Examples of false economy where cheap means crap

[unn]

. Buying cheap baking trays and tins
. Buying economy washing up liquid. You need half a bottle to produce suds

Chocolate. Yucky waxy sugar coloured "brown" stuff Cadbury's, I'm looking at you.

Carpet
Bedding
Batteries

Jam - Bonne Maman

Coffee- Nescafe

Though I buy Aldi dishwasher tablets and washing up liquid which are fine

I’m funny on wine !

boots, bin bags, cookware

Every cloud…!

To add: this outlook really made me laugh.

Risqueeeeeeee

Definitely! I cannot bear uncomfortable shoes or ones that fall apart.

Coffee, running shoes, curtains, lip filler

I’ve bought cheap and expensive baking trays. None have lasted more than a few years. In fact, the more expensive they were the shorter they lasted. The Le Creuset ones were particularly shoddy.

Glue sticks

this - i was going to start a thread about this 😃

To be fair, if you're buying a cheap parachute off Temu, you're clearly only ever going to be using it once.

Isn't there an old saying: You'll never regret buying a cheap parachute: if it works you've saved money, if it doesn't work, you won't be able to look back, so either way, no regrets.

Mattresses and shoes - if you arent in one you are often in the other. A good mattress will help preserve your health.

I buy cheap school shoes for DS1 on purpose...they all get scuffed in 6 weeks, I feel less bad when its Aldi rather than Clarks.
I spend money on coats though - usually mountain warehouse in the sales. They last both DC and are still good enough to be passed on afterwards.

Ham.

I agree about jam but prefer St Dalfour unless its tiptree little scarlet strawberry jam

Agree with so many already said:
Binbags
Ham
Tin foil and cling film
Glue sticks

Also plasters

And a very niche one -
Cotton buds (the stick part needs to be firm in my opunion, and cheap ones are often bendy)

Totally disagree about Clark’s Shoes. I started off thinking that’s what all good parents should buy but had numerous occasions when the £64 shoes I bought were fraying and flaking after a week or two. From then on I bought supermarket versions which lasted just as well or if they did wear out, I simply bought another pair for £8.99 or whatever it was at the time.

Clarks used to be really good quality, but over the years, like a lot of "brands", they've downgraded their quality, yet still charging "premium" prices, so yes, to an extent they are often pretty crap these days. We've stopped buying them as they're just not worth the price anymore as you can get similar quality elsewhere cheaper. A bit like M&S clothes really who've done the same.

It's not just material quality though, with both M&S and Clarks, it's things like sizing that have gone to crap and manufacturing quality - the last pair of boots I bought from Clarks were really uncomfortable and when I put my hand in, you could easily feel a kind of "Lump" where the stitching had been botched. That would never have happened a couple of decades ago! Likewise the last pair of school shoes we bought there for our son, the stitching started to unpick within a few days. They also suffer the same sizing inconsistencies of M&S as I once bought some boots in Black which I liked and went back to buy the same in Brown which didn't fit at all - when I compared them, they were visibly different sizes despite being the same range/size as per the labels - that happens a lot with M&S trousers/jeans etc too. Go back to the 90s, and you could get a particular size from stores like that secure in the knowledge they're be the same size/dimensions as other similar items from the same store - if you were size 12 for M&S trousers, you'd be size 12 for M&S jeans - that's no longer the case. It's all so random and inconsistent - quality, sizing, the lot really.

One year we bought a pair of school shoes from George Asda and quite by accident they ended up being the biggest bargain ever. While instore I mentioned that the previous shoes I had bought were wrecked within weeks. The assistant said they had a 100 day satisfaction return guarantee. I returned those shoes 5 or 6 times and got a new pair as a replacement.

Pretty much everything. I'll add to the list laptops and mobile phones.

Terelyne was just a brand name for polyester.

Not sure about this one. I find expensive/thick foil is great for some tasks but too stiff for others. When you want to wrap foil around something, you want thin foil. I keep rolls of both 'posh' and cheap foil for this reason.

I don't know anymore. I bought Clarkes school shoes for my two right up to the end of primary school (youngest now in year 11) so I must have spent a fortune but they lasted the whole school year! The leather was buttery and beautiful quality so even if they went up half a size the shoes just gave that little bit so they got more wear out of them than they would from a PU Deichmann offering.
I have bought clothes of Shein that have lasted years and still look new, I have also bought some that have barely survived the first wash 🤷‍♀️
I work in the footwear industry so I rarely buy shoes from actual shops but if I did I would carefully inspect the stitching, make sure they haven't just relied on glue to hold them together and only buy leather or suede.
I have just ordered an £80 coat for my daughter for school....I am holding my breath, if it arrives and is shit quality I might cry. Perhaps we need some tougher regulations insisting that price is equal to quality NOT equal to whichever brand name is fashionable at the moment.....have actual inspections of goods to check that cheap thread hasn't been used to stitch a £100 item of clothing for example.

Most thread is polyester based, so it’s quite strong.

The issue is the stitch sizes and tension.