Stupid or Terrible Purchases From When You Were Younger

[simonworden]

Reading a thread in the on topic section got me thinking how when you are younger, be it your early 20's, Teen's or younger you really do waste your money on certain things. 

 

For example when I was a kid a lot of my mates loved all the Warhammer type models, being fairly attractive to a young lad I started buying it and even bought one of the over priced boxed games as well. Problem was I couldn't paint, I couldn't understand the rules and even now when some die hard fan mates have got me to play the board games I find them slow and dull and usually find a reason to get out of them quickly. I was even worse as a kid. The amount I spent on buying the basic packs and cheaper models and making them look like dogshit then sticking them in a cupboard as it was time to have a go on the SNES must have driven my parents up the wall.

 

There was one time a toy shop in the village had some truck for an army my friend was collecting and I was half interested in. We went in on it together and bought it. I glued it together gave it to him for painting and never saw it again as I lost interest. My parents were livid and I was fairly miffed I had basically been conned into giving someone a fiver so they could have a fucking toy! I lost interest in it shortly after I think as that was about when I realized I could talk to girls instead. 

 

Moving on to my early 20's when my car clapped in I needed one quick for work but not instantly. I saw an add for a Rover Metro, exactly the same as another I had owned 2 years prior. I went and let a polish man basically run me through the car quickly because of nostalgia, completely ignoring the lack of water in the engine and odd brown patches. Turned out when I got it home that the head- gasket was shot. Luckily a mechanic neighbor sorted it out as best he could as I couldn't get the money back. The seller had moved house literally in the afternoon after selling it and disappeared. So the car cost me 250 quid more than I had paid, If I had just spent that extra on another car I would have been better off. Also the radiator never worked and if you stopped at traffic lights you had to put the wipers on because steam used to come out the bonnet. By the time I scrapped it 5 months later it had tracking problems and no break lights either. I drove it to the scrapping place through forests at about 5AM just to avoid any traffic and didn't look back then I was given my 50 quid scrappage fee. Thankfully these days i'm a lot more vigilant and tight so shit like this doesn't happen

 

So what about your stupid or terrible purchases?

[Jazzy G]

I used to dabble in bits of Warhammer/Games Workshop in my teens as well. I had a couple of Blood Bowl teams but the most notable happening with them is that one of my Dwarf players failed the dice roll to run an extra square and died in the process. I tried to build some 40K army and had a couple of Necromunda gangs who were a little less dismal failures. My painting was terrible and a bit basic, but my step-dad at the time loved doing things like that so I'd buy the models and he'd do bang up jobs painting them. The best I did was probably my Warhammer Quest elf.

 

Stupid purchases? Can't think of any off the top of my head, but I'm sure they'll come to mind.

[gmoney]

I used to just fritter away money on sweets. I can remember at least twice saving up money to buy a video, only to stop in the counter and think, "hang on, I can buy a fuck load of cola bottles and shrimps with £15" and bail.  

[Guest]

I'm worse now than I've ever been, but I'm also better off financially than I've ever been so it all just about evens out

 

It'd be utterly chilling to read my complete spendings over the last year or so, between the regular pizza deliveries, all the glam clothes and accessories, jewellery... there was that week I felt poorly so I splashed out 40 odd quid for the latest Sims game on steam - played it about 4 times so around a tenner a pop. Oh and the weed! The fucking weed!! I buy that in quarters, 60 quid a pop. Sometimes get through two in a week

 

I'm quite glad my bank balance is back to normal now. It was nice while it lasted, pissing away some inheritance funds but playtime's over now

[The Maestro]

I once bought a cardigan that was about £120. I then caught it on something when I was out which made a massive tear. Gutted I was.

 

I do find the older you get the less you spend on crap. When I was younger I'd buy DVDs that were nearly £20 a pop and not think anything of it. These days I wouldn't bother at all. Barring clothes, I really can't remember the last thing I bought myself. I think it's a case of not being interested enough to waste money on things.

[Gus Mears]

I bought meat. Lots of meat. I would walk past the butchers, end up waltzing in and spending £60 of EMA before crying over huge platefuls of delicious beef topside and lamb rack.

[BigJag]

Maglites. Overpriced fancy dan torches.

[Otto Dem Wanz]

Football stickers, I used to buy packs and packs and packs of the bastards but only ever finished one album - Merlin's Premier League 99. Considering I got every Premier League, World Cup and European Championship book from 1997 until around 2006 that's not a very high success rate.

