10 dumbest purchases

Yep, it's time for Monday Listicles! Twin mom Kerry has suggested this week's topic, "10 dumbest purchases." This will require a bit of thinking...most things that come to mind are on the theme of" Things I have bought for my kids that have not panned out."

1. Beer making kit
I got this for Mike once, and it sat in our basement until it was past use...we got rid of it.











2. Diaper wipes warmer
We bought one of these when Chris was a baby, and we never used it. We got rid of it, and then several years later we had Kieran. He fussed with the cold wipes, so we bought another one. Sigh.

3. Bike trailer
We bought this at a moving sale--from a neighbor who was supposedly moving away but never did--and we similar to our neighbors' lack of follow-through, we never used it.

4. Karaoke machine
This was a present for our oldest son, Chris, complete with a bunch of karaoke CDs. He enjoyed it while it lasted, but then it broke and now we have the useless CDs. And now there's the Wii and PlayStation. Who needs a karaoke machine?

5. Thomas the Tank Engine set
One of my first eBay disasters, the set was supposedly Brio, but when it arrived, I discovered that much of it was fake. I find it very difficult to spend much money on eBay, because it's always a risk. (The seller was very uncooperative and rude.)

6. Robot
Kieran was desperate for a robot one Christmas, and I bought one on ebay...he soon got tired of it.

7. Heelies
Another item Kieran was DESPERATE for (Christmas)...he never got the hang of wearing them, and we took them to the resale shop, where we got a fraction of what we paid for them. They are trickier to wear/ride than they look! And I think I learned my lesson about buying Kieran's impulse gifts...I think!

8. Worm bin

Kieran and I went to a worm bin making class a few years ago, and we just have never stuck with it. I cleaned it out last summer and started over again, but I'm sure it's spoiled again. It's just not our thing...such great intentions we had!

Kieran and me in the hammock in 2004, before it collapsed!
My head still hurts!

9.  Mexican hammock
Mike got this when we were in Oaxaco, Mexico before we had kids. He'd always wanted a hammock. He hung it up in the backyard between two trees, finally, but it fell one day I was in it, with Kieran on me...and it hurt! And I am really not that heavy!

A tie for #10:

Timeshare
This is the stupidest purchase, by far...we bought into a timeshare while I was pregnant with our oldest son, Chris. They manipulatedly assigned a pregnant salesperson to us--such suckers we were! Typical of us, I talked Mike into purchasing it and then I immediately had buyer's remorse that evening. By the next day I had complete regrets and called to cancel our purchase (Oregon law gives you three days to do that). The timeshare people were not happy and they were very unpleasant...but as I told Mike, I just had a feeling that we shouldn't make that kind of a commitment. A few weeks later, Christopher was born at 24 weeks gestation and we were in full crisis mode.

Honeymoon trip to Spain and Portugal
We were supposed to go to Europe for our honeymoon, and we had our tickets in hand...only to discover that Mike couldn't leave the country until he got a green card. We had to forfeit our plane tickets with no refund. Later we saved up our money, thinking that we'd take a grand European tour, but we spent that on our first house. Now, 23 years later, we still have not gotten to Spain and Portugal!

Thanks to Stasha at The Good Life for hosting Monday Listicles, Check out more dumb purchases on her blog...it will make you feel so much better!