Our Worst Purchases of 2020! 

The way I avoid impulse purchases is to write them down and if I still want it later - or have encountered a need where I wish I had that item at least 5 times, I will buy it. I can't tell you how many things have died on my list!! Hundreds by now.

Fun drone story comment for the RU-vid algorithm. Someone local to me lost their drone. They had built it themselves and tried very hard to find it with no success. They posted on Facebook for people in the area to keep an eye out in the next few days as it was about to snow and would be ruined. A dog team on our local search and rescue saw the post and decided to help and use the lost drone as a training opportunity for their dog and found it that evening!!

Im with levis dad here, my first clarinet teacher was a flute teacher who just happened to play the clarinet. Do not reccomend.

I am so happy Leah shared her pink cardigan story. I just donated a dress that wasn’t my cut or color. I had gone into target for toilet paper, a birthday card and mechanical pencil lead replacement and walked out with a fast fashion dress I never wore. I felt guilty about it and it’s reassuring that I’m not the only person to have moments like that.

I'm totally one of those people who has a sentimental/emotional attachment to all that I own. I can come up with a story or special moment with most of my things. If its a gifted item I have so much anxiety around feeling like I'm letting down the gifter if I get rid of the item... Also "if you are at a burger joint, get the burger" love that, will remember.

Levi's cousin watching the purse clip: 👁️👄👁️💦

I have a dairy of sentiments. It's a notebook 📓 with Polaroid pictures of me with sentimental things that I give rid of.

Okay but I'll take that handbag if you don't want it, Leah. I think it's super cute 😂

As a licensed drone pilot I feel you! Everybody is so hyped about the drone but as a licensed drone pilot the stress is not worth it.

Emotions are information. Don't hold onto the bad emotions, but understand the information behind them.

Used vehicles from now on will be a better experience (if ever) because you now have “Experience”. Most of us have learned from that first time. Good show.

I love that you reflect on your decisions and learn from them - and really understand the drivers....imposter syndrome, influence from others, emotional purchases....good for you both!

I had the exact same experience as Levi with the drone when I bought a 3D printer. Your mind goes wind with print ideas but 99% of them are useless. It was so complicated to setup and install and I was stoked on what I could print, after the test print of a 1x1 cm cube, I changed some settings and broke the printer. Its been in a box in basement ever since. DONT GET A HOBBY 3D PRINTER.

I bought an e-bike last year for commuting to work... I felt in love with the idea I could commute every day and found 1000 reasons for the bike and no against it. Now I’m waiting for the spring to sell my 3200€ bike 🤦🏼‍♂️😂

I bought a used car that lasted over 150k miles and never had to do more then routine work, I also bought a used car that I drove for 15k before I got rid of it because of all the things that kept going wrong. Used cars can be a fantastic deal if you know cars or have someone in your life that does. Otherwise it's definitely buyer beware!

I have to say, especially when it comes to Hondas, sometimes the investment into it upfront for repairs can really serve you well for some time! It just depends on what is going wrong. Under 10K Canadian sounds like a great deal to me on a Honda Element even if it needs a lot of work right away. But my own dad is normally excellent at picking winning used cars, and he got a pretty bad lemon CRV once and really beat himself up about it, but even when you are good at that, you can’t win them all! Also, if anyone has a hard time getting rid of gifts, I really suggest reading Marie Kondo’s first book. It changed my life in more ways than one, but having better gratitude for gifts AND being able to let them go at any point was one of the most helpful. Each item serves a purpose and role in our life, and once it has completed that role, we can say thank you to it and move it forward to its next purpose outside of our life. Some items may not serve the role we think they will, and often gifts are one of those. Their role in YOUR life may have been only to express joy and love and care, and to feel yourself receiving that joy and love and care. If it is not at item you are using, would have chosen yourself, have a perfect place for in your home, or makes you feel great when you see it and pick it up, it may have served its role and the best thing to do is to thank it for serving you in the way it did, and donate it to someone whole loves it (or to a charity shop where it’s next item will be thrilled to find it)!

Ooof Leah's statement on buying vs owning really hits home haha

Yeah that makes sense. While it is always good to buy from sustainable companies, it's better for the environment to buy a product that was actually built to last.

