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.

Oh, and in a similar vein, was booking a weekend break abroad. Husband busy interrupting with suggestions from next door.

Am looking at one site that is showing hotel price per night, and another showing per trip. As a result mix up two chain hotels, one in town, one out by the (distant) airport.

Book the wrong one (obviously), non refundable.

Explain issue to hotel immediately, very apologetic, asking pleasy please to change. No dice. Husband unsympathetic, in spite of the fact his blather from the other room distracted me on the first place. Lost £100.

But now I refuse to do 'joint' booking of anything. (He seems to thrive on asking me a million and one questions whilst doing a task, whilst I take all the appropriate information somewhere quiet and sort it out.)

Bought a new build ground floor flat in 2019. We were young and naive and didn't do much research on the area. Turned out the area was riddled with crime and extremely unsafe. In the first year, we had 4 break in attempts - all while we were home. And plenty of intimidation, fights in the street outside, constant police turning up to break things up. Put it on the market a year later when I was at breaking point but others were clearly smarter than us and didn't want to buy a flat in such a dangerous area. Ended up making a £50k loss of the place but I couldn't stay there any longer for the sake of my mental health. I think I'll be paying for that mistake for the rest of my life!!! But have learned a very valuable lesson on doing your research.

Sold a London flat about a week before prices soared… can’t even bear to remember….

Numerous terrible workmen: some jet washed my roof, blasted numerous tiles off and water poured through into the house and through the ceilings. Of course it turned out that their business was unregistered and they were untraceable.

A bad purchase was some hideously expensive posh sofas - those feather-filled ones that were all the rage some while ago. They were hideously uncomfortable and needing plumping up all the time, which I was too wimpy to manage. You either had to sit on a flat as a pancake hard brick, or sit on the floor to avoid disturbing them once puffed. Sold them for a pittance.

I bought some new cushions a few years back. Turns out they were not the right color and as I had not obtained a receipt I had a difficult time returning them.

Bought a bunk bed for my 5YO after he begged and begged. It wasn’t super expensive but a lot of money to us (£400ish). Within 6 months we realised what a colossal PITA a bunk bed is, with changing sheets and him trying to climb out of it half-asleep for a pee (he was a little later to be dry at night - we stupidly didn’t realise the bunk bed would also inhibit him). I also suffer with chronic back pain and trying to balance on the ladder while comforting him after a bad dream or trying to read him a bedtime story was a nightmare. Sold it for £50 which covered a second-hand normal height bed, but it will be a long time before I forget about the £350 lost. We also decided to buy him a car-shaped bed to make up for selling the much coveted bunk, which is the ugliest thing I have ever seen

I lived in a privately rented house with a friend. In conversation with my mother I mentioned going to an old fashioned shop to get replacement parts and bags to service the hoover that came with the house. Mother said I should get a battery dyson stick thing like hers. I said no, the big old hoover was on the inventory so I had to keep it regardless and had got it working well. Also I didn’t believe in replacing a fully functional appliance for no reason. And would not be permitted to drill into the walls to mount a dyson charging point, nor was there anywhere to do so near a plug in the tiny house. Categorically stated it was not a viable suggestion.

She only bought me that bastard dyson for Christmas. I refused it, repeated why, she was mortally offended. I assume she got a refund, in hindsight I should have just accepted it and quietly sold it on!

@Namechanger20183110

Close to £2000!

Ouch >

I bought a Bissell carpet washer in the first lockdown, c£200. I used it once. You need low humidity and a bit of breeze so the carpet dries, but not so much breeze that the doors and windows slam. Such a faff and waste of money.

RTA on the M1 meant we were hideously late for our flight to New York. In desperation we threw the car in the short-stay carpark opposite the terminal, otherwise we would have missed the flight. We consoled ourselves thinking 'It won't be that much, surely?'

It was. It cost us roughly £650 in parking charges. Ouch!

Spent a day in local library working and drove there. Parking v expensive but worth it as kids and DH were home and it was chaos. Used a parking app to pay the extortionate £10 for the day to park.....

.... only to get back to the car and realise I was driving DH's car but had paid for parking on MY car. £120 parking fine, reduced to £60 if paid within 2 weeks. I tried to contest it but it was between lockdowns and basically I couldn't get hold of anyone at NCP. As it turned out, that car park was changing to a different parking company and I've long wondered if I'd just not paid what would have happened!

Booked train tickets from London to our northern home town when I returned from holiday for the wrong day. Didn't realise until we were on the train and the only remaining tickets were for first class so had to buy first class tickets for a family of four.

When we first started driving and knew nothing about cars dh took a loan out for the worlds shittest car that he sold 2 days later for less than 1/5 of the price.

Put the wrong petrol in dh's car and has to pay £250 to sort it.

