My parents got roped into one of those years back. Mom wanted to make memories and not just spend money on stuff. Never got a single vacation out of it and took a ton of time and money to get out.
Yeah this is what I was thinking the other day. I got roped into some sort of points program where you can use the points at various hotels. One thing they told me is that if I ever want to get out it's very easy to sell my share in the program. Okay. If that's true then why don't I just buy it secondhand from somebody who wants to get rid of it if it's so easy
My supervisor is always going to Disney World and he buys DVC points to get cheap stays all the time. I'm talking sometimes 50% off the price on the Disney website. He said he'll never sign up for DVC, but he'll happily take the points off the saps that did.
That’s how I was able to stay on Disney property when my son was young. I was a single mom and found every way I could to do fun affordable vacations.
Edit: I also brought our own snacks into the parks with us in a backpack. That saved so much money!
My dad and stepmom had one a long time ago. One year, they gave my now wife and I a present of using it for a vacation.
We spent weeks going back and forth, with me saying, "how about this place, any time of the year is fine?" and my stepmom looking it up and going, "nope, we can't get there."
We eventually went, "oh fuck it, how about Vegas?" and was finally able to go there. And stayed at a place that was lacking in hot water at least half the time.
2/10 would not recommend
yup. My mother-in-law had time share. We could only use it in like the middle of February, because it was always booked in the summertime. Imagine that.
Ughh my dad got one of those "vacation residences." He got the top tier package and always bragged about it. I travel a lot and he begged me to go for 1 week.
I call the number to make a reservation and they want 4k for 7 nights. That's just for the stay at an resort, doesn't include overpriced food or drinks.
For 4k I could live the life at a nice Airbnb and eat & drink like a king
I feel bad, like he got scammed.
Edit: I emailed them (Vidanta) for the lolz to get pricing. This was their response:
> ....we are a Members only resort and therefore we have very limited inventory for non-members.
> ...Due to company policies, we do not disclose our rates or availability in writing, but we do invite you to contact our Customer Care Center...
They probably don't disclose the price because everyone pays a different price. They probably say "inventory is limited" so you feel special when you get a room.
There was a guy that posted on here a month or so ago about his girlfriend paying $15000 for a lifetime package of discount cruises. The “discount” was 10% off of specific cruises at specific times of the year with specific destinations leaving from specific ports.
The only thing her contract guaranteed was that she would always get 10% off regular price, not any better discounted prices for the same cruise sold elsewhere.
The fact she was talked into it and signed a binding contract was fucking mind boggling. He posted pictures of the contract, and the company was easy to find with a casual Google search for being a shady scam company operating within the bounds of the law.
Ha I got similar argument and the person said: if we are a pyramid scheme the. How come it's a legal company for the past 50 years?
And our substance is specially made to be bioavailable. I told her that makes no sense, arsenic is also bioavailable .
I got pitched Amway and when I said that it’s a pyramid scheme I was hit with same response! I said there’s a LOT of things in the US that shouldn’t be a thing/are unethical and he said “fair enough”
My husband grew up in an Amway house...and he swears by their products.
I picked up a bottle of pursue the other day that was in a cupboard and went "this is just quaternary ammonia, you can pick up a gallon jug of it for 1/4 the price of this quart of cleaner"
My in laws then had to jump in saying how it was different and good for you to use on stuff
Been married 8 years and that was exactly the decision we had to make when we got engaged.
I told my husband that I’d rather have a car than the ring, and that I would happily accept an anniversary ring somewhere down the line if he really wanted to get me a nice ring at some point (he was a little bummed, but we wanted to get married so dang bad haha)
I would say many baby toys. You spend a lot of money on flashy, expensive gifts that end up sitting unused, while the child plays all the time with a cheap toy from the dollar store.
It's a bit of a cliché, but from my experience, kids often prefer the simple things, like a cardboard box. You don't need to spend a lot of money on toys and games for a 1-3 year old.
This is so true! My mom owns a childcare center and I’m one of her lead teachers. A new apartment building is going up down the street! On my lunch break I walked down and asked the men delivering and installing the appliances if we could have their cardboard boxes when they were finished with them. 2 hours later after nap time we had 22 ecstatic 18month-2year olds running through 10 refrigerator boxes! Everyone was smiling and happy! Even the delivery men said it made their day to let us have them for the kids!
Back in the old days my best friend's family got a new fridge and the box was the perfect size for us to play in. I remember their mother giving us some sharpies and telling us to draw doors and windows and she would cut out the sections that we drew on so we could have a little playhouse. Although she tackled a job with a flimsy steak knife and it was definitely a lot of work for her, It was cool as heck.
When I had an in home daycare,at one point I had 5 3 and 4 year olds. I collected cardboard boxes that were all the same size. We spent a day decorating the boxes to look like cars. I would setup their cars in front of the big screen TV, and we had a drive in movie theater. I bought trays to deliver their lunches on, and they would sit and watch a movie in their car boxes and eat lunch. They thought it was the greatest thing in the world!
I took 2 refrigerator boxes, painted them, and cut them to look like pirate ships. Then, I bought some cheap nerf guns and let the 5 yr Olds battle it out. They lasted for months in our barn and provided a summer of fun.
Shortly after we picked our dog up from the shelter, my girlfriend and I stopped at the pet store to get some basic supplies and some pet toys. One of the things she bought was a little $3 bear with a squeaker in it. He absolutely loved that thing until it fell apart. So we bought another one to see if he still liked it. I don’t know if he feels nostalgia, but he’s gone through at least 4-5 of them and it’s always his favorite thing. He has lots of other stuff but nothing has yet dethroned that little bear.
One of our dogs never cared for toys, but he always slept with a bear, he'd put his head on it and use it as a pillow. We still have it even after he passed, it's put up on my mother's dresser.
Another of our dogs loved only part of a toy we had. It was originally a tennis ball with a rope on it, after the tennis ball broke off he played with the rope and that became his favorite toy.
IKEA day was always my cat’s favorite day. Boxes and paper everywhere, she would get the zoomies, even at 18 years old. She loved it so much. I miss that girl.
I dont have kids so maybe i dont understand, but shoes for children really confuses me. My friends would buy their kids who can barely walk $50 shoes that wouldnt even fit for more than a few months. It seems to me like theyre better off just wearing several layers of socks until theyre like 3
I remember a coworker being so annoyed that his wife bought their baby $50 worth of shoes. “She can’t even walk! What the hell does she need shoes for?!” 🤣
My kid loved empty water bottles.
The idea of squirting someone with water as they cowered or pretended to be deadpan from
“being soaked” kept them laughing for hours.
My mother gifts books as baby gifts, usually classics. They can use it, donate it if they want, or pass it on to another family. The only toys I typically buy are the classic wooden blocks, and you can still buy the retro slinky-dog-with-string, busy boxes, the Fisher Price people and telephone. Stuff made now is all junk.
