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? :-)

@hellokitty67 what does the app icon loon like?

@Sneakyfox hope she is ok tomorrow.I have ex batts too they are great little birds.

@Ugzbugz

Omg I have lost and wasted thousands.

A couple of K keeping an old rustbucket going.

Sold a house at a loss and then tons on the furniture was lost.

Got pushed into buying one of those stupid picture album things...750 quid I think that was 20 years ago

300 quid on a holiday I couldn't attend.

Clothes and shoes I've never worn.

Thousands on drinks and drugs and bandits out in my youth.

I HATE myself now.

Until I saw your post correcting bandits to nights I had naively assumed bandits was some new drink/drug/something else I hadn't heard of!

I’m not going to get a lot of sympathy for this one...

Approaching my 50th birthday & feeling insecure, I went to see a cosmetic doctor. He looked great, but I couldn’t place his age. He could have been in his 20s or in his 40s; it was impossible to tell, because his skin was perfect. In fact his skin looked a bit like plastic. I wasn’t sure it was such a good look on a man, but I thought it would look pretty good on me, and at least people wouldn’t know I was 50. He told me he’d had a facial peel.

It was a phenol peel. He did them on his own clients, but when I enquired it was scary. They painted it on while you were awake and pointed fans at your face so you could stand the pain. Then it went hard and bright green, and you had to hide out at home for two weeks, drinking soup through a straw (because you couldn’t open your mouth), before you could finally emerge, blinking in the sunlight.

It was also three grand. So instead I shopped around and went to a different surgeon. He did a facial peel on me and it wasn’t painful, it didn’t set hard and I didn’t go green… it was just a bit red, then it scabbed over. My face dutifully peeled, and then after a week I realised; I looked exactly the same. There was no difference at all. Nonetheless I’d had it done and I had to pay for it - two thousand pounds! When I went back for the follow-up appointment I described the ‘perfect plastic’ look I had hoped for. The surgeon said, “Oh, that’s a phenol peel. We don’t do them, they don’t look natural”.

FFS, why would I shell out two grand to look natural?? I would honestly have got a better result if I’d spent twenty quid on face cream in Boots and drunk a bit more water. I might just as well have gone down to the bottom of the garden, set fire to two thousand pounds & watched it BURN.

Don’t bother pointing out it’s my own fault because I know. That’s why I still gnash my teeth over it three years later.

Haha . I'm so sorry to run salt into the wound.. but problems with drains and "gutting" /gutters ...am I the only one who noticed that ?

These stories stress me out. I accidentally binned my return train ticket once and lost money on a holiday this yr due to covid. Anything to do with money or insurance makes me nervous, I'm always sure I'm going to make a stupid mistake.

I was in Denmark alone and spent a lot of money on the very expensive tourism card, which for 24 hours gives you free transport and free access to various attractions. I planed the entire day around various sights and attractions so the card would be worth it.

Got the train to Louisiana Art Gallery and was so worried the ticket (it’s a tiny paper thing) would get lost in my backpack I put it in my pocket. Got to the art gallery and it was gone. Must have blown out of my pocket. Retraced steps to station twice trying to find it. Decided for some insane reason to pay - again - for the art gallery and didn’t like it at all and they weren’t doing their special lunch which was one of the main reasons I wanted to visit.

Remembered once I got on the train back that the paper I’d lost was also the train ticket, so terrified of being caught. Then had no money to do anything else.

Later in the trip I paid a fortune to enter Tivoli Gardens because I wanted to go to the food court, then learned I could have gone into the food court for free anyway, and Tivoli was awful as cold and so late in the evening everything was switched off.

Travelled onto Stockholm and the day I flew home I realised the transport times are scheduled so the hourly bus from the train station to the airport leaves 2 minutes before the hourly train from Stockholm arrives. Brilliant planning!! Had to take an emergency cab which was again very expensive, as worried I’d miss my plane. Then the plane was delayed by three hours!

I haven’t been back to Scandinavia. Lovely place but not sure my bank balance could take it.

My Mum hand knitted me a poncho in molehair wool. It took her over a month to complete it. I went to France on Brittany Ferries and left in on board. I rang but they did not find it. My Mum has died now and I still miss that poncho. I feel so bad as it was the last thing she ever gave me. It is irreplaceable.

I paid a builder £45k to build a loft extension. When. It was completed it looked good. Since then loads of faults have appeared but contractor had gone bankrupt. I had to pay another contractor £7,500 to replace/repair original work.

I felt terrible because we had 2 original quotes and DH wanted more expensive one for 48,500k but I insisted cheaper one would do a good job.

