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? :-)

@BuggerBognor

I used to live abroad and fostered stray cats. I looked after maybe 20 all together and there was one slightly hard-faced wizened old boy with one eye and cauliflower ears that I couldn’t persuade anyone to take. When I moved home to the UK, I (reluctantly) paid £1000 for his plane ticket. I went and bought him a bed and toys because the stuff I had was the animal charity’s. Another £50. Vet check - another £70-odd quid. Plus about 50 pouches of bloody Sheba (no teeth left so had to be soft food).

After a month of living like a king, he had a massive stroke, keeled over and dropped dead.

Aww 😿 I'd take solace in the fact that he died knowing someone cared for him and that he wasn't left to die all alone scared and hungry in the streets

It was 30 years ago and both parents still wince at the memory.

£30. Fuel to drive 75 miles each way for what I was told was my most local coronavirus test centre for symptomatic DC. Adhered to all the messages about wasting resources and arriving on time. Drive to 5.5hrs there and back in total including the test time.

Got home to discover 3 mobile testing units within 10 miles of me, from a link my friend sent me. No mention of these by 119 when called, or the .gov online service.

Furious.

I have a thing for pencils. Started with a cheap set and gradually worked my way up through to the more expensive sets as my skills improved. Really coveted a set that were £200, had a pay out after a serious car accident, so having done all my research I bought them, used them once and hated them, sold them for just over half price.
Was invited to take part in customer survey to earn £50, we were skint so I agreed, reversed my car into a portable loo lorry, excess £50.
Got a cheap deal at Butlins, left my brand new ugg boots under the bed. They had cost more than the holiday

[quote DiscombobulatedAf]@Leaannb because I expect Timpsons to know what will and won’t be accepted since it’s a popular service they offer He should have told me i was smiling too much[/quote]
Tbh I think that is actually not very reasonable. It's your responsibility not theirs. The pics could be for lots of stuff with different requirements. Timpsons employ ex offenders and do free dry cleaning for unemployed people going to interviews.

Hired a transit van to move house. Left my GSD in the cab for half an hour whilst we went for a coffee (cool day). Returned to find she had chewed through the seat belts, steering wheel and upholstery. £1000 of damage. Fuck me.

Parked at a mate’s for dinner. They came out to greet us, so obviously saw where we’d parked. Didn’t mention you aren’t allowed to park with wheels on the pavement. £80 fine.

Had about £30 left in foreign currency post a school trip. Parked up, ran into the Post Office without properly checking the sign. Came out to a £30 parking ticket.

Came home, DH had re-painted the bathroom ginger. I was like wtf?! I made him buy a neutral paint and re-paint it. Took a few coats.

We stayed in tel aviv when DD was tiny and hired a car. There was nowhere to park and we didn't understand the road signs, we got about 2 fines and towed once (took us ages to work out what had happened). DH was almost beserk with fury but on the last day there was nothing for it, it seemed, but to go and pay about £200 of fines on top of the towing fee.

I spoke on the phone as we were leaving to a cousin who we'd visited earlier who just said 'Oh, you didn't need to pay, they can't do anything once you're out of the country' - that was kind of my attitude, but DH was in such a froth about it we did it.

Two years ago we took a last minute holiday to Lanzarote. DH books plane tickets, does seem surprisingly cheaper than the other flights we've looked at. We have a lovely week, get to airport on December 30th, lady looks at out return tickets. They were for 30th January.

Luckily there is a flight for Birmingham leaving in 2 hours with 4 seats - our car is parked at Stansted. Luckily DH is doing a consulting job at the time, so the £500 for extra tickets is not too bad. Then another £200 or so on a cab from Birmingham to Stansted (train might have been quite quick, only, or course, there are Xmas works so no trains). Miraculously only got home about 6 hours late! Take the piss out of DH about booking things ever since.

Changed flights in Frankfurt, had sufficient time for 2nd flight so got to gate early and was web surfing as you do. Noticed that seating wasn't filling up. Checked boarding card, wrong gate, ran to correct gate (frankfurt is very big), grumpy Lufthansana man was very cross with me - my plane was just departing and i was only missing passenger.

Went to rebook for the later direct flight - they tried to charge £800 + as business seats only, so decided would rather sit it out.

Got back on web and rebooked with KLM for indirect flight back to Manchester for about £200, got to correct gate for flight, that flight was cancelled, they kindly transferred me to the later Lufthansa flight at no extra cost. Still very annoyed with myself, it was so stressful.

@Plussizejumpsuit
But it's Timpson's job to know what the passport photo specs are. Whenever I go to Snappy Snaps or even the pharmacy down the road I tell them what it's for (passport for specific country, etc) and they do it perfectly.

