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.

Getting myself a nice van to go to summer festivals in. Spent the rest of the year forking out for massive repair jobs. Scrapped that one and got a nicer van. Kitted it out like a princess palace inside, trying to ignore the irreparable rust problem on the chassis. Then forked out an absolute fortune over the next couple of years fixing things that went wrong, until I had to give up. Worked out in retrospect that I could have had a holiday at a 5-star hotel in Barbados for the cost of those bloody vans 😋 but we did have some fun in them! 😎

God. Yes. Library fines.
I am 53 and have never been grown up enough to use a library properly. I completely understand them to be free, yet every attempt has cost me a bloody fortune.
Cheaper to buy books!

@MidsummerMimi

DD was at fantastic Montessori school. Aged 3. I planned for her to remain at Montessori until after her 4th birthday. Then send her to local private school to join her siblings Local private school contacted me and said they were oversubscribed for DD’s year and unless she started in September in their own nursery, she would not be guaranteed a place in Reception the following September. Did not want to deprive her of the time in Montessori, all her siblings had maximum time there and I felt the quality of the Montessori experience was way above what a regular nursery could provide. So paid for a whole nursery year in private school, while DD continued to attend a very expensive Montessori. Was happy to accept this, until DD finally started in the private school’s reception class. Yes, it was full for about the first half term, then a hand full of children left and spaces became available. The spaces were filled by children of families moving into the area, who never had to secure a place in advance. On a separate note. The school have a sports kit, that costs £500+ Has to be taken home on the last day of term. If children don’t provide a bag for the full kit the school sends it home with child in black bin bag. Friend’s DS took his black bag home, Cleaner threw it out.

Sorry but most of these "accidents" are ridiculous.

Threw out £2000 earrings / lost £500 on a bet?? You can't really compare.

@SpiderinaWingMirror

God. Yes. Library fines. I am 53 and have never been grown up enough to use a library properly. I completely understand them to be free, yet every attempt has cost me a bloody fortune. Cheaper to buy books!

Ya need to write the return dates in your diary and renew online.

(Says another veteran of library fines )

Booked an airbnb for the wrong night. Realised as soon as I'd done it and messaged the host. The terms were non-refundable but I figured since I'd requested a refund literally seconds after I'd done it they might be accommodating. The host never replied and air bnb said I wasn't allowed a refund. £200 down the drain.

@garlictwist

Booked an airbnb for the wrong night. Realised as soon as I'd done it and messaged the host. The terms were non-refundable but I figured since I'd requested a refund literally seconds after I'd done it they might be accommodating. The host never replied and air bnb said I wasn't allowed a refund. £200 down the drain.

What Airbnb terms are non-refundable though?

selling a flat in Spitalfields in 1998, it was supposed to be my pension but fate had left me with 4 under 5s and it was all too much! There were issues with the tenant etc... Now I have no pension. 60 plus seemed so long off when I was 30, I thought something else would come along and it didn't. I could have bought two houses with it, one in France one in Cornwall or whatever, now I'm stuck in London.

I once was mindlessly shopping in topshop and bumped into a fellow shopper. I didn’t make eye contact, just said sorry and moved to the left, with them moving to the left too. I then said sorry again and moved to the right, as did they. As this happened a third time, I laughed and made a joke, to my utter embarrassment as I looked up I realised I was stood in front of a mirror and I’d just done this whole song and dance to myself! Needless to say, I hurried out of the shop very red faced!

@RevolvingPivot

Moments of stupidity, not 'accidents'

That was the op.

Bought a diesel Nissan Qashqai. The DPF filter blocked after 2 months. Warranty didn't cover it, so cost about £500 to fix. Blocked again within 2 months , so decided to sell it. Lost half its value within 5 months.

Omg some of these are giving me the heebie jeebies. Especially the missed flights . I never want to leave the house again!

We booked the family of 6 front row tickets at the Panto in 1999 and totally forgot to go. The theatre wouldn't give us another night. Tough shit basically. It was roughly £250 so an awful lot back then. I still wake up in the night thinking about it

[quote JanuaryJonez]@riceuten 😂😂😂😂[/quote]
I know, first world problems, eh ? I wonder what all the deleted posts said. I can't imagine it was particularly complimentary...

