Money you may as well have set on fire

[Snickernoodle]

Like you literally got NOTHING for it.
DD wanted to go to drama club for ages. Loved the first term. Asked if she wanted to do the second term. No sooner had a I sent the money across she came and told me she didn't want to do it and has been moaning and tantruming about it ever since. £90 completely wasted. I'm feeling pretty salty about it atm. Help me feel better about it with your wasted money stories?

One that might be a bit controversial I suppose- money that’s been spent on my three nephews. Obviously I was happy to do so at the time , and we have had some great fun / days out , however neither the time or the money is reciprocated to my children……. It’s taken me 6 years but I am going to be cutting spending by 90% from on

oh and swimming lessons for my youngest 🙄

and now that I’m thinking about it, possibly my wedding. - been married a long time and still very much together but maybe we didn’t need such expensive dresses, cakes cars ect

The comedian Rob Beckett said that his father told him to mentally set aside a sum of money every year called The Idiot Tax to cover things like this. Then you can just "pay up" and forget about it because it's already been allocated.

Clubs for my daughter also. Most of a term of stagecoach that she decided she didn't want to go to a few weeks into the term. She wanted gymnastics instead. Decided ok I'll swap the clubs and found that gymnastics was cheaper. Paid for the rest of term for that and when it got to end of term I paid for the next term. Then she decided she didn't want to go to that either.
So now she does no clubs apart from swimming lessons! But suppose as I'm not paying for clubs now I'm saving money!

Many years ago bought a epilator device. That pulled hairs out of let's I think. Paid a few hundred for it and never used it.

Few years ago paid for flights to Japan. Was a year after covid. As we approach the date found out that Japan wasn't easing their covid restrictions so made the decision to move our holiday to somewhere that was letting tourists in. Couldn't cancel tickets for a refund, the company didn't allow that as the flight was still going to Japan, they just weren't letting tourists in! So only option was to pay about £1000 fee to change the tickets to another destination. Tried to claim back something on insurance but they rejected it. Also had to get flights going via Germany to go to Mexico as that was the only route with the company we booked tickets with!

A tank full of petrol in a diesel car, just 2 days after returning a petrol hire car and then filling up our own diesel car. Luckily I realised at the pump and didn't drive it.

Paying £25 a head for a laser birthday party when DD was about 10 and ending up being £150 out of pocket for the 6 no shows. Never again.

Have thought of another...

First house bought many years ago when I was much younger and stupider, after two nears when we needed to remortgage, rates were getting a bit high and my mum had been saying that her mortgage got up to 12% back in whatever year... I panicked and felt we had to fix at whatever rate we could get before it went up again. Remortgaged at 5.75% for 5 years. Well a few months later the prices went down and down and down then stayed that way until recently! We were stuck on that rate while the base rate was super low. Remember mentioning to my mum why we fixed and she said oh the rates will never go that high again!!!

Vax Onepwr Glide- you’ll still need a mop and a vacuum as this does a poor job of both. It doesn’t get into corners or reach any floor that isn’t perfectly level. It’s big and very heavy so awkward to store. Battery life not great. Wish I hadn’t bought it!

Just spent $2.1k (aud) on my car to fix some issues. Picked it up from the garage, drove it down the road, and the transmission packed in.. might get $500 scrapping it now. Such a waste. Sickening.

Dance costumes for endless shows, then tickets for said shows. Paying to sit through hours of other people’s kids performing just to catch a glimpse of mine. Also, paying the contract on a brand new iPhone that DD1 lost on a night out.
Best not to think about it 😂

Got a dog. Brought a new (second hand) car to accommodate him. He hates car travel.

My Nokia mobile pay-as-you-go phone. No contract yet if I put £ on it, but don't use it the money goes anyway. I've put £30 on it and not made one call as it is for emergencies only.

Fell for a Ponsie scheme which included workmates. Didn't lose too much but it left a nasty taste....

Is anyone else getting an ad for the Disney channel's show about the Kardashians popping up in this thread about wasting money?

I pay £9k a year for a pony I don’t ride and who has been lame more than sound for 16 years.

Not enough information 😂
Why do you have an £850 washing machine that you never use?
And what does this washing machine do for £850?

Loads of things.

DH has a hobby that he says would be cheaper to stand in the shower and rip up £50 notes (sailing). I used to ride horses and that was the same although it came with the additional benefits of losing toenails to being stood on and breaking feet.

But for me now- it's got to be alcohol. Sharing a bottle of wine a day is literally pissing money down the drain so we decided to stop drinking last week. Stopping all the random 'shall we just nip to the pub because we are bored?' will certainly save mega bucks as well. DH used to smoke- so that was rather more literally setting money on fire.

Cheap vacuum cleaners. I have 2 cats. The short-haired one seems to shed more weirdly enough. I finally got a Titan after someone on this site reccomended it and its really good, though heavy to haul around and you can't do it upright (its shaped like a Henry) which hurts my hypermobile back. If it was upright shaped it would be perfect.

Cashemere wrap, I managed to destroy it as it accidentally went in the tumble dryer. Various skin stuff that I ended up binning because it was really just pointless or I had a reaction to.

It's walking machine not washing machine 😁

God so much.

Generally, tickets for events that I don't end up going to (health / transport/ logistics or sometimes just too tired).

A specific one that makes me 😡 ExBF never had any money. He did all the driving if we went anywhere as I couldn't drive at the time. I paid for everything, meals out, tickets, accommodation if we went away.

We were going somewhere in bad weather and he said he needed a new tyre. Garage said he actually needed 3.
I paid.
Car broke down and couldn't be repaired about 2 weeks later. £100s wasted.

Yes, I read walking machine as “washing machine” at first glance! Wondered if PP hand washed everything …

Ditto and wondered why it was in the spare room.

After 20 lessons, my son decided driving wasn't really for him.

Craft supplies. I have far too much, and will never use it all.

Try a peloton membership and use your phone / iPad to stream the classes when you’re on it.
It’s less boring than just using them, there are classes as short as ten minutes so it’s easy to fit them in and there are challenges etc to do to keep you motivated.

In lockdown no.1 I bought a beautiful dress online. Yards of swishy, drapey tiered material and well crafted. Stunning on the model, looked like a nightie on me. Someone got a bargain at the charity shop.