Author Topic: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?  (Read 245962 times)

dycker1978

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #400 on: July 25, 2014, 09:46:18 AM »
Well... There wasnt one thing but...

1. 60000 SUV - Nissan pathfinder because it was new and was cheaper becuase it had warranty.

2. Bought many things and ended up $125000 in credit card debt.

Glad I found this site and have dug my way mostly out of the hole I made...

Davids

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #401 on: July 26, 2014, 09:31:15 AM »
I bought my house in 2010 and I used most of the $8,000 Obama Bush first time home buyer tax credit money on furnishing my home.
Fixed it for you. This came out in 2008 a few months before Obama was even elected. Sorry, I'm not actually political but for some reason that bugs me :)
You are correct but Obama did extend it which allowed me to qualify for it so it is a bit of both.

rencelas

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #402 on: July 26, 2014, 11:08:32 AM »
Dropped $3k on business class tickets to Europe for our summer trip, since they were really cheap (compared to normal business class fares).

Was worth it, but it's not at all Mustachian.

Prairie Gal

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #403 on: July 28, 2014, 04:07:13 PM »
I was such an idiot on Saturday. I have been trying to lose weight for my son's wedding, to no avail. On Saturday, I was desperate and went and signed up for Jenny Craig. $149.50 for a membership for a year, and $190 for one week of their food. Plus, you still have to buy your own fruit, veg, and dairy.

And the food is gross.

Been kicking myself in the ass all day today.

I called and they said no refunds.

MMMdude

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #404 on: July 28, 2014, 10:06:38 PM »
Dumbest was probably 15 or so years ago.  Just out of school and wanted to impress.  Waltzed over to a fancy suit place and spent $1000 on a suit.  I wore it about three times.  Still have it and I should probably take it to a consignment shop

JGB

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #405 on: July 29, 2014, 06:25:21 AM »
Wife and I bought a $450k house in the DC area in 2008. We both had good paying jobs, and were happy with the house. But we hadn't quite cracked the whole communication thing...

6 months in (after a total of 2 years in the area), we were both near our breaking point. Turns out, we both hated the East Coast, and thought we were making a sacrifice to make the other happy. Sold the house at a $100k loss to move back to Oklahoma. And our quality of life is so much better that the $100k loss is easily worth it... but obviously things would be much better for us if we had never bought out East in the first place.

C. K.

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #406 on: July 29, 2014, 07:42:22 PM »
I was such an idiot on Saturday. I have been trying to lose weight for my son's wedding, to no avail. On Saturday, I was desperate and went and signed up for Jenny Craig. $149.50 for a membership for a year, and $190 for one week of their food. Plus, you still have to buy your own fruit, veg, and dairy.

And the food is gross.

Been kicking myself in the ass all day today.

I called and they said no refunds.

Mother used that service years ago. She gave it to the kids to play with and we used it to mix into mud pies - literal mud. I assumed the customers drop pounds from a loss of appetite.

dragoncar

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #407 on: July 29, 2014, 09:36:17 PM »
I was such an idiot on Saturday. I have been trying to lose weight for my son's wedding, to no avail. On Saturday, I was desperate and went and signed up for Jenny Craig. $149.50 for a membership for a year, and $190 for one week of their food. Plus, you still have to buy your own fruit, veg, and dairy.

And the food is gross.

Been kicking myself in the ass all day today.

I called and they said no refunds.

Mother used that service years ago. She gave it to the kids to play with and we used it to mix into mud pies - literal mud. I assumed the customers drop pounds from a loss of appetite.

Do you still have to buy the food?  Does the membership still give you a support group?  My guess is that the support group is the most beneficial thing in the system.

Goldielocks

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #408 on: July 30, 2014, 03:29:12 PM »
Antimustachian thing:  Refusing to learn from previous accumulation errors.

Last weekend I had SafeRacks installed in my garage.  (super-strong industrial strength, ceiling-mounted shelves).  I was really happy to get my Xmas tree off the floor of my garage.  The installer suggested another spot in the garage that was ideal for another shelf.  I went for it.  I really like them, and I can't wait to start cleaning out and rearranging my garage, but I realized that I'm OCD or a hoarder or just nuts! 

Christmas items are now on the rack above the garage door.  Excellent.  Love it. 
Second rack is stacked top to bottom with Rubbermaid bins.  That are empty.  Sister gave them to me.  Yes, that's right, I just paid a couple hundred dollars to store empty storage bins.  I have no desire to fill these bins and actually want to get rid of more stuff in the garage.   

I did this in my last place when I got Ikea shelves and then started collecting pretty boxes to put into the empty cubbies so they didn't look empty.  When I started accumulating more things, I built shelves in the closets to store the real stuff so I wouldn't have to get rid of the empty boxes!   I even started paying for empty cigar boxes thinking they would be perfect for storing (something) some day.  They're not.

This is clearly some type of hoarding issue!   

I love this post!  Biggest smile of the day.

You may just be a hoarder of pretty empty boxes...     

Goldielocks

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #409 on: July 30, 2014, 03:48:16 PM »
My Anti mustachian things:

1.   Played $20 at the casino.  Watched it disappear in under 2 minutes.   Thought how much I would have rather taken my husband out to a movie with that money.  A move is at least 2 hr experience.  Never ever ever been tempted to put money down again, so something learned, but in that moment it felt like I had just let a pet use it to eliminate on. 

