The One That Got Away

Hot on the heels of Valentine's Day, this post is dedicated to the unrequited yearnings of the loves we let slip between our fingers.

No, I'm not talking about a high school sweetheart or summer fling--I'm talking about the time your frugal impulse control actually ended up costing you.  Call it "non-buyer's remorse" if you will.  There's always that one purchase that you DIDN'T make that has you smacking yourself upside your head with a Homer Simpsonesque "Doh!"

I polled my Savings.com co-workers for their painful stories of the ones they let slip away...

For me, the non-buyer's remorse is more poignant and palpable than buyer's remorse.  After all, if you're smart enough to keep a receipt, you can usually undo a bad buying decision.  Or pawn the mistake off as a re-gift or feel charitable giving it to Goodwill.

Non-buyer's remorse is different.  It's the favorite pair of shoes that you should have bought a back-up for that are falling apart and you can't find anything anywhere as nice to replace them.  It's that designer dress that made you look like you lost ten pounds that you put back on the rack because you didn't have a place to wear it--a week before you get an invitation to your ex's wedding.  It's the killer deal on the big screen TV that you passed up because you're set is still working.  Make that WAS working...

My ones that got away include a tissue silk Dolce and Gabbana blouse I saw at Off Saks Fifth for $40.  I know!  $40 for D&G!!!  What was I thinking?!!!  Well, I was thinking that's twice what I usually spend for a blouse, so I walked away.

Doh!

More recently I waffled on the purchase of a freshwater pearl lariat necklace at Overstock.com.  It was a classic piece that would have gotten a lot of use and really wasn't that expensive either.  Even with hours of searching on eBay, etsy, Google, etc. I haven't been able to find anything similar.

It will haunt me for a long time...

Speaking of being haunted, Annie says:

"I should've bought this olive leather jacket from Banana Republic. It was [only] $100, but I was in college, so I waited. By the time I changed my mind it was long gone. Still thinking of it seven years later. THAT'S how rad this jacket was."

Yup--that's what non-buyer's remorse will do. How many ex-boyfriends do you think about seven years later, huh?

Sara pines for footwear perfection:

"The grey suede knee-high boots from J.Crew. I should have just bitten the bullet and paid the $250...months later, and I'm still trying to find a pair that fits my chicken legs as well as those did."

Lindsay also had a footwear-related longing:

"I recently saw a great pair of vintage shoes exactly my size in a little vintage store down the street from my house... I didn't buy them... an original pair of shoes my size for ten bucks? What is wrong with me?"

As did Erika:

"I have no regrets (mostly) but there were a pair of Fendi shoes that were insanely expensive so I couldn't justify their purchase at the time and occasionally I wish I had them..."

Katie and Clodagh regret their non-jewelry purchases with Katie stating:

"Jewelry. Always the jewelry! Online jewelry stores have the best deals on Valentine's Day, but it does feel weird to buy yourself a heart shaped diamond. But heck, if you can't love yourself, who can?!"

Clodagh mourns for the loss of a specific piece:

"I collect angels, and anything angelic-like, and last year saw a beautiful bracelet 'on special offer'. It was really lovely, pure gold with angel charms highlighted with real diamonds. However, I can never justify buying myself jewelry, especially not a few hundred bucks worth. So I decided as my birthday was only a few weeks off I'd go home and drop major hints to my husband. When he didn't get the hint I told him outright and he said he'd go at the weekend. Unfortunately, by Saturday the bracelet was no longer on special and had doubled in price. Needless to say my husband couldn't justify spending what amounted to a week's wages on a piece of jewelry, and I was kicking myself that I hadn't bought it when I saw it."

See? By impulse buying, Clo would have had her bracelet at HALF the price. OK, since she didn't buy it at twice the price, she wouldn't have saved anything from buying it on special. But that's beside the point...

For Heather S., there was actually a loss involved:

"I waited until the last minute to use my [Sephora] Beauty Insider $15 gift card. I guess everyone else waited until the last minute too, because the site was absurdly slow and then crashed due to too much traffic! When it finally came back they were somehow sold out of everything I wanted. Seriously. Too Faced Glamour to Go parts II and III, the Benefit Celebutante kit, a bunch of Smashbox stuff. ALL of it "temporarily out of stock." Devastating."

See? Sometimes when you snooze, you do in fact LOSE.

Iva, Holly and Lia had non-apparel/accessory-related regrets.  For Iva, it was property:

"I don't usually feed bad about not buying a piece of clothing or shoes, or something similar but the only thing that I feel bad about was a condo that me and my husband almost bought 6 years ago. We kind of chickened out last minute and decided to wait. The same condo sold for so much more only 6 months after we almost got it, so it would be a great investment at that time."

Holly also missed out on an investment opportunity:

"Stock in Yamana Gold, Inc. which went down to about four bucks a share in November 2008. Hit $14 in December 2009. Now at $10. Risky buy, but could've tripled my money and gotten out fast. DARN it! That just makes me plain angry. I wanted to buy it but many experts were saying avoid gold, and, unfortunately I listened!"

Lia passed up on a rare opportunity as well:

"I regret not buying tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil because the seats got sold and I had some kind of discount."

You might think that males are immune to non-buyer's remorse--and it would seem from my little survey that to a large extent they are. But a few brave souls managed to spill their sorrowful secrets. Guy's frugality ended up costing him some serious cash in the long run:

"I once came across a sale at Gamestop for a discounted PS2 (back in the last gen days) that came with two games (both of which I wanted and didn't already own). But I had a perfectly fine first series PS2...or so I thought. A week after seeing that sale my original PS2 died. Had I given in to my initial greed of having "one for each room," I would have saved myself hours of taking apart my system and trying to fix it myself. In the end, I went back to that Gamestop--but the sale, of course, had ended. I had to pay for a refurbed system that was more than the previous deal and no games included."

The only thing sadder than missing out on a good video game deal is perhaps the dream car that got away as Michael recalls:

"I used to work for a car dealership in the South Bay. One night we took in a 1989 Mercedes-Benz 560Sl convertible with 58,000 miles as a trade-in. The customer was so excited about the brand new car he was buying that he didn't care to negotiate the value for his drop top very well. As a result the dealership bought the car for $12,000, well below market value. I took the car home that night because it was pristine and in a beautiful color combination (medium blue metallic with a light gray interior and sure to be a classic some day soon. We decided against buying it from the dealership, which would have given me the car for $12,500. Mostly because of some urgent home improvement. Today's market value (eight years later) is around $20,000. That's the biggest regret that I have that I didn't get that car in time. Everytime I see one in traffic, I kick myself."

Tom sagely opined:

"I'm actually a pretty firm believer that avoiding impulse buys will serve you quite well 99.9% of the time. From my experience the longer you can put off the purchase of any big ticket item the cheaper it will become."

But Marc takes the opposite approach admitting:  "My silence is a testament to how much utter crap I must buy on impulse."

Ah! I generally subscribe to Tom's approach regarding shopping, but if I were only more like Marc that D&G blouse would be hanging in my closet right now and I'd be sporting a gorgeous freshwater pearl lariat.

It's tragic.

Do you have anything you regret not purchasing?  A killer deal you let slip through your fingers?  A great investment piece or opportunity you didn't take advantage of?  Share your non-buyer's remorse stories with us in the comments. 

Catharsis is good for the soul--or misery loves company.  Take your pick...