Ridiculous waste of money

[Nika]

I know we all have different priorities and what some people think is important or fun, others can think is ridiculous.

I thought it would be fun to see some different prospectives, so I'll get the ball rolling.

1). Bottle service.
You are paying 400+ for a $30 bottle of vodka and a short lived insincere show of respect.
Even if I was rich, I would not be doing it.

2). $800-$1200 torture devices that some people call shoes.
If the shoe is expensive it should, at least, be excellent in both form and function. If it is so narrow that it requires you to have only 4 toes, so rigid you can pound nails with it, and has the sole of a $12 shoe below its flashy designer exterior, and sits on a stilt that undermines your walking capability more than if you were an ancient chinese woman undergoing foot-binding, than no, it is even close to being "worth it".
(rant inspired by looking unsuccessfully for a gorgeous and functional office shoe for years with no success.)

[disneysteve]

Designer handbags: I see people walking around with Coach bags (real ones, not fakes) and can't imagine what they were thinking. Sometimes they'll say that they got it at the Coach outlet. Big deal. So they paid $400 instead of $600. I don't think my wife has ever paid more than $40 for a handbag and hers look just fine.

[kork13]

Oh dear.... on a forum full of frugal people (and many others who are "getting there"), this topic is going to be expansive.

My additions (for now):
- Electronics. But not just getting a cool cell phone or a shiny new laptop... I mean buying a new one every year -- "THE NEW VERSION IS FINALLY OUT AND I'VE HAD ONE PRE-ORDERED FOR 5 MONTHS !!!!" In a different form of the disorder (isn't it one?), owning 6 different devices that all do the same thing... and you don't even use 4 of them. Be it TV's, computers/laptops/tablets/etc, or game console systems, it blows my mind. One coworker has so many TVs that he now has one in the living room, each bedroom, and his work shed. Another friend owns an XBox, PS3, Wii, and Game Cube. ......really get alot of use out of all that, huh?
- Completely unnecessary automobiles. Whether in number (married couple with no kids but 5 cars/motorcycles) or size (I live in metro Oklahoma City, where trucks/SUVs far outnumber both cattle and people), or in luxury (now with automatic driving!), or in frequency "Oh and btw, this is my 3rd car in the last 5 years."

I'll admit I'm occasionally guilty of some (IMO) terrible wastes of money, even sometimes doing the very things I mention above. But for some people, it's a way of life. How frightening....

[siggy_freud]

It's relative to what makes people happy IMO. I don't get the handbag thing, but accept that some people see certain things in it, whether it's aesthetics, quality, etc that make it worth it to them. Same reason why some pay tons of money for art from certain artists, when something a 6th grade did for free nearly looks the same. All in the eye of the beholder.

Some say my car habits are a ridiculous waste of money, but for me, they're a hobby, a source of joy, and something I can do with my father that helps keep us bonded.

[cypher1]

It's relative to what makes people happy IMO. I don't get the handbag thing, but accept that some people see certain things in it, whether it's aesthetics, quality, etc that make it worth it to them. Same reason why some pay tons of money for art from certain artists, when something a 6th grade did for free nearly looks the same. All in the eye of the beholder.

Some say my car habits are a ridiculous waste of money, but for me, they're a hobby, a source of joy, and something I can do with my father that helps keep us bonded.

I definitely agree. I currently have 4 cars for hobby(hoping to sell 2 of them this weekend). I just spend more than i want to admit on an unlocked Nexus 4 phone from Google. I don't care for advertising name brands for clothes, and never understood designer handbags. But then again I've splurged on certain types of furniture for my home. I could've stuck with some cheap set at Ikea but decided to put more into certain items for better quality. It all goes back to priorities and affordability.

[UnknownXV]

Designer handbags: I see people walking around with Coach bags (real ones, not fakes) and can't imagine what they were thinking. Sometimes they'll say that they got it at the Coach outlet. Big deal. So they paid $400 instead of $600. I don't think my wife has ever paid more than $40 for a handbag and hers look just fine.

Exactly. Even with a million dollars in the bank I'd never spend more than 60 bucks for a bag. But then, I'm not a girl, so I guess perspectives are different. I would blow a few grand on an epic gaming PC.. so I guess we all have our things.

[disneysteve]

Wristwatches: A $29 Timex will tell you the time just as well as a $15,000 Rolex. I can understand wanting a certain style or look but for maybe $100-$200 you should be able to match pretty much any style you want.

[Nika]

Some of these you guys listed I don't think of as a waste.

We always have newest iphone and ipads - but we sell the old ones and they hold their value well.

Purses are a woman thing. That being said, don't get me started on Coach.
First off, it is not a status symbol of the well to do. It is a status symbol of the middle class. Those are people who are buying these bags. Rich people don't wear Coach, or things with prominently displayed giant logos, for that matter.