2.  Bought a time share with a bonus from work.  I was tired of all our money going into house repairs / appliances, and never vacationing together, so this location 1.5 hrs outside of town was an investment into family togetherness.   

The down side is we moved away 2 years later, and the maint fees are $650 per year.   I can usually recoup at least $500 of that on years we don't use it but....(sell the points) but yeah, net $/yr to us if we just get rid of it.  It would be better just to rent via VBO or Tug2.net when we want to go somewhere.

3.  Went to Hawaii at Christmas, timed the vacation to accomodate my extended family, we only chose Christmas as that was the time that my parents and sister always went, and we finally wanted a chance to join them.   After confirming the dates, and booking it (using those timeshare points so it was cheap accomodation anyway) we were all set, and ready to divert money for a once in a lifetime large family vacation.   

Only to have my sister say 2 months later that she did not want to go back to the same island again, and my parents to tell us they would only spend 4 days with us, so they could go to the other island to spent the final week with my sister.   GAWK.  Never make spendy plans to accomodate others!    We would have gone in spring for half the cost in flights... or camped near home again..

frugalecon

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #410 on: July 31, 2014, 05:43:57 AM »
Dropped $3k on business class tickets to Europe for our summer trip, since they were really cheap (compared to normal business class fares).

Was worth it, but it's not at all Mustachian.

I burned a lot of extra FF miles to upgrade an award ticket to Europe from economy to business. In my defense, I only did it for the overnight outbound flight. Even doing it with miles it is not Mustachian. But once you do it with a lie flat bed, it is hard to go back!

Hank

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #411 on: July 31, 2014, 07:39:29 AM »
spent about $40K on a wedding (obviously for my bride and to accommodate her huge family!... +250 head count.  Ohhh but it was a great wedding, I have to admit).  ~$30K student loan (although I wouldn't be where I am today without it).  ~$350 Vegas bottle service for one night celebrating a friend's bachelor party and not remember any of it...
« Last Edit: July 31, 2014, 04:13:55 PM by Hank »

Neustache

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #412 on: July 31, 2014, 08:12:07 AM »
Too many to list, and I don't really want to think about them.  Mostly involve houses and cars. 


But one word for future anti-mustachian, and hopefully it's the only anti-mustachian big thing that I do:  Disneyland. 


$400 for a day of fun.  It's nuts, I know. 

AlanStache

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #413 on: July 31, 2014, 12:01:41 PM »
spend about $40K on a wedding (obviously for my bride and to accommodate her huge family!... +250 head count.  Ohhh but it was a great wedding, I have to admit).  ~$30K student loan (although I wouldn't be where I am today without it).  ~$350 Vegas bottle service for one night celebrating a friend's bachelor party and not remember any of it...

Vegas is almost more fun partly sober so you remember all the crazy stuff your cohorts are doing.

dude

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #414 on: August 01, 2014, 09:18:41 AM »
Has to be the $60k+ wedding. It was perfect, I enjoyed every second of it, and it undeniably singed my poor little 'stache.

Looking forward to reading these.

Hmm, I would say this, too, only mine was $40k+, but at least that was paid for in cash ($25k of it supplied by my bride's parents).  No, the pre-wedding thing I did was far stupider and more anti-Mustachian -- financed $12.5k of a $15K engagement ring.  Yep, 2 carats worth of 3C's stupidity.  Ugh.  That was the price of making her wait 16 years . . .  Oh well, didn't really set me back FIRE-wise when I look back, because I was always going to do this job for 20+ years anyway (read: pension).

C. K.

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #415 on: August 04, 2014, 09:13:44 PM »
I was such an idiot on Saturday. I have been trying to lose weight for my son's wedding, to no avail. On Saturday, I was desperate and went and signed up for Jenny Craig. $149.50 for a membership for a year, and $190 for one week of their food. Plus, you still have to buy your own fruit, veg, and dairy.

And the food is gross.

Been kicking myself in the ass all day today.

I called and they said no refunds.

Mother used that service years ago. She gave it to the kids to play with and we used it to mix into mud pies - literal mud. I assumed the customers drop pounds from a loss of appetite.

Do you still have to buy the food?  Does the membership still give you a support group?  My guess is that the support group is the most beneficial thing in the system.

I've never used the service. We were children who weren't interested in the details of mother's weight loss and wondered why she felt the need to put herself through this.

Mother did have weigh-in appointments, but we remained in the car while she popped in there for no more than 20 minutes. The support group was 40 minutes away from where we lived, so the whole thing was inconvenient for her, I suspect.

It didn't last long.

She did buy the food in addition to whatever start-up fee there is.

dandarc

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #416 on: August 05, 2014, 08:41:39 AM »
Definitely not the most Antimustachian thing I've ever done, but a recent one.

The washer recently broke - wash cycle runs, but drain / spin doesn't.  Researched it, and came to the conclusion it was either A) clogged or B) pump had failed.  Opened her up and couldn't find a clog, and was able to drain via gravity through the regular drain hose - must be the pump!

Instead of mail-ordering said pump and waiting 3-10 days and spending ~$20, I went to the local supply place and bought one for $60 so I could get it fixed faster - the clothes were piling up!  Installed the pump, and it still does not work.

