I waste a lot of money on computer equipment and other electronics that I don't really need. I've also bought software that I've never really used, or which as been replaced by better free software. As I'm buying things, it doesn't seem like much--fifty bucks here, a hundred dollars there. But when I go back and look at how much I've spent over my past few electronics purchases, I usually start to think of the other things I could have bought with that money instead. Most of the computer hardware and electronics don't usually improve my life by much, if at all.

Case in point: back when I was in college, I prided myself on getting the best deals for computer hardware, but when I went back and added up all the money I had spent, I had probably wasted close to a thousand dollars on "cheap" $100 hard drives that eventually all went bad (including the warranty replacements). Even if they did still work, it would not be worth the effort to use them, because they're too small and too noisy by today's standards.

I've also spent thousands more on other junk, such as RAM and CPU upgrades that only gave modest performance jumps, and wireless audio transmitters that I used for a short time to stream music from the now-defunct Yahoo! Music service. Every time I see a really great deal on RAM or video cards, I come one click away from buying them, but these days I'm usually able to resist.

I've been wanting to get into woodworking ever since I moved into my house, and five years later I'm finally saving up for a $600 table saw. Sure, I've already got a toolbox and a couple of the essential power tools like a drill and a jigsaw, but I can't help but think that I'd have an entire shop full of woodworking tools and a lot of nice wood furniture if I hadn't wasted all that money back in college.

What has been your biggest waste of money on computer stuff and technology? If you had all that money back, would you make the same mistake again and buy the same types of things, or would you spend it on something else?