Good morning!!
Have you messed up at all with your money lately?!
I have – 3 times already this week and it’s not even over! 😂
Here’s what I’ve done that’s cost me $50 so far and earned me the Financial Dummy of The Week Award… sigh…
******
1) I lost $16 in cash at the coffee shop. I had been needing more loose cash in my pockets due to my mandatory Yes Rule, so I broke a $20 to get my coffee Monday instead of using plastic, and then made the stupid mistake of keeping it in my hands while awaiting my coffee… Why I didn’t put it safely in my pockets I couldn’t tell you (I guess I was distracted?) but shortly thereafter realized it was no longer in my hands and now lost to the world :( My only hope is that I accidentally left it on the counter and the baristas took it as a tip so at least someone had a great day! Haha…
2) I paid $12.64 for an empty box I could have gotten for free (!!) I had to make a return to Amazon that originally came in two boxes, but when I went to the UPS store they said it had to all fit into *one* since I only had one return label. All I had to do was drive the 5 minutes back to my house and scoop up one of the MILLIONS of boxes hoarded in my basement for times EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE, but instead I chose the ridiculous option to just buy a box there and save 15 minutes instead… Even though I was in no rush whatsoever. Pure laziness!!
3) I paid $19.31 in overdue bill fees! The first time in 10+ years!! I was updating the ol’ net worth Sunday (a much more fun month to do it btw compared to recent months! ;)) when it occurred to me that I haven’t seen one of my most annoying bills to pay each month – our water/sewage bill. (Annoying because I always have to type out the dang routing and account number every time I pay it as it doesn’t let you save anything!)
The bill typically shows up in my email around the middle of each month, but when I searched my inbox the last one I saw was from April! APRIL!!! I was THREE months late and probably on the verge of being shut off 😬😬😬. Needless to say I paid off the entirety of the balance right away (all $280!), and then promptly created calendar items to pop up once a month to remind me to pay it in case the emails continue to fail…
I 100% want to blame the utility company for this as it’s their system that stopped working out of nowhere (it’s been emailing me every single month without fail for years!) but ultimately of course it’s my own responsibility for not staying on top of it. An excellent reminder that you can’t always rely on automation and need to manually check in on things every now and then!
So total lost, with nothing in return except for blogger embarrassment: $47.95
I also recently picked up a few pieces of jewelry on a whim that I regretted hours later, but since I always have a back up plan for stuff I buy, it’s more like early gift shopping for friends ;)
- Mood ring ($10)
- Purple bracelet ($6)
- Vintage looking purple stone ring ($15)
- Onyx looking ring ($3)
TOTAL LOST GIFTS PRE-PAID: $34.00
(For some reason I’ve been on a jewelry kick alllll summer long! One day I just decided I miss wearing rings, and then next thing I know I’m scooping them up left and right at vintage stores and most times finding great ones (and most importantly, wearing them! I currently have 5 on my hands right now typing this – feels great!))
Here are some of my favorites I’ve picked up so far:
(One of these 4 is actual vintage and the others faux… Can you guess which is authentic?)
So yeah, even your favorite money blogger gets things wrong sometimes :)
On the plus side, it doesn’t totally ruin your day when you’ve been good 99.9% of the rest of the time and can spare some goofs, but still doesn’t feel that great either… In fact, sometimes it feels even worse than market crashes for some reason! Lol… Isn’t that weird?
I “lost” $100,000 of net worth last month, but it didn’t pain me nearly as much as losing this $50 this week! I suppose maybe since the cause of it was *me* and/or I was losing literal *cash money* vs financial pixels on a screen?, but either way pretty stupid how our brains work, haha…
At any rate, $hit happens! We are humans and very good at making mistakes!
And also because we’re human we enjoy hearing other peoples’ mistakes too, so if you’ve made any recently as well do share to make ourselves feel better! Can you beat my $12 box move and steal the Financial Dummy of The Week award from me?! 🏆
Let’s goooooooooooo!
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My insurance rate increased by more than $150 per year because I had a lapse in insurance. I thought I had it set to auto-bill, but as it turns out my credit card expired and I never updated the billing method.
I got several emails and letters about it, but I’m an excellent ignorer of information that’s relevant to me.
Ack! That’ll sting!
You should ask the water/sewage company if they can waive your late fee as a courtesy. Most companies can once a year if you’ve been current on your bills up to that point.
YES YES YES!! Good idea!! Can’t believe I didn’t think about that… Just made a note to call tomorrow when they’re back open – I’ll report back on the outcome! Thanks! :)
DONE!
Took 3 mins and 4 seconds and got it all reversed!
Thank you for reminding me of this- you are awesome 👊
I consider myself frugal and am normally happy with my ability to pass on unnecessary purchases.. However, I can relate to your comment about your recent uptick in jewelry purchases. For a few months this year I found myself not being able to pass up unique PLANTS, indoors or out (mostly on clearance because I knew I could bring them back to life)….and the adorable ceramic planters I would find to put them in. Plants here, plants there, plants everywhere! All of my window sills are full. They do make me happy but I realized I was overdoing it when my daughter visited and commented on my planter spending. She was right and I reigned myself back in and haven’t bought any plants or planters in the last 2 months. (And there’s no space to put any more anyway! :) )
Hahahaha that makes me smile for some reason :)
Plants are so beautiful and HEALTHY for the environment! At least you’re adding lots of joy and oxidation in your habitat! Haha…
Oh man, that utility mishap reminds me of the only time I ever missed a credit card payment. In 2013 my gas card switched up their systems and I didn’t get an email notifying me of my balance. A couple weeks later I realized what had happened, paid off the balance (and the penalty for late payment), and then happily closed the card.
