What have you never bought or no longer buy because you think it's a waste of money?

[Zipps]

Dog accessories - they have a coat for the depths of winter but that's it.
Bath bombs - completely pointless.
Many kitchen gadgets.
Clothes/shoes that aren't a perfect fit.

That doesn’t sound very appetising

Febreze.
If your clothes smell, they need washing or cleaning.
If your soft furnishings smell - get rid of the cause of the smell rather than cover it up.

I hope this is a joke, unless you want to block your toilet.

@ConfusedByThisShit I mean that I don't have either type of insurance, structural or contents. If everything exploded/went up in smoke, it would be horrible, and a massive hit, but tbh it wouldn't wipe me out. I could start again.

@Plankingplanks Everyone who knows says it's mental. It would be if I could be left destitute, but that can't happen. I've done this for a very long time, and nothing that needs an insurance payout has ever happened to me. It's very unlikely that a wipe-out fire or something similar will ever happen. But I agree with you that it's a totally mental thing to do if you can't cover it if things go wrong.

I won't let myself buy a kitchen steamer. I have a microwave I tell myself.

I stopped buying fabric softener a few years ago and honestly haven't noticed any difference so I won't be buying it ever again.

Ditto with shower gel. I swapped to bar soap to cut down on plastic waste but found it actually made me feel cleaner so as a family we've completely swapped from shower gel to cheap bars of soap....they last ages too.

I make my own multi-purpose cleaning spray that I use for pretty much everything with white vinegar, a squirt of washing up liquid, some drops of essential oil to mask the vinegar smell and topped up with water. It does a fab job.

I no longer buy expensive moisturiser or different hand/foot/eye creams etc. After the shower I moisturise my entire body and face with sweet almond oil which I buy from Amazon very cheaply.

What about fat off sausages? I cook my sausages on a George Foreman grill and use the fat that runs off with seeds to make a fatball. Is that bad?

I've never bought bottled water, takeaway coffee, false nails, a lot of branded stuff when the supermarket ones are just as good, kitchen roll or cleaning sprays, wipes etc.
Cooking fats I either put in the bin once cooled, or pour into a jar once cooled for coating home made roasties another day.
I use standard knitted dishcloths for wiping sides and spills. These are changed daily and then washed on a hot wash weekly with the pot towels after a soaking in bleach, which is then tipped down the loo's and left overnight.
Lovely white cloths and towels and gleaming loo's, what's not to like.

What about fat off sausages? I cook my sausages on a George Foreman grill and use the fat that runs off with seeds to make a fatball. Is that bad?

I don't know. I always used to use lard when I made, 'bird pudding' when at Girl Guides years ago. In fact, bacon fat/rind was one of the ingredients IIRC.

Please don't let this now derail into the husband who ate a fatball from the fridge at home, like it, and asked his wife what it was ?!

I’ve stopped getting Fairy liquid because I think the quality has REALLY dropped. Tesco’s own brand seems better now.

i think a lot of companies have really used the COL crisis as an excuse to lower the quality in stuff. Rather than save in other ways, and to conserve their (bosses’) profits, they’ve just reduced the quality, or the sizing (very very subtly). It’s like they think that consumers don’t notice. It pisses me off. I don’t think other European countries would stand for it. I used some hotel shampoo in France the other week. It was better than some of the stuff on sale in shops here.

Just cancelled the BT landline phone. It hasn't rung in months as everyone contacts by mobile, text, Whats App, etc. Can have broadband without it.

Also cancelled add-ons at the gym, and cut out crisps, biscuits and cake for the family. No one appears that bothered.

cheap earrings

• Cat sick/ toilet stuff I use loo roll
• small spills I use a cloth, usually a cut up muslin or cheeky wipe
• drying off a cleaned surface I'll usually let air dry, if I absolutely can't, then I'll use a tea towel/ cloth which will then be used to wipe up a spill or wipe down a different surface in a bit, or clean up cat food. (I call these second use cloths)
• don't tend to have an issue with greasy food so can't comment on that one. Pancakes don't need separating in this house!
• a damp cloth works well for cut flowers
• I have a specific lint free cloth for windows, was my grandma's
• I sneeze in to the crook of my arm, then wash it.
• nosebleeds/ cut fingers etc I use loo roll or a cloth

I don't really buy cloths for the purpose either, I reuse old t shirts, muslins and towels.

I didn't grow up with kitchen roll either so maybe that is why?

Car leasing. Never done it, never will. A very expensive way of having a car.

We've always bought new, nearly new or ex-demo, either by low interest dealership finance or outright from savings. Then keep the cars until they literally fall apart or something huge happens, like an engine blow. Currently we have one that's 15 years old and another that's 8 years old, both cost us nothing other than yearly service/MOT and the occasional new tyre, new brake pads, spark plugs, battery, etc - basically just service schedule items and wear & tear. We got a previous one up to 195,000 miles before the engine blew and that was my stupid fault in that I knew it was leaking water, but I forget to fill the radiator before a long motorway run and inevitably the engine blew - if I'd filled it up, like I knew I had to, it'd have gone on for a lot longer! We've never had any of the major repairs/replacements that you so often hear trotted out as reasons for never having old cars, such as replacement engines, gearboxes, clutches, etc - I'm sure most of it is down to bad driving! The biggest expense we ever have is replacement timing belts but again, that's a service schedule thing, so you know it's coming and it's cheaper to have it done at the same time as a service!

