What's been your best purchase of the year?

[CactusRabbit]

I have 2. First is my coffee machine. It grinds the beans, so I can have a freshly brewed coffee each morning. I love it!
Second one is a prize from postcode lottery. It's a rechargeable hot water bottle, and it's been a game changer! Especially useful for when I'm cold watching DS play rugby....

Krups spice and coffee grinders are good. I've had mine a few years now. Pro cook hand blender is great, my 40 year old Braun died recently so replaced with the Procook.

Weekend breaks with DH - not a thing but loads of happy memories

Private gym membership - I can actually swim lengths without wading through other people like potatoes in a stew. I'm stronger and no longer have back-ache. Plus, I can't wait to get there, where it's clean and modern and they have fancy hair dryers and pleasant background music.

Oh! And some cheap fermentation jars. Made loads of berry wines, saurkraut, cheong and kombucha. Crazy cheap, delicious, fun to make and prebiotic. Not to mention "green" and adds a bit of variety to meals.

@OttersMayHaveShifted I haven’t read the whole thread but Le creuset has a lifetime guarantee… mine went after 25 years and they gave me a brand new replacement. Amazing customer service. If you’ve still got the old one, contact them!

Pain started in 2023. There were signs, sciatic pain before that. If I had to walk any distance needed painkillers.

NHS 2923 and 2025 x-ray. Touch of arthritis. I'd been seeing a chiropractor, osteopath and then a physio in those two years. Beginning of August 2025 after I'd done the research re surgeons phoned GP insisting that I be referred to X surgeon. They sent that to the wrong place so I had to chase up. I saw the surgeon at the end of August. Had an x-ray, then MRI. End of October the operation. Two nights in hospital.

Woke up after surgery, pain gone, just some soreness. Wound check, dressing removed two weeks later. Seven weeks after surgery saw surgeon again, pencilled in for surgery in march on other hip .

I would say visit a sports physiotherapist who's good at assessment. Do the exercises, see if they help. My friend a fell runner wore her hip out much sooner than I did. Sporty people tend to. The plus is they bounce back faster

Mounjaro.

All these wonderful weight losses men and women this year. Must have been a very special Christmas for you all.

I'm itching to get back there after my surgery. I'm so unfit.

Thanks @justasking111 . That is reassuring. I have m.e. and am dreading having to be an inpatient (noise, lights, people, cross infection risk) so much that I'm wondering if they will come to my house to replace my hip...and shave a bit off my lowest vertebral disc at the same time. (Sorry to @youLauraa , it will not delete @Lauraa7

Mounjaro
Disney Holiday

Want to know answers as well!😀

@Christmasmirraclee you’re actually bullying now. That poster had done absolutely nothing wrong and her post about getting health care for her child was inoffensive and appropriate to the thread.

Not bullying. Genuinely wondering how they are doing.

Another of mine… got a nice new (to me) gazebo/event shelter with pretty solar powered lights that improved my camping and festival experience!

My bespoke £800 mattress

If anything like my dh, he makes small parts for heat source pumps and sells them. Made to exact measurements. Maybe raises money by doing something similar, ie selling at item or owning rights to a particular design?

Which shark powerdetect please? There are so many options!

Yep.
@Christmasmirraclee you are in the wrong.

Copper bath tub it's a stunner

Illegally18 I am in NZ .. I booked through a NZ agency and found another woman to share with so not so expensive.
I did a train trip called Rocco’s Rail from Pretoria to Victoria falls.. that took 10 days and then they booked my week in Botswana.
I used some of a very unexpected inheritance to do .. I will never be able to do that sort trip again but I have absolutely no regrets .. I will lie on my deathbed and smile thinking lions and zebras.
Because it was my first trip and my husband didn’t want to come I spent some more to be safe. Now I have been I will sleep under canvas tent and wash in a bucket water to go again.

Robbie Williams tickets
ninja frying pan (so good I bought one in a different size)
a gadget to help fasten bracelets
A long coat from jigsaw, a treat to myself.

Your odd reaction to this is attention-seeking in itself- it's like you're looking for an argument. It's not this serious.

New car, to replace the citigo which we had for 10 years. The university run is so much easier.

New radio for the kitchen, it's a Roberts gorgeous buttercup yellow one, haven't really worked out what it can do yet, but I think it's pretty much everything