Name something you had to have and now you regret purchasing it?

[BV3273]

Fishtank. Just listed it on Craigslist with the 7,000 other people that have buyers remorse.

[gator15]

My cat. He isn't friendly as he scratches everyone and all our furniture. Definitely not a family pet.

[queso]

Ducati Panigale 1199 S. "S" stands for stupid.

Torture to ride on public roads or in traffic and had the usual (for Ducati anyway) multiple visits to the dealer for warranty work in the first few months of ownership. Sold it at a loss with only 5k on the odometer.

Just have to remind myself not to remember what it was like on the track or there's a risk I'll buy another.

[Nowizard]

Lakehouse. Has not been used regularly due to some other decisions.

Tim

[bluebolt]

A Wii + Mario Cart.

Used the thing maybe 20 times over a year and change and sold it for $40.

[book lover]

My first computer pre Microsoft Windows.

[SimonJester]

Here's a future regret http://wagonmaster.com

Are you going to get the Antarctic Blue Super Sportswagon with a C.B. radio and The Optional Rally Fun-Pack?

[Uncle Pennybags]

A rental property.

Not me but my brother went that rout. He had a professional dead beat tenant who wouldn't pay and it took eight months to evict her. She knew every trick in the book to stay. Owning one property is like owning one stock.

[flamesabers]

Any kitchen device other than a good set of pots, pans and sharp knives. Everything else just adds complexity...

That reminds me of a juicer I bought. The first drink I made had such a horrible taste and smell I didn't want to try to make a second drink. I ended up giving it to my sister since she needed a new juicer. At least it's not taking up space in my kitchen anymore.

I'm surprised that no one says New years resolution exercise machines.

I've never felt tempted (or pressured) to buy an exercise machine. I don't have the space in my apartment and even if I did, the machine would probably be a safety hazard for my two cats.

[SirRunsabit]

Regret owning so much furniture. One piece stands out in particular: this purple sofa. It was a beaut! Then we moved from a house to an apartment. So the sofa went to storage. $1300 sofa plus $100 a month to house it. Then we got a condo, didn't fit through the door! It was donated, had to get rid of it quick.

Regret not buying this print by Alexander Calder. I was broke at the time. And this 19th century eel skin bound Canterbury Tales. It was cool. Those are good regrets to have.

Humorous regret? This wedding cake I'm still paying for

[chuckb84]

The fancy motor and rebuild of my 1976 BMW 2002.

When the original engine needed a major overhaul, I went "all in", got the thing bored and stroked, higher compression ratio, dual side draft Webers, electronic ignition, "tuned" exhaust. It was nice, but loud and exhausting on long drives, and getting the car through emissions testing was an annual nightmare, as it was not yet old enough for antique plates. Then the body rust came . I sold it for a loss of $5K and it could have been much worse. A young man's mistake. Fun, but the dollars could have been used in SO many better ways.

[barnaclebob]

Various garden tilling tools. Nothing works better than a hoe for our garden. A claw/weasel might work but then i risk having 3 useless tilling tools.

Try using a spading fork to dig your garden area. I fertilize, dig it in with the spading fork and them level the soil using the back of a rake. Works great.

I've already got one of those, i'll have to give it a try when we plant garlic. Thanks

Telescope - Used it a couple of times and now it sits in a box.

I think this is ok. You'll pull it out the next time some cool comet goes by. Unless its a real cheapo, then maybe donate it to a thrift store.

Regrets:
Various canning tools and supplies

We love canning and have two different sized pressure canners. What did you get that you regret? Any time we make stew, gumbo, or soup we make a much larger batch and then can 2 to 4 quarts of leftovers in the small pressure canner. A lot of people make canning into a huge day long event but really many things can be done in just an hour or two. The 200lbs of tomatoes we have on order will be a full day or more this weekend...

[tacster]

A Macbook. Overpriced and underperforming.

[michaeljc70]

Mostly upgrading electronic devices (computers, tablets, laptops) when there was really nothing wrong with the original. They typically turned out to be marginally better, but I am usually disappointed.

