Times change, but what never changes is change, specifically the change that comes with rising prices. Every year, it feels like the dollar can buy less and less of our daily essentials, leaving even less room for the fun things we’d normally enjoy like going on vacation trips and eating out. So in a time when buying a dozen eggs feels luxurious already, how can you add a bit of luxury into your life without breaking the bank?
We’ve put together a list of some of the things you can get for yourself to make your daily routine feel a little more lux without costing a small fortune.
1. Monogrammed Bath Towels
Not every rich person’s house is going to have monogrammed bath towels, but man do they look fancy. There’s something about monogrammed towels, bath robes, and handkerchiefs that gives off an old money vibe, and the great thing about them is that it doesn’t cost that much to have your initials monogrammed on a bath towel. Heck, you could probably head down to your local seamstress shop right now and ask for your towels to be machine embroidered or even learn to do it yourself at home.
But if that’s too much work for you or your current towels feel a little too worn out to be spiced up, you can just get these monogrammed bath towels. They’re made of pure cotton and have this nice weaved pattern on them that make them look like the towels you find in a nice hotel.
2. A Fancy “Gold” Incense Burner
GET A GINKGO LEAF INCENSE BURNER
I’m a big fan of tarot and the psychological benefits of ritual. Simple rituals like meditation, lighting a candle to start your day, or journaling after work are all ways to psychologically mark the passage of time and provide structure to our experiences. While there’s no right way to do it, one of the most powerful ways to celebrate a ritual is to light some incense. Lighting incense has been proven to have psychoactive effects that alleviate anxiety and depression.
Of course, you can’t just burn incense on any surface as that would be a fire hazard and totally not zen. You’ll need an incense burner t hold your incense for you. These come in different shapes and sizes including a backflow variety that makes it look like your incense smoke is a fountain. For a really luxurious incense burner though, our pick is this gold one with ginkgo leaf motifs that would make a great coffee table centerpiece.
3. An Actual Cutlery Set
Plastic disposable spoons and forks are great and all, but nothing says boujee like knowing your soup spoon from your dessert spoon. This 40-piece cutlery set has enough dinner forks, salad forks, dinner knives, dinner spoons, and teaspoons for 8 sets — perfect for a dinner party!
4. Motion Sensor Lights for Your Stairs
GET THE MOTION SENSOR LED STRIPS
You know those TikToks of rich people’s houses at night where you can see they have lights in every nook and cranny? You can have that on a budget with these motion sensor LED strips. While the LED strip hack for undercabinet and under-the-stairs lighting is nothing new, a lot of the tutorials for it use regular LED strips that you have to manually turn on and off. Not these strips. They’re motion sensor activated so they’ll turn on the moment you start going up your stairs — no Parasite basement dweller needed.
5. A Decanter That Makes You Look Like You Know Your Wine Stuff
GET AN AUTOMATIC WINE DECANTER
Aside from knowing your cutlery, knowing a few wine and meal pairings go a long way in making you feel luxurious and making other people think you have more money than you really do. It’s honestly not that hard and can actually be quite fun once you’ve developed a taste for it. What you may not know right off the bat, though, is why people swirl their wine around in the glass.
According to sommelier Mandy Oser, swirling your wine makes it taste better.
“You’re just introducing the liquid to oxygen and what it’s doing is releasing those flavor compounds into the air, so you can perceive and experience them.” Oser shared with Reactions.
A wine decanter improves the taste of your wine by aerating it, employing the same principles behind what makes swirled wine good.
This fancy-looking wine decanter combines the benefits of a decanter and swirling by hand. It comes with a USB rechargeable swirler that you place your decanter on top of. Just press the button at the front and it will swirl your wine for you before serving.
6. A Selection of Teas to Offer Your Guests
GET A BOX OF MULTI-FLAVORED TEAS
We don’t have the stats to prove it, but I have a feeling Bridgerton improved tea sales what with all the new fans wanting to have their own tea time gossiping sessions with friends. If you’ve always been a coffee person but want to swap the bean for the leaf, you can try this gift tea set from Pukkka. It includes 5 different flavors that incorporate spicy and sweet flavors to make delicious tea that even the most ardent coffee lover won’t be bored of. The blackcurrant and turmeric variants are a personal favorite and I recommend you try them first.
7. A Fountain Pen for Signing Documents With
For every expensive fountain pen out there, there’s a much cheaper one that you can get under $30 and this is one of them. You wouldn’t guess it right away from the sleek black barrel and gold details, but this fountain pen is super cheap and comes with 24 ink cartridges that you can switch out whenever the old one runs out. Since it isn’t one of those old school dip fountain pens, it’s super easy and straightforward to use so you’ll find it convenient enough for daily journaling.