Items the advertisers try to convince us are essential

Tizla

I actually have a long list of things I think are useless, mainly because I can't stand advertising at all, anyway, the ones off the top of my head are:

Face washes for Acne or Oily skin - they really only make things worse and your skin develops a dependancy, plus they take advantage of people who are possibly in a vulnerable emotional state (I know I was with my skin as a teenager). My brother has never used soap on his face, only ever water and has perfect skin. My mother made us do this, but I started using soap as a teenager and had lots of problems with it, I've now been using water for years and I'm back to normal.

Lynx deodorant/Shower gel - have you ever smelled yourself a few hours after using? The smell has disappeared, use the cheap stuff!

Marks and Spencer/Waitrose food - My friend used to work in a factory making yoghurt that was supplied to Tesco for their value yoghurt and M&S for their luxury yoghurt. I don't buy any expensive luxury food and make most things from scratch. Plus people who won't buy Tesco Value (or another stores equivalent) because if you check the ingredients, the value stuff actually has LESS additives because they can't afford to put them in!

Kitchen Cleaners - 99.9999% of germs is overkill, I'd rather build my immune system and not get a cold all of the time.

Expensive toilet roll - You wipe your !!!! with it! enough said.

Air Freshers - Making the Air 'Fresh' by filling it with chemicals just doesn't make any sense to me.

Those collector's magazines where you build the models, they always cost £9 a month and go out of print before you can finish the model.

Weight watchers cakes - If your trying to lose weight don't eat cake! plus if you think the cake is healthier, you only eat more! If your going to eat cake, eat less proper cake.

Anti-aging creams - Can't people just grow old with grace? Plus I don't really think something can prevent ageing, they probably just have a placebo effect

Diamonds - Are very over-rated and apparently not that rare or valuable, the jewellers just tell you so and apparently when you buy them they then have next to no value. Linked to this is my hatred for valentines day because of how it makes you look bad if you don't compete with your partner's friend's partners. Love isn't a competition and I shouldn't be made to feel inadequate.

Cars that offer a better way of life - There is an advert going round now and the guy in the advert is rushed off his feet all day before getting into his car were he can feel peaceful again. Firstly, a car should get you from A to B and be economical. Secondly, I've never made it home from work without being in a traffic jam of some kind and I get the bus that goes the quiet long way round. Why would I want to pay £20,000 upwards before insurance to sit in the same jams everyday, pfft!

Right, there is plenty more, but I'm going to stop before I start descending into a pit of rage!

Doubtful_Guest

Those boiling water taps mounted beside the sink would worry me a lot. Surely it would be very easy for a visitor to mistake it for a normal tap and go to wash their hands under it only to be horrifically scalded. Scary stuff.

Also, with regards the diamond comment above, I don't think it's diamonds specifically so much as new jewellery generally. Brand new, 'fashionable' jewellery is expensive and depreciates as soon as you leave the shop. People are snooty about buying secondhand stuff, especially engagement/eternity rings because they don't want to look cheap. Secondhand jewellery doesn't depreciate as much though. A few years ago, I bought my other half a very pretty, antique diamond ring. When money got very tight, we seriously considered selling it and was offered by a local jewellers about 50% more than I'd paid for it only 3 or 4 years before. In the end, we decided not to sell it as it was too sentimental. If I had spent the same money on a brand new ring, I'm sure it would not have kept its value to the same extent.

alec_eiffel

Tizla wrote: »

...Marks and Spencer/Waitrose food - My friend used to work in a factory making yoghurt that was supplied to Tesco for their value yoghurt and M&S for their luxury yoghurt. I don't buy any expensive luxury food and make most things from scratch. Plus people who won't buy Tesco Value (or another stores equivalent) because if you check the ingredients, the value stuff actually has LESS additives because they can't afford to put them in!...

I used to work in a factory preparing fruit. And while we made things for airlines, value ranges and more "quality" ranges in the same factory there was a totally separate line, prep style and quality for M&S. Their requirements were very different and had far more stringent quality standards than all the other ranges we produced. So, yes made in the same place, same thing - not really.

VJsmum

Valli wrote: »

ymy list

disposable toilet wipes
air fresheners as well - although I do keep a can of spray in the bathroom but probably only buy one a year (and it's shop's own) - but we open windows - only trouble is the bathroom one is faulty
toilet rim blocks
automatic soap dispenser

Matches!! I'm telling ya they work!

Pasta machines are unnecessary - dried is perfectly fine by me and supermarkets own fresh is not that expensive if you want fresh.