[bloom2708]

Here's a future regret http://wagonmaster.com

Are you going to get the Antarctic Blue Super Sportswagon with a C.B. radio and The Optional Rally Fun-Pack?

With those prices on those Wagoneers, best to just look.

While nice back in the day, they were rust buckets and didn't ride very good. Nostalgia is very expensive at times.

[BogleMe]

Fairholme Fund; ticker FAIRX.

[Uncle Pennybags]

Are you going to get the Antarctic Blue Super Sportswagon with a C.B. radio and The Optional Rally Fun-Pack?

The car I blew ten grand on back in 79 had a CB. Breaker, breaker good buddy, there is a bear in the air. Truckers would force me off the road.

[Afty]

House with a pool.
Since I stink at maintaining it and turned the water green we hire out for $170/month ($2040/yr) plus incidentals ranging from $50-$200/yr. In the last 5 years we had to re-line the pool and replaced the motor costing about $10k plus the extra electricity I figure in these 5 years we are spending about $5k/yr on this pool. To keep this house in retirement we need to have an extra $125k for a 4% withdrawal of $5k/yr. If we were smart we would just take the loss on the house and move into something smaller. But we are dumbasses.

Thanks for the reminder of why I didn't want a house with a pool. We end up spending $250/yr for a membership to the neighborhood public pool, which seems like a great deal in comparison.

[Pajamas]

When I was much younger, the last drink (or two or three) every time I was out partying.

My cat. He isn't friendly as he scratches everyone and all our furniture. Definitely not a family pet.

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Pet ... 2975247011

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Pet ... 2975271011

https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/t ... 2327108011

There are no bad pets, only bad pet owners!

[Nicolas]

Fairholme Fund; ticker FAIRX.

+1 I bought in when Berkowitz was named Fund Manager of the Decade by Morningstar. But I got out in time and actually made money on it, but not much.

[H-Town]

I can't name of anything that I had to have and now I come to regret the purchase... If I purchase something out of "needs", it's because I actually need it.

[Doom&Gloom]

When I first saw this thread I thought I would have a long list to post. But after thinking more about it, there are many items I wish I hadn't purchased in retrospect but nothing that crosses into regret territory. It would take a pretty large purchase for me to truly regret it. Other than various investments I really can't think of anything in that category.

[keystone]

When we first moved into our house, within the span of a month we had two power outages that lasted 3-4 days each. I bought a 3500 watt generator like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Champion-Power-E ... DSIFE?th=1

Not only have we not had a single power outage since the time of my purchase, it takes up a ton of space in my already small shed. It also seems to annoy one of my neighbors when I run it. With 20/20 hindsight I would have purchased a much quieter and smaller Honda or Yamaha inverter generator.

[gator15]

When I was much younger, the last drink (or two or three) every time I was out partying.

My cat. He isn't friendly as he scratches everyone and all our furniture. Definitely not a family pet.

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Pet ... 2975247011

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Pet ... 2975271011

https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/t ... 2327108011

There are no bad pets, only bad pet owners!

Maybe I am a bad owner despite grooming him and providing several scratch posts around the house. Doesn't change the fact I regret purchasing him.

[fishandgolf]

This is probably inverse of the OP's question but I can only think of a few things that I did not buy and regret that I didn't buy them.

#1......We purchased a home in a wooded area 15+ years ago. The owners had an additional 1/2 acre lot for sale at the time and we could have got it for a song........ Wife was stay at home mom so only one income. However, in-laws were willing to borrow us the money at "0" interest....DW won't go along with the offer. A short time later the lot was sold and a house was build. Every time I look out the window and see that house......I regret not taking up a part-time job to buy the lot.........Happy Wife.....Happy Life

[AllieTB1323]

Our trailer trailer. It is now on consignment at a local dealer. Live and learn.

[vveat]

Son spending kindergarten in a private school. It made sense while the public K was half day, but last year they switched to full day and we still kept him in the private (I guess for continuity and sentimental reasons). Today was his first day in public for 1st grade and he loves it.

