Stupid ways you've wasted money

[Haypanky]

Please help me feel better by telling me your tales of money mistakes... I'm so embarrassed and horrified... On Friday I spent £390 on 2 tickets to Mumford & sons... I like them, but not that much!!! And we don't really have the money! It was supposed to be a massive treat. I thought £175 was the total price, there was a big red clock counting down, the kids were at me, I got click happy confirm confirm confirm... There isn't an adequate excuse. The tickets are non-refundable, and if I sell them, I need to go there on the night and hand them over to the buyer which involves a couple of hours drive, paying to park... I can't be the only one to have done something so stupid... can I?!

Trip to France with the school when I was 11. We were encouraged to go into shops to practice French. I went into very pretty chocolate and sweet shop and picked out about four or five. They cost me the equivalent of 10 quid (around 1990) which was all my spending money. I hadn't realised they were so expensive and spent the rest of the week feeling miserable.

Also family friendly concert - bought enough tickets for me and kids but then thought grandparents might like to come. And so might the other set inc partners. I hadn't asked them but in the grip of the damn countdown timer, full of ideas about a lovely family outing and only a few seats left in groups, I bought 9 pigging tickets. Over 200 quid. No they couldn't come. Fortunately managed to sell the unwanted six on via local Facebook page.

I've wasted money on loads of stuff over the years. Go and enjoy the show. It's just an expensive lesson learnt for next time you buy tickets.

thatmustbenigelwiththebrie I’ve got visions of you just jumping off whilst the bike is moving and refusing to go a step further

On the Harry Styles theme I spent £200+ staying in the Lowry after his Manchester gig last year as I reasoned with myself that if he was going to stay anywhere it would be there and I might catch a glimpse of him 🤦🏼‍♀️

Also bought front row Frankie Boyle tickets on eBay. First night out following birth of DS. Really excited about it. Arrived at the gig only to realise they were for the day previous and we had missed it. I was unreasonably devastated.

We've all been there Haypanky. Console yourself with the fact that you're not making Gwynnie Paltrow any richer by spending money on any of those "healthful" silly sh*te items she peddles via her Goop company!

I got conned by one of those ladies selling bunches of heather. She saw the £20 note in my purse as I was counting out a pound or whatever and convinced me to give it to her. It was before DH and kids, these days it would be a definite no!

Also spent £200 plus on some drawers from Very - we didn't check the measurements online, so we have nursery type furniture for 4 growing boys And as we didn't put them up till months after delivery, we couldn't send them back.

Uh I bought 2 tickets to Ed Sheeran which once viagogo had added on idiot tax came for £540 ...I then spent 12 months having sleepless nights that I wouldn't even get in the gig after Ed's "bring your birth certificate/proof of purchase " stuff.

My husband then booked us a holiday over that week so we didn't even bloody go!! I ended up giving the tickets away as I couldn't face selling them. My nanny went instead, had no problems getting in and sent me loads of photos, whilst I was watching a pretty mediocre Michael Jackson tribute show in an hotel in the Med

£50 for one of them wanky photo-shoot things I never went on

£25 for a paint-balling day. I got shot within five minutes of the first battle and sat in the cafe (spending on coffee) watching the others. I then realised it was boring macho nonsense and went home.

£30 for a hair toner at the hairdressers which washed out after one wash.

£80 for a vets appointment and pain medication when my dog started to limp the day before holiday. By the time we got home, she was right as rain.

The best/worst though was when I decided to invest in a really good pair of sunglasses that would last me all my life . I spent £400 on Gucci ones and then promptly sat on them smashing them to buggery.

£700 on an escort. He had smelly feet. I couldn't get rid of him quick enough.

So many things.

We had a small inheritance and got sweet talked by a salesman to sink it, and money borrowed off my parents, to buy a student pod in a big city.

Turns out the market was saturated, the property was miles away from the uni, and the developer was a known con man who had done jail time.

We had a year's guaranteed income, which, it turned out, was paid out of the capital we and others invested. After that year we never saw a penny and it was never even close to full. Then we had to put more money in as there was damp, there was a fire, and all the while massive council tax bills because no students were actually in residence. Now it limps along earning about £30 per month and can't really be sold. I still owe my mum £30k and my husband sort of feels it was my idea. I am utterly depressed and as have mentioned elsewhere have pnd to boot.

I found a pound on the floor yesterday however so felt I was winning for once

We parked our car outside our house once (in a city, in a bay) and the next morning the over eager council had taken it and crushed it. What can you do? The car was worth next to nothing, but of course it cost thousands to replace.

