Stupid/Not-thinking things that wasted money

[dfchelbay]

I thought it might be fun to share things we've done recently that go completely against our Budget Board minded decision making because of absent mindedness, etc.. Ways we wasted money, electricity, water, gas, etc. Maybe this will reinforce...YET AGAIN, in our minds to conserve/save. Here's what I did the other day:

I did a load of laundry the other night. I do a short 6 minute wash to conserve water and electricity. I put the clothes in the dryer and off I went. The next morning, while I was getting ready, I remembered my clothes were still in the dryer, so I turned it on to get the wrinkles out...then I went off on my merry way and forgot again. Got home later that day and remembered the clothes were in the dryer. I turned the dryer on to get the wrinkles out...and FORGOT AGAIN!!! I remember the next morning and, yet again, de-wrinkled the load AGAIN. This time I remembered and finally got the clothes out of the dryer. So, in essence, I ran the dryer four times for one load of clothes. What a waste of electricity.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

I've got a good one.

3 months ago, we paid $350 to repair our 3 year old gas water heater (vs. $650-$700 to purchase a new water heater). We called a local plumbing company for this repair.

This week, I got a notice from Sears that our water heater warranty was expiring and did we want to renew? I had completely forgotten that we had a warranty on the water heater. So, I paid $350 un-necessarily.

How stupid was that?

 

[plummer925]

I've got a good one.

3 months ago, we paid $350 to repair our 3 year old gas water heater (vs. $650-$700 to purchase a new water heater). We called a local plumbing company for this repair.

This week, I got a notice from Sears that our water heater warranty was expiring and did we want to renew? I had completely forgotten that we had a warranty on the water heater. So, I paid $350 un-necessarily.

How stupid was that?

Could you maybe contact Sears and explain the situation - maybe they'd be willing to reimburse part of it?

 

[surfergirl602]

Yesterday at Lowe's I bought the ten dollar flowers instead of the 2 dollar flowers, and didn't realize it until after my husband had them already planted. The two were next to each other and guess I grabbed the wrong ones! We were looking at a bunch, and I'll blame the pregnancy brain that got me all confused. So our 4 dollar flowers cost me 20!

 

[dawson5]

our local grocery store gives you 5c off for each reusable bag you bring in. I always have them in the car, either I forget to bring them in with me or I have them hanging on my shoulder and forget to give them to them to use.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

Could you maybe contact Sears and explain the situation - maybe they'd be willing to reimburse part of it?

Thank you. I honestly didn't think Sears would give a hoot since I hadn't used them for this repair. I will give them a call tonight.

It was so very thoughtful of you to suggest this.

Janet

 

[SandrA9810]

a friend sent me an external hard drive to save all my stuff from the computer before leaving.
I waited till the last day to start saving, and come to find out XP has issues doing large file transfers.
So i wasted a precious 80$ to buy one year data backup plan. And even on a small 30 gigs, it still took longer than 12hrs to save. And i left so i don't know if all the save worked. But i did see it when it was saving most the important stuff for me.

I really needed that 80$ for other things, but i didn't want to loose some of my important stuff on the computer. And it least it works without me doing it myself.

 

[DMOMof3]

our local grocery store gives you 5c off for each reusable bag you bring in. I always have them in the car, either I forget to bring them in with me or I have them hanging on my shoulder and forget to give them to them to use.

I do the same thing. Or I use them and am so excited I did self scan and checkout so quickly that I forget to enter the 5c coupon for each!

 

[dawson5]

a friend sent me an external hard drive to save all my stuff from the computer before leaving.
I waited till the last day to start saving, and come to find out XP has issues doing large file transfers.
So i wasted a precious 80$ to buy one year data backup plan. And even on a small 30 gigs, it still took longer than 12hrs to save. And i left so i don't know if all the save worked. But i did see it when it was saving most the important stuff for me.

I really needed that 80$ for other things, but i didn't want to loose some of my important stuff on the computer. And it least it works without me doing it myself.

Did you format the hard drive before you used it? There are two options FAT & NTFS. You want to use NTFS, FAT has file size limitations. That might be your issue.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

After unloading some stuff out of the back, I drove our mini-van into the garage without first closing its back door (it's the kind that opens up and you push a button either on the key or inside the van to close it). It hit the roof of the garage and broke the window out. Close to $150 to fix.