Getting a new car and keeping it for only 3 years is a mugs game and a complete waste of money. It's just vanity wanting a car that's never more than 3 years old, and you pay through the nose for that.

Modern cars last an average of 13 years, and that's taking in to account the ones that have premature ends due to accidents or ultra high mileage, so a pretty average car, doing average mileage, careful driving etc., can easily be expected to last 20 years.

We keep records of our expenses and total costs (exc fuel) of our 2 current cars are less than £100 per month, over the life of the car, including the purchase price less current part exchange value, servicing/repairs, MOT, insurance, etc. If people want to pay £200/£300/£400 per month to lease a car, that's up to them, but they need to be honest and accept it's for vanity of having a new car, rather than because it's cheaper!

Expensive skin care - I use Simple wash at night, and plain shower water and baby Aveeno on my face and neck in the morning. My skin has never been happier. Stopped buying mascara about 12 years ago - can't bear it now. Used to spend a fortune on it. I've got dark lashes though, which might affect my attitude.

In the bin with any oil residue, scraped out with a silicone spatula which I then scrape on the side if the bin before washing. The trace amounts of oils/fats remaining are broken down with detergent when washed so don't pose a risk - no more so that when you wash your body or hair.

wipes
cloths with (soapy) water cleans so much better.

cleaning products in general.
warm water with a little washing up liquid does most jobs well.

Car leasing. Never done it, never will. A very expensive way of having a car.

I agree. Whilst I understand why people do it, (to announce that they can't afford to buy the car they are driving) it's not for me.

Too many limitations on a leased car as well i.e. mileage, damage to vehicle etc etc. I get it that keeping a vehicle on the road has sunk costs i.e. responsibility for the insurance, M.O.T. etc however to do all that as well as the cost of leasing and not own the vehicle makes me say. Nope.

We do the same. Not necessarily because of the money, but it's always such a faff getting people to do things for you and often you end up disappointed with poor quality or being messed around. I tend to find we end up spending as much on the equipment we need as it would cost to get someone to do it, but at least then we have the equipment for next time so future times will cost virtually nothing. Luckily, we've got enough storage space for all my stuff (crafty type thing like picture framing kits, sewing machine, upholstery kits etc) and all DH's power tools (he's now got just about everything going, but I drew the line at a cement mixer and pneumatic drill which I made him rent by the day instead of buying!).

@GarlicGrace

Supermarket foods in particular; it's often obvious that they're the same product from the same factory, even in the same packaging with a different label.

They're really not at all. In previous jobs, I've been accountant/auditor to a number of food processing factories, mainly sandwiches, pre-packed salads, cooked chicken meals, sandwich fillings and marinades.

They use different quality raw ingredients depending on the customer, which for most of those was a mix of convenience stores (the likes of garages, Spar shops, small independents, etc) and a few big brands (the likes of M&S, Tesco, Booths, Asda etc), and depending on the range, i.e. whether the brand's premium or bargain range. That's different mayonnaise, different quality of meat, different quality of salad, eggs, etc.

For example, for the premium brand, they'd use local free range eggs which they peeled and cooked in house, whereas for the bargain brand, cheap range, they'd use imported eggs, pre-cooked and pre-peeled. They'd also use a lot more frozen foods from places like the Far East, such as pre-cooked frozen chicken pieces for cheaper ranges but local fresh chickens for premium brands.

Product traceability (in case of health alerts) and product separation (for vegan/vegetarian etc options), are a huge thing in food processing factories, so there really is no "crossover" of using the same ingredients for different batch runs. At the end of a batch, for say, Tesco, the entire production line is cleaned, ingredient bins emptied and cleaned, etc., and then it's all restocked with new/different ingredients for the next batch, which may well be for Waitrose!

It's one of the biggest myths going that you can get exactly the same thing with a different label! It just doesn't happen. (Well maybe it can happen in dodgy factories, as anything goes when rules aren't adhered to - just look at the horse meat fiasco!).

@taxguru Your house sounds exactly like mine! DP is moving in later this year and I honestly have no idea where he's going to put all his power tools- the garage and shed are already full of mine (and crafty stuff).

I too had to draw the line at a concrete mixer purchase recently ("But we can resell it! We'll basically have had free use of a mixer!!") but did invest in a concrete breaker 😊

Luckily, we've got a garage with a loft, a house loft, and 3 garden sheds, so we can just about fit it all in. We have a small office for our business which is about a mile away, and as we're winding it down towards retirement in a few years, and no longer have any staff, two of the offices/spare rooms are no longer needed, so we've started to put stuff in there too. The longer term plan is to convert it to our workshop and take all our stuff there for our crafts/hobbies and for general storage, so we can get our house back! I'd love somewhere dedicated to have all my crafty/sewing things and a nice workspace setup rather than the dining table, and I know OH has his eyes on the office driveway/parking for tinkering with cars! We may even start doing "manual things" as a sideline business.

Agreed. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night and I certainly wouldn't enjoy a holiday away from home 😳

I agree with all of this, I worked in Quality Control for a food manufacturer and Marks & Spencer ingredients were separately sourced and kept in a separate part of the warehouse, they were certainly not all the same with different labels on. They also had their own QC come in to do checks.

We use kitchen roll as napkins most mealtimes. I know I should probably use cloth ones & wash them but that feels like a lot of work. Do others go without altogether or use something else? Would mean sticky hands everywhere otherwise. Maybe we are just messy eaters 🤔