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 booked a return flight and didn't change the day so I literally would have arrived and been on the same plane for the flight back. It cost me £130 to change as it was an economy flight. Several expired gift cards and a holiday for me on my own that I lost courage to go on (£500). Blushing as I type this and there are probably more.

Got home the other day and in the post was a parking ticket!! Shocked, I wasn't aware I'd parked wrongly. £50 down the drain, didn't dare not pay as it was about to ramp up to £85....

I went to the tip yesterday and got back to the car only to realise that I'd thrown my bunch of keys (unique and expensive to replace house key, car key fob also very expensive to replace, and various other keys) into the containers with my rubbish bags. Face palm moment!

It could have been one of two huge containers I'd thrown stuff in. I had four tip men trying looking in the last bin I'd used - the metal recycling bin, trying to see if it had caught somewhere near the top of the metal container, rather than dropping down into the depths of the rubbish. It was looking unlikely.
Another chap took me to the first general rubbish one I'd used, to investigate there. I recognised my bag of coat hangers lying on top of an old mattress. The guy managed to reach it and lo and behold, there were my keys. How lucky was that?

So what could have cost me hundreds to replace, actually only cost me the beer and chocolates that I took down later to say thank you.

So a near miss really, but a definite face palm moment. Wtaf did I just do, moment.

On my first holiday abroad without my parents I accidentally tipped a waiter €50 instead of €5.

@DiscombobulatedAf

Thought of another one. I went to Timpsons to get a passport photo taken. I spent ages on my hair and makeup and it was one of the best pics I’ve had taken. Took it to the passport office (my appointment was incredibly early and it was my day off) so I hadn’t bothered with makeup or anything. I didn’t look scruffy just very plain and a little sleepy. The said they couldn’t accept the photo as I was smiling slightly and I’d have to take a new one then and there. I was raging. I still can’t bring myself to look at my new passport pic 😪 the gorgeous one I took haunts me as I can’t use it but I’m going to see if it’ll be accepted for my new drivers licence. I still curse timpsons whenever I walk by one

Why are you cursing Timpsen's? They did exactly what they were supposed too. Its the passport agency you should be cussing because they refused it just because you smiled

bought a second hand sofa that wouldn't go up the stairs to my flat - its a house conversion. Had to leave it blocking the shared hallway and then give it away on freecyle.

This summer I spent 100 on a portable air conditioning unit. Put it on for the first time to discover that although it blew cold air out the front, it also blee hot air out thr back and warmed the room rather than cooling it down.

I'd waited so long to use it due to the fear of having a massive electirc bill that I was no longer able to return it.

These car ones are making me anxious. My car's an old banger, worth about £50 as a write-off, and everytime I have to spend money on it I start calculating whether it would be better to just cut my losses. Three weeks ago I had to have a new bumper (thankfully paid for by the person who went into me), two new tyres, and four new headlight bulbs (in two separate trips). I was about to drive it long distance on holiday so really needed to coax it through. I keep thinking the next time anything happens I'll just save my money and put it towards a new car, but because it's only ever one thing at a time, I always keep paying out. If it finally dies soon and it's with those new bulbs, tyres, and bumper, I'll be really annoyed.

spent £350 on uniform for 2 DCs even though it's looking increasingly unlikely that any kids are going to be in school every day all year - one near us has closed after just a couple of days. ☹️

Aiguabava Aren't you supposed to put it in an open window so the hot air goes outside?

Two years ago I paid £120 for a domain name for a website I never set up. Forgot all about it. It recently renewed for another two years - another £120. Idiot.

@honeygirlz

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.

Same. House of Fraser card wasted. And same, I bought a paragliding session for 2 for DH's birthday via buyagift.com. The first three days we booked to use them, the weather was bad so the provider cancelled. After that I fell pregnant so couldn't do it.

Once I'd had the baby they refused to honour the voucher even given the circumstances

Bought a small, quirky caravan for £13,000, thinking it would be the answer to all out holiday issues for several years to come. Went away in it for four days and hated it. Too small and too quirky .....

..... just sold it .....

..... for £10,000 ...... ..... (including an awning we paid an extra £800 for ...... ). Never again .......

We were promised a certain mortgage by a developer in Dubai, so signed for a house there and paid approx £100,000 as a deposit.
Said mortgage then turned out not to exist, but the developer will not allow us out of our contract. (It did say in the fine print, but they only presented us the contract at the airport and told us if we didn't sign it that day, we'd lose our holding deposit)

Im fairly confident we are not going to get back that £100,000

It's not only our life savings, but a significant loan from parents too.

