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Arguably every single one of us is guilty of buying things we don't necessarily need. The various items purchased in the heat of the moment, subscriptions we should have remembered to cancel, or the premium next-day deliveries we never use. These are just some of the many things people waste money on. And the price individuals pay for stupidity, forgetfulness, or impulsiveness is high.
Yet again, things that are a waste of money for some may be worthwhile investments for others. A bitcoin farming machine may be the biggest waste of money for someone who doesn't know how to use it, yet one of the best buys for someone invested in the crypto world. Thus, what are considered dumb expensive things are really subjective depending on the person.
However, there are also certain dumb things to spend money on that we can all mutually agree on. When someone on AskReddit asked, "What is the dumbest thing you've seen someone spend their money on?" thousands of people jumped on the thread to share, in their opinion, things that are the biggest wastes of money. And considering the number of upvotes some submissions received, many seem to agree.
Below, we've compiled some of the best entries from the thread, revealing the worst things to spend money on. Do you agree with any of them? Let us know by giving it an upvote! Also, comment below if you can add more dumb things to spend your money on to the list!
This post may include affiliate links.
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#2
"Weddings. Somewhere along the line, we seem to have forgotten what the true purpose of the day is."
SaneMinotaur (she/her) 1 year ago
My wedding to my now-husband cost about £200, including ours and our daughter's clothes for the day. I wore a tie-dye jumpsuit, hubs had a tie-dye waistcoat and trousers, and we tie-dyed our own shirts; kiddo wore a rainbow dress. We had a ceremony at our nearest registry office, and my mum very kindly paid for us all to have afternoon tea at a local café, which would have been around £150 for all 11 of us. It was such a fun day, would do it all again if I could!
#5
"Designer baby clothes and hard-soled baby air jordans."
#6
"My mum has spent $1000s on crystals and stones. She continues to give them as gifts, I have no idea wtf to do with them so I put them in my plant's pots then she gets upset for some reason. Send help, please."
#7
"My friend told me of a nurse who bought a hand bag for $7,000. I’m not a financial expert, but I do not advise buying a $7,000 purse."
#8
"Spending money on another person to make them love you. Never works."
#9
"I heard some guy bought like 33 really expensive cars when you can only drive one car at a time."
#10
"Ripped clothes."
Shark Lady 1 year ago
My daughter gave me a pair of jeans she decided she didn't like anymore, I sewed up the rips, I'm too old to get cold knees!
#11
"Designer dogs. There are many that need to be rescued and adopted from humane societies."
Paulo Freitas 1 year ago
And cats, i dunno how can you spent a fortune in a cat, when you see só many malnurish dirty cats and kittens outdoors widout a home.
#12
"In-app game purchases."
#13
"My wife is in a lot of mom groups on Facebook. The number of people who beg for help for their poor babies who won’t get any Christmas/birthday gifts and who also show off brand-new giant tattoos is fantastic. She shows me every time she finds one of these people and it happens all the time—usually multiple recent photos of them out drinking and partying as well. So yeah, there are a lot of people out there who blow big money on tattoos and partying instead of setting aside a little bit of money for their kids."
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
When I see a post like that (need kids' clothes size x and specific toys or other items), or "need help to pay rent" requests, I look at that person's profile to see how many times they've done this. Some are serial beggars with a different sob story every month. Others sign up with several charity organizations every holiday so they rake in donations from different sources. A little fact checking can protect you from those CBs.
#15
"Cable television. That stuff is expensive. My friend has a billion channels and pays like $200 a month. I only have the internet and can watch everything he watches and more."
#16
"Their first vehicle. Eighteen-year-olds getting loans of $20k on their first car boggles my mind."
Ronna Black 1 year ago
My first car was a Neon bought for $750. It looked nice…. But was a sh*t bucket in terms of maintenance and repair.
#17
"When I drink too much, drunk me will go online and purchase an absurd amount of googly eyes. I previously made the mistake of purchasing 10,000 of the idiots. I don't know why drunk Mat does this, but I always make it a point to store the gigantic ones somewhere when I purchase them. I spent quite an amount of money on it."
#18
"Gucci."
Yugan Talovich 1 year ago
Aborigines in northern Taiwan will absolutely not own anything Gucci. In Tayal, it means sh!t.
