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What purchase do you most regret?

iheartscience

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Tacori E-ring|1315787171|3015440 said:
I am surprised so many people regret buying their homes. I really can't think of anything I regret buying...probably I don't buy much :cheeky: I spend a lot of time when I am looking for an item. Also, I try to live with as few of regrets as possible.

I guess I don't really regret buying it since we were able to sell it easily and break even. It was just stressful dealing with selling it and paying the mortgage and rent for a couple of months.

So I suppose I mostly just regret not being able to see the future! :cheeky: I never would have bought it if I thought we would move away in a year and a half!
 

Tacori E-ring

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thing2of2|1315787731|3015449 said:
Tacori E-ring|1315787171|3015440 said:
I am surprised so many people regret buying their homes. I really can't think of anything I regret buying...probably I don't buy much :cheeky: I spend a lot of time when I am looking for an item. Also, I try to live with as few of regrets as possible.

I guess I don't really regret buying it since we were able to sell it easily and break even. It was just stressful dealing with selling it and paying the mortgage and rent for a couple of months.

So I suppose I mostly just regret not being able to see the future! :cheeky: I never would have bought it if I thought we would move away in a year and a half!

That makes sense. Glad you will break even! That's major these days.
 

MichelleCarmen

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Haven|1315698876|3014708 said:
Our house. It pains me to say that, because I love love LOVE our home.

I'm just not sure owning a home is the right choice for us. It's strange because every morning I wake up and walk into my kitchen and think about how much I love this house. (I never thought I'd live in such a beautiful little place.) But still, I don't know if it was the best decision. We really don't need to own something so large and . . . rooted to one place.

If we could find a place to rent that would allow all of our pets, that probably would have been the better decision for us.

Yep, house is immediately popped into mind. But, we've moved around a lot so houses are always on our fore-front. I'd say that there is one of our houses that was a bad choice. We kept the one we owned and rented that out and bought another. If we had thought a bit longer, we should have found a different home and KEPT the other as a rental.

Right now, we're looking and I'm again nervous about the choice we could be making. Renting at least grants the ability to move once the lease is up (which we just did last month ;)).
 

Lady_Disdain

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My alexandrite ring. I got it second hand on the internet. When it arrived, I saw just how badly windowed it was and the murky colour. The setting is very nice, though: heavy gold and nice diamonds. I wish I could resell it. I even started to write a description, once, but my disappointment with it just shone through.
 

Matata

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my sapphire ring. impulse buy.
my emerald necklace -- teensy weensy stone with a big price tag. another impulse buy.
my sewing machine -- I don't sew, don't care to learn, but I bought a tricked out machine 7 yrs ago and haven't taken it out of the box.

garage sale anyone?
 

Aerix

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This isn't my most regretted purchase, but I recently bought an antique charm which I've been regretting since it was an impulse buy. For the money I spent on it, I could've bought myself a nice colored stone and setting. :(( I found it in a vintage & estate jewelry shop that DH and I looked at while we were on vacation. Originally, the saleslady told me it was platinum (since it was among the platinum charms) then while she was ringing me up, she realized it was 18kt white gold and asked me if that was okay. I only had a second to answer so I just said it was fine (since gold is on par with platinum now anyways, I figured.) I changed my mind later on and thought about returning it, but I looked at their return policies on the receipt and they only do exchanges or store credit. :nono: It is a cute charm and the price I paid for it isn't too terrible, but I just can't wear it since I still feel that I overpaid a bit and the guilt just bugs me. I'll probably end up reselling it later on but I doubt I can get all of my money back which just adds to the irk.
 

bee*

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I'm so surprised that people regret buying there home. Maybe it's the grass is greener thing but I cannot wait until we have our own home and aren't renting anymore.
 

Circe

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bee*|1315835018|3015708 said:
I'm so surprised that people regret buying there home. Maybe it's the grass is greener thing but I cannot wait until we have our own home and aren't renting anymore.

I don't regret buying my home, because we did eventually manage to unload that millstone ... but I do think that in today's job market and economy, it's not surprising to me that a lot of people have mixed feelings. Home ownership is still sold as being the Be All and End All of the American Dream, but while it made sense in a booming economy where people would settle in a single community and live there, usually within the same economic class ... today?

