Somewhere north of 20 years ago, I got some instruction on how coin operated vending machines accurately counted the coins you put in, and why it was kind of hard to trick them. I was fascinated, and wanted to know how the newer (at the time) bill accepting machine worked. I was told that that info was secret because if you knew how, it was pretty easy to fool the machines. Keep in mind this was probably around 2000 or so, I assume the machines are better now.

Anyways, this fascinated me. It was before YouTube so I couldn’t just go look it up, but I started just looking at the bills I had. One thing i noticed was that (with Canadian bills back then, maybe still) each bill was slightly different sized. All the $5 were the same, but different from the $10’s and so on. Boredom and a lack of fore thought got the better of me and I tinkered.

I had an old color scanner, and a beater ink jet printer. I scanned and printed both sides of some bills, and carefully glued-stick’d the sides together, and then cut them to the exact size of the real bill. I did that with a $5 and a $10.

For shits and giggles, I went to an automated car wash and put one of my bogus bills in the change machine.

Bzzzt… the machine spit it back out. I noticed that a corner was bent, so I straightened it, and fed the bill the opposite way.

Cling ka-cling ka-cling ka-cling cling… as $5 worth of quarters dumped out.

Holy shit. It worked!

I tried the $10…

Cling ka-cling ka-cling ka-cling cling… this time forty quarters dumped out.

I looked around, realized what I had just done and panicked. I left the car wash immediately, and then drove home.

At home, I couldn’t believe what had just happened. And then all of sudden I couldn’t not try to replicate it. I made another $10 and a $20 and went to a different gas station.

Cling ka-cling ka-cling ka-cling cling… as $10 worth of quarters dumped out. Again. At a different change machine. Holy crap. This is real.

Then I tried the $20 bill…

Bzzzt…

The bogus bill came back out. I tried again.

Bzzzt…

No go once again. One more time:

Bzzzt…

No such luck. It didn’t like the $20, but the $5 and $10 seemed to be a lock.

Then it started to get stupid. I told a friend of mine about what I’d done, and almost instantly we started making plans to become big time counterfeiters. We started figuring out where to go, how to avoid camera, etc.

Then I finally came to my senses. This is fucking stupid. What do we do with shit tonnes of quarters? Do I really want to end up in jail for this?

I called it quits, and that was it.

I still don’t know why it worked. Was it the size? It wasn’t the quality of the bills; you couldn’t fool a blind person with them. Maybe it was just the machines were hot garbage, I don’t know. But I guarantee you, I got $25.00 worth of quarters by exchanging my dog shit faux bills in a change machine.

My brother, who is now dead, was always complaining about my niece’s mom cheating on him. My niece looks nothing like my brother. But I need to reckon with the fact that it doesn’t matter. My brother loved her as his daughter. And it’s not her fault. She’s just a kid. But I can never ever express my doubts to anyone. If I confront my niece’s mom, we’ll never have contact with my niece again, whether or not she is biologically my brother’s. I keep on telling myself if shouldn’t matter. But it does.

When I passed out, I was dreaming that I was back home with my mom and sister. We were hugging, laughing, and having a great time. I knew that it wasnt possible for me to be there, but I was still so happy. I felt so much peace. Then I woke up to him standing over me trying to wake me up

I’m 27F and let my 26F friend stay with me for two weeks because she was moving to my city and needed to get out of a bad family situation. I agreed to help because I care about her, but now that she’s been here for a couple of days, I’m honestly regretting it.

She’s only been here for two days, but I already feel overwhelmed. I’m a pretty clean and routine-oriented person, and I’m sensitive to smells and clutter. I knew she had some challenges with hygiene and keeping things tidy, but I didn’t realize how hard it would be to deal with that in my own space.

She hasn’t been showering properly, and there’s a strong smell that lingers after she walks around or sits on the furniture. It’s uncomfortable, and I don’t know how to bring it up without hurting her feelings. She’s also been openly farting on my couch and even on the pillows, and then just laughs about it. It’s honestly gross and it’s making it hard to feel comfortable in my own home.

She leaves trash around, and I have to constantly remind her to clean up after herself. She’s sleeping on the floor because I don’t have a guest bed, but I don’t want her on the living room couch either. I don’t trust that she won’t stay up all night watching Netflix or messing with my stuff. I also really don’t want the couch to get ruined from constant use.

Tonight I had to ask her to shower after we were out all day and she was sweaty. She wanted to take a bath, which just feels like sitting in dirty water, and it uses up hot water. I shower every night as part of my wind-down routine, so I really didn’t want to wait over an hour to use my own bathroom.

