I loved my mini-disc player. So much lighter than carrying around a Discman and a load of CDs.

I did spend about £1000 on a film Nikon just as digital took off. Sold it a few years later for about £200 if memory serves.

Mazda RX7. It kept cutting out and spent most of its time in the garage.

Saab 9000 Turbo with astronomical mileage and seemingly no brakes. Sold it at £2500 loss a few weeks later.

A second later model Toyota Celica Supra. It had had a crash and didn't like turning right.

Vauxhall Omega. Kept it a few months...missed my first Toyota Celica Supra.

A clapped out Toyota Celica.

A very dull green Rover 620 after my nice red quite lively Rover 623csi was written off.

I don't lie awake obsessing about them but I wish I hadn't wasted all the money.

called Precise Biometrics, that provides fingerprint and SmartCard technology.

That was not a good move. Warren Buffet I ain't.

Distortion pedals in general, but fuzz pedals in particular, have been my downfall.

Over the years I've owned:

Boss DS-1
Boss FZ-2
Boss OD-2
Boss MD-2
Boss MT-2
RAT
RAT modified by Robert "Snake Oil" Keeley
Russian Big Muff
USA Big Muff
home-built kit Big Muff
Shin-Ei Companion Fuzz
Colorsound Wah Fuzz
Wattson Superfuzz
Earthquaker Devices Hoof
ZVex Fuzz Factory
ZVex Super Duper 2-in-1
Fulltone OCD

All in all, that's probably a grand and a half on distortion alone. I've done similar things with delay, and have bought and flipped innumerable "special" pedals. I only have the OCD, a boost, a delay and a tremolo now, and it's the perfect setup.

When I was younger I stupidly used to assume that if someone had what was, generally, accepted to be a good album that I liked too I'd automatically assume its follow-up would be just a good.
A good example was Silk Degrees from Boz Scaggs. I rushed out and bought the follow up ('Down Two Then Left' - I think!) on its day of release and it was rubbish!
I seemed to follow this pattern for many years.

Similar results when it came to albums that had a glowing review somewhere. I'd part with my money before even having heard any of it only to find it was utter tosh!
The Lone Ranger by Quantum Leap springs to mind! I seem to recall the review compared it to a Steely Dan album. Ha!

but I simply don't do either lying about or wracked with shame. If it was a mistake I flog it, give it away or bin it - and move on. Life's too short. Live, learn and live some more!

Me an' all. Got my recorder system and Walkman back in about 2000. Gave the lot to the Pa In Law a couple of years ago. He'd purchased a Japanese import car which had an in-dash Minidisc player.

Otherwise.. ooh.. A couple of dodgy cars, nothing too serious..

Some terrible golf clubs. They don't do what they promise. Ever.

A couple of right ropey videos in the late 80's. Said they were red-hot and you could see it going in and everything. Could you bunnies.

Panasonic MP3 player - circa 2002 - smallest MP3 player, about the size of a 50p, took flash memory cards all the way to to a meaty 64 meg!!!!! Complete with shite Real Player software! Free built in clicks on every track! Compatible with nothing! Utterly valueless now - eBay couldn't give a shit about these fuckers. A bargain at 300 quid.

An exercise bike, or as we know it in our house, a useless clothes horse. I spent more time putting it together than I've ever spent on it.

Rover 220 GTi - bags of fun, but oh, so expensive to fix when you assume it's air-cooled and it blows up on the M5 whilst on way back (to WSM as it would happen)

Personal Pension and savings plan with Equitable Life. Oof. Still makes me wince to think about that.

Shares in Baltimore Tech on advice of a work colleague. Quickest grand I ever spent.

I'd had some luck with a couple of horses. Nothing outstanding but both very good solid performers, they'd each finish mid-field in very big races but start favourite in ordinary races. They both won 30 or 40 times in prizemoney what they cost it was as good as you could sanely hope to get actually, I still have pictures of both on my wall and treasure the experiences I had with them.

Anyway this is bad decisions...

With my past luck in mind one of my friends viewed me as something of a good luck charm with the horses. I was hounded until I bought into a syndicate of his.

Well...
We got a horse called Heaven Rocks, in its first start it looked an absolute gun. I could not beleive my luck in buying into three champs in a row. It only came fourth but flew home from distant last and lost by less than a length.

Second start it loomed down the straight as a likely winner until it started limping. It had hurt it's knee severely and was retired. We were given a replacement horse called Sarashina.

That was a 2yo filly, it had one injury after another. We paid (the not cheap) training fees for YEARS on this thing and it never got within shooting distance of a racetrack.

I got an email from the syndicate a week before it's fifth birthday (remember we got it as a 2yo) saying it needed another operation and he'd understand if we pulled out and to have a think about it.
We pulled out the instant that offer was made. I must have spent thousands on that frigging nag and it never even hit the racetrack.

I'm not considered a lucky charm anymore.

