What has been your biggest waste of money?

[Paul_B]

When I was self employed I kept all my receipts including personal items. When I looked back over then I was shocked.

LOL I bought another piece of kit from my local running shop (UL 3/4 TAR mat as they had a 20% off day and it was cheap to begin with) and he checked if I was on their database as you often get 10% off if you go on their mailing list database. Anyway he let slip that it tells you how much you have spent in the last year. I foolishly asked him and it was £310 (exluding the £80 or £90 I was just spending). The worrying thing is that was one of a few shops I have bought gear from in the last year and was by no means the place I spend the most neither. In fact I'd say there was probably about 6 shops that I spent more at. Now that totally shocked me as I had always thought that the maximum amount of money I spend on gear to be outdoors with is £200 a year, AT MOST!! Hmmm! I wish I'd still got that dillusion, its not always good to know what you spend over a period of time. Much better to be self-deluding like I was but can no longer be with the facts I now know!!

PS There are no bad purchases just purchases which you could have done better. Learn from your mistakes and remember for every bad purchase you make. you will have the opportunity to buy something new to replace it! New gear is always good, right!!

 

[bilmo-p5]

Just Say No!

 

[sasquatch]

Go have a look for lowa's on ebay some of the best boots you can buy for silly cheap.


Biggest waste of money for me was the Brit Army sleeping bag - don't get me wrong it is a great bag. It was just too short for me

Andy

I'm about 5'10"ish, I have a 'large' arctic sleeping bag if you want to swap? The large is too much dead air space to heat for me in winter...

 

[SMARTY]

Biggest waste of money for me was a years subscription to Bushcraft & survils skills magazine. £29 for the year plus roughly £8 delivery each time to the UAE. 82 pages of which 17 are full of ads. No real new survival skills mentioned either. Best mag on the market IMHO is Survival Quarterly from Hoods woods, and its cheaper from the USA to the UAE ???

 

[Lou]

two TKMAXX jackets, neither were waterproofed - at least I did not pay full whack for them. I have come to realise that anything from there should be treated as a sample....it is worth going to a proper shop to buy outdoors gear.

 

[Nonsuch]

A new No.1 entrant for me. I bought some top-of-the-range North Face gloves a while back - waterproof breathable etc. Nice snug fit in the shop. Non-stretchy material. Up on a Munro today, walking hard, cold hands, guess what? Hands swell up a bit, gloves don't fit. Doh.

 

[salad]

lots of knives that I thought I liked when I brought them, then realised I could not afford to keep them so sold for less than I brought them for. Now I have a 10 month year old daughter who has helped to bring stupid spending into check.
Everything I have now gets used and everything I don't use has been sold and I am now much happier with it all. I love the kit I have left holes,dents scars an all

 

[hog]

Various small things realy but collectively have spent a fortune on inferior camping items over the years, none of my stuff is realy brand name but cheap is often nasty.

 

[phaserrifle]

probably a PLCE shortback bergan. it was going cheap, and in good nick.
problem is, it turns out I need a longback. first time I went hiking with it, it was like my shoulders where being ripped out of thier sockets, while the waistbelt did nothing.
I know they are supposed to ride higher than civilian bags, but.....
still, it's absolutely cavernous, and fine for carrying gear short distances. might have to try to sell it one day, or trade for a longback.

 

[clive.s]

I kept buying various sleeping bags on trademe (NZ ebayesque site) and various discount stores... I should've saved up for a decent bag!

 

[scottishwolf]

Too much of a foodie for that Rik.

I like a heavy frying pan of the sort of quality I'm used to at home and I'm prepared to carry it.

Normally I carry a decent 12" aluminium frying pan or my "Roman" folding skillet but I wanted something that would nest neatly with a large billy for Norway next year.

Aluminium!!! dear god man, surley cast iron is worth is weight in gold. Well nearly is lol...

 

[tinkers]

Toss up between a DD hammock (found out I don't like hammocks) and a pair of Karrimor boots, they fell apart in no time.

Karrimor boots, now there's something i will never, ever waste my money on again, total utter rubbish, so much so that i think that the oxford english dictionary should have karrimor boots added to the definitions of the word rubbish. in the first 2 months the laces went, then they started leaking through the soles, then to top it off, before they were 6 months old the heel area literally collapsed. i wrote to karrimor, but as expected got no reply. so i decided to perform an autopsy on the damn things with a stanley knife to get a good look at how they were put together and the word shoddy sprang to mind (amongst others that cant be repeated here ) and i thought there's yet another opening in the dictionary for karrimor boots to be included in the definitions yet again. i suppose looking at my reply you could think that i wont be buying karrimor boots again, and you'd not be far wrong. there's far to many companies about today knocking out inferior equipment whilst going under a once trusted brand name. i suppose i've got off lucky if all i have to moan about wasting my money on is just one pair of boots. right thats my rant over, now i'm gonna have a bit of brekkie and a cuppa before i finish getting my bag packed for a nice day out in the valleys walking in my not karrimor boots

 

[pango]

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 !!