Manager gave me £200 cash to buy food and drinks for a small Xmas gathering at his place for the staff. I put the money into an envelope...... thrn I went to the goddamn POSTBOX to post a letter in my way to food shop..... Yes you guessed it! Posted the wrong envelope (!) Had to wait at post box for mail collection by postie who was NOT impressed nor was he really allowed to give me contents of the box BUT my story was so believable and I was freaking out so he let me have my envelope back! Lucky escape albeit took ages all this so my manager was annoyed that I was so late with food etc

Missed our Eurostar train as I read the arrival back in London time as the departure from Paris time.
My ticket wasn’t transferrable, dds was. However there were no seats left except in first class so I was forced to upgrade hers and buy a whole new ticket for me. Oh and wait 5 hours until the next train.
We had been to Disney on a very tight budget (£300 for 3 nights incl food and tickets), but just our return tickets cost £300. Thank god my brother could lend me the money and had gone with us to the station (lives in Paris).
Also first class is rubbish. Didn’t like the food, couldn’t drink as had discovered was preg and the other passengers (business people) were snobby that I had a 3yr old in “their” carriage at 9.30 at night (even though she slept pretty much the whole way).

Full set of tyres, window wipers, a new week old car seat and a full tank of petrol. Car written off by an uninsured driver on New Year’s Eve.

Kitten adopted, neutered, vaccinated, chipped. Run over by some area while that didn’t stop. She died alone in the (very very quiet cup de sac) road the second week of being allowed out for a few hours. Heartbroken.

Had €500 nicked out of my handbag on my way to the villa on holiday in Spain.

Lost a carrier bag containing my leather jacket with an expensive necklace in the pocket.

Missed my ferry on the way back from Bestival so had to wait all day and buy another ticket to get on another one.

Paid for dental insurance for a decade only for them to refuse my claim when I needed emergency surgery after fainting and knocking out my front tooth (which cost a bomb).

So many more but it's painful to think about them!!

Got a new front door for £££££ because gormless teen DC could get it open without the key. I thought if he could do it so could any burglar so it wasn't secure.

First day, left the keys in it. Aforementioned DC offered to try and get it open. I declined the offer as of course he wouldn't be able to with THIS door, sat on the drive for hours when I should have been at work and paid £130 for a man to get us in.

About a month later DC casually mentioned that he had got locked out and got in using the exact same method as he used to use with the old door.

At least the new door looks nice . . .

Both my hubby & I lost our jobs during lockdown then received an £850 speeding fine & 5 points on my license so no chance of doing speed awareness programme due to lockdown - an area which was a 30 zone suddenly changed overnight to 20 zone & I was doing 36 mph - I know it’s over the limit but been driving for over 30 years & never got a ticket for anything 🥺 😥😥

We bought a house and only had the mortgage survey, because we didn't have the cash to pay for a full survey at the time.It's a beautiful house, the house of our dreams.
Two weeks in the range, like an aga which provided heating, hot water and cooking,stopped working. We knew it was old but it was working when we looked at the house. So we asked someone to come in to service it.
When he arrived he took one look and said, "I'm afraid it's obsolete, we can't get parts any more... And it's tiled in so I can't get at some bits."
He looked inside the boiler. In disbelief he said, "He's mended it with cement and MASTIC".
Then he lit the boiler and did a monoxide test. "If you were in here for a couple of hours, you wouldn't be here." The monoxide level was sky high.
"Oh. He's taken out the release valve." "Release valve?" "If there was a fire in the boiler, which let's face it isn't unlikely, it would shut off the oil supply. You've got a 500l tank of oil out there... it would either travel back to the tank, or just keep coming. You wouldn't have much house left."
"I'd better check the water tank.... Ah it's leaking, the floor underneath is rotten. ... Oh, he's altered the water system, and there's no release valve. If the water overheats you've basically got a bomb, no house."

They took out the range. It was rusty at the back, so fumes were going straight into the house. The flue was block solid, and I mean SOLID.
It took four men to get it out, (and cracked several flagstones in the path.)

£5000 later they had put in a nice new, economic, quiet boiler, but had to put in a new flue up through the house. They had also put in a new escape valve on the water system.
They also left black handprints all over the wall we had just had painted (another £300).
I refused to pay until they too away the range, which was sitting outside out front door. Which they did eventually.

We keep finding more bodged work, leaking sink, taps not right. The electrics keep blowing, so we're waiting for an electrician to check the electrics. We already know some is dodgy, many of the plugs in the kitchen come off an extension lead.

Oh and just to add insult to injury when we walked in he'd just walked out and left EVERYTHING; towels on the towel rail (and about 15 others in the airing cupboard, but no sheets thank goodness), soap (half used still on the basin). A whole cupboard full of cleaning stuff, some years old. All his cutlery, including large knives. I'm now the proud owner of five extra frying pans, numerous casserole dishes and baking trays (with dirt baked on). You can imagine the state of the kitchen cupboards.

He's disappeared to Portugal leaving no forwarding address.

Wow that's stressful usually Buying houses is so nerve wracking.

DH forgot to terminate his professional insurance contract (after he moved to a different one). €2000 down the drain.