[quote Sometimesonly]@keffie12 Could you not have just sat down on the table and lowered yourself down???[/quote]
Yes! I just didn't think of it at the time. I panicked 😏 hubby always helped me down when I did the stand on the table. Widows brain fog, they call it which is very real

Booked return flights to Oman. Arrived at the airport to be told my return was in 4 weeks and not after a week as I intended when I booked, which caused massive panic. Cost 600 for two new flights.

Booked a two night stay in a hotel and forgot to book tickets for the attraction we’re visiting. Of course the day I wanted was fully booked and the hotel was non refundable non exchangeable. So I’ve had to shell out another £100 to extend our stay and come up with two more days of activities. So realistically another £200 once other tickets/meals have been brought

Doing an evening course through work which I don’t think is for me. Will have to pay back over £4k.

Buying a house abroad, and then noticing it was a ruin! 😁

Bought the most expensive washing machine because the cash back made it cheaper than the other models. And forgot to claim the cashback. It was hundreds.

Yesterday. I taxed my car the other week, and realised it was still registered at my parents address; with their blessing I kept it registered there whilst I lived in rentals. I own now and realised I'd forgotten to change it when my car tax reminder arrived so I taxed it £130 & changed the registered address on my VC5. Got the new reg doc all fine... came home yesterday to a letter demanding £130 car tax. Silly me, should've changed the address first. Need to ring them up in a bit & plead to see if I can salvage some £.

My parents forgot they had tickets to a trad jazz night at the local theatre. Easy to rebook but I think one of the line up DF wanted to see especially had retired or died by the time the show came round again.

I refuse to book airline tickets online now.I make someone else do it because I triple check bookings and STILL fuck up. DM and I spent £300 trying to book me tickets to & from France one weekend after I ballsed the original booking and she took pity on me and paid as a loan and somehow ballsed the next one. Can't work out if we were unlucky & kept getting bounced off full flights or if the scrolly thing on the mouse changed July to August last minute. Paid her back but we do not speak of it, and my dad has no idea!

Accidentally ran up a library fine at uni; mixed two books by the same author up and returned the short loan one 24h late. Mortified and out of pocket.

@PrincessNutella

"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.

To be fair, the rate goes down the longer you park and they should have a huge sign at the entrance listing the rates.

I'm a New Yorker. It's madness to drive your own car in the city.

Ironing on a towel on the floor in a B&B as there wasnt an ironing board. Iron tipped over onto carpet and left a big iron burn mark right in the middle. Cost me £300 to replace carpet.

Broke my shoulder when I fell whilst cutting a tree limb...I should have hired a 'tree guy' for $500...surgery and hospital bill? $25,000...Fortunately I had insurance so ONLY had to pay $6500 of the sum🙄
Library fine issue also until I started only getting books from the library's used book shop...Pimlico Library has a very nice selection at 3 books /£1.

Lost my holiday insurance document and had to cancel holiday as husband broke his back. £4K holiday lost

@tgt123

Buying a Range Rover Sport (second hand).

It breaks so often that I have to shell out for the expensive warranty, many insurers (LV I'm looking at you) now refuse to insure it as it's so easy to nick. The garages never answer or return your call as all the other RR drivers are trying to book their faulty cars in. They then want you to pay £600 diagnostic fee each time they look at the fault (which the warranty people confirm they will reimburse if there's a fault but the dealers refuse to admit for some unknown reason).

My most recent fault was the rear passenger door stopping latching so just kept swinging open near pedestrians every time I turned a corner. Crawled home, we got it shut and the garage couldn't open it again. This is but one of many.

On top of that, even if you're a considerate driver (which I try to be), everyone treats you like you're a total wanker (appreciate that it is stupidly wide).

That aside (ahem), I love it but never ever again. I'm (genuinely) buying a Skoda next time.

I second that. Happiest day was when I trade my range rover sport for a nissan x-trail!

Zero repairs needed and had it for a couple of years so far!

@Piglet89

(£240 FFS. Advice was totally impractical and I was never gonna be able to follow it and actually live my life).

Was the advice "Hire a wet nurse?"