What do you regret "saving money" on?

[Saracen]

On the subject of brushes, paint (decorating) brushes. Probably true of artist's brushes too, but that's not my thing. But decent decorating brushes, well cared for, seem to last indefinitely. Cheap ones moult the first, or at best second, time you use them.


Oh, and thinking of brushes, sort-of, air-brushes too. Buy right, buy once.

[sammyc]

I'm congenitally cheeseparing & find it very difficult to cure the habit; long after cottoning on to the buy cheap etc rule of thumb, I still do it. Also operate some daft illogics when it comes to money, ie I'll spend £25 in 2 separate instances because it sounds better than one £50 purchase.

However, one thing I have grasped is - the opposite to buy cheap & regret it - expensive isn't automatically better.
I know people who'll just pay money by default, part snobbery, part assuming it equates better quality. Hence my neighbours' suite that they were really unhappy with & which cost lord knows what, compared to my sofa, which was from a basic mail order chain but actually manufactured up the road, all British, sustainable timber etc, really well made & brilliant quality/value. Because they just wouldn't shop anywhere like that, on principle, & don't see they're getting ripped off for overpriced stuff because they want to buy from a 'good' name or a certain shop.

Also kettles etc etc, you see so many bad reviews for expensive brands that you'd think you could just buy & trust would be ok, and once upon a time probably would have been.. which leads to this final point -

not an original one especially but true - even cheap stuff used to be much better. I've bought budget electricals in the past that were actually brilliant, lasted forever etc, buy from that same cheap & cheerful price range now & there's no comparison. Viz, my current lukewarm & incontinent iron.

[Jowsey]

Something I learnt eventually, which applies mostly to electronics but certainly to just about every other item, is that second hand is nearly always worth a quick think. Whilst you might not spend less money, you'll nearly always get a superior product. Of course you'll need to make sensible checks on condition though!

My girlfriend recently bought a new desk and wanted a nice matching white chair but couldn't find one of decent quality that was within her budget. She was getting close to compromising (mostly on quality) when I had a quick look on gumtree and found what she wanted.

So, to answer the thread question, the coffee table we have, is what I regret saving money on. It's a fairly standard Ikea job, (still a trainee and my girlfriend is still a student so money was tight) and it gets the job done, it's not offensive and it's acceptable quality. When went to collect the previously mentioned chair the person also pointed out a lovely Barker and Stonehouse chest they were trying to sell for about the same I spent. It would have just matched as well!

Obviously, I think my example is just a quirk of timings but I did feel like I'd really missed an opportunity to the most for my (small in quantity) pound!

[DanceswithUnix]

Furniture is an oddity, second hand values are awful. My dining table and chairs cost a few hundred off ebay, and would have cost thousands new. It was sort of bought as a stop gap because the kids would have trashed an expensive table so we got one pre-marked by the grand kids of the previous owner, but you have to really look for those marks and it is a cracking bit of furniture.

[sammyc]

Yeah, re both the above, depressing what you see going for a fiver on ebay 'collection only' - wish you could screen them out, I know if you have to pick something up there's petrol etc but just for want of transport there is so much great stuff going by out of one's reach.

When went to collect the previously mentioned chair the person also pointed out a lovely Barker and Stonehouse chest they were trying to sell for about the same I spent. It would have just matched as well!

Shame sometimes timing can be properly mean, as you say, like this.

[TooNice]

Cleaning products. I thought they were all the same, and given their disposable nature so I've been buying all my house cleaning liquid from the equivalent of Poundland in Japan (about 78p today, even lower pre-referendum).

For the past few months I've been trying to remove some stains in the toilet bowl using 78p cleaning solutions, and 78p bleach, scrubbing as hard as I could using 78p brush 10-15min at a time, for no avail. I'd just about written off to the ceramic getting old or something. But two days ago, I decided to try one last time, buying a toilet cleaner at double the price (£1.6 oooh). And without a couple of minutes the stains were disappearing, leaving behind a shiny toilet bowl you could eat from.

Could've saved my back lots of pain if I'd done it sooner..

[Zak33]

Cleaning products. I thought they were all the same, and given their disposable nature so I've been buying all my house cleaning liquid from the equivalent of Poundland in Japan (about 78p today, even lower pre-referendum).

For the past few months I've been trying to remove some stains in the toilet bowl using 78p cleaning solutions, and 78p bleach, scrubbing as hard as I could using 78p brush 10-15min at a time, for no avail. I'd just about written off to the ceramic getting old or something. But two days ago, I decided to try one last time, buying a toilet cleaner at double the price (£1.6 oooh). And without a couple of minutes the stains were disappearing, leaving behind a shiny toilet bowl you could eat from.

Could've saved my back lots of pain if I'd done it sooner..

oh I agree... cheap cleaning products are like cheap toilet paper.. use twice.. thrice as much and you've STILL got muck on your fingers!

ditto....(ignoring arse wiping) cheap sandpaper... just buy proper stuff and get the job done 10 times faster

[Dashers]

Tablet - just sent a cheapo one back because, well it was naff. I kinda expected that, the other half, less so.

There is a balance to strike between good value for money and tacky. And there is always the laws of diminishing returns to consider when going up in value. The first time I learnt this was buying AMD and ATI (in different systems) many, many years ago. Landed up having to replace my main rig with a P4 a year later. Buy cheap, buy twice.

Very briefly, I'm in that DINKY stage of life, and I've been able to spend more on things instead of just going for the cheap option and it's really made a difference to have quality items.

[J ack]

I was rebuilding a budget computer and decided to get an am3+ board and an fx 6300. Now regretting it because for 20-30 quid more I could've got a skylake i3 and had a better upgrade path. Going to have to spend a lot more if I want to go anywhere with it later.

[lmaolmao]

cheaping out on a motherboard which now means i can't overclock...

[Kunkzi]

Macbook Pro. The screen broken after a month i bought it.

[Zarvay]

A graphics tablet, I bought a cheapo 30 pound graphics tablet which is gathering dust somewhere... if I'd just saved up for a bit longer I could have gotten a Wacom.