A WASTE OF SOMETHING

People frequently disagree about how money should be spent. The final cost of the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood (Edinburgh) was quoted as £414 million. Many people thought that it was wrong to spend so much money on this building and that the money could have been spent on more useful things, such as schools.

We use the phrase “a waste of money” to describe something that we think money should not have been spent on.

e.g. “A council’s £7,500 spend on a new doormat for its office entrance has been branded ‘a waste of money’.”

We can substitute “money” in this phrase with other nouns to talk about other things that we think are being used wrongly.

Examples:

“I’m not about to burn my leather belts and shoes. To do so would be a waste of resources and just leads to the thing we’re trying to avoid – more consumption.”

“All the units, the past papers and areas the teachers recommended I study, seemed to be a waste of time.”

“Is a courtyard a good idea or a waste of space?”

Photo credit: William Marnoch (Creative Commons)