What's your most expensive moment of stupidity?

[HangingOver]

Cheer me up MN.

I visited DF for the first time since moving a loooong way away on the train this weekend. The train fares were over £200 all in but worth it to see DF. Raced to the station today to get the connecting train home and realised the return journey I booked was, in fact, yesterday. Minutes to spare and only first class seats available. £198. So my two days with DF cost me over £400. What an absolute wally! Am trying to channel my inner Love Islander and just say "it is what it is" (and obviously being grateful I actually had the money in my account to buy it). I was trying to think back and I think this is probably my single most expensive incident of stupidity (the one time the waiter accidentally charged my card €300 instead of €30 not counting as that was his fault).

Tell me yours while I drink my fifth cup of free tea.

I went to a wedding in Champaign, Illinois. To get there, you fly to Chicago and then take a connecting flight. At the wedding reception, another guest offered to drive me back to Chicago. It didn't even occur to me that skipping the connecting flight would be a problem... I ended up having to change my ticket at vast expense, then get a Greyhound bus back to Champaign so I could fly straight back to Chicago and home. D'oh.

Lending grands to people with no savings

I have a variety of prepaid cards denominated in various currencies, which offer more or less the interbank exchange rate. One drunken evening, the pound had gained a little against the euro, and I felt persuaded that this was a peak (£1 -> €1.12) and went to exchange £100 on the card. Only my fat fingers typed £1000 and I loaded the card with €1,120 rather than €112. To add insult to injury, it wasn't that long until the pound reached the dizzy heights of €1.17, and so I could have gained another €50 if I had waited. I still have most of the balance on there, being as there is no particular way to travel at the moment. The milky bars are on me when EU reopens for us.

Went backpacking, and as is my usual style I booked accommodation and so on as I went along. It had always been fine until this trip...

Unfortunately, for my last stop on the trip (and bearing in mind my return flight was booked from there so I couldn't change things around) I hadn't realised there was a local festival on that weekend.

Cue having to get the coach not train as there were no seats, having to stay in different hotels each night as there was no availability (and paying far more than I should have), and very nearly missing out on tickets to the attraction I'd gone to see in the first place! Probably cost me about £300 more than it should have which is a lot when you're used to sleeping in dorm rooms to save money.

Backpackers hostel staff in the penultimate town were amazing though - a complete fountain of knowledge who saved me!

There is an old MN story (from back when it was all just fields around here) - the MNer and her family were moving house. They had two cars, and drove one to the new house, but her Dh forgot to go and retrieve the other one - a BMW, if I recall correctly - and it sat there for so long it was reported as abandoned, and someone just took it, and sold it. They only found out when the MNer’s Dh saw it on a garage forecourt!

Renewed my passport and then couldn't find it - didn't look very hard - so bought another one. First one turned up and was in the kitchen cupboard tucked at the back. Booked a 3 night cruise from Southampton so went down on the train from the midlands. Sat in the waiting area for an hour. Got the passports out of my bag ready to be called - got 2 of mine instead of mine and childs. Wouldn't let him on the boat without ID (wouldn't accept his college bus pass 😂) Had to turn round and come home - so new train tickets as well because the returns were for 4 days later

Said child managed to crack the £500 TV screen in the front room so I claimed on insurance. 2 weeks later it happened again in the main living room where it was a £1700 65" monstrosity. I didn't dare claim again so cost me £1000 to get repaired - it would have been cheaper to buy a new one !!!

Loads of other shite. It's no wonder I'm always skint. Easy come,easy go here I think.

