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? :-)

Spent about £700/800 pounds on two sofas for my new house, didn't realise how big they'd be in my tiny house (I did measure, but couldn't visualise it). Had to lump them in the store room and buy a smaller sofa.

Booked a flight through On The Beach, all seemed to go through OK, so booked a hotel directly as the one we wanted wasn't on the site.

Next day I get a call from OTB, they don't have 4 seats on the flight, only one. No other flights available to that destination on that day, and since no money had left our account, their customer service basically told us it was 'tough shit' in as many words. Apparently, this happens all the time. So, we're now stuck with a non-refundable hotel and no flights. Spoke to the hotel direct and they wouldn't budge, so had to spend a fortune on flights to an airport two hours away, then pay another hefty amount for transfers. I think we ended up about £500 over budget at this point.

In the end, the hotel was shite too and didn't have a certain advertised feature. Damn Tripadvisor.

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.

I accidently chucked away an old Christmas card in my dd's room not realizing her Christmas money was in there. had to refund her £50 as it was my fault.

I got back from holiday and my toilet just would not flush. Rang an emergency plumber in a panic, he turned up, he tried the flush and - you probably guessed it - it worked perfectly! He felt sorry for me and charged me £40 instead of £80 for the call out. But still ... If only I hadn't panicked.

You can definitely appeal to merseyflow! I did and the first time they left me off. Not so lucky the second time, sadly. Worth ringing them to plead your case and hope they take pity.

@SomeOtherGirl

Oh bum I reposted the photo! The picture is for you *@Lobsterquadrille2*, it's a helmet that says "wake me up at XXX" Never mind, it's a good pic :-D Google Chindogu Japan for more ridiculous inventions from Japan

The toblerone comment is because the toblerone comment made me laugh!

I have actually seen people with this kind of sign on then, generally during the Christmas party season! I haven't drunk for many years so wouldn't have the same problem now.

I don't even want to start calculating what I squandered on alcohol .... 😬

I couldn't find the confirmation email for our airport hotel, and concluded I must have forgotten to book it, so booked it again. Turned up at the hotel to be told we had booked two rooms (non-refundable).

Flymetothetoon A pedestrian struck by a vehicle travelling at 30mph has a 90% chance of survival. Struck at 40mph, a 90% chance of death. The limit is 30 for a reason. Don't be in such a goddamn hurry.

Buying baby monitors. Then someone gave me some. And I never used them after the first time because I used to hear ds crying long before I heard it on the monitor. Biggest waste of about £50 ever. Not a big one in terms of £££ but still annoying.

Just now. Went to get something out of freezer in garage. Contents of freezer feel all soft and the light didn't come on. For the 2nd time in 2 months DH has unplugged it to use a power tool and failed to plug it in again.

@thebookswereherfriends depending on what it is, it might be worth chancing it and asking for a refund.

I found out Id been paying RAC membership for a car I hadnt owned for 5 years and amazingly they refunded me after I showed evidence that I'd sold the car.

God I really need to be more careful . For 3 of those years we were watching every penny, but obviously not close enough.

Rely on my computer for food and all other shopping as agoraphobic. Logged on one day and computer wouldn't respond. In a panic found a computer repair bloke that would come out that day in the yellow pages. Cost £75.00 for the call out. Guess what was wrong? The mouse had packed up. He then charged me on top of the callout for the new mouse. £75.00 + for a new bloody mouse!

I want to thankyou! Just reading this and thinking, imagine if I'd booked the hotel that we go to every year for the GNR (convinced I hadn't) just checked and I had booked it. It would have been £750 down the drain. Now cancelled, phew. Strange how things happen. Cheers!

Took a 'new' ex battery chicken to the 'out of hours' vets last night for a prolapsed vent because I couldn't get it back in. £178 later, prolapse back in. By the time we drove home again, prolapsed again. Waste of money...trying everything now (google is a wonderful thing), back to vets tomorrow.

@thenightsky

Just now. Went to get something out of freezer in garage. Contents of freezer feel all soft and the light didn't come on. For the 2nd time in 2 months DH has unplugged it to use a power tool and failed to plug it in again.

I feel your pain thenightsky. DH left our larder freezer door ajar one night and went to bed. I found it next morning.

Let's just say I was not pleased.

He's not made the same mistake again he's too frightened but he's now taken to leaving the larder fridge ajar instead.

I need to scare the bejaysus out of him again.

you're
Fucking autocorrect

Selling all my tech shares last year. I have been watching them go up and up and feeling very fed up about it. Really want a stock market crash!

In Paris on honeymoon. Walking along looking for something to eat which is difficult as I'm vegetarian and Paris doesn't (or didn't nearly 20 years ago) cater to vegetarians. Walked close to a restaurant and could see they didn't have anything so started to walk away. Waiter tried to get us in and I explained I was vegetarian and they didn't have anything for me 'come in we can make you something!' Wasn't suggested anything so we asked for cheese sandwiches and a beer each - served a 3/4 pint of beer - not lager like I expected so dh got two drinks and two small baguettes, no butter or spread and one slice of cheese - cheese with massive holes in. Bill comes and they charged us €26 😟 I actually hysterically laughed and kept the receipt to show people when I got home how much we were charged.

Just lost the remote control to our posh ( inherited ) fan : £30 to replace.
Lost thousands on our first home because we had negative equity ( late 90s)
Damaged my car last year : (2k and still rankles me a year on! ) nobody injured though or anything.
Must be many others I can't recall.
Never been winners with property buying!

Dh “tidying up” for once and throwing away his 6month old passport a week and a bit before holiday. Dd was looking for something the other week and said “mum, I think I found dads passport.”

@SomeOtherGirl I have not read the whole thread. I’m not sure where u are based. If it is the dartford bridge crossing. You don’t get a fine for your first one.