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?

I think you use less liquid in a slow cooker than an oven or stovetop recipe. Look at the slow cooker (and other) recipes on Kitchen Sanctuary website. I've tried quite a few and never been disappointed with any of them.

Electric spinning foot file. Rubbish and returned to using a cheap foot file instead
I use mine all the time and only just realised you should replace the spinning bit every now and then - have ordered 4 bits off Amazon.
Steam mop - bought after a recommendation on here
Absolute faff to fill,use and store and it seemed to just dampen the dirt and push it into streaks while filling the room with vapour
I like my steam mop thingy (bought off Aldi centre aisle, you stick towelling pads on the bottom) and use it every week on kitchen floor, I'm ashamed at how dirty the pads get.

Don't like slow cooker - everything goes the same brown colour and needs loads of 'artificial seasoning'.
Don't like hand-held steamer so that's gathering dust - I either iron quickly on tea towel on worktop or use hair straighteners for collars and cuffs (yup, I'm a slob).

What do you cook in slow cooker? How do you stop everything being watery and horrible?

We've also got a juicer as we loved having freshly squeezed orange juice when we were on holiday. You do need to buy industrial quantities of oranges to get a couple of glasses of orange juice and they need to be stored somewhere first. Our kitchen worktops are fairly crowded already so it got annoying, in the end I parked the juicer on top of the tumble drier (in the dining room) where it's gathering dust, so not exactly the relaxed holiday vibe one might have expected

I'm getting much better at doing that [passing things on via marketplace etc] sooner rather than later @RunningBlueFox . Pleased to say the popcorn maker made it on marketplace and was collected before I had even had it 6 months!

I'm also running a serious 'use it or lose it' campaign with some items. We're using the wedgewood dinner service every day now rather than just at Christmas/special occasions. Young adult DC took the 'every day' stuff with them when they moved into a flat a couple of months back (with our blessing - didn't fit in dishwasher and DH hated it) so we figured this was better than buying yet more! Actually loving it!

We bought a Panasonic last year and it’s perfect bread every time. Love it!

My waste of money a Beldray hand steamer, you have to hold the switch down when using it and I don't like cleaning.

A hairdryer with a big brush attachment. Could never hold it properly to make my long hair pouffy. I've now got a bob.

A twisty thing with elastic handles for toning my body. I lost weight but too lazy to use it and it didn't stay in one place when I did try it out.

A tagine cooking pot. Nothing else fits in the oven if I use it and because it is tall only one shelf can be used.

I'm sure there are more things but I've got stuff to do.

When we bought our house it had a big multi person spa/jacuzzi bath, which came with no instructions and clearly hadnt been cleaned or maintained
I tried to clean it myself twice but was still having nightmares about biofilm
Got a lovely technician out who pointed out it was some chinese cheap import no-namo brand, hence the lack of instructions, but checked it over, made sure it was electrically safe and sorted out cleaning products. It had a radio that didnt work because the bath was in the basement, controls for various settings and underwater lights
he also pointed out that in his experience, if you dropped something heavy in it and cracked the bath part you could claim it on insurance

We tried it a grand total of once - the double bath was so large that to fill it you needed to empty the hot water tank twice but to keep it useable had to leave it on a warming setting, which filled the entire basement with steam like an old fashioned laundry (theres a theme in my posts). Then had a bath. It was a bath, with some jacuzzi jets and underwater lights. But after that needed to drain and sterilise and clean the damn thing as well as air out all the steam, so that was the opposite of relaxing. Got rid of that and put in a nice freestanding rolltop bath, much more useable, less maintenance and substantially less risk of legionella.

You’re doing it wrong!

