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?!

Honestly there's nothing much to see! it's vile... and it's maroon. I am going to try to move on. Erase it from my memory banks.

... I suppose the thing to remember in charity shops is, if it isn't perfect already then don't buy it! And the same goes for sales!

Two fails come to mind:

1. A friend who never asks for much/want for nothing contacted me and asked me if I would join her on a hot air balloon deal she found on Groupon. In the UK. £50. I agreed. Only to find out that hot air balloon rides in the UK are almost always cancelled because of poor weather. Offer of course expired before any chance of making good of it. Never saw that money again.

1. A somewhat sozzled Boxing Day decision to take my toddler daughter to the French Alps to visit family friends in March this year. I couldn't bear the thought of more snow (and lots of it), after the 8+ deluges we had in the UK up until that point. So forfeited the trip. To be fair, used the week's holiday to hang out with my bro in May instead when the weather was blazing hot and sunny. But yes, that was a £300 sozzled expense.

Omg. So.many.fails here.
The online bookkeeping course I signed up for thinking I could change career... £600. I hate maths and couldn't understand half the work. My parents still take the piss. They lent me the money.
The animal behaviour correspondence courses I signed up for ..twice. The first time I quit because of marital breakdown and couldn't meet the deadlines with all the shit going on, by the second time I had 2 children, was pregnant with the third and still working so never had the time...£500 each time. This was 12 years ago now and I still cringe. It was a very interesting course to be fair.
Endless late night drunken eBay and Amazon purchases of things that are still in my wardrobe with the labels on. I dread to think how much I've wasted on that.
Candles. People have candle parties and I feel obliged to buy more. Thing is, I seem unable to just spend a tenner. No no, we'll have £60 worth please 😱😱 yet every time I go to IKEA I can (and do!) buy 100s of the bloody things for about £2!! 🤦

FFS. I'm 50. Will I ever learn? I'm having to be a lot better now because we're living off a student loan so I just don't have the money. I have to leave my iPad upstairs if I have a glass of wine or two. Seems to be working mostly, at the moment. Then again I might just be too busy to check eBay 🤷

The clothes I wore once and gave away to charity shops, must run to tens of thousands of ££££ alone.

The OU courses that I abandoned - thousands

The evening classes that I didn't bother going to after the first couple of evenings - thousands

The lamps, rugs, furniture, pictures which I got tired of looking at - thousands

The well paid jobs I got bored with and self sabotaged myself out of - a good half dozen, at least.

I am a marketer's dream. 😭

I’m sure I’ve done loads over the years but 2 glasses based ones stand out. I spent about £300 on some Chanel glasses which I thought looked amazing when I ordered them. They were nearly rimless and had this cool sort or bendy effect at the top. Went and picked them up and wasn’t so sure and then on the train home I saw a young city boy type wearing the exact same glasses. Made me realise I actually hated them and they didn’t suit me at all Never wore them and I think I sold them on eBay for about £35.
The other one was when I spent £450 (really, what the fuck was I thinking??) on those stupid transitions lenses. I’m sure they work for some people but mine were bloody terrible. Never seemed properly clear, didn’t change quick enough in sunlight, didn’t change properly in the car and didn’t change back quick enough so I’d frequently be wandering around shops with ‘sunglasses’ on not being able to see After a row I did get them to change the glasses to normal lenses but never got the extortionate cost of the stupid transitions lenses refunded

Oh and Pokemon cards 100’s of the bastarding things

I have schizo affective disorder which I think is causing my addictive shopping habits :(

Managed to bid £90 that I don't have on various Victorian photos last week (I do collect them but would usually spend max £10!)

I can't back out of the bids as got no good reason so after paying for these items I'm giving my sister control of my money as I can't trust myself.

At least I could always sell the photos if necessary...

Only last week our washer was leaking water. As 4years old and getting a little noisy decided to buy a new one instead of repairing. 2 day after getting new one, familiar puddle of water reappeared. Turns out the waste drain was blocked, not the washer leaking. £270 down the drainliterally

Reminds me of the time I paid a repairman £40 for a new washing machine hose when the original one just needed straightening out and reattaching. It's the only time DH has ever yelled at me (MIL told him off for that and he got me a big bunch of flowers to apologise.) Oh, and I never used that repairman again.

Still peanuts compared to the stuff on here though.

