Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Expensive mistakes - purchases

130 replies

SouthWestmom · 02/07/2019 12:20

So mine is an Apple Watch. Costs an extra £20 for 4G a month and I never use it. I'm not interested in fitness and I can't find any purpose for it my phone doesn't serve.

OTOH, my collection of scarves is such good value on cost per wear basis - Missoni, Westwood etc and I wear them all the time.

OP posts:
WellTidy · 02/07/2019 14:39

A mattress topper for our made to measure bed, so the topper was made to measure too. Incredibly hot and way too soft for us. We slept on it for one night. It can’t even be used as a makeshift spare mattress when someone comes to stay as it is just too soft and unsupportive.

WellTidy · 02/07/2019 14:40

All the clothes I bought when I was a size 10 four summers ago. Haven’t been a size 10 since and I have a lot of lovely, barely worn clothes that don’t fit.

HiGunny · 02/07/2019 15:17

Expensive Roman blinds for the huge glass doors in our kitchen. They take ages to pull up and down and make loads of noise and have already broken a few times. I'd love to replace them with roller blinds but they cost an absolute fortune so I'm stuck with them for life.

Also back in my 20s I was on a really good salary so was forever pissing away money on hobbies. I still have a few hundred euro worth of kitesurfing equipment, musical instruments and a sewing machine...really must sell them Hmm

AnnaNimmity · 02/07/2019 15:21

For me it was a house in Cambridge. I decided I wanted to move to Cambridge (from London) sold up, bought a house, regretted it immediately, moved back.

Cost me a fortune, especially as London prices were moving up. I sometimes see my old flat on the market and weep.

I did it again, to another city 10 years later. (and back I went).

I've learned my lesson now.

Original poster
SouthWestmom · 02/07/2019 15:47

Oh some of these are expensive mistakes.

OP posts:
Squiff70 · 02/07/2019 15:52

Ugg boots. Bought some 8 years ago when I had a good job and could afford to treat myself. £220 down the drain. Wore them about 4-5 times then decided I didn't like them/weren't in fashion. Now they're worth nothing and are still in the original box in the loft.

OneRingToRuleThemAll · 02/07/2019 15:58

A leasehold flat. I didn't realise that the lease was short and would cost me another £10k to extend, and bills would come thick and fast for communal repairs.

TickleMyFanny · 02/07/2019 16:00

I wear my uggs as slippers in winter!

Preggosaurus9 · 02/07/2019 16:14

A floor length sequinned evening gown Hmm bought on a whim in a size 8 just before I got pregnant with DC1. I never wore it and will never be a size 8 again. It's folded carefully in a bag in the attic.

A pair of rollerskates I bought because I remembered loving to skate when I was a child. Adult me was too unfit and no smooth roads to do it on so used precisely twice.

Oh and the wedding dress I never wore because we eloped. It needed altering and I thought I could do it myself, ripped half the seams apart. It is also a size 8 see above. Hanging in the attic Confused stupid!!

dimsum123 · 02/07/2019 16:24

Lamentations, I did buy a piano! I try and force the DCs to play so it's not a complete waste of money, and lots of their friends play so it does get used, just not by us....

userxx · 02/07/2019 16:32

@OneRingToRuleThemAll - ouch!!!

ChopinIn10Minuets · 02/07/2019 16:37

We bought some very expensive cream textured curtains which were made to measure and were very expensive.

Oh God that reminds me...the lounge curtains we had made to measure from John Lewis, with a striped fabric picked to go with a previous 3-piece suite. It didn't go particularly well (you know how it is when the swatch works but the whole curtain doesn't?) and there's a flipping great 2 inch gap between the hem and the window sill.

