Stupid and costly things you've done

[Kjata]

So, I just logged onto the website for my school today, and was looking for the weekly quiz. There wasn't one. I then began work on my project, when somebody in class texted me "What did you get on the exam?"

... "What exam?" I looked around on the site, and found out there was an exam, worth roughly 35% of the grade for the entire course, due at 5 pm today.

I saw this at roughly 5:15pm.

Cool, I just failed the course. I'm out $650.

#^@&! $#!^!

GAHHHHH!

[Serpentine]

Get onto your lecturer/teacher right away, and ask if you can redo it. How did you miss that you were meant to have an exam, anyway?

[Mauve Shirt]

Oh yeah, failing courses was probably the most expensive stupid thing I've ever done. I failed two, and didn't get my money's worth in others. I was pretty bad at school.

[Kjata]

Get onto your lecturer/teacher right away, and ask if you can redo it. How did you miss that you were meant to have an exam, anyway?

I missed the last 2 classes, one because I was sick and the other because I picked up a shift at work. I also thought the exam was next week.

Also, I emailed him, and I got the "Deadlines are deadlines" response. I wasn't expecting much.

Pretty bummed, I had an A- this morning.

[Malak'ai]

Not finishing courses (set me back $16000 in student loans).
Crashed a friends car (well... got crashed into but because I don't have a full licence the cops deemed it to be my fault ) which cost me $3500.
Failed engagement (she left me for one of my best mates... Woo ) which cost me god only know how much, the ring alone was $4000.

[Serpentine]

Ooooouch

I wasted 3 years of my life on an aborted Honours thesis I never finished. Don't know how much it cost me monetarily, it all automatically goes into my HECS/HELP thing. Emotionally, I feel like I wasted what should have been the best years of my youth (23-25) with nothing to show for it but a couple of lost friendships, a relationship I never should've gotten into, and a debt, setting myself 3 years behind for no good reason. The thought that I'll never make up that lost time makes me feel almost sick.
I was gonna submit that as a Secret in my thingy, but hey, it's topical

I crashed a friend's car, too. Thankfully my mum worked it out with his dad, but it still cost nearly $1000 (she insisted on only paying a third of it, because there were three people involved she deemed responsible; she would've paid more if he was nice about it, but he wasn't. Judge as you will).

Not quite as substantial money-wise, but representing a large slab of the funds I then had available: I misread a ticket. Thought it was a bus, and therefore leaving from the bus station. It was actually a train, leaving from a train station. Got to the station mere minutes after the train left, had to shell out more than 100gbp (~$150+ us/aus) for a train ticket to our destination. What a waste.

[Kobold-Bard]

So, I just logged onto the website for my school today, and was looking for the weekly quiz. There wasn't one. I then began work on my project, when somebody in class texted me "What did you get on the exam?"

... "What exam?" I looked around on the site, and found out there was an exam, worth roughly 35% of the grade for the entire course, due at 5 pm today.

I saw this at roughly 5:15pm.

Cool, I just failed the course. I'm out $650.

#^@&! $#!^!

GAHHHHH!

So you were ill, while you were ill everyone was told you had an exam, and nobody (peer nor staff member) bothered to tell you?

Everybody you know is a ****, just saying. I would keep on at teting to get a resit, it's not your fault nobody mentioned the exam.

--

Likewise I failed my second year of uni, that was probably pretty expensive. Though because of the way student loans work here I'll never suffer for it really.

I'm really paranoid about mory so I can't really think of an instance where my mistake cost me lots of money. Left a train ticket at home so I had to buy another on the day of travel, cost me £156 (rather than £24 for the original).

[Serpentine]

Mm. It could well be worth taking it to the next level up - politeness and persistence is key, and some tears don't hurt either.

[Malak'ai]

Depends on if he can prove... At least that's how it would work here.

[Lentrax]

I wasn't involved in it, but I saw a really expensive accident once involving military aircraft, a medical tent, and a lack of lights on the arcraft ramp...

[Kjata]

So you were ill, while you were ill everyone was told you had an exam, and nobody (peer nor staff member) bothered to tell you?

No... he gave a syllabus thing at the beginning. It was 100% my fault.

I'm just going to let it go. It's just money, and I agree that deadlines are deadlines. I'm pissed it happened, but I don't think it was unfair.

[Serpentine]

Could still be worth asking again if there's any way you can make it up - maybe an extra-large make-up assignment or something.

[The Succubus]

Some of the most costly mistakes I've made have been where I've taken someone for granted or misread people. They cost a hell of a lot more than mere money.

