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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask what's your stupidity tax?

114 replies

autienotnaughty · 31/08/2024 07:04

Stupidity tax - something you have done that's ended up costing you financially or emotionally.

I'll go first.

I'm in the house one Friday night with dh and the kids. Eldest has a friend over who I offer to drive home. Can't find the car keys anywhere. I nip out to the car (I have form for leaving the car unlocked) discover that not only is the car unlocked but the keys are in the ignition switch on (as in lights and radio should be on but engine is not running). Probably been like that around five hours so the battery is completely dead.
Dh cannot revive the dead battery so end up paying ££ To increase our emergency cover to include home start and £££ for a new battery.
All in all a pretty expensive mistake. This sort of thing happen to anyone else?

OP posts:

cadburyegg · 02/09/2024 00:27

Oh and one lesser thing. Organised several months in advance to go to Harry Potter world with some work colleagues. They all booked tickets together and I booked separately, I can't remember why now. We got there and I discovered I'd booked my ticket for the day after. Fortunately I only had to pay an admin fee to get it changed!

WonderingOneOfAll · 02/09/2024 00:38

cadburyegg · 02/09/2024 00:23

Lost a whole bunch of keys recently- in my house. All easily replaced apart from my car key- fortunately I have a spare but car keys expensive to replace and I'm hoping the others turn up before I lose this set.

Left a pair of prescription sunglasses in a premier inn last year. Improved this year and left a whole suitcase in a holiday cottage. Good going.

A couple of years ago I was driving the dc to holiday club and running a few minutes late to work. I clipped a kerb and needed 2 new tyres.

The mistake I regret the most was when one of my friends became homeless whilst having Covid and I invited her to stay at my house. Some MNers might remember this story. I hired a van at my expense and drove 150 miles to pick her up and all her stuff. She ended up staying in my house for 18 months, during which I paid for nearly everything, lent her £500, paid for the majority of her food, never asked her for a contribution towards bills. I gave her about 3 months notice to leave and the day I asked her to go she told me in great detail that I wasn't on the same "intellectual level" as her.

But the most expensive mistake I ever made was agreeing that my ex could have a significantly bigger proportion of the house equity than he was entitled to. Almost as soon as I transferred the money to him, he stopped paying maintenance.

No good deed goes unpunished. 😂

Before I became a single parent I never did any of this stupid shit. 😩

🌺💐🫂

ChandlersMum · 02/09/2024 00:44

Also a car one...sorry for the length, its ridiculous.

Tyres needed replacing, so already expensive. Couldn't find the locking wheel nut. Had only had the car just under a year so wasn't 100% sure we'd been given it. Called the garage we got it from. Had the car/house/loft upside down looking for it (had recently done a massive sort out so it could have been anywhere). Still couldn't find it. Had a long journey to make and MOT due, really needed it done ASAP. Two local garages tried and failed. Local dealer could book us in for 6 weeks or order a replacement in two weeks, which may or may not work. All expensive and none in the time frame we needed.

One of the school Mums husbands is a mechanic and offered to weld them off. It took him forever but he managed it, but the car developed a weird problem with the alarm - it just wouldn't stop going off. Had to unlock and then let it lock itself. Needed to be sorted, but got tyres changed and went on the trip.

Got the car into the dealership to investigate the problem as local mechanic couldn't fix it. Took weeks. Had to hire another car for holiday as the courtesy car wasn't big enough. Total cost approx £2.5k.

BTW, there is a technique to disconnecting the battery on some cars (for safety you disconnected the battery when welding), which wasn't done and caused the alarm problem.

Last week, over a year after the ordeal was over, I found the locking wheel nut.

Sharptonguedwoman · 02/09/2024 01:43

toxic44 · 02/09/2024 00:16

Because of DP's autism and mental health issues any unforeseen developments or problems knock him for six. Panic, severe anxiety attack, meltdown. He was so stunned and incredulous he was on repeat and verging on self-destruct. I was stupid to agree to help her because I knew she disliked me but I assumed her love for him would take priority.

Show quote history

That is hard, I am so sorry.

Spaceman101 · 02/09/2024 03:40

Melted and destroyed the Ninja air fryer by leaving the hob on max heat which it was sat right next to. Luckily I didn't burn the house down.

Treesandsheepeverywhere · 02/09/2024 05:33

Parked on the outskirts of the city to avoid Ulez and parking fees.
Got the train in, big shop, heavy bags etc.
Ticket arrived a few days later as the garden centre I'd parked at had a new 3 hour limit, which I exceeded by 26 minutes.
Worst part is I could have parked for free at the train station which was a 5 minute walk from the garden centre and could have saved myself the incline walk with heavy bags.

Original poster

autienotnaughty · 02/09/2024 06:34

IRememberWhenThisWasAllFieldsAndCakePunching · 01/09/2024 23:18

Oh oh I have a good one!!