She also goes to bed super early—like 7pm—and wants to use my room, even though I’ve told her not to lay on my bed. Tonight she was on the phone with her family in my room while I was in the shower, lying on my bed without underwear. I ended up having to spray everything down because I just felt really grossed out and disrespected. I also worry that she’s using my personal products, and I can’t afford to replace things casually because I’m on a tight budget.

It’s been really hard to relax. I usually stay up late to read or watch my shows, but she complains about the noise or talks through them, which ruins the experience for me. She’s also super loud when she’s on the phone, even late at night.

I’ve also been feeding her, even though I’m on limited food stamps and she just got approved for her own. She does stuff like take shots of hot sauce, then casually ask to drink my coffee creamer—which is the only one I can afford for the month. That stuff adds up, and it really bugged me.

What really breaks my heart though is how this is affecting my emotional support cat. He’s very shy and bonded to me, but since she’s been here, he’s hiding and won’t sleep with me. I’ve asked her to leave him alone, but she keeps trying to pet him and get close. It feels like even my bond with him is being disrupted, and it’s really upsetting.

I’ve been trying so hard to be understanding, but I’m reaching my breaking point. My space doesn’t feel like mine anymore. I can’t sleep properly, I can’t focus, and I feel anxious and disregulated. I want to talk to her, but I don’t know how to bring up these things without her shutting down or getting hurt. I don’t want to be mean, but I feel like I’m disappearing in my own home.

Part of me is even considering asking my apartment manager to come up with a reason for her to leave, just so it doesn’t have to come directly from me. I know that’s not ideal, but I’m so stressed I just want peace again. I want to sleep with my cat by my side, enjoy my quiet time, and feel like I have control over my space again.

I really do want to be a good friend, but this is so much harder than I thought it would be. I just don’t know what to do anymore.

I used to work as a vendor inside of Walmart for an obsolete company back about 10 or so years ago. I took the job to get away from an extremely toxic boss. The job I took was selling a not-so-popular product inside of Walmart, and, due to the obsolescence of the product, it backfired on me.

Well, those bills started coming due. Specifically, it was my phone bill that was the most pressing. I had Cricket for my cell phone plan. I had already stripped it down to the absolute lowest I could go and still couldn't pay it but needed it for work and to find new work. So I thought up this brilliant idea to steal small and very low value mundane things from the Walmart store I was working in. I knew electronics, cosmetics, health aides, toys and groceries would be watched by store security but not the insignificant things I was taking. I'm talking about like batteries for cordless phones that nobody really used anymore, or the two-packs of gel pens which were some of my favorites to take due to their size and relatively decent value, and other low value mundane things that I could quickly sneak up my sleeve under a shelf and out of the view of cameras. These were things that were all like $10 each or less. Every time I went on break, I'd hide the thing I got in my car and then would take another thing in the same way at the end of my shift. I would get about $15-$30 worth of mundane merchandise each day I worked.

I then returned all the merchandise back to customer service at a different Walmart without a receipt to get an in-store credit. I was able to use that in-store credit to then buy a Cricket prepaid card and my phone bill ended up paid. That was of utmost importance so that, yes, my current employer could call me, but also, more importantly, so that prospective employers could call me. So I was able to keep the scheme going and was able to use the gift cards to buy groceries and I paid one or two more cell phone bills out of it.

I was desperately trying to find a new job though because even though I was doing that out of pure necessity, I have integrity and so I certainly didn't enjoy doing it by any means and wanted to stop the very SECOND that I could. And I did. The moment I didn't NEED to do it anymore, I stopped and never did the act again. But I look back on that dark time and I regret it but I also kind of don't at the same time. I know it wasn't the right thing to do but I wasn't doing it for pleasure. I did it to simply survive. There wasn't much else I knew to do at the time. I didn't think of getting a second job and gig apps weren't really a thing even then. I was so thankful that I didn't get caught but I know that I deserved to.

On a side note, the obsolete company I was a rep for still exists today selling the same obsolete product. They stay in business somehow.

I was 20-ish working retail and was the AM keyholder. One night I was partying with friends and I woke up the next day at 4pm completely missing my 8am-4pm shift. I told my boss I was walking home from a movie and I got jumped and must have been concussed and passed out.

That night after missing the shift I had all my friends whilst drinking and partying again beat the crap out of me and I came to work the next day with two black eyes and bruises all over my arms.