Guard dog
He looks the part and sounds the part, But just no use as a guard dog. Wouldn't change him for the world though

Pressure cooker - I went for one with two pots ( one is much smaller ) . I cannot get along with it , really hard to gauge when something is cooked . I use the big pot as a stand alone , with its glass lid . The pressurised lid cannot go in the dishwasher either <sigh>

Henry 3-in-1 - it is massive and if I use it to vacuum it is a proper workout , if I use it on the stairs I need to get someone to hold it , I worry it will fall and kill me . The shampoo bit is great on stairs but the flat one is hard work

Single halogen hob- gave that away
Electric knife - gave away
Mandolin- removed my finger tip so never used again
Robot-Vac - useless , gets wedged under the bed on nothing at all and pootles back to base claiming it is done when there's sock fluff left
Babyliss Big Hair - caught my hair and nearly yanked it out !

I have and love:
Breadmaker
Slow cooker
Soup maker
Dyson Airstrait
Airfryer- DS uses it most , I use the paper liners to keep it cleaner , it is easier to wash
Shark Stratos vacuum, brilliant and the amount of dust'n;hair it collects ( two cats )

Mulberry Elgin bag too heavy for actual use.
Lumea used religiously for 3 months utterly useless. Easily 4k in perfume, I love perfume but I'm going to need to start bathing in it to use it up, got 2 new bottles yesterday. Lots of high end discontinued bottles that I can't replace if used, I know it's bordering addiction.

Louis Vuitton Never full. Skinny straps that dig in, flaps open if you don't fasten the fiddly catch, a pickpockets dream if you use public transport. Never ever use it.

So far the treadmill I bought in January. Just can't get into a routine to use it as I am so tired when I get home from work. Also since Christmas I have had flu, then Covid and my arthritis toes are being very painful. It seemed a great idea at the time.

A SAD lamp. I’d wanted one for years and finally splashed out. Tried it 3 times on minimum and every time I couldn’t sleep after. I know I’m broken (fibromyalgia) but that’s ridiculous.

I’ve a ridiculous amount of clothes and shoes that seemed like a great idea/bargain at the time but that I never wear. I’m planning on doing a car boot sale soon and selling loads for £1 just to get rid.

I also bought a pair of really expensive running shoes…wore them for a few short runs and they were fine, wore them for a half marathon and thought someone had put razor blades in them! Never again. Back to my old style, relatively cheap runners!

I use mine for vegetarian bolognaise or chilli
I use Linda McCartney mince (don't need to brown it first ) onions that I roast and freeze in portions ,tinned tomato, and whatever flavouring .

Hand held Steamer, only lasts a couple of minutes before waiting to cool down & refill water.
Slow Cooker, never had a decent meal from it.
Vax Carpet Cleaner, it’s so big, nowhere to store it.
Vegetable chopper, sooner use a sharp knife, & less to wash.

Air fryer - bought for use during building work before they were all the rage Sen DS wont eat anything cooked in it - sensory.
Ice cream maker - never enough room to chill the pot in the freezer - so expensive to buy decent ingredients also
Soup maker, OH cant cook so was supposed to learn to use this one item - 18 months still unused......

Love my slow cookers, i have 3 🤣

Waste of money:
slow cooker - everything tastes the same
a myriad of coffee machines - so much faff and get blocked too easily
exercise bike - of course!

Genius purchase:
air fryer - use if for so many things and use the recycled paper liners so cleaning just isn't an issue
Bialetti moka pot - several sizes to cover different numbers of people - good coffee every time without the faff
little handheld Dyson vacuum - so much easier than getting the full-sized one out

I bought a Eufy X8 Pro and I’m obsessed with mine! He even managed to climb over things that are in the way 😂 we called ours Melon

Taking out a personal loan and 0% credit card 😔

Cat beds. 5 so far and she’ll use for q few days then go off them

You could buy a label maker next

Kitchen Aid stand mixer! Everyone I know loves them but for me they are a complete faff! The ingredients get stuck on the side of the bowl when you’re mixing which is a pain in the arse to keep moving back to the middle and I find it just doesn’t mix well (it could be a me problem) and they’re so bloody heavy!!! , so it’s been gathering dust in a cupboard, I really need to sell the bloody thing but hubby won’t let me due to how much it cost us 😆 Love my ten quid hand mixer though…