What do regret not buying?

[mynameisntlouise]

When I was 18 I visited Hastings with my then-boyfriend and in a little antiques shop there was a small brass statue, about 22 inches or something of a woman in jeans, topless, with her hands in her hair. It was just the right amount of trashy and I loved it.

It was about £120 or something and I was stating my first proper job a month later and my boyfriend said I should just buy it. I had the money from what I'd saved from my pot washing job and wouldn't have anything much else to buy when I started my full time job but the sensible me just couldn't spend it. I'm now 28 and still wish I'd bought it.

It's like when Rachel wants the girly lamp from Me Heckles apartment in Friends I guess. It was awful, but great at the same time. Even in my own head it sounds awful.

I saw an amazing pair of shoes in a boutique in Rome. They were 100 euros, so I didn't buy them as I had just finished uni so wasn't feeling flush. The next day I regretted it and went back to the boutique - it was closed on Sundays, then we had to fly home. I was absolutely gutted. I've tried to find the shop/designer since, but they don't sell online to the UK and have a non-functioning website.

This was about 5 years ago and I still regret it!

A beautiful navy wool pea coat that was in the sale for £120 (from £400!). A proper timeless classic, and such a bargain. But I had been a bit spendy that month already so decided against it.

This was in 2010. And I have since spent that amount several times over on similar style coats which are just not quite right!

A particular v small and v nice house a long time ago!

A pair of denim wide leg culottes/ long shorts from next In about 2004. I was a student and broke and by the time I had saved enough money they were no longer on sale.

I spent years scouring eBay looking for them unsuccessfully.

This time last year I walked into Sainsburys and there they were. Racks of them for £18 a pair. I bought several pairs and wear them all the time.

A mini

I'm more of a regret buying person but there are some boots I left in Madrid I still regret.

Stain guard on my sofa now i have a lovely yet very messy DS!

A glorious skirt from Monsoon in Marrakech. Like a PP I'd already spent a lot and assumed I'd be able to get it back in the UK or online.

It took a few years to stop kicking myself.

A pair of shoes in net-a-porter's sale in 2004. At £215 they were just above my ridiculous arbitrary maximum spend. They were the perfect shoes and I still think of them often.

Bitcoin before they went up loads (then down again, then up a bjt).

2 little oil paintings of the moon over water, they haunt me now and I'm forever trying to find something like them. They were cheap, I could have afforded them but felt I'd spent too much that day.m and wasn't sure of the frames... went back, they'd gone

Shares in amazon and ocado in March.

I had the chance to buy a large 3 bed flat in Mayfair (opposite selfridges) in around 1997 for £250k. We didn't go for it (for some unknown reason- I was a high earning solicitor then and am not now.). I regret that.

Also moving out of London rather than buying in what was then an up and coming area. Big Mistake. I have made a few property mistakes in my life.

A top from river island in the year 2000 (back when I had a flat stomach). It was a raw silk boob tube with thin tassels on the bottom that went down to the waist. It was stunning (I know it doesn't sound it, but it was).

Ummm and ahhhh'd, fannied about, went back to buy it, all gone never to be seen again....

A tartan Vivienne Westwood coat. £400 but I still should have bought it in about 2010.

A purse I had been watching from Agnes B with a fab fastening in 2016.

A gorgeous bag from Penelope Chilvers that sold out last week - I had it in my basket, got distracted and went to do something else, came back and it was gone. Gutted.

A watercolour of washing blowing in a backyard in the Piece Market In Halifax, when it was full of cafes and junk shops. It was perfect, but we were really skint and I couldn't justify it.

A basement in Maida Vale, which was up for auction at the same time as we bought our house. I was giving evidence in Court on that day, so had to send DH on his own. It would have cost us £6,000. This was in the 90s.

A Sophia Swire pashmina

I wish I'd had the nerve to take on a bigger mortgage. It's worked out for everyone I know who did, but I have an abiding fear of debt and being financially over committed.

A beautiful leather jacket from Long tall sally, they are now going out of business so won't have any more in. This autumn was going to be the one where I had enough money to buy one without any guilt

The perfect denim jacket for £4 in a charity shop. I was with my mum at the time and told myself I already had too many. So I advised mum to buy it. So I still see it ALL THE TIME. I've even thought about picking it up and leaving mine 'by mistake' when I'm visiting...

Holiday photos taken around our hotel in Spain years ago. They were lovely ones of DD but cost 100 euros which DH rightly said was an absolute ripoff...but I wish I had bought them anyway.

I was in New York for work but had a day off to sight see. I went to the MOMA and there in the shop saw a poster of an exhibition. I wanted the poster so badly but was flying home the next day and couldn't imagine how to cope with the hassle of a poster tube on the plane so I didn't buy it. Regretted it.

Nine months later still thinking of this poster I looked at the MOMA shop (internet shoppings early days so felt like a real shot in the dark) and there is was for sale for 99 cents. So I bought it as the added postage costs took the total price up to what I would have paid 9 months before at full price. Its framed and still up in my living room! It was meant to be.

A leather jacket which i tried on two days ago..would go perfectly with todays outfit

A black Pima cotton cropped cardigan with bracelet length sleeves from Peruvian connection circa 2000. It was perfect.

An autographed photo of DH's favourite Hollywood movie actor. It was only about £30 back in the 90s but I was skint so didn't get it.

At a movie fair so no online shop or anything. The actor then died that year and his autographed stuff is now £100s+.

Told DH later who said that he would have loved it. Balls.