 

I made myself feel better about spending all my pocket money on them with the thought that 'they'll be worth something one day'. It's probably true in some cases, but the moustaches and devils horns I drew on the Man United and Everton players along with the Fanta stains sticking some of the pages together mean I wouldnt get more than a tenner for them on eBay today.

[Briefcase]

I think I would be bad back then at buying games consoles/games and never really playing them after the initial buzz. Guess I was used to growing up with Playstation one, N64's etc and just ended up buying so many games and not really playing them, in some cases not even opening them.

 

These days as an audit I am the complete opposite, but would instead waste £20-£30 a week on takeaways/eating out and then hate myself for it, ironically would be cheaper to buy a game a month than takeaways. 

[bAzTNM#1]

I bought a Commodore computer that had a cartridge like thing rather than a tape or disc bit. Don't know the name of it. Thanks to my mum for buying it, but it was hardly used. I remember "Terminator 2" came with it.

[Merzbow]

This? You would have been one of about ten people to own it.

[SuperBacon]

Belt drive decks. Kenwoods. Absolute shit. Whilst my mates all plumped for the direct drive Numark DJ in a box set up (which were still shit), I had these wooden cumbersome pieces of crap which couldn't handle scratching, beat juggling or any of the fly shizzle I wanted to do.

 

I eventually upgraded to 1210s, which was like wanking with your preferred hand after years of doing it with your other hand.

 

Fuck Richer Sounds for seducing me into buying them, and fuck those fucking decks.

[Surf Digby]

I spent a fair bit of money on Space Hulk (a spin of from Warhammer 40,000), and countless little Space Marines, vehicles, etc. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a stupid or terrible purchase as I got years worth of enjoyment out of them. They're all still up in the attic, as part of my "one day I'll get back into that" list. Actually, now that there's another boy in the house, that might become a reality in a few years.

 

I have a fucking horde of martial arts weapons left over from that brief period of my late teens when I reckoned I was going to fuck off over to Hong Kong and become a stuntman. Samurai swords, bokken, Chinese broadswords and straight swords, wing chun butterfly swords, jo, bo, 3-section staff, 9-section whip, kali sticks, tonfa, sai and about a dozen pairs of nunchucks in various sizes and shapes. Probably a few others that I've forgotten.

Again, I suppose it wasn't that terrible a purchase as I did learn to use them to varying degrees. They too are just sat in the attic doing nothing, when really I should be out fighting crime or something.

 

I bought a 1:1 scale Facehugger when I was 18ish. Cost a bomb. That's in the attic too, still unassembled and unpainted. "One day...."

 

Barcode Battler. This was after they'd flopped and they were flogging them for a fiver, so I bought one out of curiosity. That's not in the attic, I fucked it off years ago.

 

I spent far more than is healthy on those D&D role playing cards (Dark Sun, etc). I never learned to play, but I loved the artwork on them. I'm assuming they're in the attic as I found them a few years ago and I've no memory of getting rid of them.

 

I got ripped off a few times in the pre-internet days trying to buy mucky videos from ads in the back of magazines from Fiona Cooper and similar. Once I got a video that was about ten minutes of someone filming a porno mag, with the occasional little comment on scraps of paper about what a naughty girl she probably is, similar to in a silent movie.
I actually karate chopped that particular tape in rage, only to find that the brittle plastic will leave your hand in a far worse state.

 

I'm sure I'll think of some other things that suit this thread. I used to be terrible for 2am eBay impulse buying.

[Gus Mears]

Looking back, I spent way too much on purchasing stupid tobacco. Why have 25g of Golden V when you could have Old Holborn or some tasty Domingo? I used to smoke that shit without filter too like a complete wombat.

[westlondonmist]

I still buy football shirts every season despite being 32. This season I have Hanwell Town, Barnet, Celtic home and away and Scotland. Two were gifts. However they do get worn alot either for lounging around in, going to football matches, something easy to put on to go shopping or playing football so they all get worn alot. I don't think I will get Barnet next season but will have at least 1 Hanwell and 1 Celtic.

I also used to just fritter money away on dvds when they were really expensive. I still sometimes buy used dvds for a couple of quid. I also bought albums from HMV when I was a kid. Jesus they were bloody dear.