What's Just Not Worth Scrimping On?

beadgirl87

I would have to say,
Benefit makeup, expensive, but it does last me a long time and i havn't found a conceler or foundation as good as theirs.
Meat - If mince, I always get lean mince, and mid range stuff. My friend buys that horrible mince from iceland...it doesn't look good
Clipper fairtrade tea , however this month I did buy tesco value, its not as nice and I feel a bit bad for the farmers.
Clothes - I am starting to realise that spending a bit more on having less clothes is better as they are better quality and last ages. I still buy some stuff in primark, but not as much as after a couple of washes they arn't very good.

nickyhutch

Fishfingers - Bird's Eye battered.

Eggs must be free range and pref organic.

Toothpaste - Arm and Hammer for me and OH, DS will only use Aquafresh, luckily both are on sale in Poundland :-)

pjw123_2

I always buy the best rice that I can afford. The mushrooms to make a risotto are growing free, and kidney or chicken liver is very cheap from the local Halal butcher.

Good Basmati rice to go with a vegetable curry is well worth the extra expense.

I drink tea without milk or sugar, so it has to be the best.

joehoover

Glad someone said dental work, I neglected far too long and the last year have amassed much more in goign to NHS for quick fixes than just getting it done properly and now have a massive bill (unfortunately the promises of the NHS price structure never carries true when you need a lot of lengthy treatment) It's so not been worth the time missed off work, whole weekends lost in agnony waiting for dentist to open Monday. I would urge anyone to keep on top of it, your health is far more important than anything else.

Bread - the most basic white bread is not worth the cost, terrible nutritienly and taste wise (exceptions are for a crisp snadwich or a toastie, their plastic quality is the only thing that works)

Coffee - I buy proper coffee for my cheap glass cafetiere, but I woudl have been galled to drop to a cheap brand from always haveing Lavazza until a Frech firend converted me to Sainsburys basics coffee, I was dubious, but she is French and a complete foodie, she wouldn't eat any rubbish. I buy it, keep it in freezer and its delicious and half the price of my old Lavazza. So I don't feel I am scrimping at all, I get my lovely coffee in the morning and I save money.

Alcohol - I have yet to be won over by any cheap brands, if I use spirits in cocktails I can taste the difference, so I just check out offers and just buy then instead.

Eggs - the difference is very noticeable

Meat - I don't see the point in buying cheap meat, traditionally cheap cuts of meat are fine, they are cheap as they are not as popular, but when you see the quality of the meat in the value ranges, they shouldn't be so cheap and why are they? I'd worry about the condition of the animal, and the quality of the meat.

Even on the things I refuse to scrimp on, I buy when on offer and stock up.

Saturnalia

Cheapo frozen mince is a complete waste of money as it has such a high percentage of fat that once you dry-fry it you end up with a tiny bit of meat in a lake of oil. It's better value to pay slightly more for a smaller bag but end up with more that is actually edible matter at the end.

Cheap antiperspirant doesn't work, cheap binbags split, cheap washing-up liquid doesn't work and cheap bogroll is just horrible.

Soy sauce has got to be Sharwoods or Amoy and Worcester sauce has to be Lea & Perrins. Others don't taste right.

Moisturiser has to be Body Shop Butter or Lush, as I have psoriasis and anything else either doesn't moisturise enough, makes my skin flare up, or is fragranced with non-natural perfumes which feels like salt on a wound if the plaques are bad at the time. No amount of moneysaving is worth having your skin hate you!

Likewise sunscreen, I use Piz Buin Allergy 30 and while I'm sure there are cheaper ones available that will work as well, it took years to find one that protects my ice-white very-sun-sensitive skin properly and I don't fancy experimenting with anything else now.

Work shoes and winter boots. Anything that isn't leather won't break in comfortably and won't last 5 minutes. Same as trainers for actual exercising, although I can buy children's ones and get them in the sales so have never paid over £20 for Nikes.

poppy_f1

has to be:
tetley teabags
heinz beans/tomato sauce/tomato soup
heinz or grannies soups if getting cans
diet pepsi, diet coke, pepsi max, irn bru - cant do cheaper versions

although i do tend to still buy a lot of branded food i get a lot from places like farmfoods, iceland, lidls, home bargains etc so not paying full price - ie i can get 2x2l bottles of pepsi max from farmfoods for 1.70 where as in morrisons thats the price for 1 bottle

[Deleted User]

Great thread, Thanks for starting it:T

Have tried lots of value and own label brands and although money is tight I sometimes feel it's better to go without something altogether than buy really cheapo brands which are yuk. Have become a Lidl fan out of necessity and find lots of interesting things there which are cheap yet enjoyable, the Lurpak-style butter and spread is lovely as are the cheeses. Tinned veg and jams are excellent and cheap too. But OH bought some instant coffee there recently and even the builders who were doing some essential repairs poured their drinks down the drain when they thought no one was looking, and asked for tea when next offered a drink, even though they both admitted to being coffee addicts the day before and had polished off the last of the Gold Blend!

