Luxe by chance: How to make every day indulgent, even on a budget

Riaan George, 41, a Mumbai and Colombo-based content creator and media strategist, advises starting early and starting young. When he was in his early twenties, at his first job, he already knew which high-end brands he liked: Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Tumi. “I would buy the smallest item, a wallet or a visiting card holder, so I could enjoy that little luxury treat stay within my spending limit,” he says. On travels, he’d treat himself to one expensive meal or go to a fancy bar for just one night. “That would be a one-off luxury when I was starting out,” he recalls.

Luxurious doesn’t always mean expensive. Rhea Hegde, 36, a marketing consultant for a luxury online shopping portal, says it just calls for a change of focus. Her mother used to add a few drops of lavender essential oil to the washing machine so their clothes came out smelling heavenly. Since moving from Bhopal to Gurgaon six years ago, she’s done the same. Hegde also recommends keeping a jug of fruit-infused water in the fridge to make warm days a little more luxe. “Just chop up oranges, cucumbers or lemons and put them in your water jug,” she recommends.

When freelance writer Himanshu Sharma, 34, started to earn and save in 2013, he knew he wanted a better quality of day-to-day life, rather than one big indulgence. “It started with me planning holidays at which I wasn’t staying in hostels, but actual hotel rooms,” he recalls. “They weren’t five-star, but they made me feel good.” At home, the “nice” dinner plates and glassware are used every day. They’re not hidden away in a cupboard.

Everything will not spark joy, so invest in the things that do, rather than chasing logos and brands. “I have a coffee machine and I like to buy good coffee,” George says. “I use perfume a lot, but occasionally I’ll buy an expensive, niche fragrance, which I will use sparingly. Just yesterday, I spent some money and bought myself a nice chikankari kurta from a slightly more expensive brand.”

Fashion student Saurabh Chatterjee, 22, loves poring through coffee table books about fashion. But each book can cost in the thousands. So, he trawls second-hand bookstores, heads to Delhi’s Daryaganj Sunday market at 6am and spends hours there. He’s made friends with book vendors near his house – the kind that display their books on mats – for great deals, and has scored a hard-to-find 2022 The Fendi Set, which explores how British creatives influenced the brand’s collections. It retails for about $100, but he got it for ₹700.