Does a Hello Kitty bandsaw count?

I bought a used rusty school bus. Six years later, at least I know how to weld now. Sort of. I also learned how to survive hitting my head on a large steel C-clamp nine times without suffering any brain damage. Additionally, I learned how to survive hitting my head on a large steel C-clamp nine times without suffering any brain damage.

I bought a pallet of computers at an auction at a local college for $250 a year or two ago. HP Elitedesk GenIIs specifically (4th Gen i5, 8GB of RAM, 256gb SSDs, and space for add in cards and more drives if needed) I did not expect my throwaway bid to win but it did. So now I have a bunch of computers. I have some projects in mind, but honestly I've mostly been tossing them to friends and family when they need a computer for something. Eventually they'll all be allocated, sold and given away but it's certainly taking a bit

This subject is dear to my heart, because I realized that part of my conservative upbringing taught me money is the important thing and that emotions are worthless and dumb. If you spend money on something that makes you happy but does not provide commensurate utility or return on investment, it is by definition a dumb purchase. Treating yourself is a waste of resources and therefore makes you a bad person. Maybe unless you are debt free and fully funding every retirement and college account you got. (note the unspoken implication that it's cool for the rich to do whatever they want)

As I have spent decades reverse engineering the instructions for my brain, I have recently concluded that not only do I thrive when building and creating things, but having the perfect high-quality tool that is great at what it does right down to the sensory feedback can really enhance the experience for me.

I've spent a bunch of money expanding and upgrading my collection this year, and I haven't regretted it once. But I've spent even more on the materials just in the months since!

I bought an old boat in Amsterdam (3000€), did some reparations (500€), replaced the engine (1500€), paid the local tax (600€ x 3years). I had fun with it. No regrets. Then I was moving back to my country, I couldn't find a buyer... so I lowered the price to 1500€.

You were great, old boat. But not a great investment.

My pregnant wife asked me to get her a fountain Coke Zero from Costco the other day.. I paid for the thing and waited patiently for my empty cup. When I approached the dispenser, I found that all three Coke Zeros were out of order. I had no choice but to fill it with Diet Coke. It was the lowest Costco experience of our lives.

A convertible that I had have tuned to the max and foiled and re-seated to my liking in my favorite colors. It looked awesome in my head.

Then my pimp-mobile came. And I always was the center of attention. Which I, a very private person, highly disliked but gloriously failed to predict.

Also it was horrible to drive for >30mins because you basically had your nuts on the ground and felt every Lil pebble on the road.

Few months later I sold the car and bought one which basically made me invisible. One that only >70yrs olds drive here 😁

I am currently surrounded by empty cardboard boxes from all the jars I bought because I wanted to make a bunch of preserves because I have a supply of free apples. Slow cooker is currently on warming up 5L of pureed apples that I will make into chutney.

If this was a dumb purchase or not depends on who you ask.

I keep buying more synthesizers while I already have more than enough. I buy more than I play with them.

I bought healthy food that rotted away, and took a significan't amount of my income. I now only eat slop again.

Most of it I just didn't know how to prepare proper, was stored badly in the shop itself, and I could not find all the ingredients for. It was expensive as fuck too.

The Tofu tasted like fish, and made me feel nauseous.

So, don't try to min-max your diet if you live in a shithole I guess.

At least the slop is cheap, and caloric. And I still have peanut butter left over.

My dumb shit is all homemade.

$19K in watches. Now I have a kid, and I am straight salary. In hindsight, I would be perfectly happy with the least expensive one. I'm a mechanical engineer, and they really interest me. But they were not smart purchases.

RPG books I know I won't ever play. I ran D&D for two years during the pandemic and now I'm here reading Pathfinder, The One Ring, Legend of the Five Rings, Fate, Savage Worlds, and so, so many Mausritter crowdfundings.

Just bought a Brothers B&W laser printer. I need to print something maybe twice a year.

A collection of Commodore and compatible disk drives. Useless, expensive, heavy, fragile, mostly non-functional, unrepairable in some cases. But they look good piled up at the back of my closet.

Ungodly ammounts of ultra high power flashlights with open source, customizable UI

Another synthesizer that I don't even have a stand for.

Some music gear that I haven't really used at all, and don't feel particularly inclined to lean in and really figure out how to use. like a drum machine (arturia drumbrute impact) and a sequencer thingy (arturia beatstep pro). I could sell both of those and not feel like I'll ever miss them.

Watch collection is pretty dumb and I really only ever wear one of them anyways. But damnit, they're neat, and I enjoy rebelling against smartwatches.

Arguably, purchasing a custom ordered Taycan wagon with nearly all the options. BUT, car depreciation only matters when selling, and no other cars out there tick all the boxes for me like the Taycan does, so I'm okay with it

A 10 inch 300W powered amp/subwoofer... I already have a soul-destroying stereo with 8 inch sub and studio monitor speakers... and live in a 1 BR... I do NOT need a sub so powerful it will rattle the gypsum out of the walls, and yet...