My boss felt so bad for me she gave me a week off with pay.

My family is full of alcoholics. I have addictive tendencies, and while I've been fully functional, I've come to realize that my drinking lately has been excessive. On top of that, I've been hiding the frequency and amount and drinking alone, all signs pointing to a growing issue.

I've been a chronic weed smoker for 15 years. You can give me the biggest bowl with all the extras on top, I can smoke the whole thing, and I won't feel a thing because my tolerance is so high.

I decided a change is needed. Alcohol was on the shopping list yesterday, as well as getting a new weed vape. I opted not to buy anything further. I had my first alcohol and weed free night last night, first time in a looooong time. I thought it would be easy, I don't really have an issue, I'm just getting out on top of it.

Alas, it was very difficult. I thought about it all night. I even found a bottle of vodka in my room that I kept telling myself 1 shot wouldn't hurt. But I stayed strong. I guess it has a stronger hold of me than I realized, given my feelings last night. Just had to vent somewhere.

Editing to add after so many responses: The other hard part is I feel alone in my journey. Because I didn't really think I "have a problem", I haven't verbalized what I'm going through to my husband. He knows I smoke a lot. He knows I drink, and made a comment the other day about how many cans were in my bedroom garbage, so he knows, but doesn't realize the extent. Easy solve, just talk to him and be honest, right? I've gotten myself into this mess alone and I'm trying to fix it alone. I know that's a me problem and I could have his support if I would just talk to him about it. 🤷🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

I normally wouldn’t be hurt by this, I can understand that some people just don’t want to drink. But I know my best friends love JELLO-shots, and we were all drinking together to celebrate. But still, no one even touched the JELLO-shots I made. No one even mentioned them. I brought multiple trays over.

This Isn’t the first time one of them has completely disregarded a gift I’ve made them, or food I’ve brought to an event. Just confusing, and a little hurtful.

They always seem to appreciate whenever anyone else does it, but when I do- it’s just 🤷‍♀️

( EDIT For everyone asking “why did it take you so long to make jello-shots?”. I’ve never made them before, and my first few batches went awfully due to poor measurements. I kept going until I perfected them, but I apparently made an awful decision of picking the flavours lime & blue. People have informed me that strawberry is better, so I’ll be trying that next. Thanks! Sorry for lack of clarification first time around haha )

Around 1996 or so a regional record store chain, The Wherehouse decided to get into the used CD market. Of course to sell used CDs you have to buy them first. So they created a promotion to kick start their inventory.

Trade in any (except promos) 5 used CDs and get one new CD for free. To test, I went to my local independent record store, and bought 5 CDs from the dollar bin. Thanks to a buy 3 get the 4th free promo, I spent $4 to get 5 used CDs to trade in for a brand new CD at The Wherehouse. Of course the problem here was that I was leaving money on the table buying 5, since the promo was buy 3 get the 4th free. So I needed to buy in multiples of 4. So the next day I bought 28 $1 CDs for $21, and traded them in for 6 brand new CDs (with one $1 CD left over).

During this second visit, the cashier at The Wherehouse (who clearly loved his employer) informed me that if I wanted to return an unopened CD originally purchased there and I didn’t have my receipt? They would refund cash.

So I went back to the independent record store and bought every $1 CD they had that wasn’t punched/stamped as a promo. Probably around 200 that trip, spent around $150, and brought them over to The Warehouse, traded them in for 40 new CDs (making sure to find only full priced titles), and then immediately returned them for around $700 in cash.

I repeated this probably 10 times until the owner of the independent record store told me he wasn’t going to sell me any more $1 in bulk.

It was good while it lasted.

Title basically. I was supposed to work a shift but got the call the day before I didn't have to come in. My spouse is a total nightmare to deal with, and I never get to do anything besides be at home or at work, so I decided to say fuck it. I put on my clothes like I was going to work, pulled out of the driveway in the direction I normally would, and hit the road to the beach. Weather has been perfect the last couple of weeks and it isn't heavy with tourists yet since school is still in session, so i parked in the public lot, took off my work clothes (kept normal clothes underneath), and put down an emergency jacket i keep in my car as my place to sit. It's been glorious to have time to myself in my favorite place to be with almost no one around.

