The Buy Note
The Buy Note
Notes on what's worth buying. And why.
A few things worth considering in each area rather than a catalogue of everything with an affiliate link. Each one goes straight to its Amazon listing, which is the page that decides.
How this site works
Three things worth knowing before you take a recommendation from it.
- What gets listed
The editor or a contributor adds it
Products come from the editor and from contributors who hold one of the site's tracking tags, each shown with Amazon's own details rather than a verdict of ours. Nothing has been bought, opened or tested, and there is no score out of five anywhere on this site.
- How it earns
Amazon pays the commission
Buy through a link here and Amazon pays this site a small percentage. No brand pays to be listed and there are no sponsored placements — not at the top, not anywhere.
- What it costs you
The same as going direct
Nothing is added to your price. The figure is Amazon's own, it is the same whether you arrive through this site or not, and every price here says where it came from.
The longer answers are in the questions below, the affiliate disclosure and the privacy policy.
Shop by category
The areas we cover properly, rather than twenty we would only skim.
Everything on the shelf
730 products, A to Z — page 84 of 92. Every price comes from Amazon when you load this page, never from a figure typed here weeks ago.
Disclosure: this page contains affiliate links. Buy through one and we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Price on AmazonAlways the current oneSee it on Amazon — Vyputhil Bitter Apple Spray for Dogs, No Chew Spray, Plant Extract, 5.92 Oz, opens on Amazon in a new tab
- Price on AmazonAlways the current oneSee the latest price — W & O 4K Digital Camera for Photography,Flip Screen Digital Camera for Kids, opens on Amazon in a new tab
Tips & guides
Long-form pieces that answer one question properly instead of listing ten products.
Everyday EssentialsChoosing an Umbrella: Ribs, Vents and When Cheap Is the Right Answer
Where umbrella frames break, what a vented canopy does in wind, compact versus full-length, and why the cheapest umbrella is sometimes the rational buy.
6 min read · Updated
Everyday EssentialsSmall Things Worth Not Buying Cheap
Everyday items where the cheap version costs more in the end — flasks, peelers, scissors, cast iron, pens, notebooks — and where cheap is fine.
6 min read · Updated
Everyday EssentialsCleaning Supplies Worth Having
A short kit cleans a whole home: microfibre and why the weave matters, one spray instead of a cupboard of specialists, and what is mostly water.
6 min read · Updated
Before you believe us
How things get listed, how the site earns, and what we will not tell you.
How does a product end up here?
Two ways. The editor adds products, and so do contributors the site has given a tracking tag: a contributor sends a product's Amazon link and its page goes up straight away, under their tag — that is how they are paid. Every product page shows Amazon's own details rather than a verdict of ours. The site does not claim to have tested anything, and you will not find a score out of five anywhere on it.
Where do the prices and photographs come from?
It depends which page you are on, and each page says. In the Amazon catalogue they come from Amazon and nowhere else: once Amazon's Product Advertising API is connected, a price and a photograph come from it, stamped with the moment they were taken and dropped once they are more than a day old. Amazon grants that access only after an Associates account makes its first qualifying sales, so until then those products carry the words written here and show no price and no photograph — rather than a figure somebody typed in, which would not be Amazon's. Under Picks it is the other way round: the price and the picture were entered here, which every one of those pages states beside the price. Either way the Amazon page is the one that decides what something costs today.
How does the site make money?
Affiliate commission. If you follow a link to Amazon and buy something, we may be paid a small percentage at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Every outbound link on the site is disclosed and goes through our own address first, so you can always see where you are being sent from.
Do brands pay to be listed?
No. There are no sponsored posts, no paid placements and no gifted products on this site. If that ever changes it will be labelled on the page it affects, before you read a word of it.
Can anybody add a product here?
Anybody can suggest one. Nothing reaches the site until it has been reviewed and approved, and the reason is not gatekeeping: a page of unchecked affiliate links is spam, it is what gets an Associates account closed, and it would make everything else here worth less.
Will this product work for me?
That depends on things this site cannot see — your space, your budget, what you already own. What it can do is put the right listing one click away with its current price attached. Read the Amazon page before you buy; the decision stays yours.