20+ People That Spent a Ton of Money on Totally Useless Things

You don’t have to have a lot of money to waste it on something useless. Sometimes, we might even save or borrow money just to buy something we think we really need, right until the moment we actually get it.

The Bright Side team will always keep the secrets of our co-workers, which is why we went online to search for the material for this article. But we know very well that it would only take asking our colleagues a few questions, to have enough information to write this piece. And in the bonus part, we’ll tell you about a purchase that seemed horrible until the moment the person realized that they couldn’t live without it.

• For as long as I can remember, I’ve been driving big cars and I was fine with that. But once, my girlfriend started nagging me about getting a good new car, because she was tired of this one. And “this one” is a really old car. At first, I was against buying a new one, but then I agreed. 2 weeks later, I realized that the new car could speed up so fast and effortlessly, that I was in real danger of getting into a car accident. So I put the new car in the garage and now I’m driving the old one. © orakulis / Pikabu
• A baby crib. 4 years in the house since the baby was born, took up lots of space in the bedroom, never used, except by the cat, or for piling up heaps of clothes in there. I had no idea bed-training a tiny baby could be an impossible task. © Alice Vits / Quora

• My girlfriend is usually pretty frugal/practical with her money, but has the weirdest blind spot when it comes to kitchen gadgets. The tiny kitchen in our apartment is full of ninja mixers, juicers, multiple cheese graters, roasting pans, and cookie sheets, electric mincers, weird pots with built-in strainers...You get the idea. All we really use or need are a couple of pots and pans, a knife, and a cutting board. Drives me nuts. © DogtoothDan / Reddit

• Vibrating fork that stops you from eating too much. Yes. You read that correctly. The fork uses electronic sensors to monitor how much, and how fast a user is eating. If they eat too quickly, the fork vibrates, and bright lights flash on its handle. It costs about $80. Why in God’s name would I want a fork that makes me pause before every bite? © Anonymous / Quora

• An expensive facial service with my savings. Actually, I just went there to pamper myself within a budget of $1,000, but they told me my skin type is this and that blah blah blah... At the end, they convinced me to pay around $3,000 for 45 minutes of a facial service, where I emptied my wallet completely and the biggest regret is that the results didn’t even last for 2 days. © Meghana Kanakala / Quora

• I bought a full set of ski equipment for $1,500. I only skied 2 times and got a knee injury, so now I can’t ski at all. I tried to sell the equipment and only got $300 back. © goodlife / Pikabu

• Nail polishes. Hundreds of them. I’ve spent crazy money buying the 150th shade of violet that is totally different from the other 149. And only crazy people like me can see the difference. I’ve bought new polishes from new collections from all over the world. And then something snapped. Now, I only use 2-3 shades and I’m trying to figure out what to do with my entire collection.

• I had a friend buy a pound of cheese at a very upscale cheese store because he tried a tiny bit and thought, “Hey, I’m on vacation, I’ll splurge!” ...No prices on anything, stuff cost him $200! He was too embarrassed to say he’d made a mistake. © DoofusTinyRick / Reddit
• I called the home warranty company because the dishwasher in my new house was not working. The repairman comes in, flips one of the switches by the sink that I hadn’t used yet (I had only been moved in for 2 days), turns on the dishwasher, and asks for the standard service fee of $100. Apparently, that switch controls the power to it. © therealkraas / Reddit

• My ex is obsessed with bio-hacking and trying to get fit without actually putting in any work. His Amazon orders were things like a neck strengthening hat, weird supplements, an electromagnetic reader, a rowing machine, handgrip springs... All of which he used once and then either threw out or sold. Meanwhile, I get him a pass to my gym and offer to work out with him whenever, but nope — too much effort. Trust fund kids are weird. © AisforAwesome / Reddit

• Spent $600 on laser hair removal. Didn’t remove my hair. Still have hair. Might even have more hair. I was told I need another $600 worth of treatment. Yeah... That’s not gonna happen. © Goddess_5923 / Reddit

• A tandem bike (a “bicycle built for 2”). A girl I was dating really wanted one for us to pedal together. So I saved up and bought it. She had nice legs, but wasn’t used to pedaling so she got tired easily and needed constant massages to relieve her leg cramps. Thus, the expensive tandem bike quickly went into storage, rarely to be used again. © Back2Bach / Reddit

