9 Popular Purchases That May Not Be Worth the Cost

Often our money is wasted on things that end up being unnecessary. I analyzed my spending and found 9 expensive things that failed to prove effective. Many of them may have looked tempting at the time of purchase, but in reality they turned out to be useless and just took up space in the house.

The miracle cleaning gadgets that keep popping up in the newsfeed

Who doesn’t dream of making house chores easier, spending less time and effort on cleaning, but not living in filth? I certainly do, and it seems that marketeers know exactly what I need — ads of mops, scrubbers, brushes and vacuum cleaners with the prefixes “miracle” or “super” keep popping up in my feed.

I think I’m an adult, I understand how advertising works, but it’s tempting to watch these ads, where a happy woman makes a couple of moves with some super-brush and the house is immediately clean! Look at how she instantly removes plaque from the tap, scrubs the stove or cleans the bathroom to a shine!

Of course, you can’t expect miracles like this to happen in reality, but sometimes you want to try these magical things. And so, I tried it.

• The toilet brush, which was supposed to simplify the cleaning of the toilet bowl, turned out to be a useless thing, which only hangs nicely on the wall. Which, by the way, is quite inconvenient — it is difficult to put it back in place after use without getting the wall and floor dirty. So, it only spreads dirt.
• On the super-brush for quick cleaning of all surfaces in the house, I barely attached the sponge nozzle, and in the process it kept coming off.
• I would send the fashionable device back to its creator and lock them in the flat with at least one long-haired cat. And after that, let them tell us how the cleaning went.

Duster

My parents always had this thing in their house, and I didn’t understand what it was for, so I played with it.

Dusters come in different types and are made of different materials — from polypropylene to ostrich feathers. The principle of operation is the same for all of them: the fibers attract dust due to static electricity. However, some of it still remains on objects or falls to the floor, which means that you have to use additional cleaning products. It’s much easier to use regular cloths or plan your storage areas to keep dust out of them.

I continued to use a duster for a while, believing in its miraculous properties. But then I realized that cleaning with it always requires extra steps: you still have to wipe the floors and furniture with a damp cloth. And so this inconvenient but seemingly necessary item kept standing in the corner as a reminder of how easy it is to fall for advertising tricks.

When I decided to do a general cleaning and go through all my “useful” cleaning items, the duster was among other things that had been taking up space for too long without much use. As it turns out, it’s much easier to take the time to clean using simpler and more tried-and-true products. So, I got rid of another unnecessary item that, while seemingly functional, ended up just taking up space.

Laundry capsules

It might seem convenient to throw a capsule in the drum and load your clothes. But sometimes 1 capsule is not enough to wash your clothes, and 2 capsules are too many. So, you have to use 2, and the cost of laundry becomes even higher (capsules in principle cost more than liquid detergent, because the packaging of goods always affects the price).

Liquid detergent is a totally different thing. I can tell by the rule of thumb how much to use. For the sake of interest, I made some estimations, and it turned out that washing with it comes out 2.5 times cheaper than using capsules.

Another thing that reduced my interest in capsules is that they often tear and stick to the drum. I tried the most expensive capsules, the middle-price ones, and cheap ones. Sooner or later, I took clothes with pieces of gel on them out of the machine. I had to wash again.

If there are children at home, laundry capsules are not an option at all. In fact, it’s not safe. Children find and swallow the colorful “sachets” or taste their contents. After some of these incidents, manufacturers started to sell the product in packages with safety locks, but I still don’t want to take risks.

In addition, the contents of the capsules are more toxic than, for example, washing powder. One scientist suggests that this is due to the higher concentration of active ingredients.

Sports nutrition and supplements of all kinds

I’m a vegetarian, and for a long time I’ve been buying products that are supposed to provide me with substances I don’t get from food. Supplements and vitamins, “superfoods” and vegan protein. I also had to buy a fancy shaker, because stirring protein in a mug is a bad taste.

I know a bunch of people who regularly order amino acid complexes, protein blends and “healthy” supplements. If someone goes to the gym, it’s a disaster. You have to spend half of your salary on sports drinks, otherwise “your muscles won’t grow.” But even athletes with a balanced diet don’t need specific supplements.

My obsession went away after a medical examination and tests. The doctor treated my hypervitaminosis and prescribed a course of drugs that compensated for real deficiencies in the body. And he also taught me how to eat healthy — it turned out to be cheaper and healthier than buying sports nutrition products.

