What was your biggest Xmas waste of money?

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Former_MSE_Joanne
Former_MSE_Joanne Posts: 113 Forumite
edited 25 November 2014 at 5:35PM in Special occasions & other celebrations
What have you bought for past Christmas celebrations that gave you a serious case of buyer's remorse? We want to tap MoneySavers' collective knowledge on the worst things you've spent your cash on during the festive season. What money-suckers would you advise others to avoid?

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  • fiscalfreckles
    fiscalfreckles Posts: 2,398 Forumite
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    You're asking the wrong people!
  • wiogs
    wiogs Posts: 2,744 Forumite
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    Food - there is always too much.

    Every bl00dy year. But can I persuade anyone to cut down?

    It appears to be tradition to buy too much.
  • benedictadams
    benedictadams Posts: 926 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
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    to the people who on Christmas Eve who stack their trolly with about 78 loaves of bread, a cow's entire daily production of milk etc

    the shops are only shut for two days maximum

    if Aunty Maud who hasn't visited the last 20 years she is unlikely to visit this year and even if she does she is coming to see you and not stuff her face
    Debt of £6300 cleared in 5 years, now ZERO
  • scotsbob
    scotsbob Posts: 4,632 Forumite
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    I bought my brother a boxed set of DVDs of a TV programme called "Wife Swap."


    It was nothing to do with wife swapping at all, just nagging women living in each others houses.


    Total waste of money.
  • lucystardust87
    lucystardust87 Posts: 60 Forumite
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    My mum loves shopping for 'tat' (think poundshop, the worst things in charity shops etc). One year I bought her expensive brands of things like candles, shower gel, body lotion etc thinking 'nice stuff' would be a treat. She never used any of it!
  • SailorSam
    SailorSam Posts: 22,754 Forumite
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    benedictadams wrote: »
    to the people who on Christmas Eve who stack their trolly with about 78 loaves of bread, a cow's entire daily production of milk etc

    We don't need all that !!
    But what if we have visitors ?
    We never have any bl00dy visitors !!
    Liverpool is one of the wonders of Britain,
    What it may grow to in time, I know not what.

    Daniel Defoe: 1725.
  • Niffa44
    Niffa44 Posts: 1 Newbie
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    I bought my parents a walk round ashfown Forrest Lima park they like walking and animals and thought it would be interesting. Was over my budget but thought they would love it. They opened it and dad told Me was crap! Why do I bother
  • Cliecost
    Cliecost Posts: 633 Forumite
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    Putting a stamp on envelope for this waste of time - https://twitter.com/bepo836/status/537512205567393792

    The letter the child gets back is awful. So bland and generic. My two kids got exactly the same letter back. I know they claim it's (almost) a free service but when such little effort is put into it, it makes you wonder why they bother.
  • gloriouslyhappy
    gloriouslyhappy Posts: 597 Forumite
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    Fresh christmas trees - they cost a fortune, and while they look good, shed needles, even the ones that say they don't, so I invested £20 in a 75% discounted luxury artificial tree in the January sales. That was 6 years ago, and it still looks good, plus folds away into nothing in the back of the understairs cupboard ready for next year.
  • gloriouslyhappy
    gloriouslyhappy Posts: 597 Forumite
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    And while I'm on the subject of christmas trees - don't bother with a 'living tree', because it never survives beyond January or February, then you have this brown unattractive half-dead thing hanging around in a pot, hoping it might revive come spring - it doesn't.
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