What money mistakes have you made?

[lilk]

I think one of our biggest money mistakes is not really having a set budget and not saving enough. I mean we pay our bills on time, and dh has a 401k, and a small savings, but I know it could be alot more.. I just started to track our spending again, and set up a direct deposit to savings every 2 wks.
You live, and learn.

[phoeny_moonstar]

Not reading through all my financial aid paperwork for my student loans.
Almost going into forebearance because of first mistake. :-s
Not having a budget and therefore not paying on any loans for 2 years after I went to school.. Yeah...

[strezzed]

Doing the buy now pay later. While we paid it off before it became due, citifinancial won't close the damned account. This bothers mo to no end.

Also taking so long to figure out that money and materials won't make us happy.

[Shelli_wnj]

Mine revolve more around things I did trying to make money - I went to modeling school, had an expensive portfolio made up, spent money on travel and other related expenses trying to get into the "biz". Then when it was a possibility, I couldn't take the pressure That was A LOT of money wasted. That was also a long time ago!!! Recently, it was paying into internet businesses trying to find a way to make money. Oh, and buying a house with a family member but not getting their name on the mortgage. OK, that last one was the dumbest, but easiest to let go. Family is family and it was not done with the intent of wrongdoing.

[Siebrie]

- Not standing up to hubby when he wants another gadget, because I want him to enjoy himself. He's a SAHD, but not from his own choice.

- Not explaining dh thoroughly that prices need to be calculated to the same weight/number before a genuine comparison can be made. (10 cd roms for $8 is more expensive than 5 for $5, in his mind.) - I'm working on it, but it's hard going.

[pollypurebred39]

Buying appliances without throughly researching them. Such as consumer reports and price comparasion. I now own the LOUDEST washing machine ever manufactored that continually rips clothing...GRRR! For years I had an equally loud dishwasher that you had to scream over to hear each other, and it did a poor job of washing dishes. And we once owned an air conditioner that was so loud it was like a frieght train, hard to sleep in a room like that.

[SixxOfDiamonds]

Our biggest money mistake would have probably been about three years ago. DH was making a pretty decent income, I was making about $5,000/month. We lived off of DH's income and mine went right out the window. We were young, we went to concerts, went out to eat, bought clothes, bought gadgets, purchasing makeup, spending UNREAL amounts getting my hair cut and colored. We lived that stupid California lifestyle while residing in CA. We didn't have any debts at the time, no car payments, no credit cards. So we thought we could just watch the money fly out the window.

Oh, what I could have DONE with $5,000 each month going into savings!!

However, I don't regret it at all, I'm glad we were able to live that lifestyle for a while. I think it's grounded us now. But looking back, I could find so many more great places for that money to have gone.

[Gibs]

Mistakes...i have made a ton...

most recently was not putting money into an emergency fund, I have been a member of this site for almost a year, and for some reason STILL did not learn this lesson, dh just got laid off...yeah lesson learned..

Student loans, made lots of mistakes with them.

[lilyrose]

We bought into a vacation club. I cringe at that. It costs an additional $99 booking fee and an annual membership fee. I could probably deal with that, but they have 'peak' and 'non-peak' weeks. The 'peak' weeks costs an extra $210. So we avoid the 'peak' weeks. We're going to Wisconsin Dells (a summer spot) in October this year.

[luckbethislady]

-

- Not explaining dh thoroughly that prices need to be calculated to the same weight/number before a genuine comparison can be made. (10 cd roms for $8 is more expensive than 5 for $5, in his mind.) - I'm working on it, but it's hard going.

I hear ya...I explain to my husband why it's important to take the time to look online (all of five minutes) to find the cheapest gas...I even did it for him and showed him that the station closest to our house was 2.56 but the one close to his work was 2.39 and where do you think he went? yup...you guessed it...


My most recent mistake was with the best of intentions, as they all are.......I wanted to switch to cloth diapers so I spent a lot of money on diapers, diaper covers, materials to make them and then I used them for two days and hated them!!! my husband still throws that one at me...lol...I spent enough to buy DS's diapers for several months...*sigh*...I hate to think of that

[Shelli_wnj]

You can resell those diapers to re-coup some of the money you spent on them - there are diaper swapping forums around... are we allowed to post a link to another non-competing forum?

[strezzed]

Great idea, Shelli_wnj!

[MaryCarney]

Not starting to save for retirement sooner than we did.
Cannot believe all the years we were one check away from disaster - and were too dumb to even know it!

[ladykemma2]

Our biggies were

racking up 16K in credit card debt. (that was not fun to pay off!)

we used to finance all our cars for 5-6 years

not getting a home inspection has cost us more than I can count

The most recent was paying around 2000 cash for a beautiful leather sectional about 2 years back We thought it was a great deal as we got an employee discount through some networking. Not a good deal at all when you are too dumb to realize your 7 pets will scratch it up in no time flat. Also everywhere you sit a lot the burgundy leather gets worn to a lighter color. Never again!!!!!

polish with shoe polish, silly girl. you are supposed to! scuff remover too!

[Debbie-cat]

Credit cards. I wish I would have found FV 7 years ago. If I would have, I would have a very nice sum of money right now.