We spent best part of £2000 for a week in a hideous eurocamp place, including flights, car hire etc plus more for spends. We only managed 2 days, came home on day 3, having paid for new flights. Could have gone to a 5 star hotel in an exotic location for the actual cost we paid per night.

Temperature in Lake Garda were in the high 30's, air con was worse than useless and ds1 does not cope with heat. Location was horrible, Too hot to sleep, everything was awful. I was just so grateful to be able to leave I really didn't care about the money actually but if I think about it logically, it was a terrible waste.

We were once horrified at our insurance renewal cost. So doing the good thing trawled around to find a better deal. Got so confused and distracted by the end we decided on the best deal we could find. Happy days.

A month late clearing out my inbox I found the old renewal email, £30 less than the price we ended up paying we'd obviously got so twisted around we forgot the original amount we were trying to beat.

@TheClawww

We were promised a certain mortgage by a developer in Dubai, so signed for a house there and paid approx £100,000 as a deposit. Said mortgage then turned out not to exist, but the developer will not allow us out of our contract. (It did say in the fine print, but they only presented us the contract at the airport and told us if we didn't sign it that day, we'd lose our holding deposit)

Im fairly confident we are not going to get back that £100,000

It's not only our life savings, but a significant loan from parents too.

Oh no! I'm very sorry to hear that. Have you spoken to a solicitor?

@Aiguablava we bought one this summer too; they all blow hot air out the back! We have a big plastic tube connected to the back which we put through an open window, which is also covered with a plastic sheet which is velcroed to the window frame (the tube goes through a hole in the middle).

Couldn't find the whole family's walking boots after an overnight visit to friends. Asked them to check if we'd left them there. Apparently no.

Forked out for four new pairs, only to be told several months later that they'd been found in a black big bag in their garage.

that smug red bastard leaning jauntily on the wardrobe
That is one of the funniest sentences I've ever read on MN. Literally laughed until I cried and DS1 came to see if I was okay.

Would it be worth contacting the holiday accommodation place and telling them what you've done? They might honour the discount anyway or give you some other freebie?

Only suggesting it because I've done similar before - had a big purchase and company A accepted Amex and company B, which was selling the item for cheaper, didn't. Told company B that I would make a significant amount from Amex cashback so I might go with them and they immediately offered me an amount off that was 5xthe amount I would have got with the cashback!

I also buggered up my mortgage Help To Buy and chanced my arm complaining to the bank that they didn't make it clear what you had to do (this was when it was very new and, to be fair, they didn't, but ultimately the error was mine). They immediately refunded me the amount I would have got if I'd done H2B correctly out of their own money, plus extra for my inconvenience!

OTOH a big 'loss' was starting uni just before my dad retired - he was on a good wage so I had to pay a fair whack. My sister started two years after and got nearly a full grant whereas I will still be paying back my student loan for at least the next decade....

I agree it's generally much easier to quickly lose money than to make it! I would try not torturing yourself too much about it OP, it won't help and will only make yourself feel bad. Forgive yourself (and poor DH!) and have a lovely holiday when you go!

I was in in Rome a few years ago with a friend. We needed to buy train tickets to Assisi so looked everywhere for someone to help us. Absolutely everyone only spoke Italian, even the information bureau person! Got on the train and we were fined €500 for not validating our tickets correctly within minutes. I was so upset, the poor passengers on the train were pleading with the conductor - in Italian! - to give us a break, but no luck. I was angry for the rest of the trip!

I am still fuming about a giant Toblerone I left about 10 years ago

Me, too!

Mine was a rare white Toblerone and I still think of it.

@Aiguablava You're definitely supposed to put the tube out of the window, as others have said. This is why air con is supposed to be bad for the environment - because it's blowing out hot air into the atmosphere on an already hot day. If it didn't come with a tube, you need it as a separate attachment.

@rooarsome

Slightly different but I forked out a small fortune for my daughter's dance and gym wear in Feb. They both closed down in March and now at reopening time nothing fits her! She wore her tap shoes a grand total of... once

Similar for DS and rugby. Think he wore his (very nice) rugby boots three times. And now his feet have grown and they no longer fit, so I've just shelled out to buy him the next size up.