I'm thinking of things like:
Often we don't realise how much we base purchasing decisions on "everyone is doing it", without researching properly or even just stopping and thinking about it for a second. What other examples can you think of?
Pokies
Apple products
fruits are part of a well balance diet
I prefer JellyBean (4.2) and KitKat (4.4)… Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) was alright too.
How about Marshmallow?
Magic: The Gathering Cards.
Bottled Water, its ok if you are from Adeliade or have some sort of allergy, but other that seems like a waste of money to me.
It's convenience. You're not paying for the water, you're paying for the lack of a trustable tap where you are.
I just came back from RADelaide and I found the water not bad.
Melbourne obviously better, but it was quite drinkable.
We just drank tap the whole week trip
Alcohol.
Can never understand the urge to pay ridiculously hefty urination taxes!
It's the things that happen while under the influence that make it worth the urination tax.
Have you ever seen anything mildly funny happen after someone said "Here hold my coke" ?
Plenty of hilarious things happen when you ask someone to hold your coke. Particularly if they're already holding a straw in their other hand.
Gambling.
Samuel L Jackson is your best friend, delivering all the tools you need to lose money as quickly as possible. Tom Waterhouse smiles every time you make a losing bet. The Ladbrokes lads are 'avin a laff' at your expense as you 'bet betta'
Idiots buying new cars and taking out bad car loans.
The amount of stupidity I've seen from people aged 20-30 who "need" a new car when they are either on low full time salaries or only work part time is ridiculous. What's even worse is they'll sell the car and refinance their loan for a new car every 2-4 years for stupid reasons.
Yeah, a friend from uni told me that he'd bought a new car on finance. Bragged about the interest rate. I nearly died in shock.
And here I thought people who change iPhone yearly already way over the line.
Massive weddings.
Nobody cares what the design of the napkin rings are.
Tell that to Salim Mehajer..
He is sydney's mega troll. People love to hate him, and he loves the attention.
He should be castrated I think, not giving us much choice is he…
As a Wedding Photographer, I actually take close up shots of details such as napkin rings and brides do put such pictures into their albums. Also, because of my profession, I encourage everyone to spend as much money on their weddings as possible. :p
people stupidly spending money on stuff without knowing they are paying too much.
Apple products are an obvious one when something just as good can be had for far less, but in general people splashing out on phones and IT equipment way beyond their needs. They will justify spending $1k on a phone because its camera might be a bit better then others and then only use it for selfies. Or buying a laptop with far better specs then their simple web browsing, emailing and word processing will ever need.
Housing in Sydney, especially paying $1 million plus in middle ring suburbs that could be anywhere in terms of the dull, suburban commuter lifestyle you get in return.
Weddings.
You pay tens of thousands of dollars with end result of less sex.
Finance a car to drive to work, to pay for the house you barely live in. Vicious cycle.
All of this stuff can't be serious. I thought Australians were smarter than Americans in general about spending and money.
WHO BUYS A CAR WITH A LOAN? IT'S A DEPRECIATING ASSET.
BOTTLE WATER - WTF
$3.50 COFFEES - WTF
Cars on loans are a joke - agree
Coffees for 3.5 to 4 is a joke - agree
However, I just picked up 96 bottles of water from Dan's (see previous ozb deal) for $27 delivered (28c per bottle) and the added benefit of being in SA = 10c refund per bottle - (18c per bottle). Very convenient
Depends on purpose. I have a lease on my car which I use for work so I am able to claim interest as a deduction as well as depreciation.
I leave my empty bottles out for the local bin bottle raider guy.
You'll find for the less mechanically minded, financing a new car around the 10-15k mark may actually be a little better an idea than buying something cheaper which they may readily have the cash for. If someone needs a car to get to work, what are they going to do?
Sure they will pay a little extra in interest, but the reliability / peace of mind may be worth it.
$3.50 Coffees is the West Straylin Dream, more like $5.50 coffees over here :(
No 7/11 or Coles Express stores?
We have both. $4.50 is probably more realistic.
WTF
I pay $4.10 for my coffees because I have a prepaid coffee card (normally $5, but you get a discount when you prepaid). You can justify it by foregoing other pleasures like alcohol etc
However it sucks when you think that your 400ml of coffee cost the same as 3.4L of fuel for the car.
they are betting on you loosing a card here and there
money for nothing
Getting a car loan for new family
Cigarettes
Spa and facial for wifey
The last one may appear to be a waste of money, but if it makes her happy it could be worth it. Remember, happy wife happy life.