In an age of 'Gracenote is querying database' to get song titles in a heartbeat, the thought of inputting them all manually by scrolling through a list to get to the desired letter makes me wince.

Not to mention only getting 20 songs per disc.

Still, songs from those tentative compilations still bring back memories. I'll always wist at the thought of Laura when I hear Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime.

Best bet is to follow on at least twenty years behind technology.
Currently, I can't go in a charity shop without being met with the sight of 200 CDs and 500 Videos.
The ideal formats, no, but then they weren't the ideal formats in the dire 1980s.

However in 2010 they're a ridiculously cheap way of getting music and/or film.
This week, 'Fahrenheit 451' for 30p and The Beatles' White Album 2009 re-master for 99p.

Bought (on my own) on a 100% interest-only mortgage,with rates at 12.95%

"It's a buyers market, mate!"

Thus followed five years of negative equity and debt. It still cost me four grand to move it on when the market eventually showed some life.

Five years later, I would have made £100,000 profit on it!

I can walk the street for years and never get mugged but I get my wallet systematically emptied every time I go near the oak-effect-panelled office of a financial services advisor.

Like the early '90s endowment mortgage that turned out to be 'mis-sold' (what a lovely way of saying 'robbery' that is) and the late 90's ISA where I eventually realised the FSA was taking 3% of every payment.

Over the years I've bought three properties at the height of the market, the last of them three years ago on a 5-year fixed rate mortgage because "there's no way the market's going to crash".

I've got about eight stalled and useless pensions swilling about too. That's probably not a problem as I'm going to have to die before I reach retirement age anyway - actually I think this is government policy now.

not for nothing was it known as the soviet iPod. Still got mine though, still love it. I put the Rockbox open source operating system on it and it got a new lease of life.

BSB - the one with the "squariel", got turned down for credit (still don't know why, never been refused before or since), company went bust within 3 months and was bought by Sky who made the equipment obsolete.

Sony Walkman MP3 player.

Amstrad PCW jut as they were becoming obsolete.

A PC with Vista - although that was really the best move I ever made technology wise as it persuaded me to buy a Mac.

In 1996, a Sony Hi8 camcorder, cost £899 and a 3 year warranty for £100 which ran out the week before I dropped it. Best part of a grand for what I recently edited down to one DVD's worth of 'family fun'.

To cap it all being avoided like the plague by the camera-shy at parties.

A computer and vinyl cutter which was going to generate enough income to pay for itself in weeks which I just about covered the cost of in several years.

Not to mention a early-to-mid-life-crisis addiction to guitars and motorbikes and bikes. I recently sold a tandem on eBay which the buyer reposted and sold for £100 more than he paid for it, cheeky so-and-so.

ignites gasper...

Daihatsu Copen (I am 18 stone)

Sorry, dont know how to post foties

One of those fitness rowers you see advertised in the Sundays - rented it for about a year before sending it back, went on it about three times which roughly worked out about £200 per row.

Secondly, I bought a video camera in a hurry in Florida when my own started chewing tapes. When I returned I discovered the £1100 camera I bought could have been purchased back home for £250. I was not pleased.
Rather childishly, I visited the same store two years later and was delighted to see the same salesman behind the counter. I said I was in the market for a very expensive camera. Lo and behold a camera was produced for about £2500. After a lengthy discussion and demonstration I decided that I would in fact take two of these. He was delighted and couldn't take me across to the till quick enough. I then pretended my mobile had gone off and said I had to take the call outside. Needless to say I didn't return leaving the salesman with his two very expensive cameras unsold.

A Nissan X Trail which went on to have a split intercooler (over a grand to fix) and then an ECU fault that buggered the 4WD, the ABS, the sat nav, the speedo and the teasmade. £4k+ to fix. Still, those nice people at Nissan gave me £500 compensation when I sold it for scrap.

A gizmo that you pressed a button on designed to make next door's dogs run screaming for cover with paws over their ears, instead of barking and howling every time someone opens a crisp packet in the kitchen. Each time we tried it I swear I heard a Mutley style laughing from behind the fence. And then more howling and barking.

A universal remote from Argos. Actually it was universal - universally useless.

A shower curtain rail that promised you could fit it without screws or glue. And so you could. Until you tried moving the curtain.

And that's just the last six months ....

I was assured it was a drivers car.
Yes indeed it was beautiful to handle, great to go.

Except

When it rained.
Or did'nt rain
or the gear-box went -

or the fan-belt went

or the power steering went.

or something else of many bits or very big expensive bits went.

Yes, indeed a drivers car but cost more in maintenance than all the other cars I have had over 30 years.

I had some Indescribable luck with a few massive bets and some unforgettable nights at the casino. Anyway, feeling fairly invincible, I put an amount of money on Leeds Utd to win the Premiership that makes me shiver every time I think about it now. I mean the sort of amount where the Bookies had to phone head office to get clearance to accept. Think it was to win the 2001 or 2002 title; it’s all a blur now...

New Labour.