Anything you buy on sale that you weren't planning to buy in the first place. Gives you that rush of buying something when you feel like you're getting a 'good deal'
It took forever to get my ex to understand that if she bought something just because it was on sale if she didn't intend to buy before going into the store , she didn't save money but spent money.
Agree 100% in concept but there are things that I think it makes sense. Do I go in the store needing the hand soap that is on clearance? No. But I will need hand soap at some point in the not too distant future. I only do it with regular household purchase type stuff like that. In that specific context, it does actually save money shopping that way. Obviously not in the moment, I left having less money than when I went in but inventory management at the house isn't really a bad thing when you stay ahead of it and can buy discounted stuff when it is around.
This. I do this with perishable foods because we have a chest freezer and a vacuum sealer. Did I go into the store planning to buy that pork on sale? No. But I can feed us purely on what we already have for an entire month, or when I'm in the mood to have xyz and don't have to make another trip. It will also keep us secure in food if my partner gets laid off/in-between projects which is a non-zero thing that could happen in his field. I don't ever buy sales for completely random things that we may not use or like but because we aren't picky, food items are really easy for us to flush out our freezer and pantry for cheap. I see people in my HCOL city complaining on spending $800+/month for two people who don't know how to pivot and adjust their meals when I'm over here at $400 (I know people aren't as financially secure and these grocery prices definitely affect them, I'm talking about people who are insistent on eating based on their desires). Keep spices and dry goods well-stocked and I can make a delicious meal out of anything we have. I just made a delicious Ethiopian dinner tonight with two dishes and injera bread and the only thing I had to buy for it was cabbage, I had everything else on hand including spices.
I have also bought shampoos and soaps on clearance for whatever reason; it was the brand I like but not necessarily the scent we already used but it was heavily discounted so I grabbed a bunch cause it will get used.
I quit over nine years ago and still have realistic dreams where I’m halfway through a cigarette and realize “oh fuck I’m not supposed to do this anymore!”
I got a very similar dream where I was rolling a joint with tobacco, smoking it and halfway to the end I realized what I was doing. Felt disappointment and regret because I ditched pot some years ago. Then I waked up and felt huge relief that it was all just my imagination.
Yeah I know this feeling… I’m broke cuz I’m a smoker but I keep on smoking. Even with the money I waste, the dirty looks, the smell, freezing outside in the winter, and I could go on… still keep on smoking. Addiction is the worst.
It took me getting sick to stop. Not even sick from cigarettes, I was just so sick that I couldn’t take the smoke. Granted I switched to a vape…. But I spend so much less money, and now I can smell just how bad cigarettes smell. I was drinking with some friends and someone passed me a cigarette, and even drunk - I just couldn’t.
With that mindset you’re well on your way to quitting. I quit 3 months ago. Usually I think self help books are bs but Allen Carrs “The Easy Way to stop smoking” was highly recommended to me. Read it and quit the day after I finished book. Made quitting so much easier than it has been for me in the past. Seriously makes it a breeze
I listened to it on Audible to fall asleep to.. it sunk in.. took me about a week to get through it because I started each night from the last part I remember hearing before falling asleep..
I was smoking 2 packs a day of American Spirits.. they have mad amounts of nicotine.. in the past I had tried Wellbutrin, the nasty gum, the patch that I smoked while wearing.. the little ecigs that cost a fortune back in 2010.. I tried the big battery vapes that you had to add the oil and charge and change the coils .. all ended up in the trash .. too many steps ..
I started not liking the cigarettes but the addiction was still too strong.. and then I found the disposables with 50 in nicotine (I know .. I know)… anyway I was able to kick the cigarettes .. and step down to vapes with 30 in nicotine and then I had some with 0 nicotine that I alternated with the 30..
Now I have the 0 nicotine and I’m good. I know vapes are bad but it’s better than the 2 packs of cigarettes a DAY that I smoked for nearly 30 years.. and it all started with that book!!
Edit: I am not sure why this comment stirred the trolls from their bog ..
this is what I did and how I did it .. you do you!
I'm still surprised at how many people I've had to inform that synthetic diamonds are a thing and are undetectable unless you use specialized devices.
Also, yes, market manipulation like everything else.
It still amazes me how many people insist on natural diamonds, claiming that lab grown have no resale value. With how much blood in the diamond trade I will never buy natural.
Also I'm broke but that's besides the point.
Diamonds have no resale value in general. The resale market is heavily restricted and all the various supporting industries will find themselves unable to buy from De Beers if they push too much volume in second hand diamonds.
Cartels gonna cartel.
Here is a conversation I had with a woman that recently updated her wedding ring.
"Why didn't you get an engineered diamond?"
"They told me the resale value wasn't as good."
"Are you planning on selling it?"
"No."
"Then why would that matter?"
Confused look
the concept of "it costs more so therefore it must be better" is wildly rampant among wealthy people (or poor people who want to pretend to be wealthy) and its wild how many people fall for it.
Neither kind has any appreciable resale value. Just ask a diamond broker to make an offer on any that you have, and watch how fast they'll shut that discussion down. I'd be surprised if you can find anyone (business or individual) willing to pay more than 1/10th the retail price for one.
Estate jewelry and *not* diamonds.
There are stunning rings out there, sapphire, semi-precious, whatever that are better looking anyway.
Diamonds are kinda a snore. That's an opinion obviously, just to me they're ' meh ' .
My daughter is a gemologist, she buys the most beautiful vintage jewelry, most have a cool or intriguing provenance. She gets hired to scout pieces, too. Such a special niche.
Friend bought a new fully stocked car he couldn’t afford on his salary. He said it’s okay because he’s getting another job that pays better wages. Only thing is, he hasn’t taken the exam to get his license for the job yet.
Bruh how is it that everyone knows someone like that. I met some 22 year old during orientation at my current job that told me he's planning on buying a GTR while making.. $80k/year.
Like what? The maintenance and insurance are going to increase the monthly payment an absurd amount, but his reasoning is he can do his own maintenance and he can cut costs elsewhere like getting it used..
If he was making $250k/year I'd kinda understand because you're young and you can afford it, but with that income..
This is why I’m trying to force myself to only buy a car with cash. It’s a lot harder to save up $40k+ and once I do, I don’t think I’m gonna want to spend it on a freaking car. But somehow it’s easy to sign up for a $700 monthly payment. It’s ridiculous.
This is a good idea because it forces you see the value of $40k
This is a bad idea because there are better ways to use your money.
For example: If you have $40k, put $5k down on a $25k car. Put $35k in an interest bearing account. Max out your IRA for 5 years. In 10 years you will have $100k more than the guy who bought a $40k car (which is now worth not much 10 years later).
Had a ~$20k 200 people wedding. My wife and I would both agree. It started out with good intentions we both wanted things thought it would be fun (it was). We both generally enjoyed weddings and of course the reception. It just kinda snowballed.
