In my old house, the formal living room was a playroom. When we moved into our new house, my husband said he wanted nice furniture in the formal living room. I purchased it, and had it delivered. It’s been our cats’ favorite scratching posts, and I think my husband’s behind has logged less than 2 hours on the furniture, ever (and it’s been almost 10 years).
I have splurged more times than I can count on really expensive dinners that turned out not to be very good. But I’ve also had some fantastic meals in relatively inexpensive places, so perhaps it balances out.
The home office furniture… Because our new house had a “home office.” Now I need to clear it out because we are converting the office to an exercise room (it already houses my treadmill and Mr.'s bike).
Oh, and this is totally a first world regret, but years ago, my husband and I used to browse in an antiques shop in Essex, MA that was selling a pair of antique Sheffield silver candlesticks that had been wired and made into lamps. They had these lovely cream silk shades with silver thread embroidery. The owner was asking $2000 for the pair, which was way out of our price range. We visited and “petted” them for at least 5 years, but the guy finally sold them. Every house we have lived in has had a perfect spot for those lamps and I wish we’d just bought them even though we didn’t have a table to put them on back in the day.
PSAT prep classes.
(jk 
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OOOHHH…SAT prep class, that is a good one. (NOT joking)
Our overpriced DWR sofa. I remember telling H–“let’s splurge, it’s so gorgeous”. AND ultimately so uncomfortable that we sold it for a small fraction of the price two years later.
DH bought a mid level Mercedes that had problem after problem. After warranty of course. It was the splurge that didn’t end until we traded it in,
A large round dining table that is gorgeous (if I remember correctly) and now stays under a table pad and dining cloth. There could be a piece of ply wood under there as far as anyone knows. And since part of me would always be afraid to mess it up maybe plywood would have been a better choice. It is used often however. Just never seen.
Also have a wonderful expensive couch that I can probably count the number of times it’s been used.
And don’t get me started on the custom desk for the “home office” that I’d scrap immediately. It’s a weird shape so would be difficult to sell. Not to mention even get out the door. Hubbie had special drawers for CDs and stereo equipment–now of course it’s blue tooth and an iphone. Still trying to figure out how to salvage that space without scrapping the whole built-in wall.
My kitchen full of Thermidor appliances that we installed 5 years ago . . . literally every single one has something broken on it. Had I known this stuff was going to be so persnickety I would have just gone to Sears and bought whatever was on sale.
Really disappointed. Put alot of thought into my kitchen. Love everything about it except those dang appliances, which weren’t cheap.
“Having one of the highly touted hamburgers at expensive restaurants …”
Years and years ago, THE restaurant in Chicago (actually in the suburbs) was called Le Francais. Whenever my parents would come to Chicago to visit me, either in college or when I was a young married, they would take us there. I suppose I would consider it equal to the French Laundry or a place like that. In any case, the very last time we went, I was several months pregnant. I ate this exquisitely prepared and horribly expensive meal … and then was nauseated, went to the ladies’ room, and well, promptly threw up a few hundred dollars worth of food. Now that was a waste!!
A lawyer for reviewing one item on my wife’s old employment contract. Her $350 answer to a simple yes/no question? “I don’t know.”
We had a similar problem for our beautiful etched glass-topped dining table, but then realized we could go to a Bed Bath & Beyond-type store, buy a clear vinyl table protector, cut it to size (harder for a round table, I realize), and still show off the surface. (We also bought sheer curtain fabric in a number of colors to use as holiday tablecloths, and for a bit of variety.)
I have clear glass cut to cover my nightstands and dresser in my bedroom, as well as the nightstands and desks in my kids’ rooms. Enables the wood to be protected against spills, marks, etc. I wouldn’t call that a splurge, but it was definitely worth it.
Oh, another … our $2000 super high-end German steel knife set. The harder steel holds an edge a little longer, but given I now know how to sharpen my own, is only marginally better than the inexpensive Farberware set it replaced.
A VW diesel Dasher back in 1980 that was expensive for us at that time and it was THE hands down biggest lemon to ever come off an assembly line. :::::shudder:::::: Nothing could convince me to ever buy another VW not only because of the car but because of the utter lack of customer service involved.
Of course the whole point of the diesel was to save money on fuel but we bled it out in repair costs! Still makes me furious.
The oriental rugs I have in my LR and DR. I had to have light colors…because I didn’t want dark ones. I can’t stand these colors now, but considering the price, I’m guessing I’m going to die with these rugs.
A large round dining table that is gorgeous (if I remember correctly) and now stays under a table pad and dining cloth. There could be a piece of ply wood under there as far as anyone knows. And since part of me would always be afraid to mess it up maybe plywood would have been a better choice. It is used often however. Just never seen.>
I know, right?? I LOVE my table but same story, have to protect it to use it.
It finally occurred to me that having a fine dining table “naked” goes back to having a servant to serve the dishes or the food so there are no platters and dishes on the table! Right? And using stemware so there are no rings formed from a sweaty drink glass.
$200 spent on CPA to do my taxes years ago. I found 3 mistakes on that tax return, had them redo it. Should I mention that I never had my taxes done by anyone else? One of those $40 tax software and I do much better job for many years now.
Why did you ask CPA to do your taxes?