Whenever I take the train to work, I’m amazed by the number of travellers who come aboard clutching a takeaway drink.

Young and old, they visit well-known chains and splash out the best part of £5 on a cuppa, along with a sticky bun or biscuit.

I have nothing against this, but it puzzles me when they spend the journey moaning about their debts and how they can’t afford this and that. If they buy the same for breakfast every day, they will be parting with a whopping £230 a year. They don’t seem to have any qualms about this needless extravagance, but I might be wrong. They may go home every night and beat themselves up about it.

The average Briton spends almost £3,000 a year on things they later regret buying - with takeaways top of the list.

A survey found that 64 per cent of people rued the way they frittered cash on things they didn't really want. Splashing out on burgers and pizzas led 34 per cent of women and 28 per cent of men to feel unduly out of pocket.

My family don’t eat many takeaways nowadays, due to a dietary problem affecting me, but we used to succumb at least twice a week. The problem is, they are so convenient. When you’ve finished work and travelled home, all you want to do is flop down in front of the TV. The thought of chopping, stirring, grating and mashing is too much to bear.

Through sheer laziness I used to often buy a boxed takeaway meal-for-four, but despite the cost, I don’t think I ever regretted it. Fish and chips, I sometimes regretted, not because of the cost - although if buying for the family it can leave a big dent in your pocket - but the unpleasantly bloated feeling that often lingers.

More than a quarter of women felt they spent too much on clothes, concluded the research by a well-known savings firm. There can’t be many women who don’t regret buying clothes. I’ve just donated a skirt and jumper to charity, each bought about two years ago and neither of which I have worn. I can’t believe what possessed me to buy them.

Alcohol is another purchase many people regret and it is only natural when you’re putting out the recycling, to wish you hadn’t forked out a quarter of your wages on third-rate Cabernet Sauvignon.

I often regret buying books but don’t lose out financially as I only ever buy from charity shops. I’d hate to have spent more than £1 on the Man Booker Prize winning ‘Bring Up The Bodies’ which, by page two, I regretted buying. Things didn’t improve and I abandoned it around page 50. I loved the TV series, though - no regrets in watching that.