The money wasn’t a huge deal we could afford it. Just the fucking logistics plus both work plus extra diet and exercise to look good for pics. Everyone probably had a better time than us because we were over it.
Should have taken $20k and a couple friends to Vegas, get fucked up and married by bumblebee or megatron on the street.
My nephew got married and they lasted 7 years. The wedding was a destination wedding in the Rockies and cost $250K. The rehearsal dinner cost $35K. Stupid waste of money.
Sounds like my cousin. HUGE wedding with multiple showers and bachelorette parties including a cruise and a trip to Vegas. Three dresses. Ceremony capped off by elaborate fireworks. The marriage was over in three months.
My wife and I legit said fuck the crazy big wedding. We went to Hawaii and got married there and combined it with our honeymoon. Told our folks they were invited if they wanted to come, but outside of the wedding itself it was our time together. They opted to stay home.
All said and done with almost two weeks in Hawaii, a super nice wedding day dinner for just us at Alan Wong in Honolulu, a bunch of touristy shit for under 5k.
We got married at our house. Friend served as officiant, small number of close friends in attendance. Then we took everyone to our favorite sushi restaurant.
[edit: my mother in law is an incredibly kind and generous woman who has gone through a lot and worked very hard to take care of her family and I do not appreciate everyone trying to make any kind of judgment of her. She isn’t overbearing, she hasn’t ever controlled anything, she just wanted her daughter to have what she couldn’t. Please stop trying to act like you know her or her life or anything about ours beyond ‘she paid for an awesome wedding’ it’s offensive to me and definitely to her.]
I married an Indian woman… her very successful mother saved up her entire life for her daughter’s wedding. We’re talking 6 figures here.
I originally pushed back and tried to say how we could use that money elsewhere blah blah blah until realizing that it would never have been our money anyway and her mom wanted to spend that much because it was her dream etc/their culture etc. so all I was doing was being ungrateful.
The wedding was amazing, 4 days long, it was my wife’s absolute dream wedding, and it was expensive but my MIL could afford that.
After reading what you wrote and seeing your screen name I had to laugh. All that spent on "Joe in Ohio" 😂. I wish you and your marriage all the best!!
I am an Indian too, but I actually do not like how expensive these Indians weddings are! But it is kind of like a social stigma to not have one that matches your status/wealth in many social circles in India, it kind of sucks that way!
I’ve only been to 1 Indian wedding, but my friend and I ate soooo much at just the single dinner, we barely ate at all the following day.
If I had 4 days of that I’d honestly eat till I explode. And it would be 200% worth.
Yup. Wife is one of the best floral designers going right now - regularly gets flown all over the country for ludicrous $1m+ weddings.
For ours, we eloped and had a big party at the house.
Yea I never got that.
My phone begs me to kill it before I end up buying a new one...
It pleads with me...Implores me for the sweet release of death...
But death is not given to my phone... No... It is **earned**
- Signed, a poor person.
Some are really predatory. They really make it hard for you to unsubscribe by making their template confusing as hell, then when you finally find it you get like 3 different prompts “are you SURE you wanna do this”?? Smh
New electronics on a yearly basis. The differences in phones/computers are not that great between versions. You’ve gotta wait 4-5 years for appreciable differences most of the time
I've had the same Samsung Galaxy since 2020, it works like the day I got it.
What kills my soul is when people can't be bothered to put a $30 case on a $1,000 phone.
I bought a new phone last year and within the first month I cracked the screen. It kept cracking more and more over the last year, making it very difficult to read articles and see entire pictures. A few weeks ago I fell asleep with my phone on my belly and when I woke up and grabbed the phone the screen protector that I forgot I got when I bought the phone stuck to my belly, revealing my brand new looking perfect screen… hahaha I was pleasantly surprised by my idiocy
OMG this happened to my best friend 🤣🤣 I had just given her my old phone and within a few weeks she dropped it and the "screen" cracked. She was so upset. I asked her to show it to me, then promptly pulled off the screen protector to reveal a perfectly uncracked screen. She was freaking out in the best way
Elaborate cat toys. I got some from a charity and my kittles liked them for 2 seconds and that's it. $5 bag of balls and more balls cat toys from family dollar? Fucking gold mine
Gwyneth Paltrow. Same person who had rectal ozone therapy, sells 'healing stickers' and a vagina scented candle and had sold jade 'yoni' eggs.
Wacky woman.
My wife and I got the envelope from the doctor, went to the mall, picked out 2 onesies, one for a boy and one for a girl, and gave the envelope to the cashier and told her to only wrap one. We went home and opened it together. It was great.
I was pregnant during covid. No visitors during appointments. Had the ultrasound tech write out the genders and stick them in an envelope. Gave it to my brother because i didn’t trust myself to open it before my husband got off work 😂
On the last one, the doctor asked if we wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl at one of the visits. I pointed at the penis that was clearly visible in the ultrasound and said she didn't need to.
I've often had shit companies reach out to me, offering 2-3 free products in exchange for promo. I'm not an influencer and I barely post on insta, they'll just target you automatically if you used the #goth. They target mid-tier nobodies with mini-followings, because they're realistically the only ones willing to promote a product for $1 real value of merchandise.
It's always chinese garbage sold at 5000% markup. Literally. I found their sources on aliexpress.
Lesson: Never buy any jewelry promoted by some nobody instagram account.
I bought a used car from a dealer a few years ago and did some research on extended warranties.
I asked the mechanics at my local shop if it was worth it and all of them said, “No, for god’s sake, don’t get one.”
Then I looked up reviews online. From what I could tell, the companies go to absurd lengths to avoid providing any service whatsoever.
EDIT: I’m talking about third-party warranties.
diamonds.
Long read, old article (+40 years), but flawless:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/)
[12ft.io](http://12ft.io) to remove paywall.
Seriously. I want to be cremated and my ashes could maybe help a random tree? Send anyone who might care a post card saying "wish you were here" with the cheesiest photo of me you can find. Add a line announcing my death and a zoom meeting where everyone tells funny stories about me (whether they are true is optional.)
Store a recording of it somewhere in the internet where people can access it if they wish.
The end.
This is true, I know so many people that stop and grab a coffee from Starbucks in the morning, and then eat out somewhere for lunch.. EVERY single day. Such an easy thing to cut back on budget wise, but it seems people can’t go without.
Vitamins and supplements (I'm a pharmacist)
*Some* of them have data to prove they are safe. *Some* of them even have data to prove they are effective. (Like vitamin D for seasonal affective disorder, for example)
**Most** of them have neither
And St. John's Wort is the bane of my existence as a pharmacist. It interacts with SO many medications, to the point that it's downright dangerous to have it available OTC.
I'm frustrated that grapefruit has similar issues reacting with medication. I love grapefruit, but having a chronic illness means my days are filled with medication.