Yes, +1 Cluster… Some people might even go so far as to call it a wise investment.
*wife investment
i dont agree with houses. With the shortage of land, even though it may not rise as quickly, it will still appreciate in value. Land are going to become more scarce and therefore will always increase in price. I always thought, buy the biggest, most expensive house you can afford still rings true.
For me, the biggest spending with the smallest return is wedding. you spend >$100K and all you received back is total exhaustion for the day plus lots of photos.
How many people spend $100k+ on a wedding? I would have thought very few in Australia would spend that.
woah that's a serious wedding. I was surprised at what mine cost at the end of the day. All parents contributed which helped me personally but total cost was still probably $25k and we had it in a park, reception at lawn bowls place and only 80 guests!
If you had a smaller wedding you could have had a bigger house. if i had spent $100K on a wedding; on top of the exhaustion and photos i would also have received back a large and crippling debt that would seriously have impacted the ability of my wife and i to buy a house to live in post wedding.
I think sometimes houses can be a trap because there are plenty that buy in the 'right' suburb or would refuse to live out in the outer suburbs etc Plenty take on crippling debt to live the cafe lifestyle or be close to work. That can be a trap, million dollar 2 br house inner city prestigious postcode house vs large family home 40 mins out of the city at half the price but in a suburb that the cool kids turn their noses up to.
Completely agree with all your point, sometimes being a Chinese descendant you need to "invite" lots of people especially wedding is generally a family affair and inviting a thousand guest is not uncommon. with this number of guest, $100K is on the low estimates for chinese/indian style wedding this days. This, of course happens in my home country.
As for houses, my point being, buy the best you can afford without sacrificing your lifestyle very much. As the price over 5 to 10 years will always increase. especially in capital cities where more and more people want to live. When i start uni, houses near Kingsford/maroubra area only cost around 400 - 500K. Now you would be lucky to find anything below 1.5 M. On the other hand, average middle management salary are still about the same at around $120K.
who the hell spends $100k on a wedding!? :O
My colleague said her cousins in the Netherlands just rocked up the the department of whatever to get married. in t-shirt and jeans. No fancy wedding at all, just a picture on facebook. someone did give them a bunch of flowers. they've put all their money towards a new house.
I absolutely agree with their decision however you need to find your other half who supports this idea as well.
I've seen wedding in the $50k a lot of time. Not sure about 100k though lol…
This would be asian type wedding. Completely agree this is nuts, some common thing in asia is completely nuts in australia and vice versa.
In Asia you get back the money you spend though. At least in Malaysia/Singapore where guests give back (cost of dinner + a bit more) to the wedding couple. All my friends spent about $80,000 and all managed to 'break even'.
Not always the case unfortunately. We managed to get lots of Red Envelopes, gold and jewelry all in all we were in "surplus" but mostly comes from our closest family. For the average guest there is no way you can get even half of your cost per head (meal, decor, etc..)
@antzz: That's so rude of the guests! My group of friends and family always check online to see how much it costs and then top it up. There is even a website weddingangbao.com for guests to check the rates of all the restaurants and hotels.
It's like Chinese New Year when some auntie will give you $2-4 in an angpao.
This would be asian type wedding. Completely agree this is nuts, some common thing in asia is completely nuts in australia and vice versa.
Was watching a documentary (secrets of china s01e02 desperate for love ). The couples were spending 3 years salary (pre tax) on a wedding. Mind blown
i dont agree with houses. With the shortage of land, even though it may not rise as quickly, it will still appreciate in value.
Fine, just buy a crappier, smaller house, or one in a cheaper suburb. Then pay it off in far fewer years, saving half a million in interest along the way. Then, your free. You start saving for a nicer place.
The millions of people who took out the biggest loan they could will laugh at you for the first few years, then fall behind. Then never, ever, ever catch up.
Can't believe people forgot this:
Lotto tickets!
Agree, they're a disgrace.
Agreed. Some say lottos are tax on people who are weak in statistics.
It's sad how many pensioners go straight to the newsagent on pension day to fork our $30 for lotto.
Then they go to the pokies and flush away some more money.
Yep..Pokies…Nailed It, biggest waste of money humanly possible.
Pokies however for many are their only source of entertainment, when you have no body interesting to hang with and too old to enjoy physical activity you go to your local RSL club and gamble away…
@scrimshaw: How about hunting for bargains and posting them up on OzBargain, gotta be more fun than Pokies ;)
Pokies: A cleverly designed machine that if you are lucky will return you about $75 for every $100 that you put into it.
