Great 'What's your biggest ever waste of Money?' Hunt

competitionscafe

NORTHERN_LASS47 wrote: »

I got an e-mail from GLEAMIFY offering a tooth whitening system for £1.99 last year. This company also took £49.95 (unauthorised) out of my account later and sent me another system and charged another £1.99, I spoke to a lady on the phone who asked me to return it (cost me over £5 recorded delivery) and it would be sorted. Still waiting and have passed the details to my bank.

There is a thread on that Gleamify scam here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2532865

Almost all those Acai pills, colon cleansers, teeth whiteners and weight loss tea free trial offers you see online are scams.

jenniewb

spikedouglas wrote: »

Buying an expensive secondhand camera in a shop because it looked lonely and neglected and I thought I would give it a good home.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Almost as bad as the dieter who eats the entire bar of low fat chocolate/crisps they hate, instead of just throwing it away. The excuse? "because I paid good money for that!" then proceeds to attend weight loss groups/take up expensive diet plans in order to lose the weight....

Never understood that one :cool:

Streethawk_2

My biggest waste of money was getting a job at 15 and working pretty much constantly since then - sometimes 2 or 3 jobs at a time to make ends meet, including through A-levels and a BSc.

What I should have done is not bother and take the state's handouts - would have been a lot less bother, I'd have been able to buy my council house at a massive mark-down and not be on the verge of a stress-induced breakdown or heart-attack by 40.

JOANNESAPHINE

I totally agree with a previous poster regarding waste of money on children's toys, books and such, absolutely gutted.

Wasting so much money on bought sandwiches, crisps and drinks when I worked full-time. Too lazy to make my own dinners and I didn't even have very much money.

Wasted money on driving lessons, books and dvds. Too nervous don't think I'll every drive.

Wasted money on books used to buy latest books in hardback only to read once and give away.

Wish I had all this money sat in a savings account now.

Sheepster

For me - it's buying not one, but two Fiats. These must surely be the worst most unreliable cars on the market. My dad had no end of expense and trouble with his rustbox of a Fiat, then I went and bought an Uno as my second car after passing my test. On the plus side, spending on average £200 a month on repairs stopped me drinking too much because I couldn't afford to go out.
Then years later I got a Punto. Why why why

OK I've never bought into one, as sorry if you do - but I seriously think anyone who does is very stupid -those hampers. You know where they're advertised as save up for Christmas, then after paying your £10 a month, you eventually get a big cardboard box full of......well tins of ham which you usually wouldn't buy, brandy snaps which you wouldn't buy, tins of "what the heck is this" which you wouldn't buy. My mum did this once and despite my telling her (aged 13) again and again that half this stuff she wouldn't get and could just go and buy cheaper at the supermarket, she knew best.
Asda, Tesco et al have savings schemes for such spending, so why not just use these?

Then there's those book clubs. Joined one where you get a choice at huge discount and all you had to do was choose a minimum of two books from their monthly selection.......we all know the deal.
Weirdly though, although there was loads of books in the initial choice at discount - which we'd probably buy at full - the subsequent magazines were full of dross you'd never usually buy.

Philycheesesteak

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

Many moons ago was conned into buying spirits in champagne bottles in Spain i.e. to be able to bring back more through Customs. Sounded brilliant - choose whatever spirits you like and come back tomorrow to collect your sealed 'champagne' bottles. Customs' officer took one look, turned the bottles upside down (apparently you can tell by the bubbles whether it's a spirit inside or champagne/sparking wine) and then showed me a list of all the retailers doing the scam. Lost the lot!
:beer:

If you turn a bottle of spirits upside down the bubbles join together in a ring, the more bubbles the stronger it is.

(Not sure I'd trust generic 'spirits' anyway repackaged...)

Sheepster

About the "buy one house and stay there" idea though. If only this was as simple as that.
Few could afford the house they'd really like as a first time buyer. Then there is the factor which many people don't think of or realise (me included, it was a shock) that a three bed semi for example, costs a hell of a lot more to run than a 2 bed nice starter terrace. Council tax will be higher, water rates will be a LOT higher, heating will be huge by comparison, and for some reason larger houses seem to need more maintenance. If you're a single first time buyer, it's a big cut out of your salary. If you're in a couple, well even then you still want to live it up a bit whilst you're younger and take hols if you can for example.