Laptop cooling pad

Surely, people who spend many hours in front of the computer due to their work or hobby have these devices. Alas, these pads are of little use. Laptop manufacturers have thought over the cooling system of the “hardware.” There are ventilation holes on the bottom panel, and due to small flat legs the laptop is already a little raised for better air flow.

I paid a considerable sum for a pad, the manufacturer of which promised that the laptop will not overheat, it will start to work fast, and even that my karma will get purified. But at some point, my laptop began to heat up too much, forgetting that the pad was supposed to solve all these problems.

It turned out that the cooler was clogged with hair (thanks to cats for that), they cleaned it in the service center, and the laptop stopped thinking that we moved to a country with a tropical climate. I sold the pad to someone and found more effective means to prevent overheating — regular maintenance of the laptop and a FURminator tool for my furry hackers.

Trendy facial serums

I believe a lot of women fall for this one. Take, for example, the colloidal gold serums that all my friends (and me) have bought. They say that they will smooth the skin, and in general, the face will become smoother than a baby’s bottom. But what do scientific studies say?

These products can have a positive effect on the skin if they contain more effective ingredients, like peptides, antioxidants, some acids. So why overpay for gold?

At times, I spent $200-400 a month on serums, but somehow my skin didn’t get better. After a visit to a dermatologist-cosmetologist, it turned out that my body reacts to some active substances only with irritation, and the compositions of many trendy serums are very dubious.

In the best case, the ingredient that was advertised was at the end of the list. And before it, there were substances that really should not be applied to the skin. The care selected by a specialist turned out to be more effective and 10 times cheaper (in terms of monthly use).

Sticky lint roller

It seems that sticky rollers for cleaning clothes are a necessity, especially if there are animals in the house. However, in practice, everything is a little different: some Internet users suggest using duct tape instead, others — a velvety lint brush. The latter can be used for several years, without buying replacement parts.

In practice, it turned out that these sticky rollers for clothes are not so great either. They don’t always remove all the dust and hair from clothes as claimed. If there are some difficult stains or lint on the clothes, the rollers can deal with them. If used too often, there may be adhesive residue on the fabric, which spoils the appearance of the clothes.

I bought a sticky roller, after I got tired of fighting with dusty marks and hair on clothes. But after a few uses, I noticed that the result doesn’t always meet expectations. In addition, I didn’t like that after use, there were traces of glue on the clothes. I decided for myself that I will never buy this roller again in my life, it doesn’t clean as much as it stains my clothes.

Gift vouchers

Many people say it’s a great gift. Putting money in an envelope isn’t very comfy, but this way you’re giving someone a new experience. Or an opportunity to buy something they’ll like.

For the last year, I’ve bought a lot of vouchers: a dentist voucher for my mom, a beauty salon voucher for my sister, a photographer voucher for the newlyweds I know, a barbershop voucher for my husband, and a lingerie shop voucher for a friend. The beautician, photographer, and barber vouchers were not used.

The friend couldn’t find a bra in her size and just picked something unnecessary in the shop (wasted money). Mom went to the dental clinic long after she got the voucher, and in the end almost finished treating one tooth (I took a voucher for a specific amount, and the prices in the clinic changed over this time), now she’s looking for another doctor to finish.

Next time, I’d rather give money the old-fashioned way. Apparently, I am not the kind of person who knows how to choose epic presents.

Cheap wallpaper

They say that a good wallpaper can last more than 15 years. Although, of course, different factors can affect the actual term: humidity in the room, the presence of small children and animals. We have a tradition in our house to change the wallpaper every 5 years. Last summer we went to the hypermarket.

Since the last time we changed the wallpaper, the prices went up, we were a bit stunned and decided to save money. Rejoicing in our ingenuity, we picked up cheap rolls, which were lying in a separate section waiting for simpletons like us. And in order to keep the balance in the universe, we decided to go “chic” and took a gorgeous golden wallpaper for the kitchen, which was much more expensive.

What do we have 6 months later? In the living room, the wallpaper faded and peeled off in many places. In the bedroom, a strange substance is falling off the walls. In the hall, the walls rejected the chosen wallpaper in general.

Only in the kitchen, the wallpaper is as beautiful as it was. And the conditions there are the harshest: there are problems with ventilation, the sun is constantly shining through the window, cats run along the walls at night. And this is the kitchen, you have to wash even the wallpaper.

The same tradesman was working in all the rooms, he used the same glue, but he looked at us strangely when we handed him those rolls from the cheap section. So, we’re about to drive to the shop again, the plan “it’s just wallpaper, even the cheap one will last for 5 years” failed. Saving money has brought us to the point where we have to spend money again.

And here are useless baby items that parents shouldn’t rush to buy.