Pay Dirt is Slate’s money advice column. Have a question? Send it to Kristin and Ilyce here . (It’s anonymous!)

Dear Pay Dirt,

I was recently at my sister’s house, taking care of her two kids, ages 8 and 11 while she and my brother-in-law were out of town for a friend’s wedding. I made a major blunder. One night, I decided to make some beef stew and took what I thought was a bottle of inexpensive red wine to add to the ingredients. It was great, so I looked up the label—turns out the bottle was an expensive one, in the $300 range!

I didn’t use all of it in the stew, of course, but when I realized what happened, I freaked out, drank the rest of the “evidence,” and got rid of the bottle.

After my sister and brother-in-law got back, she called to tell me that the bottle was m

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