Things you wish you'd never bought

[goose1964]

I'll start with skinny co pornstar martini mix. Tasted incredibly sweet and synthetic. It stated use 1 part vodka to 3 parts mix. I tried that too sweet added more vodka so 50/50 just about drinkable. I drank another one with the reverse ratios, almost OK but I was so drunk I fell over and knocked the TV over.

The other downside was that it stank so much so that my empty glass had made the whole room stink.

Bosch Food processor- too big and never used. Gave it away.
Frizz Ease - it didn't.
The Ordinary Squalene. Hate it.

@DagenhamRoundhouse

*Plumber fitted new soft close toilet seat which now creaks as it shuts. I honestly don't know why one job can't just be done right.*

Mine creaks like a haunted house! Fitted by DH though so no plumber to blame.

Same here so annoying! I found a tiny squirt of ptfe dry lubricant appears to have sorted it ftm though!

Umpteen leather jackets. I really love them and I have/have had many beautiful ones but there are only about two days of the year when you can actually wear them. It's usually too hot, or too cold. Actually today might be a good day.

@Pongo101

A year subscription to an expensive magazine. I realized by month 2 it was a bad idea but they kept arriving like a monthly reminder of how stupid I was. By the end I didn't even bother opening them from the envelope and they just piled up in the corner in a pile of shame. Every time my husband walked past he'd make a comment like "are you ever going to open those?" I put them out on the street with a free to good home sticker and they were gone within the hour so hope someone got a good read out of them. Otherwise they are sat on someone else's desk torturing them now.

🤣🤣. My husband saw me reading a hello magazine that I'd got from a friend and bought me a subscription as a surprise. That was painful enough.

Mine are my walking boots. Spent ages searching and a lot of money on them but I don't like them. They just look blah on me and I have to pretend I love them to my husband who was dragged all over when I went shopping for them. They are solid and made to last a lifetime too 🤦‍♀️.

I’ve had at least 8 leather jackets, probably more but I can’t remember. Don’t have any now. I do mourn each of them, but I was getting a little bit sick of looking like everyone else.

I wore mine a lot in autumn and early winter - up until about end of Dec. Jumper underneath, wool/silk scarf. Toast warm.👍

🙄 *toasty

A job lot of jewellery on eBay. The photos were deceptive Load of tat

About 3000 packets of coffee beans over the years. Really it would have been cheaper to buy a fecking grinder. Why do they make the packets so similar? They do it deliberately don't they?

I whole heartedly agree with the sentiments about leather jackets and trench coats, the problems with which were described beautifully upthread.

I’ve got a really nice grey nubuck biker jacket. I can very seldom wear it because (1) in the north west it rains 70% of the time, (2) when it isn’t raining there are very few days on which the weather isn’t too hot for a jacket or too cold, necessitating a proper coat.

Re trench coats: I have had exactly the same experience as the PP. They are not waterproof, so are useless for damp days. They are not warm, so are useless for cold days. They are no good on warm days. I can very much envisage myself strutting around in a lovely olive coloured Burberry with leather trim but when would I wear it? There are probably only two suitable days each year.

I have had several unsuccessful trench coat experiments. One grey and expensive, one red from M&S. The grey one makes me look like a nun. I should sell it really but cannot get the image of me killing it stylewise in a trench coat out of my mind.

The best thing I bought this year, after much deliberation, was a Belstaff trialmaster waterproof jacket. Looks great and repels water, jackpot!

Many, many things on the back of 'MN Recommends'... I have a bathroom cabinet full of various lotions and potions but invariably return to Simple products for my face.

On the plus side, this thread has prompted me to get the breadmaker out and try the dough setting (so I can bake it in the oven without that irritating fucking hole in the bottom)

@WingingItSince1973

Rollerskates. Despite being 48 and have arthritis and fibro I thought it would be fun to relive my teenage years so bought them in March. Rolled around the kitchen once. Decided they were much to dangerous and have been in the cupboard since. Also bought the safety kit too including padded shorts 🤣

YES! I did the same! Used to be great at it when I was a kid so we bought some. Had dreams of shoop, shooping round the park in a carefree fashion. Wind my hair. At 42 the experience was fucking terrifying. A slide gradient in Hyde park me spiralling out of control and crash landing on the grass. Resigned to the garage after 10 metres along with the safety gibbons. Brought them to NZ when we moved too and they are still in a box somewhere. I currently live in a location which is either beaches, ridiculous steep hills or gravel roads so fuck knows why I've still got them

Oh yes. I'd forgotten I had one because I tore it up

Soooo many exercise gadgets and videos/DVDs! Sit up rocker, tummy cruncher, inner thigh squeezer, step, elastic bands ... the list could go on !

@Talia99

Slow cooker. I’ve literally never used it. Bought for the person I’d like to be not the person I actually am.