#19
"I spent $40 on one of those amusement park booths where you had to throw darts at balloons. For some reason, I picked out this really ugly 7ft tall frog stuffed animal. It’s in the corner of my closet and still scares me when I’m half awake in the morning."
#20
"A family member has bought thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of Young Living essential oils."
#22
"My idiot father bought Iraqi money from some website."
#23
"Gambling machines. I work in a bar room. People will play these machines for 12+ hours and never win. Then they Win $700 the next night and think they’re on top... it’s insane. They look like zombies sitting there in a trance. Once had to unplug the machine on a patron who would not leave for closing. Kept saying 5 more minutes."
#24
"Golf. It's a sinkhole for money and no one realizes it."
#25
"An alarm clock coffee machine. It was me."
Headless Roach 1 year ago (edited)
I would not necessarily call my husband an alarm clock coffee machine, but technically... yes.
#27
"I bought a $700 litter box. I’m sure many people would think it’s dumb, but my cats and I love it. It’s amazing."
#28
"Ultra high-end audio without enough space for it to actually sound good. Just a stupid waste of money."
Paulo Freitas 1 year ago
Yup, not to mention, that rainy day that you're allready late to work, and your frikking rear left tire blows right after a blind corner, now you have to lift your 30kg subwoofer box in the boot with One hand, wille trying to get the car Jack, tire Iron, and spare wheel with the other.... In the Rain, in the middle of the road....
#29
"PSA: Accidental subscriptions. Remember kids, if you sign up for a free trial, be prepared to cancel it the second they allow you. Otherwise, they'll start charging automatically and you'll end up with $60 worth of rhino foreskin being delivered to your house each week."
#30
"Cars. Staggering what people will pay for a status symbol."
Paulo Freitas 1 year ago (edited)
Cars can beba superb investiment deppending on what you get, 40 years ago you could buy a 205 T16 for around the equivalent of maybe 20 000€ but just a few days ago One of those same Cars was sold at auction for almost 500 000€. C**p even my 1st car i bought it for the equivalent of 4000€ 25 years ago, today they are Worth upwards of 20 000€...
#31
"Oh, my idiot niece... 5 years ago she was on Facebook begging because her "husband" (they weren't married) was a firefighter and they were struggling with bills and were going to take an electronic riding toy for her daughter back for a refund. This is in an area of VERY poor people with TONS of actual people in need. People on Facebook pooled money and bought a toy that the kid did NOT need vs letting them help people in actual need. They lived with my mom, paid nothing in rent, and made a combined income of around 80k that year. No car payments. No rent. They blew it all going out to eat and stupid stuff like 3d printers (that he never figured out how to use) a drone ( used once) a bitcoin farming machine (never assembled) thousands on an exotic saltwater tank and fish (they kept letting the fish die and would spend hundreds more on new fish), ferrets, exotic frogs and lizards, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, etc."
AbsintheMinded 1 year ago
JFC can someone please ban these people from ever acquiring another animal?!
#32
"My buddy bought fake money off eBay to flex on Snapchat."
#33
"Adults that spend money they don't have on their own birthday parties. I worked with a woman who had come into a very small amount of money in an inheritance from her mother. Her mom begged her to use it as a down payment on a house. The woman found a perfect house, qualified for it and it would have been cheaper monthly than her rent. Did she buy the house? NOPE. She wanted to have her "annual birthday bash" for herself instead. Rented a house on the beach for a week, took a week off work bought a ton of seafood, and alcohol, and lived high on the hog. 2 weeks later she was dead as* broke, and the following month got evicted."
#35
"TVs, computers, and game consoles from predatory rent-to-own places."
#36
"Eyelash extensions. Apparently, they cost upwards of 100 a set and most of the time look ridiculous."
#38
"Oxygen. Vegas always have/had those oxygen bars and it cracked me up that people were actually doing it... So of course one night, we had to do it right?! Yeah, it was as dumb as we thought it was."
#39
"My ex dropped 2k on a Polaris ATV. For anyone who doesn't know what they are, they are basically 4wd bikes used on farms or for exploring off-road where cars can't go. He had plans to visit a mate of a mate of a mate who had a farm and do some riding and camping. He had never camped in his life and doesn't really like outside (bugs!!!). We lived in suburbia. They are illegal to drive on roads or footpaths. Neither of us had a car with a towbar and we didn't have a trailer, so, after it was dropped off it was essentially useless. 12 months later and never driven, he sold it at about 1/3rd value because, well, no one in suburbia wants or needs an ATV!"
