‘What was your worst impulse buy of 2025?’ – 22 people who really wish they’d saved their pennies

Christmas is safely behind us for another year, but we’re still feeling the effects, and not in a good drunk-and-full-of-chocolate way. No, what we’re feeling is skint, and that elusive January pay day can’t come fast enough.

In these unpleasantly frugal times, it seems everyone’s thoughts are turning to the money they could have saved last year. Over on the AskUk subreddit, user Snow776 posed this question:

What was your worst impulse buy of 2025?

I got a Phillips OneBlade to replace my trusty Mach3, it was awful. Trying to shave with it feels like stripping Velcro off my face. It always took a couple of swipes to fully clear the area which was really uncomfortable. It also leaves horrible rashes up my neck. Not really breaking the bank at £39.99 so not a costly mistake but a mistake nonetheless.

And lots of naughty spendthrifts chipped in with the things they wish they hadn’t purchased, like these…

1.

‘£100 on A human dog bed. I had a lovely image of snuggling with my doggy watching movies, not remembering I’m 50 and getting on the floor and back up isn’t easy! And she doesn’t like snuggling. I’m now left with a dog bed the size of a dinghy just keeping her toys in.’
–Lettuce1939

2.

‘Rice cooker! Now I eat way too much rice.’
–RetroRegretso

3.

‘Every Deliveroo order ever. It’s shit every time, and I never get a full refund.’
–PuddingBrat

4.

‘I bought one of those veg choppers that you have to slam down to get the blade through the veg. Worst invention ever. I used it once, and realised you can’t actually clean it properly! It went straight in the bin.’
–lodav22

5.

‘Bought a Jeep in January. It blew up 9 days later. Took until November for the courts to organise anything, ended up getting £5k back out of the £8.5k cost. Don’t buy a Jeep.’
–Scrot123

6.

‘I bought a juicer at the beginning of December. For a fortnight I juiced everything I could get my hands on. I’ve used it once this year.’
–themooglove

7.

‘Bloody Ninja ice cream machine.’
–No_Pea-1

8.

‘I have very little storage space but decided I needed a sixth dressing gown.’
–RaspberryJammm

9.

‘An action camera. I don’t really know what I’m gonna do with it. I don’t do anything remotely ‘action based’ like mountain biking and I don’t want to create vlogs. It cost me about the same price as a new iPad and I’m beginning to think I should have bought that instead.’
–danielsmith1138

10.

‘Air fryer. Double XL ninja. It really pisses me off how much you have to clean it, and for ‘XL’ it’s pretty small even when cooking meals just for me. Really regret buying it. So much so I’d happy to give it away to family or a friend. Shame my mum and sister already have one. They love theirs.’
–D0wnb0at

11.

‘VR Headset. Meta quest 3s. Turns out I get really bad motion (or lack of) sickness.’
–kylehyde84