Had a train ticket and left it on the train, not realising you needed it to get through the automatic barriers. Had to buy a whole new ticket.

Booked a hotel room for the wrong night. Booked it for that night rather than the night I wanted it for. Tried to get it changed and they said no as they now couldn't sell it. When I booked it, it was already 9pm that night so they weren't likely to sell it anyway!

Last year we were heading back to Calais after a week at a Eurocamp site we'd visited several times. We were obviously feeling like old pros at it now and knew how long it would take to get to Calais for the ferry. Chilled morning packing up, leisurely walk around the local supermarket for road trip snacks. Get in the car. Sat nav says three hours. We'd allowed two.
Ended up booking the Chunnel whilst we drove at a cost of £180 and got to Calais as our ferry was pulling out of the dock. Because of the speed of the train, and it dropping you further inland, we lost no time at all on our journey. Just the £180.

Booked an animal experience online for my daughter...wondered why the website and animal experiences looked different than when I looked before but didn't think any more of it. Next day when looking at the email confirmation realised I had booked it for Colchester Zoo not Chester Zoo!! Rang the zoo less than 12 hours after booking. ..told it was non-refundable. My husband rang a 2nd time.. £60 refunded minus £20 admin fee.

I lost out on thousands of pounds for degree that I didn't finish through illness... that sucked!

That's great that your DH is fixing the loo to make up for no.1!

I recently bought one more ticket for an attraction than I needed because I literally miscounted how many people were in my family.

Most recently, football boots that DS needed for starting school. School email a couple of days before their first day to say they now won't need football boots until Winter, at least. Just have to hope they'll still fit him otherwise that's £36 wasted.

Most annoying is the £6.99 per month that I've paid for around ten years (I think, I don't want to work it out!) for 'breakdown' insurance on a laptop. In that time it's had a replacement battery and charging port. It's spent at least half that time sat in a laptop bag, unused. I could've just saved the money and got a whole new laptop! 😡

I've NCd for this.

92k on fabric I didn't use in the end. Despite best intentions. I can't even discuss it in real life.

Is there no way you can try to resolve no3 and get your room discount OP? I feel for you!

@Plussizejumpsuit I specifically said it was for a passport photo. Jesus Christ, I’m unreasonable for expecting the guy to know whether or not the photo would be accepted. It’s his job to know! Otherwise what’s the point of offering the service?

Rover 416i 1996. Was a beautiful car to drive and won lots of motor show awards the year we bought it. Researched it well. Engine 1 overheated and blew after 7500 miles. Replaced under warranty. Engine 2 lasted 17,000 miles overheated and blew. We got it replaced because DH is a lawyer and our correspondence was very very good. There was a fault with the engine design and they were renowned for it. Part exchanged it when it was 4 years old for a sickeningly low price - it cost us at least £3k in value. It was meant to last 10 years! although by DC2 it was too small anyway.

But apart from that, no major losses yet.

I've a few from recently. Or DH has...and it's made me grumpy as fuck.

We have a limited company, last year our company confirmation statement was late ( DH was working insane hours and I was going through investigations for lung cancer) anyway, we were fined, this year I said the fine gets doubled if it's late again, we need to do it on time!
DH says, I'll do it! Dont you worry. Except he didn't. £1500 fine on our doorstep.

Then he says, babe, I'll sort our corporation tax this year, don't worry. Well that's good because I havent seen a bloody receipt for the last year. I told you I wouldnt be sorting it. Tax filing was late. £500 fine.

He earned 4 parking tickets for parking outside of our house in pur private bay last year. They spiralled to £1000 between them.

Oh and this ones joyous, he closed down our barclays business account in January to instead use a tide business account. Tide never got around to offering us the opportunity to apply for a BBL when Covid kicked off.

It seems like DHs mistakes are coming at a massive cost right now!

@veralynn

I've NCd for this.

92k on fabric I didn't use in the end. Despite best intentions. I can't even discuss it in real life.

Is there no way you can try to resolve no3 and get your room discount OP? I feel for you!

I have to know more about this fabric that costs more than a house in South Wales...

A few weeks after paying about £60 to have my car's aircon gas topped up, and then getting a nail in a tyre I'd only just bought and having to pay to replace that, I hit a deer and the car was written off (as was the deer, poor thing).

When me and ex split i booked a dodgy removals and it cost me £780

That was a lot of money to lose mid split

A close second is a pair of football boots that they wore twice that cost £68

And took out £100 to pay the CM , and lost it
That was fucking annoying

And my friend jammed my door
£220 for locksmith to un jamm it