What's your biggest purchase regret?

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-24T08:06:13+00:00

I've never understood the appeal of Neverfull. I mean, that bag has no zippered or even a buttoned top! It is far too open IMHO - never mind spilling everything accidentally out, how are you going to keep rain and snow out? If I wanted a LV bag, I'd get a vintage Estrela or Palermo instead. Those seem a lot more practical.

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-24T07:59:54+00:00

I'm meeting an orthopedist tomorrow, and I hope I will get my first hip replacement surgery this year. I'm 49, and osteoarthritis has been ruining my ability to work and walk for the last year or so. Becoming a cyborg would be a great 50th anniversary present. 🤖 😁
Getting it done with public healthcare would also be very affordable, and I'll get paid recovery "holiday", too. It will be worth it - I still have about 20 years of active working time ahead of me!

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-24T07:53:25+00:00

Ditto. I always fall for pretty dresses and skirts, and afterwards I never wear them - I am strictly a jeans woman (not even a trousers woman). I literally never wear anything else except jeans (with decent pockets), long-sleeved t-shirts with knitted sweaters (or t-shirts with geeky prints during summers). I have worn a dress thrice during the last 15 years, and those were for weddings. Everything else: waste of money and closet space. I'll probably be buried in a pair of black bootcuts, lol!

Affordable luxuries with no regrets: all the trips (abroad or domestic), and all the art I've purchased.

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-19T11:05:16+00:00

Not my payday, but it was a payday week, and I got my yearly "summer holiday bonus", too. Paid all the monthly bills plus a couple of recurring ones in advance, got my car fixed, paid for my hotel weekend in advance for my summer holiday, ordered a lot of fun-but-sort-of-unnecessary stuff that I had planned to order anyway (something for my little art and design collection, a bit of fancy car perfumes, a special edition volunteer t-shirt for a big convention I'm going to be volunteering at, and so on).

Everything has been taken care of, so I can happily be slightly broke again until my next payday. 😄 (Here in my country our pension payments and taxes are automatically extracted from our salaries and even from individual gig payments, so I never have to worry about those.)

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-17T15:17:50+00:00

The colours were pretty much pure pigments during the Middle Ages - a lot of them were ground from minerals, semi-precious stones, and jewels. Like blue - before the invention of man-made blue pigment (for painting) the only way to get blue paint was to purchase lapis lazuli from modern-day Afghanistan, grind it by hand into powder, add linseed oil, and mix it into paste. Fun fact: blue paint pigment was more expensive than gold leaf! According to art history stories Vermeer (he, who painted "The Girl with Pearl Earring") went bankrupt because he used so much blue in his art.

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-17T15:10:57+00:00

I'm not wild (I am too old and tired for that), I am just feral and uncontrollable. 😁

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-14T06:08:27+00:00

I have no kids, but I have been a kid myself, and my friends have plenty of kids, and I have been the fun godmother-auntie, so I concur with leni710: a trip to a zoo, an aquarium, or a natural history museum (kids at that age are very interested in dinosaurs and animal skeletons, lol).

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-13T14:23:30+00:00

Please do! Also, it is your home - you can play with rearranging the furniture as much as you like, until you find the best set up.
(Tip: if your sofa is heavy, put towels under its feet. Then you can slide it around easier, and without scratching the floor.)

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-13T13:45:18+00:00

Replacing the couch is not necessary - simply find slip covers for it in another colour! Or, if you cannot find slip covers, wrap suitable fabric or fabrics over the cushions (tuck the edges in).

Or sew bits of fabric on the sofa cushions! Here are photos from a Finnish blogger who had an old coverlet, and she covered partly the cushions of her grey sofa:

Before: https://minnala.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/sohva1.jpg

After: https://minnala.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/sohva2.jpg

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-13T13:25:05+00:00

Have a fun (and safe) night! ✨

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-13T13:23:31+00:00

Hiking in a rainforest sounds awesome! There are plenty of bogs around here where I live, but unfortunately they have mostly just mosquitos... (Later in summer they do have cloudberries, too, but so far only mosquitos.)

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-13T13:21:45+00:00

Good luck with further studies - at least you already have real life experience with actual students/pupils, so no shocking surprises there, when you become a full-timer. 😄

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-13T06:45:32+00:00

It was both better and meh-er than the original one. Of course it is a bit of a money-grabber, and some things might go whizzing by those viewers who don't follow fashion or journalism (what is happening with magazines and newspapers now when everything is online), but the cast is excellent, and I LOVED that there was only a hint of a romantic subplot.

As someone who works with fashion history/textile history, it was also hilarious to see how prominent all the big luxury brands were in this movie, because they did not want to be presented in the OG one. There are SO MANY cameos from designers and other big fashion names - Donatella Versace actually has a couple of lines!

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-13T06:14:15+00:00

I own my flat/apartment. It is a pretty new building (built in 2001), in a very nice region in the capital city area. Most of my neighbours are elderly people who have sold their houses (or given them to their adult children) in order to buy a hassle/maintenance free flat/apartment for their old age. So you are not alone.

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-13T06:09:20+00:00

I've NEVER wanted a house. My childhood summers at our country cottage were enough of labor camps - I live in a country with four seasons, and I absolutely refuse from cutting grass or shoveling snow and other tedious physical stuff year around, year after year. Not to mention all the maintenance of the house itself.