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
Everyone I've known that purchased an ATV spent more on broken bones and accident recovery than anything else.
#40
"Daily $6 coffees."
Headless Roach 1 year ago
What's next? You'll ask me to stop buying avocado toasts? Like I'm saving for a house or something?
#42
"I dated a guy who would still use his debit card even when his account was over drafted because he didn’t realize he was charged overdraft fees for every transaction. I had to explain to him his single snickers bar or bag of chips or whatever from the vending machine was now costing him an extra $35. And he did this multiple times every single shift he worked."
JMil 1 year ago
This got very predatory and hurt a lot of people, especially those who don't pay attention and/or understand the system, very unfortunate. It can be somewhat of a blessing if you understand the system. When I was struggling, there were times I was willing to take the hit ($20 at my bank) to keep the electric/gas bills current and protect my credit. But I paid close attention and was responsible about it and knew I would make it up somehow the next month.
#43
"Trump digital trading cards."
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
Sounds like a nice idea, like a train-your-own-athlete's-foot set or a grow-your-favourite-kidney-stone recipe.
#44
"Dude pre-paid $15,000 on his private pilot's license just to not finish it, and now he and his family are struggling."
#45
"Controversial but seeing people burn thousands and thousands of dollars on Vtubers/Streamers is astounding to me..."
#46
"My neighbors once spent all their money on a private firework show, then had to hide their cars from the repo man for months. Edit: no longer neighbors."
#47
"Yeeeep. My coworker recently was bragging about spending 2k on a purebred Maltese. 2K. Anyways, they bring the dog home and it turns out to have scabies. His whole family was infected except him (lord knows how). So now they've spent 2k on a dog that gave them an awful parasite, and now have to fork over more money for medical and vet bills."
AbsintheMinded 1 year ago
Most likely bought from an irresponsible breeder/puppy mill. Never ever purchase an animal without first inspecting where it came from. There is a reason these people ask to meet you in a parking lot or at the mall, but rarely their home.
#48
"My ex and his friend spent a combined 10k on some sort of Pokémon game that isn’t even around anymore. I was like WHAT."
#49
"Sunglasses. They spent like $300 on them just to drop them off the next day and end up with a scratch. Just seems like a really dumb thing to drop so much money into."
Paulo Freitas 1 year ago
Guilty of that lmao, bought 150€ Aviators almost 20 years ago, most of the time they where on the center conse of my car, untill the day they fell from the center console and ended up under the pedals....
#50
"Established titles or whatever that scam is called where you "buy" a small piece of Scottish land to call yourself lord or lady."
#51
"Maybe the cotton candy machine I'm about to go buy."
#52
"A friend of mine pays a service to come to pick up the dog sh*t in his yard that his dog leaves out there. He has kids. If it was me, I'd be making the kids go out and pick it up as part of their chores. They're not little kids. They're old enough to be doing stuff like that."
Stephanie Did It 1 year ago
YES. They can earn their allowance by cutting grass, pulling weeds and many other chores. I bought my first bicycle with yard work and valued it more than if it was given to me. But hey, I'm just a dumb Boomer so what do I know?
#53
"Doordash. Having someone hand-deliver food to your home is a luxury and it should be treated as such. It should not be something most people use as regularly as they do. I'm not saying there aren't times when it's necessary or optimal, but the people I see that get it once or more a week is mind-blowing to me, especially when they're struggling with debt and other financial issues."
#54
"Those Facebook "Ville" games."
Shawn Roberts 1 year ago
Never spent money on those, or any other game in the 'freemium' category. Have bought apps for diagnosing cars, though. But that's a tool.
#55
"My father bought a hot dog cart. Claimed it was to get his food truck business off the ground. Thing was, my mother, told him no, but went behind his back and spent it anyway, and tried to hide it behind their condo in the back. The problem is my moms not stupid. Then he tried to pin the blame on me saying he bought it to help me out. Guy ended up having to sell it. Needless to say, my Dads not a very bright person."