$17k down the drain

[MrNewEngland]

Airline tickets to Miami so I could go diving in the Keys from Friday - Wednesday.

The car rental and the hotel both refunded my money with no hassle but the airlines are insisting on a $200 penalty for each way. Neither direction cost $200.

[jazman12]

I have purchased nonrefundable Air Canada tickets to Calgary and I can't go.

This brings up an interesting question. If paying for experiences is more satisfying than paying for goods, then is wasting money on experiences that don't happen more demoralizing than wasting money on goods that are not used.

Victoria

its sad either way

[jazman12]

Life insurance.

that's because you're here to regret it. Think what you have to do to not regret it

[Elsebet]

Chocolate chip cookies. Went grocery shopping hungry, saw the cookies, and had to have them. Now, half a package later, I'm all bloated and I think I've gained like 2 pounds. I'm going to have to run twice as far as I usually do to burn them off.

Most of my regret purchases are food. I don't impulse buy anything else but food. It's a terrible habit.

I often fell victim to the same thing, so we made a rule in our house that if we want a dessert we have to make it from scratch. Certainly cuts down that impulse.

[SavageAmusement]

Amazon Echo

[jdb]

Joining a hoity toity golf club/resort about hours drive from our house. We belong to nice local club, I enjoy playing golf there couple times a week and the restaurant. I had a couple friends who were members at the very hoity toity club and would play there with them, for some reason I decided would be nice to also belong. My two friends no longer as close as we used to be and I almost never bother making hour drive each way plus we have to pay not insubstantial annual membership dues. At end of this year will cut the cord even though means walking away from non refundable $40K initiation fee. An expensive lesson, I call it the avoid hoity toity pretensions lesson.

[runner3081]

My cat. He isn't friendly as he scratches everyone and all our furniture. Definitely not a family pet.

Good call. We have 2 cats. Such a pain, bad choice.

[catdude]

Amazon Echo

+1

The only thing I used my Echo for was listening to internet radio. Plus one of my cats was in the habit of rubbing up against it and knocking it over. So I unplugged it and stuck it in the closet. I've replaced it with an old Logitech Squeezebox Boom -- it works just as well for listening to 'net radio.

[BTDT]

This brings up an interesting question. If paying for experiences is more satisfying than paying for goods, then is wasting money on experiences that don't happen more demoralizing than wasting money on goods that are not used.

Victoria

Yes

[VictoriaF]

I have purchased nonrefundable Air Canada tickets to Calgary and I can't go.

This brings up an interesting question. If paying for experiences is more satisfying than paying for goods, then is wasting money on experiences that don't happen more demoralizing than wasting money on goods that are not used.

Victoria

Yes

You are killing me!

Most of my expenses are on experiences. Thus most of my regrets are about experiences that I canceled because they conflicted with other experiences and experiences that turned out worse than I had anticipated.

Victoria

[StoneyJB]

Classic Mercedes 300E... Great Ride, Wife Loved it but Maintenance costs KILLED me...

[bluebolt]

Amazon Echo

I thought I would regret buying my Echo, but it turns out I use it much more than I thought I would and really get a ton of utility from it.

[stoptothink]

Amazon Echo

I thought I would regret buying my Echo, but it turns out I use it much more than I thought I would and really get a ton of utility from it.

Such as? I've always wondered what the utility of those products is. Seemed to me to be in the same category as smartwatches, a cool new gadget which I have a difficult time coming up with a single way they could make my life easier or more enjoyable.

[runner3081]

Amazon Echo

I thought I would regret buying my Echo, but it turns out I use it much more than I thought I would and really get a ton of utility from it.

Such as? I've always wondered what the utility of those products is. Seemed to me to be in the same category as smartwatches, a cool new gadget which I have a difficult time coming up with a single way they could make my life easier or more enjoyable.

We received the Echo Dot for a birthday.

It is used daily, but only for the purpose of playing music.