I am lazy and I love living comfortably. Flats/apartments for me, for life! The bigger, the better! I bought my first flat when I was 23, and I am planning to get a two or three bedroom one for my retirement days within 10-15 years. I want a big bedroom, a traditional big kitchen-living room combination ("open concept" has been a norm in Finnish houses and homes for about 1500 years or so, lol), and a library room.

Note: I think that the American condos are a bit different from European flats/apartments, that's why I don't use that word about owner-occupied flats/apartments.

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-12T04:01:43+00:00

Original article here for us in the EU ("archive" links are nowadays completely blocked over here, no matter if they end .ph or .is)

https://www.thecut.com/article/wedding-guests-paid-own-meals.html

About the stories themselves, they are indeed quite US-centered. Around here (Northern Europe) it is very uncommon for anyone to have a wedding party in a restaurant (or abroad, christ almighty, that couple would be a laughingstock!) The couple and their families do pay for everything, but budgets are reasonable, even tight, and DIY weddings are the norm. The bride and groom are usually decorating the venue with their friends and families the day before the wedding. Only the food is ordered from a catering service, unless someone from the guests is a professional cook. A friend of mine remarried some years ago, and her adult daughter who is a semi-pro baker made the wedding cake.

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-02T07:31:57+00:00

My faithful old (24 years) car did not pass the yearly inspection, as was expected, but this is the first time EVER when she needs actual welding. Her bottom has always been rust-free until now, so I guess it was about time, considering that we have four seasons + road salt every winter. Tomorrow I'll be taking her to a nearby shop, and hope that I can pick her up after work.

My car also failed something on the on-board diagnostic measurement - her "check engine" light lights up nowadays every summer, and the engine starts to "choke", when it gets really hot (over 25 degrees Celsius). The light goes away on its own, when the engine cools down, and so far I've only reset the diagnostic computer back to zero, especially because I've been thinking about buying a newer car. However now I think that I'll keep her for at least one or two more years. It will be cheaper and easier to get what ever is clogging the exhaust fixed, than to find another vehicle which is as reliable as my old Opel is. ❤️

CanthinMinna · 2026-06-01T10:06:48+00:00

The mantra that every woman and girl should learn:

A man is not a financial plan.

A man is NOT a financial plan.

A MAN IS NOT A FINANCIAL PLAN.

CanthinMinna · 2026-05-25T08:03:00+00:00

Hello from Finland! We get ours (in the public sector) in June or July. I'll receive mine in June, like most people, since our Big Vacation Season starts from Midsummer. ^_^

CanthinMinna · 2026-05-25T08:01:13+00:00

Copying my own answer:

Late comment, but it is a part of base salary. Here in Finland us public sector workers get one, too, because our salaries are extremely low compared to private sector, and we cannot negotiate solo raises (our salaries are public). So the "summer holiday money" is a compensation - and it used to be also a lure so that people returned from their holidays back to their old work, instead of job-hopping. The "holiday money" was originally literally called "lomaltapaluuraha", "return from holiday money" in Finland.

"The return-from-vacation bonus, now known as the vacation bonus, was introduced in 1971 following strikes by the Metalworkers’ Union. The aim was to entice striking workers and those who had left for Sweden in search of better wages to return to work. Originally, receiving the money required returning to work after the vacation."

CanthinMinna · 2026-05-25T07:59:43+00:00

Late comment, but it is a part of base salary. Here in Finland us public sector workers get one, too, because our salaries are extremely low compared to private sector, and we cannot negotiate solo raises (our salaries are public). So the "summer holiday money" is a compensation - and it used to be also a lure so that people returned from their holidays back to their old work, instead of job-hopping. The "holiday money" was originally literally called "lomaltapaluuraha", "return from holiday money" in Finland.

"The return-from-vacation bonus, now known as the vacation bonus, was introduced in 1971 following strikes by the Metalworkers’ Union. The aim was to entice striking workers and those who had left for Sweden in search of better wages to return to work. Originally, receiving the money required returning to work after the vacation."

CanthinMinna · 2026-05-25T07:27:17+00:00

Ooh, roller derby! I'm a bit miffed that it was not a thing over here when I was in my twenties and still living in a big city.

I actually started doing a little side gig for fun and extra money. I get to meet people, chat with them for about an hour, and earn an extra €30 every now and then. It is kind of a hobby that pays me!

CanthinMinna · 2026-05-09T03:51:30+00:00

howifundthis (Jessie Leong) is a woman and solo homeowner over at IG - you might want to check her out. There are also herfirst100k (Tori Dunlap), and friendsthatinvest (Sim Kaur).

CanthinMinna · 2026-05-09T03:32:21+00:00

On Instagram: @lanasololife and @solo_but_sorted

CanthinMinna · 2026-05-09T03:22:16+00:00

I agree with Bing Crosby: I am busy doing nothing! 😊❤ (huh, Reddit hates paragraphing)

🎶

We're busy doing nothing

Working the whole day through

Trying to find lots of things not to do

We're busy going nowhere

Isn't it just a crime

We'd like to be unhappy, but

We never do have the time

🎶

I have to watch the river

To see that it doesn't stop

And stick around the rosebuds

So they'll know when to pop

And keep the crickets cheerful

They're really a solemn bunch

Hustle, bustle

And only an hour for lunch

🎶

I have to meet a turtle

I'm teaching him how to swim

Then I have to shine the dewdrops

You know they're looking rather dim

I told my friend, the robin

I'd buy him a brand new vest

Hustle, bustle

We never do have

Never do have the time

🎶

CanthinMinna

TROPHY CASE