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Things where expensive stuff is no better than cheap stuff

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I have to disagree with that. Drive 6hrs in your Dacia then 6hrs in a posh Mercedes, compare how you feel afterwards.

Much better off, works for me.

Why would I drive for 6 hours got better things to do. I honestly cannot recall the last time I drove more then 3 or 4 hours. My Dacia is however far more comfortable than my old Volvo 340 I used to drive from Newcastle to London on a regular basis, 25 years ago so I am sure I'd survive.

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 11:39 am
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Posted by: redmex

Generic Viagra for about the same price as the steaky bakes 

Um, whut?  

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 11:46 am
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Posted by: grahamt1980

Posted by: redmex

Generic Viagra for about the same price as the steaky bakes 

Um, whut?  

 

Asking for a friend...? 😁

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 11:49 am
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Salt.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 11:49 am
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Posted by: tjagain

don't bother with the tiny expensive bottle of sram fork oil, just use a much cheaper one branded for motorbikes

You can buy a litre bottle of SRAM fork oil for about the same as most branded motorcycle oils. the question is still why bother? The 120ml bottle is a fiver and it's good for 8 lower leg services. I started a thread in here ages ago about fork services and it turns out most folk don't other anyway 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 11:53 am
tjagain reacted
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I would agree with instant coffee... but I'm a bit of a coffee snob so it all tasted pretty much the same to me. The 'posh' stuff with added dust actually tastes worse than an instant if you actually like coffee. But that is my experience and I'm not going to tell anyone that there is no point in buying their expensive instant because nescafe tastes the same.

 

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 11:54 am
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Posted by: sirromj

So so wrong about coffee. I thought I'd hit rock bottom drinking Nescafe red*. No, there's Amazon basics. Life can always get worse.

See also, "coffee bags"

Bought them as an alternative to instant coffee for a bike packing trip. I was shocked to find they were significantly worse than any instant coffee I'd ever had. The rest of the unused box has been in the cupboard ever since. 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 11:55 am
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fancy mozzarella cheese on your pizza. The dried stuff will make a  better and cheaper pizza (and won't make your base soggy) 

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 11:56 am
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agree about paracetamol except for kids liquid stuff.
The Boots one is totally bogging, calpol is much better tasting


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 11:59 am
nicko74 reacted
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Don't diss a 340 or a 360. Have you seen the prices of them lately? 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:03 pm
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Posted by: Bunnyhop

Flooring.

Some of the really big names such as 'Amtico' probably are worth the money, however other makes are just ripping you off. You can buy a 'Karndean' lookalike which is as good and much cheaper.

Any recommendations?

Karndean is considered to be up there with Amtico - All the cheaper stuff I've looked at looks considerably more fake than the better stuff from both these 2.

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:06 pm
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Beers up London for £7 compared to in my "local" boozer out in the sticks of Essex for £3.80.

 

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:15 pm
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So many things. Food staples like oats, rice, flour obviously.

 

Well no. I bake better bread with more expensive flour, and good luck making a risotto with cheap long grain rice.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:16 pm
Ambrose, Bunnyhop, b33k34 and 1 people reacted
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fancy mozzarella cheese on your pizza.

I'll ask my Italian pizza making friends and see what they say/gesticulate. I fear they may disagree.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:19 pm
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Posted by: ransos

Well no. I bake better bread with more expensive flour, and good luck making a risotto with cheap long grain rice.

Calm down Nigella 😉 

That's just using the wrong type of rice!  That's like replying to someone who says cheap car oil is good with "well olive oil is rubbish in my beemer".  Of course you use a risotto specific rice if that's what you're making! Tesco own brand carnaroli is pretty good.  I do a bit of baking too.  I find strong bread flour from the supermarkets is pretty good.  I've tried artisan stone ground stuff direct from a flour mill with weevils and bits of twigs in it. I didn't notice any difference tbh.  I'm no master baker though to be fair.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:26 pm
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fancy mozzarella cheese on your pizza. The dried stuff will make a  better and cheaper pizza

The answer is chop and drain it before using it.  The dried stuff just isn't the same, but... it doesn't need to be the most fancy either.  For us our supermarket buffalo stuff works really nicely but another supermarkets stuff doesn't.  If you are at the pricey end of most things they are generally very nice, at the cheaper end you sometimes need to try a few to work out works best for you


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:28 pm
kelvin reacted
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Oh don't get me started...

High end phones.  Your £1200 iPhone doesn't do anything that my £250 Android does and the battery in my phone lasts for three days and if I drop it of a ladder or into a burn it is absolutely fine without needing a £40 case.

Karcher pressure washers - twice the price and last half as long as pretty much anything else.

Hozelock hosepipe fittings.  Just the same as any other plastic fitting that dies in the first frost.  Buy cheap or buy brass with O rings.

