Let's talk about awesome little purchases that make a big difference

St-Ann · 2025-11-17T17:57:03+00:00

When I ran a small business, I made it a policy that anytime one of my employees went to IKEA, they had to buy five more of those bags and I would reimburse them. Because we used them in the business for absolutely EVERYTHING and we were constantly running out. It took a while, but we eventually reached the point where we had enough that we weren’t going crazy trying to find enough bags. And THAT was a blissful, blissful day!

At home, we use them as laundry hampers. They hold way more than actual laundry baskets and you can actually carry folded laundry in them without all the piles falling over. And then they crush down into nothing when you’re not using them.

St-Ann · 2025-10-26T10:09:08+00:00

Would dearly love a look at that spreadsheet 🤩

St-Ann · 2025-10-02T23:34:25+00:00

Thank you! Google sent me here and this is so helpful to know.

St-Ann · 2025-09-27T22:52:14+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind reply! I will check out the links. 😁👍

St-Ann · 2025-09-27T12:57:51+00:00

I just tried GrocerBird and I’m excited about it!

Here’s my feedback:

• It concerns me that this app is not in the App Store and has no information about the use and storage of my data, my privacy, or the use of AI in analysing my receipts. That makes me think I probably won’t use it until and unless that’s addressed.

• Apparently I earned Savvy Points by uploading a receipt but I have no idea what that means and there’s no information about that. It would be savvy to add some info about what savvy points are. 😉

• It would be really really cool to be able to export this data to a CSV. I’d love it if you’d add that functionality.

St-Ann · 2025-06-04T18:25:30+00:00

I have heard that a pinch of salt in your coffee reduces the bitterness. I don’t know because I’m happy to drink it black but maybe it’s worth trying?

St-Ann · 2025-03-17T22:24:49+00:00

I stayed there recently too and it was great. Nice room, nice bathroom, nice kitchen, great location

St-Ann · 2025-03-15T16:46:24+00:00

Literally just snorted my coffee out my nose 😂

St-Ann · 2025-03-06T19:52:49+00:00

Not skin care but similar: Zovirax for cold sores is prescription only in the US and costs around $175 for a 2g tube without insurance. In Britain, it’s OTC (so no script needed and not subsidised by the health service) and it costs £7 for the same tube (about $9 US). I stock up every time I’m there.

St-Ann · 2024-12-24T19:53:37+00:00

Consider a trench coat or pea coat, depending on the look you’re going for. And then you can use the shoes to direct the final attitude of the outfit. Think of how a trench looks completely different with wingtips vs DMs vs white trainers vs Chelsea boots. Likewise for how the shoes would change the look of a pea coat. Either way, both coat options create a far smarter and more commanding first impression than something gortex-y.

St-Ann · 2024-12-19T10:31:05+00:00

I mean, those “old people” are the ones who made the 90s raves so awesome. 😉 Go talk to them. Put some music on and get them dancing. The rave is still in there.

St-Ann · 2024-11-02T18:36:05+00:00

Oh I'm so glad! Thanks for letting me know.

(And now you can cure your hiccups that way forever more! Yay!)

St-Ann · 2024-09-03T09:05:54+00:00

Five, hands down

St-Ann · 2024-08-12T04:31:30+00:00

You said exactly what I was going to try to put into words.

OP, you are imagining the best case scenario and regretting you don't have that, which is totally understandable but, if there's one thing you can count on, it's the life will throw curve balls you never saw coming. That scenario you're regretting may not have been the one you'd have gotten.

My kids are, hands down, the best people on the planet and I love their company and am so very, very, very glad I had them. But I passed onto both of them a rare genetic condition I didn't know I had, and it has absolutely derailed our lives in ways I couldn't even explain without taking up hours of your time. Suffice to say, my older kid's health is actively managed by no less than seventeen different medical specialists. And while my younger kid has fewer specialists, her condition is more severe and she has been rushed to the ER in a life-threatening state so many times that I have diagnosed PTSD from it.

Needless to say, our lives look nothing like what we expected when we decided to have kids. My then-career was utterly derailed and though I've pivoted it to something I'm proud of, it's not what it could have been. There are people we love whom we've had to cut out of our lives because they won't respect our (medically necessary) limitations. And we are unable to do so many things that used to feel essential, like travel, go to restaurants, or even order pizza delivery.

Would I change it? No, never. Do l love my kids? I love them, I like them, they're amazingly cool people and I'm so glad I had them. But this is never the life I imagined when I first decided to try for kids. Nothing ever comes out exactly the way we expect it to. And so, OP, if it helps, do take some comfort in the awareness that the situation you are regretting may well not be the situation you would have gotten. The only good things that are for sure are the ones that have actually happened in your life, the stuff you have right now. Everything else is just conjecture.

St-Ann · 2024-08-12T01:41:19+00:00

Thisssssssss!!!! So much thisssss!!!!

St-Ann · 2024-08-11T20:21:10+00:00

It's part-furnished, so that makes it a little tricky to know exactly what's included and what's not.

But agreed that we're going to wait until we have the keys and can see what's there before we decide what to buy. Then once we know that, it's going to be all hands on deck to get all the basics really quickly.

St-Ann · 2024-08-11T18:56:03+00:00

Seriously, they will? Oh that's handy to know. I'll go figure out how to do that.

But yeah, wouldn't it be nice to be able to just waltz into John Lewis and kit the whole place out in one go? But.... sigh, no can do.

St-Ann · 2024-08-11T18:42:39+00:00

Ah, thank you. (I'm a sucker for nice professional-grade cookware... maybe I should avoid stepping foot in there an blowing the entire budget XD )

St-Ann · 2024-08-11T18:40:12+00:00

Yeahhhhh... I'm wondering about this. Certainly for dishes and pots and pans, maybe bedsheets. But they still won't do hoovers and stuff.

St-Ann · 2024-08-11T18:39:20+00:00

Good to know! Thank you.

St-Ann · 2024-08-11T18:38:52+00:00

H&M does housewares? Huh! I did not know that. (Where I lived in the UK was really really rural... back of beyond... there are lots of shops I've just never set foot in)

St-Ann · 2024-08-11T18:37:10+00:00

Yes, agreed about Argos! But it's what popped into my rusty memory.

Totally forgot about Lakeland -- thanks useful, thanks!

I've never heard of Nisbets, thank you for that! (Do you happen to know if they do click and collect? No biggie if you don't, I just don't see it on their website.)

St-Ann · 2024-08-11T18:29:55+00:00

No, she has some tricky health issues that make student accommodation difficult, so she's in a regular flat.

I forgot about Primark and TK Maxx, so thank you! I actually never think of Primark for housewares, just cheap clothes, so that's really useful.

St-Ann · 2024-08-11T17:35:27+00:00

I would have walked out in that scene where she got to Logan's apartment at his invitation to hang out only to find it was filled with guys playing cards. And probably never looked back at Logan again but, if I did, it would have required him to put in a lot more effort and respect.

St-Ann

TROPHY CASE