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.

@QS90 Have a look at washable wipes such as Cheeky Wipes. We used white ones for bums and multicoloured for hands and faces. My eldest is 8 now and we still have some that we bought when she was newborn. They get used for general cleaning now. The few times I used disposable wipes I found them useless. They just smear dirt around rather than cleaning it. (That’s probably why you get through so many…)

Old fat from meat/frying etc is contaminated with lots of salt, caramelised meat bits etc which is why it dripping tastes great...

It melts at a pretty low temp, and as birds eat it, they clean their beaks (spreading it all over in the attempt), then preen and spread it all over themselves. The salts and whatnot in the fats can be pretty toxic for them.

Suet on the other hand is the hard fat from around kidneys in certain animals, it has a much higher melt point, and is nutrient dense but not filled with salts, carcinogens from having been heated to high temps, filled with burnt meat bits etc - its cleaner and better for them. It also makes fat balls that are unlikely to fall apart the moment the sun rises!

Lard isn't as good, melts at a lower temp than suet (but still higher than old cooking fat/dripping) but it IS clean (its not recommended you use lard that has already been heated for cooking with) - its ok to feed if you must, but suet is better.

But bad for the environment. It's got plastic in it. It doesn't biodegrade well at all.

Do you think people who don't use kitchen roll put grease and oils down the drain?

Silicone spatula! No residue. Scrape the spatula on the side of the bin, again no or virtually no residue - no more than on knives, forks and plates anyway!

Anything Heinz. Always had heinz beans growing up and salad cream/ ketchup. Not had salad cream for years and everything else is own brand.

I do wonder who their customers are these days over £4 for a (big) bottle of sauce. £2 for soup over £1 for a single can of beans. They don’t even do well in blind Taste tests.

Oh yikes. This one makes me nervous. Sorry! But to clarify....do you mean house insurance - as in the structure? Or contents insurance?

If it's the first one, what would you do if your house went up in flames? You'd have lost an assets worth tens and tens of thousands of pounds and would be homeless (and potentially you might still have your mortgage that you'd be liable to pay off).

And if you mean the second one, presumably you have sufficient savings to be able to replace all of your essentials items again if the house went up in flames?

You can get basic insurance for a fiver a month - it's a pretty measly saving compared to a huge potential loss, isn't it?

I do wonder who their customers are these days over £4 for a (big) bottle of sauce.

That would be me then 😅 I love ketchup and so do the kids. Guilty pleasure! We go through a lot of the stuff. I've tried cheaper brands and they taste horrible. So we've given up on economising there, and just always buy the Heinz branded ketchup, soup, and beans.

Might be relevant to mention that DC are autistic (as am I) so there's some very specific food preferences in this house! Mind you, ketchup, beans, spaghetti hoops, soup, coke, mayo, and chocolate are the only things that we stick to branded stuff religiously on. Most of the other things I've managed to switch in without anyone noticing!

Oh, and crisps too actually but we don't eat a lot of those. Cheap crisps are usually not so nice other than Aldi's cheap version of Wotsits which DD likes.

This is genuinely mental.

Weekend newspapers. I used to buy two of the broadsheets every Saturday and Sunday but their price now is shocking!
I’m just about to give my cleaner notice. She’s a lovely person but a dramatically changed financial situation due to DH’s ill health - coupled with the realisation, since I’ve had to be home more, that she doesn’t actually do that good a job means that she’ll have to go.

Magazines - haven't bought one in years, same goes for newspapers
Designer clothes - don't buy these I'm not willing to pay a fortune for a label
The big one for me is cigarettes, I've recently switched to vaping which still isn't great but costs far less than smoking, I can't believe how much I used to spend on the things

I got rid of my cleaner a year ago. She was unreliable and a bit rubbish compared to my previous one and I resented paying her even though she was a lovely person.

I don't have my nails done, am growing out my grey and won't be buying a car if one of ours breaks.

Kitchen roll and fabric softener. Both completely unnecessary.

Absolutely agree. Heinz prices are insane. Given that the cost of producing a bottle of Heinz ketchup can’t be much different to the cost of producing a bottle of Asda ketchup, it’s just sheer profiteering from Heinz. But if people are still mad enough to pay their prices, who can blame them.

Gave up buying magazines about 18 years ago.

Gave up Elemis skincare, the detox type capsules gave me spots for 6 months and the other stuff of theirs was just layer upon layer of goo.

Could never give up kitchen roll though!

I'll admit I buy the Heinz reduced sugar and salt beans.

I tried the Tesco own brand alternative but they just didn't taste nice.

You can pour it directly into the kitchen bin if there is a liner in it ?

Shaving gel for shaving my legs.

Toilet roll works for this too

we just never have any (or very little) excess fat.
if we do have some we scrape it directly into the bin.

on topic: frying fat/oil.
never used a deep fat fryer and have no desire to.

Sorry, toilet roll works for this too!!

I use DS19 old muslins. I cut them into quarters and zigzag edged them years ago. Then just chuck in the wash.

I've never bought take away pizza or been to a pizza restaurant. If i eat out or get take away I eat something that would take longer than opening a box and shoving in oven for 20 mins.

Magazines, Amazon does a few free online ones and so does BorrowBox library app, so I read those

I genuinely can’t think of anything.

Reading this thread though I was never one for buying coffees and magazines etc anyway

kitchen roll? I do buy it as it lasts ages.
There’s no cooking grease in our house!