Electronic gears.  Might feel nice, but will not make you ride faster, or ride anything that you wouldn't ride with normal gears.  Cost more to buy, more to replace, more to maintain.  Only exception is on a TT bike where you can have shift buttons on the hoods and on the aero bars.

Pre-packed fruit.  My colleague just bought a plastic tub of fruit as part of his lunch.  It contains about 4 grapes and two thirds of an apple for £1.20.  Just buy the bloody apple.

Lots of sporting events.  Silverstone want £150 to get in plus another £150 if you want to sit anywhere you can actually see anything on F1 weekend.  BTCC is better racing for £35.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:30 pm
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Posted by: IHN

Posted by: the-muffin-man

OP - you're wrong about coffee!!

What, you think that posh instant is better than normal instant?

I do.

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:34 pm
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On the coffee one - if you think all instant is the same try catering instant - its vile.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:39 pm
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good luck making a risotto with cheap long grain rice

Lidl do good cheap arborio rice. I use it once a week for what its often our cheapest meal of the week.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:40 pm
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See also, "coffee bags"

Bought them as an alternative to instant coffee for a bike packing trip. I was shocked to find they were significantly worse than any instant coffee I'd ever had. The rest of the unused box has been in the cupboard ever since. 

The Taylors ones?

I think they're awesome and pretty much the same as a nice cup of filter coffee. All instant tastes like muck to me.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:44 pm
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Posted by: boriselbrus

Your £1200 iPhone doesn't do anything that my £250 Android does

I bet it takes a better picture.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:47 pm
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Going the other way... Sainsburys do a custard cream flavoured tea bag for £2 a box. Taking one for Team Singletrack, I tried it. Vile doesn't quite cover the experience, as possibly could have been predicted. Really, just buy nice tea and some actual biscuits. 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:48 pm
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Posted by: muddyground

Going the other way... Sainsburys do a custard cream flavoured tea bag for £2 a box. Taking one for Team Singletrack, I tried it. Vile doesn't quite cover the experience, as possibly could have been predicted. Really, just buy nice tea and some actual biscuits. 

But sticking with the theme, would expensive custard cream flavoured tea bags, if they existed taste any better?  I'm guessing not!

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:59 pm
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Wives, obvs.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 12:59 pm
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Posted by: peaslaker

Wives, obvs.

Agreed, but don't tell her she's the Tesco value version.  

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:02 pm
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Btcc was great to go to years late '80's early 90's and other than being a cheaper weekend it's nowhere near seeing an F1 car at Spa or Silverstone 

Hi fi does plateau out after you have bought a half decent £1000 system unless you have above average hearing ability and no waxy lugs


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:03 pm
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I bet it takes a better picture.

That's more down to the individual. If my Dad had it the photos would still be out of focus snaps of people's limbs and the lower slopes of mountains with no obvious summits


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:03 pm
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Lots of sporting events.  Silverstone want £150 to get in plus another £150 if you want to sit anywhere you can actually see anything on F1 weekend.  BTCC is better racing for £35.

That misses a lot of important points. I went to F1 at Silverstone this year. It may be the only time I go to an F1 race, may be the only time that I experience that crowd, the noise of those engines, the actual event with several live and well-known bands, seeing Jackie Stewart drive past, etc. (Also, we had a perfectly good view of the action and didn't pay £150 for stand tickets.) You aren't paying for just an F1 race, you're paying for everything else that is going on as well.

In your world, going to see Joe Bloggs play a £10 gig in your local pub is the same as a ticket for Glastonbury?

I follow my local rugby team for about £12 a match. There'll be about 200 people in the ground. Often, the rugby is far more entertaining than watching Wales butchering another game, but we don't get male voice choirs, 50,000 people singing Hymns And Arias, fireworks...

So yeah, feel free to be cynical but nobody is forcing you to pay for any event. Go to BTCC, it's great, but it's not F1, not Glastonbury, not a Six Nations match.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:06 pm
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Posted by: chakaping

See also, "coffee bags"

Bought them as an alternative to instant coffee for a bike packing trip. I was shocked to find they were significantly worse than any instant coffee I'd ever had. The rest of the unused box has been in the cupboard ever since. 

The Taylors ones?

I think they're awesome and pretty much the same as a nice cup of filter coffee. All instant tastes like muck to me.

agree. Ours were free samples but way better than instant, and better than whatever crap they put in the bean to cup machines at cheap hotel chains (ibis budget, travel lodge etc). 

IMG_2265.jpeg


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:22 pm
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I’d go with organic veg. Doesn’t taste any better. Environmental benefits debatable 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:28 pm
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Posted by: blokeuptheroad

Posted by: peaslaker

Wives, obvs.

Agreed, but don't tell her she's the Tesco value version.  

 

And we see ourselves as Fortnum and Mason hamper? 