But it's got flashing lights…. and music….
"but you've got to be in it to win it" …… NO
"somebody has to win it" …… NO
"It's 45M jackpot" ….. NO
"It's 45M jackpot" ….. NO
Umm actually, some of the jackpots have far exceeded the total cost of purchasing every possible ticket — EV > 1. But they're still a big risk for not a lot of return.
I regularly see people forking out wads of fifties to by Lotto tickets at the local newsagent… Frightening.
Having said that: If it's a big Jackpot, I'm going to chuck seven bucks at it just to have about the same odds as Tony Abbott ever being Prime Minister again, or less. I don't care if I don't win, and I don't care that I threw a few bucks to have a chance at it, however minute. Who among you hasn't at least once ever dreamed of being filthy, stinking, embarrassingly rich?
I agree. I will never pay for a lotto ticket unless it's a massive jackpot. You're really paying for that rush "what if".
It is encouraged, sponsored, and promoted by the Government, so it must be OK
… never know, might be your lucky day! lol
OMG IMAGINE IF YOU WON BUT
pay tv
If you watch any kind of sport its the only way ……
Not really, plenty of NRL and AFL on free to air plus a lot of free streaming content online using a VPN.
For AFL free to air is a joke however there are more affordable streaming options than getting foxtel.
Normally people only care about their team though..If my team isnt on then I Couldnt care less what other games are on free to air!
@Powershopz: watching the GF on free to air was painful after being on fox all season! happily pay to avoid the ads.
agree
$75 a month much better than going out and wasting time, energy, money etc on booze and food to a-league games — pays for itself.
Not using a payment method such as cash back (ING, ME), 5% off gift cards or credit card points.
Tapas.
I like to know if big ozbargainer of all mr tightarse waste money on anything or does he live up to his name….
Women!
+1
I look at people's shopping trolleys and think, "Why doesn't she/he buy them when they are on special?"
Certain items go on special like half price every now and then, so I stock up. Some people don't care and just buy them randomly. That seems the dumbest thing to do. I would not buy those items unless they are at the lowest price - 30% off etc is not good enough for me.
looking at the trolley full of coke, white bread, sugar snacks, and other nutritionless crap
If everyone buys only when items are on special then supermarket will stop having items on 50% or even having the sale. We need to have people to buy a full trolley of high price items so that supermarket can continue to having a big sale every week.
@cus
Actually, the supermarket doesn't need people to buy those frequently-on-sale items at full price. Ever. It's a simple trick.
It's called price anchoring.
A $2 bag of corn chips is not a bargain. But if you think it's a $4 bag of corn chips, "on sale" for $2, then it is a bargain!
The "sale price" is just the real price that everyone buys it at, but because it's sometimes not on sale, people still think of the full price as the "real" price, so they get excited about the "bargain", and it sells better. Much better than if they'd just priced it at $2 the whole time.
See also: Steam sales.
Even if the supermarket is making a loss on a special, often it is a "loss leader". That is, it gets you in the door to buy the special, but then you buy $20+ of other items which means that they're still winning at the end of the day.
Cree torches, SSD cards, Ebay impulse buys, cheap air fares, unwanted cheap mobile phones..
..hang on, there's a common theme here..
no you are just another typical ozbargainer
what types of games you do you pirate?
im assuming you cant pirate console games and play it on your actual system can you?
steam games
also people who have pay tv or even netflix
pirate bay is there for u
Netflix were 3 month for free if you bought ZTE F286 (look it up in history). Some people bought 4 phones to stack it for 1 year Netflix
Not worth the risk and inconvenience if you pirate.
Steam, buy the Online / Multiplayer one that can't be pirated like CS:GO or some game with bunch of mods like Skyrim, Cities Skylines & Witcher III as it's not worth your time trying to configure the mod and Fake-IP Address for multiplayer.
Also, you should support the caring or independent developer because everytime you pirate, these developers will end up like Interplay (Fallout original series & wasteland , baldur's gate) & Troika Games (Vampire masquerade bloodlines). Loved those games!
Seconded. Don't bother playing games if you're going to pirate all of them because eventually, independent developers will stop creating games.
I would passionately do it to big corporation of bad developer / publisher who release the un-finished game
I don't pirate much anymore but I wouldn't feel bad about it because Australians get price gouged so heavily, especially with the dlc content model that's so popular.
People who buy groceries… steal!
People who buy cars…
My work has showers and I bring my stuff in on the weekends. The preparation is pretty annoying but at least it's not very far haha.