A) Lack of job security means people might relocate with far greater frequency than even before. In an upside-down market, that can means huge financial hits, or at least years of scrabbling to pay two mortgages.

B) Few people are happy to stay in the same socio-economic bracket where they begin. We live in an aspirational society these days, so unless you start at the top, odds are good you're going to climb: after that promotion and raise, up a kid or two, who's going to want to stay in their 1 bedroom starter house? But if they upgrade, how can they get rid of the thing?

C) In a lot of the more thriving urban communities, the rent/buy ratio makes home ownership into a little bit of a fool's game. In NYC, for example, you used to be able to count on prices rising, but right now ... unless you get a great deal, or are planning to stay put for a while, it just doesn't make sense.

So, yeah. Lots of factors leading to potential ambivalence ....
 

bee*

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Circe|1315836638|3015735 said:
bee*|1315835018|3015708 said:
I'm so surprised that people regret buying there home. Maybe it's the grass is greener thing but I cannot wait until we have our own home and aren't renting anymore.


So, yeah. Lots of factors leading to potential ambivalence ....

Good points Circe. I can see how it could be a regret in relation to them.
 

missy

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bee*|1315837065|3015744 said:
Circe|1315836638|3015735 said:
bee*|1315835018|3015708 said:
I'm so surprised that people regret buying there home. Maybe it's the grass is greener thing but I cannot wait until we have our own home and aren't renting anymore.


So, yeah. Lots of factors leading to potential ambivalence ....

Good points Circe. I can see how it could be a regret in relation to them.

It's definitely a different world today when it comes home purchasing etc but the old rule remains the same. Don't buy more than you can afford...don't become house poor. The difference today is the unstable job market so what you can easily afford today may not be so easy tomorrow. ::) It's something that is always on my mind- the instability of our economy and all its ramifications.

Having said that I still think home ownership is a dream many desire and in general (there are always exceptions) is a great investment in your future and a dream worth having.
 

NewEnglandLady

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In terms of large purchases, I have no regrets. I do love our home--I love the town, love the school district, I have no complaints. That being said, sometimes there is a teeny tiny part of me that wishes we'd stuck with our original plan to buy oceanfront. Granted, we went down that route and decided the stress of storms would be too much and it wasn't baby-friendly...but still, in the summers it's hard not to think about it. Maybe one day...

For small purchases, I regret buying my huband's rock climbing shoes. I did a ton of research and bought shoes I thought he'd love, but bought them too small. He tried to make them work, but it was just a waste of money.

I also regret most of my furniture purchases. Since buying our house, I've vowed to only buy things I really love, but we have a lot of older furniture that doesn't really match and I'm too cheap to replace everything at once. So it's a work in process.
 

dragonfly411

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My Billy Cook saddle. I got a cutting saddle instead of a barrel saddle b/c at the time I thought cutting saddles were just SO comfortable, but now I have no use for it.
 

kenny

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I regret most watermelons I buy.
They are usually grainy, soggy and flavorless. :knockout:
 

partgypsy

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Ah, I have another refrigerator story-regret.
Last year after about 10 years or so, our reliable fridge ran out of xenon or freon or whatever. We could buy a new fridge, or the repairman said they had a nice fridge for $300 that the owners didn't want anymore, that they would sell us for $300. We didn't have a fridge, I was at work so I told my husband to make the decision. So I came home, and he had bought the used fridge. The thing is, is I know when people are renovating, etc that often perfectly good fridges are pretty much given away, and assumed this was the case. Nope. Ever since we had it it kept not feeling cool enough in the fridge area. And the freezer area builds up with ice in a matter of months. The butter was soft. And the milk, well I would try to pour it and it would be solid. I knew there was a reason my daughter kept refusing to eat her cold cereal with milk! And my other daughter having the runs. But the most infuriating thing was that my husband refused to admit there was a problem with the fridge! He had this crazy ego that me attacking the fridge was me being critical of his choice, and so his response was to believe I was crazy and the fridge was fine, or I just left the door open or something. I think it took a year with two thermometers (reading 50 degrees) for him to agree something may be off with the fridge. We've had the repairman (yep, same ones) out two times to fix it.