I quit my job losing a year's earnings and adding 16 thousand pounds to my student loan in order to train to become a teacher. I am above average in my specialised subject but they don't tend to test it at interview so I spent years competing against less good teachers for jobs. The subject has a very high unemployment rate. Once I did supply and we were 8 ladies in the school that day (the entire English dept was on a jolly). We laughed when we found out that we were all teachers of my subject (it's not English). Also it turns out I don't really like teaching due to the hours and stress. Royal waste of money and now I feel pretty much good for nothing, work wise. The kick in the teeth is that they now offer 25k golden hello for my subject. Rats!

So relieved to be on maternity and I would have paid £16k plus £25k just to have my beautiful baby though!

Peace and love to all mums, life has ups and downs but tell yourself so long as we have each other it'll be alright.

Only 19 with a new baby and absolutely skint. Mum gave me birthday money to treat myself. I bought a pair of ridiculously high heeled shoes and tottered everywhere in pain, trying to push a pram !!

Just to add, "above average in my subject" - not a brag- absolutely not the best in the field. Hope nobody took it as a brag xx

When DC 1 was small, a new shop opened up in town which sold itself as an eco friendly, cruelty free food shop run as a worker's co-operative to offer good food and sensible prices to local people with a fair wage for farmers and staff. This all sounded great so I popped in on the opening day and signed up for one of their weekly organic veg boxes.

The idea was that I told them of any fruit and veg we didn't want and then they would bulk buy organic stuff at local farmers' markets and deliver a box to us (by pedal bike, of course). I signed up for £40 a week, envisaging an overflowing box of delicious goodies to get us through the week. The reality was a small bag of odd stuff (eg 3 potatoes, one parsnip etc- not enough for a sensible meal) half of which we ate on day 1 and the other half was so random that it ended up having to be a soup.

I attempted to cancel several times but there was no e-mail or phone option and every time I tried to do it face to face I was essentially told I must have given the wrong information or I'd get a box to suit us, and reminded that every customer who cancels increases the cost to everyone and reduces the wages of the staff. After about a year I finally grew a pair, but shudder to think how much we spent on what looked like the stuff left in the bottom of someone's fridge

Oh and not forgetting experience vouchers, which you can't ever book onto because they don't ever have availibilty at your chosen venue...
and then they expire. And are overpriced.

Absolutely. I did the same and bought Jack White tickets for Hammersmith and paid something eye-watering like £350 in exactly the same circumstances. When the tickets arrived their face value was £50 each....

NoThatsNotMyName sorry, my silly post straight after yours sounds flippant. (Just that mine was such a ridiculous waste of money at that time)!

About £18,000 on cigarettes.

Never again.

Got married.

Cost me £450k to get rid.

Plus everything else he shafted me for over the 15 years we were together.

Wanker.

@paffuto - not at all - I'm loving reading all these

When I was 18 I bought a laptop for uni. They were sort of new out then and I managed to pay 1100, plus 500 extended warranty and accident cover at Tiny computers. They went bust shortly after taking my warranty with them, and shortly after that I dropped the computer.

Massive palm to face!

I used to live in Manchester and still travel back to get my hair cut. Once I decided to get the train instead of driving and had looked at the ticket prices online and expected to pay around £30. I turned up on the day to buy a ticket and it was £95! But I was all set to go and so paid it. I sat on the train feeling both ashamed I'd spent so much and also like a wag!

I've had a double whammy recently. We loaned DD our life savings for a psychology course.(already had English degree from Uni) She was going to pay us back gradually when we retired. Sadly, she developed mental ill health, couldn't finish the course and then diagnosed with a serious lifelong mental disorder. Devastated and sad about DD's disorder and we help her every day. We would never mention it to her of course but also gutted about life savings gone (which could have been used now to help her)

and also like a wag!

Dd had a health scare and ended up in hospital
She was ok but DH insisted we take her to Disneyland Paris immediately! We booked flights and the most expensive hotel nd had a great time but when we arrived at the airport to come home with an exhausted 4 year overloaded with Disney tat we discovered that I had booked the flights home for a week later. DH HAD to be in London next day and we had left 6 month DS with Grandma so we had to get home on that flight. Jet2 said it would cost £600, we had paid £400 it total for the flights so we thought ok, £200 extra not great but no other option.
Turned out they wanted £600 extra! DH bless him didn’t say a word and just handed over his card.
We arrived back at the airport and as it was so late he nipped to get the car while me and Dd waited with the luggage. When we tried to get out if the car park he had gone in the wrong but and they wanted £2 to let us out. At this point he epically lost his shit with the car park attendant ( despite being one of the most chilled people on the planet)

Oh yes, gift vouchers - I got a Nicky Clarke hairdressing one years ago but the trainfare to the city where it could be reclaimed was more than the haircut and it wasn't even a particularly interesting haircut! especially as I got persuaded to buy stupid overpriced salon shampoo

Not my waste of money technically, but a waste all round really.

Groupon's full of shite you don't need also. I really must learn.