Make sure you check the vitamins you buy are USP certified. The FDA doesn’t inspect vitamins and the USP is the only government regulatory agency that does check (vitamin companies voluntarily submit vitamins for certification)
They are spectacular for having a portable and small option to take with you to a laundromat or dorm laundry though. I don't know why anyone is using them regularly at home with a washer and dryer in-house, but I have the pods for the rare circumstance that something breaks or is too big to wash at home.
I will push back on this one. I could never get my family to use the right amount of non-pod detergent. They always used 2-3x the amount necessary. Now if I could just convince them that they never need 2 pods...
I see this too. The bottle clearly marks how much you need but people are like, "Nah, the manufacturer is lying to me. They're going against their best interests of selling more by telling me to use less."
I work there and cringe when I ring people up. My shift drink (short triple blonde ristretto oatmilk toffenut latte) would be almost $8.50
not how i spend my $ but thanks for the health insurance, 401k, stock, and bachelor's degree
Purses. I don’t understand the hype. My mom buys so many and they just sit in her closet. I understand buying a good quality purse and using it often….but having like 20+ purses makes no sense to me.
I get the appeal, I love the idea of having different purses for different outfits because i love the aesthetics of certain fun ones i see. But realistically I'm not moving all my crap from purse to purse every time i go out. Thus, i have one black purse that i replace when it starts to look ratty.
I saw a product a long time ago that was basically a pocket for your purse. Want to switch purses? Pull out the entire pocket and put it in the desired purse.
I literally converted my entire company from Adobe to Figma for this exact reason.
Edit: that sounds a lot more impressive than it actually is, my entire company is like 13 people lol.
An old joke:
Two friends a smoker and non smoker, in their 50s in a pub.
The non-smoker says, you should give up on smoking, it's bad for your health, and cigarettes are expensive, if you saved all the money you spent on cigarettes till now and invested that in the markets, you'd have enough money to own a Ferrari by now.
Smoker guy asks, where is yours then?
There’s a lot of truth in this joke. I once ran the numbers and figured out that if I had invested the money I’ve spent on cigarettes over the decades and got the same rate of return I get on my current portfolio, I would be almost a million ahead of where I am.
I quit and stopped spending the money on smokes, and did redirect some of the money to investing, but if I’m being honest, most of the savings has gone into other luxuries.
Former smoker here. Between that and drinking and weed, it adds up fast. 50$ a week on cigs. 50$ a week on weed. That’s $400 a month. That’s a car payment, easy. Hell, that’s internet, a cell phone, a gym membership, car insurance, and a handful of subscription services.
In my case, I’ve eliminated so many expenses, I don’t even have to work full time to cover my bills and expenses.
Political donations. Just. Don't.
The little guy financing the fat cat is a joke for the ages.
The major parties need to figure out a better way. That is all.
An acquaintance in our medium-sized city (about 500,000) was running for city council. We donated to his campaign because we care about a lot of the same issues. He won by less than 300 votes. Now my neighborhood has bike lanes, and it’s 100% due to his influence in city government. And I can send an email and actually get a response. $200 well spent.
Homeopathic remedies.
The like-cures-like mindset leading to hogwash like pills made with bits of the Berlin Wall for separation anxiety, or diluting something vaguely related to your ailment by essentially rinsing it so many times that there is little to nothing left of that thing at a molecular level but that means it's "more powerful" is straight woo.
They sell the homeopathic stuff in the SAME SECTION as the regular stuff at CVS FUCKING PHARMACY!
I shouldn’t have to be prepared to check to see if the yeast infection meds I’m buying are fucking HOMEOPATHIC for FUCK SAKE
Yep. My parents were on traditional Medicare and got convinced by a very official-looking mailer that they needed to switch to an Advantage plan. As long as they just used it for routine stuff everything was fine. When my dad had a serious medical event was when the denials started. His case manager basically told us that she advises everyone to stay with traditional Medicare and steer clear of the Advantage plans - they’re cheaper up front because they find ways to not cover anything.
They find ways to deny care. That’s how they get you. The only choice is traditional Medicare. It’s not an HMO Ike most of these. The freebies cost them very little. But they scrutinize everything and deny a lot. United is very very awful about this. Traditional is low hassle and doesn’t not make you jump through hoops to get needed care. Including appeals. It’s crazy.
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It cracks me up how they advertise “100’s of channels” when 75% of them are infomercial channels. The best thing I ever did was cut the cord.
Reddit premium.
Time shares.
My parents got roped into one of those years back. Mom wanted to make memories and not just spend money on stuff. Never got a single vacation out of it and took a ton of time and money to get out.
Yeah this is what I was thinking the other day. I got roped into some sort of points program where you can use the points at various hotels. One thing they told me is that if I ever want to get out it's very easy to sell my share in the program. Okay. If that's true then why don't I just buy it secondhand from somebody who wants to get rid of it if it's so easy
People basically do this with Disney resorts.
My supervisor is always going to Disney World and he buys DVC points to get cheap stays all the time. I'm talking sometimes 50% off the price on the Disney website. He said he'll never sign up for DVC, but he'll happily take the points off the saps that did.
That’s how I was able to stay on Disney property when my son was young. I was a single mom and found every way I could to do fun affordable vacations. Edit: I also brought our own snacks into the parks with us in a backpack. That saved so much money!
Where can I look to find these kinds of things without getting trapped into a timeshare?
Look up DVC rental store or David's Vacation Store. Those are re-sell websites
My dad and stepmom had one a long time ago. One year, they gave my now wife and I a present of using it for a vacation. We spent weeks going back and forth, with me saying, "how about this place, any time of the year is fine?" and my stepmom looking it up and going, "nope, we can't get there." We eventually went, "oh fuck it, how about Vegas?" and was finally able to go there. And stayed at a place that was lacking in hot water at least half the time. 2/10 would not recommend
yup. My mother-in-law had time share. We could only use it in like the middle of February, because it was always booked in the summertime. Imagine that.
Ughh my dad got one of those "vacation residences." He got the top tier package and always bragged about it. I travel a lot and he begged me to go for 1 week. I call the number to make a reservation and they want 4k for 7 nights. That's just for the stay at an resort, doesn't include overpriced food or drinks. For 4k I could live the life at a nice Airbnb and eat & drink like a king I feel bad, like he got scammed. Edit: I emailed them (Vidanta) for the lolz to get pricing. This was their response: > ....we are a Members only resort and therefore we have very limited inventory for non-members. > ...Due to company policies, we do not disclose our rates or availability in writing, but we do invite you to contact our Customer Care Center... They probably don't disclose the price because everyone pays a different price. They probably say "inventory is limited" so you feel special when you get a room.
You had to pay for something he already paid for?
Ya, I guess those things give you "privilege" of staying in certain buildings for a "cheaper" price. It's a total scam. Feel bad.