The thing that burns me is that when our original fridge bought the ghost, there were $150 rebates for energy-efficient fridges. If you include the rebate, we could have bought a decent new fridge with a 10 year warranty for not much more than what this fridge cost us, especially if you include the strife and spoiled food.
 

iLander

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kenny said:
I regret most watermelons I buy.
They are usually grainy, soggy and flavorless. :knockout:

As someone who has actually grown watermelons, I think I can help you:

Large size watermelons are hybridized for size, not flavor. Go for the medium sized ones, not the giant oval ones. The medium sized, flavorful watermelons are more irregular in shape.

Do not buy a watermelon unless it's yellow on the bottom. If they ripen on the vine, the whitish bottom area will turn medium yellow.

Do not buy them out of season. Season in the US is early to mid summer, like June. Not early fall, like now.

The guy on the side of the road may have bought his watermelons from a wholesale supplier and may not have grown them. Don't fall for the pickup truck.

Thunk the watermelon with your finger, it should sound hollow. A dull thud is a bad on most watermelons except those teeny watermelons. The teeny ones (about 6 inches round) are very meaty, so they don't sound hollow.

I am available for all fruit questions, I take my fruit very seriously. :praise:
 

tigian

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iLander|1315849353|3015858 said:
kenny said:
I regret most watermelons I buy.
They are usually grainy, soggy and flavorless. :knockout:

As someone who has actually grown watermelons, I think I can help you:

Large size watermelons are hybridized for size, not flavor. Go for the medium sized ones, not the giant oval ones. The medium sized, flavorful watermelons are more irregular in shape.

Do not buy a watermelon unless it's yellow on the bottom. If they ripen on the vine, the whitish bottom area will turn medium yellow.

Do not buy them out of season. Season in the US is early to mid summer, like June. Not early fall, like now.

The guy on the side of the road may have bought his watermelons from a wholesale supplier and may not have grown them. Don't fall for the pickup truck.

Thunk the watermelon with your finger, it should sound hollow. A dull thud is a bad on most watermelons except those teeny watermelons. The teeny ones (about 6 inches round) are very meaty, so they don't sound hollow.

I am available for all fruit questions, I take my fruit very seriously. :praise:
Wow, iLander! That is super duper helpful. I had to laugh when I read Kenny's regret because I am the same way. Yet, I keep blindly buying watermelons.
 

jaysonsmom

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I don't buy things on impulse, so I can't really say I've regreted any large ticket items. The only thing I can think of is my George Foreman Grill.

This was pre-dating the detachable grill plates and a pain in the b%tt to wash, so I never use it and sits in a kitchen cabinet taking up space.
 

kenny

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Thanks iLander. :wavey:
 

D&T

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out two houses :knockout:, buying into a business with a friend (now ex)
and definitely my first brand new audi at 21 (no cosigner, all on my own to spite my dad :(sad )
 

LGK

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Oh, oh! The couch. It's a beast and I hate it with a burning, fiery passion.

I was at work- DH works more on project basis so he tends to have time to you know, go shopping for a couch- and he called me and said he'd found the perfect couch. Mostly I'm extremely laid back about decorating (translation- lazy girl) and so I said he could make a decision. It was a large leather sectional- one long piece and a shorter piece sticking out like an L- and a leather armchair for $1500, and it was exactly the color and size we were looking for.

I came home and indeed, new couch and chair, which was great since we'd had literally NOTHING in the living room. They were cute! Dark brown leather, cute style... then I sat on the Beast. OHMIGOD. It is simply the most uncomfortable thing in the entire universe! Seriously. You have to be 6' tall *minimum* to sit on it I think- the seat area is the size of a football field. My legs stick straight out! I look like a 5 year old sitting on adult furniture. It's ludicrous. If you pile about 800 cushions behind you it's sort of OK. But not great. I think I've sat on the thing maybe three times in the 2 years we've owned it.

Therefore, it's primary function is to: gather dust, provide a platform for cats to look out the window from, and get yakked on by said cats. Also, one single, teeny scratch from pointy footed beasties and I realized, oh hell. This is seriously the worst couch ever! The dark brown leather peels down to a pale beige if it's scratched. Needless to say, it's now got a fine pinstriping of beige all over, as pointy footed beasties scratch it so easily all they have to do is walk across it to leave marks. Really noticeable ones.

