He could be one of the biggest royal spenders of recent years. 

Unlike his mother, who once ordered for an untouched lemon slice be returned to the kitchen to avoid waste, King Charles seems to have a much easier time splashing the cash.

His ‘cut price’ coronation held in May 2023 cost taxpayers at least £72million and in the run up to the event there was huge debate over the cost of holding such an historic state occasion against the background of a cost of living crisis. 

Tina Brown, author of 2007 biography on the life and death of the Princess of Wales, wrote in the Palace Papers: ‘The Prince of Wales, unfortunately, chose to emulate his big-spending grandmother, who insisted on living in Edwardian grandeur, maintaining five fully staffed homes.

‘Charles, senior courtiers felt, wanted to “out-granny Granny” in old world elegance.’

Before a visit to one friend in the north east, it is rumoured Charles sent his staff ahead a day early with a truck carrying furniture to replace the fittings in the guest rooms.

The truck apparently contained Charles and Camilla’s complete bedrooms, including his orthopaedic bed along with his own linen.

Other items included a small radio, his own lavatory seat, rolls of Kleenex Premium Comfort lavatory paper, Laphroaig whisky and bottled water, plus two landscapes of the Scottish Highlands.

King Charles is pictured in 1990 with his grandmother the Queen Mother – who he acquired his spending habits from

Queen Camilla and Charles are pictured with a private jet during their state visit to Italy in April 2025

Charles’s ‘cut price’ coronation  in May 2023 cost taxpayers at least £72million. He is pictured with Camilla 

The royal author added that unlike the Queen, who always ate up what she was served, the prince made menu preferences.

She also claimed he sometimes arrived at dinner with his protection officer bearing a martini premixed and ready to be handed to the butler and served in his own glass.

Charles employed 90 staff at St James’s Palace and Highgrove – and reportedly asked senior staff to drive three hours from London to Highgrove only for them to be hanging around for half the day. 

When Camilla still smoked, footmen were apparently instructed to place silver cigarette boxes containing her favourite brand in every room.

They also had to make sure that matchbox holders in solid silver containers were placed upright near at hand with one match half withdrawn so she did not have to scrabble about looking for a light.

When entertainers are summoned to entertain the Royal Family, they are given a seven-page document instructing them in how to behave.

For example, they are told they must not, under any circumstances, slouch or lean against bars or tables, bow ties should be of the self-tie variety and performers are not allowed to speak to any member of the Royal Family unless spoken to first.

The King’s suits, of which he has 60, cost upwards of £5,000 each, while his shirts, all hand-made, cost £1,000 and he has more than 200. His collar stiffeners are made of solid gold.

Royal author Tina Brown wrote about Charles’ lavish spending in her 2022 book the Palace Papers

For the Queen Mother (pictured with King George VI) dinner parties were large and lavish affairs with liveried footmen behind every chair 

His collection of ties, regimental, club and personal, runs to over 500.

A serving soldier based at Birdcage Walk, polishes His Majesty’s boots and shoes every day – he has 50 pairs each costing over £2,000 to make by Lobb of St James’s – and a housemaid hand washes his silk underwear as soon as it is discarded.

Nothing Charles or Camilla wears is ever allowed near a washing machine.

Some of these behaviours may sound familiar. 

For the Queen Mother dinner parties were large and lavish affairs with liveried footmen behind every chair and the Queen Mother herself pressing a Faberge pearl bell – ‘my Borgia bell,’ she called it – for service.

There would be souffle, lobster croquettes, rare lamb, new potatoes and peas from Windsor with sugar on top, followed by raspberries with Jersey cream or meringue with black cherries in liqueur. She also enjoyed vintage Krug champagne at a cost of £300 a bottle.

She was known for splashing the cash on jewelry, racehorses and lavish entertainment, which led to her leaving behind £7million when she died in 2002. 

