Hey Pandas, What Is The Most Expensive Yet Useless Thing That You've Bought? (Closed)

MLM starter kit (Herbalife).

In my defense, I was 19 y.o. and information was not so easy to find back then, as it is today. My country was going through economic crisis, it was hard to find a job, and my family was struggling with low income and debts. And I was ready to do anything to earn some extra money.

Well, almost anything. Soon I realized what was all about and I refused to trick people into "investing" and becoming "distributors". Or to convince them to buy an expensive weight loss program (which only works while you're taking it).

Today I could easily afford several such MLM kits, with no impact on my budget. But then, I needed all my savings to buy one kit.

Wedding ring.

I used to be obsessed with plants, and spent over $100 on a plant I wanted...it didn't make it. Totally put me off plants, and sold cheaply/gave away 90% of my collection, only keeping my absolute favorites. I'm still mad at myself for that.

erm... Gaynor Minden pointe shoes.
I was in ballet.... when I was a young kid.... I'm an adult now with my own income. I was fulfilling a childhood dream, okay. I have no shame and no regrets.

I bought a $500 miter saw because it was marked down from $650. Never even opened the box. Ended up just giving it to my brother-in-law. Sheesh!

An Associate's Degree in Human Resources

Bought a spin bike, never used it, rusted away. Ended up walking instead.

Several medical textbooks for my internship year at university. In total it cost the amount of money my family would usually spend in a month for food and housing- which is a lot! (Just over $100 but in my currency it’s a significant amount).

It’s not that the books are useless. It’s just that if I want to do extra reading or check a doubt, I naturally search Google (scholarly sites). And my university also has a fully stocked library of all these books. Also given that they’re medical books they become outdated soon, especially the treatments.

Some of these books are still in the polythene covers they came in. A few friends of mine made the same mistake. That money could have gotten me 3 solid meals at university for months!

My Early Childhood Education diploma, turns out I like animals 100% more than kids.

Gym membership, but not in the way you might think. Husband and I were grandfathered into members when a new company bought our old gym and converted it into a fancy, full service gym with private locker room option (yes please), tanning beds, classes, 3 pools, etc. plus options for personal training. We both signed up for 2 sessions per week and loved it. But we were mostly still paying the "old gym" price, so it was grand. Then my husband took a new job, could never go to the gym during their open hours (they were 24/7 when they first converted, but that didn't last), and we were contracted to the training sessions in our name. With a full time job and volunteer gig, I was lucky if I could do 2 sessions a week. Sessions were just stacking up, and I couldn't make up the deficit. Even if I didn't work, the trainers were booked up with other clients. Between his promise to try and make it work, and my attempts to go in more, we were shelling out a lot of money. I talked to management about altering our contract to just drop his membership and altering the number of sessions. But doing so would put me into the new pricing, and I wouldn't actually save any money. So I had to wait out the 3 years of the contracts until I default to month-to-month, and then I just quit. I will not admit, even to myself, just how much that ended up costing us.

My doctor contracts with two medical labs. They almost always send it to the one that my insurance covers, but once they sent it to the other one. I ended up spending hundreds of dollars for a blood test that usually costs me nothing. I couldn’t do anything because I couldn’t show that I had instructed the doctor to send it to that other lab. (Arizona, USA)

A girlfriend named Rebecca

A 25 year old BMW. I had a modern car, and a classic Alfa Romeo at the time. And I lived walking distance from work. My wife convinced me to sell the Beemer, which I did at a profit!

I've bought some collector cars. I had a modern car that I used everyday, yet I would keep two or three interesting old automobiles as a hobby. My tastes ran to American land yachts or European sports cars. Here are a few (all I no longer own): 1964 Lincoln Continental (black), 1964 Chrysler Imperial (lavender), 1969 Cadillac deVille Convertible (blue), 1968 Chrysler Newport Convertible (red), 1970 VW Westphalia Camper Van (orange), 1979 Triumph Spitfire (brown), 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood Sedan (silver), 2000 Porsche Boxster (black), 1956 Chevrolet BelAire Sedan (bronze and cream), 1992 Lincoln Town Car (black). Most of these I sold at a profit, so I guess they weren't "expensive yet useless.

My ex’s university education. Supported him through university. Left me after graduation. Doesn’t work in a field remotely related to his education. Expensive and useless

A Volvo