Ah, the joy's of British motorcycling! I still have a soft spot for "The Cubbie" and would have one tomorrow if the opportunity came up and winked at me... despite the memories of being stranded in the p!sh!n rain trying to get it to turn over and the 1st degree burns from boots full of engine oil.

When at 17 I told my dad I'd put in for my bike test he said he'd buy me a 650 Norton Commando if I passed, in the belief that his long haired idiot son hadn't a hope in hell. He was in denial when I said I'd passed and incredulous when my licence arrived. I came home one evening and he said that my Commando was in the garage. I ran out and opened the garage door to see a bright red ex-Post Office James! I thought that constituted my dad's biggest waste of money, but then he demanded his £3 back when I sold it for a fiver.

My biggest ever waste of money was after badgering my mate to contribute half the cost of a Goretex single skin tent some time around 1980. The first time we used it, I woke up in the morning lying in what I assumed was 14 pints of McEwan's Export and jumped up to slag my mate off for his drunken incontinence when I was wakened up fully by a tropical downpour. When I unzipped my sleeping bag, I watched in disbelief as the remaining droplets dissipated through the canopy. £90 each was big bucks then and I didn't live it down until we managed to con a drunk climber in Glencoe into buying it.

I haven't read all of the posts on this thread yet, but they are of high entertainment value. Keep up the good work!

 

[Will Bowden]

Karrimor boots, now there's something i will never, ever waste my money on again, total utter rubbish, so much so that i think that the oxford english dictionary should have karrimor boots added to the definitions of the word rubbish. in the first 2 months the laces went, then they started leaking through the soles, then to top it off, before they were 6 months old the heel area literally collapsed. i wrote to karrimor, but as expected got no reply. so i decided to perform an autopsy on the damn things with a stanley knife to get a good look at how they were put together and the word shoddy sprang to mind (amongst others that cant be repeated here ) and i thought there's yet another opening in the dictionary for karrimor boots to be included in the definitions yet again. i suppose looking at my reply you could think that i wont be buying karrimor boots again, and you'd not be far wrong. there's far to many companies about today knocking out inferior equipment whilst going under a once trusted brand name. i suppose i've got off lucky if all i have to moan about wasting my money on is just one pair of boots. right thats my rant over, now i'm gonna have a bit of brekkie and a cuppa before i finish getting my bag packed for a nice day out in the valleys walking in my not karrimor boots

I bought some Karrimor boots from Sports Direct for £40, reduced from £140 which was the reason I bought them. My old trusted Brashers were shot to bits and I couldn't afford new ones so I reckoned for £40 the Karrimors were worth a punt. I've had them a year or so now and they've been brilliant, comfy out of the box, waterprrof and decent breathability. I fairly regularly do 15+mile days in them without any soreness. Looks like I've got a rogue good pair

Will

 

[BigMonster]

Suunto X9 - 350 quid watch.
Great on the paper but useless gimmick in the real life. Collecting dust in the drawer.

 

[Wayland]

Aluminium!!! dear god man, surley cast iron is worth is weight in gold. Well nearly is lol...

Aye, but a good non stick (Not the sort of rubbish that you get on camping pans) is one of the great inventions of the twentieth century.

Cast Iron is great but heavy and despite my best efforts not as good as my TeflonType aluminium jobbie.

 

[BOD]

The more you spend the greater the dissappointment.

The MEC Mochilero trousers

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/MensClothing/PantsTights/PRD~5019-926/mec-mochilero-pants-mens.jsp

I am sure MEC generally sells good stuff but these are a disaster and useless in tropical areas. Two hands need to close the too small pockets and a horizonal seam just above the knee to rub your skin raw in wet/damp conditions.

I'd try MEC stuff again but now Id make sure I see the product first. Quality of stitching etc is fine just a design disaster.

 

[rik_uk3]

Too much of a foodie for that Rik.

I like a heavy frying pan of the sort of quality I'm used to at home and I'm prepared to carry it.

Normally I carry a decent 12" aluminium frying pan or my "Roman" folding skillet but I wanted something that would nest neatly with a large billy for Norway next year.

I'm a big fan of Tefal Red Spot frying pans at home over my classic Le Creuset pan, but the flan dish works well enough with the Trangia for lightweight camping needs (and I'm a BIG foodie). I don't like the flaffing about with cast iron but find a steel paella pan like this does a good job camping and takes far less 'nurturing' than cast iron to remain serviceable.

Less than a tenner off eBay.

 

[Wayland]

I've looked at those a few times but if I'm carrying that much I take my Roman folding skillet.

For the Arctic trip I wanted something with a heavy base that would nest with the rest of my cook set but still be big enough to fry a small breakfast on.

 

[Imagedude]

Trangia
Optimus Nova
Goretex trousers