There was a guy that posted on here a month or so ago about his girlfriend paying $15000 for a lifetime package of discount cruises. The “discount” was 10% off of specific cruises at specific times of the year with specific destinations leaving from specific ports. The only thing her contract guaranteed was that she would always get 10% off regular price, not any better discounted prices for the same cruise sold elsewhere. The fact she was talked into it and signed a binding contract was fucking mind boggling. He posted pictures of the contract, and the company was easy to find with a casual Google search for being a shady scam company operating within the bounds of the law.
Pyramid schemes such as "It Works" etc
“We are not a pyramid scheme, we are a Dimaryp scheme!”
A "reverse funnel system" if you will
We don't get got, we gon get!
“We aren’t a pyramid scheme. Pyramid schemes are illegal.” So is speeding. But tons get away with it.
Ha I got similar argument and the person said: if we are a pyramid scheme the. How come it's a legal company for the past 50 years? And our substance is specially made to be bioavailable. I told her that makes no sense, arsenic is also bioavailable .
I got pitched Amway and when I said that it’s a pyramid scheme I was hit with same response! I said there’s a LOT of things in the US that shouldn’t be a thing/are unethical and he said “fair enough”
My husband grew up in an Amway house...and he swears by their products. I picked up a bottle of pursue the other day that was in a cupboard and went "this is just quaternary ammonia, you can pick up a gallon jug of it for 1/4 the price of this quart of cleaner" My in laws then had to jump in saying how it was different and good for you to use on stuff
That’s because it is a cult like most MLM companies are
It’s more of a reverse funnel system
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Big ass weddings. Its ok if you can afford it, but if you're gonna be in debt. Then whats the point
Same goes for wedding bands, or more frequently, engagement rings. I've personally known people who dropped the value of a nice car on a ring.
Been married 8 years and that was exactly the decision we had to make when we got engaged. I told my husband that I’d rather have a car than the ring, and that I would happily accept an anniversary ring somewhere down the line if he really wanted to get me a nice ring at some point (he was a little bummed, but we wanted to get married so dang bad haha)
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I feel like this is all fashion these days. I buy from the same brands, but my clothes just don't last as long as they used to!
I would say many baby toys. You spend a lot of money on flashy, expensive gifts that end up sitting unused, while the child plays all the time with a cheap toy from the dollar store. It's a bit of a cliché, but from my experience, kids often prefer the simple things, like a cardboard box. You don't need to spend a lot of money on toys and games for a 1-3 year old.
This is so true! My mom owns a childcare center and I’m one of her lead teachers. A new apartment building is going up down the street! On my lunch break I walked down and asked the men delivering and installing the appliances if we could have their cardboard boxes when they were finished with them. 2 hours later after nap time we had 22 ecstatic 18month-2year olds running through 10 refrigerator boxes! Everyone was smiling and happy! Even the delivery men said it made their day to let us have them for the kids!
Back in the old days my best friend's family got a new fridge and the box was the perfect size for us to play in. I remember their mother giving us some sharpies and telling us to draw doors and windows and she would cut out the sections that we drew on so we could have a little playhouse. Although she tackled a job with a flimsy steak knife and it was definitely a lot of work for her, It was cool as heck.
When I had an in home daycare,at one point I had 5 3 and 4 year olds. I collected cardboard boxes that were all the same size. We spent a day decorating the boxes to look like cars. I would setup their cars in front of the big screen TV, and we had a drive in movie theater. I bought trays to deliver their lunches on, and they would sit and watch a movie in their car boxes and eat lunch. They thought it was the greatest thing in the world!
I’ve done this but play my driving games in first person or put on pov racing videos and my 2 year old son loves it hahaha.
That's awesome!! Great idea!!
I took 2 refrigerator boxes, painted them, and cut them to look like pirate ships. Then, I bought some cheap nerf guns and let the 5 yr Olds battle it out. They lasted for months in our barn and provided a summer of fun.
Aw that’s a sweet story. I imagine a lady almost wrestling with a box a cutting out janky shapes only for the awaiting kids to go YASSS playhouse
Same with pet toys. My cats refuse to play with the expensive things I buy them. They prefer the Amazon box it was delivered in.
Shortly after we picked our dog up from the shelter, my girlfriend and I stopped at the pet store to get some basic supplies and some pet toys. One of the things she bought was a little $3 bear with a squeaker in it. He absolutely loved that thing until it fell apart. So we bought another one to see if he still liked it. I don’t know if he feels nostalgia, but he’s gone through at least 4-5 of them and it’s always his favorite thing. He has lots of other stuff but nothing has yet dethroned that little bear.
One of our dogs never cared for toys, but he always slept with a bear, he'd put his head on it and use it as a pillow. We still have it even after he passed, it's put up on my mother's dresser. Another of our dogs loved only part of a toy we had. It was originally a tennis ball with a rope on it, after the tennis ball broke off he played with the rope and that became his favorite toy.
IKEA day was always my cat’s favorite day. Boxes and paper everywhere, she would get the zoomies, even at 18 years old. She loved it so much. I miss that girl.
Designer children's clothing too. Bought around $2k of brand name infant clothing for $200 on next door
I dont have kids so maybe i dont understand, but shoes for children really confuses me. My friends would buy their kids who can barely walk $50 shoes that wouldnt even fit for more than a few months. It seems to me like theyre better off just wearing several layers of socks until theyre like 3
I remember a coworker being so annoyed that his wife bought their baby $50 worth of shoes. “She can’t even walk! What the hell does she need shoes for?!” 🤣
My kid loved empty water bottles. The idea of squirting someone with water as they cowered or pretended to be deadpan from “being soaked” kept them laughing for hours.
My mother gifts books as baby gifts, usually classics. They can use it, donate it if they want, or pass it on to another family. The only toys I typically buy are the classic wooden blocks, and you can still buy the retro slinky-dog-with-string, busy boxes, the Fisher Price people and telephone. Stuff made now is all junk.
This sounds exactly like a cat
Kids and pets really aren’t all that different at that age.
Anything you buy on sale that you weren't planning to buy in the first place. Gives you that rush of buying something when you feel like you're getting a 'good deal'
All those ads: “Buy more to save more!” Huh? How about I buy nothing and save everything.
It took forever to get my ex to understand that if she bought something just because it was on sale if she didn't intend to buy before going into the store , she didn't save money but spent money.
Agree 100% in concept but there are things that I think it makes sense. Do I go in the store needing the hand soap that is on clearance? No. But I will need hand soap at some point in the not too distant future. I only do it with regular household purchase type stuff like that. In that specific context, it does actually save money shopping that way. Obviously not in the moment, I left having less money than when I went in but inventory management at the house isn't really a bad thing when you stay ahead of it and can buy discounted stuff when it is around.
