Right after we had a baby and moved into a new place, my husband and I decided we wanted to get a tapestry to hang over our bed to tie the room together. For some reason it turned into this really difficult thing. Like we were deciding on matching tattoos or something permanent, and we just couldn’t make a decision. For over a year, we would send each other tons of examples, agree on a bunch, narrow it down from there, and then still end up not picking one for one reason or another.
One day ~3ish years ago we were just hanging out listening to music. My husband noticed the very bizarre album cover art for Minnie Riperton’s Adventures in Paradise, and showed it to me like “THAT’S FUCKING AWESOME!” and then jokingly said “that’s what the tapestry should be.”
I can’t remember much else, but it seemed so ridiculous it almost felt like a challenge. I looked into it and found out it’s surprisingly cheap to just make your own tapestry by getting an image printed on cloth. So I ordered it and then we immediately forgot about it. Several weeks later I had no idea what it was when it arrived in the mail.
We were probably sleep deprived and loopy, but other than that 100% sober when we made this decision. No regrets:
I got drunk as shit and bought a 6’ samurai sword. After that I hung my wallet on it so I would have to look at that dumb shit before I bought something.
On a samurai sword is lame but a 6’ one is sort of a trophy.
I have ADD, so everything I buy is an impulse purchase that I can’t remember. And I. Regret. Nothing.
I’m very financially sound and price shop, never impulse buy things. I’m not cheap, but I don’t rationalize something I want unless I’ve researched it.
But then there’s medicated me… I don’t take prescription painkillers unless absolutely necessary. High doses after a surgery have found me binge shopping on places like w00t for the dumbest things. I of course don’t remember ordering at 2am, 120 led candles with remotes and color changing flames. Or after a car accident I felt the need to buy 100 non-refundable boxes of emergency break ice packs (break the capsule and it gets cold for 20 min) - donated these to the local highschool sports club. And my all time favorite was ordering a go-cart, $3500 for no reason.
After some hard financial lessons, my ex just took away my phone if I was going to take high doses of painkillers.
I can’t lie, the LED candles sound kind of cool. If you’re going to use them as decorations, you’re obviously going to need a whole bunch. What else are you going to do, use real candles and set the place on fire like a Victorian Christmas tree? At least medicated you was thinking about safety first. (That would be my post medicated rationale at least).
I also did something similar to the 100 non refundable ice packs, but I had what seemed like a really good reason at the time.
When I was pregnant my OB kept telling me to watch this standard birthing video that they make all new parents watch, just so they’re not completely unprepared for the experience. I kept putting it off bc I thought “I know how having a baby works. I’m not steewpid!” She kept pushing it, so finally at like 8 months pregnant, me and my husband sit down and watch the stupid birthing video together.
I can’t remember exactly which parts really did it, but it ended up kind of scaring the shit out of me.
I just remember that even after being uncomfortable for months, not sleeping, not being able to do anything I wanted to do, (even little stuff like drink more than one cup of coffee or eat certain foods), and finally getting to the point where I couldn’t even bend down to pick stuff up, and had to rely on other people for help, I was so ready to just get it over with. Then I watched this video, and I literally started thinking about running away so they couldn’t make me give birth.
While we were watching it, I honestly imagined myself standing up, telling my husband I needed to go grab something from the other room, then just getting in my car and driving away without any plan. It was pretty much my body being in the textbook definition of flight mode.
I ended up calling a friend of mine who had a kid, and talking to her about it. She reassured me that it really wasn’t that bad, except for the “perenial tearing.” 😬 She advised me to get plenty of ice packs and have them ready to go for when I got home from the hospital.
So I ordered a box of crackable ice packs made for exactly that purpose. Came home one day to a giant box sitting on my front porch that said “PERENIAL ICE PACKS” on the outside, and realized I had somehow purchased a box of 150. Ended up having to have a C-section and using none of them, so I also just donated them. Hopefully somebody somewhere got some use out of them.
And my all time favorite was ordering a go-cart, $3500 for no reason.
This is amazing, and probably the best answer anybody has given so far along with the 6ft samurai sword.