I feel you Leah in keeping birthday cards and every letter someone has ever given me! My solution to all that is scanning them and keeping them saved on a hard drive and my iCloud. That way I feel less bad about getting rid of the cards. Now objects it is a little easier for me to donate or regift lol

So funny, not funny, drone story. I work for NYS Parks and while reviewing an incident log at one of our facilities I noticed that one of our employees got into a "hit and run" with a drone. Turns out one of our lifeguards was treating a woman who got cut up on some zebra muscles when she was hit in the back of the head...with a drone. Some kid was out trying to film on Lake Ontario when a gust of wind hit the drone. He lost control, the drone started plummeting and in an effort to stop it from hitting the beach throttled it right into the back of this girls head. After realizing what he did he got it back in the air and tried to fly it back to his car, with a crew of staff chasing the same drone. Long story short he got several tickets--reckless endangerment, flying without proper permits, etc--and the lifeguards doing well, albeit with a few extra stitches. Moral of my story is to be aware of the liabilities associated with certain activities. Social media is all well and good but should never be the measuring stick by which you gauge the safety of certain activities.

We have the same saying, don't order steak at a fish restaurant or dont order fish at a steak house. Loved this video❤❤

Love y'all. This was an important video to make. I would have had a hard time disclosing all the things y'all did. Thank you for being brave and making us all better for it.

Frank&Oak used to sell good quality clothes. Now, "everything' seems worst - thinner materials, wrinkly, no lining. poorly made seems... I don't buy there anymore.

I totally relate to Leah with that birthday card thing. I will literally feel like I've betrayed them if I throw it away

I love how real you two are! Honestly my favourite couple on RU-vid!

Ahaha Leah’s cardigan looks like a bathrobe... but yea when my mom got a corporate job she did the same thing but 10x worse

I love how, eventhough you make videos mostly on your lives, you always find a clever way to make people see the big picture, so they can apply these thoughts to their owns lives ! Even in such a simple video concept, that a lot of youtubers use in their videos, i've learned so much. Continue making us grow pleaaase

Dangggggg. That cardigan really hit home for me. I feel you Leah, we all feel you.

Another great video Levi. One of my favorite things about your channel is the practicality of your videos. As you mentioned consumer habits play a large role is in how businesses behave. I'm with you, where I try to take as much time researching a product before pulling the trigger. Although we are imperfect and will sometimes make bad purchasing decisions, that shouldn't stop us from trying to buy quality items we will regularly use and last a long time. (P.S. I was happy to find out afterward that the pair of rain boots I bought a year ago are Goodyear-welted. The brand is Sorel and many of their boots seem to be Goodyear-welted.)

Quick emotional purchases NEVER work out well for people like us... hopefully you don’t beat yourself up over. Thanks for being vulnerable and sharing these regrets.

Even with the most research, we can still make mistakes and it's okay, Great video!

I am definitely the person who feels no shame in re-gifting, recycling, or selling the things people give to me if I don’t want them 😂 Also I REALLY want a drone!

Thank you for this video! I'm done with videos showing good purchases and no mistakes or the "negative" side of real life.

You guys are the best :) Can’t wait to watch your next video! Take care

Don't mind me just interacting for the Algorithm :)

You are amazing and what you do is really inspiring 👏

This video made me so happy :) I have buyer's guilt soo bad, thank got I got into minimalism, but it's still a struggle... And the worst is definetly gifts that you just don't like and know you'll never use but you don't want to disappoint the giver😰

So good to hear that you guys sometimes make purchasing mistakes too. Even just from a financial standpoint, I look back over my adult life and think, "wow, if I had just been more aware of my needs, more willing to practice contentment, more focused on the things that are personally enriching (rather than looking to try to imitate others) - I could've saved so much money." Mistakes have been made. So like Levi was saying, taking a moment to sit with that pain of regret can go a long way to informing choices in the future.

I am also often the psychopath on the other end when it comes to getting rid of things.

I hang onto the things that I regret buying (I’m not a shopper, regretful purchases are rare)... eventually I find another person who really loves it or wants it and the item gets a brand new life. It’s a story that always has a happy ending... that said, I can’t say that I’ve ever given away a vehicle (eg: Earl). I love this video just as much as the “Best Purchases of 2020”. Thanks for both of them.

funny story, my bf bought a drone for fun for a few hundred and after about 3 months and barely using it he lost it. he took it out at night when there was a wind warning idk what he was at honeslty.

I get so anxious about buying anything or spending any money (for many reasons...environmental guilt, past history of having no money, everything being poor quality now). I really can't remember the last time I bought something other than food and home repair stuff, even though there are many things I would like. Your little blurb about buyer's remorse at the end was very relatable.