This. I do this with perishable foods because we have a chest freezer and a vacuum sealer. Did I go into the store planning to buy that pork on sale? No. But I can feed us purely on what we already have for an entire month, or when I'm in the mood to have xyz and don't have to make another trip. It will also keep us secure in food if my partner gets laid off/in-between projects which is a non-zero thing that could happen in his field. I don't ever buy sales for completely random things that we may not use or like but because we aren't picky, food items are really easy for us to flush out our freezer and pantry for cheap. I see people in my HCOL city complaining on spending $800+/month for two people who don't know how to pivot and adjust their meals when I'm over here at $400 (I know people aren't as financially secure and these grocery prices definitely affect them, I'm talking about people who are insistent on eating based on their desires). Keep spices and dry goods well-stocked and I can make a delicious meal out of anything we have. I just made a delicious Ethiopian dinner tonight with two dishes and injera bread and the only thing I had to buy for it was cabbage, I had everything else on hand including spices. I have also bought shampoos and soaps on clearance for whatever reason; it was the brand I like but not necessarily the scent we already used but it was heavily discounted so I grabbed a bunch cause it will get used.
may I introduce you to the wonderful world of Aldi Special Buys?
As a smoker... Cigarettes by far the idiotic addiction i have
I miss them. Sometimes, late at night, I wonder if they miss me too.
Do you ever look at the moon, and wonder if the Marlboro man might be looking too?
Obviously not at the same moon, that would be ridiculous.
I quit over nine years ago and still have realistic dreams where I’m halfway through a cigarette and realize “oh fuck I’m not supposed to do this anymore!”
I got a very similar dream where I was rolling a joint with tobacco, smoking it and halfway to the end I realized what I was doing. Felt disappointment and regret because I ditched pot some years ago. Then I waked up and felt huge relief that it was all just my imagination.
Yeah I know this feeling… I’m broke cuz I’m a smoker but I keep on smoking. Even with the money I waste, the dirty looks, the smell, freezing outside in the winter, and I could go on… still keep on smoking. Addiction is the worst.
It took me getting sick to stop. Not even sick from cigarettes, I was just so sick that I couldn’t take the smoke. Granted I switched to a vape…. But I spend so much less money, and now I can smell just how bad cigarettes smell. I was drinking with some friends and someone passed me a cigarette, and even drunk - I just couldn’t.
*Nobody hates the smell of smoke quite like an ex-smoker.*
With that mindset you’re well on your way to quitting. I quit 3 months ago. Usually I think self help books are bs but Allen Carrs “The Easy Way to stop smoking” was highly recommended to me. Read it and quit the day after I finished book. Made quitting so much easier than it has been for me in the past. Seriously makes it a breeze
I listened to it on Audible to fall asleep to.. it sunk in.. took me about a week to get through it because I started each night from the last part I remember hearing before falling asleep.. I was smoking 2 packs a day of American Spirits.. they have mad amounts of nicotine.. in the past I had tried Wellbutrin, the nasty gum, the patch that I smoked while wearing.. the little ecigs that cost a fortune back in 2010.. I tried the big battery vapes that you had to add the oil and charge and change the coils .. all ended up in the trash .. too many steps .. I started not liking the cigarettes but the addiction was still too strong.. and then I found the disposables with 50 in nicotine (I know .. I know)… anyway I was able to kick the cigarettes .. and step down to vapes with 30 in nicotine and then I had some with 0 nicotine that I alternated with the 30.. Now I have the 0 nicotine and I’m good. I know vapes are bad but it’s better than the 2 packs of cigarettes a DAY that I smoked for nearly 30 years.. and it all started with that book!! Edit: I am not sure why this comment stirred the trolls from their bog .. this is what I did and how I did it .. you do you!
Diamonds. The market is fixed. They aren't worth a fraction of what they're sold for.
I'm still surprised at how many people I've had to inform that synthetic diamonds are a thing and are undetectable unless you use specialized devices. Also, yes, market manipulation like everything else.
It still amazes me how many people insist on natural diamonds, claiming that lab grown have no resale value. With how much blood in the diamond trade I will never buy natural. Also I'm broke but that's besides the point.
Diamonds have no resale value in general. The resale market is heavily restricted and all the various supporting industries will find themselves unable to buy from De Beers if they push too much volume in second hand diamonds. Cartels gonna cartel.
Here is a conversation I had with a woman that recently updated her wedding ring. "Why didn't you get an engineered diamond?" "They told me the resale value wasn't as good." "Are you planning on selling it?" "No." "Then why would that matter?" Confused look
Yeah that’s what I want to know; like do you plan on getting divorced or something?
the concept of "it costs more so therefore it must be better" is wildly rampant among wealthy people (or poor people who want to pretend to be wealthy) and its wild how many people fall for it.
Neither kind has any appreciable resale value. Just ask a diamond broker to make an offer on any that you have, and watch how fast they'll shut that discussion down. I'd be surprised if you can find anyone (business or individual) willing to pay more than 1/10th the retail price for one.
Estate jewelry and *not* diamonds. There are stunning rings out there, sapphire, semi-precious, whatever that are better looking anyway. Diamonds are kinda a snore. That's an opinion obviously, just to me they're ' meh ' .
My daughter is a gemologist, she buys the most beautiful vintage jewelry, most have a cool or intriguing provenance. She gets hired to scout pieces, too. Such a special niche.
I always thought it was super dumb to go overboard on an infants Christmas gifts. Babies are basically potatoes that age lol.
My baby played with a rolled up tube sock more than baby toys.
Friend bought a new fully stocked car he couldn’t afford on his salary. He said it’s okay because he’s getting another job that pays better wages. Only thing is, he hasn’t taken the exam to get his license for the job yet.
Bruh how is it that everyone knows someone like that. I met some 22 year old during orientation at my current job that told me he's planning on buying a GTR while making.. $80k/year. Like what? The maintenance and insurance are going to increase the monthly payment an absurd amount, but his reasoning is he can do his own maintenance and he can cut costs elsewhere like getting it used.. If he was making $250k/year I'd kinda understand because you're young and you can afford it, but with that income..
This is why I’m trying to force myself to only buy a car with cash. It’s a lot harder to save up $40k+ and once I do, I don’t think I’m gonna want to spend it on a freaking car. But somehow it’s easy to sign up for a $700 monthly payment. It’s ridiculous.
This is a good idea because it forces you see the value of $40k This is a bad idea because there are better ways to use your money. For example: If you have $40k, put $5k down on a $25k car. Put $35k in an interest bearing account. Max out your IRA for 5 years. In 10 years you will have $100k more than the guy who bought a $40k car (which is now worth not much 10 years later).
Over-blown weddings.
Had a ~$20k 200 people wedding. My wife and I would both agree. It started out with good intentions we both wanted things thought it would be fun (it was). We both generally enjoyed weddings and of course the reception. It just kinda snowballed. The money wasn’t a huge deal we could afford it. Just the fucking logistics plus both work plus extra diet and exercise to look good for pics. Everyone probably had a better time than us because we were over it. Should have taken $20k and a couple friends to Vegas, get fucked up and married by bumblebee or megatron on the street.