Back when DS was a baby, we booked a holiday abroad. I had never been before, but dutifully went about applying for DS' passport and got my boss to sign his photos. Sent it off and then the week before we were meant to fly, still no passport for baby DS. We were meant to fly out on a Monday, but Friday came and still no passport. Called the passport people and it turned out I had got my
Boss to sign that the photos of DS were a true likeness for me not DS! So my
Boss had to answer an email from the passport office, I had to get new photos taken for DS and then drive the 50 mile round trip to work to get the photos signed again, then get the photos sent next day signed delivery.

I called every hour on the hour on Saturday in the hope that someone received them, but the office shut at lunchtime, and DP was so angry with me that I cooked up a plan. DP would fly out as planned from Manchester on the 6am flight. and I would take DS in his pram on the train to bloody Newport passport office to collect the passport, then fly out from Cardiff on the 5pm plane. Now, I was hedging my bets because no one had told me that the passport would be ready for collection on the Monday, and someone had said it is likely to be Newport but could be Liverpool, so I was really gambling.

Anyway, got to Newport with my carry on bag of luggage, DS and the pram. As I exited the train station, I called the passport office who said no it's Liverpool. I cried and immediately spent £80 booking a train ticket back home. Then called again just to be sure, and was told yes it's in Newport but you can't collect till 3pm. It was 11am and pissing it down 😂 I spent the next 4hours walking around Newport shopping centre, miserable that I'd already had to pay another £100 for the flight from Cardiff and lost another £80 on the train ticket I wouldn't be using.

Finally got DS' passport, paid £50 for a taxi to get me to Cardiff airport and missed the plane, so then had to rebook for 5pm the next day AND pay for a hotel. It was only the next morning that I realised I hadn't got any more nappies left and had to check out with DS in a hand towel for a nappy, get the bus to Barry to buy more in Boots and then spent the day on Barry Island before getting a taxi back to Cardiff airport.

I'd never flown before, so to say I was a nervous wreck by that point and going through security on my own nearly broke me is an understatement. Once we were through, DP messaged to ask if I'd booked a transfer and I had no idea what he was talking about, so had to do that.

I cried when the plane took off.

I haven't been abroad in the seven years since 😂😂

Oh my god what a rollercoaster

OP posts:

Original poster

autienotnaughty · 02/09/2024 06:36

Just remembered we left a carry on suitcase at the hotel once. Realised when we were on the plane.

OP posts:

Muffinmissedhernap · 02/09/2024 10:03

In the last month I managed to book a theatre show and a holiday for the wrong dates. Luckily I noticed as soon as the confirmation came through and threw myself on the mercy of the box office and they changed it for free! I
do it all the time, I blame the toddler constantly screaming at me when trying to do things.

bifurCAT · 02/09/2024 10:27

Scammed out of £20 buying online.

Yes, I can afford it, but I remember it to this day. Simple thing. They said they had it, I sent the money, and I never got it. Couldn't really have been avoided actually! It's all about trust with sellers online.

Even if they send a picture of the newspaper of the day right next to the item, you still might not see it, and the police won't care.

Live and learn

VimtoVimto · 02/09/2024 12:22

I’ve also booked train tickets for the wrong date so had to rebook.

Once we had been away for a weekend break and I was multitasking sorting out the washing and filling a charity bag that was being collected the following day. It was only a couple of weeks later I realised I couldn’t find my favourite jeans that I’d last worn on the trip. I’d obviously donated them.

parkrun500club · 02/09/2024 13:08

It's easy to make mistakes when booking things when websites are difficult to use. For example if they don't allow pre-filled fields so you have to retype everything, and then they don't like the format you've used for the postcode (but don't tell you in advance what format they do like), ditto for mobile numbers.

I nearly threw my laptop out of the window last year when booking airline tickets and had to do it three times before all fields were filled in to their satisfaction - partly because they insisted on having a mobile number for each passenger and not just me as lead passenger and person who booked it. I didn't make a mistake but it would have been very easy to and I was pretty stressed by the end of it all.

See also website forms that have compulsory fields that don't map to the other questions they've asked you. Or for example demand a second line of the address when you don't have a second line.

it all contribute to errors and it's not people being stupid, it's the stupid design of the website and the website designers should pay!

beentheresolong · 02/09/2024 13:58

Having multiple accounts on various apps/websites. App on phone only knew about one of them so nice hotel booking didn't show up when I checked on day of travel. Booked another, inferior and non-refundable but not much cheaper, in a panic. A few minutes later email arrives from the other hotel saying they are looking forward to welcoming me . . . Have also done the same thing with trains.

Muffinmissedhernap · 02/09/2024 14:44

I got caught by the website ‘helpfully’ changing the dates I’d put in as the cabin wasn’t available that weekend. So booked it for Monday-Thursday by accident.

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