Crazy stuff you can't believe people waste money on

[Annie]

Oh! I just thought of something else that I've been complaining about since I was in, like, seventh grade.

I don't understand why people spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on clothing that looks like it came from a thrift store and then was run over several times with a truck. If you're looking for an example, check out the loose tees from Urban Outfitters or the "vintage" jeans from Abercrombie & Fitch. Instead of going to an expensive store for the thrift look, maybe people should go to... um... a thrift store.

[rstlne]

Originally Posted by alex

Steven Spielberg once asked, “Why pay a dollar for a bookmark? Why not use the dollar for a bookmark?”

I use magazine subscription inserts or business cards.

Borders bookstores often have free bookmarks by the cash registers. Of course, those bookmarks are cheap cardstock and bear the name of the store, but they're free. I also pick up bookmarks from the giveaways table whenever I attend a sci-fi convention.

[Cziki]

Have you seen the MTV show Sweet 16 where parents spend like over $100K on their kids' 16th birthday party? $8,000 on an Italian mask for one girl's party was one of the cheaper items of the many items she got for a single event.

Seeing this show makes me feel not bad spending over $3 a day on coffee

[lucille]

Originally Posted by Annie

Oh! I just thought of something else that I've been complaining about since I was in, like, seventh grade.

I don't understand why people spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on clothing that looks like it came from a thrift store and then was run over several times with a truck. If you're looking for an example, check out the loose tees from Urban Outfitters or the "vintage" jeans from Abercrombie & Fitch. Instead of going to an expensive store for the thrift look, maybe people should go to... um... a thrift store.

I remember standing in front of the Abercrombie store at the Mall of America with my teenager. Both of us were laughing at the window display. It all looked like bad crap out of goodwill. I have a friend who was an industrial welder. His jeans always looked like those in the stores. They had a brown tinge, faded and full of holes. I told him he needs to start selling his worn out jeans to teenagers.

[lucille]

Originally Posted by Cziki

Have you seen the MTV show Sweet 16 where parents spend like over $100K on their kids' 16th birthday party? $8,000 on an Italian mask for one girl's party was one of the cheaper items of the many items she got for a single event.

Seeing this show makes me feel not bad spending over $3 a day on coffee

Housewives of Orange County. It is a similar train wreck of insecurity and reckless over spending.

[Looby]

Designer goods, my old boss spends thousands of dollars on designer handbags and then carries them in plastic carrier bags so that they don't get wet or dirty. She also bought herself 2 designer champagne glasses (@ $300) for her birthday but has yet to take them out of their box and use them in case they get broken!

[Rockatiel]

My boyfriend's mother has an obsession with flip flops and sandals. She buys them in every color as long as they are less that $10 each. The only problem is that she has maybe 50 pairs.

She actually asked me how I could spend $20 dollars on a pair of Reefs that had a bottle opener on the bottom. I told her they pull double duty so it's all good.

[boba1212]

This morning, while running, I passed by several houses with gigantic mailboxes. I mean, it looked like you could fit a Thanksgiving 20lb turkey inside. There were several, though, so maybe this is the new suburban trend.

I also saw some mailboxes with special slots/compartments for newspapers. Yet the newspaper boy/girl still just tossed it at the foot of the driveway. Heh.

[1littlething]

Reading this entrire thread made me want to cry. It's crazy the way some people toss money around.

Last Halloween I had to run to the store last minute to get milk for dinner. I'm standing in line behind an older couple with about a dozen bags of candy. Pulled out one credit card, got declined. Pulld out another, declined. They went through at least 5 cards before coming to a good one so they could buy the $50 worth of candy. What's crazy is this is an extremely small town and almost no kids trick-or-trat because the city has a fair that night. So I don't know what they were going to do with all that candy. I sure hope it was worth it!

[lielay]

I think it's crazy that people spend money on cigarettes. They smell horrible, they're not good for you nor anyone around you, and they're expensive! I really can't understand people with kids who smoke on top of their kids all the time, either. I don't understand single people who live in flat suburbia, never go off-road, and never have to carry equipment, yet who also drive large gas-guzzlers.

Of course, I'm not without my own vices...

Originally Posted by Ronni

When I spent the $100 on makeup, it was Bobbi Brown! I loved the stuff, and it did make me look great, but now I just go natural.

I am like you, just a bare minimum if I am going out, but I rarely even do THAT, so yeah...

Unfortunately, this is a big vice of mine. I love MAC pigments. I use them on my lips, on my eyes, & everywhere. What I do is buy them frugally at around 30% off from the outlet, and then trade samples with other people so I can get more colors. That way, I only need to buy a few and can get many more colors. I don't wear foundation, but I just love to use pigments. I usually use at least 3 colors on my eyes alone. The whole point is to decorate and not "be natural" for me when I go out. Of course, I am not paying full price, either.

Originally Posted by rstlne

Bottled water. I understand that bottled water is widely available and convenient when you're out and about. What I do though is I fill up bottles with tap water and bring those with me.

That only works if you don't constantly have a water company that "messes up" and surpasses the legal limit of radium in the water. Would you want to drink water with borderline radium limits, anyways? I'd rather filter out the radium, first.

In response to the designer goods comment....it depends. If I can get designer sunglasses for cheaper than the "knock-offs", why not? I shop at Century 21, located in NYC. The other day, I picked up a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses for $10. The mall stand nearby that sells the "knock-offs" wants me to pay them $15. The ones from Wal-mart are not much cheaper, and they tend to break apart faster. Why not? Or, how about the $15 LeSportSac bag that is not only cute, but cheaper than my other options at Target? Before you judge someone with a lot of designer goods, you might want to find out if they got them very cheaply and where.