What are the biggest false economies?

[toptramp]

So I can stop being a mug and start saving.

All I can say is what my friend told me, the blends are inconsistent and she certainly wouldn't use own brand (value or otherwise) herself. But I think for the odd cake once a week and for home consumption there isn't likely to be much difference. If you were baking semi professionally or in very regular, high volumes it's probably worth the extra. It's all to do with the gluten content and absorbancy apparently...

If it wasn't cheaper to self-insure then insurance companies would all go bust. They're not in business to help people in times of trouble, they are there to make money, your money, big money.

We've had two Siamese cats (and for nearly a year at one point, three) for over 15 years now. They would have cost a fortune to insure over that period so effectively we self-insure. However, we are fortunate enough to have savings that if something serious were to happen, we could cope.

One of the cats (we are on to cats 4 and 5 now) suffered sudden kidney failure and after a week of reydrating him to see if his kidneys would kick start again, we had to make the difficult decision to put him down. However, cost wasn't a factor in our decision.

If you are going to self-insure, you need to be sure that you have the savings to cope if something were to go wrong.

Supermarket petrol.

cheeznbreed - why?

Recently I have stopped buying pizza and now make my own, alot tastier too.

I think supermarket petrol is only just in spec, eg when 4* existed I was told it was supposed to be between [something like] 94 and 97 octane. The supermarket ones would be 94, but Shell/Esso/BP 96 or 97 so your car performed much better even though it was expensive.

Disclaimer: was a while ago and may have the numbers all wrong

Glad I had British gas homecare today!! NEW FAN FITTED IN THE BOILER, ALL IS WARM AGAIN!!!

I strongly suspect... Buying Christmas gifts before November.
I am convinced that most people who do this end up spending more money (than the otherwise could have) by 25th December "because we can afford it" because they aren't sure what they've bought is right after all, or that it will be "enough". If you just had to wait until December 10th to start buying you'd spend so much less (most of the time).

Supermarket fuel is certainly cheaper but gives fewer miles per gallon IME.

A big Sainsburys opened a year ago near me, and so I started buying deisel there all the time, rather than the BP garage. I do 1500-2000 miles a month, so this is 3-4 tankfuls normally. Two months later I loudly complained to the garage that my car was suddenly far less economical .

Six months ago I realised that a tankful of cheap supermarket diesel gave me about 450 miles, and a tankful of Shell or BP diesel gave me 500 miles. Pricewise, supermarket diesel would need to be at least 10% cheaper than BP or Shell to justify this loss of mpg, and it is only about 7% cheaper round here. So, for me, supermarket fuel isn't actually a bargain at all as it is more expensive in the long run.

DH has a workmate who insists that supermarket fuel gives him 25% less miles, too. I'm very intrigued, not least because nearest non-supermarket fuel is 10+ miles away. I can only remember once in last 6 months when we didn't buy supermarket fuel, and the mileage was about the same as from other tankfuls we got in same driving conditions in last year.

Only noticeable variation was the week we spent driving lots on motorways (mpg down by 20-25% then, very little motorway mileage normally).

"DH has a workmate who insists that supermarket fuel gives him 25% less miles, too"

Yeah, right.

If that was true, what would be the chances of a brand publicising it using scientifically verified test data? Think how their sales would increase, and they could charge a premium price and increase their profits. Or don't you think the newspapers, motoring magazines and "Which" would be trumpeting it?

As it happens, "Which" did test these superfuels, and found them to be a waste of money

"Shell V-Power gave a Ford Focus 1.6** a marginal power increase. However, filling the car on this petrol for 12,000 miles will cost £115 more than using Shell?s standard petrol. Tesco Super Unleaded actually decreased the power of the Focus.
The VW Golf?s hi-tech 1.4 TSI engine responded well to Shell V-Power, but there was little to choose between super fuels and ordinary petrol on economy and emissions
The economy and performance of the Renault Megane 1.5 diesel were both slightly worse using BP Ultimate diesel, the super fuel furthest from the marketing claims in the test."

PigletJohn we are not talking about "Superfuels" we are talking about SuperMARKET petrols.

Your extract from Which was of course interesting but the only thing it says about a Supermarket petrol is "Tesco Super Unleaded actually decreased the power of the Focus."

Which is what we are all saying.

(If your car has less power than normal you press the accelerator more = use more petrol = less mileage.)

I can assure you that the explanation is as I have put above.

It may interest people to know that wherever you live in the country, all the petrol in your area comes from the same refinery. There are only about 10 refineries in the UK and reciprocal arrangements exist to stop tankers having to drive all over the place. Eg if you live in Scotland, whether you buy petrol from Esso, Total, Tesco, BP, Shell or Sainsburys, the petrol itself comes from Grangemouth refinery which used to be owned by BP (but not any more). The same batch of petrol will be sold to all different companies, the difference is the additives that they are given by the various companies. The supermarket fuel is given enough additives to bring it only just into spec because it is cheaper. For some cars and drivers there is little difference, I used to get the odd feeling that my last car liked cheaper petrol more than expensive.

Could driving style also affect fuel economy differently depending on where you bought it? We are super eco-freaks, but if DH's workmate is lead-footed maybe that is especially bad habit with supermarket fuel?

And are all supermarkets equally bad, or is Sainsbury fuel better than Morrison's better than Tesco, perhaps?