What purchase of yours was a waste of money?

[2025isavibe]

I'm ill in bed and bored. Mines a slow cooker. I don't like stew or casserole, I know you can cook lots of things in it but I never use it. What's yours?

Bought some sunloungers with padding during the pandemic so we could spend two weeks in the garden as if we were on holiday.

Rained every day.

Moved house the following year to a much smaller garden and they've been in garage ever since. We should probably throw/donate/sell them.

Pelvic floor stimulator. My darling old school lovely GYN showed me exactly which one to order on his phone but he said I could “wear it” while working /walking around the house. In reality I need to be lying on the bed. It wasn’t expensive but it looks at me every time I open my drawer to select my toothpaste. Oh yes there you are pelvic floor saver….I am getting to you soon. But alas never.

@alcoholfreelife your kitchen aid blade may be too high if not mixing properly. Look at IG or tick tok or you tube for a video with a dime (us 10cents coin). They drop the dime in the bowl and if it doesn’t move properly your blade needs adjusted. It does make a difference

my dyson has been relegated to the wood floors only house. It never worked great was serviced twice but it just doesn’t pick up off the carpet. I loved the ergonomics of it but I’m truth my 30 year old Hoover with bag size A works best followed by my shark. I actually love the shark and based on the availability of bag size A I’m not the only one pushing around a 30’yr old Hoover

This is an interesting thread, I've found my eufy amazing and the only reason the floors are clean, a knock off IPL from amazon that is beginning to show results and a Dyson that is still going strong have all been good purchases.

However, shoes that don't fit, a cat bed that my cat is strangely terrified of and so many curly hair products that have left my hair in a state have all been waste of money purchases for me.

Exercise bike currently drying clothes on it .I wouldn't mind so much but it's the 2nd time I've bought one to improve my fitness lol

Would I buy the vacuum or bean to cup machine again? I’m not sure about the vacuum one, but yes, I would definitely replace the bean to cup machine. It was a Xmas present a couple (few?) years ago and it is constantly in use. Before that I had the usual espresso machines, plus all the other gadgets including the usual mokka pots, cafetières etc. Mine is a Melitta brand, I’ll just dig out the booklet for the details for you. Ok, so excuse the state of it, I need to do a deep clean, de-calc, replace filter etc. these photos are soooo very outing if anyone I know is on here (tho my posting history is mainly inane nonsense and inconsequential 🫣). So, yes it does have a digital display but not a touch digital display, it basically is to show you which settings you choose, such as the usual strength, size, temp, cleaning, servicing etc blah. Very easy to use, Quick to turn on and start working, no downtime between cups. I do very much love it. I don’t know how much it was, or whether there’s a more recent version of it, assume so, but I know krups can be quite expensive, and possibly this might’ve been around the 300-400£ at the time because I think it was new version and my partner is great with things like electrical/onic devices and does his research beforehand so always good quality.city but also “good” price - eg compared to many other brands that are more expensive and do a gazillion things. They know what’s worth having on something vs all the other extra stuff. I’d imagine they’d be cheaper than that now, but for use and multiple use every single day this workhorse would e paid for itself a long time ago!

Just thought of another waste of money. Two of those gravity loungers for the garden to replace the very old padded loungers I did have.

One has been used three times, the other is still in the plastic wrapping. I got two so if a friend was round we could each have one to lounge on. Bought six years ago, wish I'd never got them, I really don't like them and should have gone to B&M and just bought the padded seat/loungers that I used to have that cost a lot less and were more comfortable.

Also, this is the state of the bodum eBEPO vacuum/suction atm, after using it earlier and before I have to clean it out - it has a keep warm function so I might finish the coffee in there before I do. I can send another photo of when it is actually clean! The newer versions look different. I think they have a black base - I quite like the transparency of mine though. In the top are the used grounds and the coffee is in the bottom. It’s fun to use! Faff-wise, overall, there really are pros and cons of both of these methods, tbh, this or the bean to cup melitta. What is/are your main concerns/must haves etc?
(Do excuse the rather “busy” kitchen in the photos, much lack of space and I’m unable to do much unfortunately rn)

Just nice quick and proper coffee tbh - the Boden one looks like a bit of a faff! I think I'll stick to bean to cup and read about the one that you and availability etc - thank you for all your comments thou - its interesting to hear from people who've actually got them!

