My Sunday morning brunch used to be baked beans cooked with a knob of butter on a toasted sliced loaf. Bit of black pepper, beautiful.
Now, I get frustrated if the balance of chilli and lime in the avocado smash isn’t quite right and there’s no steak knife for the toasted sourdough.
My lifestyle expectations increased alongside my income, and now it costs a lot more to provide my standard of living. In fact, my estimated expenditure on brunch at home has increased from about £1 a head to £5 in five years.
A 500% increase! It’s not restricted to just brunch either, I spend more on housing, clothes and fitness.
Sound familiar?
We are all worried about inflation right now, but ‘lifestyle creep’ (or lifestyle inflation) is the biggest secret stealer of wealth.
So, how can we stop the surging price of our lifestyle?
We have to reflect on our expenditure. Much in the same way Marie Kondo looks at decluttering homes, discarding items that don’t spark joy. Look at our expenditure and ask ourselves; was that money spent on something that’s important to me? If no, can I eliminate that expense? If yes, could I spend less and still get the same value?
The actual thing I enjoy about Sunday brunch is sharing a lazy morning with my girlfriend, sitting down with something to eat and talking about the past week and the week ahead.
Do we need to pop down the local M&S and spend £10-15 for that?
The answer is probably not.
I’m not advocating living in a hole and shutting down from the outside world. Yet, in this time of high inflation and even higher lifestyle inflation, we could all take some time to reflect on what we are spending and where.
If you’d like to see my way of tracking expenditure, please email me gregory@muvado.co.uk and I’ll share it with you.
None of the information in this communication should be seen as a recommendation and you should seek independent financial advice.