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?

A bread maker a long time ago. I barely used it, and it tipped me into credit card debt that lasted several years.

Theres something wrong there - I've had them for 20years and LOVE them - have you got the correct 'beaters' to keep the sides clean? They are heavy though.

Waste of money-
Must have ideas (on fb) veg chopper - I got so carried away by the glowing reviews on fb, I ordered 2 ! Most useless piece of kit ever! Used or rather tried to use twice, In a drawer now.Easier/ quicker to chop onions/ peppers by hand! So messy and pointless, I’m annoyed with myself for buying these.
Philips lumea - used it about 3 times , now cba to use, sitting in a drawer too!
Lots of clothes with tags on and not used ( mainly branded like Hobbs, Jigsaw, laura ashley etc) and shoes too , seemed like a good idea then. Thought I’d put them on ebay / Vinted but noticed that it seems people only want to pay 50p/ 1£ for items and pricier branded stuff doesn’t sell. What to do !
Hot tub that came with the house- money pit and never been used.

A Ted Baker bag, bought with some birthday money and is too uncomfortable to use as the straps keep slipping off my shoulder, also Clark's ankle boots, lovely boots but a bit too high for me to wear, felt as if I was going to tip over. Both sitting in the cupboard having been used just a couple of times.

A lovely expensive dog kennel, bought online for putting the cat's litter tray in so he could go outside and not get wet. He wouldn't use the tray and would just sprawl out in the front of the kennel in the sun. Still in the garage, have tried to sell twice but think will have to almost give it away for it to go.

On the plus side, I love the slow cooker, am a big stew fan in the winter, love my air fryer, wish I hadn't bought the expensive Neff oven when the kitchen was upgraded but didn't know how much difference the air fryer would make and how little I would use the oven. 🙁

I use my slow cooker loads, always with recipes from Taming Twins which are really good. Before that I had lots of watery failures!

www.tamingtwins.com

Pedal exerciser. My back is too bad to use it unfortunately.

@Mabiscuit

I got one of the Beldray window vacs, it broke within a month. TBF to Beldray they gave me a refund straight away. I have got a Beldray electronic brush which is a fantastic bit of kit.

I just have the attachment it came with as I assumed (until today😆 that the one they sell with the mixer is the right one to use 🫣 😬) I did buy the glass bowl though as I thought it was the stainless steel bowl that was the problem so shelled out on a snazzy glass one! Didn’t solve the issue….

Dyson handheld. Currently in the garage waiting to go to the dump, along with the Dyson Eye. Rubbish products from a crap company. I love my Eufy though.

All those with IPL and hair wraps lying around…. i’ll gladly store them for you 😂

Yes, you have to reduce the liquid you use quite substantially. You can probably get lots of info about this off Google.

I had a Lumea in my cupboard for years gathering dust, and finally made myself use it. It’s been so effective (I did legs, armpits, and bikini line) and now I wish I hadn’t waited until I was 47 to do it 😁

Same here. I still make my own bread but use a kitchen aid mixer with a dough hook and bake the bread in the oven. I use exactly the same recipe and proportions as when l had the bread maker and it makes a beautiful loaf - and yet every single time l used the bread maker it came out like a brick !!

Stick with the IPL i haven't shaved once this year. I used to have to shave daily

@Cyclebabble

1. I can't believe you took the spoons back because of the staining you caused.
2. I can't believe John Lewis capitulated and gave you a refund even though it was completely your fault, not the manufacturers

About 500 dresses of crap quality over my 20s and 30s. Makes me cringe to think about it.

Sell it, lots of Facebook groups for second hand mulberry bags.m, especially if you’ve got the receipts, dust bags etc

Any charity shop that can PAT test (you will know as they will sell electrical items) would love it.

A steam mop thing. Too much of a faff to use and didn’t clean as (naively) expected.
Slow cooker, hardly ever used, probably because it’s in a high cupboard (I don’t have much worktop space) and is a PITA to lug out.

OTOH I love my very ancient Kenwood Chef. Makes pastry, cakes and meringues* a doddle, not that I make those very often. I don’t generally go for kitchen gadgets - I’d need a much bigger kitchen.

*in particular the mega lemon meringue pie I make annually for dh’s birthday, and maybe one other during the year!

My dh bought me a Mulberry bag for my 50th, £1200 😳 I use it a lot and love the bag, but can’t help feeling it’s just too much for a ‘bag’

Agree. Also, most people l know with a slow cooker tend to bung in raw ingredients and just switch it on. If you want good results you still have to sear meat and sauté onions/veg etc, before adding, otherwise the liquid just seeps out and waters things down. As you say, you do need to reduce the liquid content to allow for the long cooking.

I second the hair straightener brush. Extremely heavy and took ages to dry my hair. I sold it on Marketplace, and went back to using my professional hair dryer and wet/dry hair straighteners.

Best way to cook a joint is in a slow cooker. Pulled pork, beef to die fur, easy chicken. I chop a carrot into 4 to act as a trivet, then put the meat in, add some seasoning, and cook on slow overnight first Sunday lunch or in the day for an evening meal. So easy!

I used my slow cooker loads!

The biggest waste of money was a coat. I was on holiday in Portugal in 2001 and next door was a designer shop. In the window was a gorgeous winter coat. Unbeknownst to me, my husband bought that coat and presented it to me when we got home. It cost about £2,000.

It didn't fit me properly, looked hideous ..... But the worst part was, it was made of fox fur. The outside was leather, but inside was fur that you saw on the sleeve turn ups and large collar.

I wore it twice as I felt I should and I kept waiting for someone to tip a bucket of red paint over me. After it had sat in a bag for many years I tried to sell it .... but I couldn't put it online as it was real fur, and I enquired online to various Preloved sites, and no one wanted it.

After 24yrs of owning it and hating it ..... It went in the skip in march when I moved.

They have great suction, certainly totally sufficient unless you have very heavy/shaggy carpets or rugs and they last a lifetime. Not sure you could do much better if someone is on sub £200 budget.