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?!

Oh had forgot this one ... sometime in the 1990s DH was conned persuaded by a work colleague to invest in emu/ostrich farming.
He bought 6 eggs and a couple of baby ostrichs at the height of this new farming bubble.
On our way to making a fortune selling ostrich meat. But, well ... let's put it this way we've never eaten ostrich meat, ours or anybody else's.

I think the birds died or the farmer went bust or something. I must remind DH of this

Bought all my Christmas presents for DH DCS x3 , Mum, Dad, sister, neice, nephew Bil and Pils plus 2 v expensive bottles of champagne for friends. All done by Dec1st last year. All wrapped... Smug, what?
Carefully put into black bin bag with label.
2 weeks later I went to the dump to get rid of a broken mirror and household waste.
Result? A nice clean house? No, and no Xmas presents. Told DH, they'd been stolen out of the car. He wanted to get CCTV footage so I had to come clean.
Broken mirror anyone?

Oh yes, the time in Bali when I hadn't understood the currency. I thought I left £3 tip for the room service on the pillow. ( That was considered to be polite and kind there) DH worked out I'd left £500.
Still, I like to think someone had just a fraction of the nice time we were having.

Lost €50 ten minutes after taking it out of an ATM.

Once got drunk and bought a ring online for £70, the ring was a size S and maybe fit a baby.

Reader, the German company would not allow a return.

I bought a cordless Dyson at 2am, thanks to a Mumsnet thread I'd been reading.

I got it through a third-party seller on Amazon.

In the cold light of day I got buyer's remorse, so when it arrived I just sent it straight back to the seller - without going through Amazon first.

I've never received a refund. The seller is ignoring my emails, and I can't blame them
because I've no evidence that I sent it back.

Worst thing is, I really wish I'd kept it.

I'm an idiot.

@pippop - exactly the same for me. Plus the cost of the plumber for the original pipe blockage and an even more damaged floor.

The dentist told me my jaw pain was caused by me grinding my teeth in my sleep and said I needed to wear a mouth guard at night. He took a mould of my teeth and a week later I was given a horrible rubber thing I couldn’t ever wear because just having it in my mouth for 30 seconds made me gag.
It cost £180.

Spent £30 on a umbrella that I refuse to use at times because I don’t want it to get broken. Had to have it due to what was on it.

£40 on a bottle of chocolate absinthe. Still never opened it and very rarely drink.

Got ripped off with a car, was over priced and in bad shape ( unbeknown to me at the time. For I knew very little about cars) paid £1100 for it when it was only worth £650. What’s worse is Iv spent almost £3000 in getting it fixed.

Grammar I did that too several years ago! I was fucking furious at myself! I’d bought some amazing bargains that I never could’ve got for the same price. Oh I’m furious all over again!

I paid £400 at Xmas (that I couldn't afford) for lipo fat freezing on my thighs and tummy.

I literally did not look any different.

More recently.. Ryanair and their bloody confusing baggage policies!

I stupidly decided not to bother paying for a 20kg checked in bag in favour of just taking hand luggage (1x 10kg bag) plus your normal handbag or personal bag that fits under your seat. Then I saw that for an extra £14 you could upgrade to priority boarding and take an extra 10kg cabin bag. (so 2 X cabin bags)

Cue pandemonium at the boarding gate on my return journey where they charged me ( after 20 minutes fighting my corner) for taking 2 X 10kg cabin bags plus my tiny shoulder handbag.

It would have worked out cheaper and less stressful to just pay for a 20kg checked in bag. In fact it would have worked out cheaper and less stressful to just not fly with Ryanair!

This thread is making me feel better but also stressed at the same time Mine are all train related; bought same tickets twice once on trainline due to site crashing and re-adding them and clicking confirm without noticing. Also once threw away 'return' rather than ''out' ticket before coming back so had to re-buy. Another time got on wrong train by accident and had to re-buy. Each time only around £30 but super annoying as all down to my own stupidity. Other than that I've bought probably a lot of clothes over the years that haven't really been worn and have all ended up at the charity shop. And more moisturiser than I could ever use.

I'm appreciating the love for Harry Styles on this threadhe's mine btw

I’d take you down and climb him like a tree if it ever came to it 😂

Spent the end of the holiday penny pinching to make sure we didn't run out of cash only to get home and find the stash I had squirrelled away in case purse got stolen... Only about £5 so not a huge loss to us but could have bought some nice food or gifts on holiday or been left as bigger tips. DP is exasperated because he doesn't understand my obsession with dividing money up especially as I then leave it in the hotel so we can't impulse buy or mislay it etc. And it's not a currency you can exchange in the UK (not that it would be worth it) and it is far too many notes to keep as a memento of the holiday. And I doubt any one we know will be holidaying there soon. Keep meaning to find one of those charities that claim they take any currency but then forgetting!

This thread is awesome. to all of those who have really suffered through losing money though (thatsnotmyname, pafutto).

Spent £2200 on a moped. I quite fancied it for running round town, and 16yo DD wanted to take her CBT and use it too. She failed and vowed never to sit on a bike again, I took it out twice, crapped myself, put it up for sale, and it sat in the driveway for THREE YEARS. We got the local bike shop to flog it for us. We got £700 back.

My feet were starting to hurt when I walked, but I went ahead and bought custom DM shoes.

They were over £130 a pair.

I also bought some pretty fabulous Converse too.

I luffed them all, but I had trouble wearing them.

I was later diagnosed with a shopping list of orthopedic problems and now have to wear orthopedic shoes with a variety of orthotics and 'bits'.

I had to get rid of the shoes as I'll never wear them without them causing almighty pain.

Almost £1k of shoes. 😢

@Danlsb £900 for 10 photos?! wheeeeze

Not me but a friend was allocated a very small 1 bedroomed H/A flat.She had fitted; laminate floor, 2 fitted wardrobes and blinds and 1 cupboard. She paid £15,000 for these, ripped off or what.!

Three speeding tickets in France - all for different sections of the same journey on the same day! Ooops.

If it's someone you really like it is worth it.
I bought a Shawn Mendes ticket a couple of weeks back, all they had left were the premium ones so it was £140 but it's my birthday/Christmas present to myself, I always buy my own main gift.

That said, I'm seeing Enrique Iglesias next week and my friend paid, and Deacon Blue in December which was £40 so normal price.

My first concert was Bros when I was 10!
Dd's was Xfactor tour when she was about 4.

OP - we paid £600 via rip off Viagogo for 3 tickets to see G-Dragon - DDs Korean pop obsession.

Couldn’t get them by normal means as hideous firms like Viagogo leach the tickets leaving non left via proper options.

I felt sick about the cost, but the concert was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. So glad we did it and went - go and enjoy Mumford (my husband love love loves them - seen them twice already and would have spent same as you )

@JasperRising if you are near an M & S with a travel bureau they have a box on the counter which you can put unwanted currency in (but I'm not advising you spend £100 on a train ticket to get to the nearest M & S)