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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to ask if you have ever lost money?

100 replies

Tinkerbec · 30/08/2017 22:00

After a conversation on a flight yesterday I was just wondering if you have ever lost money that you wished tou had just blown or even thrown in the street.

Once when we were young and stupid we bought a cat D car without realising. Totally conned but lost about £4000.

Once I also got a Christmas present with £100 in. I didn't realise and threw it out with the Christmas rubbish as it was a white envelope against white wrapping.

My friend once lost 10k on Northern rock shares.

Another 2k on a holiday that wasn't all covered by insurance.

It is gutting when you think about it. I wish I had blown it on Champagne and takeaways.

Ahh these things happen I guess.

OP posts:
DJBaggySmalls · 30/08/2017 23:13

Ex DH stole an item worth over £10,000 from me.
Never paid a penny in maintenance, boasted to the DC's what he'd spent it on.

PinkHeart5911 · 30/08/2017 23:13

Burgled when living in London, they took my Great grandmothers diamond ring & pearls. We claimed on insurance but they was more to me than money.

I had a leather jacket "painted" on the back in a rockabilly style by a very good friend artist just before he died so the coat held sentimental meaning to me, on a night out in Camden someone stole it from my chair in the busy pub.

I lend a very good "friend" or so I thought 5k when she left her dh to sort herself out with a home for the dc and the cow never has paid a penny back. I could afford to lose it but that isn't the point I thought she was my friend I'd known her 10 years ffs!

A few years ago now dh was beaten up by a taxi driver on his way home from a night out, and had his Rolex watch stolen.

KiteSky · 30/08/2017 23:31

We lent DHs brother money for his wedding and despite him and his wife to be saying they would pay us back they never did. Thieving scumbags. If we had kicked up a fuss it would have really upset DHs elderly Mum so we left it be but I'll never forget.

TheFormidableMrsC · 30/08/2017 23:43

I love shoes. Had a huge sort out, pile for charity/tip, pile of good ones, including new. Guess which pile went to the tip accidentally? Utterly gutted.

My parents wedding album accidentally ending up in skip after my mum died. That still makes me weep.

£25 of birthday money when I was about 10, I put my purse down in a toy shop and it was gone seconds later. That was a lot of money in 1979!

A house burglary where all my baby jewellery was stolen.

Handbag stolen in a cemetary of all places, while I was tending my granddad's grave. Luckily little cash, but photos in my purse and my bloody make up which cost the earth.

Oh I could go on and on Sad

PollyFlint · 30/08/2017 23:43

Went to the cashpoint, withdrew £100 ... and somehow walked away without actually taking the money.

If the money's not taken within a certain amount of time, it gets sucked back into the cashpoint and the bank will credit it to your account when you chase them about it. But if someone else happens to see it poking out of the slot and takes it before that happens, you can't get the money back. And that's what happened to me.

Todaywashorrible · 30/08/2017 23:48

Wow.... a few have lent and lost to friends..... me too..... £1600. Still annoyed by it 9 years on. Would not lend to someone again, and she is not a friend any longer either.

theftbyfinding · 30/08/2017 23:52

I lent a regular in the bar I was working while a student. Salt of the earth guy, in every night for two pints after work for years. Until he had my £500. Turns out he had two pints in several bars, was a local 'nice guy' everywhere for the sting. Still raging.

bertiesgal · 30/08/2017 23:53

£30 grand on our first flat bought in 2007. Still smarting from it (and paying back the debt) today.

Will always feel guilty and ashamed even though we were genuinely trying to "do the sensible thing" by getting our foot on the property ladder before prices rose further. Ha bloody ha!

BigcatLittlecat · 30/08/2017 23:53

We bought a business a few years ago for £30 000 tried to sell it but became too complicated and so wound it up. Got nothing back from that money at all. Still sore about it.

namechangedtoday15 · 30/08/2017 23:54

Very nearly. Sold house in 2008 and went into rented in a new location. Had just less than £70,000 in equity. My mum (who thinks she's quite an expert in all things financial) told me to put it in an Icelandic bank account because of the incredible interest rates Hmm.

I managed to move it to a different account about 12 hours before the Icelandic banking system collapsed.

DrMadelineMaxwell · 31/08/2017 00:00

As a student my GM gave me £70 in high street vouchers. I had to make a call from a phone box (pre mobile phone days) and managed to leave my bag in the phone box. When I realised and went back my bag was still there, but the vouchers were not.

I was gutted as it was a gift from my Gm that I didn't really think she could afford to give. I was going to spend it on house stuff for the new home DH and I were buying even though we didn't have full time work yet each. And it was gone.

PicardsCombOver · 31/08/2017 00:14

I lost a tiny amount of money but in a a very weird way. I met 'Becky' when she was brought to my old place of work so I could show her how to use the phone (don't ask) as she would be taking over when I left. She heard me talking to our driver about my sons birthday party the following day and she was kind enough to offer to help, new to area and wants to make friends etc she turned up with her baby, gave me her sons toy and said she'd picked it up in ASDA earlier, said she was gasping for a ciggy and asked if any of my family had 'a fag I can lend' but none of us did. She told me about her financial difficulty and desperation for a job but not on weekends because she and DH go to bingo on different nights and asked to borrow £7 for fags that she would return the next day. I haven't seen her since and she didn't turn up for the job.