But on a more positive note, the first time I flew out to see my then girlfriend in Denmark, I misread the flight time back to the UK and thought we'd have enough time to go for a walk around a very scenic lake. Halfway around the lake we kissed for the first time (which was also my very first kiss too!). So that was a very costly mistake in terms of flight fare but it's one I'd gladly make again.

[missmvicious]

So my hubby and I (before we were wed) were both working for the same pizza place in different positions, it was a very small place run by just a few people. We asked the owners if there was anything coming down the pipes because we wanted to buy me my first car and we were also moving into a house, a rent to own kind of situation. They said it was all good so we went ahead and did those things. A week later I was laid off and a week after that the owner offered to sell us the pizza place. Seeing this as our opportunity to make it to middle class we took him up on it. The deal was simple, we'd pay the previous owner $5k a month for two years, then the store would be all ours. Everything was great at first but as it turned out $5k was a little more then all the profit. Long story short we slowly cut from other areas (like paying to maintain our cars or make rent) Pizza Hut introduced the $10 pizza and we lost even more money. We eventually renegotiated with previous owners informing them "they were choking the store" and they agreed to a percentage of the sales. Alas it was to little to late so when our landlord said that he was doubling the rent of the store we couldn't possibly afford to pay it or to move. We ended up homeless, jobless, carless and with a massive debt, not to mention a fair share of burned bridges on the way as well. On top of that working 60-120 hours a week (which for a while we were in fact at 120 hours) caused a great amount of aging to everyone involved. My husband looks ten years older after only owned a pizza place for two years. It was the most expensive and possibly one of the more stupid moves we have made, though honestly we'd both grin and agree we would have done it again if we could.

[Malak'ai]

Ouch! Sounds like the old owner knew what was gunna happen and just tried to take as much as he could before you went bust .

[polity4life]

After reading these stories, I feel very, very fortunate.

I would have to say I've made three financial mistakes in my life. The first was never having a career plan after coming out of high school. I have ended up with a BA in political science and a MPA. Of course, I'm using neither presently. Had I put together a plan of what I wanted to do, I would probably be a little better off.

The second involves missed opportunities with regards to investing. I made some very smart moves in 2007 but I didn't do enough. I bought a stock when it was $1.81 and sold at roughly $6.00. The stock proceeded to go to $14.00 or so. I also bought silver, actual and paper but far more paper than actual from around $12 to $16 an ounce. I sold the paper when it was around $18 or so but held onto the actual. Now it's upwards of $34 or $35 (I missed the +$40 days) and turned over a nice profit but left so much on the table.

The third involves a wrongful termination suit I filed against a former employer. I was to be awarded a certain sum of money that was about 20% greater than my annual pay at that job but the company was allowed to bargain it down and we had seven days to hash it out before it went to court. I left around $7,000 on the table and gambled for court. Unfortunately, no lawyer would hear the case despite an EEOC finding of discrimination.

[Krazzman]

So you were ill, while you were ill everyone was told you had an exam, and nobody (peer nor staff member) bothered to tell you?

Everybody you know is a ****, just saying. I would keep on at teting to get a resit, it's not your fault nobody mentioned the exam.

Well it's not that they have to tell you when you don't ask... don't you think? Information is still a resource that you have to take and not demanding to get. There is a "saying" in germany for that: "Informationen sind eine hol-Schuld, keine bring-Schuld". Meaning if you were ill: YOU ask your colleagues what you missed not the other way around.

Anyway B2T:
As polity4life phrased it... I feel very very fortunate.
The "stupid" stuff most likely is the fact I ranted about here pretty often. I got together with my now fiance and well the others in our gaming group one by one "forsake" us. The likes as in they go bowling, they play DnD or other such stuff without informing us (actually they did this once... on a weekend where we couldn't be there due to Karneval). We would've gotten responses like: "Oh long time no see" or similar stuff after we have sort of given up. Actually I wouldn't call this a mistake... more like a worthy risk.

[Castaras]

Having to do first year again at uni after realising I was on the wrong course for me. Means I have an extra year of student loans. However, I was fortunate:

- I worked this out in the first year. That means that I only spent a years extra rather than 2 years, and also means I can still do a funded masters if I want.
- I'm still on the cheaper loan system because I didn't change university.

So really, I got the best out of the situation I could.

[Manga Shoggoth]

I'm not sure it really counts as stupid, but the most costly thing was buying a house (or rather, a flat).