I love my slow cooker, first bought when I returned to work 14 years ago from mat leave and i use it at least once a week. Funny enough, you can make delicious tasting and smelling bread in it too ( with a prepack bread mix)

Worst purchase pizza oven for the garden, we wanted one for years, but such a faff to get it set up, quicker to put the pizzas in the oven in the kitchen. Used once i think in 3 years

Spiralizer!! used 2 -3 times such a waste. Please people with Instant pots, just You Tube them! I use mine every other day, wouldn't be without it. Love my Airfryer too.

@GrandmasCat

Every single Dyson product I have got.

I have given up now, never again.

A lot of mention of Dyson products here. I had a truly awful vacuum cleaner which would only keep going if I replaced the filter constantly. I've several friends who've had the hairdryers and found them hopeless as they couldn't direct the air flow as well as with other dryers. The fans are very expensive and are really no better than others although they look good. Our local electrical repair shop was always full of Dyson equipment in for repair. I'd never buy anything made by Dyson again.

Any and all hair tools

• a million heated curling whatnots.
• Babyliss Big Hair. Sent my fine hair flying all over the place and tangled the rest
• Curl secret. Such a fucking secret the thing never curled a hair on my head and fiddly as fuck. It reminds me of the machines they used to use to give ECT. Now considered to be inhumane.

I've now cut all my hair off in protest and I've got a massive box of electrical white elephants to the value of around £70,000,000,000 in my dressing room. They were all all bought in the UK and I'm now in NZ so I can't even give them away because the plug is 'weird'.

@StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes

Not strictly bought but spent the required £20 to get a ‘free’ beauty heroes box from Boots, it arrived with two items missing and all they said was “we don't replace free gifts, heres 200 points as a sorry” points that i cant spend online unless i amass enough other points to spend on something worth the free delivery or the standard delivery charge as they don't accept part payment in points….. so rubbish really

Actually bought, an ice cream maker that took up half the freezer for the mixing bowl thing and took forever to mix enough to actually be edible.

Which items were you missing? I got one of those boxes and I'll never use any of the stuff - I'd be happy to post whatever you were missing to you if you want it.

Magazine subscriptions. I love interiors magazines but realised that they are mostly advertisements and the "features" are just full of PR text and photos from the manufacturers. The Christmas edition is the same every year and during the rest of the year they're rarely very interesting.
You don't get much of a discount for buying a subscription, so it's much cheaper to buy a magazine when you see an interesting one on sale.

@Malin52

Resigned to the garage after 10 metres along with the safety gibbons.

I LOVE the idea of a Safety Gibbon . Do they wear high-vis vests?

@Malin52

Any and all hair tools

• a million heated curling whatnots.
• Babyliss Big Hair. Sent my fine hair flying all over the place and tangled the rest
• Curl secret. Such a fucking secret the thing never curled a hair on my head and fiddly as fuck. It reminds me of the machines they used to use to give ECT. Now considered to be inhumane.

I've now cut all my hair off in protest and I've got a massive box of electrical white elephants to the value of around £70,000,000,000 in my dressing room. They were all all bought in the UK and I'm now in NZ so I can't even give them away because the plug is 'weird'.

I've got a drawer full of hair tools. Every time, I think this latest styling tool is going to be The One. The one that finally manages to get my super-fine, thin hair looking decent. Of course it never is, but that doesn't stop me putting faith in the next one.

Disagree about Babyliss Big Hair though. It's the only one that works for me. Curl Secret is crap though. Expensive and my hair got all tangled up in it. Waste of money.

I'm just glad I've not - yet - been tempted to shell out for the Dyson styler. 400 quid and counting!

@stayathomer

Laiste Olaplex (i always want to say Opalex) Nooooo!!!!!! It's on my wish list!! What happened?

*@stayhomer*

It wasn't awful or anything - just nothing much happened. I have fine longish bleach blond balayage which needs a deep condition every couple of weeks.

I've tried lots of deep conditioners and masks and the best IMO was Philip Kingsley Elastisiser (quite pricey). It's lovely.
I love the smell of the Lee Stafford bright pink stuff from boots but that doesn't seem to do much on my hair.
Like i said i tried the solid coconut oil in a jar (cheap) and that did a really good job of 'mending' my ends and was very close to as good as the PKE above.
Then i splashed out on Olaplex and it just didn't feel any different to after a normal wash and condition. I was a bit gutted after all the hype!

Dyson Pet vacuum cleaner which broke after less than a month.🙄
Replaced with a Shark (half the price) which has lasted 6 years so far.
I hope I haven't jinxed it 😮

Wooden worktops. Need oiling, they don't get it, too much faff, the bits near the tap look horrible, they are coming apart at the join, Lord knows what germs are in there. And they are a horrible ginger colour. Neat cream cleaner left on for an hour or two in fury stripped them down to the bare wood, so I have a snaky stripe of bare wood too.

@Zatapec

Hi, I've been thinking about buying an air fryer, should I not bother? O

Noooooo!