I have always advise my readers not to buy furniture from Ikea, but I think most still buy due to the excellent marketing strategy, it is hard to resist if you've visited their showroom.

You can definitely buy the accessories from Ikea, but if you're looking for big furniture like sofa, table or wardrobe, please consider properly. Is it really value for money?

I've bought a bookcase from Ikea many years ago, the bookcase collapsed after I arranged my books on it; when I was still staying with my brother, he bought a shoes cabinet from Ikea and it collapsed after a week of use. So I have always thought that Ikea's furniture is not lasting.

Early this year, when I was looking for a bookcase for my children, my hubby suggested we give Ikea a second chance. He thought, maybe the first bookcase we bought was too cheap and was not able to hold the number of books we have. I agreed with him and we visited its showroom and we set aside a higher budget for the bookcase.

After a few round of 'investigation', we thought this cabinet is more sturdy and should be able to hold the children's books:


This cabinet looked sturdy, it cost me around $130++, for this price for just two drawers, I would expect it to be of better quality.  But sadly, it still broke down after a week.

 This time round, the bottom of the cabinet cracked and warped, as shown in the picture.

A closer examination of the 'wood', can you consider the material as 'wood'? It is more like a hard paper to me, not even the low cost plywood material!

Ikea has definitely ruined the second chance I've given to them, for this incident, I'll definitely not buy any furniture from them in future.

I bought a small bookcase from NTUC (NTUC! Not even a furniture shop!) at just $16 (after 20% discount). It serves the purpose well and I could stuff all my children's books on it without fearing of it collapsing. This is truly 'value for money'.

I blogged about how wonderful my Bosh front load washing machine before, after 2 years of using it, it put me down 2 times and I spent $298.85 on its repair last week.

The first time it went down was just before the warranty expired, so I did not pay for the repair cost. Last week, it went down again, and to my horror the technician quoted me $300 for the repair, and it might not be functioning even after the repair! He said, per his experience, the machine can function after he replace a part in the washing machine, but there were cases where this particular part was changed but other problems found, and the cost of repairing was beyond justification. So, he told me to make a decision.

I like my Bosh washing machine, and I've only used it for two years, it is still in good condition (other than the part spoiled), I definitely need to repair it. The cost is really too high, which I should have foreseen this problem. My Bosh is German made, the parts are all imported, I should have expected this high cost of repairing.

At the end, I paid the $300 repair cost, and thank God it is functioning after the part is changed.

If given a chance again, will I purchase this Bosh washing machine? Yes, but I will definitely buy the extended warranty.

My lessons learned:
1) In choosing a washing machine, price does not guarantee durability.
2) If you are buying an expensive machine, you should buy the extended warranty
3) The more expensive the machine, the more expensive the repair cost. E.g. LG charges $40 transport fee, Bosh charges $85.
4) Consider the end users, if your maid is using the machine, don't buy too expensive one, or you must buy the extended warranty.
5) I might consider other brands of washing machine, but it must be front load with warm water selection.

If you're on tight budget, you might consider Sumsung or LG front load washing machine, which I will explore these 2 brands if my machine were to spoil again.

Dear all readers,
Foscam SG has received many enquiries from Mylittlecasa readers on their Foscam products, as such, the management has decided to give further discounts to all the readers from Mylittlecasa!

For each unit of the IP camera, you'll enjoy another 12% discounts off the already discounted price of $125!  i.e only $110 per unit!

For details on the IP camera, please refer here.

To enjoy the discount, please enter the quote "mylittlecasa" when you placed your order on:
www.foscam.sg/store

Offer till 28 February 2013!