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?

@Dollywilde

My granny used to say ‘invest in a good bed, and a good pair of shoes, because if you’re not in one you’re in the other’.

I’ve heard this with “bras” added as well.

I’ll add teabags - even the most pricey are a pretty cheap way of having little moments of comfort/pleasure/calm during the day.

@JaninaDuszejko

Good pesto

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. And there's so many delicious variants, my kids are obsessed with wild garlic pesto and I have to make loads of it and freeze it so we can eat it for a longer season.

Money is best spent on boring basics that are used all the time until they are worn out. So underwear, kitchen knives, towels, mattresses, etc. Things that are used rarely or are not essential are best bought second hand like party dresses, champagne glasses, art work, vases.

[Adds food mixer to the trolley and basil, garlic, pecorino, parmesan, and pine nuts to a weekly order just in case I fancy pesto more than three times a year] - much cheaper to buy a jar when I fancy it.

there really is no discernible difference between homemade pesto and that bought off the deli

While jarred pesto is rank I'd agree that deli pesto tastes fine. But I started making my own because DS had CMPA when he was a baby and since his sisters were already addicted to pesto I looked for a dairy free recipe and started making my own. When he grew out of his allergy we kept on making it (with added giant toe shavings ).

Loo roll
Bin bags

Jealous of you all being able to buy pine nuts in quantity. Theyre 20 quid pr kilo here!

Somewhere I read, that you should always buy the best shoes ,and beds as if you are not in one you will be in the other one! I think cheap shoes are a false economy ,and our bed is very comfy although a little hot as it has a pillow topper!

@Fluffymule I agree . I wasted thousands on a crap solicitor . For me
Mattresses
Eggs but mine are cheap as a friend keeps hens
Coffee . I use instant for ease but don’t like the really cheap brands.

Mattress
Kids shoes
Car seats
Bread

For me, it's anything to do with Safety.
When the kids were little it was car seats and a decent car to bring them around in, and a buggy.

@LookItsMeAgain

For me, it's anything to do with Safety. When the kids were little it was car seats and a decent car to bring them around in, and a buggy.

Can’t beat health and safety as money well spent and best return on investment.

Wellington boots to walk the dogs in and a good rain coat. You can guess what I spend a lot of time doing 😁

Car tyres

They can be the difference as to whether you walk away from an accident or not.

Loose tea /tea bags, I made that mistake once, never again
Butter, it has to be either aldi or waitrose salted butter
Shoes/boots and handbags as they make me happy everyday

For people who said pillows, what would you recommend?
Thanks

We have these, they’re really good….
www.jonesandtomlin.co.uk/product/relyon-superior-comfort-deep-latex-pillow/

@Ledgeofglory we went to dreams and tried them. My husband liked the hard tempura one and I liked the thermapure hard one with a cooler gel. His was £99 and mine £65

@ChubbyLittleManInACampervan

This thread is making me feel very poor

I care a lot about trainers, for sports reasons (stability, comfort) so I buy Asics gel resolution, but only ever buy last years model/sale

So no, paying £120 not worth it if last years model is half that

I don’t think you are skimping if you are buying sale items. You are still buying £120 trainers, just at a discounted rate, rather than buying cheaper £35 trainers.

I'm an absolute cheapskate, so have learned to look for quality second hand, rather than buy cheap: shoes, clothes, bags, furniture (I'm so done with IKEA flat pack wardrobes, and chests of drawers that have thin hardboard bottoms to the drawers that cave in after a couple of years).

I buy new expensive beds and bedding, though.

I wonder if the pesto poster is the same one who once wrote on a thread: "I don't understand why people buy paneer, it's so easy to make your own"

I misread a pp's "mattress" as "mistress" which pulled me up - I am sure there are some husbands out there who are of that opinion, but....

If I may weigh in to the pesto debate, there's no right or wrong here - make or buy, it's up to you (if you have an allergy or are vegan, make seems to be the way forward). I often find that bought Basil is rather underwhelming. Looks great, might even smell great, but is a bit meh in the taste dept - last time I tried, I wound up with a muddy, watery greenish puddle that needed the rest of the giant's foot shavings on the pasta to get it to anything like nice. Now if you grow Basil, that's much better..... But one good batch of pesto and all you have is stalks.

@Ledgeofglory

For people who said pillows, what would you recommend? Thanks

It was me I can't stand foam pillows. For me it has to be down and taken to dry cleaners when it needs to be washed, since we don't have a drier

@Shirleyphallus

Don’t buy chopped tomatoes at all, but whole plum tomatoes instead. The chopped ones are all watery but the whole ones are much richer in flavour.

Handbags
Ketchup
Coats

Do you then chop them, or add them to the dish whole and expect them to break up a bit?

My mum used to have them on toast with salt, pepper and sugar! Delish!

Never scrimp on education. I did professional qualifications that were extremely expensive, that are now paid off and worth it for the well paid job at the end!

Never scrimp on bettering yourself and your career!

Ok, how do people feel about a high quality kitchen bin?

I'm currently in disagreement with my DP (who moved into my house) about replacing our now broken bin like for like.

I bought an EKO bin which cost around £65.

We live near the beach so the cheaper ones (like the one in my bathroom rust really quickly)

He wants to replace it with a cheap plastic one.

I think something you use 10 times a day should be good quality, I don't want to replace in a year.

@1940s

Mattress Kids shoes Car seats Bread

Yes!!! Kids shoes definitely!! Bought cheap sandals once and DD started turning her feet in we ran to the expensive shop!!!

Agree about chopped tomatoes!

I think coffee beans should be on the list. It really does make a difference.

I disagree about pillows though. I was once told that after 6 months of use, half of the weight of your pillow is mites. Since then I’ve bought them cheaper and replaced them often!