Originally Posted by
phedge
The only wastes of money I've discovered are the things I bought ignoring the "buy once, cry once" dictum. Pumps, stands, shoes, jerseys, shorts, tools, all stuff I went cheap on the first go-round. Except I learned a valuable lesson, so maybe not a waste. Yeah, yeah, I'm going with that.
Or in a similar vein, parts that were bought for form over function. I've unfortunately done that a few times recently, not least of which was in pedals, where I wasted money not once but twice getting pedals that colour matched my bike rather than going for ones that actually worked. I have just purchased a set of Shimano M520 pedals which are said to be close to bulletproof and which work FAR better than either of the colour matched pedals I bought did even when new - this is what I should have done in the first place.