Of the staff of 60 – housekeepers, butlers, footmen, pages, chefs, equerries, ladies’ maids, ladies-in-waiting, dressers, gardeners and chauffeurs – 27 lived rent-free, including one old watchman who sat outside her bedroom door every night with a lamp.

It was also believed the Queen Mother had little idea how much things cost and did not carry cash with her. 

Brown wrote: ‘Charles, senior courtiers felt, wanted to “out-granny Granny” in old world elegance’

Camilla is known to have benefited from her husband’s riches. The couple are photographed during their state visit to Italy in April 2025

Unlike his mother, who once ordered for an untouched lemon slice be returned to the kitchen to avoid waste, Charles seems to have a much easier time splashing the cash. He is pictured enjoying a mojito in Cuba in March 2019

When Charles became King, he said he would be ‘slimming down’ the monarchy to reduce costs. 

Daily May columnist Richard Kay wrote in November 2024 that private finances remains the thorny issue for the Royal family. 

For years, speculation about how rich the royals are has been just that, a guessing game. 

That they had stocks and shares was accepted but the nature of their investments and how much money they amounted to was obscured in secrecy.

One justification was that public knowledge about where the King and his heir chose to invest might influence not just the market but also commercially disadvantage businesses because of the inevitable increase in scrutiny.

Charles manages his own private income and assets, including the Duchy of Cornwall, as well as receiving a Sovereign Grant from the government to cover the costs of his official duties.

But in 2022-2023, total spending was £107.5 million, exceeding the Sovereign Grant of £86.3million, requiring the drawing of £20.7million from reserves.

Last year it was reported Charles’s personal wealth jumped by £10million to £610million, making him much richer than his mother Queen Elizabeth II who was worth £370million.

Balmoral Castle (pictured), which belonged to his mother the late Queen, makes up a large sum of King Charles’s fortune 

Camilla and Charles – who is suited and booted on the beach – are pictured during a royal visit to Australia in 2024

The royal couple are pictured at a wreath laying ceremony in Kingstown during a visit to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in March 2019

His inherited private estates Sandringham in Norfolk and Balmoral in Aberdeenshire, which belonged to his mother the late Queen, are said to account for much of his financial fortune.

Only personal assets – not the Crown Estate, the Duchy of Lancaster, nor the Crown Jewels which are held in trust by the King for the nation – are included by The Sunday Times when assessing the sovereign’s wealth.

The King is also known for his love of luxurious trips with Charles and Camilla’s March 2019 tour of the Caribbean costing £417,000.

But in October 2024 the couple embarked upon a short royal tour of Australia and Samoa and spent significantly less money on the trip when compared with the late Queen Elizabeth II’s visits. 

The total cost of Charles and Camilla’s royal tour was around £280,600.

The late Queen’s 2006 visit, which lasted a total of five days, cost a whopping £677,400.

In 2023 MailOnline reported that the most expensive journey made by any Royal Family member over the last financial year was Charles and Camilla’s charter flight to Rwanda – costing £186,571.

It came as new royal accounts showed royal travel costs fell by £600,000 to £3.9million, but the expenditure on helicopter flights topped £1million. 

Charles and Camilla are pictured in Adelaide, Australia, in 2012 on the second leg of a Diamond Jubilee Tour 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2018 visit to Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji cost £81,000

William is pictured on his Middle East Tour in June 2018, which cost £74,000

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2018 visit to Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji cost £81,000 and Prince William’s visit to Jordan, Israel and Palestinian occupied territories the same year came to £74,000. 

As working members of the public battle with an ever-increasing cost of living, the Palace finances will continue to be under constant scrutiny.

But Charles may be turning his back on his spending habits of the past.

His ambition to ‘cut down the monarchy’ is still to be fully executed – but he has already shown willingness to do so by trimming down luxuries associated with his coronation and Royal Visits.

Unlike the late Queen Mother, Charles seems adamant to save some of the pennies which previously burned a hole in his pocket.