The internet has become one big shopping mall. With a few clicks, you can have new boots, a TV, or even a car! It can be super helpful and convenient, but on the flip side, you can end up wasting away hundreds of dollars on crap you don’t need.

Whether you were convinced by a Tik Tok or a flash sale, we’ve all been there. But I don’t want y’all to make the same mistakes I have so I’ll be sharing things I’ve bought online, and wasted my hard-earned moola on.

Amazon

I have a love-hate relationship with Amazon. My dad pays for a Prime membership so it’s hard for me to resist that 2-day delivery. Morally I oppose Amazon, but realistically I’m a sucker for the convenience of having whatever I want at my door in 24 hours.

After wasting more than enough money I’ve finally gotten better at resisting my shopaholic urges on Amazon, but here were my mistakes along the way.

Blue Light Blocking Glasses

When life moved online during the pandemic, ‘blue light lenses’ were suddenly advertised everywhere as a new necessity of life. I don’t know the science behind these but the internet convinced me in 2020 that I needed pair for Zoom meetings and my ever-increasing screentime. I wore mine for a few months and didn’t notice any real difference with my sleep, dark circles or headaches. They did make me look cute though.

@caleontwins

Whether you need a prescription or not, try Blue light lenses from @clearly to protect your eyes from artificial light! #clearly #bluelightglasses #ad

♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey

I think we all just wanted to live our mysterious scholar fantasy, nevertheless, not worth 30 bucks.

Stickers

I went through a sticker phase in high school. I was obsessed with decorating any blank surface in stickers. It’s hard to accumulate a large collection of stickers, so I used my babysitting money to order a package of 100 stickers for 12.99. 

I’m not going to claim I was completely ripped off, and most of the stickers did go to ‘use’ but like the majority of the stickers were ugly, non-sensical, or Supreme box logo. Maybe 10 out of the 100 were nice, which some would say is “worth it,” but I just feel like it was useless overconsumption on my part and the money could’ve gone to something much better.

I’d only recommend this product if you’re sticker bombing and you need tons of random surface coverage, not if you’re trying to actually showcase each individual sticker.

Scrunchies

Another phase in high school to add to the books. Scrunchies were super big in 2018, particularly the Urban Outfitters colourful velvet ones. I remember girls in high school would shoplift them from Urban because none of us could afford a 10 dollar pack of cute hair elastics. I may not have been a shoplifter, but I was still a girly on a budget. So instead of buying overpriced scrunchies at Urban, I ordered 24 scrunchies for $15 on Amazon. The thing about deals like that, is you get what you pay for. They were all weirdly large and poorly made. So I ended up never using them and just sticking to the Urban ones I got for Christmas. Nobody needs 24+ scrunchies, just another case of overconsumption.

Weirdly enough though I still have all of these scrunchies in a big bag in my makeup drawer and they’re useful for getting your hair out of your face for when you’re doing your makeup, I just wouldn’t wear them out in public.

Cookbooks

Controversial take but buying cookbooks is dumb. Especially on the internet where you can’t even flip through it to see what you’re buying. I ordered a $40 cookbook and I’ve literally never used it. The internet has every recipe you need. You can find free recipes on Instagram, Tik Tok, Youtube, Pinterest and there are more than enough free food blogs. I understand it’s nice to have a hard copy, but is that worth 40 bucks?

Call me a product of my generation but damn.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYyBGQfKeU_/

I’d much rather spend that money on quality ingredients for a recipe I found on Instagram, just saying.

The rest of the internet

Clothes

It’s really easy to be compulsive with online clothing shopping. It’s the job of the ‘influencer’ to take advantage of this impulse buying by looking hot in clothes sent by a brand, and then you get jealous and buy it so that you can look like them. Boom. Capitalism.

I know all this, yet I’m a sheep who gets sucked in and buys, buys, buys to fill the void of insecurity and self-esteem.

Online shopping is honestly rarely successful for me. Sizing, fabric, and quality are nearly impossible to dictate through a few stylized pictures. I’ve found more luck buying off of Depop or Facebook Marketplace where you’re interacting with a real person.

I would not recommend buying jeans online. Especially not from cheaper fast fashion brands like Garage, Zara and H&M. In my experience, they look really nice and well fitted on the model (duh) but the product you receive often feels cheap to the touch, like super thin and fits weirdly. When jeans are barely made of denim, and thin as paper, they don’t flatter your body, they just kind of hang off you with no structure. I’ve ended up donating almost every pair of jeans I’ve bought online because some girl on Tik Tok told me to.

Buying jeans in person is worth it because you can feel the quality, try them on, and see what styles flatter you the most. In my opinion, quality denim is worth the extra money.

Shoes are another tricky one to buy online. Unless you already have a pair from that same brand that fit right, I would always op to go in person. I feel confident ordering Converse, Vans or Nikes online, but if you’re buying boots, heels, dress shoes, or sandals, sizing can really be a gamble. For example, a few years ago I bought platform sandals on Dolls Kill (Gross, I know, horrible brand, never again) I spent around $80, thinking I was getting my dream pair of sandals. When they arrived, there was nothing technically wrong with them but the sole width was thinner than I wanted and I hated the way it made my feet look. If I had tried these on in-store I would’ve passed on them, because even a slight detail like sole width can make or break a shoe. Little details like that are impossible to see online, so again, get your butt to the mall and just try on some damn shoes.