Money down the drain - tell me your tales of misery!

[SomeOtherGirl]

Bad luck comes in threes, and I've had three money ones this week (the second one's not too bad)!

1- DH used a toll bridge that won't let you pay at a toll gate, you have to log on to the website when you get home. Guess what, he forgot - and used it in both directions. £80 fine coming our way! (And he wonders why I'm so neurotic about stuff! :-D )

2 - The toilet broke and needed replacing. I called a plumber and he wanted £160 plus VAT for the first hour. DH is currently redeeming himself for item 1, with a youtube 'how to' video and a toilet from B&Q. Dodged a financial bullet there! And shredded the divorce papers. Phew!

3 - But the most annoying one - I just mucked up an accommodation reservation in a really daft way that has made it cost an extra £130. Nothing I can do to undo the damage - I've tried, it is what it is - basically I lost out on a one-off discount. Urgh. That's a lot of money to me!

When this kind of thing happens, it makes me reflect on how difficult it is to save / earn money, and how easy it is to lose it, if you're daft enough (like us!!) For example, last night I spent three hours on the internet researching baby equipment to save £30 on the price of a baby item for imminent DC2. I was dead chuffed to have saved the money and was all pleased for a bit. That's three hours of an evening to save £30. How have I just thrown away £130 then?! What is wrong with me?

Now I'm wondering what I could have done with that £130, all the lovely things I deny myself in the interest of saving money.

*15 books for DC
*Probably an entire layette (if you still use that word!) for DC2
*10ish reusable nappies
*A total hair makeover including dye, perm and other glitzy stuff
*260 cans of diet coke
*A babysitter and meal and cocktails out on two occasions for me and DH
*A fancy upgrade on the pram I want to get for DC2 but can't justify
*A fancier phone next time I upgrade
*proper leather boots this winter
*A Rymek keyboard (total frivolity!)
*Petrol for four and a half round trips to see my DPs
*Tickets to go and see DPILs
*A lot of cinema tickets
*A lovely(ier) birthday present for DH
*Some clothes that aren't in the sale for once! (And therefore probably fit a little better)

I could go on :-D

Then I was thinking, hmmm, what could I do to make up that money, little by little - and I realised the world doesn't really work that way. I found 18p on the street the other day and felt I'd won !!!

So aibu to ask you to cheer me up and tell me the face palm moments when you realise you'd lost / squandered / wasted a load of money, what would you have done with the money if you hadn't lost it, and whether you managed to do anything to make it up in the end? :-)

I once booked a hotel room that I was due to pay on arrival, the trip was cancelled but I forgot to cancel the room in time so was charged the full price.

I was SO cross with myself.

£1000 deposit on a wedding venue. I fell pregnant shortly after, and decided in a hormone fuelled state that I absolutely did not want to get married in the place anymore. They had told us that the deposit was non refundable, so that was a whole grand wasted. And we're still not married 🤣

@Aiguablava you must come back so we can help you troubleshoot your airco! As everyone else said, you need to send the exhaust out the window

The aircon does not have a tube to go out the window. I purposefully sought out one that didnt need to be put out the window. It was though in effect a glorified fan and you only benefited from the cool air if sat right in front of it.

Sold it on a few weeks ago for £40 so I managed to recover some of the money I invested. Obviously didn't tell the buyer why I was selling.

Moved into a new home a couple of years ago with pre payment meters for gas and electric (never had those before!). On the day of moving in, checked the balance of both which said zero and duly went out and topped them both up. Couldn't get the boiler to work so called out an emergency plumber who charged me £120 to tell me I hadn't topped the gas card up enough as it was in a negative/emergency balance. I waved goodbye to £150 right there and then.

Oh gosh so many! I paid for new tyres on my car only for it to fail it’s Mot miserably a week later and be scrapped.

Husband insisted on collecting everyone’s left over euros a couple of years ago on the flight back from Italy. There was 8 of us and well over 700 euros. He gave everyone the sterling equivalent and said he’d change the euros back himself the next day. He lost his wallet on the way out of the airport and no one offered their sterling back 😡

But the absolute worst was trusting a cowboy builder who long story short conned £30k out of us and that’s a bitter pill to swallow.

Leaving my brand new yellow Benetton jumper in McDonalds when I was about 13. I had lusted after it forever and it was going to seriously improve my street cred at that age (mid 90’s). Funny how that one has lived with me!

In the early nineties I paid £250 excess on my car insurance following some damage done in an attempted burglary. Whilst the car was being repaired I had to pay £30 per day to hire a car.
Three days after I collected my car from the repair workshop, I was involved in a multiple car crash on the M6 which completely wrote the car off 😒

Photo shoot "makeover" deal - you know the sort - when DS1 was tiny and I felt sleep deprived and frumpy - it was meant to be a 25 minute makeover and three prints for 30 quid. Ended up a three hour wait and I got stung for 200 quid's worth of shite pictures that made me look like a cross dresser. Turned out the three prints would have been all the same print - what a scam it was. I was suckered into the "next package up"

Still cross about it 10 years later and hate the pictures!

