Have you ever made a really expensive mistake you have to live with for years?

laurenpetro

well, we moved an hour away from our jobs 2 weeks before Katrina.  that would be in 2005.  between the market crash and the skyrocketing gas prices, you can imagine how much money we've saved. 

then there was the "let's have one more baby".  that didn't go as planned.  $60K later for the extension on our house.  good times.

madhatter2003

Add me to the house purchase regrets....it was a good buy at the time (2006) and we loved our house for having our kids, etc but it sucks now to be SO underwater and having to be out of state landlords since we can't sell.

caden

Another one here who bought at the height of the housing market. I'm underwater in my mortgage even though we put 20% down and paid extra each month for the first 5 years, and that's not including the money we put into landscaping or finishing the basement. My interest rate sucks too.

MommaG123

Vet school.

taratru

Ugh, the damn mobile home ex and I bought when we first got married.  I got saddled with that and shiitty renters and had to deal with that from 800 miles away.  They didn't pay rent for over TWO YEARS while I was still carrying the loan payment.  I finally paid it off and *think* I have a buyer for it.  I'm praying to God it comes through, because I need to get some of that money back.

NuggetBrain

3.27.04_Helper:

copzgirl:

3.27.04_Helper:

Ditto IIOY and Doctorwho....

combined kids and law school are costing me thousands every month.

Last night I spent $450 on SD's hair.

 hoodywhat?  Holy crap!

Over a year ago she started dying her hair. The last incarnation was black with pink tips. She's decided that coloring her hair is an expensive habit and wants to go back to her natural blonde. The process of getting back to blonde is rather expensive since she won't just shave her head :-)

You're better than me, because I would have told her that she'd just have to let that ish grow out or save her duckets, and to consider this a lesson about consequences of your choices.

sandsonik

3.27.04_Helper:

Over a year ago she started dying her hair. The last incarnation was black with pink tips. She's decided that coloring her hair is an expensive habit and wants to go back to her natural blonde. The process of getting back to blonde is rather expensive since she won't just shave her head :-)

Now I understand why my mom wouldn't let us dye our hair, "not while you're living under my roof."

My expensive mistake was buying a house that needed updates in a meh neighborhood in 2007 because prices finally stalled just a little and with the way they were skyrocketing I thought it would be my last chance EVER to own a home.

Now my favorite form of torture is looking online at the much nicer homes I could have owned in much nicer neighborhoods at a much better interest rate, if only I'd waited a little.

I'm one of those people that has to look at car crashes too.

curlydoglover

Getting the 17" sport tires on the Jetta when I bought it.  It was a free upgrade.  I had no idea they were $240 PER TIRE until I got my first unrepairable flat.

I kick myself every time I need to replace them.  Ugh.

MrDobalina

I know you guys didn't mean to, but this thread makes me feel better about living in the building my mother owns! 

JosiePosy

Going back to school without putting more thought into it.  I switched majors after 2 yrs of part time school and now I'm racing to finish my BS before I rack up even more debt.

 

ETA: and buying a house in 2006. 

Jermysgirl

Our house is old and I hate it. But it has a pool, and that was important to me at the time.

pixy_stix

Adopting 7 animals. I love them to death, but I've shelled out ~$3k in vet bills already this year.

terpsfan

Just had to come back to this thread to lament.  We just vacated the house for about an hour (DH and I work from home) to return after the stated showing time.  Just as we got home, doorbell rings, buyer's realtor shows up with clients in tow, she's "late".  My dog is barking, I'm apologizing profusely, offering to go take a walk.  She says no, no big deal, and I'm here working at my desk awkwardly as the clients are roaming my house.  We've been on the market for almost 5 months and every single showing is important to us (our neighborhood market DOM avg is 6 months so it's a slow go..we compete with new construction).  So I am FURIOUS that we just "lost" a showing due to miscommunication and us being here.  Or maybe this is the winning scenario..who knows at this point.  Just had to come back and laugh..or cry.

huber22

I drive a truck. I don't fill the tank full, because the pump won't let me. **sobs**

I was a beebee and moved to live with DH before I had a full time job lined up. All that potential kid-free earnings that I wasted only working part time. 

::prostrates self and begins kicking and wailing:: 

ringstrue

Having 5 pets at one point, and even having the 3 we have now. I don't *really* regret it since there is no way I would have been able to convince my past self to not get them, and the 2 cats sorta fell into my lap. I think in the end I wish I haven't adopted the one rabbit I have now - but I'm the only reason he is alive (oh and about 2-3k of vet bills) and am pretty much the regional expert on rabbit dental issues now, so silver lining, I guess.

There are a lot of *regrets* that I've created for myself given our shitastic $$ situation but I try to stop myself from lingering on that because it's not a healthy cat's fault that we have no savings, kwim? It's just that when you have to penny pinch you start hating all the expenses you can't wittle down, and I really do refuse to feed my cats and rabbit like sh!t just to save a mere $20+ a month.

 

nitaw

is_it_over_yet?:

I birthed two small humans who insist on living in my house, eating my food, making messes for me to clean up, and generally annoying the crap out of me. Does that count?

 

writergal49

Buying our condo when we got married was the worst thing we ever did. It was 2004, height of the boom...in South Florida, where crappy little houses were going for over 500K.

I really, really wanted to rent until we could save up the money for a house, but my parents and my ILs and H were all in the "No, that's just throwing your money away" camp. So my mom gifted us with a big chunk for our down payment and we bought a reasonably-priced 2 BR condo in a decent neighborhood. We figured we'd stay there until it was time to have kids, sell, and move out. Two years after we bought, the market tanked. It's only gotten worse since.

