What has been your biggest waste of money?

[Maggot]

Obviously bushcrafty, not like the D reg Renault 5 I bought for £450 with damaged synchromesh, so I could never get it into reverse

I bought a headtorch from that well known Bushcraft supplier, TKMaxx, for £1.99. It struggled to shine as far as my feet! I also paid a not small amount of money for an early goretex bivvy bag (way back in the 80's) By far the biggest waste of £75 I have ever spent. It leaked like a sieve. No wonder Survival Aids disappeared!

 

[Mesquite]

My first wife...

Bushcraft wise, I can't think of anything I'd say I'd bought that was totally rubbish.

 

[British Red]

Falkniven F1 - hated that knife

 

[Teepee]

British army lightweight poncho-5 mins of light rain soaked straight through. The acrylic coating peeled off within 2 weeks. Nikwax sorted it though

 

[Shewie]

Berghaus Vulcan pack, nothing wrong with it really but it was far too big for what I needed and I found it uncomfortable to carry.

Another is probably the Sevyor canoe I picked up off ebay, I only got two trips from it before it had to be binned.

 

[Nonsuch]

£300 on a Vango Spirit+ 300 tent. Dumb enough to have paid retail. Poles broke on first trip. Put me off all Vango gear for life. Looks good in the showroom, lets you down when it matters.

 

[John Fenna]

Paying taxes.... gave it up!
Buying vans - they die!
Goretex first generation jacket - first generation never worked!

 

[Jock]

Bought a terra nova trisar on Ebay recently only to discover it was yellow & not green as I had thought . Decided in my infinite stupidity to camo it up by buying 100ml bottles of waterproof marker ink (the kind the vandals use) instead of re selling it. Turned out a bit too black but better than yellow Used it in Glencoe only to have the fly zip & the interior zip fail & the floor leak. (£110 down the drain). Not my finest hour , still gotta laugh nothing ventured nothing gained. Cant bring myself to try to fix the zips & commit to further expense , sometimes its best to accept the fail

 

[jackcbr]

Sooooo many to choose from:

Coleman one man tent, not quite a bivi, nowhere near a tent
Nylon bivi bag - thought it was Gortex d'oh
Highland Basha - far too heavy and too small
Copy of a PLC pack - none of the loops were big enough to get the straps through (did get my money back on that)

I could go on...

 

[wizard]

Bushcraft wise, it has to be a Snugpak Sleeka 35 that I bought. The shoulder straps are at an odd angle to the pack and your back, the waist belt is in the way, too high and should be called a waste belt. The only thing I liked was the rain cover built into the bottom, although I never actually used the cover. I hated that pack! It is a cheap imitation of the Sabre 35, which is a great little pack.
I was lucky as someone I know was wanting a Sleeka 35 and I sold mine for a decent price and recovered some of my money. I was sure to point out the packs faults, which he was willing to overlook.

 

[Paul_B]

Paying taxes.... gave it up!
Buying vans - they die!
Goretex first generation jacket - first generation never worked!

I got told that first generation didn't work out too well as a waterproof membrane (leaked) but it was windproof so they rebranded gen 1 when gen 2 came out as windstopper or windbloc (whichever was the wl gore one not polartec one). Same membrane attached to fleece and bingo a new market for a product that didn't work well! Now the polartec lot use a ventilated form of the ptfe membrane in their mammbrane type of windproof spoftshells such as in the Rab Baltoro.

Never had money for goretex so puut up as a kid with non-breathable and orange cagoule. Then got paramo when at uni as it was cheap and could get trousers and top with near top end waterproof trousers/jacket features for less than a basic goretex jacket. That is both tops and trousers in that price.

 

[Robbi]

1957 Triumph Tiger Cub in road / trials trim, broke down twice a week regular as clockwork, spent all my weekend job money on it !......every week !!

 

[Paul_B]

My worst buy was a custom rucksack made too fit my back length. It had one alloy stave which dug in my back at the base of the spine when loaded. Was meant to be my lighter backpack at about 1kg for over 50 litres. It would absolutely kill me an hour into an overnighter even if loaded with only 9kg!! It also had hip belts attached right at the side which meant there was a triangular gap between your back, the sack of the back and the hipbelt. This meant the load transfer was not good and made the issue with the alloy stave even worse. Won't say the name though as it is a good company just I made the wrong decision to get it. I could go back and sort out the hipbelt issue as they had another person who had come back for that simple mod. Perhaps I could even get them to make a sleeve to take the two pivoted x shape staves from my other sack which is a little bigger volume perhaps and is infinitely more comfortable. Perhaps even get an additional strap added to the hipbelt and the back so that it pulls the sack in at the lower back above the hipbelt level like my other sack.

Anyyway I do think there are mods you can make for the bits of the sack that don;t work. So I guess its not too bad.

I also would add the mini trangia as I don;t think it works as well as I thought it should.

I do have others too.

 

[silentpaddler]

Optimus Nova+ multi-fuel stove. Woefully deficient. Hard to light, hard to regulate, hard to keep from smashing it to bits with a rock. Took it back
and thankfully got a full refund.

 

[darrenleroy]

Don't you earn enough to pay taxes?

 

[bojit]

Don't you earn enough to pay taxes?

If you drive you pay taxes if you eat drink or fart you pay taxes !

Exped mat for the wife , she hates it .

Craig.............

 

[R3XXY]

Gerber LMF 2 knife, £117 and useless for anything, won't hold an edge and despite being marketed as one of the toughest knives available the plastic inside the handle cracked the second time I batoned with it.

I basically paid to quench a burning desire I'd had since my teen years to own a "tacticool" survival knife, back then I couldn't possibly afford the £249 for the Wilkinson Sword one that I regularly drooled over in my survival aids catalogue.
That's about the only thing it did well.

 

[MrJamieM]

A 5lt water carrier. I bought it so i could fill it with just the right amount of water and pack it into my bag without taking up too much room. Unfortunately the cap with a pouring valve wasn't threaded properly so it wouldn't say on, and to top it off there was a tiny tiny hole in the side which slowly dribbled water out. Biggest waste of £1 ever! Ahaha.
But seeing as all my other kit has never failed me (touch wood) i guess this is the "biggest" waste of money yet.

But i guess a wind up led torch, a knife spoon fork set, inflatable pillow, 2m bungy with carabina's and 15m of para cord bought from the same place also for a £1 each make up for my loss

 

[John Fenna]

Don't you earn enough to pay taxes?

I guess that one is for me
Short answer - nope!
OK - I pay indirect taxes ie VAT, tax on Whiskey etc but I gave up paying income tax by the simple expedient of always keeping my income below the threshold.
I do not have a flash car, iPod, laptop, tablet, X-box or fashionable clothing: I forage for heating fuel (wood) and live very simply: the house aand van are paid for and I have no debts anywhere...
Who neds to earn enough to pay for corrupt politicians expense accounts?

 

[Kerne]

Boat. (Not really bushy, I know) Bought a Cornish Crabber with one of my brothers then moved to London and couldn't get to sail it. Sold it after 4 years at a massive loss.

Dutch (I think) bivi bag, the one with the open front - hated it.

OG bamboo hoody. Nice piece of kit but have never worn it as i am simply not a hoody person. (Might have to put it in the for sale section...)