talk to me if you stupidly bought something £££ you couldnt really afford

I went a bit mad after DH died and spent £10k on a kitchen and bathroom renovation for a house I didn't even own. To be fair I very much enjoyed them while I was living there, but two years down the line when I moved out and bought somewhere, I was a bit perturbed at my own idiocy.

I also got drunk at an airport once and spent £300 on giant Prada sunglasses. In my defence, they are FABULOUS and I still wear them 10 years later.

Wtf. Cutlery. £20k

Mistakes - recently a jimmy choo handbag which is too heavy and the wrong shape and some stunning diamond earrings in white gold (I only wear yellow gold!)
No regrets purchases - an aquamarine ring, my omega watch - most of my designer shoe collection

I was questioning OP's memory, rather than their veracity.

Buy quality, buy once.

And work on cost per wear. If you spend £30 on a pair of shoes from Next but only wear them once for one event then the cpw is £30.

If you buy a pair of £300 shoes but you wear them 10 times, then cost per wear is also £30. Wear them more than that and they become cheaper than the cheap shoes.

People tend to wear and look after expensive stuff in a way they don't when it comes to fast fashion. Which in turn makes the expensive stuff more economical over the long term.

Absolutely gorgeous! 😍😍😍

I want to know more about this trifle now :)

Oh loads OP - I am the queen of buying stuff I can't afford 😂

Theatre / music tickets (we might never see them again!!!), holidays, furniture, cashmere cardigans from Sezane... The list is endless!

Most recently is Wimbledon tickets, a walnut and leather chair for our new bedroom and new Birkenstocks.

Mine is solid, from the early 19th century, and still wouldn't be worth 20k!

I said people are different and I respect that. I still personally find it completely ridiculous. Especially when there is so much suffering in the world.

As an idiotic/way too smitten undergraduate I once took out a whole student loan to pay for a long distance flight to visit an ex boyfriend who had moved abroad. I also had to pay thousands in pounds to BT for calls to said ex.
The relationship only lasted about one year after that and the loan took me ten years to pay off...
Still makes me feel slightly sick.

Haha....I have been eyeballing these since mentioned on here a short while ago 😅. Where did you put yours?

Oh this lovely picture of these beautiful cats made my heart lurch.

My sister who lived in South Africa, was one of the top breeders and judges of Abyssinian cats. We visited her often and her ‘Abby’s’ had free range of her farm, apart from her breeding queens who had a huge pen and run of their own.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Abby cat in the U.K. My sister died 12 years ago and my BIL sold and gave most of the cats away to the breeding/showing fraternity.

A couple of years ago I dropped about £2.5K on a 2-week cruise to a bucket list destination.
I'm self-employed, so had to consider lost wages of perhaps another £1K. Then spending money... It probably cost me close to £4K all in.
It was a LOT of money for me, and in the week or so before going, a little voice in the back of my head was telling me I'd been pretty foolish.
But, it was an AMAZING holiday, and one I'll remember for the rest of my life.

I ask myself what else I'd have done with that money? And honestly, it would just have gone on bills!

I bought a vintage Balenciaga city bag in tan a few years ago for around £500. It was so worth it and I use it heaps. I've seen that they've gone up in value since so could potentially resell it some day but I probably wouldn't... plus I use it so much it's definitely going to be showing signs of wear soon.

And £1,000 on a gaming laptop when the only game I've played in the last decade on PC is Rollercoaster Tycoon!

After a lot of deliberation, I did a bit of overtime last year to pay for a new MacBook, so did have the money and technically was able to afford it, but I have almost no savings, still house share and my pension forecast is looking dire. So maybe the sensible thing would have been to save that £1.3K. But the MacBook gives me so much pleasure to use, I feel I’ve already got my money’s worth.

I think that life is so short and as long as you’re not putting yourself into a damaging and vulnerable situation by buying whatever, then there’s no problem.

@TimeForATerf

But you have insurance? So if did loose it it could be replaced? I think you can also get tiny tracker things, like for glasses, if you want to take it out and about.

I've just remembered about 18 years ago I impulsively spent a few hundred on a at least a dozen (huge) bales of second hand clothing. They arrived on a lorry and I had to stack them up in the garage, taking up almost every inch of space.

My reasoning being that I was going to open an eBay shop and also I was bound to get a fab new wardrobe out of it because there would definitely be hidden gems, right?

Wrong. They were full of the worst crap charity shops couldn't sell - think brown trousers from the estate clearance of 75 year old men. Everything smelt old and musty. I only ever opened one bale because I realised due to the air tight compression there was a warehouse size amount of fabric in these bales that would have filled my entire house if all opened.

I don't know what the hell I was thinking.

It was massively inconvenient having all that space taken up but I stuck my head in the sand for the best part of a year until DH put his foot down and said one way or another they have to go. So I ended up selling them on as a job lot on eBay at a massive loss. I don't think I even got £50 for them.

Thinking about it DH has been remarkably tolerant of my half baked 'brilliant' business ideas over the years. This was probably the most annoying.

If you can afford 20k on cutlery and it will give you years of pleasure, what’s wrong with that?

People buying things gives other people work. The problem with consumer culture is things that don’t last, whereas in 200 years time the PP’s cutlery will be a much loved family heirloom or an antique find someone will be delighted to find and own.

@Elaine118

A good seamstress can probably put in a side panel for you. My sister has revived the dresses of her youth like this.

I’ve really enjoyed reading this thread.

I don’t have children and so have a bit of a mentality that I don’t need to save for anything other than a decent retirement. I do however squander money on my ‘hobbies’. I have lots of hobbies, and quietly chuck a large percentage of my wage on sports gear and art materials that I don’t really need…then I feel a bit guilty about the decadence of it all (not that it stops me).

Now I’ve read this thread, I just wish everyone could have a little bit of careless squandering.

Sorry for your loss. I think it's a comfort thing. I bought a really posh frying pan when a close relative died. It's actually brought me great joy, a Woll one, and it's still going strong nearly 10 years later. Had I bought yet another cheapie I'm quite sure I'd be on at least my 5th. So actually I'm thinking it was a wise investment and I always think of said relative with fondness when cooking with it.

So my advice is enjoy those shoes, and as my Jewish friend would say 'Wear them in good health!'

@Tupperwarelid

You could try Vinted to get some of your money back ? Better than it being sat there doing nothing.

There’s definitely a common theme of grief reactions!

I blew £2k I couldn’t really afford in the year after my mum died - a MacBook, a robot hoover that is totally useless because it keeps getting jammed under furniture, that sort of thing.

@WhyDidIDiddle enjoy your marvellous loafers!

I honestly can't think of many things I regret buying, but there are a handful of things I regret NOT buying, when I could have (just) afforded them, but was being "sensible". A massive natural aquamarine ring when I was a student (would be worth a fortune nowadays), a millinery business when I was offered it by the owner, who would have trained me as part of the deal, a stunning black tailored jacket in TKMaxx which would have been fantastic with any outfit and made me look a stone lighter - by the time I reconsidered and went back, it had gone. I once spent what was 2 weeks budget on a pair of high-heeled Italian leather boots, which I subsequently wore with almost any outfit for YEARS, on a price per wear basis it must have been the best value footwear I've ever owned.