Going through all my stuff has made me realize that I’ve made some really dumb purchases over the years. Some of it has made me think I may have been better off burning my money, or at least spending that cash on something better like a holiday or a leather jacket. These money wasters include the following:

1) A beanbag chair. For some reason that I can’t remember at the moment, I bought this. It was a few years ago, and I think I was really interested in one of those “Fat Boy” chairs, but couldn’t afford one. I got this budget one on sale instead. I only spent about 20 euros on it, but it was 20 euros I shouldn’t have spent. It’s not particularly comfortable, and it just sits in the corner most of the time. The worst part is, I can’t seem to get rid of it. I just don’t know how to deal with it, so it sits there in the corner, forever.

2) A Nintendo Wii. I like the Wii, and it’s fun to play. HOWEVER, I’m not really a gamer, and I only manage to drag it out once a month, if that. That might even be too optimistic, because I think I last played it sometime in January. I bought a bunch of stupid accessories to go with it as well, including one of those balance boards. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I think it was something along the lines of “I never had a gaming system and I was never allowed to have one when I was growing up, so I’m getting one NOW!” I’ll keep the Wii, because when I play it, I really enjoy it, but I’m going to sell the balance board. Seriously…if you’re a reasonably athletic person, Wii Fit and all the other games that go with it are about as challenging as watching TV.

A TV from the ’90s. I should have just not bought a TV and watched shows and DVDs on my laptop, or saved up and bought a modern TV, but that’s not what happened. When I moved into my own place in 2006, I thought it would be a great idea to get a second hand TV and a cheapy DVD player. Now, I have this behemoth of a thing that I have to get rid of, because I bought a better TV years ago and I have to face up to the fact that I just do not need 2 TV sets. The thing is, you can’t even GIVE AWAY these things. No one wants them.

An air cleaner/humidifier. Years ago, when I lived in my old apartment, I thought I had an issue with mould or mildew. I never verified this, because I didn’t actually see any, but I was convinced it was there and that it was causing me to have allergies. To combat this, I tried to buy an air purifier, but I didn’t know the right words at the time. I went to Saturn and just looked at what they had available, and ended up with this “Luftwascher” that supposedly cleans the air through humidity. Of course, if I actually had mould, this probably made the problem worse. I haven’t used it in my new place at all. I don’t have mould, but I do have humidity, and making this place more humid is not in my best interest. Now, I’m stuck with this cube of a device that cost nearly 200 Euro. I hope I can sell it. It did work well in making the air fresher. I think the humidity weighs down any dust and particles in the air, but I’m not sure.