Ever bought or aquired some budget  item that you fully expected to be disappointingly rubbish but turned out to be much more brilliant than you’d ever hoped?

Let’s have it.

Mine for today is my cheapo Titan  garden shredder from Screwfix….

https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb683shr-2500w-200kg-hr-garden-shredder-230v/6887p

Half the price of an similarly specced  branded Bosch or equivalent and I thought it would jam all the time or refuse to eat all but the measliest of twigs….but I was skint at the time.

I was wrong.

It devours branches and foliage like the Cookie Monster and has become the heavy artillery in my ongoing war with my garden.

The Classifieds

from Screwfix….

I’ve had some right tat from Screwfix but the Erbauer router I bought is surprisingly good.  It weighs many, many kilos but has done a great job on kitchen worktops and assorted bits and bobs.

Loads of things! First that springs to mind is the set of Taylor’s Eye Witness knives from TK Maxx. £12 they were and they are soooo sharp. I throw tomatoes in the air and ninja-slice them for fun. 🙂

Oh yeah, my Samsung telly was bottom of the price range and I can’t imagine needing a better TV – visually or functionally. Shop bloke was trying to hike me up to a £200+ more Sony, but glad I didn’t.

I’ve had surprisingly successful results in the lower price range for both coke and hookers.

On a serious note; the workstands in Aldi at the moment are brilliant and don’t seem notably different from ones 3 or 4 times the price

Oh dear, BinBins, is the crayon business that bad?

Mine for today is my cheapo Titan garden shredder from Screwfix….

Is you garden not big enough for a patio

My £35 Decathlon dropper post, was ace for the 2 years it worked.

Specs with magnetic clip-on tints. Thought they would be good. Turned out to be brilliant and now very much on my list of coolest things ever.
NHS Pension – how much? yah beauty

Fish can’t eat the evidence if it is buried under a patio…

Leaving aside the Aldi workstand (because they _are_ way better than their cost would seem), my old cheapo stovetop coffee thing was way better than I expected. It lasted for years before it finally started to corrode and made countless cups of coffee. I even passed it on rather than throwing it. I hope it is still being used.

My Tesco down filled sleeping bag. Brilliant down to around 0’c, packs down to about the size of a tiny thing and still going strong 7 years later.

Best £40 I’ve spent*

*not quite true but still astonishing value.

I’ve just bought a Bluetooth hands free kit for the car that slides over the visor.
Works well and connects to the phone once it detects movement in the car.

Best £12.98 I’ve spent all year.

Cheapy chinese rechargeable rear light from Amazon for a fiver. Bright, waterproof, lasts ages, hasn’t caught fire etc

Then again, anything looks good compared to Lezyne. I don’t think anything I’ve ever bought from them has worked properly or lasted more than a few weeks.

Aldi battery chainsaw, fantastic bit of kit.

Decathlon running shorts, simplicity itself, just work (like all of decathlons running kit tbh)

2nd hand belle cement mixer, less than the cost of hiring one for the weekend, and reckon even 2 years after I bought it, I’d get my money back.

£8 selfie stick, great for getting different perspectives from phone camera, and summit selfies are way better.

iPad. It just works.

Screwfix Titan tools in general. Belt sander, grinder, water pump pliers to name a few. All thoroughly abused, cheap as chips, and just keep on going.

Your mum.

And one of those wee fan steamers from Ikea which expands to fit whichever pot you’re using. Got a good 12 years out of my first one, but the replacement was falling to bits within the first couple of weeks’ use. If there’s a greater disappointment in life, I hope never to experience it.

The curtains, dualit toaster and shears I bought from the local shops.

Cost a fortune mind

Fleecy workwear jacket from Aldi, £15 and perfect for the post-ride/school run/dog walk cosy lumbersexual look.

M&S Thermal long sleeve T-Shirts…. awesome.

This!
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/crivit-floor-pump-599-at-lidl-2412751

Better than my Lezyne. Takes about 10 pumps to do a road bike tyre 🙂

Pot Noodle sandwiches.

Ballet.

The £10 FM streaming device that allows me to listen to That Peter Crouch Podcast in my pre-Bluetooth car.

No one going for pegging??

No one going for pegging??

Never tried it.  We’ve got a tumble drier.

I’ve had some right tat from Screwfix but the Erbauer router I bought is surprisingly good.  It weighs many, many kilos but has done a great job on kitchen worktops and assorted bits and bobs.

I had that and also thought it was quite good at first. Took it back in the end. It developed play side to side on the sliders when you waggled it, and the depth stop had a marvelous tendency to withdraw a few mm when you tightened the locking knob. Bought a Triton. Also shit.

I never learn…

Boscam reversing camera for the van from Amazon. £40 and it’s dope! 🙂

Burnley.

Whisky.

Marriage.

Heaven and hell by black Sabbath

PX 365 bib shorts
They were discounted to £16.75 ish so I wasn’t expecting alot. Not done a 100 in them yet but did a 6hr Majoorca ride ( Andtrax – Pollence) and they were surprisingly comfy
Looked short out the bag , felt a little short immediatly after putting on, but once on the bike .-perfect. On the thicker side so a 12-22’c temp range seems ideal

A primark Sherpa-lined checked hoodie / work shirt. Just seems to be the right thing to wear in any weather when I’m working and despite being cotton I can come home filthy from the workshop, chuck it in the wash and it’s dry the next morning.

Been wearing it most days for 4 years and it’s now just on the cusp between worn in and worn out.

the only thing with cheapo stuff that turns out to be good…. when it’s proved itself to be good and you want another they’re not on sale anymore.

A multi tool I got in Asda once, better than my Topeak one.

My little Silverline drill. By rights ought to be cheap rubbish but it’s pretty much my most used tool, it’s perfectly halfway between a full on drill and a very fast electric screwdriver and I love it

Mind you I also loved the little impact wrench that came with it, till it went on fire.

Off the top of my head;

Taotronics Bluetooth headphones. Cheap. Great for the money.

Titan sds drill. Weighs a ton. Eats through anything. Abused and still going.

Titan wet/dry vac. Again. Abused. Still keeps going.

Citroen Berlingo multispace. Took me a long time to buy one. Wish I had done years ago. Versitile.

Chinese 100000000 lumen bike lights off Amazon. They keep going. They cost less than £20 and haven’t blown up. Yet.

Impact driver – wouldn’t be without one now. Go to tool.

Bit controversial perhaps: Apple airpods.

I was expecting it to be all hype/marketing, but they are by far the best apple product released in the last few years and are genuinely very good. The sound quality isn’t superb, but they are perfect for podcasts/audiobooks. Super comfortable, light, don’t fall out, charge quickly, pair automatically when you open the case, pause when you take one out/resume when you put it back in, great connection to the phone (a problem with others I’ve tried). Just really good.

If I was to lose them, I’d buy another pair tomorrow.

Kids

Ever bought or aquired some budget item

Apple airpods

iPad

Apple products are not budget items, they’re luxury goods.

A Jamie Oliver@Shell Pasty. I wish I had bought two.

…they’re luxury goods.

Yeah, I did wonder about….

Ballet

😆

My husband.

I purchased him about 15 odd years ago. He had his own hair and some teeth, good working parts and a 20 year guarantee.

He’s turned out to be a good buy and I won’t be selling him on for a newer model.

I purchased him about 15 odd years ago…. a 20 year guarantee.

I’d definitely be thinking about part ex’ing that. The value will plummet once the guarantee expires, and maintenance is bound to start getting expensive after that.

Toolstation Einheill drill. Bought it because it takes the same batteries as the hedge trimmer, initially thought it was a bit lightweight and cheap, but it’s rather ace!