Edit: To be clear, not that I suddenly decided I didn’t want to have my baby, I just had the very irrational thought of running away to avoid the process of labor. I knew the baby was coming one way or the other, but maybe I could just hold it in forever and raise the baby that way? Idk it was not a rational response, I just panicked. I just always assumed (based on everything I had learned prior to watching that video) it was only a stretching process. I didn’t think there would be any “tearing” involved unless there were complications. I definitely had never known before that day: A. Tearing is much more likely to be the default (90% of first time mothers) and rarely (but it happens) some people will even do a preemptive snip prior to giving birth, B. There are grades of tearing severity (first-degree being the least severe and fourth-degree being the most severe, often requiring surgical repair.), C. It never really occurred to me that there was a risk of spinal injury if you move the wrong way when they’re inserting an epidural (while you’re in labor), and D. Even if you get an epidural, there’s a chance it might not work. Giving birth is no fucking joke. Not that I ever thought it was going to be easy, but before watching the “basic” birthing video, even with a master’s degree and more basic medical knowledge than a lot of people, I didn’t really comprehend what women go through to give birth. There’s actually an evolutionary theory that it can be so traumatic your body and brain kind of work together to keep you from fully forming memories of just how bad the experience was, to help drive continued reproduction. (Also important to note though, that more negative experiences and memories of giving birth are associated with more adverse outcomes, and that the experience can leave a long lasting impression)
It’s not that you won’t remember the pain at all, (bc even with a C-section and epidural, I damn sure remember screaming and feeling like my stitches were tearing open after it wore off, and I know I got off relatively easy), but in hindsight, your memory of the intense pain you experienced during childbirth can be dampened by the flood of hormones and feel good chemicals you experienced after. Like there’s a reason oxytocin both stimulates painful contractions to help get the baby out, and also helps you bond with the baby after birth. It’s really beautiful. But it’s also insane.
Edit 2: Pregnancy May Reduce Fear Permanently, Scientists Reveal
Reduced fear memory may also support caregiving behaviors after birth by lowering anxiety and promoting bonding.
I don’t remember why but I bought a $50 manual pencil sharpener that came with own leather carrying case. When it arrived I opened it and there was just a regular brass sharpener inside so I returned it. I was actually relieved when it wasn’t the item I ordered and had an excuse to return it.
I guess I don’t have anything to regret.
I blew around 4k on travel in 2019 and 2020. I blew another 2k on SCUBA gear and training. My only regrets are not spending more on gear that would be easily repairable so I wouldn’t need to buy a new set and not buying a much better camera.
My wife had passed away and I didn’t know what to do. My only emotion was pain and sadness. I had a little cash left over after her memorial and cremation. Nearly everything was impulse at that point.
Sorry to hear that. Honestly in that situation impulse was probably a protective mechanism driving you to go somewhere else to give you a break from the pain.
Sometimes just going back to a normal routine after losing somebody who’s always been part of that routine can be one of the most painful and difficult parts of mourning.
For sure. We had one of the AMC Theaters movie pass things and I couldn’t bare to sit in a theater to watch it. The only thing that got me up and out of bed in the morning was her dog. I still have boxes with some of her things in them I can’t go through that were packed up when I moved 5 years ago.
🫂
Part of a sprinkler system to bury in ones lawn, that extends upward with water pressure.
I do not own a lawn.
That bag of potatoe chips last night was unnecessary AF and I regret buying it with all my belly.
I bought a 5kg can of beans for 0,99€. Not sure what to do with it.
Just a friendly note that if you find yourself doing this periodically, get checked for bipolar disorder.
Christy Mack Fleshlight. Used it once and never touched it again. Think it’s still in storage
Too many to count. What do I even need a safe for? I guess I can put important documents but I truly didn’t need it for anything.
Long fingerless gloves. I don’t remember why but I must have been in a 2000s mood because I bought a bunch of bracelets too. Not too much regret for the bracelets
I did this a lot before I closed my amazon account. They make it way to easy for people who get addicted to shopping. The last thing I bought was a telescope. I have no idea how to even begin to use it. It has all kinds of different lenses and I have no idea what they are for. I guess it looked shiny. It was $260 and is now sitting in my storage building.
This boggles my mind. Why are people buying things they don’t want or need?
There is no way this is amazons fault.
A cheap 3060 on a local Finnish used item online store (Tori)
Was so excited about the price I completely missed that the description said it was only partially functional and likely had a single fuse burnt or something.
Spent days trying to figure out why it kept outputting on 240p for the OS except in text only mode, only to eventually go back to the listing to see if I could return and read that they mentioned it wasn’t fully functional.
Deep regrets.
If anyone knows how to repair a graphics card though and wants it however, let me know and I’ll give it for cheaper than I paid for. I’ll regret it much less then.
