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.

My 0.9 carat solitaire engagement ring. It IS beautiful but cost a lot of money and isn't worth anything like as much second-hand. Tbh, it could be a CZ and would do exactly the same and look very similar. I would have more fun and use from a small car which would cost the same. Now we are married with kids it seems an obscene waste of money for a ring, though I'd never tell DH of course.

[quote ponkydonkey]Ooh look at this @godmum56

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3710629/old-amstrad-plc-ordinary-shares-from-1987-what-can-i-do-with-these[/quote]
thank you, we sold at a loss rather than lose the lot.

I feel for you.What did the people who recommended him have to say about this?

DH returned from business trip a few weeks ago and realised his laptop was missing. Tried to locate with no luck. Cost £350 excess on the house insurance grrrrrrrr.....!!

Hilton Hotels. Paid upfront at the reception desk of a Hilton for a deal for some rooms for a future holiday and when I went to actually book them no one could find any record of what I'd already paid. Over £600. Spoke to many people at Hilton who didn't know what I was talking about and gave me numbers to call that didn't work. Asked my bank to reverse the transaction and they ... just didn't. All so weird

2 horses and a pony 💰🤑💷

DS1 was obsessed with In the night garden, they had a show in London, quite a few friends went, their children loved it. Took DS1, there was technical issue so we had to wait outside for an hour, got seated, DS1 was terrified!

I've spent thousands over the years on make-up I've never used, I end up donating it to charity shops, missionaries, the young women's organisation at church, and at my last job I put a basket in the women's locker room and let people help themselves. I've got rid of loads of stuff. I do still keep loads of it, but I'm trying not to spend so much money on it.

Was made redundant and got a big tax refund. Spent 5k on enormous sofas - which were really uncomfortable. I kept them for 10 years as I refused to change them.
Replaced them this year with ones DH wanted and I hate them too.

Went to buy a mattress a few weeks ago with a budget of £1200. Ended up getting talked into one that's twice as much. Made out of unicorn feathers and angels wings etc. I bloody hope I like it- cos I checked the invoice and it's not refundable if I don't get on with it. So stupid.

Bought some beautiful and eye wateringly expensive woollen throws for the beds - bought them in a spring sale (so only eyewateringly expensive rather than agonisingly so). Packed them away for the summer. Got them out in autumn to find they'd been absolutely destroyed by moths and were totally unusable.

On the Parenting Hell podcast they refer to these kind of purchases as an idiot tax which makes me feel better about it! Helps me find a bit more peace with basically throwing money in the bin on some of the shit we've purchased.

Years ago DH booked (and paid for) a golf break with some friends the same weekend as his best friends wedding. He went on the Friday to golf and then came back on Saturday for the friends wedding. I booked a hotel for the wedding months in advance , but when it came to the wedding weekend I couldn't find the email booking (or remember what the hotel was called ) We ended up staying at the hotel where the wedding reception was but had paid for 2 other hotel rooms!! (The golf hotel and the other booking)
We didn't have a night away for a really long time after that!

@lastqueenofscotland
My son is a jockey. He rides horses for people who waste their money on buying and keeping the animals.

I was selling my house and had to have a new boiler installed

I went up to London for my friend's birthday 4 years ago when we were stopped by a woman in the street asking if we would like to try some cosmetics. She applied some cream to my skin and my friend said it looked great. We went for lunch and were stopped by the woman on our return who persuaded me to spend over £300 on cosmetics that she said would last me over a year. One of the creams lasted less than a month and the other I sold on Ebay for £10. I complained on Trust Pilot and every single review on there said the same thing. I am surprised that this enterprise was not closed down. How I could do with that £300 + now!

In a previous house, the front door opened awkwardly against a wall. It needed replacing anyway so I decided to have it hung the other way. But then I forgot to request that. Brand new door, opening awkwardly against a wall. As I was putting the house on the market, I worried I wouldn’t be able to get furniture out so had to buy another new door and get it hung the right way around.

A pastel tweed Chanel bag I bought in Chanel boutique in Paris for around €4000
It’s falling apart, the pastel fabric is all dirty, there are glue marks around the flap, the inside of the bag is just polyester fabric not leather, honestly I have no idea what I was thinking

@Unihorn

On the Parenting Hell podcast they refer to these kind of purchases as an idiot tax which makes me feel better about it! Helps me find a bit more peace with basically throwing money in the bin on some of the shit we've purchased.

Oh I love the term "idiot tax" and will adopt it from now on. I am in a very high-paying bracket. Some of these posts remind me of many other idiot things I have burned money on (besides me earlier post re: accidentally moving to a ruined hovel abroad), such as buying two camper vans in a row and pretending they drove OK instead of admitting that the engines were fucked and rust was about to dissolve the entire chassis. So I converted them both into fairytale palaces before they hit the scrap yard. I could have had several holidays at a top-end resort in Barbados for the cost of dragging these bloody vans, with the help of roadside assistance, around various windswept, rain-soaked UK festivals 😎

Booked flights to France with Ryanair via Stanstead. We are north west. Booked as two separate flights so had fo get off, collect bags and go round and check in all over again. On the way back hadn't factored in time difference. Watched our flight take off as we'd just arrived. Booked hire car to drive home. Idiots

@TuftyMarmoset

I posted back an order of clothes in the U.K. in early/mid October and have lost my proof of postage but it doesn’t look like they received my return. £150!

If you know the time of the transaction the post office may provide proof

Someone we know wanted to move there fence back so it took in a bit of land between their garden and the one who they backed on to. The other house had just been dumping rubbish on the land and the council said they could claim the land as long as the other party didn't complain. Said person booked a clearance for the rubbish and paid £700 deposit for workman to do new fence only for the neighbour to very colourfully tell them to do one. Now they can't claim the land and the workmen won't give back the deposit.

I don't think I have any spectacular waste of money stories, just lots and lots of minor waste. Teenager who takes labels off clothes before checking if they fit, stupid direct debit charges because we didn't pay close enough attention, etc. Prob adds up to thousands over the years.

But then, there was buying a house in 2007 at the very top of the boom. 240k, so not mad expensive or anything. Sold for 170k 12 years later. Try not to even think about how much that 70k actually cost us in interest payments on top of the actual number. We'll never catch up financially with our peers. We're absolutely fine financially... we're comfortable, life is great and we don't need for anything day to day. But it does catch me every now and then, and I get a dose of the green-eyed monster. Then I give myself a kick and try to remember that comparison is the thief of joy.

Our sofas
I love buying second hand-saves a fortune and good for the planet
Most of our house is what I’ve found in the charity shops/eBay etc
Anyway we where looking for ‘new’ sofas and looked in the bhf shop in town
I spotted two matching sofas-one a sofa bed-for £400 plus an extra £20 for delivery
Was told they where less than 4 months old and from a very posh shop
So we shelled out the asking price and got them home (took 3 hours to get them into our lounge through the back door as the delivery men told us that they wouldn’t fit through our porch and dumped them in our garden and fucked off)
The sofa bed is like sleeping on a wooden plank,the cushions are saggy,the fabric has worn and torn,the feet scratched our wooden flooring to bits and it’s bloody uncomfortable to sit on
Never again-I’ve told dp that we are buying ikeas finest next time

@Unihorn

On the Parenting Hell podcast they refer to these kind of purchases as an idiot tax which makes me feel better about it! Helps me find a bit more peace with basically throwing money in the bin on some of the shit we've purchased.

I like this a lot. Thanks 😊