Bought a Halfbike II, broke it a couple of hours after I'd gotten it. Bought a unicycle, rode it once in public but had to quit because it attracted too much attention. Bought index warrants that were basically worthless because I misread the expiration date. Spent thousands on fractional lasers, chemical peels, microneedling etc for my pitted acne scars, and sure, there are minor "improvements" (mostly wrt colouring), but the texture is still pretty darn bad!

I'm the butt of a recurring joke in my family as I once signed up for one of those build your own globe subscriptions. They sell it on the basis that's it's £2.99 a month but it ramps up very quickly and before you know it you've got a half but globe and the introductory rate has ramped up to £22.99 a month. So I've got a shitty plastic globe sitting in my sons room in the hope it's going to help make him a master geography student (he's 8). I worked out it cost nearly £600 and therefore I'm reluctant to bin it. It doesn't even slot together properly

That is the perfect concrete illustration of the sunk costs fallacy.

To those aghast at the money spent on concert tickets, you’d probably fall over in shock at what my DB has spent on them over the years (thousands! He flew to the states last week for 3 days for a gig!) but he is so passionate about the bands he loves and he would personally rather not eat out or spend money on buses when he can walk just too save money for them.

I spend money on decent theatre tickets, lord knows how much but to me, it’s worth it 🤷🏻‍♀️

I spent £350 on tickets to see Pink next year and I am beyond excited...a waste of money to some but well worth it to me!

Posted to soon!

I don’t think being shocked at how much people spend on them is particularly fair!

OP, I’ve sadly never seen M&Sons but DB says they were absolutely brilliant, he loved them!

Close family member and I cleared out his wardrobe and took a (current day price) £900 coat to a charity shop.

I also sold something of same family members at a boot sale by mistake for a few quid when it was worth hundreds.

Ridiculous amount on shoes a can no longer walk in.

Lots of expensive crap bought pre-kids I regret.

Front row often means standing for hours to get prime spot and they are not the most expensive tickets. DB loves standing as he loves immersing himself in it, he’ll begin to queue about 2 or 3pm for 7pm doors for and 8pm show. He loves it.

I will pay more to sit in excellent seats with an excellent view...and not stand for hours ...but if you want tickets for a gig that will sell out in minutes then sometimes top price is the only way to go. I paid £125 each for tickets to see Pink this morning. She’s the last on my concert bucketlist so I was willing to pay and knowing how quickly the tickets will go, I wasn’t fucking around looking for cheaper ones.

I would’ve done! I was getting these tickets through hell or highwater!

I’ve paid £300 per ticket for Take that’s circus tour...totally worth it!

But I wouldn’t meet her, I strongly believe never meet your heroes incase they’re awful! Although I can’t inagine for a moment she is!

By not over-paying into my interest-only mortgage early enough. I could have easily saved money that way. Learnt my lesson.

@tobebythesea

I had the same experience at rugby and peller.

Got the train there because I live two hours away.

They sold me a vile American bra that they said had to be altered to fit me.

When it arrived I couldn't even get it on on my own. Of course I couldn't return this altered bra!

Makes me so cross that they con customers. Never used them again.

Been there. Spent £2.5k on rugby tickets for my husband’s birthday

Seeing bands, & following them around can be an excuse to spend. It is like a shopping obsession.
Ive been there!

Dita my DDad will tell you that no money spent on rugby is ever wasted!

I don't mind spending a bit on concerts if it's something I really want to see. Since I've had dc though, I've started going by myself instead of with DH as one of us stays home with dc. Cba inviting friends as they would just say they were busy etc. Anyway since I'm only buying one ticket and I don't have to consult anyone, I treat myself to an expensive "good seats" ticket if I want! Since I buy it from my personal account, no one even has to know.

Wasted money - when pregnant I bought a bag of second hand baby clothes for £50. It was like 40 pieces so I thought it was a good deal, but half of them were the wrong season, some worn out, and some not to my taste. I probably got 3 wearable pieces out of it. Plus baby clothes aren't even expensive! I could have spent £50 and got 10 lovely new outfits.

Most expensive was buying a wedding dress for £1000, then when it came I hated it and bought another, also £1000. Couldnt the first one. Tried to resell it but no takers. Oddly though I don't regret this one as I loved the second dress and think fondly of wearing it on the day. I'm glad I didn't stick it out with the first one and feel shit in it.

*couldn't return the first one

IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece.
I accidentally met Pink a year ago, she was so lovely and made my teenage DD feel special. She was absolutely stunning, had her dress down day stuff on but gave off a beautiful smile.
it made my day.