Further research yields possibility C) Lid switch is kaput.  Flipped the shell so I could see that, and it is OBVIOUSLY broken - casing is all messed up and falling apart.  Not wanting to waste money on another part that won't fix it, I hotwired the washer - cut out the old switch and joined the wires.  At least this fixed the problem.  New switch will be mail ordered for about 10 bucks.  Thing works now, just isn't as safe as it could be, so we can wait a week or two.  Frustrating because in hind-sight it was so obvious - there was no sound at all when it got to the end of wash - motor wasn't even trying to turn the pump.

So spent $70 on repair that could have been done for $10.  At least I learned something and the new pump probably won't hurt anything.

skunkfunk

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #417 on: August 05, 2014, 08:52:58 AM »
Definitely not the most Antimustachian thing I've ever done, but a recent one.

The washer recently broke - wash cycle runs, but drain / spin doesn't.  Researched it, and came to the conclusion it was either A) clogged or B) pump had failed.  Opened her up and couldn't find a clog, and was able to drain via gravity through the regular drain hose - must be the pump!

Instead of mail-ordering said pump and waiting 3-10 days and spending ~$20, I went to the local supply place and bought one for $60 so I could get it fixed faster - the clothes were piling up!  Installed the pump, and it still does not work.

Further research yields possibility C) Lid switch is kaput.  Flipped the shell so I could see that, and it is OBVIOUSLY broken - casing is all messed up and falling apart.  Not wanting to waste money on another part that won't fix it, I hotwired the washer - cut out the old switch and joined the wires.  At least this fixed the problem.  New switch will be mail ordered for about 10 bucks.  Thing works now, just isn't as safe as it could be, so we can wait a week or two.  Frustrating because in hind-sight it was so obvious - there was no sound at all when it got to the end of wash - motor wasn't even trying to turn the pump.

So spent $70 on repair that could have been done for $10.  At least I learned something and the new pump probably won't hurt anything.

I'd hardly call that anti-mustachian. Live and learn. Still got out of it cheaper than hiring a repair tech to replace the switch.

dandarc

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #418 on: August 05, 2014, 09:30:23 AM »
I know - mainly pissed because if I had my thinking cap on a little better, and wasn't in such a rush to fix it quickly, I might have saved quite a bit of money.

AlanStache

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #419 on: August 05, 2014, 12:36:05 PM »
Definitely not the most Antimustachian thing I've ever done, but a recent one.

The washer recently broke - wash cycle runs, but drain / spin doesn't.  Researched it, and came to the conclusion it was either A) clogged or B) pump had failed.  Opened her up and couldn't find a clog, and was able to drain via gravity through the regular drain hose - must be the pump!

Instead of mail-ordering said pump and waiting 3-10 days and spending ~$20, I went to the local supply place and bought one for $60 so I could get it fixed faster - the clothes were piling up!  Installed the pump, and it still does not work.

Further research yields possibility C) Lid switch is kaput.  Flipped the shell so I could see that, and it is OBVIOUSLY broken - casing is all messed up and falling apart.  Not wanting to waste money on another part that won't fix it, I hotwired the washer - cut out the old switch and joined the wires.  At least this fixed the problem.  New switch will be mail ordered for about 10 bucks.  Thing works now, just isn't as safe as it could be, so we can wait a week or two.  Frustrating because in hind-sight it was so obvious - there was no sound at all when it got to the end of wash - motor wasn't even trying to turn the pump.

So spent $70 on repair that could have been done for $10.  At least I learned something and the new pump probably won't hurt anything.

My washer had a switch problem too, 100$ repairman bill.  Was on my way out of town so no opportunity to debug/fix it on my own.

fartface

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #420 on: August 05, 2014, 01:47:22 PM »
Housing

1998 bought my first home with 20% down payment. Purchase price $133,000.

2004 sold this home for $198,000. Sold it 'by owner' during the real estate BOOM so total fees were only $3000. Net gain on buying and then selling this home: $62,000.

I wish I could say, "The End, Suckas!"

Of course, there's more to the story.

Next, we purchased a $254,000 home b/c I NEEDED a four bedroom / 2.5 bath on a cul-du-sac with a $6000+ property tax bill. At least I put $104,000 down on this property...but still...

It gets better. Still not content, or fully mustachian, I needed EVEN MORE. Purchased a new $350,000 house (at least we moved 15 miles closer to our jobs). Oh, did I mention we weren't able to sell the second house for three and a half years? At least I was able to rent it out to a great tenant during that time and make a little rental income. Sold the second house last fall for $272,000. After paying realtor fees and title insurance - I guess it was a break even.

Now, here I sit in my stupid $350,000 home with granite counter tops and hardwood floors. I wish I had stayed in my $133,000 home. It made me just as happy and would have been paid for twice over by now. I CANNOT wait to downsize. Problem is, my kids and DH love the house, the neighborhood, and the schools. I'm totally outnumbered on this -- but one day I'll get my way.

On the bright side, I live 8 miles from work and "only" owe $70,000 on this beast. I've got the money in cash and brokerage accounts to pay it off, but am choosing not to just yet.

 



stlbrah

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #421 on: August 14, 2014, 07:59:17 PM »
Mostly vehicles. My parents are into vehicles and really had a role in this.
They are completely different now since I have educated them, and are actually against expensive brand new cars too now and have retired.

