This is actually something that I found out was less expensive than I always assumed it was. My family wasn't a drinking family so I had NO reference point and when I got my first office job, I wanted to get the guy who helped me a bottle of wine as a thank you. So I went into a local winery's shop in the mall and told them and he asked how much I wanted to spend and I was like "Idk, $50?" and he was like "Yeah, you can buy just about anything in here then." lol
Oh geez. Basically everything. When I was 25 and newly married, H and I had a net worth somewhere around $-260k due to SLs, we were in a recession, H had a really rough small firm first gig, and I was just graduating law school and studying for the bar. We were so broke. So basically everything we do and buy these days would have given me sticker shock back then. Everything.
It’s time for me to get a new/different vehicle. The price tags alone blow me away, nevermind dealer markups.
I really just cannot believe what we spend on cars.
This is mine too We had to replace our SUV last year, and we couldn't go smaller/cheaper because we need a V6 engine to tow our boat. The price of even a used SUV was sickening. Like, double the car payment we had for our previous SUV that we bought in 2013. We do love the vehicle though (a Buick Enclave).
I'm still driving around my grandma's 05 Toyota Corolla. I would really love an upgraded vehicle at some point b/c this isn't going to last forever and I would love something AWD, but I just cannot stomach the thought of 2 car payments with the way prices are.
Hotels. My younger self compared prices of hostels and stocked up on free breakfast bread before touring a new city on foot. (I do still appreciate and love a free breakfast.)
The first trip MH and I took together was a tour of East Coast cities in 2006ish (trying to figure out where we wanted to go for his training). I don't think we paid more than $100 for a hotel room and managed to find some high end deals! We also brought our snacks, a loaf of bread, and PB&J so we could make our own lunches and not have to pay.
We still do a bit of packing our own lunches (we do better than PB&J though), but we pay so much more. We have 2 kids, so we try our best to stay close to the action adn get a hotel where we have a sleeping area separate from the kids. We're very willing to pay a premium for more sleep.
Agreed on the windows! We got a quote on Saturday for 7 windows, no installation as H can do that himself and holy moly....
Trucks. H needed a new one, he needs big for hauling heavy equipment and it was like a mortgage. My little Trax did not give me sticker shock like his truck did.
Also agreed on skincare. $100 for a facial and another $120 for product that actually helps my skin? Ok. 20 years ago no way was I spending on any of that.
I feel like I'm opposite on most things, I cringe when I think about how much money I spent on clothes and going out. It was so wasteful in retrospect, especially since I really didn't have much money at the time.
But younger me would cringe at how I now spend on things like home repairs and insurance!
I’m pretty conservative with money, but Younger Me would definitely be shocked at the cost of our house. It’s wayyy more than I ever thought I would spend on a house.
I’m pretty conservative with money, but Younger Me would definitely be shocked at the cost of our house. It’s wayyy more than I ever thought I would spend on a house.
When I was about 22, my step brother bought his first house, somewhere is California (Petaluma is ringing a bell, is that a place near tech bros?). It was $250,000. I could not get over a quarter of a million dollars on a house.
Oh how times have changed. 😂 I bet that place is over a million now. And mine is… yeah… not going there.
(note, step brother is not a tech bro, but did work in software. More of one of the quirky guys doing the coding)
We're out of daycare now, but only recently, so that's a fresh wound. Even when DD1 was a newborn, I was scoffing at center pricing and convinced I could find an in-home for a reasonable price. Joke was on me, as I couldn't find one at all (and they're not even that much cheaper). I'm still pained when I think of the prices we paid; young me would faint.
Now, summer camp could be a close second.
I don't tend to spend a lot on myself. I can relate to UMaineTeach's point about current me being appalled at old me's spending! When I was 24, I switched jobs, got a big raise, and immediately bought $5k in new clothes, including a *white* wool coat. lol
Oh, maybe groceries count! That's not fun, but we're not super careful with food costs, so that plus inflation make it an appalling amount.
It’s time for me to get a new/different vehicle. The price tags alone blow me away, nevermind dealer markups.
I really just cannot believe what we spend on cars.
This.
And we don't even drive luxury brands. I drive a subaru. H drives a model 3 Tesla (I KNOW, it's his car not mine).
But we're looking for a teen car to buy in the next year, and it's wild looking spending that amount of money on something that, statistically, is going to be wrecked on some level (hopefully small). Like, "here, you're going to light money on fire.....so how much money do you want to light on fire? A lot for an older car, with fewer safety features, that you then have to pay more to maintain, or a whole lot, with more safety features?"
A bathroom renovation. Actually, current me has sticker shock.
ALSO THIS
We gutted our bathroom a few years ago. First major home project on the first home we've ever owned (everything is unnecessarily oversized, we were taking it down to the studs, new flooring, everything new/replaced, moving plumbing, custom cabinets, etc). Designer sits down with us, and asks our budget. I'm like "maybe $8k?"
Designer took a cleansing breath, H jumps in and says "this is our first house, we haven't done this before, but for what we're asking, I think we're actually prepared to pay closer to X." At which point my jaw hit the floor.
