Money you may as well have set on fire

[Snickernoodle]

Like you literally got NOTHING for it.
DD wanted to go to drama club for ages. Loved the first term. Asked if she wanted to do the second term. No sooner had a I sent the money across she came and told me she didn't want to do it and has been moaning and tantruming about it ever since. £90 completely wasted. I'm feeling pretty salty about it atm. Help me feel better about it with your wasted money stories?

Me too.
I have ridiculously small feet (33.5 in European sizes, just over 1.5 in UK) and I've lost count of the number of times I have persuaded myself that a pair of 35s will fit. Then I injured one foot and have had multiple operations on it so it is a different shape and size to the other so it is even more impossible to find shoes. But I still buy them, mostly online as no real shops locally sell anything remotely my size. Why, I have no idea as I know in reality I am doomed to wear trainers for the rest of my life. But I still have this ridiculous unquenchable hope that one day I will find a pair of nice shoes.
Actually I'm just an idiot.

I can't tell you how much comfort I'm getting from these posts! Have done so so many of them myself.

@SirAlfredSpatchcock Fair play - you have the quotation right I was thinking more about once unfortunate , twice careless - sorry if inappropriate

School fees.

So many pairs of shoes for DC that no sooner have they worn outside they declare are too small/tight/uncomfortable and never wear again.

Kitchen gadgets I intend to use but somehow never do.

Decorating, curtains, wallpaper, paint...

I must have blown an absolute fortune on paint, wallpaper, curtains, blinds and coordinating accessories over my lifetime. Probably could have retired early if I hadn't spent so much trying to follow interiors fashions.

Have now, later in life, learned what I like and stopped trying to keep up. Most of the rooms in the house are painted in a small range of reliable neutral-ish colours. Curtains, sofas and major expense items are good quality neutrals or within a know set of colours that work together well. I rely on texture for interest. I splash out serious money on small quantities of expensive colourful or patterned fabrics for cushions and upholstery I buy real art at auctions and galleries. Unlike wallpaper at £200 a roll I can get at least some of the money back if I tire of the art.

Thanks a lot, no worries.

I got your point and I wasn't meaning to get at you at all

I think there's only one tool around here and it's not Cookie IMO.

Take a photo of the packet on your phone - then you can zoom in.

I booked a hotel room in London for me to stay in after my friend’s 40th party and didn’t notice that I had accidentally booked it for that actual night rather than the day of the party two months later. There was a glitch on the hotel website but I didn’t notice, paid for the room, and then a week before the party I checked the confirmation details and only realised then what I’d done! Couldn’t change or cancel because of course the date was already passed. I paid £95 for an empty hotel room that I didn’t use :(

Yes or just use the magnifying glass function

Budget toaster from Tesco, set on fire first time we used it, threw it in the bin as cba to take it back.

This, but will eat it enthusiastically the 1st time I buy it to lull me into a false sense of security. Then act as if its poison when I buy it the second time!

Almost all I inherited from my DF. Bamboozled out of £1000s by a bent EA ( have written about it on here before, so won't now) then a useless builder built our kitchen extension. Our fault, we met him in B&Q (doh! No real builder would shop there). He seemed a nice chap, but worked very slowly (I was paying him weekly), the new roof had to be replaced after 4 years, put the outside tap on wrong so we had a massive leak and had to pay £100s to the water board when it was finally discovered and B&Q (yep) kitchen cupboards falling apart. I could go on. I put it down to my naivety and try not to think about it now DF's hard-earned money is nearly gone.

I also have small feet, size 2, and agree it's almost impossibe to buy in store. I live in Skechers, Fly Flot, and occasionally Ugg shoes, and they aren't cheap.

The money we literally threw away though was during the banking crash, when Halifax bank went broke. We had shares which I had wanted to sell, unfortunately my husband thought it best to keep them. We lost loads of money.

Years ago we were putting our first house up for sale. An agent came out and looked at it in the morning. In the afternoon a friend called round and said he wanted to buy it. Sure enough he bought it but we got a bill from the estate agent for selling it. If only we hadn't seen him that morning.

Cigarettes for years 🤦🏼‍♀️ I literally would have been better off just setting fire to the money …

I feel for you. Once my son was going to go to Peru on a school trip. Him and his pal were so excited, it was in a year's time. They saved up by doing jobs and chores, even washed cars. We (both parents and the other child's parents) put £500 towards the deposit! Yep you've guessed it, we lost the whole lot. They decided they didn't want to go anymore. Absolutely gutting! We didn't think to take out insurance!

I think you’ve misread, they’ve written walking machine not washing

My daughter was at a boarding school midweek so I could get her into an amazing local school with great SEN support. Started off great, then changed her mind so I spent £5.5k for her to be at home and with no schooling as I had to give a terms notice. Then signed her up for an online school and shes got bored of that too so that’s been another £6k down the drain. 4th school we’ve tried and 3 loads of pristine uniform have gone to the charity shop. Still paying it all off and she still asks me to sign her up for various hobbies knowing full well she’ll be bored shortly after she starts, so I have to say no now which gets me the response ‘you do nothing for me’ 😐 I love parenting teenagers, it’s a joy.

I quite literally did set it on fire - I'm 12 years an ex-smoker

1-1 swimming lessons in a purpose built pool in a unit. £25pp and I had two kids in it. They went for over a year- biggest waste of money ever. That was 6-7 years ago I think they’re about £35pp now. Absolutely the biggest waste of money that I would undo if I could.

I took them swimming to group lessons a couple of years later and they did loads better for a fraction of the cost.

I know loads of people will say it’s great but my experience was awful.

My teaching degree. I undertook a PGCE in primary education with the aim to become an educational psychologist. What a mistake. Teaching is a toxic profession. Educational Psychologists are well regarded but essentially ignored as there is no money or means to implement their advice. I left and used my initial degree to join the civil service and now earn more than I would as either a teacher or an Educational Psychologist but still am able to help people which is a huge motivation for me.

Unfortunately, I have a much larger student loan because of my teaching degree which has added no value to my career or my children's lives.

I’ve just realised last week that I’ve been paying for a year the dogs care club at vets but never collected the prescriptions or had his vaccinations. So £250 down and now have to pay to restart his vaccinations as a restart isn’t covered 🤬🤬
even the receptionist said to my husband when he was paying the £60 you really shouldn’t have to pay this