Wednesday 6 June 2012

Is £100 A Lot of Money?

Occasionally I get shocked at the strangest things. This long weekend for example, I was talking with someone else who has just bought a tablet computer whilst already owning a PC. She mentioned that it had cost her £120 as she had bought it second hand from eBay.
What shocked me is not the price. £120 is cheap for a second hand tablet computer and I am impressed at the saving. What shocked me is that my friend had spent that much money without thinking about it. She had been browsing eBay seen the tablet, bid and paid for it.
It has started me thinking. Nowadays is £100 ($150 for my American friends) a lot of money?
It is all relative, I appreciate that if you earn £100,000s per annum then surely £100 is the same as me spending £10.
A few years ago when times were better for me and this damn recession had not hit. I was earning a lot of money. I though nothing of spending large amounts on useless items. I once bought 2 pairs of Iceberg jeans at £100 each and a matching top one afternoon. Total: £245
But now, £100 seems an enormous amount of money to me. My debt is currently £565 and if you asked me to spend £100 on a luxury item, I quite frankly could not find the money from my daily living expenses. I have savings ready for the next utilities bill, my holiday in September and a new garage door / hob. But to find £100 on top of that would floor me.
Today is a £100 just petty cash to most normal people? Do most people spend that kind of money without thinking about it a few times per month?
I went into M&S over the weekend to buy knickers and food (I know strange combination), the total cost was £19 and I felt a bit fed up considering how little I got for my money. (see shopping pages)
I suppose it made me wonder how much exactly most people put aside for “fun and games” each month. By that I mean money, which is not allocated to bills, daily living or saving. But money put aside just to fritter away on whatever takes your fancy.
If I had to guess, I would say I fritter about £20-30 per month on this stuff – clothes, meals out, ready made food and general knick knacks.
So if I gave you a £100, would you think that I had given you a lot, a moderate or a small amount of money?
Frugally yours
Abigail
x

7 comments:

  1. £100 is alot of money to me but I also have a friend (in a considerable amount of debt) who wont think twice of spending that much on something wheras I will have to think something over like, how often will i use it? will i make a long term saving if I had it? Can i justify the price for it? Definately alot of money to me x

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  2. It's a lot of money to me. I think about how many hours my husband has to work to earn the money. To other members of my family it's not a lot of money - my Mum spent £78 on 3 new cushions for her lounge not that long ago - they were relegated to the loft after a short time as she decided she didn't like them that much after all! I could have fed the 3 of us for 3 weeks with that amount of money.

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  3. It is a lot, 3 weeks food for us at least or 7 or 8 meals when out on our walks (over 2 months that is).

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  4. It is a lot of money to me. However I know exactly where you are coming from. I work closely with a lassie who is most certainly not wealthy and has a family. She owes thousands of pounds which she has no intention of repaying and her main topic of conversation is what she has bought. For example, this week (which is prety typical) it was a Kindle, a new camera and tickets for 3 concerts. I have no debt and and am working hard towards paying off my mortgage ... she seems to have so much more fun so maybe her way is best!!!!

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  5. 100 quid is f-all, I could spend it every day

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  6. Ya 100 is a very large amount for me too

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I really love reading all comments. So please tell me what you think. Abigail