This is what I get for being cheap!

[midjd]

Decided to get Japanese takeout for dinner (mmmmmmm). DH gave me a $20 since I didn't have any cash and they don't take CCs. I stuffed it in the (open) center console. Dumb dumb dumb. Rolled the windows down because I'm too cheap to run the a/c unless it's over 90.

About 2 miles down the road, something flutters out the open window...

So what stupid things have you done to save money that ended up costing you?

[Ava]

Hehehehe!
Sorry you lost the money, but the story is funny.
I identify with it because I tend to do things in order to save money, and sometimes it backfires.
For instance, buying a generic instead of a brand, and often you cannot tell the difference, but for some items the generics are awful. I like soda, and I bought the generic soda at Walmart and Stop and Shop; I had to throw them. That was a bad experience; they tasted like medicine.
Or buying cheaper tickets to a show and then not being able to enjoy it so much. The view isn't that great or I am too far from the stage.
In other instances, being cheap has worked in my favor big time, though.

[Opti]

Sorry to hear that midwestern. Maybe God was trying to get that $20 to someone else. I read once about a woman who picked up $60 or so during walking one year. I would like that to happen to me.

[schildi]

What did you eat?

[midjd]

A sweet potato roll, avocado roll, and spicy tuna roll... I have to say they were worth the extra $20 ;D

[haapai]

I moved out of the nest in the late eighties at the age of 19 and into a neighborhood that was decidedly dodgy. About a month after the move, I had the interesting experience of watching someone run out of my bank right before I was to deposit my paycheck. A few moments later, a decidedly knock-kneed gal in a skirt locked the doors to the bank. Being a total goody-two-shoes, I stuck around and had the privilege of being interviewed by the FBI.

I took my money out of the bank the next day, in cash. I didn't like the charge associated with getting a cashiers' check.

The next weekend, I drove 200 miles to my mom's house. Being a prudent girl in an era before credit cards, I stuck all the gas money that I could possibly need, plus the cost of a tow and a motel room, not in my sock or my bra but into one of the textbooks that I was toting around.

And promptly forgot where I put it.

When the time came to leave, I couldn't find my money, needed gas, and got somewhat frantic.

My mom became absolutely convinced that this was a ploy for drug money, but eventually loaned or gave me the $20 that I needed to get home.

I found the cash ten years later.

[8 Bit WWBG]

Thats not a lesson to not be cheap, its just a lesson not to leave paper unsecured in a moving car with the windows down.

[alabamagal]

LOL.....with all the talk on credit card fraud, people sometimes forget that money can be lost.

Several years ago, my DH was mad because he said that the dog ate his $20 bill and some stamps. There were some chewed up pieces of stamps, but no maney. Later that week doing laundry, I found a $20 bill. He said it was his, and I reminded him that the dog ate his $20 and this was my "found" money....lol.

[backontrack]

This isn't near as funny or costly, but at Walmart a few weeks ago there was a display of "Steakhouse Baked Potatoes" - large, pre-scrubbed baked potatoes in packs of three. So, of course I suddenly wanted a baked potato. But I was too smart to fall for their nifty display, I could just pick up a 10 lb bag of not as nice looking potatoes for the same price. So, I did that. This morning DH asked me to "smell the pantry." We never ate a single one of my value sized, sketchy looking bag of potatoes and they rotted. Perhaps we would have done the same with the new Steakhouse Potatoes, but I think there is more of chance that we would have just popped those and the micro and eaten them!

[midjd]

Oh I've had the worst time leaving money in old purses, pants pockets, coat pockets, hidden in books, you name it... it is nice to discover money I thought was long gone, but usually when I "lose" it is when I need it the most!

I've also thrown away a lot of cheap food... had to train myself to check the expiration dates because it seems like the cheaper dairy products are always just a day or two from going bad. DH is usually the one to discover this, in an unpleasant way...

I do hope someone found my $20, and the squirrels didn't eat it

[Deleted]

Jun 10, 2011 19:53:09 GMT -5 midjd said:

Decided to get Japanese takeout for dinner (mmmmmmm). DH gave me a $20 since I didn't have any cash and they don't take CCs. I stuffed it in the (open) center console. Dumb dumb dumb. Rolled the windows down because I'm too cheap to run the a/c unless it's over 90.

Just an FYI: There is a negligible difference between rolling down your car windows and running the A/C cost wise. Mythbusters did an episode on this very thing and the results weren't that different. IIRC, the A/C (at coldest and highest setting) made it a little bit farther than having the windows rolled down. Trying to save pennies cost you a $20 bill!

[midjd]

I saw that episode (so did DH, and he enjoyed telling me "I told you so!")

Really my issue with the A/C is that the car engine is so small and underpowered, the A/C really messes with the performance... it is not zippy even without the air on, so it is difficult to get up to speed unless you floor it, and I don't like to do that. DH says "it's a car, it has A/C, that's what it's for!" but I don't completely trust him... he's gone through a LOT of vehicles

[Clever Username]

I drove to Comisky.
I passed up the $20 lot.
I passed up the $10 lot.
I parked in the $5 lot.

During the game, it got called for rain.
I found when I returned that the $5 lot has absolutely no drainage.
I was parked in the middle of a lake deeper than my shoes were tall.

[Deleted]

Jun 13, 2011 12:45:24 GMT -5 midjd said:

I saw that episode (so did DH, and he enjoyed telling me "I told you so!")

Really my issue with the A/C is that the car engine is so small and underpowered, the A/C really messes with the performance... it is not zippy even without the air on, so it is difficult to get up to speed unless you floor it, and I don't like to do that. DH says "it's a car, it has A/C, that's what it's for!" but I don't completely trust him... he's gone through a LOT of vehicles

You're worried about the engine overworking itself because of the A/C? How about the drag on the engine from having the windows rolled down. See....there really isn't a difference here. ;D