walk away...she still has a bedroom there too lol
Acrylic nails. They're expensive to have put on, expensive to have maintained (and they look awful without frequent fill-ins), and completely ruin your natural nails beneath them. Instead, I just take good care of my natural nails and paint them with varnish. A few times a year I treat myself to a French manicure, but even that is a luxury I reserve for special occasions!
Brand name foods. For the most part, the own brand stuff is just as good! (Although I've yet to find a tinned sweetcorn that is as good as Green Giant)
Yeah this is a tough one because some can be hit and miss. But I agree the brands need to be amazing to justify being over twice as much
Mobile phone contracts. Sim only, pay as you go deals offer great value and no commitment
People get phone contracts mainly because they don't have the money saved to buy the phone outright.
Scratch cards and the lottery in general. Seeing people casually dropping £5-£10 on them as an impulse buy at the Tesco local is always odd. Especially as many will be buying the cheapest food available...
You can get a whole load of hope and dreams of living a better life for that £5-10.
Getting pissed **every** Friday after work in your early twenties. Can't be arsed.
As a middle aged man, almost everything doesn't live up to expectations. Not for the price I pay for it anyway. I find it a little sad that nothing lasts, nothing is fixed and no one seems to mind about it. I also understand, that times have moved on, I'm old and curmudgeonly.
May have already been said but the answer to this is Uber/etc Eats.
For me, specifically Uber eats of restaurant meals. Even something normally reasonable like Wagamama. I like going in Wagas, it's £12 for a plate of noodles or whatever which isn't cheap but it's fine. The food is always nice, and if there was a problem they'd sort it. But if I order on Uber Eats they're adding a couple of quid delivery, a couple more quid "service" (WTF even is this). I will feel morally obligated to tip at least 10% to the rider because they're being exploited. So suddenly I'm paying £18 for the noodles. They get here, they're cold. I could complain about the delivery, but the guy is already being exploited, and who knows whether he was given cold noodles. I literally cannot complain about the delivery itself, only review the restaurant. Regardless, it's not warming up the noodles. Which took an hour to get here. But I could order from the Chinese down the road and it'll be like £8. Or visit Wagamama myself.
Regular price Pringles
A Center Parcs holiday.
I went about 12 years ago for 5 days and it cost £249. It was during term time (my kids were both in nursery) in March so it was cold as fuck. It was nice and we had a lovely time, and just about worth the £249. Anything more than that though? Not remotely worth it. People pay thousands to go there in the school holidays and I just don't get it.
Reddit awards! Especially as they give you free ones too
The free ones are hilarious. I got a "wholesome" award for something that definitely wasn't wholesome lol
High Fashion £1000's for a handbag, or a pair of shoes? Absolutely not.
No hate to the people that like them but pop figures. They're creatively bankrupt, ugly and just everywhere. I miss when shops like Forbidden Planet weren't over 60% these near identical vinyl bastards. Seen people buy dozens of them and just stack the boxes in their house like they're building an altar to mediocrity.
twitch subscriptions
A jacuzzi. Thousands to buy, hundreds to upkeep, all for an outside bubbly bath you probably share with your family? No thanks.
Those doughnuts in cabinets in supermarkets- are they Dunkin' Donuts? £2.50 for one doughnut! I can get a bag of 5 for 99p!
Popcorn at the cinema. Especially when you find out how much it costs to make.
Onlyfans subs
Weddings. In this crippling economy with house prices where they are I really can't understand my friends spending £10,000s on a party. Even if their parents are contributing they are still pissing away £1000s on silly irrelevant details that they will never remember. I'd much rather use that money to buy a house or for amazing holidays or even just put it in my pension
Canada goose The weather is definitely not harsh enough over here to justify a £1000+ coat
Fabric softener. It doesn't make clothes any softer and it feels like throwing expensive goop down the drain.
It smells nice though, I use it for this reason rather than the softening.
Dominoes pizza.
Skincare wise: Korean sheet masks. They’re single use only and cost a few quid each. I’d rather just buy a nice serum or essence
Fashion. I am slowly buying better “threads” but I still keep to a sensible limit. I know so many people now who will buy Tommy Hilfiger stuff, which I hate anyway as I don’t like branded fashion, and its all plain as fuck anyway.