Things that you should always spend alot more money on..

sxt

Food. trust me, those 2.99 full sized chickens in lidl or those spiced salamis in a very unnatural pink like color are not good for your health in the long run

Boots/Shoes .Good quality is essential here as you spend so much time on your feet

Mattress and pillow. You get it

maestroamado

women...

Billgirlylegs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950312#Comment_117950312

😊😊

False Prophet

Boards.ie Upgrades

Porn. I always pay for our porn.

I have a good relationship with my butcher and he sources meat for me as ethically as possible. I always end up paying a lot more for it then just getting factory farmed chicken off the shelf in the supermarket. But I feel like I am doing my bit and I always pay more for my meat when I can.

I like the one about boots. I forget who was saying it recently - one podcast or another - but someone was pointing out that poor people pay more for things like boots in the long run because they have to pay for the cheap ones which do not last. So they have to replace them. So they are trapped in an economy that keeps them poor in the long run by forcing them towards cheaper products that will not last. Whereas the people with money who can afford boots that will last - end up paying a fraction of the price - due to not having to buy any more for years.

Del2005

Yourself

ShatterAlan

Frying pan.

Buy a cheap frying pan and it's fcuked after frying one rasher.

You can go cheap on a lot of stuff such as fruit and veg. A Lidl Cabbage or bunch of bananas is no different to those you get in M&S. And Spar Milk is no different to Avonmore. Probably comes from the same dairy herd.

Strumms

Food, holidays, wellbeing and overall your general happiness.

whisky_galore

Raingear. Luggage and backpacks. Boots and Shoes. Decent jackets and coats that last and in styles that don't date so much. Camping gear.

Certain tools, eg socket sets.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950329#Comment_117950329

That's the late great Sir Terry:

"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms:

Food was something that was very expensive in the 70s and none too cheap in the 80s. Now it’s ridiculously “cheap”. We could definitely afford to spend a tad more on it to ensure quality, sustainability, welfare, fair pay to the workers etc.

Classic fashion store well. Recently I bought a leather dress which wasn’t cheap, but I know it will be in the wardrobe for pretty much the rest of my life. It’s style is simple and timeless.

spurious

Motorcycle helmets.

iamstop

Audio equipment.

Cameras and gear.

Beer.

Bike.

blue note

Coffee. I love it but wouldn't buy takeaway coffee often, so I don't mind paying for the good stuff. I'd buy two kg per month @ about €30 each. Totally worth it.

And cheese. I love it.

L1011

Clothes, to a point. Super cheap stuff won't last and the environmental and societal damage caused by replacing a tshirt after three washes is hideous. But a lot of the very expensive stuff is the same quality as the junk bar the expensive label.

"Leather" furniture - if its not a real cow hide it'll last three or four years, tops. I've a 3+2+1+1 Italian leather suite that cost someone else about 18k in Arnotts in the Tiger era, but cost me a grand and will easily last another 20 years looking good.

Cookware of any description - buy cheap buy twice, or ten times if you keep making the same mistakes. Some higher quality stuff is much the same price as consumer junk if bought from a catering equipment firm, nearly all of which are delighted to sell to the public.

AlfaZen

Whiskey - you get what you pay for

Clothes - With age there is less desire to have the latest fashion. Buy quality and when its on sale buy two.

Tyres - They are the only thing between you and the road

Technology - doesn't have to be the latest and greatest but quality costs a bit more but lasts. - again but when in a sale.

nolivesmatter

A house. There's no other way sadly.

MrMusician18

Mayonnaise

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950398#Comment_117950398

Thats it exactly. I remember now - someone quoted that exact passage on another thread recently. Which is why it was in my brain.

Atlantic Dawn

• Mattress
• Tyres
• Tools

maestroamado

xxx

boots etc...

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950657#Comment_117950657

Not always. I bought the joint second cheapest habitable house sold in my area since the Property Price Register came in to effect (seriously).

