1 November 2018

The Advent Calendars That I Am Not Buying This Year (@NLi10)

I blame Lego. 

Hello readers, and welcome to a quick round up of things that I didn't buy, won't buy and all sorts of craziness in between.  Someone else from FSF may end up with something below, but it isn't for me.

Here is a typical supermarket or bargain shop's Advent Calendar selection.


These are from B&M - a store I rarely visit - but that other sites had suggested had a large array of themed sequential snack foods for December.  I mean I don't know how you choose.  Most of these are the poor Kinnerton chocolates which for less than a pound will ensure that anything you buy the child for Christmas HAS to be better than 24 days of not-quite-chocolate.

But - there are also calendars aimed at adults.  As I opened with, this is Lego's fault.  Making advent calendars that contain limited edition adult focussed toys (that kids will enjoy) in calendars that can cost quite a lot has become a big annual thing. And it seems this year is peak sequential tat box as there are now a lot of different options.

Smelly candle calendars?


Check!

Beautification and cleansing calendars?


The top one isn't even a full 24 days.

Then we get to the really, REALLY poor value calendars.  I have to be careful here as I may get one of these off the family, but all the 'festive favourites' are here.



Have a guess at how many grams of  Quality Street you get for £5.  Go on.


222g - not including the wrappers.  That's £21.79 per Kilo.  That's Pick_n_mix at Woolworths territory right there


Ah - but inflation - maybe that's what Quality Street costs now because of Brexit.  Nope 7.99 for 1.2 KG or 6.66 per KG, or 3.27 times cheaper than the calendar.  It's getting silly.  And there aren't even that many different options to have in the calendar - but it's still basically the same as a random grab from the tin.


Nice house - are you getting £5 worth of sweets inside or less than in the £1.50 grab bag we gave to the Trick or Treaters?


And now.  There is actually something worse. Non sequential advent calendars.  I mean they still number the doors but you get 23 identical items, and then on day 24 you get one mildly different item.  This isn't advent, this is RATIONING.


And it's not just a single brand - there are a lot of these this year.  Yummy luxury - no surprises. Worst unboxing ever.

And for £8.99 you get the ultimate mix of the two.


24 Kellogg's mallow bars 


And TWO Pop Tarts.  For those not familiar with these bars they are essentially white rice pops, brown rice pops, then Frosties as a separate thing.  That's essentially two types of thing, with Christmas Day Pop Tarts.  I went to B&M to get this - thinking it'd be about £2.99.  Maybe it will be in January as I can't see these flying off the shelves.

So what I did buy - for December - is:
One really cheap nasty calendar
One midrange unusual calendar
One overpriced, but a little more varied calendar
and one weird one that I'm ordering from Ocado

The countdown to opening those begins now!


1 comment:

Victoria Prince said...

So tell all then - which four did you go for? ;-)