#56
"Anytime someone donates to political campaigns. Any campaign."
Powerful Katrinka 1 year ago
Nope. Even though I live in Utah, I contributed a fair amount of money to the John Fetterman campaign in Pennsylvania last year. And it was worth every penny.
#57
"Spending money on overpriced keyboards. I just can't understand myself doing it."
WindySwede 1 year ago
I presume computer keyboards, and not "piano"? Ergonomics, better keys (how they feel and sound when pushed). But there is a reasonable limit! At my last jobb I got a cheaper keyboard (logitech) where I had to push quite hard on some keys for them to work. Resulting in misspellings and annoyance.
#58
"I had a friend who had received some inheritance. Bear in mind, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him. In a few weeks, he blew it all on designer bags that he never used, and an expensive ring he ended up losing. He tried to resell the bags in the marketplace but nobody was interested. His reasoning was: I will get more money once mum dies."
AbsintheMinded 1 year ago
Wtf? Seems like a selfish, superficial a*****e. I hope he doesn’t get a cent.
#59
"I bought a cassette tape two weeks ago. I don't even have a way to play cassettes but I still bought it."
#60
"My mom spent $3,000 on Mary Kay makeup about 10 years ago. She spent so much time on Facebook trying to peddle that stuff to all of her friends and family. Nobody bought it, everybody blocked her on Facebook, she was pissed that she didn't get a pink Cadillac and there's still an entire closet full of expensive makeup sitting untouched at my parent's house."
lauralett50 1 year ago
I sold Avon for nine years. You work for them. But the company is s**t now. Has been bought and sold four times in the last six years . Just don't do it
#61
"Peloton bikes. Consumers were dumb to be so sucked in by a fad that they'd pay $2000 PLUS a monthly subscription. Their stupidity was topped only by those running Peloton, who now commands a company on the (well-deserved) brink of collapse."
Fabian Bernard 1 year ago
What about 2000€ on electric bikes ? Maybe I'm old, but in my time we used to pedal. That what ''going by bike'' was. Still happy with my scrap 50€ ''muscular bike'' as they say now, works perfectly, does the job, no AC nor polluting battery needed, good for my health
#62
"My sister gets every kitchen gadget imaginable. Doesn't sound so bad until you realize it all can't fit into her kitchen. She's always been a bit of a hoarder but it's getting out of control and stresses her out that she can't live in a clean place."
#63
"Me. I bought a very expensive, light-colored rug. I have pets. I have a messy husband. The rug looks like hell. I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought it. Definitely dumb."
#64
"A $600,000 horse? (Converted to today's dollars, it was done in 1984.)"
#65
"Funko pop is the newest way to throw your money away. I have a nephew (ex wife's nephew actually) in his mid 20's who spends every cent on ridiculous collections, his current is apparently Funko pop and he has hundreds."
#66
"Me buying $3000 in niche cryptocurrency years ago that is now worth 1/10th of the value because of the hype and my brother's recommendations. He however put 60k in and it’s a huge point of stress for him now."
#67
"Knew a girl who would spend all her money on scratchers and drugs. She would constantly go on about how when she finally won big she was going to move and get clean... His grandmother gave her a 20 - 30k inheritance. Nothing changed except how many scratchers she would buy. I saw her buy out whole rolls occasionally. She wised up with the last few thousand and put some advance rent on an apartment (was in a motel) and fixed her car. But that money was gone in less than 2 months."
#68
"I have worked as a consultant for a tech company that provided technical infrastructure for anything mobile basically. They made an insane amount of revenue by offering the back-end technology for SMS "Dating" Services. Those were all ran by customers of this company but I have seen the numbers. It's by FAR the dumbest thing I have seen people spending LOTS of money on because obviously you are not talking to some girl on the other end but to some greasy old guy pretending to be a girl. They sent out these stock low-quality softcore porn pictures as MMS too and pretend that's them. I still can't believe how much money some people spent on this."
#69
"A social network to be the coolest guy on it. It backfired tho."
Keith Williams 1 year ago
Also who ever bought MySpace... I think Justin timberlake...Timberlake.... I'm sad that I know that
#70
"When I was married to my ex, he knew we weren’t financially stable. We were living with my parents, with three children. I told him money had to be saved and not spent. What did he do? Come home with 300$ worth of DVDs. He proceeded to buy the kids 100$ worth of DVDs for Christmas. I couldn’t believe how stupid he was being. Can you guess why we divorced?"