I approximate about 75k blown into vehicles.

Also, I bought 2 dress belts for $100 each once. They have lasted a long time, but you can find similar high end off brand ones for $50-60.

Finally, I didn't refinance from my 4.96% loan to lower to mid 3% when the rates were super-low a while back.

The car and the loan were just ignorance/not knowing better. But the belts I knew better and bought them anyway, so I consider that the most antimustachian.

dz1087

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #422 on: August 14, 2014, 09:03:42 PM »
Got the $25,000 'Career Starter' loan offered by USAA to graduating ROTC members.  It was actually a good rate at 2.5% in 2007.  The only catch was the $425/month payment that came along with it.  It was unsecured so I could spend it on whatever I wanted.  I wound up spending about 18,000 on a used Jeep Wrangler, and I have no idea what became of the rest honestly.  I sold the Jeep a mere three years later so I really have nothing to show for all that money...

iris lily

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #423 on: August 15, 2014, 10:49:14 AM »
Antimustachian thing:  Refusing to learn from previous accumulation errors.

Last weekend I had SafeRacks installed in my garage.  (super-strong industrial strength, ceiling-mounted shelves).  I was really happy to get my Xmas tree off the floor of my garage.  The installer suggested another spot in the garage that was ideal for another shelf.  I went for it.  I really like them, and I can't wait to start cleaning out and rearranging my garage, but I realized that I'm OCD or a hoarder or just nuts! 

Christmas items are now on the rack above the garage door.  Excellent.  Love it. 
Second rack is stacked top to bottom with Rubbermaid bins.  That are empty.  Sister gave them to me.  Yes, that's right, I just paid a couple hundred dollars to store empty storage bins.  I have no desire to fill these bins and actually want to get rid of more stuff in the garage.   

I did this in my last place when I got Ikea shelves and then started collecting pretty boxes to put into the empty cubbies so they didn't look empty.  When I started accumulating more things, I built shelves in the closets to store the real stuff so I wouldn't have to get rid of the empty boxes!   I even started paying for empty cigar boxes thinking they would be perfect for storing (something) some day.  They're not.

This is clearly some type of hoarding issue!   

I love this post!  Biggest smile of the day.

You may just be a hoarder of pretty empty boxes...   

There is something about women and boxes. Some deep seated fascination is stored in our reptilian brains. I wonder if anyone has done a study on it. I truly believe it, however, this is not facetious.

But then, there's something about cats and boxes and no one needs to do an in-depth study on it, just watch a couple of Maru videos. He is Da Bomb when it comes to cats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbiedguhyvM

He has dozens of videos out there on Youtube where it is Maru Vs. The Box.

BlueHouse

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #424 on: August 15, 2014, 11:26:03 AM »
Anti-mustachian confession:  I like cheese in a can (spray cheese).  I would never admit this in the real world.   It's just wrong on so many different levels, but I really do like it. 


On another note:

There is something about women and boxes. Some deep seated fascination is stored in our reptilian brains. I wonder if anyone has done a study on it. I truly believe it, however, this is not facetious.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one. 


sekritdino

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #425 on: August 16, 2014, 09:09:52 PM »
Becoming an Arbonne rep when I was like 18 years old. Such a waste of money. MLMs are such a scam.

Got into about $10,000 of credit card debt by spending money I expected to have from ex-husband's deployment he never ended up going on. Regret soooo hard!

Not buying into the ESPP of the company I worked for right out of college. We could buy I'm for about 3¢ per share when I started, and I heard it was down to 1¢ at some point. Last year the company was purchased and the stock ended up at something like $7.23 per share. Basically, a $100 investment would have gotten me about $24,000.

I'm sure I've made other stupid mistakes but these are the ones I keep thinking about :-/

The Bearded Bank Builder

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #426 on: August 18, 2014, 10:52:20 AM »
Anti-mustachian confession:  I like cheese in a can (spray cheese).  I would never admit this in the real world.   It's just wrong on so many different levels, but I really do like it. 


Hahaha, my wife doesn't like spray cheese, she LOVES it! So don't feel ashamed. She promised she would only buy it for long car rides/road trips because otherwise it would probably make up 60% of her diet =) Oddly enough the rest of her diet is extremely healthy.

mpg350

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #427 on: August 19, 2014, 09:41:38 AM »

I guess it would be in 1998 when I was 20ish my dad put down the deposit a thousand or two on a brand new
Jet ski for me that was around total $9,000.00.   I paid the payments $150 a month for 4 years I think.  I might have paid it off early
With some extra payments.    I got alot of use out of it and had a great time with that jet ski.  I had a job at the time and I could afford it and it was something I really wanted.   

I got one earlier this year used for $5,000 and I love it…tempted to buy new but not worth dropping $11k or whatever it would be.


MandalayVA

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #428 on: August 23, 2014, 03:36:01 AM »
Last year we decided to get a new chair for the living room.  The room's very small so we ended up getting a "chair and a half" from LL Bean that would unfold into a twin-size bed.  It cost about $1700 with shipping and had to be custom-made.  It arrived, it looked lovely, and we sat on it.

MOST.  UNCOMFORTABLE. CHAIR.  EVER.

It resides in our living room as the World's Most Expensive Cat Bed. 