I started a bad habit at 15 and now im 23 and cant seem to stop. For some context, at 15 i was an 8th grader about to be a 9th (middle school to high school). I had a group of girlfriends that i did everything with, we were all inseparable. One friend in particular had a mom who liked to be the “cool mom.” My first sleepover at her house, i showed up last.. about 8pm. When i walked in, the girls were gathered in the kitchen around a large smirnoff bottle, shot glasses around, half filled. My friend turned towards me and handed me a full shot glass. This being the first time i drank, i asked her “what will your mom think, she can literally see us?” Her mom was located right outside the kitchen in the backyard, she was smoking a cigarette and on the cellphone. In the kitchen there was a large window that faced right outside in the backyard, to where her mom was at. She was staring at the girls taking shots through the window, huffing a smoke of her cigarette every second. My friend proceeded to tell me “don’t worry, my mom wont care. She bought us this bottle.” Her mom then proceeded to come inside about 15 minutes later to take shots with us and go to bed. As she went to bed, one of my other friends called up on a guy she was talking too, they asked to hang out and so we did. We invited them inside, we drank for a while and then headed outside. One of the guys there brought a dab rig and a bong, another brought a handful of vapes and started handing them out. I took a vape and thats when it started, I became addicted to something I did not have any intention of doing, I guess you could say I did it to try to fit in, and that same night I also tried marijuana for the first time. I am 23 years old now , I smoke weed every day, I vape every day, im afraid it will lead to a drinking problem since that seems to run in the family. I don’t know how to stop, I’m entering public safety as my career which means I am going to have to stop at some point, I just don’t know how and when. I struggle everyday trying to quit and it’s so hard, i fear it will only get worse as i struggle with stomach issues like gastrointestinal because i smoke so much. I regret my decision and actions i have made when i was 15 years old. I will always remember that night to be quite literally the end of me.

Last year, my son (who was 9 at the time) decided the Elf on the Shelf wasn’t real when he had a friend over. He touched it, picked it up, threw it on the floor, and then taped it to a robot vacuum. My youngest saw it and laughed, and I thought, “Finally, no one believes in this annoying elf anymore.” So, Pinecone the elf disappeared after that. This December, my youngest asked if the elf would be coming back, and I told her no—pretty sure her brother had permanently "killed" him. Honestly, I don’t even feel guilty because the holiday season has been so much less stressful without it. To all the parents out there: don’t get caught up in the Elf on the Shelf. It can become the bane of your existence for years.

After Omegle shut down I (19F) found a similar website OmeTv. My partner and I have gotten a lot of use out of this website just having silly interactions and nothing sinister has happened until yesterday. My partner was in the other room when I started the chat waiting for him to join me. Nothing was abnormal until I got what i thought was the usual guy j*rking off. This wasn’t unusual due to the nature of the website and I kind of disregarded it. That is when he panned the camera to a video of graphic CP. I couldnt tell what was happening for a moment and he decided to show another video depicting an infant. I was able to report the user to the website and create a tip with the FBI but i’m not sure what to do at this point. Obviously i knew that material was inherently disturbing but it’s one of those situations where you actually see it and it shakes you to your core. Since the moment it happened I cant stop thinking about all of the implications that come with the videos shown and the guy that was showing them. I wonder how many other people he has disturbed and haunted. I wonder if the sick man doing that to the infant has been caught. I feel sick. Im so glad my partner wasnt in there to witness it too. This has opened a new respect for the investigators that have to review this footage for a living. Im just at a loss. I know this has to be a unique experience but im hoping someone has advice or something idk.

A few years ago at my old job, I made a mistake that cost the company a decent amount of money. Nothing criminal, but enough to get someone in serious trouble. When my manager started investigating, a coworker, who was already on thin ice and considered problematic, was blamed for it. I didn’t correct them. I just let it happen. He got fired a week later.

At first, I convinced myself that it wasn’t really my fault and he was bound to get fired sooner or later. But the guilt never left. I still think about how that mistake might have changed his life, and I wish I could take it back. If I could find him, I’d apologize, but I know that won’t undo what I did.

I regret staying silent more than I regret the mistake itself

A lot has happened. I lost too much. Nobod replies to my messages, calls or texts. All "friends" "acquaintances" "FAMILY" NONE. I am at my lowest. I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE.

To most people, I come off as quiet, polite, and maybe even a little shy. But if anyone could hear the things running through my mind… Let’s just say, the thoughts I have during the day could never be said out loud. I imagine scenarios, flirt in my head, and replay certain moments way more than I probably should. I keep it all bottled up behind a calm face and soft voice—but deep down, I crave things that would surprise the hell out of anyone who knows me. Sometimes I wonder if anyone else around me is hiding the same kind of thoughts behind a smile.

i started wearing contacts around 5 years ago and ive probably changed them 20 times. i sleep in them and i never take them out. i knowwwww its bad but ngl my eyes are fine and they arent dry or red whenever i wake up. sometimes i even forget i even wear contacts and that i have them in. if ur an optometrist please ignore this!