 

[HM]

After unloading some stuff out of the back, I drove our mini-van into the garage without first closing its back door (it's the kind that opens up and you push a button either on the key or inside the van to close it). It hit the roof of the garage and broke the window out. Close to $150 to fix.

If you have comprehensive insurance, you should be able to get the $$ back from your insurance carrier (without any penalties or a deductable). I did the same thing to my van a few years back. I paid to get the window replaced. Then we thought to ask about insurance. My insurance agent uses a different company to do that kind of work usually, but reimbursed me, thankfully. Same thing goes for replacing a front windshield.

 

[SandrA9810]

the hard drive was reformated before recieving it. And i tried reformating it, but it did nothing. The files were still on there. And there's a program that does a better job but i didn't want to waste time trying to do that.
When i went to the store, the cheapest drives were as much as the program. Which i figured if i got another drive i could run into the same issue. I really like the program, and i'm happy to have it. I just mad i had to spend the money on that.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

our local grocery store gives you 5c off for each reusable bag you bring in. I always have them in the car, either I forget to bring them in with me or I have them hanging on my shoulder and forget to give them to them to use.

I do this all the time. We keep some in the house for little trashbags (bathroom trashcans) and some in the van for grocery store use. I cannot tell you how many times I've just gone into the store without my bags.

 

[CTdiznymom]

our local grocery store gives you 5c off for each reusable bag you bring in. I always have them in the car, either I forget to bring them in with me or I have them hanging on my shoulder and forget to give them to them to use.

I did this again this weekend. I told the cashier that they need to put a BIG flashing neon sign out in front of the store so I don't forget them. If I'm with my DH he ends up going back to the car for them bc we both forgot them, so it's not just me!

 

[Sadie22]

After unloading some stuff out of the back, I drove our mini-van into the garage without first closing its back door (it's the kind that opens up and you push a button either on the key or inside the van to close it). It hit the roof of the garage and broke the window out. Close to $150 to fix.

I did back up with the lift gate of our minivan raised and hit it against the side post of my mom's porch and bent it out of alignment. Luckily my husband was able to fix that. I bet neither of us will forget that little detail again.

 

[kamik86]

My husband has this really bad tendency to mix up the 4 credit cards in his wallet (Disney is for Disney stuff, Target for target stuff, HSBC mastercard for everything else, and his capital one should never be used) Now the first three is no big deal, we may not get the best rewards that way (and the in the case of target not get his employee discount and not notice if its only a $3 purchase) but thats not really a huge issue. However when he uses his capital one for something like gum, then forgets it for two months until they start calling for no payment the bill is then around $65!! (We found this newest one this weekend can you tell?)

 

[4forWDW]

Mine was this last week and it wasn't much (this time). My ds needed one sheet of posterboard for school. I checked the dollar store and they were out. I knew CVS would probably have it and they are by the bank that I go to for making deposits for work. I went to the bank Thurs but didn't go to CVS - I thought I would go Friday. So when I went Friday they did have the posterboard and then when I checked my little holder in my purse where I keep gift cards, ECB's etc I saw where I had an ECB for $1 that expired THURSDAY!!! The posterboard was $1.05. Eventhough it was just a dollar - that could have been a dollar saved
It seems I am always doing things like that.

 

[Cheryllynn74]

We went to Target the other night and got a ton of great deals. I spent about an hour at home reading websites, printing coupons, and matching my coupons up. I ended up saving over $30 with coupons. Then we proceeded to go through the Starbucks drive thru on the way home and spent $10. After I gave the guy a $10 bill, I was so mad at myself. Yes, it was a nice treat, but I worked so hard saving that $30 and then just blew $10 in 5 minutes. I felt like I wasn't thinking, and was really mad that I didn't come to this conclusion BEFORE I pulled into the drive thru.

 

[surfergirl602]

After unloading some stuff out of the back, I drove our mini-van into the garage without first closing its back door (it's the kind that opens up and you push a button either on the key or inside the van to close it). It hit the roof of the garage and broke the window out. Close to $150 to fix.

my husband was unloading bags of garden soil yesterday and wanted to get closer. He left the window of the hood of the truck up and backed into a tree limb and broke it. He said he forgot it was up.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

I bought an annual pass to a local zoo knowing I could use it at reciprocal zoos in other locations. We loaded to kids up to go to a zoo 1 1/2 hours from our house, and didn't realize I forgot the pass until we pulled into the parking lot. So I had to pay $40.00 to get the 4 of us into the zoo, when it should have been free. I got home, and the pass was sitting on my kitchen counter.