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? :-)

Paid to fix lock on car door only for door to be driven into days later. Got the wrong train so paid for a taxi home at about £40. Smoked on and off for over 15 years, hate to think how much that cost. Also have a mortgage on a house that is worth less than we paid for it when add in all the repairs needed.

Flymetothetoon Apologies, peace out.

I once booked tickets for us all to see a Saturday matinee of War Horse in PLymouth, only somehow I'd flipped up the pull down list and picked the matinee performance for the previous Thursday. By the time I noticed it was too late and it was all sold out. Gutted family.

£90 filling car tank, £100 for AA to suck unleaded out of diesel, £90 to refill

@LynnThese4reSEXPEOPLE

A company that comes up when you google passport application and charges the same amount as the passport application. But what you get is a filled out passport form. I then had to pay again to get my passport. Was RAGING. These days I always check the little padlock on websites but this was around 10 years ago

It wouldn't have made a difference, all of the scam sites do have the padlock as well.

You need to check that the URL ends in .gov.uk

Yeah loads
Bought a piece of vintage hifi that was ridiculously rare. Knew it was, owner admitted he had looked it up but couldn't be bothered with the hassle, I got it for a steal.
In my haste to show the bargain I had had to DP, I tripped over and dropped it. On concrete. It was absolutely totalled from the fall.
Could've easily got a few hundred pounds for it.

My wedding seems like a ridiculous expense right about now when I've had to postpone it until next year. My wedding dress is hanging in a garment carrier on my wardrobe door as it won't fit inside it, it feels like it's mocking me every time I go in my bedroom.

Bought a ticket for a festival years ago and on the day of I couldn’t find the damm ticket so I had to shell out allot for a new one.
A few day’s later someone said ‘shame you didn’t buy it online as you could just of reprinted it’ .....WTAF like ...I muttered something of agreement. The utter waste of all that money how had I not realised that I could just bloody reprint....the shame still follows me lol

The grand national this year, (at the start of lockdown) it was run virtually. I have never placed a bet online in my life (or even in a betting shop) but Dh and i decided to put a bet on. He chose the horse. I rushed and got really stressed trying to open an account, but managed to do it, but didn’t really understand the system. Put the bet on with very little time to spare. I then managed to cancel the bet, no idea how.

The horse then bloody won. I’m self employed, so had very little money coming in and Dh was furloughed. We would have won £200. I was devastated. I cried and cried. Life was tough anyway and I felt I had completely thrown away £200.

I left my handbag on a train. I'm more upset that it had the coffee chocolate that I'd bought for Christmas in it.

I'm really bloody annoyed with myself today. I put off making a dentist appointment for so long that they've flipping well struck me off. And now I don't have a dentist and there aren't any local to me so I'm going to have to pay ££££'s to have a private appointment and hygienist, god help me if I need any actual sodding work done.

Those bloody Groupon / Living Social / Wowcher getaways. Wasted £300 on unused vouchers.

House of Fraser - unused £200 giftcard

I'm quite frugal so the above hurt.

H 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

I remember df doing a 20+ mile round tour across country lanes in North Wales to avoid a toll.
The toll was 5p.

Even in the 80s that wasn't worth it.

Booked a cheap flight for me and one DC2 to go and surprise visit DC1 in Europe. Thought we woulld do a 24 hr trip and back.. cheap flights.. i booked tickets to the wrong airport.. took 7 hours on public transport from airport to DC1. Then took a taxi back to correct airport. The flights cost £80 in total .. the other transportation cost were in excess of €250......

@SomeOtherGirl how long since you missed the toll? Me and a colleague both managed to plead our way out of fines for the mersey flow! Worth a shot!

About £600 to have a complicated root canal repair....which didn't work. That felt really bad with shame included day is not looked after that tooth.

Took £50 out of an atm an walked off leaving it behind.

A few parking tickets.

I feel I've been more lucky than unlucky though. I've had decent discounts on stuff. Managed to get things repaired in warranty I never thought would be covered. Had good second hand cars and sturdy houses.

I got a bonus at work for £100, cue a parking ticket for .......... you guessed it £100

This reminds me of Monopoly. Pass go £200, Super Tax £200.

I did the same thing with the new Mersey bridge. I usually pay as we go over but I left it then received the penalty. Like you it was for both ways. Grrrrr. I just paid it and forgot about it. Hate that there is no toll booth.

The one that makes me angry is after you buy something on Debenhams, they asked you if you want £16 cashback. Many years ago (8 years +), I clicked yes and it turned out it wasn't cashback, the company take your ticking yes as consent to charge you a direct debit of around £10pm for God knows what.

I've never fallen for it again but I wonder how many people they've tricked. Unless there is a benefit that I was missing? I use Quidco and Topcashback with no issues.

*I remember df doing a 20+ mile round tour across country lanes in North Wales to avoid a toll.
The toll was 5p. grin

Even in the 80s that wasn't worth it.*

I came across a barrier last year that was 25p to open. I didn't have any change on me and had to drive 10 miles around to get to the other side of the barrier.

I don’t have any stories but I’ve read on MN plenty of times that if you email or call the toll company and apologise etc they’ll usually waive the fine and let you just pay the toll 🤞

I accidentally chucked out a carrier bag with Christmas gifts i'd bought once. I only realised after bins were emptied. Think I had about £70 of stuff in it and I was poor enough at the time without tossing all my family's presents in the bin!

Before I had a camera phone I was taking photos of an item to sell on gum tree for about £10.00. Accidentally stood on the £120 camera and broke it.

Paid a bargain £150 for a years gym membership.
Went once 😂

Most expensive workout ever.

I like to browse ebay when half asleep. It annoys me that sometimes when something is actually dolls house sized that it can look real-life sized onscreen until it arrives with a disappointing tiny thump at your doorstep.

Got DH to book me a train ticket using his card for our joint account. I was coming home from my parents' (and heavily pregnant), DH was 300 miles away at home. Got to the station and, because I didn't have the card the booking was made with, couldn't retrieve the ticket. No amount of pleading helped so I had to buy a whole new, expensive last-minute ticket.