The question
Excluding property, what is the most expensive thing you have ever bought?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this standing prompt, with minor contractions and word-order variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A Dalí painting.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 July 2026 source ↗
Three degrees: I paid my kids’ uni fees.
When I finished the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I bought a replica of the car. It’s in my front garden, surrounded by a lovely wildflower meadow, and people stop to look at it.
An education for my child.
A Banksy painting.
Alchemy. Love. Resilience.
Looking after the flowerbed on my windowsill.
Composer, pirate, scientist, philosopher.
On a train journey to Arcadia many years ago while making a TV documentary.
The wisdom to become who they are in the truth of their spirit.
Not being there for my daughter.
Simon Callow, Ronnie Wood, Erin O'Connor, Susan Calman, Alex Lawther, Emeli Sandé
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