Have you ever noticed how some people are incredibly lucky when it comes to the quality of the conversations they are forced to listen to while queuing to pay in a shop?

Well, I have the opposite. Ever since I can remember, I have always managed to find myself slap-bang in the middle of someone else’s fight or at the receiving end of unsolicited advice.

Yesterday evening was no different. As I queued to pay for a rather depressing-looking coffee, I happened upon two women loudly arguing over some increase in the price of makeup thanks to the government’s budget announcements.

Despite the wild gesticulations and the clear anger on the part of one of them, I was unable to gauge the exact force of the storm in the teacup and trudged off home not really thinking much of it.

So far, so kosher, or at least it was till I logged into my Facebook account. Ten posts later and I was practically frothing at the mouth with my coffee left cold and untouched next to me.

Apparently, many women will no longer be able to fork out €40 for a lipstick because the price will go up to €40.02

So what was the source of my unbridled rage? Two cents. Yes, two cents.

Or to be precise, the unbelievably petty reaction to yesterday’s budget measures concerning toiletry items which truly beggars belief. For those of you who don’t have a bevy of makeup-brush-used-as-pitchfork ladies on your friend list, the 2017 budget has increased the price of makeup and shampoo marginally and apparently thanks to this, many women will no longer be able to fork out €40 euros for a lipstick because the price will go up to €40.02.

Are you baffled by these croakings of doom? If you’re not, maybe you should stop reading here.

Apart from the ‘Woe is me! How will I afford my nails?’ brigade, I was even more shocked be the sanctimonious and supposedly enlightened opinions of women claiming that we must focus on inner beauty and that these extra two cents will go to worthier causes so people shouldn’t be selfish. Huh?

True to form, no one was pointing out the bleeding obvious: two cents are just that. We’re not going to quell world hunger with it and we sure as hell aren’t going to go hungry without it.

In the words of my no nonsense father, if you’re claiming that a €0.02c price rise has ruined your life, then maybe you need to get a new brain (or a new life).

Let’s be honest here, if it hadn’t been splashed all over the net, would you have even realised that the price of your nail polish went up by such a negligible margin? No.

Maybe a lot of people would do good to think twice before giving their two cents to the internet.

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