Socks and other rip-offs

Havianas Thongs (flip flops). A couple of pieces of rubber with a thingamyjig on the top for your toes, from £28 +. The cheaper versions are uncomfortable so I suppose you pays your money...........

Birthday cards seem to be gradually creeping up in price, although I did find some cheapys in Tesco recently for 50p

It may well be where he got the taste for slabs of bread glammanana - I tend to buy Blackpool Milk Roll (small thin slices) and my granddaughters look at it as though it's not worth eating lol.

Ice cream parlours - we had a new one open up in Peel and you'd have thought they'd unearthed a new Hanging Garden of Babylon with all the feelings of ecstacy that seemed to go around!

Holly Just like here on new brighton Front we have had a new development built all nice restayrants I must add but when a Ice Cream Parlour opened you could not move and the prices where OTT everyone went mad on the opening day !!
mr.g's family started their business just after the war with everyday vanilla sold from hand wheeled carts and went to be quite a big business his uncle sold out to a bigger company in the early 60's I'm thinking we must have been the poor relations

What about the steep prices for ladies razors? Venus especially [although the blades are good, they don't last long.]

Talking about socks- I'll never buy any of those super soft socks- as it seems the soft material is somehow blown in and not woven- and within a few days the soft stuff will have disappeared around the toes- which will then go through in no time (:

I've cut the foot off and use them as long cuffs to bridge the gap between gloves and anorak- works a treat!

Ingenious!

or ingenius?

My 5 year old car is in for a service and MOT today. It's only done 15,000 miles but the garage have just rung and said it needs 4 new tyres as the rubber has degraded. The total bill is going to be £750. I find it really hard to believe that tyres need replacing after 5 years and low mileage but what can you do? Is this a rip-off?

Get a second opinion Gaga, rather than just take their word for it.

It depends on the kind of car, whether it is front wheel drive or rear, whether it is four wheel drive, how 'heavy' the driver is on the accelerator and brake, whether driver has to do a lot of tight turns (we do cos of where we live); it depends on outside temperature because the higher the temp, the softer the rubber and how easily the tyres will wear, etc, etc, etc.

Do they look worn to you?

Well apparently because the car stands outside the walls of the tyres can crack with the sun and weather and these did. DH has been and got the car back (£714) and George the mechanic showed him and explained it so we just have to grin and bear it. It does include £26 for new wiper blades (!!) and an MOT certificate. Wow! It's expensive running a car.

I think the point about socks bags is that they contain little material, not much design, are produced entirely by machine. So even the top quality ones would cots little to produce

You obviously haven't bought top quality ones. There's a lot of difference between cheap socks and good, not cheap ones, at least in my experience. How toe seams are made, or even if there are any, for a start.

gaga, oof!!

I have had numerous pairs from walking shops. Priced as above - around £15 a pair. Do you buy hand knitted ones or something?

I think these, which are my favourites are machine made but the toe seam is properly grafted. They are not quite thick enough for hiking boots, at least not for me, but they are great for everyday wear. When they get thin at the heel, I darn them or wear a thin cotton sock underneath. After a couple of darnings I make them into temari. The wearing out is the only disadvantage. They are the most comfortable socks EVER. I used to get them eslewhere slightly cheaper but I'm not sure I can now.