Paulo Freitas 1 year ago (edited)
Reminds me a couple of Portuguese nationals that decided to go to England to work ( this was way before brexit ), só dude worked 2 jobs to afford rent and food, She didn't had a job, One day the guy comes home and sees her " playing " with a brand new iPhone, dude Lost it, he was working 2 jobs, wille her besides not working, spents a fortune in something She didn't need.
#71
"Personalized number plates for their cars."
Bob La Capra 1 year ago
Idk, when I saw EIEIO on a WI Farm plate I was pretty impressed. The plate on a car that was always parked at the phone company building read 555-1212 so I have a pretty good idea what the owner's job was. If I had a clever tie in like that I'd do it but I wouldn't spend extra to get BOB
#75
"Loot crates."
#76
"A 4-year college degree from an out-of-state, unaccredited, for-profit college."
Mistletoe 1 year ago
Or paying any amount of money for an education that will never bring in the money that you'll need to pay it off. These huge debts that people complain about owing were really due to not researching how much you'll be able to earn with that degree. Don't get loans that there's no way you're ever going to be able to pay off. (My opinion on this subject)
#78
"My girlfriend wanted to go to the mall too but 1 hat. She ended up spending over $200 on random stuff including slime, a paper airplane kit, a new wallet when she just got one last week, and a new pair of shoes when she has 8 at home. The only reason she stopped is that she had to save $100 in her account to buy edibles later."
#79
"I’ve spent nearly $480,000 on Oxycodone over the course of my long addiction… Does this count?"
#81
"Professional photoshoot of an adult man posing in similar ways to baby pictures. Swaddled, "crying, " age board with personality traits, etc."
#82
"I work at a cigar lounge and I watch these guys come in and spend thousands of dollars on boxes of cigars obviously not realizing that retail marks everything up at least 50% and then I look at that same box of cigars online and think man he could have saved himself at least $100 per box, what a moron! How are we living in a digital age and these people don't know how to use a computer or a cell phone to order a box of cigars?"
#85
"Their AOL subscription. (My mom!) Seriously, why? I still use my AOL e-mail account just because I've had it since 1996 and it's the only way I can get an e-mail with just my name, but I sure as hell don't pay for it."
#86
"Shoe freshener. The sales chick made me smell the inside of her shoe to prove it would work. It was pretty hot."
#87
"Buying stuff they don't need. My mom loves going shopping, she does it all the time whether online or at the mall. And I mean allllll the time. As end result, she has tons of clothes that were never worn, stuff not needed in the first place, to begin with, etc. Such waste."
Bob La Capra 1 year ago
I only rarely go recreational shopping anymore but I used to go a lot. Goodwill got a lot of hardly-used stuff
#88
"POP figures."
#89
"Babies, they’re generally quite dumb, can’t understand the slightest of commands and they just stare at you. Cute though."
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
...until they open their mouths to communicate unintelligibly at increasing volume. High maintenance product. But hey, if you can't get what you want you better learn to love what you got.
#90
"The Palm Pilot III. It is like $300 and all I used it for was this game where you controlled a ship and you flew through space trading materials so you could buy bigger ships and have a bible readily available for my boy scout meetings. I stored contact info in there too but never actually referred to any of it as I find a paper contact list to be faster."
#91
"I’ve never understood why a lot of older people buy random ceramic knickknacks for house decoration. To each their own though."
#92
"Cable. If you don't watch sports."
Apatheist Account2 1 year ago
We had to have cable because the reception by aerial wasn't good enough.
#93
"Clown figurines from QVC."
#94
"I spent money on the app "Pocketfrogs" about $20. It was to get better frogs."
Bob La Capra 1 year ago
Is that a frog in your pocket or are you just - oh, it is a frog. Huh.
#95
"CS:GO Cases."
What do you think ?
Keith Williams 1 year ago
This list was decent. They left out "freemium games", paying for in-video game perks like for player skins or transmission that do nothing but change the look of a character.
Keith Williams 1 year ago
This list was decent. They left out "freemium games", paying for in-video game perks like for player skins or transmission that do nothing but change the look of a character.
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