Mum was dropping hints that I should think about getting myself a place of my own, so I teamed up with a University friend, and we purchased a flat in the next town out... Just as the Government removed MIRAS (a form of mortgage tax relief), resulting in a huge market crash. The value of the flat plummeted from ~70k to ~20k.

On balance, it wasn't all bad. It was a good flat (just up the road from the station - handy for work), and the market eventually recovered enough that the negative equity wasn't crippling.

[Traab]

Geez, so serious. I was expecting stuff like, "This room full of tolkenian cutlery I bought off the home shopping network didnt appreciate in value as much as I expected." So, sticking to the serious, lets see. In high school I switched to what was called the allied health program. For those who have no idea what that is, its a program that lasts your junior and senior year. You get pulled from the normal classes, and get a way different schedule. You learn the usual stuff, but you are also working in a certified nurses aide program. You do classwork to learn the stuff, then you practice it in the nearby hospital, working as an unpaid cna. When you graduate you get your certificate.

So I did that, graduated top of my cna class, and then applied to 27 nursing homes and hospitals in a 3 town radius. Nobody would hire me for anything. Which made absolutely no sense to me. I was ranked number 1 in my class, had won awards, a paid internship, and I am a big beefy dude which would only help when it comes to lifting or restraining patients. I never found out why I couldnt get hired and everyone else in my class did. And I never worked another day as a nurse. So that entire two years of training was a total and absolute waste.

[Kjata]

I'd like some silly. It could help cheer me up. But mainly I just wanted to rant a bit.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I lost a semester of university, I started getting bad grades and stopped going to classes so I failed the 4 courses I took that term, thankfully sinceI was in a public university it didn't cost money; but I am really feeling the time lost now that I restarted my studies in a different school.

[razark]

Big costly mistakes:
Got married, had kids, got divorced.

$650 and retaking a course? You'll go through worse in life. Just try to learn from the experience.

[Morbis Meh]

I shall throw my hat into this ring and attempt to cheer up the board!

A year of university wasted due to slacking (first year is always a write off lol)
: $5000.00

Switching universities and switching my major during my final year to add another year: $10,000.00

Meeting the love of my life and spending that extra year with her: Priceless

[noparlpf]

So, I just logged onto the website for my school today, and was looking for the weekly quiz. There wasn't one. I then began work on my project, when somebody in class texted me "What did you get on the exam?"

... "What exam?" I looked around on the site, and found out there was an exam, worth roughly 35% of the grade for the entire course, due at 5 pm today.

I saw this at roughly 5:15pm.

Cool, I just failed the course. I'm out $650.

#^@&! $#!^!

GAHHHHH!

Today I withdrew from a course. The drop deadline is tomorrow, so it might also end up a late withdrawal by the time it's processed, though they said they might get it done today. So yeah, however much of the semester's tuition that was is basically down the drain. Oops? I didn't even really want to enroll in the course in the first place. This is why they shouldn't let teenagers try to plan things.
Edit: On the other hand, transferring here will save me about 15k a semester.

[Talanic]

In my first semester at college, I had two take-home finals for two different courses. I mixed up which one was due which day, and submitted one of them an hour late because of this. 0%.

Once my car's engine started to die as I drove. I focused on keeping it running, which required me to essentially maintain my current speed. No problem, right? Two words: school zone...$300 lesson about paying attention.

That car eventually died (years later). I bought a new (used) one. It died too, last year. But it had lasted long enough for me to get a tax return.

My friends helped me pick out a car for about $1000 - about a third of my funds. It was a Beretta, which two friends were actually really good with. They put it through its paces and came to the conclusion that it would be a really good car for me to deliver pizza with, so I handed over the cash.

It lasted six days before throwing a cam shaft in the engine. All that money, gone. My buddy lent me his car to get me through a week or so of delivery and I wound up hitting a curb and damaging it - he fixed the car himself but it cost another $700.

I wound up using the remnants of my money to get a '93 S10. It was a junker, and I had to learn to drive stick that day before work, but it ran. The brakes failed on me once, there was a gap between the door and the frame so it would just dump snow on me while I drove, the passenger door either wouldn't open or wouldn't close, depending on who knows what, and it eventually exploded as I tried to start it, but it lasted me the summer. Barely.

[snoopy13a]

So, I just logged onto the website for my school today, and was looking for the weekly quiz. There wasn't one. I then began work on my project, when somebody in class texted me "What did you get on the exam?"

... "What exam?" I looked around on the site, and found out there was an exam, worth roughly 35% of the grade for the entire course, due at 5 pm today.