Omg! The purse is absolutely beautiful I would use it everyday if I had it 😍 You should definitely give it to someone who would cherish it!!

I appreciate this honesty, especially when Leah was talking about the cardigan and the assessment of Earl. Shopping with other people definitely affects my critical thinking, and I tend to buy more stuff I don’t need; plus, it’s easy to get caught up in trying to look a certain way, as if it’s the clothes we wear that prove we’re professionals and that give us our knowledge and skills. It’s also great that you guys don’t shy away from the less glamorous/more human side of sustainable living; it can be a hard lifestyle to maintain, and we all make mistakes. Thanks for being honest and willing to use your mistakes to teach us.

Sorry to hear the car isn't working out well for you but I really appreciate your honesty about it.

Oh, it's so bad about Earl :( I'm not much of a car person but your video really sold me on that Honda, so sad it didn't work out so good for you guys. Thanks for sharing, it's good to be reminded to be mindful!

Oh man. As soon as I saw the care and you said "Honda Element" I was like "Oh no." Those things are notorious lemons. (If you haven't had window issues yet, just assume it will happen sooner or later and keep some plastic around to cover the hole if they decided to quit working half-way up some day.) Honda is a great company and normally their cars are tanks, but the Element was just...not.

FOR THE PLANET. Thank YOU for this video my guy!!

I have a couple of things that have come to light for me recently on my journey to declutter my life and live a more intentional /mindful life. The first is around gifts. Once someone gives you a gift, that thing/money/experience/etc is your's! YOU get to do whatever you want with it. The second is specifically around things that carry sentimental value to oneself. Once we leave this earth, that sentimental object, no matter what it is, will simply be what it is. That sentimental spoon that belonged to your grandma? Yep, just a spoon. Take from these thoughts what you will...just more food for thought!

Related so much to holding on to old birthday cards 🤣😅

I’m getting a bit of a rep as a loon because when I give people gifts, I always tell them, “If you don’t need it, or whatever, go ahead and regift it. That’s totally cool. Seriously.”

The drone thing certainly depends on the person. It is scary for the money butttttt we love flying ours in our “travel” videos. We don’t regret ours at all!

I liked the minimalism element of this video!

I loved this video, it is useful, as usual, but also oh so relatable and fun 😊 My last purchase regret was also a car, but I try to remind myself that we couldn't possibly have all the info in order to choose something different. The pandemic turned our lives upside down and we bought a decent car, thinking we'd keep it at least a year so it'd be better than the very old, very grubby looking cars that were available, which would've struggles making it to the end of the 12 or so months. Turns out, we were able to move back to our home country within 4 months and lost 50% of the price of the car, which didn't need to be in as good a condition as it was. I struggle to remind myself we couldn't possibly have known, as with so many other things in 2020, but my first reaction is always to think we were stupid on this one...

In today's world (and in the Global North), purchasing only what's needed seems to be an extreme case, but that has been the case until well into the 19th century (and in the developing world).

This made me smile. We all make mistakes. You are a cute couple. All the best for you both. Love from Switzerland.

You can just keep giving the gift of guilt :D Love that line.. definitely sticking to it :D :D :D

I loved the Red Green cameo!

Your Earl story makes me feel better about my impulsive/rushed/out of town/late in the afternoon 2013 Prius purchase.

I’m in the middle. I can be very ruthless and also extremely sentimental! Best not to judge other who like stuff Or is a minimalist!

I looooove local Buy Nothing Project groups for rehoming gifts. So much better than donating where you're just like "welp, i hope you find a home". You know that the thing you have is going directly to a new owner.

I totally get Leah for that cardigan purchase. Buying things for the person I think I should be. But I think the comfort from wearing your preferred wardrobe is superior :)

I do the same thing with the birthday cards!!!! I have a huge box of them! 😂

I also open cards, read them, see if there is money in it and then recycle it. You are not alone Levi. This was a fun video to watch and some sound advice.

This is very powerful video, thank you for beeing honest 🤜🏼🤛🏻 what will you be doing for example with the shoes? As you said they are not comfortable and over all good so not really good material for gift, right? Recycling? I am just courious 🌺

It is too bad that the Frank and oak shoes didn't work out. I wear a lot of their clothes but never bought the shoes.

Love your videos!!!

You both were especially funny in this video 😂 -Rita

The gift dilemma is so real!!

