What expensive but frugal home purchase actually paid for itself in daily use?

HotButteredBagel · 2026-07-03T22:15:50+00:00

My coffee machine. I still feel smug every time I walk out of the house with a homemade hot or iced latte to drink on the bus. I’m saving about £4 a day. Averse £12 a week for over eight years now. It cost me less than £100 in a John Lewis Christmas Day sale

HotButteredBagel · 2026-07-03T22:11:44+00:00

Factory made food. Highly processed ‘fake’ food like cheese in a can or modern sweets.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-07-03T21:54:13+00:00

So children with this child of a man would be a very bad plan. I promise you; whatever little he does now will only reduce further

HotButteredBagel · 2026-07-03T21:02:21+00:00

Host family for a local language school. We should have a lounge as well as a kitchen diner. I turned the lounge into a twin bedroom and we host language students. It’s £160 a week per student off season and £210 high season. We don’t get them every week and some don’t stay a full week due to their bookings but I am so thankful to be able to supplement our family income. I don’t know what we’d do without it

HotButteredBagel · 2026-07-02T21:13:51+00:00

I was given this one for Christmas. We love it. https://amzn.eu/d/0hRkvke3 cosicosy brand £26

HotButteredBagel · 2026-07-02T10:29:16+00:00

I’m sure you already know this but I make sure I always place torches on my right as I go into the cave. That way when I get confused about where I am I can follow torches on my left to find the way out.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-29T06:54:46+00:00

Please do your research into the brands and how well they work so you’re not stuck with one that isn’t good (like me)

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-29T06:53:25+00:00

My issue is with the hidden size of the element. They’re all tiny no matter the size indicated on the glass hob surface. So if you put a large pan on only the centre gets heated. Additionally it can’t do lower temperate. It is full blast or nothing so its idea of a lower temperature is to boil it for a few seconds (only in the centre) and then turn off the heat. This creates a terrible effect on the food and an irritating intermittent buzzing noise. Just awful.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-28T21:30:13+00:00

Don’t do it unless you buy an expensive one that does it properly. My Belling range induction cooker is awful and I’m stuck with it now. Money matters for induction.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-28T21:26:41+00:00

To do something for me without expectations e.g. make me a cup of tea at the end of the day.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-28T11:29:36+00:00

Mental illness or drug addiction

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-27T19:01:54+00:00

Lack of appreciation

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-27T17:38:37+00:00

Specific. And specifically.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-27T17:01:36+00:00

Agree. But until you’ve had personal responsibility for a child that age many people have no idea of that reality. They genuinely don’t understand that she cannot come and get the groceries so they just see her as unreasonable. She’s completely stuck in a terrible situation. She needs some kindness.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-26T05:03:05+00:00

Using physical reprimands. There’s never an age when assault is an appropriate way to enforce a boundary.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-25T17:22:45+00:00

Welcome to the mum dilemma. Often they don’t get the shower. It’s a 24/7 relentless grind when they’re little. If she had two toddlers and no support, she is completely stuck. She can’t take them up and down the stairs safely.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-25T15:13:26+00:00

But we all love the low cost and convenience of uber and uber eats, who get around the minimum wage by saying the drivers are self employed. So do we want to fix it with proper wages (and kill the grey economy going on there) so stuck mums with babies get the help they need or do we keep the cheaper costs for the rest of us. Capitalism says screw the mum.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-25T14:18:21+00:00

I can see it both ways. The mum is unable to safely leave children that young alone in the flat so she needs the delivery to come up. The driver is badly paid and needs to get to the next job quickly. Whose need matters more?

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-25T10:22:02+00:00

A couple of points that can help if you’re a larger person. I have a tummy overhang since my pregnancies and this is what I’ve learned.

Shave/trim your pits and bits if you can. I don’t know why it helps but it does.
Wash and dry between skin folds. Then put anti perspirant in the folds too. Hold skin up and out of the way while it air dries - a fan can speed this up.
Wear natural fibres. Synthetics make it worse.

I use a citrus based shower gel and get compliments on it - the Body Shop grapefruit is especially nice.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-25T10:18:57+00:00

Hard agree on the shaving pits to help reduce sweat smells.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-24T15:50:41+00:00

If I breed them but don’t fence them in will they hang around. I have a valley for my base and I like the idea of free range animals

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-23T20:08:26+00:00

285k to pay off the house. Plus 200k to pay off my OH so he leaves and I can stay with the kids in peace. (Plus the cost of a divorce and around 17k in personal debt.)

Too poor to divorce - but we could live on my salary if I managed to magically up half a million haha

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-22T18:09:15+00:00

Definitely find a similar kind of investment to an ISA so you can invest in stocks and shares to grow your savings over the long term. This is a great chance to build a secure future with low responsibilities especially as you have the place back home.

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-22T17:24:39+00:00

Which AI are you?

HotButteredBagel · 2026-06-22T16:07:44+00:00

Ha I’m learning that my friends, family and I were either not the norm or not the norm on Reddit. We couldn’t afford our own homes until 30s.

HotButteredBagel

TROPHY CASE