The art of spending money

westv

zagfles said:

It blows their mind when I tell them stuff like I flew to Venice for a fiver on Ryanair, 

I flew to Dublin once with Ryanair. The basic price was a fiver +£12 in taxes and fees.
However, it was back in 2008 and it was only for the weekend so minimal luggage.

Pat38493

Linton said:

Nebulous2 said:

Stubod said:

..another one that fancied a motorhome but have been put off by the silly prices, and the more I consider it I think I would prefer going back to caravanning as this gives greater flexibility, (and you could buy a good car and a caravan for the price of a motorhome), but I accept it's each to their own.....

We've tried a bit of almost everything camping-wise. The only campervan we have had was a self-build. It worked reasonably well, but we should have started with a better base vehicle. 

I've ran the figures for a motorhome multiple times and just cant see that it is worth it to us. 

We bought a van to tow and carry bikes inside and a big twin-axle caravan just before covid, which was very lucky. They've both held their value extremely well and been very well used. 

It's important to use it a lot if you spend the sort of money to buy a motorhome. Our first decent caravan we spent over 60 nights in it in the first year. The converse of that was I knew more than one set of people who based on a rough calculation were spending over £1000 for each night they spent in their motorhome. It was very much a 'want it at any cost' purchase for them.

Dealers were offering 15 year finance packages on motorhomes at one time, they possibly still are. That kind of commitment from people who can't afford it is absolutely mind-boggling. 

Rather than a motor home I would recommend a narrowboat.  It makes the journey to your destination part of your holiday rather than a chore.  We aim for at least 2 months out every year

My mother and step father have owned a narrow boat for many years and bought a house next to the canal partly for this reason.

She is not much able to use it anymore except as a passenger due to reduced mobility.  I have borrowed it a few times over the years but I have an irrational fear of using it after getting stuck on the sill just after the waterways had locked the paddles and driven off, us being the last people through of the day and nearly wrecked the boat.  Put me off for life.  I know that's irrational and I probably need to "get back on the saddle".

It's very nice and tranquil but I think my wife would also struggle with it from a mobility perspective - maybe not in significant locations, but if stopping next to a muddy canal bank in the middle of winter.....  oops going off topic again.

gambleruk

westv said:

zagfles said:

It blows their mind when I tell them stuff like I flew to Venice for a fiver on Ryanair, 

I flew to Dublin once with Ryanair. The basic price was a fiver +£12 in taxes and fees.
However, it was back in 2008 and it was only for the weekend so minimal luggage.

I flew to Alicante and back in December for £22 each way, even had three seats to myself going and coming back, booked again for April at the outrageous costs of £34 each way this time. Could have got them a tad cheaper as well but always prefer morning flights.

westv

I've been tempted to visit Alicante (the city) but never got round to it.

zagfles

westv said:

zagfles said:

It blows their mind when I tell them stuff like I flew to Venice for a fiver on Ryanair, 

I flew to Dublin once with Ryanair. The basic price was a fiver +£12 in taxes and fees.
However, it was back in 2008 and it was only for the weekend so minimal luggage.

Around the same time I got a return MAN-DUB for 2p  

Flight to Venice (Treviso) was 2021 and was £5 each way inc taxes/fees, I did splash out and pay £3 each extra to reserve seats So £32 return for 2 of us. And having been told by several people "ooh Venice is expensive", allowed a big budget for spending there, as it was our first foreign holiday for ages (it was MONTHS since we'd been abroad )

So we didn't do our usual thing of looking for value, we just ate where we fancied, some expensive restaurants and some good value ones, we went on a gondala trip (very expensive), and water buses (cheap) and a walking tour (cheap).

Guess what. The cheap restaurants were far better then the expensive ones, better food, better service. The cheap walking tour was much better than the expensive gondala trip where the gondolier practically said nothing to us other than pointing out Marco Polo's house which we found out later actually wasn't

jimi_man

Sea_Shell said:

jimi_man said:

Albermarle said:

Sea_Shell said:

Albermarle said:

Sea_Shell said:

I get enough stick on my "Nuts" thread as it is, without using YHs 😉

At least in the YH , you could put the heating on 

What??   I don't follow.

