What’s the biggest waste of money you have ever seen?

[3luckystars]

Last summer I was in a newsagent and the woman in front of me bought 11 of those rubishy childrens magazines, she was having a party and wanted them to keep the children busy.

It was €55.

I’m sure there is a lot worse things that people have wasted money on, (and I can’t believe I am still thinking about It) but even one of them magazines is a total waste of money.

Our local council spent a whopping £300,000 on refurbishing our local tiny village library - not rebuilding it, but installing mood lighting, automatic doors, a new staff kitchen and toilet, brand new shelving units, new carpets, new desks/counters, new computers, scanner, copier and printers, etc. It was the talk of the village how much they spent on so little!

Within a year they closed it down and stripped the building - most stuff went into some huge skips they had by a gang of workmen who just ripped stuff apart. No sign of anything being saved for sale or reuse. Within a day it was just an empty shell.

On an individual level - regular take aways or eating out for the sake of it. I am always puzzled when a couple of friends say money is tight so they can’t do an activity (cheap one costing £7pp, just us no kids in most recent case) but then are ordering weekly take aways, grabbing lunches out daily and late night dessert for delivery too - easily spending £100+ each week.

On a national level, there are just too many to list

My husband

The Scottish Government

The £200 million given to a company part-owned by Michelle Mone and her husband for useless PPE which ended up as landfill .

Haha I totally agree. I'm always bemused by people getting McDonald's as a takeaway to eat at home. It is SO expensive once you add delivery costs on and the price hike from Uber Eats/Deliveroo etc you may as well have a decent Chinese or Indian for the same money. I do get McDonald's if we're out and about sometimes but can't understand the appeal of cold fries at home.

I also agree with designer clothes for children that they'll grow out of or get filthy within five minutes.

I'll add those "scent boosters" for laundry. If you use decent washing detergent your laundry will smell clean anyway. Or use a capful of zoflora if you really want extra scent. The scent booster pearls just seem like a total waste of money.

Cycle lanes - the ones that are just strips of white paint on a pavement or side of the road which don't actually go anywhere nor help cyclists, i.e. suddenly stop when the road narrows due to a traffic island or traffic lights.

Same with bus lanes that do the same and last just short distances for no benefit, in fact usually make traffic worse for everyone including buses who still get stuck in queues further back because congestion worse due to narrowing the road for everyone else.

Just councils lazily painting white lines to meet govt targets and spend govt grants highlighted during covid when lots of temporary cycle lanes appeared only to be abandoned again a few months later. Collossal waste of money that should have been spent more wisely.

100% I know exactly which bridge you mean. Complete waste of money

On a personal leave I bought an arcade game machine during lockdown and we don’t play with it anymore, it cost 1k. It’s the only impulse buy of my life but an expensive one.

I have a family member who is obsessed with brands. And is very stretched financially. Once she borrowed £2 k off other family members-ostensibly- because she could not pay her mortgage and bought a Famous Expensive Brand necklace that was made of a pewter pendant on a rubber 'chain' that pretty much cost 75% of what she borrowed.

For me, the biggest waste is probably alcohol. Thankfully i don't smoke but I recently added up how much I was spending on fairly ordinary wine and realised it was (quite literally) pissing money down the drain.

😄 but also 💐

You beat me to it! The whole devolution thing, it’s not been fit for purpose

This bag. It's absolutely obscene imo. Some people don't deserve to be rich.

Hs2 and crossrail

Wow what a revolting man!

Coming all the way to London on the train (££££) and instead of looking at all the amazing history surrounding you…

Going to sodding M&M’s world.

you could have gone to the sweet aisle of little tescos for free.

Most things assume with weddings but especially the flowers and seat covers. You could get rid of those and it wouldn’t affect the day at all.

It actually sounds like a good alternative to a party bag. Largely recyclable, doesn’t contain sweets, promotes reading. My DC went to a few parties where a book was the party bag. This went down well apart from one child who seemed to have read all the choices. Magazine/comic gets round that.

l think this Is going to happen to our library the council have refurbished it with "work stations" and fancy lights and it cost thousands.

another local council debacle ours re purposed a building to make a community hub that's to expensive for anybody to use ! there is people with university degrees making these ridiculous spending decisions !

Expensive brand candles
Stanley Cup

Private number plates. Plus they just make you look like a knob.

HUSBAND IS THAT YOU!🙄😀

Weddings.

@SisterAgatha M+M World is one of life's mysteries.....😂

Crossrail is the Elizabeth line, isn't it? I don't live in London any more but when I am there I find the Elizabeth line excellent, especially useful for getting to and from LHR. I don't imagine it was a waste of money?

Also someone mentioned the O2 upthread. I find it an excellent venue, and again, I can't imagine it was a waste of money?

Now Michelle Mone and those disgraceful shenanigans...