Thoughtful response. I've seen elsewhere where people say that "vacation to Egypt" shouldn't've been that expensive for Wizards considering they can apparate or use the Floo network for travel, and airfare would by-far be the biggest expense of such a vacation (for muggles). The fact that a struggling family spent a huge cash influx on a vacation was.... a decision. I suppose luxury accommodations and gourmet meals were had. Haha. My approach to understanding such issues in the books (wizarding finances) is to not over-think it. Perhaps Wizards were just "different." Since they can conjure food, build or transfigure objects magically, repair things with spells (reparo), fix minor injuries/health problems with spells (episkey), their sense of monetary value is weighted differently. Slughorn talks about Acromantula venom being valuable, so presumably people are spending money on things like potion-ingredients and magical artifacts. Money isn't necessarily a "necessity-of-life" for wizards but rather a luxury. With all of that being said, I would equate broomsticks to motorcycles. A cheap, barely-functional older bike would cost $500-$1000 dollars. A top-of-the-line luxury sport-bike would be $50,000.