We nearly always have a late and leisurely breakfast on a Sunday. It is our day of rest. It feels like a bit of frugal luxury to have some freshly baked crusty baguettes with an egg and a bit of bacon lying in bed with a nice cup of tea. The ingredients for this breakfast all come from either Aldi or Lidl and are quite inexpensive.
I always buy the ready to bake baguettes, which cost around 69p for 2. In the week I bake half at a time and take it to work with some home made soup for a cheap but delicious lunch.
Designer clothes can be frugal luxury
Being frugal doesn’t mean living an austere and joyless existence. Buying at a bargain price and getting the best value possible can feel rather luxurious. For example, I have bought pieces of second hand designer clothing in excellent condition for a fraction of the price it would cost new. I found a beautiful silk Phase Eight skirt in a charity shop for just £4. It would have been £80 in the shop. I got so many compliments when I wore it. That is frugal luxury!
I also found a Phase Eight dress new but on sale reduced from £120 (can you imagine!!) to £30 when I was looking for something special to wear to Mr S’s neice’s wedding. This was a real investment as it is lovely quality and I have worn it to several special occasions since.
Simple living
Sometimes the simplest of things can feel luxurious. A nice drop of wine with a piece of good cheese and some crackers is my idea of heaven and costs just a few pounds.
We have bought some lovely solid bits of furniture from eBay and charity shops in the past that would have been so expensive new and have lasted for years. We could have bought flat pack furniture for the same price but it would have looked cheap and wouldn’t have survived the wear and tear of family life.
I love that we can enjoy some of the good things in life without busting the budget.
What are the little luxuries you enjoy that don’t break the bank?
Swissie3 says
And that, my friend, is what it’s all about! Good on you. Anna
Mrs LH says
I love luxuries too but won’t pay full price. I love an expensive piece of clothing at a charity shop price! This weekend we spotted a solid oak nest of tables in the Children’s Air Ambulance charity shop – £25 – which are now sat in our living room.
Margaret Powling says
Regular luxuries are flowers for the house – a £1 bunch of daffs for the kitchen really cheers us up at this dull time of the year – and a bunch of pink roses for our bedroom and alstomeria for the sitting room. Also, a bar of Lindt chocolate once a week and we share it, a square or two each of an evening, but when it’s gone, it’s gone, until we do the big shop again. We only have the one bar a week between the two of us. As we don’t drink wine any more – we just don’t like it all that much – an ice cold G& T occasionally (and I mean occasionally) is a luxury. Also, having a glass of ice cold water from a cut glass tumbler is a luxury – many people in the world don’t even have access to clean water.
Books are my main luxury, but to me they are essential and I do spend money on those, but not silly money. We also love free luxury: living in a lovely area, living by the sea, breakfast in bed when we want it as we’re retired, not having to get up at the crack of dawn to drive miles to go to work, that’s luxury to us, and having a lovely family, too, that’s a luxury a lot of people don’t have, two great sons and their wife and partner, and a darling grandson. Those are real luxuries, are they not?
Margaret P
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Oh yes. You can have all the money in the world and not appreciate what you have
Margaret Powling says
PS I would like to add a not-very-expensive luxury: clean bed linen more often than once a week. I love to change the bed linen (well, not the actual job of changing it, nor the washing and ironing, but having clean linen on the bed!) If I had ‘staff’ I would have clean bed linen every day, and clean towels every day! I only like pristine white bed linen, and when I turn down the bed at night, with the lamps on, and they are freshly laundered still with their creases, that is my idea of luxury, as well as having flowers by the bed (I change the water regularly so as not to have a polluted atmosphere), a cut glass tumbler for my night time water, a rose perfumed pillow spray, and a china cup and saucer for my early morning coffee. Just small luxuries that most of us could stretch to. As changing all the bed linen more than once isn’t always possible, then at least I change the pillow cases – they’re not soiled and don’t really need changing, I just like the freshness of clean ones.
Margaret P
Eloise says
My luxuries are good clothes and my favourite, rather expensive, brand of make up. The make up is always bought for birthday/ Christmas by my children who know just what to get. Clothes are preferably Adini, Alexon, Phase Eight or Fenn Wright&Manson are only bought from eBay since I cannot afford them new. I also love Gabor shoes which. I buy in the sale and look after by polishing and waxing them regularly. I have several pairs which are years old. I would rather buy a good pair of shoes once a year than new clothes. My food luxury is smoked salmon and it can quite often be bought with a yellow label.
Sam says
You hit my favorite-decadent cheese, crackers, and wine, in front of a fire if cold, or outside on my deck if warm. Beats a wine bar.
Lavender10 says
We always enjoy a nice bottle of red at the weekend & a bacon muffin on Sunday mornings. I’ve picked up some fabulous bargains clothing wise over the years – from charity shops & eBay. And books. Love my books. I buy a couple a month from a local charity shop, they’re nearly always in pristine condition. I also use my local library – which is now only open a couple of days a week, thanks to all the cuts – but that’s another topic….
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Yes but worth raising ! Use your local libraries, people, or you will find they start to disappear in the local government cuts!
Lavender10 says
Absolutely.
Gill says
I enjoy finding bargains……..yellow sticker items in the Supermarket, Clothes on ebay…..furniture on freecycle……I cut my own hair & encourage my grown up daughter to do the same…….she loves baking – so there are brown banana muffins & flapjacks most weekends.
I enjoy being frugal – but, it would sometimes be nice to know that I didn’t have to be…….
ie – its great living frugally, but not always fun when its forced upon you by circumstances.
Sue Cuthbert says
Not relating to anything at all but I’m glad you like Phase8 clothes as our eldest is one of their print designers!
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Wow really? Excellent
Elizabeth says
Right now, a necessary luxury is to be able to buy extra food and toys for my elderly, chronically ill cat and the ability to pay his expenses at the vets. He has given me a lifetime of fun, devotion and love and it is my pleasure as well as my obligation to take care of him. A cousin recently sent me a candy dish as a memento of our recently departed Aunt, and while I would never have chosen this myself, I decided to fill in with chocolate from a company which supports dolphins. The chocolate was expensive but can be shared with any friends who happen by. My aunt would approve.