Haha 😂 I have a treadmill that has long ago given up being a treadmill and is now living its best life as a clothes horse. Not for drying, but just for…being! 😄

Sell it on a Mulberry FB page. People still pay good money for it.

oooh I'll buy it

A Cusinart soft serve ice cream maker, for $400.00. Followed the ingredients to the t and the i. Triple checked every step of the way. Soft serve was a runny thick shake, it couldn't be poured into a cone it was too runny. Then you kept on checking the consistency and there was precisely a 30 second gap between it being really runny and then too thick that it wouldn't come out of the spout, so you'd end up scooping it out like it was tub of ice cream and not soft serve. I wanted that machine for years. Finally decide to part with the money, and it's a plastic, worthless, useless milkshake/thickshake machine and nothing else. Such a waste of money. I always wanted a soft serve ice cream machine, and I was HEARTBROKEN it didn't work out! 😭

My sister bought her chef husband a tagline pot, it’s only ever even used to store his receipts now he is a black cab driver!!

Hate my eufy, also Mulberry Roxanne dh bought me when ds was a baby. Way too heavy before you put a thing in it and a faff to open and close.

Any particular Karcher window cleaner recommendations as I too fell victim to the cheaper, useless Beldray?

Paid over £800 to have a tree pruned as neighbour said it were blocking the light in his garden (it wasn’t) and then a year later when we had an extension built, the tree was too near so we had it felled!

@Blobbitymacblob Thanks for the laugh 😂! I hate things that beep. I dash to the microwave to try to stop it before it beeps at me. The dishwasher beeps so quietly when it's done that you'd have to have your ear glued to the door in order to hear it. But if I don't open the door as soon as it's finished, half the stuff stays wet. I love my basic washing machine - I leave it on the same programme all the time, occasionally turn the temperature down if I'm feeling frugal, then press start. No fuss and no beeping. And definitely no wi-fi wizardry nonsense!

Air fryer. Won it in a raffle which probably didn't help because it simply wasn't big enough to cook in (family of 4).

Interestingly we use our slow cooker all the time!

Juicer - cleaning it is very fiddly though to be fair I resurrected it after a few years recently and am loving sunshine in a glass every morning ( carrot, orange and apple juice with a nip of ginger).
Also my robot vac- it's not been used for months - i find it quicker to give my hard floors a quick sweep rather than faffing around moving chairs, log baskets etc to allow it proper access

One of those things that makes twirly veggies (Spirallythingy) – pain in the arse to assemble and clean after using for 5 minutes.

Wrong food processor – pain in the arse to assemble and clean after 5 minutes use. Must buy a new one because there are recipes/meals I no longer cook because the blasted machine hates me/I hate it.

Shark vacuum – reviews said it was light and easy to use. ‘Light my arse’ ! Does a good deep clean but is now too heavy for husband or me to use. New GTech is much better and no cable to drag around.

Vax carpet shampooer – it didn’t leave the carpets dry in an hour and took two hours to disassemble and clean. However, the steam mop which was free with it is brilliant !

Stand alone cat run for the patio – should have got a Catio outside the patio doors.

Brick Bread maker

Very niche handmade leather French handbag – never used. I gave my husband the ‘please say you don’t like it’ look but, of course, he said ‘I like it, buy it’. He never was good at reading faces. I know it was my fault to actually buy it but my French isn’t good enough to say ‘sorry, I’ve changed my mind’.

However, the expensive leather Cowboy Boots I bought in the States, despite only having worn them twice are still my much loved, pride and joy and are almost an art installation !

We didn’t buy the slow cooker because it was free from a mail order company (remember them?!) but we came home to a greasy veggie mess on the floor, no meat, but two smug looking cats.

Hoover H-Dry Tumble Drier – it has 12345678987654321 different settings including remote access from phone, wi-fi, probably telepathy but won’t dry towels in one session and takes a duvet cover and tangles it into a tight wet ball. I’ve contacted Hoover ‘Customer Services’ twice and not had a reply.

Our washing machine timer countdown also makes times up as it goes along.

On the other side…..

£30 Lavazza coffee machine is used 2-3 times a day. Love it.

Le Creuset casserole dish.

I prefer my slow cooker. It also keeps an oven free for important stuff (Yorkshire puds !).

I suppose being MN somebody will come on to say I am doing it all wrong and should have inherited a dish made in the 50s when the quality was better.

are your steaks cooked medium rare and what cut of steak do you buy please?
Love steak, may just tempt me to buy an air fryer!

Yes 12 mins total cooks to medium rare. You would need to play around a bit I think to get them just right.

I usually get sirloin or porterhouse or even rump, but I like a fatty edge. I assume our cuts are the same as I don't live in UK. Ours are thick cut, I don't buy the thin steaks. I think they will dry out too quick.

My AF gets used a lot. But only myself and one DC at home now so I am not cooking family sized meals now. You can for sure do steak in batches though.

Slow cooker (sold now) I slow cook pall my stews in a lecruset in the oven. It tastes so much better

Cheap ill fitted clothes. I know my good quality brands now that fits me well

Washer/dryer. The dryer is absolutely useless. Takes hours to dry, shrinks clothes and leave a lot fluff behind