Question of the Day | 03/28/2008 7:30 am

What are the three dumbest things you spend money on?

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Monogrammed white sheets, even when I was a copy girl making $27.50 a week.

Dressing cases to match my luggage, even now that the contents have to go into a plastic bag.

Antique ring watches, even though they spend most of their lives at the watchmaker’s.

But these things make me happy, and I have always been willing to skimp on necessities to pay for them. If we were in the habit of considering outrageous voluntary expenses without weighing them against the happiness to be produced, would any of us have had children?

By Judith Martin on 03/28/2008 7:36 am

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Subscriptions to online services that I promptly forget about. Namely: Tickle, Ancestry.com , Consumer reports, Credit Reports and God knows what else. Subscriptions to gyms and dance classes that I never attend. Scented candles that don’t smell particularly good.

By Joan Juliet Buck on 03/28/2008 7:40 am

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Anything I buy in euros or British pounds.

By Mary Wells on 03/28/2008 7:41 am

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My closet is full of dumb things I’ve spent money on, often ordered from catalogs.

By Joan Ganz Cooney on 03/28/2008 7:41 am

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Designer pet toys, Starbucks Coffee instead of Dunkin’ Donuts, Youth Enhancing Face Products that do not work instead of using Pond’s Cold Cream and just facing the facts.

By Sheila Nevins on 03/28/2008 7:43 am

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Taxis, big tips, gadgets I never use. (But as the late CBS titan Fred Friendly used to advise: “no one ever got rich under-tipping cab drivers and stiffing waiters!”)

By Liz Smith on 03/28/2008 7:45 am

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Amen to the Pond’s Cold Cream. I waste money on lottery tickets and scratch-off’s.

By P.D. Patterson on 03/28/2008 8:23 am

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Antique shopping, Candles, and yummy smelling body lotions and bath items. That antique shopping is what gets us…..way too much ‘stuff’ - couldn’t use it all if we tried!!!

By Becca Tucker on 03/30/2008 7:41 am

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Like Judith, I love sheets and watches. I just recently bought a Cartier watch and a Timex would have done the job just as well, but it makes me happy and feel a bit special. Sheets are truly my weakness. The higher the thread count I can snuggle into at night, the sweeter the dreams I have! Almost forgot - shoes…nuff said.

By Lisa Mullins on 03/28/2008 8:30 am

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re: P.D. Patterson - I love scratchers… the crossword ones especially. Though I did win $2,500 one time, and right now I have about $350 in small winners waiting to be cashed in. Of course, I still come out a loser. The other stupid thing I spend money on is sort of the same… slot machines. I have a bit of an addiction. :/ Because of that addiction, there isn’t really anything else ‘dumb’ that I spend my money on, if I’ve got extra money, it’s going into a slot machine. In fact, when I cash in that 350 in scratchers, it’s going to fund a trip to my local casino.

By Khaki Doodle on 03/28/2008 8:45 am

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Things that are on sale that I really do not need.

By Fay Henderson on 03/28/2008 8:50 am

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Yoga classes I never have time to attend, Starbucks, and the dumbest thing of all, cigarettes.

By Harper L. on 03/28/2008 8:52 am

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Harper- I’m with you on the cigarettes! It is so stupid! The other dumb thing I spent my money on as a kid was SEA MONKEYS.

By Josie Sullivan on 03/28/2008 3:09 pm

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The $15 Tocca laundry soap that’s supposed to be for your hand wash “intimates” that I now use in the washer for my sheets, towel and T-shirts because it smells so good?

By Jo Jo on 03/28/2008 9:01 am