This was at the begging of COVID, where everything shut down and I was forced to learn online. It had a huge impact on me mentally. Keep in mind I wasn't even a teenager at this time.

I spent my time online on video games and social media. I met this guy through social media, who claimed he was 17, and we seemed to get alone well. That was, until he manipulated me. I was in a really bad mental state at the time and I felt like if I did what he wanted that I would be loved. So yeah not so good stuff happened. Anyways, I finally learned I was being manipulated so I cut contact with him. It was then I learned that he wasn't 17, he was 19.

Five years later (I'm a teenager now), I look back at the stupid shit I did and wished it never happened. Nobody knows about this, not even my closest friends. It's taken such a toll on me I just needed to come here and bring myself some peace.

Please do not fall for manipulation like this like I did.

Throwaway account.

I trusted you to take care of me and you are not doing that. We knew for years you would be laid off and I begged you to retrain, to find another job to not just stick your head in the sand and do nothing. You ignored me. I begged you to put together a better resume, to get more certifications that would increase your chances of getting a job. And still you ignored me. I’m working with an autoimmune disease and chronic pain and you have been out of work for a year. You would not even file for unemployment when I begged you too. Instead you let me pay for everything.

I can’t take this anymore. I gave you 31 years but to give you one minute more sickens me to my soul now. I hate you. I hate what you have done to me I hate your stupid idiotic habits and I hate your asinine stuck up wanna be low class orange menace loving family.

I’m getting out.

I’d rather be alone for the next 1000 years in the pit of hell than have to deal with you and your idiot family and the crap that you and they believe. EDIT: Apparently this is getting lost among some of the males reading my post. I have been working full time since I was 18. During the marriage I made the same or more in salary as my spouse. I have never stopped working.

I want to thank everyone for their supportive and kind words of encouragement who offered them to me. I have a lot of challenges to face in the coming months. I did not go into specific detail in this post because well I was venting and I don’t want all of my specifics out there for obvious reasons. Again thank you everyone. Some of you are truly amazing and thank you for showing me that the world is still an overwhelmingly decent place. It helps.

When I was around 7-8 years I was introduced to porn by my closest friend. We used to watch porn together. I don't know I didn't feel any guilt or smth. It was kinda fun to us. He told me to foreplay with him,he put his d in my anal and I put mine into him. This continued for months,we were addicted doing these. We tried different techniques on each other. One day my mom found out and we stopped. But I couldn't stop my addiction,I still used to watch porn and masturbate from a very young age. I used to masturbate 5-6 times a day when I was just 12. Now I'm around 18 and I have now realised what it has done to me. I'm really traumatised. And now I feel guilty. I have a gf now but I can't go to normal dates w her, my sperm releases even if she holds my hand or I get erections. My sperm was much thinner back then. Now I'm trying to control myself it's better than before...still I want some advice how to fix my brain.

(I don't watch porn now or masturbate;still I can't control my thoughts or erection)

So, we went for a vacation to Agadir, Morroco last year (2024). It was a pretty cool place, the hotel was nice, the staff was great, i very much enjoyed my time there. (i reccomend!) The rooms only had two beds. I went with my cousin and two grandparents; my grandmother and my grandfather. We had to split up and utilize two rooms. I was with my cousin. In our rooms however, was a small stationary phone. You called rooms by putting their numbers in. My cousin suggested we try to prank them by calling them and putting up a youtube video to the phone. We chose one with a guy speaking french, i don't remember which one but i remember the thumbnail was just the guy. We did this, every day, at extremely late times. We're talking midnight to even 03:00! They never found out it was us. They are unaware to this day.
>:]

There's a leak right now. It's in my living room which is on the second floor of an antique house turned apartment building.This place has an attic. So needless to say it's 3 stories.

Well the gutters haven't been replaced since 1943 it doesn't seem. So where the corner meets attic when it rains it beats down on that part of the roof due to lack of gutter system, and over time this has developed into what I'm currently listening to. Hard water dripping from a 12 foot ceiling...

It's not supposed to stop till damn near Tuesday this being Sunday. Towel after towel.... drip. Drip drip.... goddammit.

I'm going to fart so hard later.

Who else ate something they shouldn't have for supper?