What everyday goods do you now consider a treat?

lola34

Most branded goods unless they are on offer, and with the fish and chips I can remember being in the Brownies/ Guides and haveing to have 10-20p in your pocket (incase of an emergency to make a phone call) and only needing to add a bit to it for a bag of chips so they must have only been about 60-80p, we are talking about 23yrs ago but what will the price of chips be in another 23yrs:undecided

jetbag

we have a couple of local fish and chip shops that sell pensioners / childrens fish & chip meals for £3.50 (smaller portions), I think this is a great idea as normal size portions are too much for me and I am not a child or a pensioner. This is a treat for me that I only have about 3 time a year.
Maybe you could suggest this idea to your local chippies.

threemuttleys

Chocolate - I can remember Mars/Snickers being about 25p and huge. Now they arent far off a pound and teeny. I tend to just buy basics/value bars

Diet coke - cans and bottles used to be 50-80p now bottles are £1.50+ depending on where you are. Dont bother anymore, and I refuse to drink Value cola thats yucky!

natlie

Hi
I think its mosty just eating out - I do still eat out but only if we have vouchers like bogof in La tasca, I very rarely have a frappuchinno in Starbucks - yum, do make them at home but its just not the same. Dont buy grapes anymore.

I think I manage with most other things as I shop around so much, biscuits are really cheap in Farm Foods as as their frozen chicken fillets I get my fave coffee and tea bulk buy on internet, I love cherries but at £5-7 a bag they are a major luxury item! I wish they did pick your own cherries - we can only get berries on the pick your own farm here,

Nat

mardatha

Same as a lot of you here - butter, fish suppers, and lamb. Although I'm surrounded by the bloody things they seem to cost about £10 an ounce !

GreyQueen

I miss cherries but I'm not paying those prices.

I pretty much flex my diet around whatever is on special or in the whoopsie bin. Been doing it for so long that it's second nature.

Fish and chips is a rare treat, a few times a year, even though it's cheaper than many of you are reporting (cod & chips is £4.95 near me in the city centre and not particularly nice) and about £1 cheaper in the suburbs. Don't eat takeaways at all.

Gave up my car 14 years ago.

No paid for haircuts; get a rellie to do it.

I don't go to the cinema unless I can get a freebie; wait until it comes out on DVD and watch it from the library, or just don't bother. Haven't been to the theatre for about 7 years.

New books; don't buy them at all. Library and the bootsale/ c.s. Ditto new music unless (ahem) a friend rips a c.d.

Meals out (which were only ever chain pizza parlour type anyway). Just can't afford this.

New clothes; mostly c.s and bootfairs, cast-offs from friends and family and making-over existing stuff.

Gawd, sounds grim when you write it down, doesn't it? Funnily enough, I'm mostly a happy bunny. Makes me wonder whether there's something wrong with me, that I can be content with relatively little.

Still, it would be nice to have a splurge sometimes without an inner voice having conniptions at the waste of a week's food budget on a single cheapy pizza meal.

Nicoll

I love that most of us seem to miss takeaways :rotfl:

We used to practically live on takeaway, now it's a once a month treat, either chinese or Domino's on a 2 for Tuesday offer.

Though TBH I really don't miss takeaways now, sometimes DH says don't bother cooking let's grab a takeaway and at one time I would have jumped at that but now I think oh no I've something in the fridge needs using up and don't want to waste a tenner on takeaway, I'd rather leave it until an evening when I REALLY am too knackered to cook

Real coke is a treat for DH, I buy him Sainsbury's classic coke but now if he has real coke he says he doesn't like as much, amazing what you get used to!

As someone else already mentioned, anything branded is a luxury with the exception of Baked Beans, tomato sauce and Douwe Egberts coffee, which I can't live without Sainsbury's had an offer on Douwe Egberts about a month ago and I bought 6 large jars :eek:

spike7451

jetbag wrote: »

we have a couple of local fish and chip shops that sell pensioners / childrens fish & chip meals for £3.50 (smaller portions), I think this is a great idea as normal size portions are too much for me and I am not a child or a pensioner. This is a treat for me that I only have about 3 time a year.
Maybe you could suggest this idea to your local chippies.

The Chinese in Millisle,the next town over from me,do a half n half meal where instead of a full portion (which tbh,I often leave half as they are far to big a portion for me to eat all in one go) of various dishes,you can have half of the long foil trays with beef curry,schezwan chicken,swett & sour ect,the other half with plain or fried rice.All for four quid!! Half the price of a full portion & side!
Beef curry,fried rice & 2 spring rolls for me is around £5.50:D

goodgirl80

I was talking to my OH this morning and came to the conclusion that anything other than what it costs to keep a roof over our heads, travel costs to get to work, and enough food to stay alive, is actually a luxury! Bearing that in mind, our lifestyle seems pretty lavish now!

Cheapskate

GreyQueen wrote: »

I miss cherries but I'm not paying those prices.

I pretty much flex my diet around whatever is on special or in the whoopsie bin. Been doing it for so long that it's second nature.

Fish and chips is a rare treat, a few times a year, even though it's cheaper than many of you are reporting (cod & chips is £4.95 near me in the city centre and not particularly nice) and about £1 cheaper in the suburbs. Don't eat takeaways at all.

Gave up my car 14 years ago.

No paid for haircuts; get a rellie to do it.

I don't go to the cinema unless I can get a freebie; wait until it comes out on DVD and watch it from the library, or just don't bother. Haven't been to the theatre for about 7 years.

New books; don't buy them at all. Library and the bootsale/ c.s. Ditto new music unless (ahem) a friend rips a c.d.

Meals out (which were only ever chain pizza parlour type anyway). Just can't afford this.

New clothes; mostly c.s and bootfairs, cast-offs from friends and family and making-over existing stuff.

Gawd, sounds grim when you write it down, doesn't it? Funnily enough, I'm mostly a happy bunny. Makes me wonder whether there's something wrong with me, that I can be content with relatively little.

Still, it would be nice to have a splurge sometimes without an inner voice having conniptions at the waste of a week's food budget on a single cheapy pizza meal.

I know what you mean - we're rather like this and often wonder why we're different from folk we know, some of whom are STILL spending like it's going out of fashion! Our mortgage is manageable, careful with gas/electricity, change suppliers for things when renewals due, I try to shop and cook smartly - all of this and more sometimes feels like a job/hobby in itself, trying to beat the firms at their own game etc., but I get wildly excited when I bag a proper bargain or manage to save money into the savings account! :rotfl::D

There's not much I miss, as such, as I've spent most of my life watching the pennies, but it would be nice to be able to go into good clothes or homeware stores and just buy the things I liked, instead of what we can afford or (more likely) not go in at all!

Fish and chips is about £3.70 for cod and small helping of chips, closer to £4 for regular chips, can be dearer in other parts of town; definitely a treat these days. 2 helpings is enough for me, DH, DS (4) and DD (1.5), that's with the smaller chips. If the kids are hungry we add our own bread and butter, or have afters!

A xo