My car.
Everything has started failing so in the last TWO MONTHS I've paid £110 for an exhaust part that fell off, £150 for new brake discs and pads, £60 new tyre, £200 for a new fuse box, £60 for new wipers, £30 for a car pass for the fuse box and then we insured it for a whole year three weeks ago. That's £610 in repairs and £250 insurance.

10 days after we got it insured, DH ran over a tree stump fallen in the road, smashed the new tyre and wrote off the car. It's been scrapped and we'll get £1400 back after the £200 excess.

I could cry. If we had money to buy a new car then we wouldn't be paying up a credit account at the garage keeping our 12 year old motor going.

Now I've had to borrow a family member's car, insure it for another £250 and I'm responsible for the tax too but at least we're temporarily back on the road. I truly regret doing all that work, most of which could have been left a while (discs, pads, wipers and fuse box, car pass etc).

Oh well. Eldest DD will have to start babysitting now while I go out and get a job. It sucks but she'll earn money babysitting after school when I'm working.

@SomeOtherGirl thanks, im almost 100 percent sure they will, problem is i didnt have a dash cam at the time and it was my first accident i did get damage pictures but not at the site where we crashed as we were blocking traffic at rush hour, so i can't prove she hit me other than the damage report and pictures taken where and how i was hit should prove enough to the court she drove off afterwards and her car was find however mine was not so fortunate she hit my door scraped all down drivers door and took out my back door so it was slanted and wasnt sealed it was all bent and chassis was bent so wasnt drivable after the accident i didnt think it was as bad until shock wore off about an hour later after i had moved the car from crash site but fingers crossed all goes well

A really long story, but basically we were moving countries and asked my brother-in-law to sell our car for us. Said he had a mate interested in buying it, then said he was going to buy it, eventually found out he had actually sold it weeks before and kept the money. Sob story about how they were broke and couldn't pay us back. Five years down the track and still no money. Gutted for the money and the broken trust.

I once underestimated my stay in a car park, so didn't put a £1 coin in the machine. I didn't notice the ticket until I was on my way home when I heard the swishing sound of the bag flapping in the wind. I sent a cheque for about £30 within 14 days - it would have doubled otherwise. I take extra care now.

The most painful recent one was the cat knocking my car keys into the recycling - nobody noticed. Off they went in the blue bin and bin lorry. £ 200 to replace the key.

I once went to work a night shift in a care home I didn't know, with a very bad head on - hormones all over the place. It was in the next county & I showed up in an even worse mood, as I'd had trouble finding the place. Steamed around for a while, then a male carer told me to cheer up & he leaned over and squeezed one of my tits!

That was IT. I stormed out of the place, got in my car and drove off.

Zoomed down the dark, deserted motorway in such a wax that I hardly noticed the roadworks.... anyway it was a motorway and I was only driving at 60mph.
It was actually 62mph.... I know this because shortly afterwards I got a speeding ticket. Of course it was being turned into a SMART MOTORWAY & I was meant to be travelling at 50. So; I lost the couple of hundred I would have got from working the shift and I also lost the speeding fine money (I've blocked out the amount, but it was too much, whatever it was).

I won £50 on online bingo using free tickets. I decided on the spur of the moment to attend an event at the other side of the country, so booked the £50 return flights. Sleazyjet, so non refundable.

Two days later, I realised that I couldn't go on those dates after all so I'd wasted my winnings.

So, so annoyed at myself.

Not sure if reading these makes me feel better or worse?!

Over the last year, some particular ones from me:

• stayed in a hotel for work and left my beloved Kindle Voyage. Not made anymore, replaced it but it’s not the same
• oven broke. Replacement £400
• dishwasher hose broke. Luckily drains outside so no damage but it took two weeks to get the replacement! God I hate washing up
• backed into a car in the car park - I was parking so going so slowly I couldn’t feel I was backing into him, and he just sat there. £180 to buff out the scuff from my bumper
• long weekend booked at fancy Airbnb for two weeks time. 14 of us going. Hopefully no money lost but I’m gutted. Haven’t seen some of my family for a year and was really looking forward to it
• boiler has been only intermittently working, we’ve had no hot water for the best part of six weeks. The novelty of cold showers has thoroughly worn off!

In general I’m the sort of person who impulse buys and spends money when feeling down. I’ve been much much better this year, almost got on top of debt payments and then these unexpected things to pay for have happened.

@Sussedyouout

Both my hubby & I lost our jobs during lockdown then received an £850 speeding fine & 5 points on my license so no chance of doing speed awareness programme due to lockdown - an area which was a 30 zone suddenly changed overnight to 20 zone & I was doing 36 mph - I know it’s over the limit but been driving for over 30 years & never got a ticket for anything 🥺 😥😥

Surely you would have got a ticket for doing 36 in a 30 zone too?

I’m afraid I can’t work much sympathy given the truly terrible things that have happened to people on this thread. I think this one was on you.