[bluebolt]

Amazon Echo

I thought I would regret buying my Echo, but it turns out I use it much more than I thought I would and really get a ton of utility from it.

Such as? I've always wondered what the utility of those products is. Seemed to me to be in the same category as smartwatches, a cool new gadget which I have a difficult time coming up with a single way they could make my life easier or more enjoyable.

In no particular order:
Turn on/off TV/receiver, set TV channel, pause TV
Turn on/off lights & set dim level
Set thermostat temperature
Set timers while cooking
Play music

The first three items required that I have smart home features set up, which I already did. Being able to access them by voice is very convenient.

[mrc]

Amazon Echo

I thought I would regret buying my Echo, but it turns out I use it much more than I thought I would and really get a ton of utility from it.

Such as? I've always wondered what the utility of those products is. Seemed to me to be in the same category as smartwatches, a cool new gadget which I have a difficult time coming up with a single way they could make my life easier or more enjoyable.

In no particular order:
Turn on/off TV/receiver, set TV channel, pause TV
Turn on/off lights & set dim level
Set thermostat temperature
Set timers while cooking
Play music

The first three items required that I have smart home features set up, which I already did. Being able to access them by voice is very convenient.

And now for the handheld remote, or phone app to turn the echo on and off ...

[Doom&Gloom]

Amazon Echo

+1

The only thing I used my Echo for was listening to internet radio. Plus one of my cats was in the habit of rubbing up against it and knocking it over. So I unplugged it and stuck it in the closet. I've replaced it with an old Logitech Squeezebox Boom -- it works just as well for listening to 'net radio.

If a Squeezebox Boom works only "just as well" as the Echo, something is very wrong. The Boom doesn't have voice control, but the quality of the sound puts the Echo to shame. And the Echo is much cheaper than old Booms on eBay (or at least were the last time I looked) and is far more versatile.

We have a Boom and an Echo in the same area (kitchen/small open den). We/I listen to the Boom when I am in the area; when it is just my wife, she uses the Echo. If we had to pick one and only one to keep, I would choose the Boom and my wife would choose the Echo. Different strokes for different folks.

[likegarden]

Small items I no longer like and need I simply put at the curb with a 'FREE" sign on it : a Mantis mini cultivator/ tiller, small brush chipper, vacuum for the leaves in my little pond. Recently I bought a small shower to use after mowing my 1/2 acre lawn on a hot day to give me a needed cool-off, found out that simply using a garden hose on me is as good and less trouble.

[harrychan]

A rental property.

Not me but my brother went that rout. He had a professional dead beat tenant who wouldn't pay and it took eight months to evict her. She knew every trick in the book to stay. Owning one property is like owning one stock.

My friend's in law is going through this. 4 unit apt and leased one to a real estate agent. Thinking he was safe but nope. He was a professional as well. Now he is counter suing the landlord for racial discrimination but offering to drop if he let him walk free and no report to credit agencies.

[The Wizard]

Our trailer trailer. It is now on consignment at a local dealer. Live and learn.

Do you mean Travel Trailer?

[AlwaysBeClimbing]

A boat. It was 30+ years ago, and it still makes me wince to think about it. The biggest and whitest elephant of them all.

[stemikger]

My huge treadmill that takes up too much space in my bedroom

[Mrs.Feeley]

Regrets:
Various canning tools and supplies

We love canning and have two different sized pressure canners. What did you get that you regret? Any time we make stew, gumbo, or soup we make a much larger batch and then can 2 to 4 quarts of leftovers in the small pressure canner. A lot of people make canning into a huge day long event but really many things can be done in just an hour or two. The 200lbs of tomatoes we have on order will be a full day or more this weekend...

For my first canning attempt I cold-canned cucumber slices. It was a disaster. Ended up with 30-some jars of inedible green stuff. They sure looked pretty though and for a while I used them as decorations. In the end I decided to walk away. The jars went fast on the local FreeCycle. Other implements went to more ambitious friends and relatives.

These days I do a lot of freezing. The chest freezer was one of the best things we ever bought.