We’ve all bought stuff we later realise is a complete waste of money. We kick ourselves, we learn a lesson or two, and then we move on. What’s your most regrettable purchase, and what did you learn from it?
It might be something small that taught you a lesson about impulse buying. It might be a large purchase that really put your personal finances into perspective. However long it took to recover from it, however big or small it was, we want to know about it.
So tell us — what’s the most regrettable thing you’ve ever spent money on, what did you learn from it, and how did you bounce back?
Comments
28 responses to “What’s Your Most Regrettable Purchase?”
By far my biggest regret was buying a brand new fully equipped 2006 Honda Civic Sports. It basically forced me into working as much as I could for what was essentially just a fancy tool. Sure, it helped my credit rating (which was since destroyed by my brother using my details to sign up for a phone he stopped paying for) but otherwise a useless endeavour.
I’ll never buy a brand new car again (especially given my interests have shifted to classic car restoration as I’ve gotten older and developed new hobbies).
I ll never buy a used car again. My first two used cars almost bankrupted me.
Isn’t the sweet spot buying a 2 year old used car, then selling it when it turns 5-6 years old? You get the purchase discount but offload it before any major mechanical problems arise.
I will never buy a new car either. Spend a couple of thousand, drive it will the wheels fall off.
Alien: Colonial Marines.
A mini disc player, took 60 minutes to copy a 45 minute CD, went out and bought an Ipod the following week.
Yes! I had one too.
I had a Minidisc player in the late 90s and it was great. But when the iPod came out, I knew its days were numbered. There were things about that period of Sony that I don’t think consumer gadgets have recaptured like jog wheels, uncompromising design, etc.
Natural Selection 2 on Steam. Bought it for a LAN party, hated it, never played it again, couldn’t trade it or return it.
That, and my last modem. Piece of crap that was. Other than that, nothing majorly regrettable.
Tragically, I felt the same way about NS2. I LOVED NS1, and played it to death in netcafes and online at home. I was pretty psyched to be supporting a kickass studio in their attempts to branch out and monetize it.
Only… it couldn’t capture the same magic. And as a paid purchase, the playerbase was miniscule by comparison. I could rarely find matches, and the ones I did were too underpopulated for a real match. or populated only by the kind of person who forms a regularly-playing clan to train for ‘clan wars’ in a game only played by a few thousand people worldwide.
It is FAR from my most regrettable purchase, but it was certainly a mistake.
Recently….
Micro Scooter Flex Air… intended to use it for the commute to work, but under estimated slopes on the route. Should’ve bought an electric one.
I bought an extended warranty at HN for my wife’s Dyson vacuum cleaner. It came with a huge amount of in store credit so worked out to be about $25 all up for brand new replacement for several years. I was planning on getting a WiiU soon and figured I would pick it up there. Guy said I could use it on anything in store over $300.
Went in to get my WiiU with the $100 credit and apparently the entertainment section is a completely separate franchise to the home appliance one and they would not honour it. Bastards never told me that.
There’s your problem.
Yep.
Never buy an extended warranty. Period. For suckers.
That said, I had extended warranty on my previous laptop and needed the HDD replaced 3 times as well as another charger (though the charger wasn’t included).
Ducted air conditioning. This was the biggest con. It was extremely expensive to buy and install. You always have to heat or cool one section of the house, wasting a ton of money when running it.
If I knew what I knew now, I should have bought 5 small units at 1/10th the price, paid one lump sum for all 5 installations and be miles in front on upfront and running costs.
It was more expensive being Daikin, but they’re all as bad as each other.
A Thermomix. Never gets used as much as it was promised to. The food doesn’t turn out as nice either.
Have you tried the various forums and cook books? My Fiance bought one and uses it almost every day. And the food is great. Although there has been a few mistakes when she makes things up for herself.
I think this is more of a “workman blaming his tools” because I know a few people with these and the food they produce from it is great.
Destiny Collectors Edition…
Ducati. Did it twice. Look great, but both were horrible to ride and ate money. Tiny fuel tanks, crap fuel injection, suspension and seating tuned for 50kg Italians with rickets.
Motorcycle version of the trophy wife.
The $150 edition of Duke Nukem Forever.
My first Magic deck. Not because I disliked it, but because I successfully ignored my friends request to play for years, and now I have spent WAY too much money on it.
The “endless loop the loop” of electronics buying from the 90’s to early 2000’s, about 1990 to 2005.
I have a shed full of vcr’s, dvd players and old computers. Tried almost all the tech that was available. Minidisc – recordable DVD – digital radio – apple mac’s (early power pc’s) – u name it.
Still buy electronics but the “slope of purchases” is a now lot flatter. One day I will hold the mother of all garage sales 🙂 Ummmm maybe not. 🙂
Of all that above – thought my Xbox 360 was quite lame. Excellent hardware (no complaints) but never could quite nail a unreal/wicked/top/ game (find a game I really liked). Hope the games are better for the new gen xbox.
My first laptop, Bought off eBay, drunk, using borrowed money, with no research. Lasted 6 months. Now I spend many months researching and following trends and features to prepare me for any future electrical purchases.
My Xbox One. Bought the”Day One” edition. Zero good games. Even now, there are no games that really excite me. I ended up building a PC 6 months ago, and it is a million times better. The Xbone controller is nice though.
A Mr Fluffy house.
An automatic car.
An automatic station wagon with worse performance than the old car despite being 5 years newer.
My Porsche Cayman GTS. It just sits there looking pretty and I never want to drive it for fear it will get scratched. Now i’m just driving around Merc. Ugh.