400k house estimated - became a 470k house / an experience report

Building your own home for maybe forever and your own or future family just isn’t something you can do objectively. You also can’t plan your own wedding or similar events objectively....

Yes, you can do that quite soberly.. Then, as seen in some financing threads, you don’t end up with five-figure consumer debts for the non-objective, but clearly, clearly too expensive wedding.

But it’s a good example of the feature creep that is spreading in our age of consumerism: a normal wedding just won’t do; it has to be an event, with all the extras that you absolutely(TM) need. Somehow it fits well with the huge construction kit of temptations when building a house.

a normal wedding is out of the question, it has to be an event, with a lot of fuss around it, that you absolutely(TM) need.

"Absolutely" is a TradeMark ? ? ?

The Excel tab tells me everything. The money was spent in the blinkblink area, the substance did not drive the price. Most people here apparently have never accompanied commercial buildings and do not approach single-family home projects objectively enough, which only pleases the home seller.

Modern commercial buildings are nowadays technically better equipped than 90% of single-family homes! Isn't it always the extra wishes that drive the price up? A shell construction, roof, HVAC installation, etc. will not suddenly cost 10% more...

You only get married once, so you should really make it spectacular. And if you're frugal, you can easily get by with 20 - 25k.

Life is too short! Later, you regret the things you did NOT do.

Yes, a house is possible. It depends on the economic pressure. A wedding is also possible. We had 2000 marks in 1985, that had to be enough, and it was a nice celebration, albeit simple.

Yes, you can do it quite soberly..
Then, as already seen in some financing threads, you don’t end up with five-digit consumer debt for the non-essential but clearly, clearly overpriced wedding.

But it’s a good example of the feature creep that is spreading in our age of consumerism: a normal wedding just doesn’t cut it, it has to be an event with all the extra stuff you absolutely(TM) need. Somehow fits well with the huge kit of temptations in housebuilding.

Deliberately and individually deciding that a wedding should cost only €2000 instead of €20,000 has nothing to do with being matter-of-fact. I maintain that a €2,000 wedding is not modest either if you only earn €50/day, and €20,000 is very modest if you have millions in the bank!

If the house has a lower total budget than others, it is still a subjective personal decision and not an objective one

.... for whatever reason this thread has led to this off-topic ....