Artisan coffee and bedding upgrades: The new 'luxuries' we can’t do without

Exception has been taken to an estate agent suggesting that young couples could save enough for a house deposit, if they would only cut out dinners, phone upgrades and other treats. Strutt & Parker calculated that by giving up six luxuries (we’ll get onto them in a minute) you could save £33,000 in five years - and bingo. On the ladder, place of your own, all sorted.

This hasn’t gone down well for various reasons but mainly – I suspect - because in 2017 you don’t tell anyone under 30 that phone upgrades, takeaways, minibreaks, nights out, coffees and gym memberships are anything other than their basic human entitlement. You can try, but you will get nowhere. We’ve all had a go. We’ve had the conversation that starts ‘Domino’s pizza! What’s wrong with eggs? There’s so much food in the fridge!’ Then it swiftly moves on to, ‘While we’re at it, is that a new phone? I haven’t got an iPhone 6....