I understood from other posts that the heating is only on for very limited hours day at Sea Shell Towers, so was trying to make a joke about that....

It's on all the time, but only just enough to melt the frost from the top of the duvet....

What is this....open season on SeaShell.     Everyone pile in and have a go.  


You do your retirement, i'll do mine.    

Seriously?? I thought it was quite apparent from the hyperbole used and the winky face that it was a joke? Continuing on the previous joke from Albermarle, who also put a smiley face on his post to indicate that it was a joke.

No-one is having a go at you, we all read your thread avidly and we're all interested in how you do your retirement otherwise we wouldn't read it! I personally have taken away a lot of things from it.

Malthusian

jimi_man said:    

Seriously?? I thought it was quite apparent from the hyperbole used and the winky face that it was a joke? 

I actually read the tone of Sea Shell's post as "mock indignation", but I could be wrong.
Poe's Law in reverse - if you hang around the Internet long enough you start to assume that everyone is being ironic even when they are sincere.

zagfles

jimi_man said:

Sea_Shell said:

jimi_man said:

Albermarle said:

Sea_Shell said:

Albermarle said:

Sea_Shell said:

I get enough stick on my "Nuts" thread as it is, without using YHs 😉

At least in the YH , you could put the heating on 

What??   I don't follow.

I understood from other posts that the heating is only on for very limited hours day at Sea Shell Towers, so was trying to make a joke about that....

It's on all the time, but only just enough to melt the frost from the top of the duvet....

What is this....open season on SeaShell.     Everyone pile in and have a go.  


You do your retirement, i'll do mine.    

Seriously?? I thought it was quite apparent from the hyperbole used and the winky face that it was a joke? Continuing on the previous joke from Albermarle, who also put a smiley face on his post to indicate that it was a joke.

No-one is having a go at you, we all read your thread avidly and we're all interested in how you do your retirement otherwise we wouldn't read it! I personally have taken away a lot of things from it.

Jokes can get annoying/boring if you get the same ones again and again.

My tactic now is to be equally annoying. If someone posts a picture of their Michelin star meal, I'll post a picture of my yellow label Tesco value pie Someone once posted a picture of them at the door of a plane saying "next turn left". I posted an old picture I had of a Ryanair plane taken from the tarmac with stairs at the rear and said "same here"

MallyGirl

We probably live at the higher end of the scale. We do have a small camper van that hasn't been used enough yet - pandemic first and now a dog with health issues which means we don't want to put her in kennels. It is a bit of a squeeze in the camper with 2 big dogs if the weather is bad.
We travelled round NZ staying in hostels. One night in Wellington we spent more on a lovely bottle of wine in a great restaurant than we did on the accommodation - that split worked for us. We have also stayed in some very nice hotels - usually on the basis of location. Right now most holidays are dog friendly holiday cottages. When the old dog leaves us we will go back to more travelling but I want that to be as far in the future as possible. When you have pets it is harder to spot a bargain flight and just go.
We have nice cars but mine is 11 years old and I will run it till it drops as I don't like the newer version. OH likes his boy toy Audi and I can't break him of that. We don't heat the rooms that we don't use - there are zones so the home offices can be warm leaving the rest off till the evening (or not at all).

RG2015

I don't follow this board generally frequenting the budgeting and savings boards, but this thread caught my attention. I have read the piece and found it fascinating.

Yes, it would suit the budgeting board but also the debt board and probably a few others. The psychology of money, or of spending, or of living. The list could be endless.

Someone once said the money was the most curious commodity. You strive to extremes to acquire it and then cannot get rid of it quickly enough. I understood the point but didn't really relate to it from a personal perspective. Over the years I have discovered that this is down to my money personality.

I am a saver and occasionally I worry that I am a gratuitous hoarder. However my utility is security pure and simple

We were always comfortable but never sought financial approbation. I guess that helped to form my financial character. That, and the experience of budgeting as a student.

For the first time in my life I realised the fear of not having any money. Even worse though is a fear of actually spending any money.