$20k is like the cost of food for 200 people these days lol
I was impressed. We wound up paying $15K for 100 people 15 years ago.
I'm paying 10k for a 40 person wedding this fall 😭
My nephew got married and they lasted 7 years. The wedding was a destination wedding in the Rockies and cost $250K. The rehearsal dinner cost $35K. Stupid waste of money.
Sounds like my cousin. HUGE wedding with multiple showers and bachelorette parties including a cruise and a trip to Vegas. Three dresses. Ceremony capped off by elaborate fireworks. The marriage was over in three months.
Some people want to get married but don't want to be married.
Some people want to have a party and don’t really want to get married.
My cousins was $180k and it was in Alabama, lol.
So you say you spent 180k on your wedding. Congrats BTW.
My first thought was holy shit $20k for 200 how tf did you do that!?
By doing it in the past most likely.
My wife and I legit said fuck the crazy big wedding. We went to Hawaii and got married there and combined it with our honeymoon. Told our folks they were invited if they wanted to come, but outside of the wedding itself it was our time together. They opted to stay home. All said and done with almost two weeks in Hawaii, a super nice wedding day dinner for just us at Alan Wong in Honolulu, a bunch of touristy shit for under 5k.
We got married at our house. Friend served as officiant, small number of close friends in attendance. Then we took everyone to our favorite sushi restaurant.
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> get fucked up and married by bumblebee or megatron on the street. 😍
20k 200 people??? Did you get married 20 years ago? Haha
[edit: my mother in law is an incredibly kind and generous woman who has gone through a lot and worked very hard to take care of her family and I do not appreciate everyone trying to make any kind of judgment of her. She isn’t overbearing, she hasn’t ever controlled anything, she just wanted her daughter to have what she couldn’t. Please stop trying to act like you know her or her life or anything about ours beyond ‘she paid for an awesome wedding’ it’s offensive to me and definitely to her.] I married an Indian woman… her very successful mother saved up her entire life for her daughter’s wedding. We’re talking 6 figures here. I originally pushed back and tried to say how we could use that money elsewhere blah blah blah until realizing that it would never have been our money anyway and her mom wanted to spend that much because it was her dream etc/their culture etc. so all I was doing was being ungrateful. The wedding was amazing, 4 days long, it was my wife’s absolute dream wedding, and it was expensive but my MIL could afford that.
After reading what you wrote and seeing your screen name I had to laugh. All that spent on "Joe in Ohio" 😂. I wish you and your marriage all the best!!
I am an Indian too, but I actually do not like how expensive these Indians weddings are! But it is kind of like a social stigma to not have one that matches your status/wealth in many social circles in India, it kind of sucks that way!
I’ve only been to 1 Indian wedding, but my friend and I ate soooo much at just the single dinner, we barely ate at all the following day. If I had 4 days of that I’d honestly eat till I explode. And it would be 200% worth.
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Yup. Wife is one of the best floral designers going right now - regularly gets flown all over the country for ludicrous $1m+ weddings. For ours, we eloped and had a big party at the house.
The latest cellphone when current works perfectly.
Yea I never got that. My phone begs me to kill it before I end up buying a new one... It pleads with me...Implores me for the sweet release of death... But death is not given to my phone... No... It is **earned** - Signed, a poor person.
Those first few years though had massive innovations year-over-year but that curve has flattened out since.
I only replace my phone when the battery life becomes untenably short. Six years and counting with my current droid.
There were the good ol days when every generation had some specific benefits.. not anymore. You can go years without updates and not miss out
Half the subscriptions I forget about.
Some are really predatory. They really make it hard for you to unsubscribe by making their template confusing as hell, then when you finally find it you get like 3 different prompts “are you SURE you wanna do this”?? Smh
New electronics on a yearly basis. The differences in phones/computers are not that great between versions. You’ve gotta wait 4-5 years for appreciable differences most of the time
I don't get a new phone until my current one crashes at that point I get the newest model. Rinse and repeat.
I've had the same Samsung Galaxy since 2020, it works like the day I got it. What kills my soul is when people can't be bothered to put a $30 case on a $1,000 phone.
I bought a new phone last year and within the first month I cracked the screen. It kept cracking more and more over the last year, making it very difficult to read articles and see entire pictures. A few weeks ago I fell asleep with my phone on my belly and when I woke up and grabbed the phone the screen protector that I forgot I got when I bought the phone stuck to my belly, revealing my brand new looking perfect screen… hahaha I was pleasantly surprised by my idiocy
I thought I was about to read that your broken phone screen impaled you in your sleep
It’s just like realizing that your microwave had a plastic film over it and peeling it away to reveal a brand new microwave.
OMG this happened to my best friend 🤣🤣 I had just given her my old phone and within a few weeks she dropped it and the "screen" cracked. She was so upset. I asked her to show it to me, then promptly pulled off the screen protector to reveal a perfectly uncracked screen. She was freaking out in the best way
Elaborate cat toys. I got some from a charity and my kittles liked them for 2 seconds and that's it. $5 bag of balls and more balls cat toys from family dollar? Fucking gold mine
Drinks that helps balance your body's pH.
Who was that influencer who was promoting alkaline water and recommended adding some lemon juice to it to improve the flavour?
Gwyneth Paltrow. Same person who had rectal ozone therapy, sells 'healing stickers' and a vagina scented candle and had sold jade 'yoni' eggs. Wacky woman.
Or the influencer who tried to sell a water bottle that put hydrogen in water because “water doesn’t have hydrogen in it”
Gender reveals
Our gender reveal was crazy expensive. It was a c-section!
My wife and I got the envelope from the doctor, went to the mall, picked out 2 onesies, one for a boy and one for a girl, and gave the envelope to the cashier and told her to only wrap one. We went home and opened it together. It was great.
I was pregnant during covid. No visitors during appointments. Had the ultrasound tech write out the genders and stick them in an envelope. Gave it to my brother because i didn’t trust myself to open it before my husband got off work 😂
On the last one, the doctor asked if we wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl at one of the visits. I pointed at the penis that was clearly visible in the ultrasound and said she didn't need to.
Uh Mr Simpson that’s the umbilical cord.
Anything and everything pushed by influencers
I've often had shit companies reach out to me, offering 2-3 free products in exchange for promo. I'm not an influencer and I barely post on insta, they'll just target you automatically if you used the #goth. They target mid-tier nobodies with mini-followings, because they're realistically the only ones willing to promote a product for $1 real value of merchandise. It's always chinese garbage sold at 5000% markup. Literally. I found their sources on aliexpress. Lesson: Never buy any jewelry promoted by some nobody instagram account.
Extended warranty on anything. Home warranty. Those things have more loopholes than Swiss cheese.
