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.

Not me but I have several friends who are keen yachting. They describe it as standing in a cold shower tearing up twenty pound notes.

I bought a pair of organic cotton leggings from a small but popular company on Instagram. They seemed to be everywhere and many of the people I followed were raving about them.
When they arrived they were really really thin and faded after one 30 wash.
Absolutely gutted 🙈

I was due to visit my sister in New Zealand with DS1 aged 3 or 4. The morning of the flight he woke up with chicken pox. There was no way I could have taken him on a plane and out others at risk (I posted about it on here and people were advising I cover up his spots with foundation!) so we lost our trip and the flights. DH said i needed to go through insurance for a refund but I was at a low self confidence phase of my life and did not want to cause a fuss. .

But DH has a ridiculously expensive hobby (sailing) and 2 boats. So whenever he moans about the cost of something I just point silently to a pic of his boat and he shuts up. he has always said that owning a boat is like standing in the shower ripping up £50 notes.

@SirGawain

Not me but I have several friends who are keen yachting. They describe it as standing in a cold shower tearing up twenty pound notes.

Oh I posted before reading that! Snap!

Mind you, one of our friends who sails has a wife who has horses. he swears blind the horses are more expensive (and goes pale when speaking of it).

Bought Amstrad shares back in the 80's. Total bloodbath

Paid to share a villa in Spain with a close relative, and her adult son - he smuggled dope through customs, without my knowledge obvs, took no holiday clothes, and spent the whole week smoking his weed, and going out last at night to score more, leaving our front door open, refused to chip in for meals, and didn't wash, stinking the whole place out.took no part in shopping or chores. Messed us about so much on our day out to Gibraltar so that we didn't get to go up the rock to see the apes, which I specifically wanted to see.One of the worst weeks of my life, as much fun as a week in wormwood scrubs, such a huge waste of money. She had nothing to say about any of this. Took his side, didn't sit near me or speak to me on the plane home and left me at the airport to find my own way home, I had to find a hotel to stay a night, and spend out on a long train journey the next day to get home. Never spoke to either of them again.

@BasiliskStare

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. ) .

That was me under another name!

we never picked the bastarding piano up. i assume the vendor sold it on again eventually.

We tell ourselves though that ultimately it saved us money though because we now have a strict 'no ebaying when pissed' rule.

(neither of us play the piano either. I have no idea what we were thinking. Whatever it was we did go on to buy an organ at auction. I'm not sure why we did that either, but DH will not get rid of it because it has pretty gold lettering on it).

We bought a new car from a main dealer and got a fair deal. Four weeks later I had an accident which means I cannot drive a manual car. Sold it back to the same dealer and bought an automatic. I dare not think how much money I lost on the deal.

Cavity wall insulation in our 1930s house. The surveyor promised us warmth, much lower heating bills and no more damp in a couple of walls. He didn't mention that the cavities were not wide enough and there was rubble in them. They drilled holes in the exterior walls and filled the cavities. Then they filled the holes in the walls with SAND and painted over them. A few months later, damp began appearing on all the inside walls. We had to have the insulation taken out, the whole of the outside fixed and the render repainted and had to wait for the damp on the inside walls to dry out, be replastered and redecorated. It cost an absolute fortune. The company went bust...😱

The curved screen tv my husband bought a few years ago.

The picture is wonderful, but that's no help if any hint of sunlight causes reflection and you can't see a thing. There are certain times of day when you can't see the picture at all. My husband is very into his audio visual stuff and it seemed like a good idea at the time. It's quite telling that you don't seem to see a single curved screen in the shops at all now.

Came home tonight and he was measuring up for a replacement. It's the only time I've been excited about speeding ridiculous money on a tv. Anything is better than what we have now.

I got a tattoo, which only cost about £120 itself. But I immediately realised that I didn’t want a tattoo and spent about £2,000 and 18 months getting it lasered off.

@SirGawain

Not me but I have several friends who are keen yachting. They describe it as standing in a cold shower tearing up twenty pound notes.

A boat: a hole in the water, into which you throw money.

@godmum56

Bought Amstrad shares back in the 80's. Total bloodbath

😂😂😂 that's very funny

Bought my dh concert tickets one year for Christmas completely forgot to check my diary until after the concert happened when thinking oh when are we going to see xxxx again (can't remember who it was now) then got someone tickets as a replacement gift to see Billy Connolly live that same week thinking fab at least we get to do something for his birthday only to turn up a day late for that too !

Spent £30k on a timeshare in Mexico just prior to Lockdown. Looking back, a dick move.

@ponkydonkey

godmum56
Bought Amstrad shares back in the 80's. Total bloodbath

😂😂😂 that's very funny

yeah now I am like "what was I thinking" bloody annoying at the time. Its when DH and I started saying "take the lesson and move on"

I wanted a campervan for years. Years. We finally bought one, and I hated everything about it. So having used it once we paid storage for TWO YEARS then sold at a large loss. DH now talking about buying another one?!

@godmum56
Yes and he's a blooomin billionaire now isn't he? Mr amstrad

Ooh look at this @godmum56

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3710629/old-amstrad-plc-ordinary-shares-from-1987-what-can-i-do-with-these

I won some tickets to a festival once (in my poor student days), realised I couldn’t go, sold them on eBay, explained to the people who bought them that I’d won them so they were just on a guestlist and if they had any problems I’d refund them (yes what a total idiot-baby I was!). The week after the festival they messaged me a lazy one-liner to say they’d been refused entry. So it cost me my seller’s fee to send those dishonest pricks to that festival 🤣

Hired a car on holiday. Had already booked and paid for it online. Lady at hire desk persuaded us to upgrade at no extra cost, wouldn’t have to pay a penny extra, etc. Had a lovely holiday. Returned the car to find an extra $300 charge for the upgrade. Argued with the awful woman in the office that we had been conned and she wasn’t having any of it. We bloody well knew we were right but she wouldn’t let us leave without settling the bill. Next time I’m going to quietly record the conversation and fucking well play it back to them.

Most insurers don’t cover poor workmanship

Our sofas. Thought I was buying the same as the ones my parents have- comfortable, hardwearing, cushions hold their shape. Paid the same price, from the same shop, sofas had the same 'name'. Nope! They look the same but they're lower to the ground, the backs are low, they're uncomfortable, the seat cushions need shoving back in to place every day, the back cushions are all squished up and the covers have gone wonky. There's even a small tear in the fabric. So disappointed with them.

Lost some money given to us as a Christmas gift. The guilt still keeps me awake at night sometimes. We turned the house upside down looking for that envelope, even searched though the bin bags. No idea what happened to it.

More than once we have completely forgotten about events that we had tickets for. Another time I'd got the tickets out ready to go to a show only to find I'd written the wrong date on the calendar so we were two days late.

Thank goodness, I thought I was the only person to make massive dozy mistakes. I’d be rich now if I hadn’t been so dim.sigh!