I saw this at roughly 5:15pm.

Cool, I just failed the course. I'm out $650.

#^@&! $#!^!

GAHHHHH!

Talk to the registrar of your school and see if you can withdraw from the course.

[Aedilred]

I've done a few things that were stupid and costly on a relatively small scale, and some which have been stupid and costly on a rather larger one. When I was eighteen (a time in your life when you're notoriously well-equipped to make great financial decisions) I spent a semester in the US and went on a Grand Tour (TM) thereafter to take in some of the rest of the country. I did it in a hopelessly disorganised and inefficient manner and the whole thing probably cost me somewhere in the region of $1500 more than it should have, not including relatively trivial details like taking $100 taxi round trips to attractions that weren't even open on that day.

At various points in my life I've also spent a lot of money on stuff I didn't need, including what is probably, if you add it up, a wholly indecent sum on takeaways and eating out. I do regret it, but I know exactly why it happens. Buying things and eating "well" cheers me up, if only temporarily, and I've spent a lot of my adult life either on the verge of or actually in depression. It's frustrating, but it's also one of those habits I'm probably going to have to live with and manage rather than eliminate. I've been focussing recently on trying to target my therapy spending on things which have some semblance of lasting value rather than things that I'll use or wear once and then forget about.

When I was looking to move to London a few years ago, a friend offered me a place to stay at a reasonable price. I didn't have a job in London but I'd never had a problem finding one before and assumed I'd get one quickly. The ensuing disaster before I was able to get a proper job cost me several thousand pounds and, indirectly, my relationship with the woman I had been intending to marry.

Because I've learned my lesson, I'm now studying for a course where, if I don't get a job (in a specific, highly-competitive field) on completion, it'll prove to have been pretty much a massive waste of money (not to mention time), in the order of £20-25K. On the other hand if it works out then it'll almost make up for all the previous disasters, and this is one of those occasions where the risk/reward makes it worth the punt, I think.

[missmvicious]

I'd like some silly. It could help cheer me up. But mainly I just wanted to rant a bit.

On a lighter note then, we purchased a 360 and two tvs costing us like $1500. We borrowed another 360 from a friend that had one but was moving on to pc gaming. As it turns out I hate xbox live. I spent like two hours the other day downloading the compatibility pack so I could system link Borderlands 2 with my hubby. By the time it was done he wasn't even interested in playing. And now they wont take my money for the season pass for the DLC and I really really want that because I adore Borderlands. Microsoft is making me wish that I would have just bought another Mac though and then learned to play online. Its frustrating and it was quite expensive.

Geez, so serious. I was expecting stuff like, "This room full of tolkenian cutlery I bought off the home shopping network didnt appreciate in value as much as I expected." So, sticking to the serious, lets see. In high school I switched to what was called the allied health program. For those who have no idea what that is, its a program that lasts your junior and senior year. You get pulled from the normal classes, and get a way different schedule. You learn the usual stuff, but you are also working in a certified nurses aide program. You do classwork to learn the stuff, then you practice it in the nearby hospital, working as an unpaid cna. When you graduate you get your certificate.

So I did that, graduated top of my cna class, and then applied to 27 nursing homes and hospitals in a 3 town radius. Nobody would hire me for anything. Which made absolutely no sense to me. I was ranked number 1 in my class, had won awards, a paid internship, and I am a big beefy dude which would only help when it comes to lifting or restraining patients. I never found out why I couldnt get hired and everyone else in my class did. And I never worked another day as a nurse. So that entire two years of training was a total and absolute waste.

Remember a lot of people on the playground are adults with big ol adult life changing problems. And I don't just mean adult as in over 18 I mean the group of people that are extremely responsible for their actions.

Ouch! Sounds like the old owner knew what was gunna happen and just tried to take as much as he could before you went bust .

I am pretty certain that was the case. After our doors locked he kept trying to sell the location.

[Sipex]

I've hit a few bumps, nothing on the highest end of the spectrum here but that doesn't mean the impact was any less.

- Took my fiancee's sister in for a period of my life and for some reason, agreed with both of them to add her to the cell phone plan. Later ended up paying a $300 bill just for her phone because she used too much data.

- Believed a door to door salesman about something I didn't fully understand in relation to our hydro bill. Got locked in a contract which I only managed to break via technicality but until then, I ended up paying hundreds of extra dollars in electricity costs for no benefit. Learned that lesson the hard way, now I just live by the cardinal rule that if something has to be canvassed, it's probably a scam.