Have you ever bought something and started feeling buyer’s remorse sometime later? Or maybe you purchased something for a new hobby that you forgot about a week later, rendering that purchase completely useless?
A 2019 survey by Ladder and OnePoll revealed that an average American spends $1,497 per month on non-essential items, so you probably have. The researchers also found that people make approximately five impulse purchases a month.
All this data might make it seem that we’re an extremely consumerist culture. But maybe it isn’t always like that? Curious to know stories about people’s most regrettable purchases, one person asked online: “What is the worst purchase you’ve ever made?”
Bored Panda had a conversation with the person who started this thread, user u/lilsparrow18. They kindly agreed to tell us more about their worst-ever purchase and what they think about consumerism and the oversaturation of things.
#1
An HP printer that, if you put in the ink that CAME with the printer, it locked you into their ink subscription service so that you could not even use /legitimately purchased actual HP ink/ that was not purchased via the subscription. Which means that if you need ink but don’t want a subscription, you have to buy fake ink. But using fake ink completely invalidates the warranty, so they won’t even help you fix any future problems with your printer.
I threw it out even though it technically still worked, because I didn’t want to put another user through the b******t of trying to hack your own printer to use LEGITIMATE INK, and bought a Canon with ink tanks. No regrets.
F**k HP. I am never purchasing any of their products ever again. As far as I’m concerned they owe me $200.
Image source: smuffleupagus, TAKA@P.P.R.S / flickr
#2
Garments that didn’t fit me but I bought them because I was going to lose weight.
Image source: terransLoc, Rachel Claire / pexels
#3
I once bought a bed for my cat, good bed, comfy af, that mf didnt even used it a single time and slept in the box of the bed
Image source: Gaara34251, baby0panda / reddit
#4
Got really into bowling, watched all the videos, practiced my form, etc.
Went and bought bowling balls for me and the gf, had them fitted and drilled, bags to carry them, bowling shoes. All in all, it came out to $1200.
We went to our local bowling alley on a Monday night and the place WAS PACKED!!
So, we start talking with people and find out the reason that its so busy is because today is the last day it is open before the building was scheduled to be demolished.
Next closest bowling alley is like 3 hours away. So we played two games with our new fancy bowling gear and it’s been sitting in my garage for 4 years now.
Image source: lostsparrow131986, Pavel Danilyuk / pexels
#5
Expensive mandatory school books that you never end up using for the entire course.
Image source: UselesslyDiscrete, Streetwindy / pexels
#6
I’d say 20 or so funny dinosaur hats when being super drunk. But then again, I unexepectedly received a package with 20 funny dinosaur caps, which was kidna awesome.
Image source: Jeggster, Robert Howie / flickr
#7
Double-Fisted Cheeseburger Ruffles.
I have never returned a bag of chips before in my life *ever.*
I opened the bag walking through the parking lot and ate a chip.
The pungent taste of vomit immediately filled my senses. It stopped me dead in my step.
I did a complete about face and walked right back into the store to the returns dept.
I explained the situation and convinced the girl to try one of the chips. She spit it out.
Worst Ruffles flavor **ever.**
Image source: ImportantComb9997, CHRIS CAPPELLO / square seed
#8
A wedding.
Getting divorced costs more, but I consider that money well spent.
Image source: matandola, Lukas / pexels
#9
I needed some bonding material added to my 2 front teeth, as they were losing enamel. The dentist talked me into adding 8 crowns (upper) instead so everything would match. He then proceeded to drill down my teeth, too much. They looked more like tooth PICKS by the time he finished drilling… 6 1/2 hours later. Then temporaries, then ‘permanent’ crowns. The crowns keep popping out, there’s not enough tooth underneath to hold the crowns. This craziness cost $15,000 plus he insisted I do ‘crown lengthening’ (miserable and unnecessary periodontal procedure) for another $2,500. The worst purchase from hell. He now has the audacity to act like he’s doing me a favor when I return to have him recement these crowns.
Image source: Eiffel-Tower777, Pavel Danilyuk / pexels
#10
Probably micro transactions in video games. I’ve wasted a lot of money on games that I don’t play anymore. I really wish I could refund them all and get my money back
Image source: Daito_Anonymous, Alena Darmel / pexels
#11
A Samsung fridge. Thought it was so pretty. Didn’t make enough ice, melted all over the inside of my fridge multiple times. Then I found out I was lucky because other people’s caught fire. I have a Bosch now. Much better. And I have ice more often than twice a week.