Thank you for this video! My next step in reducing my footprint is to reduce my screentime. I read somewhere that transmitting video requires the double amount of energy compared to only transmitting audio. I love your content, but is there anywhere I can hear you amazing tips as a podcast or something like that? Keep up the good work! You are so admirable :-)

I feel the same way about my DJI Osmo 3 gimbal. Thought I’d use it to make buttery smooth video but I still end up just film holding my phone.

I really enjoyed this video, I was wondering if you could do a video on things that students and teenagers can do to help the planet. Especially those that are dependent on parents or guardians who’s values don’t fully align. It would be really useful and I know there are so many teens like me who want to do more for the environment but feel incredibly hopeless due to their situation.

I looove that bag!

Amsterdam represent! That's Ten Katemarkt/Kinkerstraat at 6:20, right? I get your point about the drone, but damn those images are pretty! ;)

Great video!

Any chance you're doing a giveaway of the pink duster sweater? Been looking for something like that to go with a dress I bought!

Love the red green reference

I got an ad for RBC and a car but I don't remember the brand!

I’m glad I’m not the only one who makes mistakes 🥺

Leah: "Opportunity to connect with the peasants" hahahaa!!!!

OMG I would love that hand purse

at the beginning of last year I bought a super fancy planner for all the stuff I had planned. Well... Wasn't really worth it. But let's be real I rarely regret purchases as it is kinda pointless so if I regret a purchase I try to pass it on to friends /family members if they can use it

Love thissss

Maybe an elevated version because that pink cardigan looks awesome on you! Lol

I agree with you that drones are definitely a big responsibility and can be a great tool to get unique shots! But I would argue that with proper practice and certification there should be no safety concerns. As someone who flies lots of drones, my advice is this: if you're considering buying a drone for hobby or professional use, take the time to get your certification and do lots of practice flights so that you can turn your bad purchase into a great purchase!

Got ads from DiDi, Crehana, MindValley, MasterClass, Mubi and GoDaddy. I wonder if we get specifics ads in different locations.

Your cousins are probably watching and are going to send you a Harry Potter Howler message since you don't like the purse - ha, too funny :) Interesting about the car and especially the drone - I never thought that a drone would be a bad decision - good to know before we think of buying one. :)

Thank you. Stopped me to go but a drone

Thanks for helping to save the world!

Would you tell us where Leah's hoodie is from? I'm in need of a new hoodie (yes, really!) and I've been amazed by it for several episodes. It loks awesome on her!

Hopefully you can get your Element sorted out. They all eventually need engine replacements which isn't ideal. I have been longing to get one forever but haven't found a nice example for a reasonable price yet.

Can you please make a more in depth video about buyers remorse/regret?? :) I also didn't expect to see the car on this list...

I feel the same about my car- it's not the worst but I didn't even notice it had hail damage when I bought it! (it was raining and dark) It has a number of other issues, mostly aesthetic but practical too. I'm just putting the least amount I can into it and then I'll sell it at a loss when I move countries. Sucks to feel ripped off and honestly cars in particular give me a lot of anxiety when things go wrong I know they are useful but I hope to not own another car after I sell this one, or I will buy from a family friend who has had it since new or something.

Man. $9000 for a 2007 is A LOT. Last year I got a 2018 for $12000.

I do the SAME THING with gifts...and birthday cards! And my wife is the read it, check for money, recycle :-)

I still want "American duchess" shoes but still can't try them on.. Being picky keeps me from buying but not from trying all available shoes independent of ethics involved (American duchess has mostly compost able shoes and moved to produce in Italy)

Elements are amazing. Still have my ‘05 with nothing more than regularly scheduled maintenance. Really stinks that someone clearly pulled one on you... BUT... gotta go through the motions.

I wish I could get that cardigan and purse, coincidentally I was actually looking for a long shrug and small purse...!!

I’ve been there before with vehicle purchase. I think I’ve been there twice if I’m being honest. Cars are tricky. We have a car in mind for the right reasons and then the barrier for entry being cost makes us more likely to take a chance on less expensive cars because of scarcity and what you both talked about.. Cars are a whole other conversation almost with how we are kind of forced to buy new or new or take a chance on a used car. I felt like I found a happy medium with my 2016 Subaru Impreza hatch. Has a clean pzev engine, good gas mileage, and is really reliable but I am in a better place to be making monthly payments. I won’t ramble too much more haha but I just relate to the car thing a lot.

thank god its easy (and mostly free) to return items we buy online. great for buyer's remorse. 😋