/my face, please to punch it

Fuzzy Buttons

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #429 on: August 24, 2014, 03:38:38 PM »
Bought a $35k kitchen upgrade for a $100k house.

Took out a HELOC to pay for it, but the bank would only give me $30k and my credit card was maxxed out. 

So called the credit card people and had them raise my limit $5k so I could charge the rest.

*SLAP*

zolotiyeruki

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #430 on: August 24, 2014, 08:06:58 PM »
Probably our most and least mustachian things are housing.  Straight out of college (married with 1 kid) in 2005, we bought a 3/2/2 1500 sq ft house for $105k.  We were told that we could "afford" a $250k house based on my salary ($56k starting).  Lived in that house for 6 years until we had 4 kids.  Boy, it was snug!  We were 1 year away from paying it off when we moved.  That's one of the most mustachian things we've done.

The most *un*mustachian thing?  Our current home.  Almost 3500 sq ft, 3 car garage, huge unfinished basement, backs onto a beautiful pond, lots of space for everyone, absolutely gorgeous (and huge!) kitchen, walking distance to the school and park, and 10 minutes from work (20 if I bike).  The PITI is close to half my take-home pay.  But we love it.  Every once in a while I remind my wife that if we had settled for one of a couple other homes we had considered, we'd be paying $500 less per month on PITI.

Granted, we bought it as a foreclosure and the bank had fixed it up, so we got a very good deal on it.  But still, it's an expensive collection of wood, vinyl, and sheetrock.

skunkfunk

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #431 on: August 25, 2014, 12:33:28 PM »
  We were told that we could "afford" a $250k house based on my salary ($56k starting).

They told me I could afford a loan that would have been 85% of my take home. Really guys?

Bought a $35k kitchen upgrade for a $100k house.

Took out a HELOC to pay for it, but the bank would only give me $30k and my credit card was maxxed out. 

So called the credit card people and had them raise my limit $5k so I could charge the rest.

*SLAP*

Please tell me this was not recently. Otherwise your hair is on fire, please stop drop and roll.

Last year we decided to get a new chair for the living room.  The room's very small so we ended up getting a "chair and a half" from LL Bean that would unfold into a twin-size bed.  It cost about $1700 with shipping and had to be custom-made.  It arrived, it looked lovely, and we sat on it.

MOST.  UNCOMFORTABLE. CHAIR.  EVER.

It resides in our living room as the World's Most Expensive Cat Bed. 

/my face, please to punch it

This is the kind of thing that I would have nightmares about.

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #432 on: August 25, 2014, 06:16:15 PM »
Bought a $35k kitchen upgrade for a $100k house.

Took out a HELOC to pay for it, but the bank would only give me $30k and my credit card was maxxed out. 

So called the credit card people and had them raise my limit $5k so I could charge the rest.

*SLAP*

Please tell me this was not recently. Otherwise your hair is on fire, please stop drop and roll.


Eight years ago.  Although I am far from frugal yet, I at least came to my senses about the really stupid stuff some time ago.  It's amazing how surviving a sudden 20% layoff at your company will cause you to take a more critical look at your finances.  No credit card balance for years, and the HELOC only has a 4k left. 

The biggest problem with the line of credit was that I kept finding other things to put on it.  New roof?  Sure!  Landscaping?  Well, that's kinda home improvement related, so sure.  When I finally found myself putting lawn service on it is when I woke up and stopped adding to it.

Many years of stupid, stupid behavior.

FIREman2036

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #433 on: August 27, 2014, 08:22:59 AM »
I just finished what is probably the most Anti-mustachian 10 days of my life. Background was a plan for my girlfriend to come and visit me and we would drive round Belgium and possibly visit Paris also using low cost accommodation etc.

Well, we broke up on the second day of the holiday and everything went a bit crazy from there. First there was the last minute flight for the GF back home. Then on the spur of the moment i decided to join my friends in Croatia for a music festival they were attending. So i booked that flight. Then i had to get local currency - the only way i could do that was to get Euros from my GBP account and convert them there into Kunas (i had some left so that currency ended up getting converted 3 times!)

My friends there are from Switzerland and pretty well off so apart from scalping a festival ticket we also went over the top on everything from eating out to drinking, taxis etc. As i couldn't get a direct flight home i went with them in a hire car back to Zurich and got a flight from there (night out in Zurich $$$). We also got an on the spot fine in Italy for doing about 120mph on the motorway.

To top it off, all that bad living ran me down so much i caught a cold and i had to take a few unpaid days off work to recover.

i still have to work it all out but i think the whole escapade cost me probably around $2000 for 10 days holiday. It was bloody fun though!!
« Last Edit: August 27, 2014, 08:27:34 AM by FIREman2036 »

