h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is an offshoot of FB's thread about false economies. I got so depressed reading about all the things that are better if you spend more, that I wanted to know what things are better value if you spend less. Which branded products are a rip off?

My two best things are aqueous cream (hand or body cream) and supercheap (25p or 45p) shower gel from Sainsbury's or Morrisons.

How about you? What do you buy that's good value or surprisingly cheap?

Basics or value tissue products. Loo roll, kitchen roll, tissues. Much of a muchness to me, why spend over £1 whe you can the same producr for half the price?

Generic printer cartridges. Less than half the price of the branded ones and sometimes last even longer

Own brand soluble aspirin - usually about 15p compared to £1 for Disprin.

Most over-the-counter drugs: paracetamol, aspirin, ibuprofen etc.

Sanitary products: My local supermarket's own range is wider and comparable quality to the big brands and are a third of the price.

Toothpaste: my sister is a dentist and says that Tesco's own toothpaste is nicer and less abrasive than some of the big brand ones.

Wine glasses: When you break as many as I do, buy in IKEA at 60p each!

"Most over-the-counter drugs: paracetamol, aspirin, ibuprofen etc.

Sanitary products: My local supermarket's own range is wider and comparable quality to the big brands and are a third of the price."

Agree, agree, and thousand times agree.

Pharmacy own brand drugs contain the same active ingredients without the brand name.

AGreed with the supermarket own brand painkillers and I guess* other such like medication... The tescos ibuphrophin are so cheap.... yet the branded ones
Couple of good things I bought recently I bought a couple of hand towels from Tescos, just to see what they're like... err they're fine and a lot cheaper than the ones I normally get from M&S or John Lewis ;-Which isn't to say that I know how they work out yet in the long run as I've only had em a few months, and some of the older John Lewis and M&S ones I have have been going for years
Also recently I bought a 'pizza platter', for cooking, guess waht pizza on it... and ... well it works... and I seem to recall was something like £3 (less than a pint in the pubs near me)
I'm trying to remember the name of the store.... its a cheap supermarket, and they do a bottle of booze which at only a few pounds is remarkibly identicle to Bailies which itself of course costs a bit more than a couple of quid (better hurry up though as the government will soon only be allowing the rich to drink alcohol).
Also look at a lot of the supermarkets now and they often have an isle for 'authentic X', where X is a type of cuisine... E.G., Chinese, Polish etc... Often the ingrediants on sale on those shelves are far cheaper than the same products (albeit a differnt 'brand'), found on other shelves in the store.... And they can have some quite interesting thigns.... (depending on how good you are at being able to read whatever language the label is in )

Oh, and cheap tea towels.... Even the expensive ones don't last any longer, and they've all got holes in em before you know it, so best off getting a bargan big roll of cheap tea towels rather than the expensive ones Same goes for kitchen towel (the paper kitchen towel that is), I've bought the branded ones... the ones that claim* to wake up early and make you breckfast in bed or whatever it is they claim... and the cheap own brand ones don't seem any worse so

Definitely useful to compile this list.

I buy loads of things like antihistamine pills and paracetamol with the generic drug name rather than a brand.

That chain that sells refill cartridges saved me loads of money too on printer costs. It's a pity they don't have more branches.

Anything a well known small supermarket (name begins with A and has 4 letters ) Their stuff is good value and good quality.

Avon sun creams Work perfectly well and don't give me a rash like other sorts.

Skin-So-Soft from Avon is an incredibly effective midge repellent.

I much prefer to make my own cigarettes from rolling tobacco. IMO they taste better, irritate my throat less...and allow for control of size, I tend to make them very thin. I also like the feeling that I've made them myself.

I prefer Amber Leaf, which is one of the cheaper brands.

Sodium bicarbonate disolved in water for indigestion. I was brought up with this and it works fine. You can buy a big container from the cakes section, which lasts about a year, if you're lucky

And ocassionally I've used washing up liquid as a shampoo. It also works fine, and probably should carry on, but I'm a bit embarrassed for some reason. My hair was washed with it, for the first 10 years of my life.

And I do 99% of my cleaning with bog standard bleach in very hot water. Works brilliantly.

I've always maintained that you can clean anything with either bleach, white spirit or meths.

I use caustic soda for cleaning scrambled egg off pans.

Don't forget good old lighter fluid, great for removing grease.