Another "purchase" I'm trying realllly hard not to regret, but am a little :(sad is adopting the adult cat we got after Rat died. Dex is a beautiful guy, and he likes being close to me, but he pees everywhere and hates DH, and he's sort of... feral. Poor boy. Obviously we're keeping him- prickly or not, I love the boy and he's my kitty- but he doesn't really like to be touched, which sucks. Mostly because he desperately *wants* to be petted, but when you try he rolls up into a miserable, defensive ball and bites and scratches. I taught him to scale it down to licking and batting with no claws, but it's still very difficult for him- he'll lean on me and beg to be petted and then flop over and instantly grab me, lick, and kick defensively. I don't know, I'm glad to give him a home when he would've never been adopted I'm sure, but after having two boys who were very affectionate, it's tough to adjust to poor prickly Dex. He's been happier now that we got him a buddy, kitten Bug, but he's still very skittish around DH and I'm pretty sure he's convinced DH is going to take his remaining eye. And it is tough for DH because he adores cats and knows Dex is afraid of him. Plus the peeing sucks. He peed on a silk skirt a week ago, and my favorite dress the week before that. Mostly if I keep the bedroom door closed it stops the peeing, but he is sneaky and gets in there anyway and voila, pee. :???:
 

Amys Bling

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iLander|1315849353|3015858 said:
kenny said:
I regret most watermelons I buy.
They are usually grainy, soggy and flavorless. :knockout:

As someone who has actually grown watermelons, I think I can help you:

Large size watermelons are hybridized for size, not flavor. Go for the medium sized ones, not the giant oval ones. The medium sized, flavorful watermelons are more irregular in shape.

Do not buy a watermelon unless it's yellow on the bottom. If they ripen on the vine, the whitish bottom area will turn medium yellow.

Do not buy them out of season. Season in the US is early to mid summer, like June. Not early fall, like now.

The guy on the side of the road may have bought his watermelons from a wholesale supplier and may not have grown them. Don't fall for the pickup truck.

Thunk the watermelon with your finger, it should sound hollow. A dull thud is a bad on most watermelons except those teeny watermelons. The teeny ones (about 6 inches round) are very meaty, so they don't sound hollow.

I am available for all fruit questions, I take my fruit very seriously. :praise:

great advice!!
 

erinl

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jstarfireb|1315708088|3014778 said:
I sort-of regret buying hundreds of Beanie Babies when they were "in," but in a way I don't. There was a "thrill of the chase" aspect to finding the right ones, and it was a bonding experience with my mom. But now they're just sitting in bags in a closet. I should donate them to a children's hospital or something.

We have a bunch of beanie babies that our mom bought-- I called about donating them to a children's hospital and they will take all clean stuffed animals EXCEPT beanie babies !
 

Miss Sparkly

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erinl|1315866149|3016059 said:
jstarfireb|1315708088|3014778 said:
I sort-of regret buying hundreds of Beanie Babies when they were "in," but in a way I don't. There was a "thrill of the chase" aspect to finding the right ones, and it was a bonding experience with my mom. But now they're just sitting in bags in a closet. I should donate them to a children's hospital or something.

We have a bunch of beanie babies that our mom bought-- I called about donating them to a children's hospital and they will take all clean stuffed animals EXCEPT beanie babies !

LOL. I too had hundreds of them and ended up donating them to the Shriners Childrens Hospital when I moved out. Maybe they will still take them?
 

gardengloves

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Furniture... its not that I regret it, but taste change and evolves --- as I get older I love mid century modern, very sparce, minimalist environment -Kartell pieces and my earlier tastes are old world european, so I'm caught in the middle, trying to sell older pieces on ebay and updating with sleeker modern pieces, trying to find the right balance, keeping some and mixing it up. I now love modern lighting, those flying saucer George Jenson fixtures, but have several wrought iron and crystal chandeliers, which I still love, but editing..
 

centralsquare

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All of the talk about furniture does remind me that I think we've made some purchases we wouldn't do over again. Maybe to the tune of $2-3k, so not a super ton of money. The thing about furniture is that I don't feel like you'll ever know if it was right until it's been there a while. So, I've chalked it up to "learning."
 

