Everyone has their own opinion on what constitutes a waste of money because while you 
may not understand your sister’s shoe obsession; she probably can’t understand why you’d spend so much on a set of sheets. However, there are some products which are a bad idea in so many ways, but the manufacturers know this and so come up with clever marketing gimmicks and enticing adverts so that you won’t notice a product’s shortfalls until you’ve already wasted your money.
The truth is, most of us will have fallen for such a campaign at one time or another, and whether you have tried to master your thighs or you took a pill in the hopes of losing weight for good, it is easy to be drowned in the media saturation for the ‘next big thing’ and here are five purchases and campaigns you can avoid and save your money
1 – Power Balance Bands
We’re all looking for inner harmony, a way to feel better, healthier and more energetic so it no surprise that the Power Balance bracelet has been a popular purchase. The bracelet claim to be a surgical grade silicone wristband, embedded with a hologram which optimizes your body’s natural energy flow, to mimic the concepts of many Eastern philosophies. The Mylar material of the bracelet has been treated with energy waves at specific frequencies and the product comes with a money back guarantee, so you could be forgiven for wondering – where is the risk?
While there is no risk that you will lose your money because the company are diligent in honoring their money back guarantee, there is also no scientific basis for any healing effects from a rubber bracelet and countless consumer agency tests have been run, and the product has been ousted on television, but this hasn’t dented their fan base.
2 – Targeted Nurofen
The painkiller brand Nurofen have released a series of painkillers for even more targeted relief from pain. If you have a specific pain such as a backache, you buy the Nurofen backache pain killers, if you have a tension headache there is a specific Nurofen for you, not to be confused with the headache tablets or the ones for a migraine. Nurofen has also branded specific pain killers for period pain, osteoarthritis and neck pain.
However, it is a waste of money to stock your medicine cabinet with a different pain killer for each part of your body, especially since the ingredients in each Nurofen product are exactly the same. Plus, chances are if you have a backache, you also have a headache, so even if you could treat just one pain, even if the tablets did know where to go in your body, there is little point.
Nurofen’s specific pain killers are also up to twice the price of their regular fast acting Zavance product and pain killers all work in the same way, because after taking the tablets, the active ingredients spread out through your body to resolve all of your pain.
3 – Exercise machines
If you asked just about anyone, they would tell you there is at least one thing they’d like to change about their body, which is why those machines which make exercise fun, fast, easy and exciting can secure such a strong grasp on so many people’s credit cards. One of the earliest infomercials you will have seen for an exercise machine which promised to tighten and tone your body while you drop the pounds would have been for the Thigh Master. The Thigh Master claims to be able to give you a shapely figure with just a few squeezes a day but if you have ever used one – and chances are you, or your mum ordered one – you will know that ‘a few’ can really mean hours and hours of work which you could get the same results from with regular walking.
There is no quick fix for weight loss and toning, simply because of the way your body is built. Your muscles need to build up through regular, increasing exercise over a period of time, and your weight loss is only 25% due to exercise, and the rest will require you to make healthier changes to your diet.
The Ab Rocket is one of the latest pieces of exercise equipment you can waste your money on, if you believe that you can recline in the padded chair and blast your abs. There are three resistance settings which you can adjust according to your fitness levels, but every level has a low level of resistance, and once you have rocked all the way down to the floor, you will need to use your own strength to bend forward so you can get the same results with conventional exercises.
The Air Climber promises to help you shape and tone your legs as well as burn calories by stepping on two paddles which use air to eliminate impact and work your muscles. Unfortunately the product is poorly made and built and the plastic cannot withstand the impact needed for true results and rather than wasting your money you could run up and down some real stairs.
One of the more fun and graceful looking exercise machines waiting to blast your credit card is the Leg Magic where you place your feet on the peddles and glide them in and out while your upper body remains in place. The controlled movement aims to tone both your legs, your buns and your core however, you will still only be working part of your body and will need to spend hours each day on the machine and still won’t achieve a whole body work out, cardio or weight loss.
4 – Diet pills
As you’ve seen from the range of expensive exercise machines, there is no quick fix if you want to lose weight and look and feel healthier and diet pills are not only a waste of money, but can also be damaging to your health. There is no shortage of different diet pills available and some include ingredients such as cabbage and others are filled with guar gum but millions of dollars a year are being spent by people hoping to slim down, but the pills are nothing more than placebos.
Research recently conducted at the Peninsula Medical School at the universities of Exeter and Plymouth found there was no evidence that diet pills would work. Research from the University of Gottingen in Germany also found that those taking supplements of cabbage powder, bean concentrate and plant extracts did not lose any more weight than those on a placebo pill.
While mainstream drugs which are marketed for weight loss must prove a certain level of
effectiveness before they are licensed, those marketed as food supplements do not need to meet these same requirements, but can still make similar claims. Pills promising weight loss – and fast – can be found online and in many health food stores and pharmacies, where ingredients such as calcium and green tea promise increased weight loss. Professor Naveed Sattar from Glasgow University metabolic medicine research has said that the minimal evidence of success from such supplements shows they are not effective and if you do not change your other health and eating behaviors you will begin gaining weight again.
Supplements and pills which promise weight management are no substitute for awareness of the foods you eat and the exercise you do, and when you are aware of your calorie intake and look after your body, you are able to make sustainable changes in your lifestyle, and without the costs of magic beans.
5 – Revitalizing shampoo
The claims of nutrient rich, nourishing shampoos are washed down the drain as easily as the cheaper home brand shampoos because most of the nutrients from any shampoo are actually too large to penetrate the cells of your hair. The shampoo molecules which contain all the goodness are also not concentrated where it can have the most benefit as the tiny follicles of your hair are simply coated in the expensive shampoos until you rinse and repeat.
These extra nourishing shampoos can often be two to three times the price of regular shampoo and you are getting as much benefit as you would if you tried fertilizing a plant by pouring the fertilizer over the leaves. For true benefits, the nutrients need to be able to treat the roots and a Californian company called Kronos has developed shampoo which does just that with microscopic spheres and clinical trials show a 96% increase in volume, a 91% increase in hydration, a 96% increase in shine, and a reduction of 96% in split ends.
Why People Are Lured Into Buying Money Wasting Products like these
Some of the most wasteful and boastful products have some of the best advertising campaigns and the most attractive celebrities on board, so before you pay with your credit card to receive your exclusive free gift think twice about what is really possible
Alban is a personal finance writer at Home Loan Finder, a home loan comparison website.