What did you used to waste money on in the past and now find incredible?

[Fortunefavours1]

I'm trying to cut out unnecessary spending (have cut down massively already) and would really appreciate some inspiration.

My question is, are there things that you used to buy in the past that you wouldn't dream of now? In fact, things that now horrify you when you think of how much you spent over the years?

Mine are:

clothes, shoes

perfumes

crap from eBay cos it was so easy to PayPal and buy

Serving bowls (goodness knows why)

kid's toys

Toiletries. I could go on but will stop there.

What's yours?

Alcohol - easily £25-£40 a week on 3 bottles. I don't drink now so that's a huge saving.
Food at work - WFH so no cafe or coffees.

Magazines
Paperback books
Pub / restaurant meals out
Meal deal lunches
Petrol

I have saved a fortune since last March WFH and with kindle unlimited

Big nights out a couple of times a month - drinks/taxis/cocaine. Would have a massive house or no mortgage by now if I hadn't done that for 10-12 years. Good fun tho, so not all a waste!

Gel nail extensions nails fortnightly- I have a manual job that meant they constantly chip/ break completely so sometimes only lasted a few days. Now I do press ons that last one night, if the mood hits me.

Tan- just owning my paleness these days.

Iced coffee- just brought a blender, big syrups and sauce and reusable frappe cups, way cheaper and still feeds the addiction

£400 online accounting course- needed to do it in person, lost motivation after a month.

Boots general stuff and make up- would ‘try different products’ eg.use once decide I don’t like and 2 years later throw away because off.

Books. I often would buy expensive hard cover works of fiction because I didn't want to wait for the paperback. Now I download them to my Kindle.

Hair extensions, spray tans and acrylic nails on both hands and feet. The amount of money I used to spend was more than my car payment has ever been. Scary how much money I spent there

I was a Starbucks gold rewards member for about 3 years. Essentially you got 1 star per purchase, and I think it was 50 stars to gold membership then another 50 stars to maintain it each year.

So I spent ~£500 per year at Starbucks for the sake of a couple free drinks and free syrup mix ins 🤦🏼‍♀️

Smoking!

Only just worked it out roughly but over 10 years I possibly spent £10K on fags.

Clothes probably.
In my defence I had a job that involved meetig lots of posh people, CEOs, University professors, lots of international travel- I would think nothing of spending £600 on a coat.
I also spent a lot on holidays- Bali, Sri Lanka, Seychelles etc.
I now work totally online and could spend the day in my jammies, so no longer have any posh clothes.

I spent quite a lot on nights out (meals, drinks, taxis, clothes ) in my early twenties, but actually I don't regret it at all. I think a bit of hedonism is fine and life is only lived once. I was ill for much of my late twenties and then had children, so I am glad I had got the partying out of my system and I have some amazing memories of glamorous nights out!

I do regret the amount I spent on sad supermarket sandwiches and meal deals, and on drinks from the work canteen because I wasn't organised to bring my own. But the ladies who ran the work canteen were made redundant recently and everyone was so upset as they were so friendly and hard working.

I do regret spending so much money on phone contracts for so long. I have a cheap handset and a £10 Giffgaff bundle now and it is all I need.

I dont see extreme frugality as a virtue and if things bring us pleasure then I don't think we should feel obliged to give them up. It is fine to enjoy life too. But I agree about reflecting on whether the things we are spending on really do bring us pleasure.

Jewellery from QVC. Other crap from QVC.

Magazines.

Really annoyed with myself even though it’s a long time ago now.

Omg. In my twenties the money I wasted on-

Smoking
Taxis
Going out
Magazines
Wine

I was always in debt. Had a great social life and knew everything about z list celebs! Chain smoked. Had terrible anxiety over being broke and my life going nowhere. Never had money for nice clothes. I caused my own difficulties completely!

Wish my parents had taught me at a younger age the value of money.

Oh god -everything! Makes me sick if I think about it. When kids were small I was cash rich and time poor and bought so much I could have borrowed (books from library) clothes (far more than they needed) loadsa toys DVD’s and loads of fast fashion for me. Now spending my time massively de-cluttering.

I love this thread but I've come to the conclusion that I'm a bit .... well, odd.

In my younger days, I didn't spend money on clothes, makeup, eating out and all that jazz because I didn't have the money to spend. Now I'm older with no mortgage, I can spend it like it's going out of fashion when I get the urge.

I've done it all wrong, haven't I?

I'm an accountant: should have been a bloody lion tamer

Horse Willy washer
Best thing I have ever read 😂

Sainsburys deliveries. Started shopping in Lidl in person and my shopping bill is half what it was.

New clothes for my kids - mostly buy second hand bundles now, often gifted clothes too - saves a fortune.

Ubers. I added how much I spent on Ubers in 2019 and it really shocked me.

What's really saved us money is that my DD has been doing uni from home. That's saved us thousands in room and board fees. DS was at uni this fall but will be home for the spring semester, saving us a load on his fees.

Great thread, really interesting how things have changed for people.

I generally regret nothing I've spent money on as I've enjoyed it all, but perhaps all car related expenses

Lunch.
Drinking out. All those ‘shall we meet for a quick drink’ times.
Amazed at how much I used to spend on entertainment, restaurants etc. Don’t consider it a waste but bloody hell !

This was meant to be quite a light hearted thread. However, I've really appreciated those who've commented along the lines of something that brings you geniune joy, makes your life easier or adds something to it in any way, is not a waste of money.

I've been thinking that I've become almost too frugal, and these responses have given me much food for thought.

Thanks all, and season's greetings to you and yours!