But my beef with Coach is that the quality does not support the price. When I was in school, I remember drooling over a coach wallet - it was thin, with buttery soft yet smooth leather, almost invisible stitching. Now the leather is rough, think, not flexible(and a lot of items are made of plastic or canvas), stitching is in your face, and you see things like crookedly glued on PLASTIC hardware... and yet it is marketed as a luxury item. And those hideous thing with Cs splashed over canvas material.
I go in from time to time, but always am disappointed (got a nice keychain recently though).

But this has happened to a lot of luxury brands, that used to be good until they became main stream and than they think that brand name alone is enough and lets cut costs on production as much as we can while raising the price.

Watches I would classify as jewelry and look at its price accordingly. I don't need any watch, but I bought a $900 Mikimoto watch on my recent trip to Japan. Encrusted with Mikimoto pearls. Beautiful, not necessary (I can tell time from my phone). Jewelry is not necessary at all, it is fun, it is a splurge and every woman has some.

[phantom]

I have to admit that my mom owns a Coach bag. She got it at the outlet and paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 for it. I draw the line at $60 for purses, and often get them for much less than that, so it is a lot more than I would spend. But, I can't deny that my mom gets a ton of enjoyment out of that little purse. She uses it a lot and beams anytime someone compliments her on it. Maybe she doesn't get enough enjoyment to fully justify the price, but I don't think the price is completely out of line given how much she uses and enjoys it.

The most ridiculous waste of money I ever saw was at a casino. I watched a lady sit down at a machine that was $100 a spin and start casually feeding it $100 bills. After about 4 spins, her biggest concern was that no one had come to ask what she wanted to drink. She didn't seem bothered that she'd just put $400 in a machine in return for nothing. I didn't stick around to find out if she ever got her drink or how many more hundreds she fed into the machine. It was too painful for me to watch. I can't imagine how much money I would have to have before I could bring myself to pay $100 to watch some wheels spin for less than a minute.

[rxtrom]

What is ridiculous to some is a joy for others.

I don't think this thread was meant to bash the things people enjoy but there is a wide range of perception and knowledge in these forums and what will be ridiculous to some will be a joy to others.

Bottle service and $1200 shoes sure, but coach bags and the newest electronic purchases are pretty common. Most people find those particular things a hobby or enjoy saving to buy them.

Just a thought.

[LuckyRobin]

This is a loaded one, but cigarettes. They end up giving you cancer, heart disease, emphysema, or all three. They ruin your teeth, and they make you stink, your clothes, your hair, your breath. And your home becomes permeated with it. And yet people pay for that privelege to the tune of many boxes or a carton a week, it costs a small fortune, and they are often bought over more important things.

[disneysteve]

Some of these you guys listed I don't think of as a waste.

I think that's exactly the point of the thread. What do you consider a waste of money that other people seem perfectly fine with?

The most ridiculous waste of money I ever saw was at a casino. I watched a lady sit down at a machine that was $100 a spin and start casually feeding it $100 bills. I can't imagine how much money I would have to have before I could bring myself to pay $100 to watch some wheels spin for less than a minute.

Guilty as charged. Okay, so maybe I don't feed a slot machine $100/spin but my wife and I do enjoy going to the casinos. We were there just last week. I used to look at it as much more of a waste than I do now once I got more into it and saw the perks and benefits one gets along the way. They don't always balance out the losses but they do help a lot.

Last week, I ended our visit up $75. Coincidentally, my wife ended down $75 so we had a couple of hours of entertainment, a few free drinks, earned reward points that we will use on a future trip most likely for a free meal, and the whole trip cost us nothing. I don't have a problem with that. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, sometimes we break even. It is generally inexpensive fun.

[phantom]

Guilty as charged. Okay, so maybe I don't feed a slot machine $100/spin but my wife and I do enjoy going to the casinos. We were there just last week. I used to look at it as much more of a waste than I do now once I got more into it and saw the perks and benefits one gets along the way. They don't always balance out the losses but they do help a lot.

Last week, I ended our visit up $75. Coincidentally, my wife ended down $75 so we had a couple of hours of entertainment, a few free drinks, earned reward points that we will use on a future trip most likely for a free meal, and the whole trip cost us nothing. I don't have a problem with that. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, sometimes we break even. It is generally inexpensive fun.

I've come around a bit on casinos myself. I did have to actually go to one to see the lady feeding hundreds into a machine after all. That particular night, my husband and his friend found a pair of 20 line penny machines. They each put in $10 and watched to see who would do better on each spin. After about half an hour, my husband was down a dollar and his friend was up two dollars. Even if my husband had lost more, I'd still say it was worthwhile, especially considering the free drinks. But, I still find it a bit frightening how easily some people are parted with their money in casinos.

[MakeAStash]

lottery tickets

[JoeP]

Waste of money for me:

1. Pay TV
2. Expensive (or even in most cases, new) cars
3. Designer clothing and accessories
4. Since my time=money, standing in line for Black Friday
5. Vanity license plates
6. Buying cutting edge technology often, even if the current model meets one's needs
7. Timeshares
8. McMansions