I remember reading on here once a woman who said she and her Dh bought a grand piano off eBay or similar - wouldn't fit in the house so they had to rent some storage - I hope she has managed to recoup at least some of her loss

Oh and @Spanielsarepainless - I have done that - it was better to get someone in to clean the carpets for me BUT (if you still have it ) I said similar to you to the man and he gave me a substantial discount if he could take the Bissell - ( he had a pet - used it for spot cleaning but he is a professional carpet cleaner. ) .

I was desperate for a nose job when I was in my early twenties. I have this really annoying trait where when I want something, I don't want to wait. Anyway, booked with a well known cosmetic group, had one consultation with the surgeon, he said things that should have acted as red flags but I was just desperate to get rid of my big nose, I ignored it and went ahead with it. Didn't ask to see any of his previous work etc.

He completely messed it up, left me with a stumpy piggy nose which didn't suit my ethnicity, my nostrils were upturned and massively visible if you looked at me head on, oh and the worst part was that he damaged my septum and left me with chronic breathing issues. Cost me £4000 but the biggest impact was to my mental health, I spent the next year depressed and hiding away from my friends and family, it affected my work, relationships, everything. The surgeon and company brushed me off and completely withdrew all aftercare.

I spent the year researching for a top class surgeon in the UK and US who could repair the damage, at this point I just wanted my former ugly nose back. Ended up going with a highly rated surgeon on Harley Street, this time I spoke to former patients of his that I met on forums and saw lots of his work. I paid £6000 for him to fix it. Aesthetically he rectified the nostril/piggy issue and rebuilt/lengthened it back up using cartilage from my ear (which is common in revision rhinoplasty). It wasn't what I ever initially wanted but i was super grateful.
Years later, I've made my peace with how it looks and it genuinely doesn't bother me, if only I had that attitude at the very beginning. Sadly, the first surgeon did that much damage to my septum, that the second surgeon couldn't fix that completely and so I still have chronic breathing issues all these years later (nose blocks up throughout the day and the only relief is from a squirt of Sudafed congestion spray) - oh yes, add 15 years worth of Sudafed sprays to the financial cost, 2 bottles a month I go through, £3.50 a pop. It's either that or a lifetime of a blocked nose, which leads to horrible headaches and not being able to sleep. I refuse to go under the knife again to try and fix the septum as a third operation will generate further scar tissue, which could create new problems.

If you want a nose job, please do your research and always check the surgeon's credentials/experience. I can't imagine how much harder it must be now to trust a surgeon given the editing apps available nowadays

@Mingewithafringe oh that's awful. What a horrible experience and the lasting impact it had on you and your mental health. I was in a similar position when I was younger, had one consultation, was desperate to get my nose done so didn't do any other research but I'm very risk averse so the tiny alarm bell ringing in my head stopped me doing it and I look back now and think I had a lucky escape. You have my sympathies as when you desperately want to fix something your guard is down and cosmetic companies are very good at marketing!!!!

Had the chance to sell my apartment for £200k but my mum refused to handle the sale ( I was abroad at the time)

No worries I'll sort it when I get back.

2006

Say no more. Market crashed. Ended up selling 4 years later for £105k, £50k less than I'd paid for it. Utterly heartbreaking. I might add, the £50k deposit i had paid for the apartment had been in hard cash!

I spent £50 on a bag of nougat in a southern French market because I got carried away and forgot the dog fence between 15 and 50. When it finally dawned on me I lost my appetite for the stuff entirely!

Horses too....

Yeah my wedding expenses

@shallIswim

I spent £50 on a bag of nougat in a southern French market because I got carried away and forgot the dog fence between 15 and 50. When it finally dawned on me I lost my appetite for the stuff entirely!

Obv difference not dog fence 🙄

Bought a flat in 2008 with no outside space in the city centre. Full of hope as the buzz of the centre would mean good things.

Tried to sell post covid and no one wants a flat with no outside space. We did have a buyer who we accepted a 20% cut from and even they pulled out before exchange.

Just thought of another one 🙈

Went to Cuba, bought 5 big bottles of expensive rum to give as gifts from a shop in Havana. £200 ish in total from memory. Didn't want to put them in the luggage as we were worried they'd smash, decided to put them in our hand luggage instead. Got to security checkpoint at the airport...completely forgot about the 100ml liquid limit didn't we.

Confiscated! There were some happy workers at the airport that day 🥃🥃🥃🥃

@sociallydistained

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 🙄

Could you just cancel the direct debit with your bank?

Bought a house at the height of the late 80s bubble, with just 5% deposit...
with nightmare neighbours from hell...
And it needed work doing which cost rather more than we'd expected.
Market then crashed and we were stuck.
Sold it several miserable years later for ~ 2/3 of what we'd paid for it.

On the upside, any mistakes we'veade since then all seem trivial!!

@0blio you can do that but they slap you with a CCJ as you enter into a contract for most gym memberships.

Married the wrong man.

Have a fab child though.