MissStepcut

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Probably my law school education. I should have taken a bigger scholarship and reduced my debt.
 

Circe

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Reading about just how many regrets there are re: leather sofas, I feel like I should start a separate thread getting advice on how/where to find a good one! I had no idea it was so complicated .... :-o
 

Gypsy

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LGK|1315863357|3016020 said:
Another "purchase" I'm trying realllly hard not to regret, but am a little :(sad is adopting the adult cat we got after Rat died. Dex is a beautiful guy, and he likes being close to me, but he pees everywhere and hates DH, and he's sort of... feral. Poor boy. Obviously we're keeping him- prickly or not, I love the boy and he's my kitty- but he doesn't really like to be touched, which sucks. Mostly because he desperately *wants* to be petted, but when you try he rolls up into a miserable, defensive ball and bites and scratches. I taught him to scale it down to licking and batting with no claws, but it's still very difficult for him- he'll lean on me and beg to be petted and then flop over and instantly grab me, lick, and kick defensively. I don't know, I'm glad to give him a home when he would've never been adopted I'm sure, but after having two boys who were very affectionate, it's tough to adjust to poor prickly Dex. He's been happier now that we got him a buddy, kitten Bug, but he's still very skittish around DH and I'm pretty sure he's convinced DH is going to take his remaining eye. And it is tough for DH because he adores cats and knows Dex is afraid of him. Plus the peeing sucks. He peed on a silk skirt a week ago, and my favorite dress the week before that. Mostly if I keep the bedroom door closed it stops the peeing, but he is sneaky and gets in there anyway and voila, pee. :???:



Hi LGK... I didn't know you feel this way about Dex. He sounds like a cross between my Frodo and my Lucy. Both of them took YEARS to warm up... but they have steadily improved with time and patience. Frodo used to spend all his time under the bed. And when he'd come out he'd come up for pets.... but stay just out of reach meowing. Lucy would bite and scratch defensively, but would want pets and love... and then feel SO guilty she was bad when she struck out she'd go huddle in a little ball of self torturing misery. It's been 3 years and Lucy spends the night perched on one or the other of us. We move slowly and don't pet her unless she can see it but we can pet her. And she only bites very occasionally and doesn't break skin and still feels guilty but gets over it better AND... (this is big) I can pick her up and carry her around without swaddling her and getting bit and bloody. It's been a long road, but we love her in part because of how much progress she's made. Frodo cuddles everyday and comes out now even when we have (quiet) strangers over (he runs back if they make loud noises or scare him but he comes out!).

We kinda regret Merlin. He's very cuddly but... he bullies the other cats and disrupts the balance our others had struck. So there's been a lot of fighting and tension since we got him 10 months ago. It's getting better. But he still uses Duncan as his own personal body pillow (and Duncan and is older and achy and doesn't need 15 pounds of Merlin on him), still chases Frodo till he hisses (in the 6 years we've had him he had hissed ONE TIME before Merlin). But... it's getting better. I'm hopeful that as time goes on he'll integrate better. But for now... the cats are insecure (especially Duncan who is afraid he's been replaced) and tense and we are regretful. It'll work out though.

I know your situation will too!
 

junebug17

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My washing machine. I hate it with every fiber of my being. I rue the day it came into my home. It's a front -loading energy-efficient, water-saving one and I curse it every day. When I first got it , it would walk to the other side of the laundry room. I was afraid it was coming to life and would eventually take over the house. I had repairmen in 4 times, and each time they fiddled with the little thingies at the bottom, and it would run ok ( not great) for a load or two and then go back to shimmying, shaking, and making god-awful noises. I've resorted to putting heavy things on top of it and that controls it somewhat, but every once in a while it gets ticked off and throws the heavy things to the floor. I think it's alive and is trying to drive me insane.

One of these days maybe I'll try having a repairman in again. I haven't had the energy to deal with the washing machine from hell lately, so right now we begrudgingly accept each other's existence. I think it would kill me if it had the chance.
 

centralsquare

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Goodness, Junebug, that would freak me out!!
 
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