What are the biggest false economies?

[toptramp]

So I can stop being a mug and start saving.

Doing a big shop for food seems a big false economy to me. Since the opening of a smaller version of a certain supermarket near our school, this means I can shop for fridge stuff more frequently and throw much less out. I order all of my toiletries, drinks etc online monthly and therefore can get all the best deals (3 for 2's of things I actually use) which means that the savings pay for the delivery. Local shops may be slightly more expensive but at least you are not putting boat loads in the bin and picking up things for the kids to keep them quiet/ clothes you spot en route. Also in time I will be ordering a smaller fridge freezer (currently have an American one) since i will not need to store as much any longer (I can let the shops do that for me). In addition since I am doing the school run anyway and the shop is near the school I am saving on petrol and parking charges. Everyone wins - supermarket, me, environment!

Mobile phones. Honestly how much do you honestly need your phone to do and how much do you pay a fortune extra for just because it's nice to have? Most of us would be fine on way less than we spend, either on the handsets or the contracts/credit.

SaffronCake That's why I don't have a fancy mobile phone and am on PAYG. I very rarely need the internet when out and about. All I need is a means of being contactable by the school or OH when I am at work or out shopping. Also, because I have a Luddite phone the battery lasts for over a week.

Cheap handcream. All too watery with just the tiniest hint of cream / oil in them. My hands end up drier than when I started.

I like cheap loo roll, the nice stuff blocks my toilet.

cheap clothes :( the amount of stuff ive bought from primark thats fallen apart after a month or two is ridiculous. Im still sore about a blue cardi i bought last year that unraveled after a week >:(

Shall be ret

*shall be returning to my digging around charity shops and ebay. sorry, my laptop crashed and posted it early :(

Memory cards from eBay

Agree with shoes. Also bedding and curtains and bag, particularly ones that you use every day for heavy items.

I would say with phones, that if you just want calls and texts, cheap is phone, but if want more then that, you definitely only get what you pay for.

I have say that IME, supermarket clothes wash and wear well. This could either be due to luck, not using a tumble dryer, or me having miniscule fashion sense.

Also, on reading this, I'm v glad I don't have the sort of taste buds that dislike shop bought cakes, that would be a real hassle.

Cheap bin bags, cheap bras, cheap washing up liquid, cheap coffee, cheap shoes, cheap loo rolls, all need twice as much to get same effect or breaks and wears out super fast and you end up buying more much earlier than if you'd purchased decent ones, sorry nothing amazing to say that hasn't already been mentioned !

Some special deals in supermarkets ie Sainsburys Apple Sauce 26.4p per 100ml, Sainsburys basics apple sauce 33.6p per 100ml just in slightly different size jars to confuse you.

A large bottle of clothes condition (1ltr) £1.00, 2 x 500ml bottles 96p sometimes bigger amount, bigger savings is not necessarily true!

Also always weigh their fruit bags - sometimes the Basics apple/pear etc bags cost more than a normal bag of pears per kilo!! They try to confuse you by putting th price by the bag, per unit or per kilo ... just weigh it yourself and work it out!

Re: baking or buying Christmas Cake
Have noticed that Lakeland do a special pack of christmas cake ingredients so you don't have the expense of all the unused packets.
Thanks for all the tips!

"I'm v glad I don't have the sort of taste buds that dislike shop bought cakes, that would be a real hassle."

. Can you really not taste the difference?

Small packets of cashew nuts/red lentil/general ingredients found in Asian or Caribbean cooking.

In our Tesco, (and the one where we lived before) you can buy small, expensive little bags of these things from the "standard" part of the shop, OR there's also an "ethnic" aisle full of Indian/Caribbean/Chinese ingredients where you can get the same things, in bags 4x bigger, for the same price. In the same shop.

You are joking about the Lakeland christmas cake/pudding kits?! There is no way I spend as much on the ingredients as one of those kits! They don't even include the alcohol.

Bun baker Nothing tastes as good as not making it yourself feels. Also, I've had some monstrosities inflicted on me over the years in the name of home baking.