missksaves

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #434 on: August 30, 2014, 02:04:57 AM »
My confessional in no particular order:
  • Racking up $100k of student loan debt for a degree I wound up not finishing, I think the final tally was $120k. I was stubborn and refused to accept that it wasn't right for me especially in light of my mother experiencing severe health issues back home b/c I knew it was something my mother wanted for me too. Good news is that once I started reading this website (my husband always felt should pay down my loans first before saving up DP for home), my student loans went down a whole lot and now I have about $42k left since repayment started in 2010 (MMM revelation started about 9 months ago).
  • We had a city hall marriage and planned to hold a "real" wedding later on. In preparation, spent $500 on a wedding gown that will now go unused b/c now no plans to have a big, expensive wedding. It's still hanging around, no real resale value b/c it was already considered a "budget" gown. It is the single most expensive piece of clothing I have ever purchased.
  • My SO purchased a engagement ring for over $11k and I love it (though feel guilty that I do since it's so damned expensive). The ring was purchased before MMM but we have child together, living with his parents (no home), still had/have aforementioned student loan debt and he gave me in aftermath of a fire, death in the family and my mother's then ongoing health issues.
  • We just spent $4k on a family vacation (cruise) and we could have spent less but b/c it's Disney... We pulled the trigger on this vacation in light of stressful few months dealing with other stuff that came out. We were initially not planning any vacation b/c of trying to enter hair-on-fire-pay-down-debt mode.
Yes, I deserve some face punching. Punch away. I definitely have a lot more work to do.
« Last Edit: August 30, 2014, 02:06:48 AM by missksaves »

halfthemoney

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #435 on: August 30, 2014, 10:51:08 AM »
Let's see here. Getting married in 1988......1999.....2007...need I say more? With the exception of a recent major purchase I attribute (or try to rationalize) my previous bad decisions to the ex's. Buying a 2005 Durango after returning from a deployment to help me convince 1999 to stay with me. Taking two loans from my Thrift Savings Plan to pay off debt incurred by 2007's illicit drug use.

I finally did the mustachian thing and filed for divorce from 2007 in April (of course, shooting up the house had something to do with it). It's a wonderful feeling to have complete control over my finances again. Of course, I did something Anti by buying a 1998 Honda Valkyrie motorcycle....but I Love It!

Goldie

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #436 on: August 30, 2014, 09:27:57 PM »
My SO purchased a engagement ring for over $11k and I love it (though feel guilty that I do since it's so damned expensive). The ring was purchased before MMM but we have child together, living with his parents (no home), still had/have aforementioned student loan debt and he gave me in aftermath of a fire, death in the family and my mother's then ongoing health issues.
My engagement ring cost that much. In my defense, we didn't have children and I'd paid off $100k of student loans single-handedly, and it really is a gorgeous ring. I paid half of it since my now-husband couldn't afford more, but I had the money and knew exactly what I wanted.  It currently is sitting on the windowsill in our kitchen, where it's been catching light for about a year. I don't like wearing rings! At least I got smarter with my wedding ring and only bought a small plain band that cost $200. The matching ring to go with my e-ring was about 3k. No way was I going to spend that after knowing how little I was wearing my engagement ring!  I now encourage women on wedding forums who ask ring advice to not buy diamond rings!  I felt I had to keep up with the witches in my office who gossiped anytime someone got engaged and received a small ring.

My husband's wedding ring was $37 on Etsy. He has worn his every day of our marriage.  (Is it a little better that I swore up and down when we bought my ring that we could do a courthouse wedding or whatever cheap wedding he wanted, if I could just get the ring I wanted? OK maybe not. But I did keep my promise and we had a tiny wedding with just our parents present. Didn't wear a bridal gown either, just a white cocktail dress, so that saved a lot!)
« Last Edit: August 30, 2014, 09:31:49 PM by Goldie »

vern

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #437 on: August 30, 2014, 09:49:44 PM »
Let's see here. Getting married in 1988......1999.....2007...need I say more? With the exception of a recent major purchase I attribute (or try to rationalize) my previous bad decisions to the ex's. Buying a 2005 Durango after returning from a deployment to help me convince 1999 to stay with me. Taking two loans from my Thrift Savings Plan to pay off debt incurred by 2007's illicit drug use.

I finally did the mustachian thing and filed for divorce from 2007 in April (of course, shooting up the house had something to do with it). It's a wonderful feeling to have complete control over my finances again. Of course, I did something Anti by buying a 1998 Honda Valkyrie motorcycle....but I Love It!

Damn, you should write a book!

missksaves

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #438 on: August 30, 2014, 10:47:28 PM »
My SO purchased a engagement ring for over $11k and I love it (though feel guilty that I do since it's so damned expensive). The ring was purchased before MMM but we have child together, living with his parents (no home), still had/have aforementioned student loan debt and he gave me in aftermath of a fire, death in the family and my mother's then ongoing health issues.
My engagement ring cost that much. In my defense, we didn't have children and I'd paid off $100k of student loans single-handedly, and it really is a gorgeous ring. I paid half of it since my now-husband couldn't afford more, but I had the money and knew exactly what I wanted.  It currently is sitting on the windowsill in our kitchen, where it's been catching light for about a year. I don't like wearing rings! At least I got smarter with my wedding ring and only bought a small plain band that cost $200. The matching ring to go with my e-ring was about 3k. No way was I going to spend that after knowing how little I was wearing my engagement ring!  I now encourage women on wedding forums who ask ring advice to not buy diamond rings!  I felt I had to keep up with the witches in my office who gossiped anytime someone got engaged and received a small ring.

My husband's wedding ring was $37 on Etsy. He has worn his every day of our marriage.  (Is it a little better that I swore up and down when we bought my ring that we could do a courthouse wedding or whatever cheap wedding he wanted, if I could just get the ring I wanted? OK maybe not. But I did keep my promise and we had a tiny wedding with just our parents present. Didn't wear a bridal gown either, just a white cocktail dress, so that saved a lot!)


