Really Expensive Stuff that is Definitely NOT Worth the Money

Brand new cars

Edit: With most things there is a peak 'value' and above that the it's not worth it - where the peak is differs for each person.

Cheap coffee is rubbish, mid price coffee is good, stupidly expensive coffee pooped out of some wild animal is probably not worth it.

Trident nuclear weapons.

FunkyDunc
Free Member

In fact I am struggling to think of anything that isnt worth the premium over a standard product.?

How about paid membership?

UK tax , i pay in 20-40% of my wage, my employers adds NI on top,  i then spend it to pay 20% VAT on the majority of stuff i buy. plus all the indirect tax, airport/flight duty, vehicle tax, alcohol duty..

yay i get my grey bins emptied every other week

new cars for me, new electric cars, i'll stick to my £20 vehicle tax pa that i can recharge in under 5 mins at the petrol station

Branded medicines - ibuprofen, paracetamol, diarrhoea relief etc. It's literally the same 

Cleaning products - detergent is detergent, bleach is bleach etc. 

Posh skin cream, the cheapest does the same 

Champagne - horrible stuff ruining a decent wine with CO2 making it really acidic 

L'Oréal (except No More Tears shampoo which was really good when the kids were small)

Fancy restaurants, 100 quid a head for a 5 course tasting menu or similar.

Anything with a Apple or Garmin badge. 30-40% markup for very little extra.

Champagne

Good answer although not for the reason given. Almost every region in France has its own sparkling wine. There are some great options for much less money

My last two car purchases have been new EVs bought cash. 🙂

Spotify, Netflix, Amazon prime, e-bikes... . But I'm sure there are plenty of people who think all of those are good value for money

Ridiculously expensive watches if you view them as a way of telling the time rather than an item of personal jewellery / adornment / a status symbol, which is what they actually are.

Posh cars with ridiculously opulent interiors. 

S****y hotels. All you really need is a clean, comfortable bed and a shower not some sort of day-long snippet of a fantasy lifestyle. Once, on some godawful media trip, I sniffed too loudly and a uniformed lackey immediately appeared with a tissue. Ridiculous.

Any car beyond a basic small one.

The £13k+ "halo model" bikes which are more expensive than the cost of the parts combined at RRP.

Cocaine

Wellies that cost over £100 cos they have a functionless buckle on the side

Trendy t-shirts like the yoot buy just so they can be like their fave influencer eg. https://www.dsquared2.com/gb/-cool-fit-t-shirt/S74GD1222S23009900.html#cgid=men

Las Vegas - just got back from a sales conference over there. Horrific.

Shoulder chips

Trident nuclear weapons.

Most military hardware bought by the UK government is never used. Well, not for actual 'defence', anyway. And the rare times it does get used, is invariably to murder innocent people. Makes somebody rich somewhere though. <br /><br /><br />

Fancy restaurants, 100 quid a head for a 5 course tasting menu or similar.

Go it to disagree there. I went to such a place last year, and it was one of the single most amazing eating experiences I've ever had. Every little morsel was art in food form. When you consider the work that goes into producing every dish, not to mention the quality of ingredients, then it actually ends up as worth it. <br /><br /> https://www.nestfood.co.uk/about

I saw a bicycle in a shop recently that was apparently over £12,000. And it didn't even have a motor. 

Hypercars and the like, are the obvious I guess, although that's clearly the point for some of them, but especially the brands that are owned by Audi and VW and are clearly trading on what they used to be rather than the thing they are now...Saw one of those Bentley Bentaygas this morning which is so obviously an Audi Q7 in a posh frock you have to wonder at the point of it. (other than the obvious 'more money than sense' bit)

Premium Economy seats on airlines...

Fancy restaurants, 100 quid a head for a 5 course tasting menu or similar.

Gonna disagree there.  While its expensive it does not feel like a waste or being ripped off given how good the food and service is.  Its not an everyday thing for sure but as a very rare treat its certainly worth it to me

You can easily do in £100 a head in a fairly normal restaurant with drinks.

the met office and weather warnings apparently. 😉

Bentley Bentaygas

Not a hyper car though is it. Just a portly SUV for the idiots with more money who want a more exclusive cheap sticker on the front of their ugly tank.

Living in cities

Many many branded products, where you are paying more for the logo on the product than for the product itself.

As an example, I got some aftershave for Father's Day.
It came with a free water bottle - branded Burberry.

While chatting with someone at work about it, I jokingly said that if you actually bought a Burberry branded water bottle it would probably cost £50.
Had a quick look on the website - they had a basic Burberry branded screwtop aluminium water bottle for £80. You could purchase the exact same water bottle with no branding on it from Amazon for ~£6.

EDIT - you could argue that aftershave itself falls into this category. £60 for some smelly water.

I agree with Apple, it's just overpriced

New cars are ridiculous, I've never had one and never want one

Rolex

Zoe.

Seen the adverts, so investigated, as was quite interested.

300 quid for the testing kit, then 60 quid a month if you pay monthly. insane money for what will be a fairly generic meal plan, with some alterations for some blood test anomalies.

Most military hardware bought by the UK government is never used.

The whole point of Trident is that it will never be used. If it used then it has failed.

We need to be ramping up our spending on military hardware at the moment. If Trump gets elected, he could easily pull the US out of NATO and then all of the European NATO members will have to build their own strength.

Train fares

The UK government's Rwanda policy.

300 quid for the testing kit, then 60 quid a month if you pay monthly. insane money for what will be a fairly generic meal plan, with some alterations for some blood test anomalies.

Genuinely life changing for diabetics though. (I self funded it for 4 odd years prior to it being available on the NHS)

How about paid membership?

I agree not worth the money IMO as I gave up on the mag years ago

tomhoward

Shoulder chips

Nonsense. Mine was free!

My first thought was watches that only tell the time/date and cost over £100.

Quite a lot of PPE bought in 2020-21.

Most military hardware bought by the UK government is never used. Well, not for actual ‘defence’, anyway.

That's not how defence works. Hardware doesn't need to be used in anger to provide defence. In fact the hope* is that it never is.  And it is of course 'used' regularly to provide initial and refresher training, proof (quality control) and stock rotation.

*not always justified, obvs.

NYC

XTR and XX1 should be first on the list though. I mean XTR especially; is terrible value for money.

You can easily do in £100 a head in a fairly normal restaurant with drinks<br /><br />

You must be rich! 😉

£100 a head just on food, I'm pretty sure, won’t get you a tasting menu in a Michelin starred restaurant now.

You can easily do in £100 a head in a fairly normal restaurant with drinks<br />You must be rich! 😉 

i always scratch my head when they say apple, yes definately more expensive than rivals, but usage and years they last, we are talking pennies per usage, plus they hold value unlike many cheap phones

dogs. smelly noisy buggers that the bad behavior of which most owners turn a blind eye to.

i always scratch my head when they say apple

They do seem to have affordable options alongside the outrageously expensive units, TBF

Stuff (mainly) women put in their faces/lips- fillers, Botox etc. To me even the ones that must have spent a fortune still look really odd and false, why do people do it?