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.

Petrol in diesel car. Cost over £400 to fix including pumping out a full tank for petrol, taxi to get home to collect alternative car so day not ruined for the children then full tank of diesel to get us all home again. Horrendously expensive day!

Missed the last train home, £450 in a black cab

@HangingOver

....small update. Train is now so late that will get at least 25% of the cost back

Do we hope that the train's further delayed so you can get even more of money's worth e.g. round 5 of snacks and 50% of your ticket refunded? Or is there a point at which you'd like to actually arrive?

Wanted to go on holiday when younger (but not that much younger…), put it on an interest-free credit card, fudged about until the 0% rate ended, made the minimum payments for a long time. A cheap week in the European sun that cost me the same as three weeks in a 5* Caribbean villa.

Screwed up some planes tickets and had to pay to change the date straight after buying them

Like you OP I arrived at an airport 24 hrs too late for our flight. I totally missed the trip. It cost my OH £300 for a new flight. I didn’t go as we were going away for him and I was just tagging along. Horrible feeling.

Had tickets for Oasis which were gold dust. Friend said she’d pay her half. Got offered £2000 for them and told friend to pay up or I was selling them. Cheque lost in the post blah blah blah. Properly cried that she would pay. Offer went up to £3000. Repeat behaviour. The tickets were sent to her because I wasn’t in UK and she was. She went with her very new boyfriend.

Heavily pregnant and travelled to London by train for a bit of a day trip and to look at a car we were interested in buying.

By the time we found the place where the car was, I was so hot and tired that we bought the car even though it was a heap of junk just so we could drive home and not get the train. Cost is £4K

I have just put some matt paint brushes in my dishwasher.

Just after switching it on I thought oh no. Maybe it will be ok

Stopped the dog and horse insurance this year because we’ve been paying £100s for years and never claimed. Horse promptly gets strangles and needs blood tests/scopes which insurance would have paid for, one dog needs lumps removed and his brother has been diagnosed with lung cancer (after over £3K of tests and not being diagnosed by a very expensive hospital the vet referred us to incorrectly, complaint ongoing, bloody furious at the pointless multiple procedures on the poor dog and the delay in diagnosis) FML.

OP, I hope your train is so late that you get a 100% refund.

I have too many expensive moments of stupidity to list them here. However, enrolling our DC for several independent schools "just in case" stands out as a particular lowlight.

I once booked Ryanair flights twice by accident because I forgot I'd already booked them. Thankfully only one way! But totally stupid because Ryanair don't do refunds - they would have refunded the taxes which were nonexistant but I'd have to phone their helpline to get them to do that and I think the phone call worked out more expensive than the refund so I didn't bother!

Actually did I say once, I have done this twice

Buying my wedding dress early 2020 for later that year. Had to buy a new one due to lockdown baby weight.

@WorriedMillie

Years back, a family member (not close family) was dispatched to get a lottery ticket with their usual numbers. Went to the pub, en route, had a few drinks and forgot to buy the ticket All 6 numbers came up, would have made them millionaires a few times over. It’s never spoken of 🙈🙈

Not sure if this is an urban myth

There was a woman in the States who played two different state lotteries, she got all the numbers for both State lotteries but played them in the wrong states

Left the handbrake on loosely in my car, just after passing my test, about 2 months after passing. My car ended up hitting 5 cars and costing over 8 grand. I was the talk of the town!!

@Stakhanovite

Buying an infected kitten from a dodgy breeder. £8,000 in bills over the past 12 months and the heartbreak of having him PTS in the not to distant future.

I’m so sorry, that must be heartbreaking.

@MimiSunshine

Just had three penalty notices for driving down a bus Lane a couple of weeks ago. Was a bit stressed in a strange city and trying to find parking for an event. If I pay tomorrow then it’ll be £90 instead of £180 but I’m freaking out that more may arrive as I feel sure I drove down that road more than three times 😱🤢😩

Was that in Durham by any chance? I did the same thing picking my son up at the end of term , drove that route many times over 3 days moving him into his new house, had 2 penalty notices last week but was expecting more to have arrived by now!

Back in the day when I had a PAYG phone, I went to the cash point, topped the phone up, and didn't remember to take my card out. By the time I'd realised what I'd done, someone else had used my card to withdraw £200 from the cash point.

Just paid twice what we should have for a week in a holiday house because we were desperate to get away after a very intense year. The beds were like blancmanges filled with rocks and the bedrooms all heated up steadily every day so we spent every night tossing and turning in hot boxes and soft, lumpy beds. DP has put his back out and we've come home knackered. Classic summer holiday, I suppose.

Booked a hotel on a non refundable rate. Then, Covid.

They gave me a voucher which expired before they became safe to travel.

300 quid gone.

Few months ago after a really terrible year, I bought as a treat, a v expensive pair of earrings, over £2000. Gold, diamond and sapphires. Fine jewellery made by an artist. Beautiful. Swan neck backs, and I was worried about losing them so ordered silicon backs to keep them secure in my ears. Kept them in their box, until backs arrived then I’d put them with my other earrings. A couple of weeks ago went to find them and nowhere to be found. Turned house upside down. Can only conclude I disposed of them out in their box when clearing my room out . Still feel sick when I think of them, and that I don’t deserve nice things if I can be so careless....

My idiot DP fell asleep watching football with the door unlocked, we was able to make a claim as he was sleeping meters for the door.

We got burgled, 2 expensive cars where able to be claimed on car insurance but the necklace, laptop and Iwatch was not because we was a deliberating a £5 difference in contents insurance 😤

This is making me feel slightly better.
DS drove over a toll bridge 4 times because he was lost. Toll was £2, fine £20. Four of them came in one envelope. Total cost £88.

Reversed my car over my brand-new £800 glasses

When flybe went bust about 2 weeks before lockdown, I booked new flights to France and thought, oh there are some good deals on Disney tickets I might as well buy them now. Well, they kindly keep extending the dates but have changed the required ticket levels for most days so the cheapest tier tickets we bought are going to be impossible to use. Bought them for our family and SIL's family as a treat so that's 8 weekend tickets gone.