• A 1-year gym membership. I visited the gym exactly 2 times during that year. Once to pay the down payment and the second time to pay the remainder. Never went back again. In hindsight, I guess I wasn’t really ready to start exercising. It’s a good way to waste $800, though. I strongly suspect gym owners love people like myself. © Garrick Saito / Quora

• When I was 21 years old, I was in a relationship with a guy who I thought I loved. I was young and stupid and he was everything to me. He was smart, handsome, had a good job, etc. We got into a fight one day and to make up for it, I got his initials tattooed on me. Years later, we broke up but I still had the tattoo. I have gotten covered up since, but it was a stupid purchase and I regret it. © Jenna-Lynn Roadside / Quora

• A treadmill. I remember using my treadmill for a month or 2. It’s been 3 years now and it is still totally unused. The machine has deteriorated. Once I even sold it, but the user returned it 2 days later. My house is located next to a garden that has 3 km of walking/jogging trails. But still, I got fooled and bought it. © Prateek Gupta / Quora
• I spent over $100 or more buying clothes for my avatar on a virtual reality game when I could’ve spent it on... You know, actual clothes. © enjoythesilencio / Reddit
• Network marketing. I was young, in college, and needed money. Some guy I met at a party said that I could make good money. I invested a lot of money into it, and got nothing out of it. © mrsheikh / Reddit
• I broke the record recently when I purchased a navy blue jumpsuit from an online shopping site. Navy blue is one of my favorite colors and when I imagined myself in that jumpsuit, I immediately made up my mind to buy that piece of clothing that was worn by this tall model. I clicked the Buy option. But wait, it only came in L and XL and the M was not available. “Come on, what are the tailors for, right?” I said to myself. So there it is— I bought it. It was huge. I took it to the tailor right away and he promised to make it right. 2 days later I got the altered jumpsuit and wore it. But, oh boy, I looked like a scarecrow. It hit me hard when I realized that it was a tall model who wore the outfit in the image on the shopping site, and I was an average height. When I again went running to the tailor, he ruined it even more. This means the money I spent on the jumpsuit and for altering got wasted. I have thrown it deep inside my wardrobe and it is definitely the worst thing I have ever spent money on. © Rongana Nath / Quora

• A juicer for $200. It looked like a spaceship. It was powerful and had 5 different modes. It was also beautifully designed. I got it to replace the old one I had had for 30 years. So, the first apple I put into the new machine made a sound and then the juicer stopped working. It took a long time to clean it. So, now it’s gathering dust on a shelf, because it’s too much trouble to actually use it. © Moorecat / TheQuestion
• I got some sneakers years ago. They were like $100 and I had very high expectations of getting toned legs and losing a few pounds. I made the mistake of wearing them to work, tripped, and sprained my ankle. Also, they’re ugly and uncomfortable. They still sit in my closet to this day and laugh at me for falling for the hype. © TheBack666 / Reddit
• A pair of ridiculously expensive stiletto sandals. I justified the purchase to myself in all sorts of ridiculous ways as I plunked down a thick stack of $20 bills on the counter, but the truth is, I didn’t (and still don’t) get invited to too many black tie events where these shoes would be necessary. About 6 months later, the stilettos were gathering dust in my closet, and my pet rats escaped their cage for a few hours. The only damage done was to the shoes. They ate holes in the leather and chewed off the straps. I haven’t spent more than $200 on a pair of shoes since. © Ryan Mitchell (Specht) / Quora

Bonus

What is the one thing I regret buying? This guy:

$125 dollars for 20 pounds of pure chaos. He was a cute, energetic little kitten, but I had no idea he would destroy all my stuff. Brand new couch, destroyed. Dining room chairs, destroyed. Garbage disposal, destroyed. My hand-carved chess pieces, briefcases, alarms... He terrorized the other cat, took over the entire bed, slept on the dining room table, was totally untrainable, and was generally a selfish whirlwind of destruction. I have never in my life considered returning a pet, but boy, were there days I stared real hard into his fat furball face fighting the urge to send him back to PetSmart. But once, he got ill and then I was like a little girl bawling with hiccups and a runny nose. That’s when I realized he was worth every penny of my broken items. I couldn’t imagine my life without him. © Cheryl Teeg / Quora

Have you ever bought anything that you regret about or are you very careful with what you spend your money on?