Once popped into a pound shop to grab a cheap waste paper bin. Parked in a bit of a hurry on a side street I’d used many times before and didn’t realise there was now a yellow line on the road. The unsympathetic traffic warden writing the ticket couldn’t be persuaded to excuse my ignorance so my £1 bin ended up costing me £31...

I bought some shares for £2k on the back of a recommendation in a magazine. I still own them. They are currently worth £2.20!

Ouch

Getting robbed of the €200 I just took out of the cash machine by gypsies in Spain because I took my wallet out to show them I had no change in it to buy their flowers. No more Mrs Nice Gal. 😠

DH using his Spanish bank card for our joint account in an ATM not belonging to our bank, and accepting the €14 charge for doing so. I since cancelled his card. 😂

I'm glad it's not just me to be honest. Our house hold "normal" is big electricals. few years ago now, 3rd December 3mth old baby and 4yr dd at home. washer dies a week later dryer dies no deleveries untill after xmas and 3rd expensive electronic Xmas gift falls of the wardrobe and you guessed it wasn't salvagable .
3 weeks ago living room tv starts having black screen issues so I buy a new one, day it arrives "broken" tv works fine (And has done since ) 2 weeks ago husband needs a new phone and 2days ago washing machine motor dies. Oh and this is the new washing machine from the previous incident that I cleverly got insurance on that ran out you guessed it a Few months ago.

Sometimes I have no words haha.

I bought a jar of cheap coffee once from Aldi or Lidl or somewhere like that... I made myself and my husband one, it was so vile that he ordered a all singing and dancing coffee machine that cost about £350! I always think about the coffee if I am trying to do something on the cheap again.... Buy cheap, buy twice motto!

Paid for a holiday to Italy for Feb 2019. First time I'd ever be abroad. 250 for me my mum and son.

Never went. I was in hospital suffering from severe Hyperemesis, and mum and son both had bad flu/cold symptoms including vomiting.

I've still never been abroad. Hoping to go next year but I refuse to organise as every time I do so something stops me from going...

@ClumsyAnnabel

Photo shoot "makeover" deal - you know the sort - when DS1 was tiny and I felt sleep deprived and frumpy - it was meant to be a 25 minute makeover and three prints for 30 quid. Ended up a three hour wait and I got stung for 200 quid's worth of shite pictures that made me look like a cross dresser. Turned out the three prints would have been all the same print - what a scam it was. I was suckered into the "next package up"

Still cross about it 10 years later and hate the pictures!

OMG same happened to me! £150 down the drain, they out a lot if pressure on me, I was 19. And the photographer was a fucking wanker who was rude throughout so not a nice experience.

Spent £390 on an old banger for my daughter just so that she could get to and from work safely during last winter. Only 2.5 miles each way, she had walked or cycled through the summer but then someone got killed by a car when walking the country road in the dark and I was scared that winter work meant her walking/cycling in the dark.
The car lasted just 4 months during which time it cost us £1500 to keep it on the road before finally going to the great scrapyard in the sky.
Now bought her a second hand car on finance from a reputable dealer for her. Last time I try to obtain transport cheaply.

I've just remembered another one.
A few years ago, me and my husband stayed in a Travelodge for one night to break up a long journey.
We noticed that there was a faint smell of cigarette smoke in the room and informed reception.
A couple of days later, I received an email stating that they were charging me an extra £100 for cleaning the room due to us smoking in it.
I phoned them and told them that we were none smokers and we've never smoked in our lives and that I had mentioned to reception about the smell.
They claimed to have no record of it and £100 went out of my bank account before I had a chance to stop it.
No amount of arguing would make them refund it.
I was fuming more than any cigarette!

We had a car one too, bought DS a car which developed a fault and cost far more to repair than it was worth. Sold it for next to nothing. Recently bought a pair of walking boots for £60 wore them once and realised they were too small. Sold them for £25 on ebay. Gutted.

08DiscombobulatedAf, you do know they use the same photo on your driving liscense and passport nowadays, all linked?

An expensive pair of frames for my new glasses some years ago (about £250.) They hurt and didn't fit right and despite endless adjustments were impossible to wear. They were from a small, independent optician, who (unlike Specsavers and Boots and other chains) would not exchange the frames free. He just said I was the one who chose them. I ended up going to Specsavers and paying again for a pair of much cheaper and more comfortable frames.

I have 721 shares in a company which I paid £4.14 for.

Currently at 116.43.

The toll bridge one...done it before and if you explain it's your first time they often let you off!

Also I recommend downloading Honey as a chrome extension and it adds the discounts all over the internet to your basket without you doing anything! Always saves me money!

Well these are salutary tales! I already said the worst but suddenly remembered getting a brand new Nokia mobile phone and couldn't work out how to open it to put my sim in and tried to jimmy it open with a sharp implement. Yes I cracked it badly; cost £70 to repair.

@Thebookswereherfriends

Realised last week that I have been paying a monthly direct debit for 5 years for something I stopped using 5 years ago! It’s about £1500 gone!!!! I thought the dd was for a private pension. Only realised my mistake when they sent an email saying they would resume taking payments (must have been paused during Lockdown, although I didn’t have any emails about it). I am not loaded.

The direct debit guarantee means the bank are legally obliged to return your money