You can never spend too much money on…

[PissPotPourri]

My old boss used to say “you can never spend too much money on a paint brush”. Perhaps badly phrased, but what he meant was “buy the best paintbrush you can afford” as according to him, a cheap paintbrush will leave hairs in the paint and a bad finish.
I know most people would agree that a pair of jeans is another one- worth paying a bit more for a pair so they don’t sag and bag after one wear. Take the cost and divide by the number of times you’d wear them and suddenly they’re not expensive anymore.
For me, I would advocate buying the best chopped tomatoes you can afford, as I have recently switched to a more expensive brand and my cooking has been revolutionised! No more adding sugar to a sauce, no more acidity.
So, it got me to thinking, what other items should I not be economising on? What every day item is worth spending as much as I can afford?

Wellingtons
Paint
Paint brushes
Tinned tomatoes

My favourite balsamic vinegar is Belazu:

www.belazu.com/shop/1-34-balsamic-vinegar-of-modena

They sell it in Waitrose and possibly other places too now. I keep a cheaper bottle for putting in cooking: this is only for drizzling or eating with bread and olive oil.

Whilst I agree in principle on the paint and paintbrush thing, if you aren't very good at painting, it will still look bad.

"@PissPotPourri Girl71 is there anything you would buy cheaply?"

I am partial to a large pack of economy toilet rolls and a pair of Poundland flip flops. 😁

Same with foundation, you can buy a very expensive one and pop it on a furry face and it won't be an amazing look, speaking from experience here, very disapointed when I realised the problem wasn't the foundation but my face !

Bit like painting, preparation and skill are key

Pillow

And definitely shoes!!

@PegasusReturns

i never understand why anyone buys pesto, it can be made in the time it takes to boil the pasta, you just put basil, some garlic cloves, pine nuts, parmesan, pecorino and olive oil in a food mixer and blitz it

This is peak MN. I love food and cook almost everything from scratch but by the time I’ve found basil, paid £6 each for pine nuts and pecorino, splashed out another £8 on olive oil I really don’t want to be arsed with scrubbing the little bits of the blender.

Peak MN indeed.

It doesn’t take the time that it takes the pasta to boil.

It takes time and effort to go to the shops - I don’t have a kitchen garden just outside the door - and I do have a job, so I don’t have those ingredients to hand at all times. I am sure it’s easy to blitz them, but planning for them and shopping for them definitely takes longer than boiling a pot of spaghetti, and is rather difficult to fit into my working day.

@frumpety you need to apply a primer first. Then yr foundation will be reet.

And then initial outlay is.....?

Less than the Belazu balsamic vinegar linked to above.

[quote LunaNorth]@ParadiseLaundry I like Belazu.

I’ve thought of another - running shoes.[/quote]
Not always. The more expensive ones are often over engineered and cause me all kinds of pain.

@girl71 , I think I would need to deal with the moustache and beard first, look after my skin a bit and then your primer trick might work

Love your use of reet though

Post it notes! Too many times I have been lured in by Wilko own brand that look the same but don’t come close to post-it notes. Never again!

Mattress
Underwear (particularly bras)
Bedding
Shoes

Buy the cheapest pesto you can find and defile it by mixing into tesco own brand penne with a babybel decadently plopped on top.

@JaninaDuszejko

And then initial outlay is.....?

Less than the Belazu balsamic vinegar linked to above.

I imagine it's less than a Rolls Royce as well, and that's only slightly less relevant to pesto than the balsamic is

Yes @angeltattoo cheap post-its are shite!

@JaninaDuszejko

And then initial outlay is.....?

Less than the Belazu balsamic vinegar linked to above.

Don't worry Janina, I'm also happy to make my own pesto...

I am a terrible stockpiler so the upfront cost of ingredients doesn't generally worry me: I bulk buy things like pine nuts and then we split the 1-2kg bag across a few households. It massively increases the upfront costs but halves the per gram cost.

(But, in true sitting on the fence fashion, while I'm happy to make my own, sometimes I just buy it because I want zero effort, and that's a totally legitimate choice too! Fresh pesto will also never be cheaper than cheap jar pesto.)

Shoes.

Since I got married a good few years ago and stayed in a very expensive hotel I will not stay in cheap accommodation.

I never understand why anyone buys pesto, it can be made in the time it takes to boil the pasta, you just put basil, some garlic cloves, pine nuts, parmesan, pecorino and olive oil in a food mixer and blitz it.

Peak middle class Mumsnet at it's absolute finest. What the fuck is pecorino?

There's a saying always invest in a good bed and good shoes as if you're not in one you're in the other.

Personally I add -

Washing up liquid - original green fairy all the way here, BUT I never pay full price I always stock up when it's on offer. I've tried cheaper brands and even expensive other brands and they're never as good.

Kitchen knives I agree with. But oddly I've found certain brands of cheaper ones can be very good

Anything that is designed to keep you safe

Oh yes!

Perfume I agree with, mainly as I have sensitive skin and cheaper ones are murder for messing it up!

Conversely I've found cheaper skincare is better as less likely to have fragrance and loads of additives

Haircuts - I cut my own! Have for years. I find it very difficult to find hairdressers that can cut my hair how I like.

Legal advice when you need it. Ditto financial advice.

Definitely! I've rarely needed this but when I have the difference is extraordinary

Cars - I dunno. The bangers I've had I loved as I felt they were full of character. The top range ones we had while ex and I were together were ok but they were a constant drain financially with niggles and I didn't feel they had much personality - which may just be me being weird about cars. That said I have a milestone birthday next year and I have...toyed with the idea of hiring exes dream car for a day/weekend if only to wind hell up outta him! (he would seriously lose the plot if I did!)

Peace and privacy!

Omg yes! If I ever come into serious money I'm buying a house in the middle of Fucking nowhere! With decent wifi admittedly. No neighbours, no cold callers... bliss

Condoms - yes! The consequences could be VERY expensive

Beds & shoes.

You spend all of your life in one or the other.

Skin care.I get told I look 34 when I'm actually 41 so there must be something in it.

Mattress
Hair straighteners
Knives
Frying pan
Vacuum cleaner
Iron, if you iron
Meat
Bed linen

@Needapoodle

I never understand why anyone buys pesto, it can be made in the time it takes to boil the pasta, you just put basil, some garlic cloves, pine nuts, parmesan, pecorino and olive oil in a food mixer and blitz it.

Peak middle class Mumsnet at it's absolute finest. What the fuck is pecorino?

It’s the foot shavings from a giant

@PegasusReturns

i never understand why anyone buys pesto, it can be made in the time it takes to boil the pasta, you just put basil, some garlic cloves, pine nuts, parmesan, pecorino and olive oil in a food mixer and blitz it

This is peak MN. I love food and cook almost everything from scratch but by the time I’ve found basil, paid £6 each for pine nuts and pecorino, splashed out another £8 on olive oil I really don’t want to be arsed with scrubbing the little bits of the blender.

Thanks for saying that for me...