How much money have you spent because of Martin?

It started a long time ago when the forum favourite car was the 130i.    Don't think of the money, think of how these things have improved your quality of life!  

And don't feel bad, I spend a lot every year because of Martin!

I do enjoy a bit of research and love a gadget, our friends are always asking what we've bought recently and asking for advice on a wide range of things.

What you need next is a laser guided robot vacuum cleaner!   We'd put it ahead of the air con unit, apart from this week, still have a cleaner every week but the justification was no increasing her hours and it cleans all 3 floors of the house (inc mopping the kitchen/diner and hall) every day.  Lindsay loves it.

If it was LTT Leathercare then that's my fault. 

That's it.

It must've been John that recommended some weedkiller then. That cost me a bit more because I added a large capacity sprayer to the order.
Exciting stuff, eh?

I also bought the LTT Leathercare stuff.

I must say that robo-cleaner does look good and if we get more weather like this, an aircon unit would be highly prized. Slippery slope.....

Can I claim a counter-credit for Martin having a Range Rover?

Not aware of spending money after a 'Martin' review, but I know I would trust the people here when it comes to doing so, much more than any suggestion site or advertiser.

That was 2006, no need to go back that far for inspiration! 

It’s been that hot that my AC machine struggled to keep the bedroom cool the last few nights . I think it was Tuesday I had to sleep with it on (low) all night .

It's been that hot this week that ..... I get to work before 8am, leave after 5pm and when I have got in the car to drive home, the water temperature gauge has been off the bottom stop on its way to "normal" every day (60 deg C); it's like living near the equator !

I can claim that we bought the same bean to cup coffee machine first but Martin then bought the one that had the milk float as well. So ours was clearly a Martin- based saving

He does save a lot of Googling and flicking through manuals. He’s like an Alexa for BMW questions.

Well, we did buy it from Harrods….  Only because they had a special loyalty weekend, 10% off and free delivery for rewards members which made it the cheapest place to get it from at the time.  I did some research and we went to look / test drive the best travel systems.  We ended up choosing the Bugaboo Fox, good quality, lots of features, decent suspension and you can customise the colours plus it’s a fairly subtle looking thing, so many are pretty tacky, especially the more expensive ones.

Thats just the pushchair / pram, car seats are more interesting and important imo…..  My first thought was Recaro, but they stopped making them and the ones you could still buy weren’t particularly comfortable or luxurious.  

We went with Nuna as they are really great quality and safe of course, as we went for the (fairly new then) isize seats.  The fabric is part merino icy looks and feels great.  They come with a spare cover, which thankfully we haven’t had to use, but it does mean that when someone buys it they are getting a brand new seat.   

We bought two, the Pipa lite which is one with a carry handle plus isofix base and is very light, so that went in the Golf at the start.  We also bought the Rebl which is a 360 rotating (fantastic invention) rear and forward facing seats which is suitable from birth to about 4 years.   That went in mine at the start but when he grew out of the Pipa Lite I put it in the Golf as it’s much easier to get him in/out of the smaller door when you can rotate the seat.

We do need to sell the Pipa Lite, it will have depreciated horrendously as we got a decent deal thanks to Mothercare closing down but it was still over £200 (they are £275iirc).   We’ve also got a Maxi Cosi Rock which is still in the box, I bought it because we were going to need one for our holiday and the Nuna was too nice to stick on a plane and it was a good deal at £100…. But I think you can buy them for less than that now!

Ha! Good one Garry. I think for me just the portable a/c.

Although who knows what FG we've all decided our cars cannot be without as a result...

Car-wise, the only person who really influenced a decision of mine was James/ALF with the GTA. He took me for a spin in his and I decided that there was no finer way to spend £13k than on a 2yr old GTA (and there almost certainly wasn't).

Another one for you Gary, this is a firm family favourite and you get perfect results every time.   They all love the sweet waffles, but it also makes some really nice savoury ones.

We had a £35-40 one which was really highly rated in Amazon but it wasn’t consistent and this makes 2 decent size ones at a time.

www.sageappliances.com/uk/en/products/waffle-makers/bwm620.html

We don’t have the same retirement plans, although having said that, it’s likely Hawaii will feature in mine!

Thats a great goal to have.