I wear my ring every day b/c I love it so much. It is the single most expensive possession I have... I think my husband felt this was what he had to spend b/c his brother also wound up buying a ring too around the same time for his long term girlfriend, which was more expensive. Your perspective can really be skewed w/o some MMM punching.. Glad I'm not the only one here w/ an expensive ring though, haha.

tofuchampion

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #439 on: August 31, 2014, 05:07:37 PM »
I don't even know where to start.

1.  Spent 4 years in the military; made way more money than I needed and spent every penny.  No savings, no investments, nothing.  Got married while I was in, had one kid, divorced a couple of years after I got out.  I don't regret the divorce; he was an asshole and I was too young.

2.  Post-military and post-divorce, in school full-time, worked very part-time, used student loan and GI Bill money to maintain the same standard of living I'd had as part of an active-duty dual-military couple.

3.  Didn't even finish school, and if I had, it would have been a completely useless degree.  Still, $24K in student loans and nothing to show for it.

4.  Fourteen-plus years of bulimia.  Thousands of dollars quite literally down the toilet, plus medical bills, etc.  Still working on this one.

I'm 31 now and just woken up.  I feel like I've wasted my entire life, financially, but am grateful that I'm young enough that I still have time to turn it around.  Getting husband on board has been tough, but I'm making progress.  I found YNAB last year, which led me to MMM, and the combination has been eye-opening.  Right now I'm just working on getting out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, but I have a long-term goal to be FIRE by 50. 

My parents are in their late 50's, no retirement or other savings, living paycheck to paycheck.  Somehow they have money for my mom to have a fancy DLSR camera, my dad to have a boat, vacations every year, eating out every week, satellite tv, etc.  The thought of being in that position terrifies me, and is a huge motivation.

skunkfunk

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #440 on: September 02, 2014, 07:49:19 AM »
married in 1988......1999.....2007...

Almost due for another.

dandarc

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #441 on: September 05, 2014, 10:44:06 AM »
Took ballroom dance at local Fred-Astaire studio for a few years.  Lots of positives:

1.  Achieved goal of filling free time left from hockey-rink closure
2.  Lots of fun
3.  Helped me to meet / apparently adequately impress my now wife
4.  Good relationship building with wife
5.  Exercise

But holy hell was that expensive.  When we finally quit, we had just finished up a run where we had been paying ~$400 a month for a single private lesson + unlimited group classes per week.  Then they try to upsell you into shows / competitions all the time.  I mean, if we were REALLY into it, the 400/month was not a bad deal for that level of instruction.  But we got good enough we can now take advantage of various things around town that cost $5-10 per head and generally include group lessons and open dancing in the fee.

Helvegen

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #442 on: September 05, 2014, 11:03:46 AM »
I went on a cruise to Alaska recently. It was the first time I or anyone else in my family had been on a cruise. It was a lot of fun and I don't think there is probably a much cheaper way to see so much of SE Alaska, but man, was it anti-mustachian.

I think the most anti-mustachian thing we did was buy the booze package. That was $770 bucks for both of us. My entire group purchased it and we were drinking from sunrise to sunset to sunrise to get our money's worth from it. On the upside, I am not sure how we would have EVER been able to try so many drinks and shots without it (alcohol is very expensive in my state and we don't go to bars) and we learned a lot, but man, drinking from sunrise to sunset to sunrise. :)

One of the couples we went with ended up financing (seriously...) art they bought at an auction on the ship. OK, we were bad but we weren't THAT bad. :p

I learned that I wasn't really a big fan of cruising from this. I think it is an OK way to travel when you are older or just want to pay a crap load of money to do nothing in a floating hotel, but we're really active and want to see a lot when we are traveling. The at-sea days seemed like a waste of time. My family and friends immediately started planning the next cruise as soon as we got back. We declined.

dragoncar

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #443 on: September 05, 2014, 12:32:22 PM »
I went on a cruise to Alaska recently. It was the first time I or anyone else in my family had been on a cruise. It was a lot of fun and I don't think there is probably a much cheaper way to see so much of SE Alaska, but man, was it anti-mustachian.

I think the most anti-mustachian thing we did was buy the booze package. That was $770 bucks for both of us. My entire group purchased it and we were drinking from sunrise to sunset to sunrise to get our money's worth from it. On the upside, I am not sure how we would have EVER been able to try so many drinks and shots without it (alcohol is very expensive in my state and we don't go to bars) and we learned a lot, but man, drinking from sunrise to sunset to sunrise. :)

One of the couples we went with ended up financing (seriously...) art they bought at an auction on the ship. OK, we were bad but we weren't THAT bad. :p

I learned that I wasn't really a big fan of cruising from this. I think it is an OK way to travel when you are older or just want to pay a crap load of money to do nothing in a floating hotel, but we're really active and want to see a lot when we are traveling. The at-sea days seemed like a waste of time. My family and friends immediately started planning the next cruise as soon as we got back. We declined.

I went on a cruise once and calculated that I'd have to drink 5 drinks per day to justify the package.  I then decided that the liver transplant expenses killed the deal.

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #444 on: September 05, 2014, 10:50:15 PM »
I went on a cruise to Alaska recently. It was the first time I or anyone else in my family had been on a cruise. It was a lot of fun and I don't think there is probably a much cheaper way to see so much of SE Alaska, but man, was it anti-mustachian.