Yes I also use meths for a few things like old bits of grime in awkward corners.

But careful not to use it on any precious piece of furniture that has been traditionally Frenched polished in shellac, (yeah yeah I've got loads ), or it will dissolve the polish.

Indeed so Effers, I find it takes my paint off the occasional tables quite effectively. (They've not been french polished )



Anyone remember the Yellow Pages ad with guy asking for a French Polisher? - The chap always reminded me of a friend

Many expensive creams contain Retinol (vitamin A) Do not confuse with retinoic acid, used for acne and for peelings. The effect depends on the percentage of vitamin A of the cream . It can have no effect at all or to cause irritation. Besides it can degradate easily.
But...

There are pills of vitamin A , used for some deseases related with its deficit. Instead of taking them orally,. use a pin and squeeze the content,( they are made out of jelly) massage the face with the oil.
They come also mixed with vitamin E.

I used them for a while, a nurse told me about it, but got bored with the pinning and squeezing. However it works.
Now I´ve started to use baby body cream (Mustela), it´s not greasy and smell lovely. 12 euros 500ml.

The oil of rosa mosqueta is also great for the eye contour and the face (normal/dry skin)

Although the best treatment for the skin is to stop smoking , have an orange everyday and clean the face before going to bed. That´s the cheapest treatment.

Generic medicines - many made by BP and can, I think, be labelled as required - ?

Dirty hands: oily, greasy from car maintenance etc. Initially you can 'wash' with dirty oil from the change, then some clean from the dregs of the new can. Saves quite a bit on those hand cleaners.
But, remember to spread out the wiping rags/paper towels, or wet them thoroughly, else risk spontaneous combustion.

Just thought of a couple of things I always stock up on every time I'm back at my Dads, visiting the 'pound shop', or whatever cheapo shop it is we have there now....

1. Hairbands, about forty or fifty of them for less than a quid... Probably not quite* as good as if you paid a small fortune for them, but with that* many it works out cheaper as even the expensive ones fail after a while, and more than enough for a year for less than a quid ain't bad....

2. pan scourers, the metal ones, only really use them on a couple of my pans as the rest don't need anything so abrasive, but they're also quite good for cleaning the metal bits of the cooker top... again get a big pack for a quid or less, and they'll last all year...

3. Pan squidgies... Again dirt cheap just get a giant pack and it last the year for a quid or less I think (and I do get through a fair few of those as they tend to get yucky quite quick; expensive ones get just as yucky just as quick, and both seem to clean fine...)

Another bargan just because its so useful, is a bottle of 'switch fluid', (got mine for a couple quid new off of EBay), any electrical item can tend to get dirt in the contacts and I know I'm constantly using the switch fluid, spraying it on volume controls, pan knobs, (I guess mainly HiFi gear but I guess other things too)

Homemade wine from kits (if you can find a decent kit maker). My old Dad is quite the vinophile. I once slipped a couple of bottles of my homemade into his cellar without my usual homemade labels. After he'd finished the two *with guests who also considered themselves to be vinocultured*, he ran off to his usual shops to find more.

Seriously, wine making kits these days are foolproof, bloody simple, and, if you live in a mildly high tax area as I do, you can save huge money. Around here, it's hard to find a bottle of anything for less than $10. Nothing I've made, even the ultra premium stuff, has cost me more than $6 a bottle to make, and most of it has been about $3. Even when I've made (very nice) wine from unpasteurized, fresh varietal juice, refrigerated and shipped across the Atlantic from Italy (I'm in Western Canada, BTW), it's cost me less than $3 a bottle.

And it's fun to watch the little airlock burp.

i use tesco shower gel and deoderant the week i am at work, and better stuff on my week off when i am around other people,

we bulk shop every few months at costco and make savings that way
8 bottle R whites lemonade £4......50p a bottle
24 pack branston beans £6....25p a tin

we also buy tins of beans spagetti etc. from aldi

on the drink front

aldi do a southern comfort type drink and a bourbon for about £10 a bottle as well as the irish cream liquer and aldi cider is on a parr with strongbow

largers, we go with either whats on offer or tesco dutch 3% or premium 4% at £5.35 and £6.49 for 12 cans respectively

tesco value vodka and gin refils the better quality bottles and no one notices

Tap water.

I see no reason to buy bottled.