Today that POS condo is worth less than half what we paid. Every time I look at our mortgage statement and the new "value" of our place, I want to scream, "REALLY? WHO'S THROWING AWAY MONEY NOW??!!!"

 

MrsAxilla

writergal49:

Buying our condo when we got married was the worst thing we ever did. It was 2004, height of the boom...in South Florida, where crappy little houses were going for over 500K.

I really, really wanted to rent until we could save up the money for a house, but my parents and my ILs and H were all in the "No, that's just throwing your money away" camp. So my mom gifted us with a big chunk for our down payment and we bought a reasonably-priced 2 BR condo in a decent neighborhood. We figured we'd stay there until it was time to have kids, sell, and move out. Two years after we bought, the market tanked. It's only gotten worse since.

Today that POS condo is worth less than half what we paid. Every time I look at our mortgage statement and the new "value" of our place, I want to scream, "REALLY? WHO'S THROWING AWAY MONEY NOW??!!!"

 

  My dad is a realtor and tried those arguments on me.  At the time, I didn't want to admit that I couldn't buy a house because my credit was shiit, so I just sort of hemmed and hawed about it.  He talked my sister into buying a condo at the height of the market and now she's in the same boat you are.  Plus, he fiance did the same thing, so between the two of them, they're underwater on two tiny, crappy condos. 

Ladybug2002

Buying this townhouse we live in instead of waiting and getting a SFH. We didn't buy at the height of the market, thank God, but we have still lost almost all of the significant down payment we put on it.

On the other hand, we have a cheap mortgage and a place to live, and are not underwater so it could be much worse. It just makes me mad that if we had waited another year, we could have a nice SFH with a yard for the same or less than we paid for this one.  

Gretchenindisguise

Another grad school and house regretter here.

RedheadBaker

Yeah -- Student loans for culinary school. Ouch. 

IheartCosmos

buying our house in 2006. sigh.

3.27.04_Helper

NuggetBrain:

3.27.04_Helper:

copzgirl:

3.27.04_Helper:

Ditto IIOY and Doctorwho....

combined kids and law school are costing me thousands every month.

Last night I spent $450 on SD's hair.

 hoodywhat?  Holy crap!

Over a year ago she started dying her hair. The last incarnation was black with pink tips. She's decided that coloring her hair is an expensive habit and wants to go back to her natural blonde. The process of getting back to blonde is rather expensive since she won't just shave her head :-)

You're better than me, because I would have told her that she'd just have to let that ish grow out or save her duckets, and to consider this a lesson about consequences of your choices.

She's paying for it, but I had to front her the money... I think she owes me about 80 hours of babysitting now :-).

and I approved of her coloring her hair because I figured it was the least damaging of any "rebelous" behaviors. She doesn't have any permanent tattoos or piercings :-)

Chasing Emmii

sandsonik:

3.27.04_Helper:

Over a year ago she started dying her hair. The last incarnation was black with pink tips. She's decided that coloring her hair is an expensive habit and wants to go back to her natural blonde. The process of getting back to blonde is rather expensive since she won't just shave her head :-)

Now I understand why my mom wouldn't let us dye our hair, "not while you're living under my roof."

My expensive mistake was buying a house that needed updates in a meh neighborhood in 2007 because prices finally stalled just a little and with the way they were skyrocketing I thought it would be my last chance EVER to own a home.

Now my favorite form of torture is looking online at the much nicer homes I could have owned in much nicer neighborhoods at a much better interest rate, if only I'd waited a little.

I'm one of those people that has to look at car crashes too.

Change that to 2009 for me. Everyone assured me that there was NO WAY houses would get any cheaper!

And now here I am with a loan for $104k, a brand new $2k furnace, and in need of $4k landscaping and $4k windows...for a house that I'd be lucky to sell for $90k.  

LittleMoxie

doctorwho:

Law school.

Ditto.

ETA:  Although to be fair, I met my husband at my law firm and got to live in Dubai and Turkmenistan and have very little debt left even though I graduated in 2008, so it's not as bad as it could have been.

Sibil

Purchased a townhome in a new development in 2006 with the expectation of staying put at least 5 years.

Air force unexpectedly moves us overseas a year later.  Had to compete with the developer's pricing, and it took a year to sell.

Lots about 30k overall I believe.  It sucked sucked sucked.

Y4M

Not picking a coast and sticking with it.  Two cross country moves in two years is pricey.

DruidPrincess

I decided to go on the attend-as-many-colleges-as-possible-over-several-years-regardless-of-tuition-costs-but-hey-they're-just-school-loans secondary education program, then got KU'd at junior level and haven't been back to school sinse, yet here I set with nigh on $50K of school loans.

Shoot me now, but only next to a big hole so we don't have to pay anyone for digging. 

2Vermont

Honestly?  No.   Please don't hate me!  lol

I do think we spent a lot of money on our wedding but I think we did pretty well considering it was in the NY-NJ area and we had it at the time.

penguingrrl

Our car. A few months before our wedding DHs car died, so we decided to buy our first ever brand new car. I had dreamed of owning a beetle since I was a little kid (they were always my favorite car) so that's what we got. We did *not* envision having our first kid a year later, nor did we envision that we would move to NYC and only have one car. Between frequent guests and no fifth seatbelt (which has been a frequent problem) and having to lug kids in and out of a 2 door car every day (plus having a RF almost 3 year old in a tiny car making it so *only* I can drive the car) I seriously wish we had bought the subaru we looked at and almost bought. Oh, and it's stick so when we tried to sell people basically laughed at us because nobody drives it.

I'm sure I'll regret it less this summer when we return to the 'burbs and need 2 cars, so that'll be DHs commuter car and will be fine for that, but right now it's a pain. Especially since it doesn't get nearly the gas mileage you would expect from something that small... on the highway it averages 29-30.