I think the most anti-mustachian thing we did was buy the booze package. That was $770 bucks for both of us. My entire group purchased it and we were drinking from sunrise to sunset to sunrise to get our money's worth from it.


I went on a cruise once and calculated that I'd have to drink 5 drinks per day to justify the package.  I then decided that the liver transplant expenses killed the deal.

Ok, never been on a cruise, so I have to ask: What is a booze package????

UnleashHell

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #445 on: September 06, 2014, 06:51:22 AM »
I went on a cruise to Alaska recently. It was the first time I or anyone else in my family had been on a cruise. It was a lot of fun and I don't think there is probably a much cheaper way to see so much of SE Alaska, but man, was it anti-mustachian.

I think the most anti-mustachian thing we did was buy the booze package. That was $770 bucks for both of us. My entire group purchased it and we were drinking from sunrise to sunset to sunrise to get our money's worth from it.


you pay a set price and then your drinks are free (except that they can limit the number you order).
I looked at it on my last cruise - mean both me and my wife having to buy it and then we'd have to drink 6 drinks a day EACH to break even - including the days that we were in port. I decided that my OCD needs to track such things and ensure that I getting value for money was worth putting to work during a vacation.
I would have drunk enough to get the best end of the deal but then I would have felt obliged to drink all the time. I prefer not to feel obliged like that.
We ended up with a few bottles of wine over dinner and the occasional drink elsewhere.



I went on a cruise once and calculated that I'd have to drink 5 drinks per day to justify the package.  I then decided that the liver transplant expenses killed the deal.

Ok, never been on a cruise, so I have to ask: What is a booze package????

johnny847

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #446 on: September 06, 2014, 12:58:51 PM »
I went on a cruise to Alaska recently. It was the first time I or anyone else in my family had been on a cruise. It was a lot of fun and I don't think there is probably a much cheaper way to see so much of SE Alaska, but man, was it anti-mustachian.

I think the most anti-mustachian thing we did was buy the booze package. That was $770 bucks for both of us. My entire group purchased it and we were drinking from sunrise to sunset to sunrise to get our money's worth from it. On the upside, I am not sure how we would have EVER been able to try so many drinks and shots without it (alcohol is very expensive in my state and we don't go to bars) and we learned a lot, but man, drinking from sunrise to sunset to sunrise. :)

One of the couples we went with ended up financing (seriously...) art they bought at an auction on the ship. OK, we were bad but we weren't THAT bad. :p

I learned that I wasn't really a big fan of cruising from this. I think it is an OK way to travel when you are older or just want to pay a crap load of money to do nothing in a floating hotel, but we're really active and want to see a lot when we are traveling. The at-sea days seemed like a waste of time. My family and friends immediately started planning the next cruise as soon as we got back. We declined.

This is the fallacy of a sunk cost. I'm assuming that the $770 was non refundable. Nothing you do from the time you bought the booze package is going to change the fact that you spent $770 and can't get it back. Hence, you shouldn't base your decision to drink based on the fact that you spent that $770 - you should drink as much as you feel like, but purposely drinking to "get your money's worth" is a fallacy.

halfthemoney

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #447 on: September 06, 2014, 11:34:42 PM »

Helvegen

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #448 on: September 08, 2014, 12:46:06 PM »
This is the fallacy of a sunk cost. I'm assuming that the $770 was non refundable. Nothing you do from the time you bought the booze package is going to change the fact that you spent $770 and can't get it back. Hence, you shouldn't base your decision to drink based on the fact that you spent that $770 - you should drink as much as you feel like, but purposely drinking to "get your money's worth" is a fallacy.

The point was to drink far more than $770 bucks worth of booze/soda/etc simply because we could. Otherwise, why buy the package besides the convenience? Mission very much accomplished, btw. And it wasn't that we downed every drink. We'd sometimes get things just to try sips of to see if we liked it or not and then abandon them for the next bar and repeat. It was a fun game, plus we knew from the outset one of the main reasons for going on this cruise was to group drink ourselves stupid as one of those once in a lifetime kind of things. I'd never do it again. Got all that out of my system for sure. :p

johnny847

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Re: What's the most Antimustachian thing you've ever done?
« Reply #449 on: September 08, 2014, 12:54:23 PM »
This is the fallacy of a sunk cost. I'm assuming that the $770 was non refundable. Nothing you do from the time you bought the booze package is going to change the fact that you spent $770 and can't get it back. Hence, you shouldn't base your decision to drink based on the fact that you spent that $770 - you should drink as much as you feel like, but purposely drinking to "get your money's worth" is a fallacy.
The point was to drink far more than $770 bucks worth of booze/soda/etc simply because we could. Otherwise, why buy the package besides the convenience?

You're missing the point. Once you've already bought the package, there is no rational real to drink simply because you can--which is what I assume you meant when you said "we were drinking from sunrise to sunset to sunrise to get our money's worth from it." If you're drinking sips of random drinks to try them out like you said just now, or drinking because you actually enjoy it, then that's rational. But drinking for the sole purpose of drinking at least $770 worth is pointless because you're out $770 whether you drink nothing or everything they had.
But of course, before you've bought the package, you should contemplate whether you'd actually end up drinking more than $770.