Then there is what area you want to live in - some cost more than others. Then factor in the area you are in might go down, you might get idiot neighbours moving in and you want out of there.

Think I'll stick to renting for now

Philycheesesteak

Biggest waste of money for me was mortgage protection insurance (for sickness and redunancy).
Never used for my first house, which wasn't a massive mortgage as it goes, but even if I had been struck off work, you have to wait weeks to get written confirmation from the Job Centre, then accept the hit of paying your mortgage for 3 months before it pays out. Chances are you've got another job and could have convinced your bank to take a payment holiday or just pay the interest for a couple of months. (They'd prefer that than a repo and loss at auction.)

They make money it's not a charity or government sponsored initiative. A friend of mine paid into one for 14 years, was made redundant and didn't get a penny because it took a minimum wage job, rather than being on the dole a few months later, then got made redundant 2 months later so they said he had to wait a further 3 months.

Half of the things we bought our first baby were pointless. Mobiles will not make them sleep!, new borns aren't interested in soft toys for long, Moses baskets are grown out of before you can blink. (To be fair we did buy second hand in most things).

Didn't buy it but we have a fondue set in our cupboard never used.

We used to like cheese toasties so got a toastie maker... again in the cupboard now (can't put much cheese in or it leaks, you burn your face and bugger to clean... 4 mins under the grill simples).

Not quite a waste of money but vouchers that expire!! Why! Give me cash, the universal voucher that doesn't expire, don't give me book tokens so I end up topping the voucher up buying a book I don't want.

Premium brands. Don't do it. It's fancy packaging often with higher sugar and salt and fat. Do the downstep challenge!!

Driving to the shops when it's a 10 min walk. Do your body a favour and save a fortune in petrol and wear and tear on your car.

Antivirus packages which slow your PC down, don't actually stop them half the time anyway... get the free one off Microsoft (but watch out for scareware making it look like you've been infected).

Christmas cards to colleagues and people you see every day!! I give to charity instead now and save a tree or three.

mstans

This happened a good four years ago now but still to this day I deeply regret it.

I was on holiday in New York and loving all the shopping especially the shops like Abercrombie & Fitch, which had yet to open in the UK at the time.

Anyone who has been in one of their shops know its more like a nightclub then a retail establishment what with its dark moody lighting and loud music - all a marketing gimmick to get you to spend more I fully appreciate.

Whilst under their hypnotic spell I was snapping up t-shirts left right and centre mostly for about $40 (£20). The favourable exchange rate at the time made them a bargain for this exclusive label which no one back home could get their hands on. In my haste I hadn't realised that I had grabbed a limited edition (1 of 150) t-shirts and added to my pile of "to buy" items. As I was buying multiple items I didn't even give a thought to the $400 bill when it all went through the till. It was only afterwards when I was sat down in coffee shop going through the receipt that I noticed the line for 1 t-shirt of $150! I almost spurted out my coffee over an oversized lady who seemed to like to carry her dog around in her handbag. I didn't have time to return it as our flight was in a few hours and I had to get to the airport.

When i got my credit card statement through the next month I worked out the exchange rate and I paid nearly £75 for this t-shirt (and it wasn't even that nice).

I still have it today. It sits at the back of the wardrobe gathering dust with me unable to bring myself to ever chuck it out. I've only ever worn it a handful of times.

I'm sure there are loads of stories of women buying expensive clothes and never wearing them but I thought it would be good for you to hear that us men aren't immune from this type of behaviour too.

Matt

Gambit

minerva_windsong wrote: »

Mine would be my first set of driving lessons. I had lessons for eight months but never practiced outside them and was a nervous driver at 17 anyway, so ended up never taking the test. At £20 a lesson that's rather a lot...

I did that too. I tried again at about 20 years old and did a 'crash course' taking time off to work to have three lessons a week so I wouldnt forget what I learned the previous lesson so quickly. It worked and I passed first time! :j