I should have complained. Unfortunately the house was a new build with several billion snags, and we had to prioritise straight walls and ceilings that weren't going to fall down. They're still up 18 years later and I still loathe them, but we got our money's worth I suppose. 🙄

Xiaoxiong · 02/07/2019 16:45

Omg this thread is giving me the fear Sad we are moving into a house that is being decorated and I have just had to choose loads of carpets, curtains, paint colours and furniture and I am really worried I may have made some expensive mistakes!!

hsegfiugseskufh · 02/07/2019 16:47

my first house
bought a half done up terrace, didn't realise most of it was bodged - did it up, sold it for a small profit though

my second house Grin
bought a house that hadn't been touched since the 80s didn't realise every single bastard wall would need replastering and failed to notice that there was only one plug socket in each room - que full rewire. Also needed a wall knocking down, new kitchen etc etc and now I am so fed up with renovating it that I hate the fucking thing and want to move. DP is not amused. He likes it. because its not him that's stripped all the bastard woodchip off the walls

if I ever buy another house I am only doing so when I can afford to live elsewhere and have someone do absolutely everything else for me!

ps I love my airfryer!

you'd think we'd learn.... alas...

PotterHead1985 · 02/07/2019 16:47

@Preggosaurus9 I bought rollerblades. Same intentions as you. Same result too Grin

notso · 02/07/2019 16:49

Any kitchen appliance with 'maker' in its name Hmm

thebear1 · 02/07/2019 16:57

Apple MacBook, hated it so hardly used it so sold it for less than paid.

billysboy · 02/07/2019 16:59

A horse
Bought my DP a horse to get her back into riding

22 years on must be nearly £1/2 m possibly more

msmith501 · 02/07/2019 16:59

An expensive mistake: first generation iPad with 3G and WiFi. Probably used 3G four tiles as always near a WiFi these days... and still paying £15 / month ... cos "well you never know..." (and I work in IT would not advise this).

Really expensive mistake: went to buy a bicycle about 15 years ago and went past the local BMW garage. Swapped out my Audi A6 for a BMW M5 (around £40K at the time). Spent two weeks watching the petrol gauge moving to empty at an alarming rate (18 miles to the gallon ish). Sold it two weeks later and bought Audi back... and lost £4K in the process. Gulp... learnt that lesson the hard way!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 02/07/2019 17:03

A robot vacuum cleaner. It cannot clean unsupervised, unless the floor is completely empty. It gets stuck under furniture or on the edge of rugs and sits there whining and overheating. It can’t clean into the corners anywhere. Mine is supposed to navigate back to its charging station when its battery is low - but even if you put it right next to the bloody charger, it can’t find it.

If the cat would ride it, it might have some entertainment value - but nope.

It is absolutely bob-useless.

Original poster
SouthWestmom · 02/07/2019 17:13

This is quite helpful - I've always fancied a robot vacuum and roller skates. Not anymore!

OP posts:
msmith501 · 02/07/2019 17:17

I still roller skate regularly - proper ones with wheels at each corner. Cost a small fortune as well as I recall but worth it as they take me back to a childhood when there were plenty of proper roller rinks. Only difference now is that it hurts when I do fall over.

Mac47 · 02/07/2019 17:24

A pair of trousers from Paul Smith. Not quite house or sofa cost, but v expensive. Looked amazing on my newly size 6 arse, but needed to be taken up a bit. Never got round to getting them taken up, got pregnant unexpectedly and they still sit, all long and teeny arsed nearly 14 years later, going nowhere near my size 16 torso:( if I ever lose 3 stone again and grow 3 inches, they are the first thing I will wear.

RosaWaiting · 02/07/2019 17:30

“A robot vacuum cleaner. It cannot clean unsupervised, unless the floor is completely empty”

I live in a small flat. I’ve lost count of the times people have told me this would be good but my understanding was that they are only good for huge uncluttered spaces.

I have just ordered a window vac....this flat is basically a glasshouse...I hope that doesn’t become a waste.

S0CKS · 02/07/2019 17:41

The massive amount of clothes shoes bags that are stored away and i couldn't tell you what there is if I tried.
Majority of the kitchen gadgets with exception of the air fryer