No matter how broke I am, I will not compromise on

[NorthEndGal]

Butter
If I only had a few dollars left, I'd still buy butter.
Not margarine, not 20-80 spread, just real pure butter.

Anything else, I'll do without, or by a substitute, etc

What is your "I'm not going without" thing?

rose after work on saturday sunday

A decent cup of coffee every morning I’m at home. We have a plastic cone, buy filter papers and good coffee. No fancy machine. It works.

Chanel No 5.

@StoatofDisarray thank you for that brilliant post. It really made me laugh.

Interesting thread!

The last things to go for me would be butter, free range eggs and free range milk and decent potatoes.

There is a sort of opposite thread running elsewhere about being thrifty, which is a good read as well, some handy tips!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3595989-which-thrifty-thing-do-you-do-that-you-re-surprised-that-no-one-else-does?pg=13

Coca-Cola
Coffee
For both I’d rather drink water than diet / generic cola or instant coffee

We’re not in a good position financially right now (I haven’t been out of my overdraft in over 2 years, neither has my husband apart from a couple of times just getting above that zero, and our mortgage DD bounces frequently 😢). We NEVER go out, I never drink alcohol (H drinks an odd can or two of cheap cider every now and again), we don’t smoke, I’ve only had 1 haircut in the last 3 and a half years (and that was only for my sisters wedding), I don’t wear make-up, don’t buy new clothes or shoes, kids have hand me downs, etc. But I just can’t live without Pepsi Max! I know it’s bad for me and an unnecessary expense - but it really does make me feel that little bit better when I’m down about everything else. I’m being made redundant from my job as well so it may mean that my one final luxury is going to have to go (or maybe I should try to get a job working for Pepsi 😉).

I don’t begrudge anyone having their “one luxury” but it’s people like my sister who claims poverty but she & her DH get pissed as farts every weekend, drink every weekday evening too, smoke/vape (depending on if they’ve given up at the time which they do), go to the pub every weekend without fail, pay out for multiple classes for her daughter, go on multiple weekends away, etc that make me think they’re clueless and no idea what it’s really like to be broke.

Marmite, not a wannabe marmite

I've tried but I can't think of one 🤔

Mine isn't a product but it's a shower in the Morning. I don't care where I am or how it happens but I need a shower. Even when wild camping I have fashioned something out of a bucket to have a kneeling wash which felt a bit like a shower. 😂 As for luxury I would rather drink no coffee than cheap instant. I am ok with millicano style instant, fresh of course, pod if you have it. But no cheap instant.

Also butter. When I met my partner he was using some kind of I can’t believe it’s not butter crap. After a morning of dry toast I took Lurpak and left it in his fridge. Returned three days later to no Lurpak, and an untouched tub of spread. I was not happy. He says I’ve “ruined non dairy spreads” for him forever.

And Malden salt and free range eggs. Would struggle to compromise on skin care...

I don't really think any of you are actually broke, or have ever been broke.

Or you would buy supermarket brands

Toilet roll. My bum comfort is important to me.

My perfume....

Leather bags and leather footwear.

Most of the things people are desperately trying to avoid on here (cheap toilet tissue, cheap coffee, supermarket bread (the horror) and a whole host of other cheap things....are our staple products 😂

Darling thank you, the instant porridge sachets are good for Food Banks, just not endless packs of oats. We often take them home and make them into flapjacks.

Coffee. I don't like cheap instant coffees. The only instant I like is Azera (but it needs 2 spoonfuls per mug before it tastes of coffee!). I would sooner go without or have coffee half as often rather than have the cheaper stuff.

Having lived in a country where single-ply toilet paper was freely available as a 'toilet paper standard', I will try never to buy it again.

Also, any meat that is farmed intensively. I'd rather go without meat.

My smart phone ...

Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

Yes I can taste the difference.

Nice coffee as in a small tin of Kenco millicano or nescafe azera ....usually alternate. Usually have to have some sort of fruit and veg and wheat free bread which costs an arm and a leg but I've tried making a flat bread out of rice flour and it came out like an undercooked doorstop.

Ps i am a bit broke to be fair....

Toys! Far rather one box of good stuff than piles of pound shop tat.

Diet coke, diet coke, diet coke