Find cheaper brands of detergents etc fit the bill for less. Our clothes don't get dirty, just need freshening up so don't need products that can do miracles. Luckily we don't have skin problems and I find by buying supermarket own-brands I save without noticing any lack of effectiveness. So long as the fabric conditioner has lavender in it (and most supermarkets make a Lenor-style 'sleep sensations' one) I buy what's on offer at the time.

Some things I just can't swap are:

Heinz baked beans....much more bean than juice so can work out more economical especially when bought on offer(and there are always offers on these somewhere/sometime:j)
Tea bags We have very hard water and the cheapo ones taste foul. I hardly ever drink coffee nowadays and drink my tea fairly strong with very little milk and no sugar so tea drunk that way really tastes of tea and cheap ones just don't.. I'm a real addict and get through teabags in industrial quantities and buy either Yorkshire Tea or Tetley. Again, there's always an offer on Tetley somewhere at any time so I stock up when I get the chance.

Toilet roll and kitchen roll Have a few favourite brands which I stock up on big-time when on offer. Cheap thin stuff is false economy as you only end up using twice as much.

Fish fingers Don't buy these very often but OH loves them so do treat him occasionally and although I'm not too bothered as to the brand always make sure they specify that they are cod or haddock. The cheapo ones just say 'fish' and when OH brought some in recently (either BE or Youngs) that specified 'value' on the front of the pack and not specifying what fish they were he couldn't eat them. Said they were yuk.

Eggs Will never compromise, they MUST be free-range. Glad to see the price of these compared to caged hen eggs is evening out. Living in a rural area we have access to lots of local people selling free-range eggs:j

Meat Would never buy cheap burgers,sausages or mince, just not worth it once all the fat has drained off:eek: . Buy from a local Farm Shop which is certainly not cheap but all meat is locally-sourced or otherwise traceable, totally lean and fabulous-tasting. We eat meat far less than we did but a little goes a long way when top-quality and bulked out with veg etc.

Cat food Won't inflict rubbish low meat-content food on my cat. He's a fussy eater anyway (or rather goes mad for a certain brand for weeks and licks every scrap off his dish and then just goes off it for no apparent reason :doh:) so I try to keep giving him variety so he doesn't get too hooked on any one kind that will turn out to be vastly expensive just when I need to stock up! He has never liked any of the supermarket own brands (and believe me, I've tried them all, or rather the cat has:rotfl:) except for some I found in Lidl (their Premium one, not the value one and which still worked out a lot cheaper than Whiskas and Felix even when they were on offer).

I tend to think with lots of things that if it is to be part of a dish its fine to use cheap brands (such as red kidney beans in chili etc , value bread if it's to be for toast that's going to have beans or cheese on) but if it is something that is the main part of the dish or a stand-alone item it's better to buy something better-quality or do without until you can afford to buy it when on offer etc. In other words I'll use value bread for the toast, but Heinz for the beans on top as the toast is hardly noticeable, it's the beans that give the taste.

bluewomble69

Great thread - we've found that Fairy genuinely does outlast cheaper alternatives, if on offer even better! Tea has to be Yorkshire, HP Sauce original (ketchups not a problem) although there's been a variable quality issue since production shifted to the Netherlands - the bottles are often 'flowery' tasting and quite unpleasant. Two items from Lidl we now prefer to branded - their 'Granarom' instant coffee and Diet Cola (39p two litres) - not the rock-bottom range as this is dreadful. I really don't like real Diet Coke/Pepsi now - just tastes of chemicals. Do not buy hotdogs in a tin - even if the same brand - the ingredients are totally different and are generally inedible.

drsquirrel

thechippy wrote: »

Brown sauce - just has to be HP

Oh, and Pilchards, def need to be Glenryck...:D

I love my brown sauce but as I use so much of it I settle with the tescos stuff. But every so often I treat myself to the valve "tangy" sauce which is pretty close to HP.



Cheese and sausages! Cheese is so !!!!!!!g expensive. I've tried many cheap sausages and have settled on one brand (forgot the name) we sometimes get them from the butchers too... yum.

When we come out of Morrison's ours bags are overflowing with yellow.



I all agree with tyres. They last longer and have been properly test to show they grip and brake better. Usually I will put some nice dunlops on the front (for a fwd car) and some cheapish ones on the rear like nankang. My recent car has 4 different brands on it! All ones I
have never heard of... like runway and tiger lol. They slide about like crazy and the road noise sucks.

Nottoobadyet

Eggs - would rather go without than buy the non-free range ones!

With all the talk of veggie meat I want to recommend the dehydrated veggie mince you can get at holland and barnet - less than half the price of the basics veggie mince and I could never taste the difference.