This. I swear, every spring DH does yard clean-up which involves moving around/clearing out dirt, rock, and mulch. Then he goes out and buys...new dirt, rock and mulch - and the price is mind-boggling.
A bathroom renovation. Actually, current me has sticker shock.
ALSO THIS
We gutted our bathroom a few years ago. First major home project on the first home we've ever owned (everything is unnecessarily oversized, we were taking it down to the studs, new flooring, everything new/replaced, moving plumbing, custom cabinets, etc). Designer sits down with us, and asks our budget. I'm like "maybe $8k?"
Designer took a cleansing breath, H jumps in and says "this is our first house, we haven't done this before, but for what we're asking, I think we're actually prepared to pay closer to X." At which point my jaw hit the floor.
This killed me 9 years ago when we renovated the master bath. We had to rearrange our layout (the toilet was in between the two sinks, right across from a picture window) and the number of contractors who refused to even touch it was astonishing. When we got into the renovation the prices made a lot of sense, but it was SO MUCH money.
Anything house related. Specifically I remember when we installed our fence and I was floored at how much the white vinyl fencing cost, I drove around after that noticing all the houses with "fancy" fences.
Also my Dyson hair dryer, it is $400 and I really wanted it to not live up to the hype but...It's amazing.
We just got a quote for some backyard work. It needs a lot, not necessarily all at once. We want to regrade, so that water runs to the creek in the back instead of pooling in the middle, fence part of the yard, there's an existing retaining wall that eventually need some maintenance, and we need a few trees removed.
So far the quote involves $9500 for the grading, $6200 for the retaining wall, $3-4k for the trees, and they didn't include the fence yet. Damn.
We replaced all the windows in the house in the fall, that was even uglier.
Post by goldengirlz on Feb 13, 2023 12:16:54 GMT -5
Younger Me would probably be the most surprised at how much I spend on my hair and skin. I used to get haircuts (just the cut) for $19.95 — I was so cheap about my hair, I didn’t even pay extra for a blow dry and got the leave-with-wet-hair special. Now my last cut and color was over $500.
ETA: The first time I felt like I had turned a corner financially was when I was able to buy the female version of products. I always bought men’s shaving cream and razors, for example, because they were cheaper. I actually feel like some of that “pink tax” has been equalized (which is progress) but men’s stuff used to be at least a full dollar cheaper for the same thing.
Oh, everything. I live in a much higher COL now than I did up until my mid 30s, so the price of my house would have shocked me (and been unaffordable) 10 years ago. Also a $100 dinner out would have been a BIG splurge but now it's a pleasant surprise when it costs less than that when we go out.
I do spend more money in general on consumer goods than I used to, but that's not to say I shop more now - I just tend to pay more to get better quality. I probably buy things like clothes/accessories less than I did back when I used to shop in person more, I guess.
Most things. I grew up lower middle class but we lived very simply and i had no money as an adult up until a few years ago. We still have quite a few hand me downs from our parents in our late 30's and a $2000 couch we recently purchased is like...whut? It blew our minds what things actually cost.
I once paid 30 dollars in the early 2000's for a real leather purse that was 66 percent off and thought it was a huuuge expense. Lol
Ugg, yes. Including the removal of said items. We had a pretty large landscaping job done last spring and I was NOT prepared for how much it cost. But I do love how it looks which would also have younger me baffled...
House related stuff and car stuff, omg. Our 10 year anniversary gift to each other was a new driveway because, holy shit, there was no way we were spending more money after paying for that.
I’m still quite frugal and I grew up poor (self-inflicted poverty, in retrospect, but we had very little by way of material goods and quality food), so I still feel grateful and surprised that I own a house with a well stocked fridge and pantry.
I paid $35 for an hairbrush because it's supposedly Hollywood's favorite brush (Sheila Stotts).
But I would say appliances. If I can afford top of the line and CR top rated, I will get it. All the houses I've lived in had super cheap appliances. My guess is it was to replace old ones with new ones before a sale but they got the cheap of the cheap and they SUCK lol. Last month, I bought a $1K Bosch dishwasher. The month before I got a $1K front loader on super sale thanks to Cyber Monday.
Also food. Life is to short too get something I don't like just to save a few dollars.
This is actually something that I found out was less expensive than I always assumed it was. My family wasn't a drinking family so I had NO reference point and when I got my first office job, I wanted to get the guy who helped me a bottle of wine as a thank you. So I went into a local winery's shop in the mall and told them and he asked how much I wanted to spend and I was like "Idk, $50?" and he was like "Yeah, you can buy just about anything in here then." lol
Ok douche, go ahead and call it mud. My husband DID have halitosis. We addressed it after I talked to you girls on here and guess what? Years later, no problem. Mofongo, you're a cunt. Eat shit. ~anonnamus
Post by hannahgruen on Feb 13, 2023 15:00:15 GMT -5
Moving from an apartment in a large city to the suburbs, and finding out how expensive house maintenance is. My husband can do almost everything, but it can take years.