Nickel and Dime

Whenever I see a window display like this one in rural Aberdeenshire, I instantly want to buy stuff whether I actually need it or not. Some kind of hunter gatherer urge takes over and my brain goes into purchasing hyper- drive mode.

Drain Away, Sponge Eraser and Astonish Stain Remover all promise easy fixes for those daily cleaning challenges. Egg cup sets, Paw Print tea towels and mugs with "Keep Calm and Put the Kettle on", suggest that by investing in them everything will be great really! Except of course it's not.

Most of the stuff is shoddy and disappointing. The picture frames are all odd sizes, the picture hooks are made from a soft bendy metal which dumps your favourite Rembrandt onto the carpet and the Drain Away does what it says on the packet and dissolves the chrome on your kitchen waste outlet.

Fortunately we also have a pound shop in the town. When I feel this urge to buy stuff that's where I head off to. It's a place where I know, before I buy, that everything will not be great if I buy it.
The egg cup sets are only for those small eggs like the ones you get inside a quail, the Paw Print towels shrink in the wash to the size of handkerchiefs and the stain remover actually stains as it goes.
But at least I can satisfy the urge to hunt and gather for a fraction of the price.