Oops, I did it again!

 

Following a few glasses of a full-bodied cabernet last week, I happened to be scrolling on my phone when an enticing ad appeared for one of those fancy sport watches, you know the models with more dials and LCDs than the dash on a 767.

Now for those who keep abreast of fashion trends, wrist watches at least on men, have more or less morphed into an accessory as opposed to a necessity. As evidence, I have no less than three everyday timepieces languishing in my amoire all of them in need of new batteries. With the date and time continuously evident on my mobile phone, I have no need to spend a month’s salary on an upscale sport watch.

And yet I did it anyway.

It came in a handsome box, accompanied by a 30-page instruction booklet in four languages including Mandarin. I have enough trouble deciphering instructions in English, so I did the next best thing – I handed it to my future son-in-law with one simple instruction – “set it.”

By coincidence, this weekend I came across an article detailing the top purchases you would be most likely to regret. Since I was already regretting my latest impulse buy, I wanted to see how that stacked up against others.

So as a potential hedge against future wine-inspired purchases, herewith is a list of some top regrettable buys.

1.       Extended Warranties: It’s not enough you shelled out for a purchase, but now the salesclerk or online portal is trying to upsell you – just in case the product implodes shortly thereafter. Experts recommend checking if the purchase is covered in other ways such as by the manufacturer.

2.       Boats: I’ve known several people who are boat enthusiasts and therefore due to their passion for watercraft, spend more time on maintenance than they do with their families.  I can safely say this is one purchase that will never impact Chez Carlino. Ditto for horses.

3.       Timeshares: Ask yourself this question: Do you really want to vacation in the same exact venue year after year. That’s exactly what a timeshare promises.

4.       Over the top weddings: This one hits particularly close to home as my eldest is getting married in October. Sorry, we are not paying for Michael Buble to sing at the reception or Harry Winston to supply the engagement ring.

5.       A Home-based Printer: With more documents capable of being sent or signed electronically there’s fewer reasons to take up space with a printer. Now if I can just find a reason to get rid of that outdated and bulky HP in my office.

6.       Pools: I’m on the fence about this one since I live in the Northeast and it can only be used at most 4 months out of the year. Whereas in Florida or Arizona it’s an inarguable necessity. My mind was made up when the estimate for installing a pool at our house approached $100K. For $200 I can access the town pool from Memorial to Labor Day.

But on the bright side, my new sport watch is water resistant to 200 meters.