GlowGirl

VJsmum wrote: »

Matches!! I'm telling ya they work!

Pasta machines are unnecessary - dried is perfectly fine by me and supermarkets own fresh is not that expensive if you want fresh.

Ah, but my daughter (who is 4) LOVES mixing and rolling the pasta - taking flour and eggs ('free' from my mums hens) and turning it into something delicious is like magic to her! Same as baking!

Totally worth the money, IMO

Thats_Me_3

I've not read all the way through yet but I get very, very angry with all the anti-bac sprays, cleaners, washing powders etc. My late mother in law suffered dreadfully with OCD, mainly on cleanliness. The family joke was that she was a major shareholder in dettol. In her mind nothing was ever clean enough and that included people. her later years were a nightmare for her, she refused treatment because it meant people touching her. All of these products would have finished her, confirming her fears that everything was dirty and germ ridden.

ceridwen

GreyQueen wrote: »

Yeah, these suddenly appeared a few years ago as "must have" kitchen appliances; nowadays you're almost odd-person-out if you're dishwasher-free.

My Mum has a dishwasher; called Dad.:rotfl:

I know of a pair of sisters, grown women in their forties who live a few doors apart. Sis 1 is married no kids, she and her OH work full-time and eat out 1-2 times a week. Sis 2 is married, working and with 3 kids. Whatever Sis 2 has, Sis 1 has to have too, regardless of their different lifestyles.

Sooo, Sis 1 got the dishwasher she didn't need and had to buy extra plates. glasses and cutlery as she only needed to run it about every 3 days, plus she ended up washing the pots and pans by hand as she didn't have room for duplicates and triplicates of them.

Will somebody please come and take me back to my homeworld, Planet Sensible, right now, I can't stand it on Earth much longer.

Errrrr.......are we both going into "Beam me up Scotty" mode then G.Q.?:rotfl::rotfl: Now come on now...admit it...you've not been reading some of the wayout theories I have about these things have you?:rotfl::rotfl:. Oh well...at least we've got each other then as "company" on the trip "Home"...:D

ceridwen

lostinrates wrote: »

My must have gadget is one of theose eggs that you put in the saucepan while you boil eggs, so you don't have to count to time the eggs everyone likes differently. Money well spent...didn't see it advertised though, got kitchen drawer envy at a friends house.

Things I don't need and fell for definitely include the slowcooker....which I didn't want till an old style reader.

a dishwasher I don't have, but want one more and more.

Something advertising has also made me want? A tea-hot water tap instead of a kettle

A slowcooker does have its uses though LIR. I find that the only way I can get myself to do dried pulses (rather than canned ones) is knowing I am going to cook up a batch of them in the slowcooker and then store them in the ziptop freezer bags I use in the freezer in quantities about equivalent to a can worth and take out as required. Dried pulses are rather cheaper than canned ones - and healthier too. So - the only exception I make to that normally is those cheapie canned kidney beans - which are SO cheap that they count as much cheaper than dried ones.

ceridwen

Doubtful_Guest wrote: »

Those boiling water taps mounted beside the sink would worry me a lot. Surely it would be very easy for a visitor to mistake it for a normal tap and go to wash their hands under it only to be horrifically scalded. Scary stuff.

Also, with regards the diamond comment above, I don't think it's diamonds specifically so much as new jewellery generally. Brand new, 'fashionable' jewellery is expensive and depreciates as soon as you leave the shop. People are snooty about buying secondhand stuff, especially engagement/eternity rings because they don't want to look cheap. Secondhand jewellery doesn't depreciate as much though. A few years ago, I bought my other half a very pretty, antique diamond ring. When money got very tight, we seriously considered selling it and was offered by a local jewellers about 50% more than I'd paid for it only 3 or 4 years before. In the end, we decided not to sell it as it was too sentimental. If I had spent the same money on a brand new ring, I'm sure it would not have kept its value to the same extent.

I treated myself to a nice new ring with "stones" some years back - and those gems broke within a matter of months and I had to have an argument about getting my money back (as "real" jewellery is something that lasts hundreds of years in my mind...). I did manage to get my money back - and then promptly went and replaced the "modern" ring with a 1920s ring from an antiquey shop...

exlibris

I too have a dishwasher known as OH!

When we were looking for a new kitchen some years back the designers tried to persuade me I needed a machine. I spent that much time sayng I already had one that when the kitchen was fitted OH took it upon himself to wash dishes when he retired. I can't brainwash him into anthing else though he has cottoned on now!