Tell me about your spectacular wastes of money

[Pennybubbly]

I'm feeling physically sick.
I placed an order overseas for a move-coveted Christmas present and paid and obscene amount. The goods arrived and they're the wrong size. (Kind of my fault, kind of not). Worse still, the goods cannot be exchanged. My fault for not reading the small print. It's a company in the US and you can "re-sell" them on their website, so today I just spent another fortune shipping them back and listed them on the website.
I'm such a twat. Please tell me tales of stupid things you've done so I know I'm not the only one.

@Siriisatwat you are NOT stupid. This kind of stuff happens to us all. I dread to think what I’ve spent on ebay. Really. I’ve missed flights, lost keys, lost passports, lost money etc etc.

You have to accept it. It’s being human. It’s not you Siri. Respect yourself.

@BuffyFanForever

In August got ridiculously excited about my twins first Christmas so wanted to book to see Santa at the “North Pole” ie the snow dome in Milton Keynes. About an hour from home but worth it! Booked a ridiculously expensive ticket before realising I’ve booked the snow dome in BIRMINGHAM. 🤦‍♀️ Now trying to cobble together the money for a hotel/ travel etc.

There isn't a snow dome in Birmingham, it's in Tamworth (just so you don't waste more money on a hotel twenty miles away from where you need to be 😬)

Bought an old pine dresser on eBay for £400. It turned up in terrible condition. Left it too long to return it. Paid another £200 to have it stripped. They delivered it yesterday. Somehow it looks worse? And now it stinks of toxic chemicals.

Anyway, I paid the guy £200 in cash. Ten minutes after he left I realised he'd only delivered the bottom section and not the plate rack that sits on top. So far I've spent £600 on half a manky dresser that is too smelly to put in the house.

@BuffyFanForever

In August got ridiculously excited about my twins first Christmas so wanted to book to see Santa at the “North Pole” ie the snow dome in Milton Keynes. About an hour from home but worth it! Booked a ridiculously expensive ticket before realising I’ve booked the snow dome in BIRMINGHAM. 🤦‍♀️ Now trying to cobble together the money for a hotel/ travel etc.

Tamworth!!!

It’s in Tamworth. Please don’t book a hotel in Brum! Will cost you even more time and money to travel to and from.

Bought a new house and new furniture. Then adopted kittens... All in that order.

They shredded the sofa. They shredded the curtains. They clawed the carpet.

I love them more than just about anything, but my God they have been expensive.

@BlueFlavour you are very kind, thank you x

@Bobsyer

The Dyson hoover my husband persuaded me was a good buy.

I guess if you only have a patch of carpet about a metre squared then it is, but otherwise it's a waste of time. Just bought a new Miele one as my mum has had one for 20 years and I'm already a million times more pleased with it!

Oh man my husband was the same. We had to have the fucking dyson. He needed it. It was the most wonderful thing in the world, apparently.

It’s SHIT.

He still loves it though, even though he spends most of his time unclogging the bloody thing. I think he’s got some form of dyson stockholm syndrome, I never hear him swear so much as when the thing has packed in for the second time mid vacuum and he has to start taking it all apart to find the (usually non existent) clog, but he’d still probably marry it if he could.

@MaybeAMoaner

My DH got his annual bonus of £5,000 (worked his socks off for that) So we Bought a new bathroom suite and some big expensive tiles (we are not rich in anyway but we thought we would for once ‘treat ourselves’ and get a quality item)

A friend recommended a retired tiler to do the tiling.
This is where it all went wrong.

He arrived and he looked about 80 year old.
Within the first hour he had a poo in our only toilet that stunk the whole house out so badly that our 3 year old was shouting “urr mummy what’s that disgusting smell”

He then dropped the tile from a height which landed into our new bath which caused a massive hole in the bath.
He walked out and we have never seen him since and we had stupidly STUPIDLY paid him half up front WHY!!!!

So we are left with a brand new bath with a giant hole and about 3 tiles stuck to the wall and the memories of the smell of his shit lingering through our house.

We then got a bath repair man out as we couldn’t afford a new bath.
He done such a bad job he even said “sorry I’ve royally fucked this up. I won’t charge you for what I have done- bye”

We had to get a loan to have the whole mess sorted and are still paying now 3 years on.

The bath and the tiling I can see why you're annoyed but where did you expect him to poo if not in your only toilet?

Parked in an Asda car park twice in one week assuming it was 3 hours max stay (I stupidly checked with another motorist). It was 3 hours. Cue two fines in a week.

One week before drove through the city centre and decided to try save a few quid on parking. A diversion took us down a new bus lane and we received a fine.

All these fines were over the summer, so more than £100 over a few weeks wasted.

It was 2 hours free parking, not 3.

I booked flights for the wrong month (because it was February / March, the day of the week and the date number were the same). Only discovered when I was checking in online and found I couldn’t check in for the return flight. Cost a fortune to buy last minute ones for the return - the original ones were really cheap!