@Ddot

Just after lockdown took my car for service and mot, thinking it would pass and it was hard to get in anywhere else. It didn't pass and cost a fortune 🤬 bloody covid

I took my car in for its MOT just before we went into lockdown number 1 It failed on the most ridiculous thing. The passenger light being slightly misaligned with the drivers side and when I say slightly I mean slightly! They didn't have the equipment to sort it so I had to take it elsewhere to be fixed. Took it my usual garage who fixed it with a half a turn of a screw driver. Only problem was I wasn't able to get back in again for a few days due to work commitments and the fact I use my car for working. Went back after the weekend to find the garage totally shut. My usual garage fully booked up and also closing due to Covid on the Friday afternoon. Thankfully I managed to find another garage who could get me in. Asked them the price of the MOT and they quoted me £49 went back to collect the car after it had passed only to be met with a bill of £159 cos they'd done another test on the car and not told me. Unfortunately I had no choice but to pay it. So what should have been a simple £49 mot ended up costing me £257 without having nothing more than someone twist my headlight back into place and they didn't even charge me for it. Lesson learnt of just take it to the garage you've used for years instead of taking it to the garage the previous owner took it to

Left my 2-month-old laptop open on the coffee table alongside a glass of wine ... ddog ambled by wagging his tail ...

Laptop long since replaced ... meh. Ddog passed away last year and we miss him every single day.

@riceuten 😂😂😂😂

Allowing my ex's name to be put on my house deeds.

"We're just parking for an hour, how expensive can it be?" In New York City, right next to Central Park at 57th Street, Seventy five bucks. For One Hour.

Cashed in £2000 of Bitcoin in 2012 as it was our only savings left after a house purchase. Didn't feel right having it in such a strange new currency.

I've stopped thinking about it now but a couple of years ago the Bitcoin value would have been £800 million.

As a smoker I can reliably say that life is a string of accumulatively expensive moments which at this stage add up to a large yacht in Florida and a Penthouse apartment in Chelsea.
Kids-don't smoke.

Ruralbliss

Booked flights in Feb 2019 to Krakow in the week before half term by mistake. For the whole family. Couldn't justify the cost of changing the flights and the girls missing almost a week of school.

After a year of interrupted education, 2020 GCSEs not taking place and travel restrictions i wish we'd just bloody well gone and enjoyed ourselves!!

 @MrMucker

I splashed out an obscene amount of money on garden furniture while still drunk last weekend. It arrives at the end of the week just as the rain comes in. That might be a costly mistake!

I allowed my then four year old to play outside while I was cleaning the inside of my car, he drew on the outside of the car with some rocks. It was a very expensive fix, to rub some extra salt in the wound about three weeks later it was stolen, so I paid for what turned out to be a completely pointless paint job.

@Msgiggles30

Petrol in my new diesel car.. £50 fuel wasted plus £250 to drain it!

I've done this

I accidentally left the hose on my tomatoes for a week! It cost £300 on the water meter and think if the waste

We were on holiday in Cyprus in 2011 and were singing Eagle Eye Cherry 'Save Tonight'. But no matter how hard we tried neither of us could remember the first line! The more we tried the further we seemed to get. So I turned my data on and quickly downloaded the song thinking it was worth 79p. Then went back on airplane mode as everyone did back then. Got home and when my bill arrived that two minute transaction had cost me 40 quid! We still listen to the song and call the £40 song 😂

"Go on and close the curtains
Cause all we need is candlelight
You and me, and a bottle of wine
To hold you tonight (oh yeah)"

@FartleBarfle 😆

My NHS dentist went private, as I wanted to change my old fillings to white ones because I was informed their bad for you and NHS don't do this work I stayed with her. In the middle of some dental work, I paid up front every time i went. I told the receptionist to take £100 and paid by card. A week later I went to the hole in the wall I had very little left, turns out the receptionist had taken £400 instead. I returned to the dentist but the manager couldnt give me a refund as it had to be cleared with her managers and could take a few months. 🤬 I had to be very frugal till I got paid again. I then broke a tooth and had to have a crown, so the money went and I had to find some extra. Now I cant get back with the NHS as the list is years long.

When I split from my exH, I stayed in the house that still needed a lot of work doing. The front door was old and needed replacing; also it opened awkwardly into a wall so I decided to change the opening so that it could open further. Except that I forgot to specify that when I ordered it. Got a shiny new door installed, opened it with glee only for it hit the wall again. Ended up getting another door installed opening the opposite way a few months later. I didn’t want to leave it as it was as I was planning to sell up and it would have made taking furniture out difficult.