Titsywoo · 31/08/2017 00:23

£450 that I lent to an ex boyfriend when I was 17 - very stupid!

About 2k of solicitors fees and survey costs when the owner of the house we were buying changed his mind of the day of exchange Angry

hellokittymania · 31/08/2017 00:27

All the time, but unfortunately a lot of it is from robbery as I am visually impaired and get targeted quite a lot. Not in the UK, but in Asia, I have been robbed so many times I can't even remember and I don't even realize sometimes when it's happening. No matter how careful I am, it always happens.

I have bought lottery tickets in Vietnam because the people selling them are usually very poor and I know it will help them to make a living. But I know I won't win anything.

And yes, there are other times where I impulse buy and don't use what I buy. It's very frustrating. I have tried to find ways to not do it, like not taking cash with me when I go out, or only taking 5 pounds. But again, sometimes the 5 pound notes slipped out of my pocket because the plastic material doesn't fold so well.

Noseysoso · 31/08/2017 00:30

Very interesting thread !

I've had an expensive computer stolen from me - it was a gift and had many photos/videos on it. That's what hurts the most. And I'm pretty sure I know who took it but the police can't just accuse people unless thy are on some sort of register.

Had a £20 note, went to the local chippy for a £1.99 takeaway. I was with a friend and got distracted - I didn't collect my change and he (shopkeeper) didn't remind me. I remembered when I later needed to get a taxi home from town.

Had a tenner in my back pocket, went to the loo, left without the tenner.

Actually, I don't like this thread all that much. Making me remember what I don't wish to remember Angry

Noseysoso · 31/08/2017 00:31

Hellokitty I am so angry and sorry to read that people take advantage of your poor vision !! CakeFlowers

Time40 · 31/08/2017 00:49

A whole house plus contents

Wow. What happened?

PicardsCombOver · 31/08/2017 00:50

hellokitty some people are serious arseholes. Bless your heart for helping the lottery sellers x

anothermalteserplease · 31/08/2017 00:54

Some of these stories are awful. Hellokitty that makes me so mad that people target you. Fuckers.

We lost money on our first property. And I've forgotten to pay a tax bill and received a hefty fine. That was totally my fault Angry at myself

FNAF · 31/08/2017 00:55

Fucking hell hellokitty taking advantage of a visually impaired person is utter cuntery Angry

LellyMcKelly · 31/08/2017 01:12

Rented out a house we were about to sell to a 'friend' who had to move because she'd inherited her dead dad's dog and had to move out of her current home. We needed to sell to buy in the town we'd moved to, but held off because we needed to do some painting and decorating to the house which she said she would do.

I ended up being really ill in hospital so she stayed there for 6 months and refused to leave. Paid no rent, did no painting, and when we eventually got her out we returned to find she'd taken all the furniture, the white goods and left the place in a right skip. I'm still cross 10 years later because it was our first home and we'd bought some furniture that wasn't particularly expensive, but that we'd spent ages looking for in vintage markets and fairs. All in all, she cleared off with about £4K of stuff. We loved that junk!

caroline161 · 31/08/2017 02:13

Spent £80 on longleat tickets for today and both kids are chucking their guts up in a tag team. Hmm

caroline161 · 31/08/2017 02:15

Unbelievable DH has now joined in too.

Sugarditch04 · 31/08/2017 03:57

I had a £1400 windfall, I know it's not much to some but I barely clear half that per month some times.
I put it in an envelope at the bottom of my handbag, got on the bus. Someone was making a noise that I really hate (it's like nails on a chalkboard for me) so I was a bit disorientated. All but ran off the bus with my bag still on it
I even tried to chase the bus when I realised but I was obviously too slow.
I rang the bus station and they had had someone hand in a bag of that description on the right route, so I went in.
Envelope gone Sad
It still breaks my heart - I was going to use it for driving lessons so I could hopefully get on the road at some point.
I did report it too but unfortunately while the bus had CCTV at the front near the drivers cabin there wasn't any covering the back and a couple of people were near enough my bag to have swiped it, I saw who handed it in but I'd have felt awful if the wrong person was pursued for trying to do the right thing and there was no way to prove it

AlphaStation · 31/08/2017 04:12

^Gee, I'm so old-fashioned I first thought you'd thrown away garden tares. I had to think twice what you were on about.

As for lost money, I try not to think about it. In any case, one cannot get every investment right every time. Also, I've got plenty of 'lost' money on shoes I really didn't need, clothes that later didn't fit, handbags, etc. I sold a flat once, and now it's worth 10x as much - but it's not really money lost, it's money I were never even close to having (but could have had, had I kept that flat).