No, give me a supermarket super triple chocolate cake any day of the week, rather then someone's mimsy dry sponge with lemon or some other kind of hideousness in it and NOT ENOUGH BLOODY ICING!

We will have to agree to disagree Goth I don't like cakes with inches of buttercream icing on and am not that fond of chocolate cake. My sponge cakes are never dry. Lemon drizzle is my favourite cake ever.

I still maintain that most, not all, bought sponge cakes are sickly, artificial tasting and have too much sickly sweet icing on.

ooo bunfight (ha ha)

popcorn, hard hat etc.

Aldi's washing up liquid is fabulous. came top in Which survey and is something ridiculous like 59p for a huge bottle. it's called Magnum, I think.
their all purpose cleaner is also excellent and only 99p

I have just done my first 2 washes with Asda smart price washing powder. £3.36 for 60 washes.
So far so good. The only difference is there is no smell. The clothes are still clean, but they don't smell right. But for this price I have to get over that!

I prefer my clothes not smel of washing powder - to be clean they should not smell of anything.

I disagree about pet insurance. I've always had it. I never want there to be a question about whether to go ahead with a treatment that costs say £1k that we couldn't afford in one go....

I buy all the cheap stuff here although it's usually own brand not value. There isn't a real brand name in our house any more!

My false economies have been own grown veg. Way too much expenditure for not enough reward. I'd like to say the DCs have enjoyed growing stuff but they haven't. The only things that grew were courgettes and a few watery strawberries.

in that case Trills this is your ideal washing powder!

chicken breasts - forget that - buy whole or try thighs, which you can get skinless and skinned but are much cheaper and tastier - or chicken legs/ drumsticks

Ignore use by dates - use your nose.

cheap socks - they get holes in after 2 washes.....apart from children's ones - as they go missing anyway!

ways to save: ....go to the supermarket 10 mins before closing on Sunday and buy up the same day expiry food - freeze it in portions

also esp if fewer of u in house - buy up all reduced bread/ rolls/ bagels/ fresh cookies and doughnuts from bakery in supermarket when they are reduced - split them into freezable packs of 4 slices bread/ 2 rolls/ 2 cookies etc... and then take them out the night before you need them for packed lunches - it will a. save you from scoffing the extra 5 doughnuts/ cookies from the 6 pack when everyone else has gone to bed and b. stop the bread going mouldy. - I used to waste so many half loaves bread.

I agree that home-baked cakes taste better and are probably better for you, but you have to count the cost of the cooker, the washing up and the store cupboard ingredients as they don't magically replenish themselves.
Glad someone else has mentioned allotments; it's a lot of work and money for not a lot of vegetables, unless you get a glut, which you can't even give away. And it does save on gym membership though. (not that you'd ever find me in a gym).

Worst false economy I have fallen into this month is trying to save money by buying a second hand wardrobe for my DD off e-bay. Got it home and noticed that it smelt quite badly of damp.. Has been in the shed ever since as there isn't a chance I'm going to put a damp wardrobe in my DD bedroom to risk her health and ruin her clothes.

Today I went out and bought a cheap set of drawers (£62) from Argos to put DDs clothes in instead of the smelly wardrobe but after putting it together I predict it will last 2 years tops. Suppose that is a false economy too but I can't afford a quality one atm.

Agree on the loo roll. Worth noticing that quite often in Tesco the andrex is cheaper than the Tesco own as the Andrex has more sheets per roll and is more often than not on offer. Nappies are another that the "cheap" ones are often more expensive.

As LikeABlackFlameCandleBNQ pointed out - the Huggies offer of buy 1 get 2 free is not that much of an offer. In my local Wilkinsons Huggies Wipes are on sale at 89p each, making the cost of 3 to be £2.67 meaning that compared to Sainsbury's it is 17p more expensive but Wilkinson's is in walking distance and Sainsbury's would definitely mean a trip out in the car which would cost me more than 17p in fuel.

Buying a house in a shit area because your husband says it's about to gentrify and will be an investment. No. It will not gentrify. It will depress you every time you step out into fried chicken debris and dog mess all over the pavement onto the high street. And then there will be a recession and any teensy weensy little signs of gentrification will be snuffed out like tealights in a thunderstorm.