What things can't you compromise on?

Bargain_Rzl

missbargain wrote: »

Coffee - must be good, never instant. Taylors of Harrogate, and if I feel really rich, then the best one Monmouth Coffee Company.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool:

I work about 5 minutes away from their 2nd branch (Borough Market) and I can sooooooooooooooooo back this statement up

busy_today_mate

Razor blades. I but Gillete Fusion. By far the best shave that I have ever had.

At £8 for 4 it si very expensive but I would say they are worth every penny. Never cut myself with them. Worth every penny.

Beer I would rather not drink than buy anything but Belhaven Fruit Beer or Tennants Velvet.

Anything else I would take a cheaper alternative.

competitionscafe

missbargain wrote: »

Coffee - must be good, never instant. Taylors of Harrogate, and if I feel really rich, then the best one Monmouth Coffee Company. Bitterly expensive, but sooooo delicious, I have it as a treat once a week.

Not sure how much Monmouth coffee is but I can recommend this coffee:
http://www.coffeecavern.co.uk/eshop.php/product/product-id/32/sitio-du-tileco-brazil-organic.html

It's £3.80 for 250g, one of the nicest coffees I have ever tried (and I have tried lots!), the other one I like is Green Mountain (the house blend) but it's about £7 per 250g bag so one for a rare treat.

mum2one

Coffee - kenko decaf
Teabags - typhoo or tetley
toilet rolls - def not value - either tesco own brand, andrex
Pickled onions - must be gardners
Brown sauce - must be daddies

Im a fussy sod..........

Estimator1

I can't compromise on:
Lurpak
Vimto
Decent minced beef
Strongow cider (all the rest makes me shudder!)

Baked beans - tried the value ones, they're rubbish (all watery, no flavour) so get cheapest named brands (at the moment Branston are BOGOF for 4 packs at tesco)

I think Tresemme shampoo/conditioner is great, and so cheap when it's BOGOF, so I usually stock up when there's an offer on (I probably have enough of this to last a few years at the moment!) You don't need to use much either.

Estimator1

portsmouthali wrote: »

Things I must buy:

Heinz tomato soup, ketchup and baked beans
Free range eggs (they taste so much better!)
Meat from the butchers (supermarket meat is rubbish)
HP sauce
Kelloggs Bran Flakes
Proper Weetabix
Lavazzo coffee (instant makes me feel sick!)
Twinings everyday tea (although after a few mentions on here I'm tempted to try Yorkshire...)
Fairy or Persil washing up liquid
Uncle Bens rice (not sure if it's the way I cook it but everything else ends up like a gloopy mess)
Lurpak spreadable.

I am a big fusspot!

Have you tried basmati rice? It's so easy.
It's relatively cheap for Tesco value basmati, but you can buy massive sacks at local Pakistani shops, for even less. All you do is fill the pan with lots of water (much more than you wouls with Uncle Bens) - about 3 or 4 times the volume of rice. Bring to the boil (add salt if required), throw in the rice & boil for 8-10 mins. Then simply drain away the excess water, and you have light tasty rice.............easy!

Buffy_the_Vampire_Bat

Will probably get rocks thrown at me for this but...:p

I won't compromise on my holidays..we generally don't go abroad (my passport has expired anyway and I haven't got round to renewing it ) and have a couple of cottage holidays a year in the UK (usually one 14 night break and one 7 night break). We have a particular favourite in Devon - a lovely stone cottage for two, right in the middle of nowhere with Dartmoor in sight, a four poster bed, a big fluffy duvet, a sweet little garden, all mod cons etc. It's self catering but there's a fab butcher's in the village so we usually have lots of b-b-q's, and of course fish and chips at least once (Holidays are the only time we ever eat fish and chips as they have to be eaten straight out of the paper looking out to sea with a glass of wine on the side...sitting eating them in a 3 bed semi in Cambridge just isn't the same :rotfl: ) We have the odd meal out in the evening, but we generally tend to throw something on the b-b-q and crack open the wine back at the cottage!

Two such breaks a year usually cost about £1000 for the cottage rental alone, but we justify this by: not eating out at home unless it's for a special occasion with family, not having takeaways full stop unless it's fish and chips on holiday , making the most of our National Trust membership when we are on holiday (my in-laws renew our membership for us each year as our Christmas present), we save our Nectar vouchers for food (and booze ) on holiday, and we do actually pay for these holidays out of earnings, they don't get stuck on the credit card.

Marishka

Meat - butcher (who owns his own farm), farm gate, or nothing
Heinz baked beans and tomato sauce (my home made sauce is nice but completely different!)
Twinings English Breakfast loose tea. I don't like tea bags and I can't find any other (cheaper) loose English Breakfast
English Organic milk
McVitie's dark choc digestives (for Dad)
Ovaltine
Horlicks
Bite Size Shreddies (Dad again...)
Ecover washing up liquid (works better than anything I've tried and my hand prefer it to some heavily advertised alternatives!)

but

branded things that have gone:
rice pudding
tinned fruit (apart from the pineapple, and that's just for Dad, I prefer the 'value' type)
ground coffee (dad can't tell the difference)
artificial sweetener
flour
my high fibre cereal
drinking chocolate
sardines
butter
kitchen towels and loo rolls
bio washing powder
fancy sugars (lumps etc!)
bleach

This is a great thread - makes me realise how much I've changed and that I'm now making conscious decisions - thank you!

Bargain_Rzl

Estimator1 wrote: »

Baked beans - tried the value ones, they're rubbish (all watery, no flavour) so get cheapest named brands (at the moment Branston are BOGOF for 4 packs at tesco)

I'm not sure how much they work out at per tin while Tesco have them on offer - however, my local 99p shop always has the 4-packs in stock. I also go to the same shop for multipacks of tinned tuna, as it's far cheaper than the supermarkets.

I think Tresemme shampoo/conditioner is great, and so cheap when it's BOGOF, so I usually stock up when there's an offer on (I probably have enough of this to last a few years at the moment!) You don't need to use much either.

And it always seems to be on BOGOF somewhere... you've reminded me, I'm on my last big bottle of each product. However it'll still be a while before I run out, as I normally wash my hair at the gym using their free toiletries

Angelina-M

Cooking utensils!

But its not alway the most expensive that is best.

I only use very good quality pans. I have some wonderful old griswold cast iron pans that cook everything beautifully, one of them is over eighty years old. I have a full set of Le Crueset but it hardly gets used as I favour the griswold.

I also have a semi commercial oven with steam injection. I don't have to worry about the temperature settings as its constantly monitoring itself and giving a read out. Also because of the steam injection I get fantastic bread, no more faffing about putting ice cubes in the bottom of the oven to get oven spring.

Cooking is my thing so I need good tools