These are all the ridiculous and unnecessary items people are buying in lockdown

Lockdown has caused people to become online shopping addicts, whilst some are buying food supplies or having a daily scroll through ASOS; boredom, alcohol and bad decisions have led some people to buy a bunch of weird, non-essential and pretty hilarious stuff during their time hidden away from the world.

John Lewis revealed the number one products for middle class shoppers during lockdown were pasta machines, gym equipment and tequila. Whilst tequila is obviously an essential item, the rest are pretty much unnecessary.

We asked students what they were spending their loans on during lockdown and naturally it was all the important things – an actual plot of land, a taco press and pool noodles to diffuse house mate tension.

These are all the ridiculous and unnecessary items people have been buying during lockdown:

A piece of land, now I’m a Lady

“I was drunk and bored and needed to spice up my lockdown life. The logical decision was to spend £15 to buy small five square feet of land, god knows where in Cumbria so that I could qualify to be a Lady. I feel quite special but I’m sure the novelty will wear off soon.”

Georgie, UEA

A galaxy projector

“I bought one of those galaxy projectors that are all the rage on TikTok. It was £45 down from £80 and I literally bought it in 15 seconds using Apple Pay and regretted it immediately. It turns out I can’t return it so I guess I now have this ridiculous item. At least it will provide prime selfie opportunities.”

Amelia

Loads of beauty products, including a foot mask

“Combination of boredom and drunk purchasing has not been good. I’ve bought a sheet mask, but for your feet and so many actual face masks. Brow dye and lash dye. Random other skin care and makeup, including a new setting spray (who do I think I am? why do I need to set my makeup? I’m not going anywhere). Acetone to take off my old acrylic nails and stuff to do new fake nails.”

Izzy, Soton

Dark fake tan

“Foolishly I bought a really dark fake tan because I was like it’s lockdown. It was not a vibe.”

Maddy, Coventry

A milk frother and an oil diffuser

“Sometimes I wonder what lockdown would have been like had I not dropped £50 on my two children, but the image is just too painful to think about too long. People who say money can’t buy happiness obviously don’t drink frothed milk every day and I don’t want those sorts of people in my life.

“The stick diffusers take ages to waft delicious oily goodness round the room, whereas these ones blast May Chang vapour from the moment you switch them on. Also if you get a bit bored or sick of the scent you can change the oil or turn it off entirely. Science!”

Tom, King’s

Tattoo supplies – 100 needles and 30ml of black ink

“I just wanted to tattoo myself and it only cost £25. I think they turned out well.”

Harry, Royal Holloway

Pool noodles

“We bought two pool noodles to painlessly work out aggression between housemates.”

Tim, Manchester

A 1.6kg tub of biscoff

“Whenever I come home from uni, my family are always moaning about how much food I’m eating, and that whenever they go to grab a snack, it’s already gone because I’ve got there first. So what better way to navigate this problem than to stash a private catering size tub of Biscoff in my bedside table?

“To be honest, I’d forgotten I’d ordered it when the box showed up on my doorstep, but it got here two days before my dissertation hand in, so it was definitely a welcome surprise to get me through the final push. Sadly I got through the whole 1.6 kilos within a week and a half, and I’m now trying to work out how to dispose of this giant tub without my family thinking I’m a giant weirdo.”

Zara, Durham

600 clothing pegs

“600 clothing pegs, I don’t have a washing line. They were £27.99 on Amazon and I thought they’d come in useful in the future.”

Megan

A laser hair removal kit

“Because you have to remove the hair every week, I thought lockdown was the perfect time to invest in a £200 laser hair removal machine.”

Hannah, Soton

Taco press

“The press cost £20. I just really love tacos and now I have some extra time I thought why not start making them from scratch. I’ve made everything else from scratch before but always bought the tacos, and it’s just not the same as restaurants. I have also planned a trip to Mexico and been watching loads of cooking shows on Netflix.”

Hayley, Bournemouth

Pasta machine

“We got a £66 pasta machine. Genuinely part of the reason we got it is because there was NO pasta anywhere, but then everywhere ran out of flour. Also my Dad has wanted one for years and quarantine seemed like the perfect opportunity.”

Emily, UCL

Related stories recommended by this writer:

•There are 18 types of NHS clapper and I’m about to tell you which one you are

•There’s officially 14 drunk lockdown personas, but which one are you?

•This is what the middle classes are buying in lockdown, according to John Lewis