What products have you bought which were cheap but ended up being fab/lasting for ages?

[Enid]

the yellow plastic lemon squeezer I 'won' at the tombola 8 years ago (miles better than the philip stark one we used to have)
my £15 primark coat
my second hand black and white sony portable telly
some flower printed drinking glasses I bought in France about 12 years ago, they cost £4 for 6

toaster bags, my friend wanted some, I thought they was gonna be totally naff, managed to get her some £1.99 for 2 and they are so fab and so much easier to wash rather then toastie machine thingy.

ooh yes I agree

Message withdrawn

Best toastie maker is a frying pan!

ikea childrens rug that cost £10 and looks lovely doesn't show any dirt whereas my expensive one looks crap.

Habitat salad spinner. Had it maybe 20 years, use it 3 or 4 times/week, still going strong.

IKEA stoneware.

A champagne bucket found in a Bernardo's shop for £2.

A pair of waterproof leather hillwalking boots on sale in Hawkshead for £25.

Billy bookcase from Ikea c1996. Those bought in last couple of years don't begin to match up

Blanket box and baby changing table - ikea c 1996. Again recent stuff crap in comparison

1950s kitchen table, wite top with cornflowers on, rescued it as dp mother was going to chuck it. It lloks fab in my kitchen

Set of 10 stacking/nesting cardboard boxes from Primark for the DSs. Best £2 I ever spent!

Well Billy is half the price now, Sue

though that it was once so good and now has bowed to the pressure to be cheap

one of those wire egg baskets. another charity shop find for $2 USD. i like it so much for some reason - it's one of those in the shape of a hen - i brought it over.

DD1 loves it, too.

we have one of those expat,bought it in york for a few quid about 13 years ago!

I didn't think it was that bad though, Sue - we have 2 tall white 60cm Billies from about 10 years ago which cost £60 each!!!! (They went down to £40 when the new catalogue came out about a month later - can you tell I am harbouring a grudge about that? )

We just bought a tall 80cm birch Billy and the quality doesn't seem that different to me.

Ikea Antilop highchair
Billy bookcases (ours are circa 2001 if that makes a difference)
Ikea cookware
Ikea armchairs (are we spotting a trend here )

Ear plugs free from a Virgin flight. Can't hear BabyDragon whinging at all.

lalalala

HOW could I have forgotten the Ikea Antilop

so fab

those Guardian posters they did for a while - have virutally covered DS7 walls with them as I hate the orange and blue it was painted before.

at the whole village commenting on your Dad's tie. It is either the sort of village where nothing ever happens or it is a truly outstanding tie

lol @ truly outstanding tie

IKEA billy
IKEA duvet covers
at twinset 1950s table