The phrase "a foolish waste of" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to express the idea that something is being squandered in a way that is unwise or imprudent.
Example: "Spending so much time on social media can often feel like a foolish waste of valuable hours that could be spent on more productive activities."
Alternatives: "a senseless squandering of" or "a reckless misuse of".
What a foolish waste of money, particularly in a time of economic stress for everyone.
But a growing group of buyers insists that brand-new cars are a foolish waste of money.
"My support for Prop 23 was considered a stupid thing to do and a foolish waste of time and money.
As a national energy policy, this seems like a foolish waste of time.
Hally regards their efforts as a foolish waste of time, and wonders what happens when couples crash into each other.
For, like the testimony of Jesus on the cross, the headlines about Gazan children, South American refugees, and the police killing of unarmed juveniles -- far too often African American male juveniles -- are dismissed as a foolish waste of our time.
I think of it as a fascist rhapsody posing as a metaphor of liberation, and I would deliver a long tirade against it if it weren't such a dog such a laborious and foolish waste of time.
The book's most interesting passages deal with Carmack, a Spock-like character who ends sentences by saying "mmm" and seems to view emotions as a strange and foolish waste of time.
In the group, art and media were viewed as foolish wastes of time – after all, what is the point of reading books, watching TV or listening to secular music when the world is about to end?
"Drug-taking," Hitchens writes, "is the purest form of self-indulgence," for it severs the link between hard work and reward, making "deferred gratification appear a waste of time and a foolish rejection of readily available delight".
The arch drug prohibitionist and Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens voiced the feelings of many of his readers when he described drug taking in 2012 as "the purest form of self-indulgence, that severs the link between hard work and reward… making deferred gratification appear a waste of time and a foolish rejection of readily available delight".