It was well worth it to rid myself of a redundant, unrewarding piece of plastic with thousands of bucks’ worth of liability. WHO’S LAUGHING NOW, $SHEL?!
Good job catching it so fast! I guarantee that happened to a looooooot of people during that transition and doubt they were as nice or understanding as you were!
While not recent (July 2016) I once made a hotel reservation for the night before a cruise. Then my parents decided to join so I needed a suite. Booked that. Only I forgot to cancel the first room and when the charge for $298 showed up accompanied by a snarky email detailing my “no show” I legit felt sick to my stomach!!
Also typing this and realizing it was six years ago makes me think it’s time to let it go!!
OUCH!!!
I think I have to give you the Award for that one – that is “so cringe” as my kids would say, hahaha….
I don’t think i could get over that one either in 6 years… maybe 10? 😂
Don’t beat yourself up! Compared to the real money makers such as housing, transportation, and investing, this won’t make a dent in the big picture, just something to chuckle about.
I agree with the above comment, sometimes just asking to waive fees works out.
When I’ve found myself wasting/spending where I didn’t want or anticipate, it usually happens one after another, but then a financial windfall may follow, so keep your hopes up :)
ooooh i like the way you think!!
my 👀 are open and awaiting!!
These are the fails that make you so fun to follow, J. It gets old reading advice about money absent the scatter-brained F-ups, no??
My recent kicker was throwing money at Peloton stock when it dipped oh-so-low to $50 a share, now riding “meh” at $11. Oy…
haha thanks!! I’ll def. never pretend I’m perfect, that’s for sure!
i heard about that Peloton crash, eek…. but love that you’re investing in stuff you personally love & use yourself! If I recall you’re all about your peloton bike, right?? You put your money where your a$$ is! lolol…
Nobody’s mentioned Gamestop. My son got all excited about it, so I bought some. (Thank God, only one share.) The stock promptly crashed — I panicked, and sold it at the lowest point. Lost about $200, though I could have recovered at least some of that if I’d been patient and waited. But I still would have lost…
Sigh.
You didn’t do such a terrible job in the jewelry department. The bracelet is amethyst, and that ‘vintage-looking’ ring with the clear stone might be semi-precious, as well. It’s attractive, though. Just make sure, when you’re buying jewelry at the thrift shop, that you’re buying silver, not base metal — and you’ll do better.
that whole Gamestop stuff was crazzzzyyyyyyyyyy…
hard to not be tempted, but good job limiting yourself to just one! so many people lost their entire savings, ugh…
As bad issues go those aren’t the worst! I know i’ve lost cash weirdly before too like that. Agreed Hope the baristas get it. I wonder what I would have done w/ the box though. I probably would have paid too out of frustration. I recently had to pay to use an agent in Peru. Their online check-in just didn’t work, and they basically were like either, you need to also try a machine (which wasn’t there) and provide a screen shot of failing to check-in also with a machine that you can show me, or you gotta pay and it was like I waited in line too long to deal w/ this again. So I paid. Still angry about that lol.
haha yup – I would have paid too :) there’s only so much time/patience you can have until it becomes worth it…. Money doesn’t solve everything but it does a lot of things! Haha…
My credit card payment screen evolved to have an extra button to push, but it is off the screen, so I was over due. They kindly reversed the fees due to otherwise on time paying over the years. I’ve made sure to hit both buttons since!
Tricky!!
Good job asking for a reversal!! It’s on my list to do today too 👍
Amazon will let you return items to Kohl’s (in most, if not all, areas) and you don’t have to box it up or prep it for shipping. Just submit the return request through Amazon, put the items back in its original packaging, and drop it off at the Amazon desk at Kohl’s. They’ll even give you a $5 Kohl’s shopping credit for that day. Easy!
hey thx! I remember something about Kohls but didn’t realize it was *that* easy…
I overpaid for a used item of furniture on Craigslist, but I’m not fretting it since I probably made the seller’s day by not shopping around for it! Couldn’t beat the convenience factor (was in the neighborhood) so I’ll pay the upcharge haha. My philosophy is that if you know it was a mistake then it wasn’t a mistake but a learning opportunity.
Haha… I can get down with that.
OMG, mood rings!!!! What a throwback!
I decided to put a little play money into individual stocks for the first time ever. My intuition was saying ‘no not right now’ but the market kept going up (this was late last year) so I jumped in. And then not long after… you know where it went :S
ugh – out of all the times!! i hope it didn’t discourage you though? it’s just a sliver of the overall time invested so do keep going please! :)
LOVE your eye ring! I wear an Evil Eye necklace every single day.
Back in May I overdraft my checking account for the first time in years because I didn’t realize several transactions hadn’t processed. I was SO upset.
Luckily, I transferred money from a separate online savings account and it came over same day so I didn’t have a fee or anything, I was just disappointed I even did that!
Eek – good catch!
Does your bank allow it to be connected to another account there where it will auto. xfer over $$ to avoid fees? I have that set up with USAA so it dips into my savings account if i ever overdraw the checking and love knowing it’s in place. (And love that you wear an evil eye necklace too! gotta ward off all that negative energy out there! 😂)