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If you had to take a wild guess, how much money do you think you might have wasted over the course of your lifetime?
I'll go first: A LOT, such as:
* Stuff I bought by mistake
* Stuff I bought and didn't use
* Groceries thrown out after going bad
* Bad restaurant meals that you couldn't eat
* Dentist upcharges for work you really didn't want or need
* Books that haven't been read
* Pet supplies never used
* Essentials for relatives that went to waste or were not utilized properly
* Bad plays and live music venues that you didn't enjoy
* Paying "experts" for negligible or bad advice
* Not renewing CDs at best rates (letting them roll over into paltry rates)
* Gifts for people that weren't used (probably donated or sold)
* Tax write-offs that weren't taken out of ignorance of yourself or tax advisor
* Money lost on pyramid scheme (young and had no idea what they were - back in 1970's)
* Working for less than market value
* Buying crap of one kind or another
* Useless collections (dolls, whatever)
* Not shopping for best deals on just about anything (airline tickets, etc.)
* Paying for other people's living expenses (rental deposits, rent, clothes, toiletries, etc.)
* "Special" coffee drinks
* Beauty supplies, creams, lotions that are still in your medicine cabinets
* Supplements that you have to throw out because they've expired
* Canned and boxed foods that you have to recycle because they've expired
* Single use water bottles, half used
* Late fees accrued when you could have paid on time, but forgot
* Cable TV fee that is outrageous but you don't know how to get same services for less
etc., etc.
Everyone's list will be different. Some won't have much of a list, some will have more big ticket items that were not necessary and you have regrets about.
Don't really see the utility in dredging up such a nitpicky list. Honestly, I'd rather go shovel snow (and there's lots of opportunity for this type of recreation here right now...there's a new 3' drift blocking the garage door and a deck buried at least that deep). At least that would be productive. I can't go back and change those past decisions. Hopefully and probably I managed to learn some lessons because of them. Prefer to go forward, not wallow in the past!
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-06-2021 at 04:40 PM..
I don't have any books I've never read. I tend to read them over and over again. Two authors I enjoy immensely: Will McIntosh and James Howard Kunstler.
I rarely have to throw food out because DH will eat anything, no matter how long it's been in the fridge. That's also how he contracted bacterial pneumonia, BTW, so I don't recommend the practice of eating old food. He recovered eventually but he was down for a month in agonizing pain from chronic coughing.
We do have some canned cat food that is surely outdated by now.
You mentioned special coffee drinks. I had a serious chai habit for years. I don't think that was a waste of money as it made me happy. But chai concentrate is loaded with sugar. Had to give it up when I found there may be a link between sweet drinks and pancreatic cancer. It hasn't been definitively proven yet, but I don't want to find out the hard way. And I need to lose some more weight.
I’d say: the most money I wasted was by marrying the wrong man (financially irresponsible), and a small amount on foods went bad that I had to throw out.
5 acres got talked into buying out in the desert, there is so much land out there you can't give it away.
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Don't really see the utility in dredging up such a nitpicky list. Honestly, I'd rather go shovel snow (and there's lots of opportunity for this type of recreation here right now...there's a new 3' drift blocking the garage door and a deck buried at least that deep). At least that would be productive. I can't go back and change those past decisions. Hopefully and probably I managed to learn some lessons because of them. Prefer to go forward, not wallow in the past!
