Impulse Buys

Yesterday, I took an early morning trip to Southampton for some serious retail therapy.  I was partially intending to buy some new clothes for work (which I succeeded in doing – hurrah!) and partially intending to go to Ikea for a few bits.  No trip to Ikea has ever resulted in only buying ‘a few bits’.  There was one evening I went up to Bristol with my dad to buy a cabinet and it consisted of driving up, buying the cabinet and going home; but even then he still bought himself a coffee and me an ice cream and in any case, it had followed a previous trip that week when they hadn’t had it stock, so really it was part of that previous trip.

Anyway, it’s become something of a joke between me and my parents that any Ikea trip always has to include at least one impulse buy.  Yesterday, a lot was bought on impulse, and I ended up spending rather more than intended.

One of those purchases was what I like to term “legitimate wedding expenditure” – a total of 72 floating candles.

Ikea FENOMEN floating candles. Image from ikea.com.

No, please don’t buy us *things*!

It is a lovely thing that so many people enjoy giving gifts to couples who are getting married.  Of course, traditionally it would be the first time that couple would have lived together.  They would usually be young and would need all the help they could get, so bedsheets and crockery were essential presents so that they had something to sleep under and eat off of.  The modern bride and groom, however, are in a quite different state.  The average age for a UK bride is 30; for a groom it’s 32.  Marriage is likely to come after one or both parties have studied and established themselves within successful careers and one they have already lived together for a number of years, possibly in a house that they both own.

William and Kate were 28 and 29 when they married. Image from ibtimes.com.

Weddings Are Expensive

Yeah, I know, big news eh?  The expense of weddings is something which bothers me and that perhaps I think about too much.  In order to understand my obsession about costs, you might like to know a little more about me.

As a kid, my parents taught me to be frugal.  When they were first married and when I was very small my dad’s income was fairly pitiful but they always managed by being canny budgeteers.  They passed this onto me from an early age.  If there was something in particular I wanted, I’d save up my pocket money for a few weeks in order to be able to afford it.  For more expensive items and school trips, I would have a chart attached to the fridge door, each £1 to be crossed off when I finished my chores.  I wasn’t just given the cash; I had to earn it.

The change jars we have in the house: silvers in the Bells bottle, coppers in the Coke bottle (it’s &$^%ing heavy!), £1 and £2 coins in the terramundi pot (given to A Man for his 18th birthday, hence the ’18’ on the front)