The Great 'What do you regret skimping on?' Hunt Revisited

radio_hack

Ha, almost too many to list and some shared with others; cheap shoes, cheap toilet roll and cheap bin liners. Grrrr.

Other regrets are:
cheap trainer socks that wrap themselves round your toes five minutes into your exercise session
chocolate that has barely any right to the name
'special offer' e-books that never get read beyond page 10
printer paper with a surface like kitchen roll

But my worst 'money saving' trick was a really expensive mistake:I bought the cheapest package holiday to Tenerife I could find. Just over £1000 for four in the middle of the school summer holiday seemed like a steal. But everything about it - flights, accommodation and location - was a disaster.
We've never had a package holiday again but use the internet to search for best value flights and accommodation and pay just a little bit more to get something that really feels like a holiday.

Deanied

I bought a cheap long haul flight with Pegasus airlines. Biggest mistake of my life. Nothing was included. No complimentary food or water on the flight. Even when the flight was delayed for 48 hours we got nothing! It wasn't a direct flight and I only found out that I had to buy a visa to enter the country to get the connecting flight, when I was at passport control.

Next time I'm flying with a quality airline. It's definitely worth the extra.

Indie_Kid

Toilet roll and sausages

phebe3

Agree with a lot of these replies..
besides ultra cheap loo roll, cheap bin bags and cling film...
-own brand value coffee (yuk!) and cheap tea (wait til my favourites are on offer


-value dog poo bags (ultra yuuk..had to use two or three together if didn't want the bag to split)..buy in bulk from [EMAIL="t@internet"]t'internet[/EMAIL] now


-value own brand cereal...bought rice krispies and museli from the -value basics range of a well known supermarket...thought you couldn't go wrong with cereal..well, you CAN! Luckily the supermarket in question refunds if you dislike, they did and I bought own brand, which is fine


-some cheap shoes (sweaty and uncomfortable!)


BUT have bought cheap things and been impressed by them...think the thing is not to go TOO cheap..you do get what you pay for sometimes!

the_bag_lady_2

iscamaid wrote: »

Ok, this may seem petty things but my husband I have a running debate over cheap bin bags and tin foil. I love saving money and buy as cheap as I can if possible, however cheap bin bags drive me nuts. The ones you get from Aldi etc are virtually transparent and tear before you even put a tin can in. I would rather pay more and not have the stress of the dratted things falling apart all over the kitchen floor!

'Scuse me but why are you putting tin cans in bin bags? Shouldn't they be being re-cycled?

girlcalledpanda

julie777 wrote: »

jaybizzl wrote: »

Paint - you'll spend longer getting a good finish and have to repaint sooner

Bought a huge tub of Asda magnolia emulsioin for £5 or something ridiculous. Every time I wipe it some comes off! Too too cheap! But I can't waste it now so will just have to keep doing areas.

I bought the same one I think, it was awful, I only wanted it as an undercoat so didn't see the point of buying something expensive. Was a nightmare!

Cheap washing up liquid - 33p seemed like a bargain but ended up buying a bottle every week as we had to use loads of it. Had to concede that the brand loving OH was right, we've had a bottle of fairy since the weekend before xmas and it's still half full.

charlieheard

A few years ago on a "Credit Crunch Tour" (TM), we stayed at a Formule1 hotel in France. They are very cheap, as they don't have staff to check you in - it's all electronic, including key codes for the doors. The rooms can only sleep 3, so we had one for the kids. Everything was shabby, and showers and toilets were shared. It made Travelodge seem up-market!

Wouldn't recommend it!

Diabolical

iscamaid wrote: »

cheap bin bags drive me nuts. The ones you get from Aldi etc are virtually transparent and tear before you even put a tin can in.

Tin cans should be recycled, not put into bin bags!!!!

Diabolical

1. Cheap clothing ... it's not only poor quality, but you can never be sure it's not produced by sweat shop labour.


I know not everyone has a choice, but those of us that do should be buying from retailers that can prove they adhere to ethical standards. Buy better and buy less!


2. Non-fairtrade tea, coffee, bananas etc.


A few extra pence makes little or no difference to a lot of us in the UK, but it can mean the difference between a family being able to send their kids to school or not in many countries.

Prothet_of_Doom

For years I bought cheap Tyres, cheap brake pads, and didn't even bother replacing clearly worn brake disks.

Then, one day I had this car, that cost me JUST £40, and I replaced all 4 tyres with Yokohamas (they didn't last long buy whilst they were still legal they were amazing), and all worn out brake parts with genuine ones from a main dealer (I haggled on the price, telling them I'd be forced to buy them from a local motor factor, instead, and whilst they didn't price match they came close.
At the same time I also found 4 new old stock genuine shocks on ebay for a song.


2 Weeks later my £40 car had cost me £300 in parts, 2 weekends of my labour, but it was fantastic to have everything working as the maker intended.

My current car, cost 100 times more, but came with rubbish tyres, and Cost-co were having a sale if you bought 4 mitchelins, so I bought 4 when I only really needed 2, and the other 2 might have lasted 4 months maybe.
2 years and 25K miles on, they barely look worn, (I swapped the backs to the front after 18 months) and yet the wet weather grip is great, and well I reckon that they'll survive another 10K.


The bin bag issue ? I buy the cheap one's and use those charity bags that come through the door, to line the inside to offer the strength, but not hold the liquid slime.