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:29 pm
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Fleece jumpers/jackets.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:33 pm
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The way I look at this is, if something is twice the price, is it twice as good?  

As a random example, take canned spaghetti (don't judge me, it use it in place of beans because something always tastes 'off' to me about baked beans).  A can of Heinz is about £1 if you buy a multipack (and £1.35 if you don't). Tesco's own brand is something like 36p, and their bargain basement ones something silly like 14p.  On a taste test, I'm convinced that both Tesco ones are an identical product except the pricier one has a multicoloured label and a ringpull lid, so we can immediately rule the middle one out.  Heinz is clearly the better product, but is it ten times better?

Posted by: teaandbiscuits

Posted by: boriselbrus

Your £1200 iPhone doesn't do anything that my £250 Android does

I bet it takes a better picture.

Does it take a picture which is five times better?

What are you doing with those photos anyway, printing them out to A3 or tagging friends on social media?


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:40 pm
 DrJ
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Posted by: nickc

fancy mozzarella cheese on your pizza. The dried stuff will make a  better and cheaper pizza (and won't make your base soggy) 

I like burrata on my pizza. You aren’t obliged to like it too. 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:48 pm
kelvin reacted
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The way I look at this is, if something is twice the price, is it twice as good? 

Very few things work that way though, do they?

Moving away from food... if it's twice the price, and lasts twice as long... then I'm possibly in.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:51 pm
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Phones is a good example actually.  I have a Pixel 7a.  The more expensive 7 had slightly higher specs that you probably wouldn't notice in the real world, and perversely a worse camera.  The 7 Pro I think was simply bigger.

It does everything I want, not once have I found myself frustrated with it.  Performance is snappy, storage is fine, camera is decent even in unfavourable conditions.  I'd have another if it died (which probably going to be sooner than later as I've dropped it once too often). There's 8 series, a 9 series and I think a 10 series now.  I haven't looked at them beyond in passing, but I don't imagine there's much 'must-have' to be had.  Less plastic, perhaps.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:53 pm
 DrJ
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The way I look at this is, if something is twice the price, is it twice as good?  

And the way I look at it is - does it do the thing I want it to do? If not, then it doesn’t matter how cheap it is. 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:54 pm
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Watches. 

 

With coffee or bike bits or whatever you're talking maybe a zero on the end of the price. Watches and it's four. 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:54 pm
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Posted by: Kamakazie

Karndean is considered to be up there with Amtico - All the cheaper stuff I've looked at looks considerably more fake than the better stuff from both these 2.

 

Will have to do some research. We had 2 lots of flooring in the last 2 years. The Parquet was really good and the chap that sold it (knows his stuff), would have made more money selling the Kardean, but he recommended this other brand (will try and dig out some information later).

 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:55 pm
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Posted by: kelvin

if it's twice the price, and lasts twice as long... then I'm possibly in.

Vimes' Boots Theory.

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... 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. ... 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 a 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 socio-economic unfairness.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:57 pm
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I’ve rarely seen a thread where I disagree with so many posts. Coffee. Flour. Cars. Electronic shifting. These are only some of the items I disagree that there no difference between cheap and expensive. But I totally, totally agree that other people prefer to save the money and buy the cheaper version, but for me, that doesnt at all mean that the expensive one isn’t better.

i rent cars regularly for work. I’ve stopped accepting Dacias. There have been 2 or 3 of them where the infotainment system simply wouldn’t work decently with a simple Android Auto app. I even asked the attendants out to the car to see if it was me being stoopid (I accept that it normally is). The Avis employee couldn’t get it working either and swapped me into another brand. When that happens 3 times, it’s time to give up imo. 


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 1:59 pm
nicko74 reacted
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Your £1200 iPhone doesn't do anything that my £250 Android does

See this is where I find all this wonderfully individual.

I don't have a £1200 iphone but I do have a premium apple device and for me it does plenty of things better than a £250 android phone would. It runs iOS better for starters. It produces image files I can work with quite well and outputs truly excellent video footage that again I can work with. It also has a battery that will last three days depending on my usage. Oh yea, and it still works if it gets wet.

But I don't go telling people their £250 phone is rubbish and they need a premium device. I just accept there are people who will buy the device that has the features they are looking for.


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 2:04 pm
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Hookers?

 

 
Posted : 03/10/2025 2:07 pm
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The supermarket aisles that sell baking goods, all very expensive, buy the dried apricots, walnuts, mixed fruit etc from the normal shelves. Also any of these products which claim to be for health or slimming, again the dried fruits, nuts etc, buy them from the normal aisles or even better from the 'weigh your own loose food section'. Although quite often the baking products are cheaper than the health products. 

I think I've actually confused myself here. :o)


 
Posted : 03/10/2025 2:08 pm
kelvin reacted
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