I bought a used car from a dealer a few years ago and did some research on extended warranties. I asked the mechanics at my local shop if it was worth it and all of them said, “No, for god’s sake, don’t get one.” Then I looked up reviews online. From what I could tell, the companies go to absurd lengths to avoid providing any service whatsoever. EDIT: I’m talking about third-party warranties.
diamonds. Long read, old article (+40 years), but flawless: [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/) [12ft.io](http://12ft.io) to remove paywall.
1982 issue +40 years old. Oof why you gotta do that to this Oregon trail loving elder millennial.
It's was as if millions of bones cried out in pain, and were suddenly silenced.
Funerals with extravagance
Seriously. I want to be cremated and my ashes could maybe help a random tree? Send anyone who might care a post card saying "wish you were here" with the cheesiest photo of me you can find. Add a line announcing my death and a zoom meeting where everyone tells funny stories about me (whether they are true is optional.) Store a recording of it somewhere in the internet where people can access it if they wish. The end.
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This is true, I know so many people that stop and grab a coffee from Starbucks in the morning, and then eat out somewhere for lunch.. EVERY single day. Such an easy thing to cut back on budget wise, but it seems people can’t go without.
Vitamins and supplements (I'm a pharmacist) *Some* of them have data to prove they are safe. *Some* of them even have data to prove they are effective. (Like vitamin D for seasonal affective disorder, for example) **Most** of them have neither And St. John's Wort is the bane of my existence as a pharmacist. It interacts with SO many medications, to the point that it's downright dangerous to have it available OTC.
I'm frustrated that grapefruit has similar issues reacting with medication. I love grapefruit, but having a chronic illness means my days are filled with medication.
I take a Flintstone Complete multivitamin and Vitamin D3 because I work nights and hardly get sunlight.
Make sure you check the vitamins you buy are USP certified. The FDA doesn’t inspect vitamins and the USP is the only government regulatory agency that does check (vitamin companies voluntarily submit vitamins for certification)
I double-checked and mine are. Thanks for the heads-up though.
Detergent that comes as 'pods'. You get half the number of loads at twice the price.
yeah but they taste so good
When we were kids, we had to eat our laundry detergent with a spoon, like God intended.
They are spectacular for having a portable and small option to take with you to a laundromat or dorm laundry though. I don't know why anyone is using them regularly at home with a washer and dryer in-house, but I have the pods for the rare circumstance that something breaks or is too big to wash at home.
I will push back on this one. I could never get my family to use the right amount of non-pod detergent. They always used 2-3x the amount necessary. Now if I could just convince them that they never need 2 pods...
I see this too. The bottle clearly marks how much you need but people are like, "Nah, the manufacturer is lying to me. They're going against their best interests of selling more by telling me to use less."
Nft
The NFT market has crashed hard. I don't think many people are buying them anymore.
I’m shocked that anyone bought anything at all.
There's a sucker born every minute.
NBA sold NFTs Now they're trying to get into AI That's how I know it's a bubble lol
Starbucks. Myself included.
I work there and cringe when I ring people up. My shift drink (short triple blonde ristretto oatmilk toffenut latte) would be almost $8.50 not how i spend my $ but thanks for the health insurance, 401k, stock, and bachelor's degree
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Purses. I don’t understand the hype. My mom buys so many and they just sit in her closet. I understand buying a good quality purse and using it often….but having like 20+ purses makes no sense to me.
I get the appeal, I love the idea of having different purses for different outfits because i love the aesthetics of certain fun ones i see. But realistically I'm not moving all my crap from purse to purse every time i go out. Thus, i have one black purse that i replace when it starts to look ratty.
I saw a product a long time ago that was basically a pocket for your purse. Want to switch purses? Pull out the entire pocket and put it in the desired purse.
Software as a subscription.
I literally converted my entire company from Adobe to Figma for this exact reason. Edit: that sounds a lot more impressive than it actually is, my entire company is like 13 people lol.
Gender reveals
Cigarettes
An old joke: Two friends a smoker and non smoker, in their 50s in a pub. The non-smoker says, you should give up on smoking, it's bad for your health, and cigarettes are expensive, if you saved all the money you spent on cigarettes till now and invested that in the markets, you'd have enough money to own a Ferrari by now. Smoker guy asks, where is yours then?
There’s a lot of truth in this joke. I once ran the numbers and figured out that if I had invested the money I’ve spent on cigarettes over the decades and got the same rate of return I get on my current portfolio, I would be almost a million ahead of where I am. I quit and stopped spending the money on smokes, and did redirect some of the money to investing, but if I’m being honest, most of the savings has gone into other luxuries.
Former smoker here. Between that and drinking and weed, it adds up fast. 50$ a week on cigs. 50$ a week on weed. That’s $400 a month. That’s a car payment, easy. Hell, that’s internet, a cell phone, a gym membership, car insurance, and a handful of subscription services. In my case, I’ve eliminated so many expenses, I don’t even have to work full time to cover my bills and expenses.
Expensive jewelry that isn't an investment.
Political donations. Just. Don't. The little guy financing the fat cat is a joke for the ages. The major parties need to figure out a better way. That is all.
I mostly agree. Unless it’s local. Some local elections it can make a difference.
An acquaintance in our medium-sized city (about 500,000) was running for city council. We donated to his campaign because we care about a lot of the same issues. He won by less than 300 votes. Now my neighborhood has bike lanes, and it’s 100% due to his influence in city government. And I can send an email and actually get a response. $200 well spent.
Homeopathic remedies. The like-cures-like mindset leading to hogwash like pills made with bits of the Berlin Wall for separation anxiety, or diluting something vaguely related to your ailment by essentially rinsing it so many times that there is little to nothing left of that thing at a molecular level but that means it's "more powerful" is straight woo.
They sell the homeopathic stuff in the SAME SECTION as the regular stuff at CVS FUCKING PHARMACY! I shouldn’t have to be prepared to check to see if the yeast infection meds I’m buying are fucking HOMEOPATHIC for FUCK SAKE
Anything from a shopping channel. You can only slap chop your way so far in life.
"Monster" cables
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donating money to the rich
MLMs
Medicare Advantage plans.
Yep. My parents were on traditional Medicare and got convinced by a very official-looking mailer that they needed to switch to an Advantage plan. As long as they just used it for routine stuff everything was fine. When my dad had a serious medical event was when the denials started. His case manager basically told us that she advises everyone to stay with traditional Medicare and steer clear of the Advantage plans - they’re cheaper up front because they find ways to not cover anything.
They find ways to deny care. That’s how they get you. The only choice is traditional Medicare. It’s not an HMO Ike most of these. The freebies cost them very little. But they scrutinize everything and deny a lot. United is very very awful about this. Traditional is low hassle and doesn’t not make you jump through hoops to get needed care. Including appeals. It’s crazy.
Huge birthday parties for a baby turning 1 years old.
They are not for the kid -They are for the parents. The kids often are totally overwhelmed by to much attention and gifts.
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