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.

@Iflyaway

Married the wrong man.

Have a fab child though.

Me too.

@Iflyaway

Married the wrong man.

Have a fab child though.

Yup, and me.

@ScreamingBeans

I bought a conservatory.

That's it. It's OK, I do use it, it's nice in winter, but it really wasn't worth the money.

My parents got a solid roof fitted on theirs last year, it's been a revelation. It's been used all summer whereas before t was like being on Mercury

@Mingewithafringe

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

You probably already know this, but if you use sudafed spray for more than 3 days on the trot, it starts to have the opposite effect & block your nose even more.

I know as I had the same issue as you and also ended up hooked on sudafed just from trying to breathe. But after 10 years of use I did get away from the spray and it only took 2 days for the kickback reaction to fuck off and allow normal(ish) breathing to resume. I still have a deviated septum so still struggle somewhat, but I dont have that blocked to the point of suffocation feeling anymore (until hayfever season roles around)

I have been freelancing for 15 years and have been calculating my tax wrong for pretty much all of it - could have been claiming so many expenses towards it, and have likely overpaid
I also have bought courses thanks to imposter syndrome and also attended conferences that in retrospect were basically vanity trips and
now we are up against it financially. So there. That's a spectacular waste of money.

@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.

Not laughing at your misfortune but this gave me the best belly laugh in ages. Hope you got sorted xxx

@lastqueenofscotland

I own horses… need I say more

🤣🤣🤣

I inherited my dad's flat. We live at the other end of the country and I took the advice of the janitor of the apartments and put the sale in the hands of a sole estate agent. It was valued but three months later had few viewings. Estate agent rang and said an offer had been made that was £50,000 less than the valuation. I refused it. Two weeks later he contacted me again, said his valuation hadn't taken into account the number of similar properties on the market and the buyer had offered an extra £10,000. He also said they had sold their own property and were living in a caravan and desperate to buy the flat. The service charge was high, we were, as usual, broke and I accepted the offer. I learned later (from the janitor) that the buyer was a property developer who had previously bought in the same block, using the same estate agent, and after some basic improvements, sold at a big profit.
I have never got over feeling I let my dad down and now the money is nearly gone (on crap improvements on my house) what a difference £40,000 would make to my life.

Air source heat pump and solar panels 😡😡😡 Also probably the 12ft swim spa that the OH insisted would get daily use. Think we've used it 7 times this year and it costs a fortune to constantly heat 🤦🏼‍♀️

Got drunk one night and decided to move to a foreign country. Acted on the whim even when sober! Pin in map. Bought first property viewed without researching the area. Moved in to find the lovely house was actually a ruin close to collapse, and actually not even big enough 😁

Five years later, having been probably the region's biggest employer of builders for some time, my pension pot has disappeared and I'm not even all that keen on the house now that it's finished!

The joke is, I did the same in the UK before leaving. Must have a brain the size of a pea. One of those petit-pois extra-small peas.

May not seem like a lot, but recently moved house, paid a company £500 to move the furniture. They damaged every single piece

Home insurance should cover the cost of all that damage by another person. Then you could have the bath replaced as well.

A neighbour of ours has race horses. He reckons his vet bills are £2-3,000 a month.

Christian louboutin shoes too high hurt like hell, .wore them for 4 hours...£600 😬😬

I read this message thinking please tell me they have all gone now ...... including the ex! Phew. So glad for you!

My husband decided to grow his hair and had seen YouTube videos from a couple of long-haired blokes who had a company that made hair accessories specifically for men (yeah, I know). Anyway, this company was based in the US and he spent a grand total of about £1 on some hair bands.

The customs charge was £27.

Our builders lost an important part from our fridge freezer which is a new zealand brand

It was about £75 cheaper on the NZ website even with shipping so I ordered it from there. Took ages to arrive and had about £150 import duty added on so more expensive

Then we found the lost part so the new one was completely useless as well

Booked airport parking online.
Cheap.
Went on holiday, came back to car (after ages trying to find it)
Went to leave, faced with £180 bill.

I’d parked in the wrong carpark.
The guy in the booth said it’s happens a lot and let me have it for £100, Which was great, except I’d already pre paid for the original carpark online.

Booked a 5 star hotel in Venice, 2 rooms for 3 nights. Booked another for the same dates, meaning to cancel the first.

But forgot to cancel so the hotel deducted £3k for a no-show. They subsequently refunded the second night as per booking.com policies after I left a poor review on tripadvsor. So we were only £1.5k down.

We also booked a trip to see the northern lights and paid a £3k deposit. But closer to the trip the hotel looked shit online and it looked unfeasibly freezing so we decided not to go, about a month beforehand with no refund of the £3k. Don’t regret it though.

@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 had exactly the same experience with a sobbing child after the baby dinosaur was eaten. My mum and other DS wanted to stay and watch it so spent ages loitering around the SSE waiting for it to finish.

Holiday to Italy, meant to be there 7 days. Accommodation was horrendous, it was ridiculously hot, everyone was miserable, we came home after 2 days because pale and ginger ds1 could not cope with the heat at all. Wasted about £2000 in total but never been so glad to be back in chilly gatwick.

DH paid some cowboys £500 to clear a garden bed of weeds. I would have done it for free and they did a crap job. They really saw him coming!

We have just adopted a cat, she’s gorgeous and we love her to bits but we seem to have spent a fortune getting stuff for her and still seem to be constantly buying stuff! It’s like kids, half of the stuff you buy never gets used🤣

Was a few years ago now but I still cringe at it.

We paid £6000 for a curve TV when they came out, it was a gimmick and a year later they were down to £1800 as no one was interested in them

Biggest waste of money even..!

[quote Bobsyer]@0blio you can do that but they slap you with a CCJ as you enter into a contract for most gym memberships.[/quote]
I've never set foot in a gym and now never will!

Wedding photos.

No photos of us, the bride and groom.

@Indoctro Ouch. That's a lot of money!