@Fluffyteal272

DS who was 3 at the time was absolutely dinosaur obsessed, Walking with Dinosaurs was touring. We booked very expensive tickets plus train plus hotel. He was so excited we felt it was worth every penny. Got to the arena, the show starts-opening scene is a (very realistic) dinosaur eating a baby dinosaur. DS completely freaked out, screaming, crying, clinging to us for dear life. Felt every pair of eyes in that arena on us as we did the walk of shame out of there. Tried to take him back in after he'd calmed down only for him to freak out again. He did love running up and down the arena steps though!

I’m sorry i actually laughed out loud at this one… this sounds like every nice thing we’ve ever done for my DC We always say we should have just taken them to the park!

@Siriisatwat mine is the same! Moans because my hair keeps getting wrapped round it…I mean, we’ve been together 15 years and I’ve always had long hair, this isn’t a new thing, why he thought the Dyson would be different I don’t know!

This summer I spent £200 on getting my dogs new stupid Brexit health certificate to be able to travel to Northern Ireland only to realise that I didn't need it until October grrrr. My fault for not reading up on the rules but the stupid Vet should have known the rules. And it's only valid for one trip

[quote Bobsyer]@Siriisatwat mine is the same! Moans because my hair keeps getting wrapped round it…I mean, we’ve been together 15 years and I’ve always had long hair, this isn’t a new thing, why he thought the Dyson would be different I don’t know![/quote]
That’s the problem with ours! I have to give the bloody thing a “hair cut” once a week.

Dh is so in love with the stupid thing, I’m sure he’d rather me and dd shaved our heads than get rid of it!

@Sweetleftfood

This summer I spent £200 on getting my dogs new stupid Brexit health certificate to be able to travel to Northern Ireland only to realise that I didn't need it until October grrrr. My fault for not reading up on the rules but the stupid Vet should have known the rules. And it's only valid for one trip

You wouldn't even have needed it in October, not in place yet ...

A David Lloyd membership. I can’t use and or cancel. Seeing that £100 leave my bank every month when I’m trying to save for maternity and selling bits and bobs on eBay for extra cash when it’s just going towards that is so disheartening. Biggest mistake I ever made! …. I have asked them to pause it whilst I’m on maternity and they still take £25 but I was expecting it to start this month and nope., £100 flew out of my bank yesterday! I need to ring them 🙄

Thank you Capferret I've now gracefully withdrawn from the whole thing, he has just paid for a test with his own money but not found an instructor yet. But it's not my money, so that's progress.

To all posters, it's so encouraging to hear about your mistakes, as my old Nan used to say "spend it like money".

I've written off cars, lost valuable jewellery, sat on designer sunglasses, bought expensive clothes and never worn them, paid a fortune for Little Greene wallpaper to be put up on a damp wall so it turned into very pretty papier-mâché.

We're all fuckwits sometimes.

Not much money but very annoying. After lockdown my hairdresser started working on Sunday mornings so that she could have the salon to herself and be very Covid safe. The first appointment I had I didn't understand the parking rules for the area on Sunday and got myself a £40 parking ticket. The next time I went the roads were very quiet and I forgot the very end of the motorway had a 40 limit, so I got a £120 speeding ticket and 3 points. I'm now being ultra careful and going on the train when |I can.

DH and I usually drive fairly old, cheap cars. He's pretty good at doing repairs and maintenance on them, so we never pay very much out and they are pretty reliable. For some reason, this bothers MIL- as all her friends' DC drive fancy new (probably leased) cars.

A few years ago, MIL inherited some money and persuaded us to borrow from her to buy a much newer car. I have no idea why we agreed, but we did and she was heavily involved in what we were 'allowed' to buy. The newer car had automatic/electronic everything so DH couldn't do his own repairs and needed £££ to be spent on it in the first few year. After 2 years, it needed more spending on it than in was worth so we scrapped it. We are now back to our 2 older cars but still repaying the loan from MIL.

@Siriisatwat and @hellcatspangle omg I nearly did it again! Thank you both. Honestly lost some serious marbles since having kids 😳

[quote BuffyFanForever]**@Siriisatwat* and @hellcatspangle* omg I nearly did it again! Thank you both. Honestly lost some serious marbles since having kids 😳[/quote]
Easily done! Hotel in Tamworth might be cheaper too.

[quote BuffyFanForever]**@Siriisatwat* and @hellcatspangle* omg I nearly did it again! Thank you both. Honestly lost some serious marbles since having kids 😳[/quote]
Could you not contact the company to either get a refund or move your tickets to the correct venue?

Smoking for a few years in my 20s. Would have saved enough for a good house deposit or some lovely holidays.

Changing trains in a rush at Newcastle.

Realised in a heart stopping moment that my pre booked ticket was for the wrong date! Dashed to a ticket machine and spent £70 extra on a new ticket.

Get on the train. Try to work out how I made such a mistake. Look at the original ticket. Which was for the correct date, but had the date it was printed on it.

Whhhhhhhy? I don't need to know when it was printed.