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!

Got our dark green sofa recovered in a beige linen (plus 2 large arm chairs) cost £1600. Dh kept saying "make sure its washable" and "it'll get filthy" and i swore now the kids were older and because I liked the fabric we'd be careful. 18 months in they're filthy, technically washable but only the seat covers come off, which is kind of worse because the arms are basically a different colour to the seats and covered in tea, hot chocolate etc. Before anyone suggests Vanish etc, I've tried literally everything going, nothings worked.
It's my own fault for assuming I'm the type of person who can keep a beige linen sofa - I am not, nor have I ever been.

I think that's the one I want!

The room catches the light but doesn't at the same time (East facing room)

I'm going to see if I can get a sample
or just say 'fuck it,its only paint' and paint it anyway

(we have a dulux trade shop down the road to my work)

Thank you!!!!

This is my fear with my two crowns. I subconsciously only chew on my left side….

Put €3000 as a deposit for a holiday home. As we were walking to solicitor I thought this was a mistake. 24 hours later after partner had tossed and turned all night and hadn’t slept they said they had made a mistake. Pulled out and lost the €3000. An expensive lesson!

Out of interest where did you get it recovered from? I have a sofa that I love, the shape of it I cannot find replicated but it was a cheap sofa years ago found online, the material has literally worn away but I wont find the same shape anywhere else so want it recovered, but its going to cost loads of money for what was originally a cheap sofa.

Always losing gift vouchers too.

I decided that I wanted to buy a cropped navy trench-coat. It was spur of the moment and probably isn't me, too trendy.
I ordered one, then saw another, from another brand, which I also thought might work. Both were expensive, $500 or so, but my plan was to send one back and potentially send both.
When I got the "we've got your email order" I saw that the second one is "Final sale," so cannot be returned. I am hoping that it is a)the right size, and b)that I like it more than the first one, and c) that I actually like cropped trench coats on me at all.
Unfortunately, I am in the US, so we don't have the rule that places have to give you an opportunity to try it and return.
I did quickly email customer support so I am hoping that they will cancel the order as it hasn't yet shipped.
To make it worse, I then discovered that I could buy the exact coat from a department store with a 20% discount AND the right to return.
Why did I do this? I feel a right idiot.

Farrow & Ball Dix Blue?

I once heard a comedian suggest that we all have to pay stupidity tax, and that is basically what expensive mistakes amount to. So when I got a parking ticket through sheer forgetfulness, I put it down to stupidity tax, ditto when I bought some stuff and left part of it behind. In a way, I find it quite a comforting way to deal with that sort of error.

I had very similar - it was me driving but addressed to DH. Didn’t open 2 letters so by the time I actually found out - £160 😭😭😭

I had a dining table custom made to my own specification ... £3000..... I decided on the measurements and was absolutely sure it would be the perfect size for the space.... Length is fine but width is way too narrow and can barely seat 2 people opposite each other. Gorgeous table, but no use if we have guests. Can't see me forking out for another one though !! Could kick myself!!

Not as expensive as some but £90 on detox tea.. was willing to try it, 3 bags for 32.00 but they added an extra 40.00.
They were conviently too busy to answer any emails untill after the product was sent. Then they refused a refund. PayPal wouldn't do anything and it's payment pending with my bank.

I’ve got a few holiday ones. Last year, turned up to our very expensive hotel to find out that I had booked and paid for the 2 rooms for the previous month by mistake. That mistake cost me £2k.

A couple of years ago, we were at the gate - AT THE GATE! - and we missed our flight as all had AirPods in, didn’t hear the final calls and were all oblivious to people getting on the plane 🙄. That cost us £1,600 and a day at the airport.

One year I didn’t secure the dry bag properly and managed to drown all our iPhones and 1 pair of AirPods. Another £2k down the drain.

No point. He's not in the UK and he has no money.

He has no credit score to care about, no mortgage.

Mind you, he does have a company registered in the UK......I might look into that, could get it wound up maybe. He'd have to sell his chateau!

Nowhere near as bad but I've got a £160 lifting belt I use in the gym. I've always kept it in the boot of my car and noticed after the recent heatwave it looked slightly faded.

I started to wonder if I'd affected the structural integrity by drying it out and asked Google AI which told me to bend it and listen for any cracking sounds. Well, there were no cracking sounds but the sealed edge has split on both sides and the belt now has a sharp crease line along which it hinges really easily.

Upon asking Google again it said "you should definitely not bend a rigid cowhide lifting belt against the natural grain and I apologise for the terrible advice I gave which resulted in your belt now being unsafe to use. I mixed up my logic and gave you advice applicable to a standard trouser belt." 😡😡😡

Sorry but this did make me laugh a little bit, AI apologising to you admitting the belt confusion! And confirms to me why I try and refuse to use AI as much as possible in life.
Sorry about your belt though 😩

dh made a balls up recently, bought tickets for him and dc to go and watch the cricket at lords, on the train up realised he’d booked tickets for the day before. Jumped off the train because poor signal meant he couldn’t see if there were any available tickets for that day, managed to buy new tickets to avoid a disappointed dc, had to get new train tickets too because getting the next one after they one they’d gotten off meant waiting an hour and they’d have missed the start so I had to collect them and take them to a different line with faster trains and more of them. I think it must have cost him an additional £600! silly sod!

Just got back from a 10 night 6k holiday in Corfu. It did not live up to expectations.

We went over various different ideas - she wouldn’t have coped back home without my Dad either - I had to go back to work and she would have been too distressed being at home alone for 10+ hours, even if she stayed with us until he got back.

Didn't buy my stock options in time after leaving a company when I was young - they ended up being worth £80,000 12 months later. Think that beats a lot of the mistakes on here 😅.

@Poobs2022 were we on the same flight into Gatwick ?! We spent £8k for 5 nights (4 people) and it was absolutely amazing. But bloody expensive.

Try farrow and ball pale powder, it is a beautiful colour

Ouch!

I've found AI to be good for getting a general overview but sometimes it can be miles off. It'll take something from a similar discussion and present it as fact when it's sometimes massively erroneous.

Have you tried Farrow & Ball Ancona Blue No. 9805?

I didn't latch our gates open properly and it slowly closed as I reversed on to our drive...the noise was sickening.

I signed up to HelloFresh (thanks to a door salesman!) and this week I was charged over £35 for two meals 🙃 miniscule in comparison to these but I still think it's quite shocking. To think how much you could make in the supermarket for that!