Image source: MarlenaEvans, Kārlis Dambrāns / flickr
#12
I would have to say an RV trailer we paid about $26,000 for. It still is a great trailer but if we added up all the days we stayed in it and then multiplied it by $300 (for a fancy hotel room a night) I doubt the total would be over $26,000. Plus generators, gasoline, miles per gallon, etc..
Image source: DebianDog, Clément Proust / pexels
#13
University tuition , biggest waste, should have just learnt dropshipping / ecom or something online instead of studying health sci and paying thru my a*s for it
Image source: Rhaynier, Gül Işık / pexels
#14
Infomercial at 2am. Brand new credit card at age 18. Ended up ordering 200+ pocketknives, two sets of samurai swords, and a large fantasy sword for a very persuasive salesman from that commercial.
Image source: The_CDXX, Funky_Ducky / reddit
#15
Months of health insurance at $1,288 a pop that I don’t even use most of the time; just have it in case something does happen so maybe I won’t go bankrupt.
Image source: No-Two79, Thirdman / pexels
#16
Well I just came back from my first backcountry ski trip with my new backcountry skis, skins, backpack, poles, transceiver.
Turns out I really really hate skinning up hill.
Image source: MastodonPristine8986, Djordje Petrovic / pexels
#17
A Treadmill. If you’ve purchased exercise equipment, you know exactly what I mean. Not only was it hella expensive, it sat there unused, collecting dust and taking up valuable real estate in the guest room. It’s a pain to move and even more of a pain to try to get rid of.
Image source: hereforthegangbangg, normanack / flickr
#18
My first car. A ’99 Kia Sephia. I was 21 & went into the dealership alone as a young unexperienced woman. Got totally screwed on the financing but I didn’t know any better. Found broken glass all over the backseat the next morning. Alignment was all messed up. My mom went down & raised hell at the dealership. I had one issue after another with that car. I ended up suing Kia & won a settlement. Best day ever was when I got rear-ended & the car was totaled. It was a minor collision but the car was worth so little it was more cost worthy to just total it. Went & bought a Toyota. These days I drive Subarus. I will never purchase a Kia again.
Image source: Ok-Banana-7777, Spanish Coches / flickr
#19
I paid ten grand for the full self driving module on my Tesla model 3.
Image source: Ok-Scarcity-5754, Mike Fonseca / flickr
#20
Beats headphones. And this is coming from someone who also bought a ZUNE!
Image source: anonymoususernamew, Parag Deshmukh / pexels
#21
A piano. I couldn’t play then, and I can’t play now.
Image source: quoththeraven1990, cottonbro studio / pexels
#22
I accidentally over drafted at Starbucks when I was working in retail. That cost me damn near $40 for a salted caramel Frappuccino.
Image source: Rachael1188, PirateAttackNeckScar / reddit
#23
A Simpsons magic 8 ball. I keep it on a shelf as a reminder that I can be really stupid and not to be so wasteful.
Image source: Potential-Tone-3628, cha_chi82 / reddit
#24
Bought a $200 travel backpack to use for my trip to Japan. Unfortunately the backpack didn’t hold much space and when I was caught in the rain with it, the black colour from the zips leaked out onto the bag.
Image source: Moon_Jewel90, Ravindra rawat / pexels
#25
I bought a deli slicer for the house when I don’t actually buy bulk deli meats and cheeses.
Image source: vetheros37, 38DDs_Please / reddit
#26
I paid a whole bunch of money purchasing and training a service dog for my disabled daughter. The dog is very nice, but does not perform any of the tasks that he was trained for. The trainer had the dog full time for almost 1 year and the total cost was over $20,000. My wife wants to send him back for more training, but I’m wondering if it is just a sunk cost fallacy at this point.
Image source: cptjaydvm, My Photo Journeys / flickr
#27
Fjallraven Kanken were very popular in my school and I begged my dad for one on bday. So he spent $120 on original, waterproof Kanken backpack just for me. It got dirty extremely quickly and it couldn’t be cleaned. Not worth it. I have it for 3 years and it looks worse than my $25 school backpack that I used for over 4 years.
Image source: Ignis3144, David Hall / flickr
#28
A used FIAT. Big mistake.
Image source: WheeZee65, crash71100 / flickr
#29
Purchasing c**p versions of items and then having to go and buy the expensive version eventually. Done it on loads of items l.
Image source: Difficult-Set-3151, Hunchmine / reddit
#30
Tattoos
Image source: golemslayeruwu, Pavel Danilyuk / pexels
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