Do you "punish" yourself for doing something stupid?

[trailrated]

A few weeks back I dropped my fancy iphone and cracked the shit out of the screen, I have a case but not a very good one. After yelping a few screen repair places I got it done for $140 (best price I could find).

I shit you not, 6 days later I am in a bounce house with my son, land on my keys and shatter the screen again...

While I could easily afford to repair it again, I have decided not to at least for the time being. I think of it as a personal "fuck you" to myself, or at least a reminder (every time I look at my phone) to to be more careful with my things. Anybody else "punish" themselves to drive a point home?

[margarita]

Ha! yes!  Within a week of getting my ipad air I dropped it on the carpet from about 12" and cracked the screen.  Looked into getting a new screen and it was something like $150 (maybe less now). 

Anywho, no way.  The crack is in the bottom corner so really doesn't affect viewing much.  I did buy a case for the ipad but did not replace the screen. 

[shelivesthedream]

Yes, sometimes. It's that childhood thing of "If you can't look after XYZ then you don't deserve to have it."

[wenchsenior]

Ha! My very first thought at reading the post title was :scrunches forehead: "you mean like...spank myself or something?"

In all seriousness, no. Unless if by punishment you mean spending some time mentally berating myself and reminding myself not to do such dumb shit again, or at least not anytime soon.

[Digital Dogma]

The only time I feel truely bad about breaking an item is when it had sentimental value, and even worse if it was sentimental to someone else. Otherwise, once it broken its trash/recycled and never thought about again, even when I totalled my truck on black ice I was over the material loss before I took the seatbelt off.

[Lucky Girl]

I do.  Once I pulled out of our garage too fast and busted my side mirror.  This was when i still had a clothing "allowance" every month.  I forbade myself from buying any new clothes until the cost of repair was covered--3 months at the time. 

Looking back on it, its probably not a healthy way to treat my grown-up self--mistakes happen!

[Ricky]

Just a heads up - you can do the repair yourself for < $50 if it's not a 6 or 6+

[mskyle]

Haha, I just broke my iPhone screen today and already got it repaired at a shop a coworker recommended because I couldn't look it in the face, and also it was leaving little splinters of glass everywhere.

I wouldn't say I "punish" myself, but I do sometimes, um, "let myself experience the natural consequences of my actions" I guess. But not to the point of glass splinters.

(Also dude, $140 was the best price you can find? The Apple Store has a fixed price of $109 for the 6 and $129 for everything else back to a 5...)

[trailrated]

I do.  Once I pulled out of our garage too fast and busted my side mirror.  This was when i still had a clothing "allowance" every month.  I forbade myself from buying any new clothes until the cost of repair was covered--3 months at the time. 

Looking back on it, its probably not a healthy way to treat my grown-up self--mistakes happen!

haha thanks for sharing, glad I'm not the only one. I'm still going back and forth on fixing it today after work or holding off for a while longer.

[trailrated]

Haha, I just broke my iPhone screen today and already got it repaired at a shop a coworker recommended because I couldn't look it in the face, and also it was leaving little splinters of glass everywhere.

I wouldn't say I "punish" myself, but I do sometimes, um, "let myself experience the natural consequences of my actions" I guess. But not to the point of glass splinters.

(Also dude, $140 was the best price you can find? The Apple Store has a fixed price of $109 for the 6 and $129 for everything else back to a 5...)

It's a 6+ and I am going to feel really stupid if I could get it done cheaper at the Apple store. I called about 6 different places the first time... did not even think to call them cause I assumed it would be the most expensive. Might have to give myself a face punch.

[Cpa Cat]

I used to. But I try to remind myself to let that kind of thing go. I tell myself, "It's no good crying over spilled milk."

I was careless with my iPod and shattered the touch screen. But it still works, so I won't be replacing it. When it breaks, I will.

I bought some cute mugs that I love. But guess what? My cat also loves them... loves to knock them on the floor and shatter them. So far, she's pushed 4 of the 8 onto the floor and broken them (only the nice ones, of course - she doesn't care for the ugly old ones). Apparently, I'm a slow learner with leaving these mugs sitting where she's going to knock them over. I won't be replacing them. Sometimes it's better not to own nice things that break easily. ;)

[alleykat]

I broke the screen on my Samsung note 2.  I got it repaired. I don't believe in punishing myself. Life is too short.  Does it take me a minute to get around to things, absolutely, but to punish myself, no.  Annoyed with myself, yes. Things/life happens. 

[Kaspian]

I did the same thing with my phone last year.  $90 twice.  This year I screwed up to the tune of $I-won't-even-tell-you-how-bad-it-was.  Do I punish myself?  No.  (Cursed myself lots and lots of times as the badness was going down though.)  I try to learn a small lesson and then pretend it never, ever happened.  It's truly amazing the bad shit you can completely forget if you try.

That said, I am getting a bit of a punishment this year.  Unless I can get my net income and saving rate way, way up by November, I'm afraid there will be no discount sun getaway when it begins snowing this year. 

[Lyssa]

No. But I do create incentives not to mess up (again). After I lost four or five umbrellas in a row I bought an expensive one on purpose so I know that this time it would hurt. I still have it ten years later...:-)

I also teach myself lessons in other ways. One of the more radical examples is that I wore sandals for an entire summer after having surgery on my toes and feeling self-consious as a result. Felt weird first but after a few months it was quite clear that nobody was starring at my toes and that they still looked quite normal.

[Mrs. Frugalwoods]

Not really. I usually get super mad in the immediate moment, but after a few minutes I realize it's only stuff and it's only money.

Most alarming (though not that expensive) thing I broke recently was a Corelle bowl. It slipped out of my fingers onto our granite countertop (at 6am of course) and shards of bowl went everywhere. I mean everywhere. Huge, loud mess, but we laughed about it. Glad I closed my eyes when it happened--I think the shards would've been deadly to eyes!

[jamaicaspanish]

I've been known to add an extra mile or two to my run to make up for the extra donut or two I decided to eat earlier.