Area is fine, house was structurally fine - it just stank of dog piss and was generally filthy. Spent about 40k on maintenance and upgrade works so far and could probably spend that again in a heartbeat; but the mortgage + insurances + that 40k is still well under what nine years of rent would be.

Clearly timing had a huge effect on the price, but buying the cheapest at a given time can be fine.

BorneTobyWilde

Health Care, Dentistry

Gregor Samsa

Organ transplants

Hitmen

Cryonics

FortuneChip

Whiskey. Not even very expensive, just don’t go cheap.

Footwear. You’ll destroy yourself and your wallet in the long run if you go cheap.

Tech - don’t buy the knock offs on the cheap

Degag

27 posts in and no mention of condoms.

After Hours has changed man

Mister Vain

High class escorts. They always look better and last longer.

saabsaab

Insulation and 'free energy'. Putting it in when you build will pay off in the long run.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950848#Comment_117950848

Definitely dentistry. Pay up front and regularly, or pay a lot more for repair down the line.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950577#Comment_117950577

The thing is, and this applies to all of this thread; how do you know? How to discern paying a lot for quality v's just being ripped off? I cannot catalogue every single brand of every item

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117951265#Comment_117951265

With a lot of things:

The cheapest 20% are going to be dodgy

The dearest 20% are going to be price-for-name

Review around the middle 60 mostly.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950803#Comment_117950803

there is a saying that goes always buy the worst house in the best area.

enricoh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950549#Comment_117950549

A mate of mine gave me a cup of coffee that had been made from beans that had been eaten and crapped out by some animal in Indonesia! E60 for a 250g of em. He was disgusted when I said it was grand.

There should always be someone out there to milk suckers dry!

enricoh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950967#Comment_117950967

High grade coke, you'll have to throw the hookers out to get rid of them!

Best to spend on any tool you use for work. My job has gone down the line of single use items..urghh

whisky_galore

Construction materials, doors, windows even down to paint etc, the reason many developments here look super sh1t after a few years using bargain basement crap. I've seen apartments built in the last Tiger falling apart with sub standard rubbish used in them, window handles breaking and fixtures falling off with normal use.

Of course mr developer has long laughed all his way to the bank by then.

fits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117951349#Comment_117951349

Get to Know fabrics and look at care labels

i recently bought a jacket in a poor fabric from Dunnes. It looked awful after one wear and fit only for the bin. Very annoyed with myself I should know better.

corner of hells

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950978#Comment_117950978

Mattresses, tools and insulation.

I gave up trying to explain to Mrs Corners sister recently over how important insulation is when she converted her garage into a TV room.

She managed to convert her garage into an icebox because she wouldn't pay for insulation.

iamstop

Time Travel and Space Travel.

Mad_maxx

Toilet paper

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117951975#Comment_117951975

Papering over the cracks if you don’t.

micosoft

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117951265#Comment_117951265

I always separate quality & cost and look for brands that are medium cost but high quality. Most brands are medium cost and low quality these days. Low cost low quality is what it is (Penny's) and High Cost High Quality is obvious (Hermes) but the watch out for is medium cost low quality and the thing to spot is medium Cost high quality.

Pennys - Low Cost Low Quality

Ikea - Medium Cost Low Quality

Ted Baker - Medium Cost Low Quality

Arcteryx - Medium Cost High Quality

Hermes - High Cost High Quality

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117950967#Comment_117950967

I'm going to suggest an inverse relationship between looks and lasting 😬

Jequ0n

Lawyers.

sheepondrugs

+1 Tools

Drill bits

Paint

Atlantic Dawn

Another one, your 'main television', avoid anything but high end premium brands, otherwise you will get some useless user interface and remote control designed for children in a creche that will wreck your head every single day of it's 10 years or so lifespan.

Sgt Hartman

Definitely toilet paper and kitchen paper. You have to use twice as much of the cheap stuff so it's totally false economy.

