A thread for everyone who’s made an expensive mistake recently

[Forgottenmyphone]

Just mucked up with our holiday booking, and it’s cost us a few hundred. I’m so annoyed with myself as we were literally scraping the top end of our budget without this mistake.

please share your recent expensive mistakes to help make me feel better! Or at least help me get things in perspective!

Ahhh, that's awful. We also had some changes to make to a holiday that's resulted in an extra 1k approximately. It's hard to sit with. Ours wasn't due to a mistake as such, but due to agreeing to something without realising the financial implications - so the mistake was in failing to think.

On a smaller scale, I recently bought something, then got the notice that delivery would take ages, so got it delievered quicker from somewhere else, too late to cancel the original order so I thought I would just return it, only that company seems to be struggling and it cannot seem to process the return. It's not a massive lost, but it's a waste on so many levels.

Realised this morning that I didn’t pay my parking last week at the NCP (ticket machine was out of order and was going to use their ‘pay later’ online - so that’s £60 straight off.

Then realised I’d left my new fat jab pen out of the fridge all week so that’s another £160 down the drain

Both completely my fault and both completely avoidable grrr

Mine was more annoying than anything I got to a hotel and I’d booked an Uber to the wedding venue( not cheap) the hotel told us they had local taxis that were faster and better.

So I cancelled the uber to find the local taxi was late and 2x the price!!

Bought some really expensive wall lights. Didn’t fit them for ages as renovation went way over time. Fitted them, hate them. Wasted hundreds of pounds.

Ouch, all of these are making me wince.

Horrible feeling...my sympathies. Not very recent but we spent nearly a year with a friend of a friend's plumber completely uppending our lives ...no show after no show, leaving half way through jobs...having personal crises ad nausea...it was brutal...ended up pretty much paying him to go away. Now we have a great new plumber but he's having to undo (with the obligatory hemms and ahhs) all the half arsed work....

Stupidly ran a book promo on Bargain Booksy. £175. 6 sales. 😐Too old to be this stupid. That's about £2 in royalties btw.

Not expensive (as in money but in my time) as such but I bought f&b paint for our spare bedroom

Took me hours to paint the room and it was bloody awful-didnt suit the room at all

Re-painted it with dulux (while ignoring dp 'I told you it was a waste of money') and it looks much nicer

What should have cost £20 ish cost us £70 ish

Bloody annoying as that money could have gone in something else

Did exactly the same thing with our bedroom-i could have bought bloody expensive wallpaper if I'd just painted it the colour I'd seen (but thought 'nah,not keen') in the first place

4 different colours only to go with the one I'd seen originally

Don't get me started on the kitchen/dining room-7 times I've decorated and hated it

The amount of money I've spent could have gone on a bloody holiday

We’ve recently decided to stay in our current home and upgrade it after being in limbo for a couple of years. We needed a number of large shrubs/small trees removed and a guy had left a card who happened to be working in our local area. It’s our fault for not getting quotes etc but he charged £900 for three hour’s work and didn’t do a great job. Then found out next day that next door neighbours had used him and were also pissed off with him. Still lesson learned and we’ll be more circumspect with the rest of our home improvements.

Forgot I'd lost the bank card registered to my blackwall tunnel account and went through it 2 or 3 times on my way on holiday :(

@Optimisticdramalarma 7 times! That certainly makes me feel better!

What’s the book?

Does that mean you get fined?

@Unmotivatedteen Don't throw away the fat jab pen. It will be fine.

You can still use the pen. It doesn't need to be refrigerated if you're going to be using it within 30 days.

I'd just put it in the fridge now and use it.

If you have an already open pen in the fridge just use the new one instead.

Not recent, but I got scammed by roofers knocking on the door. All my instincts were telling me they were scammers and yet I still went with it. They kept increasing the bill until I just said No (they tried convincing me I had to pay VAT on top - they are not VAT registered). £2k lost and a shoddy job that needs re-doing. Still bums me now.

Not me but DH has massively dug his heels in over a piece of consultancy work he was due to complete which ended up with him walking away and not doing the job.

He walked away with his head high, principles in tact, and £60K per year worse off😎

That's not a "mistake" though...?

Mine is builder related so I for one am happy Burnham is suggesting a better route as they have all of the power at the moment. Once they start they have you over a barrel to finish on their timescale.
Builder started with all the enthusiasm in the world. Then I noticed a tailing off, leaving the most junior boys on site doing things all day that should have taken an hour max (moving piles of mud/bricks etc). Then excuses as to why they aren't there. Suddenly turning up super early then disappearing for the day.
After 2 weeks of this he asks where the next chunk of payment is, £2k, so, thinking this is the final amount and he will come back to finish the job, I explain to him I will send £500 but want to keep the last until the work is finished. Silence. No reply. 3 days later I decide sod it, give it all to him then he can't tell everyone it is taking so long because I haven't paid. Next day young boy arrives, rearranging deckchairs again. Same next 3 days in a row. I go out and ask several times when the head honcho is coming, doesn't know, probably later possibly tomorrow. Get an email demanding further £ from builder because now some materials are going to cost more than expected so I have to go in the morning to pay at the local shop, not to him. I refuse, confirming he had told me multiple times I had already paid for all of the materials and the price wouldn't change despite the plan changing so many times. I point out it is in the invoice he sent. He seems to realise I am right but no apology. Work still ongoing but maybe 1 day a week, total job has been 3 months and 1 week and was meant to take 2 weeks... I haven't been able to use my house fully all summer.

Bought a coat on eBay for £300 and don’t like it. It’s good quality etc and out of stock everywhere but it’s just not me

Like a tit I booked a weeks holiday for when I assumed the kids half term would be (based on the last few years) only to find they’ve moved it. I can’t move my annual leave as it’s all booked up, so now I’ve got a weeks annual leave while they’re at school and two weeks on holiday clubs to pay for 😭

Ouch.

Signed up for Wegovy pills, yes I lost weight but only from feeling constantly sick so I decided to stop
Unfortunatley it seems that my "low price" £70 was only due to me signing up for 6 months. Had to pay £100 to get out of it

Your pen will be fine. My fridge broke when I was on holiday so my pen wasn't refrigerated for 2 weeks. It was absolutely fine.

Resell on Vinted! Take nicer pics and you’ll get some money back.