Underwear also, the cheap stuff either starts slipping down or disappearing up your bum crack after a couple of months.

DIY materials for the house, I only get the best quality paint, filler and good strong Tek 7 sealant. My local Euro store do this awful "sealant" at €2 a bottle which I think is just made from chalk and water. I don't understand how the manufacturers can get away with making such shite. Although if I'm using a thick oil based paint I would just buy the cheap €2 paint brushes and chuck them away afterwards.

Phones also, a cheap phone with low RAM will start chugging and freezing after a few months. Even a mid level Samsung phone is far superior and will last you ages if you take good care of it.

And lastly food, in Lidl I usually go for the "deluxe" range or in Tesco the "Finest" range, especially when it comes to meat although I'd normally buy meat from the butcher. In the supermarket I'd normally go for the Irish Angus beef or a free range or corn fed chicken. Heinz beans and ketchup are far better than the cheaper brands. The Tesco value beans are hard and watery and the cheap ketchup is like vinegar. Bread also, a good quality expensive loaf is far better than the cheap crumbly stuff. I also go for the more expensive sausages and Clonakilty/butcher's own black pudding. Decent high cocoa chocolate is far superior to the mainstream brands also. At home I have a big 2.5kg bag of Callebaut 38% cocoa Belgian milk chocolate chips. I've brought a few into work with me today for an afternoon sugar hit. They're amazing :)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117951864#Comment_117951864

Little money saving tip here is to travel into the future so that most of the cost is inflated away. And remember to bring money back from the future to cover any final charges. I traveled to 3056 recently with Aer Lingus and when all is said and done I estimate that I made a profit of EUR10 million on the trip.

Exotic pets.

blue note

For lots of things, clothes in particular, some people can be seriously misguided on the "you get what you pay for" principle. If you buy the cheapest stuff, it's pretty much guaranteed to be rubbish. Your motivating factor to buy it was price, you did so knowing it will probably be rubbish so they've no motivation to make it decent quality. All that would do is raise the price which will mean that you won't buy it.

But once you move away from the really cheap stuff - quality can be a bit of a lottery. I'm wearing a jumper now that I got about 15 years ago for around €30 (full price). The cuffs have just started to fray now. Whereas I've gone through many jumpers in that time that would have cost far more. In terms of something lasting - I do like to choose based on brands I've had a good experience with. For clothes - Tommy Hilfiger stuff just tends to last for me. It's pricey, but if I get it on sale it will be reasonable and I'll expect to have it for years. For what I get, I'd consider the price to be very reasonable.

The one thing I think people should watch out for now is buying things on sale. Basically, most things are bought on sale now as far as I can see. In TK Max we have a shop that is just reduced price items. But are they really reduced price, or were they actually made to be sold at that price and the reduction is just a sales technique? Spoiler: it's the latter! Even if it's a brand you know, TK Max is probably a way for that company to sell to people not willing to pay full price for their stuff without really damaging their brand. But if you're buying an expensive brand at an inexpensive price, they've cut costs to sell it at that price.

The other point I'll make is that getting high quality items is all well and good - but do you always need them? My garden is the best example. I have a relatively small back garden and a no maintenance front. I buy most of my gardening tools in lidl, because they hardly get the use. I'm not ploughing fields or pruning an orchard. I'll plant a few flowers / foods each year, trim the hedges maybe twice a year, etc. I could buy the best of the best and my tools would be perfect in 30 years time. But that's because after 30 years they'd probably have had a tiny fraction of the use they were designed for. Whereas I'd say most of the lidl stuff will still be fine, because they're still only getting used a few times a year. My hedge trimmer will probably have been used 60 - 90 times by then. It's probably designed to last a lot longer than that. Ski clothes is another example. I remember a poster from Switzerland say that you'd spot the tourist on the mountains because they'd have the top of the range stuff that would keep you warm 3,500 metres up, but they'd be cruising along on the lower slopes. Meanwhile the locals would just layer up for whatever they're going out in.