We all love a bargain. But there are times when saving a little money now winds up costing you big bucks later. Consider Wisconsin’s costly mistake.

In the early 1900s, the Badger State’s capitol building was seriously cramped. It was a lovely antebellum structure that had been built 40 years earlier. Now it was overflowing with legislators and bureaucrats, mountains of state documents, records for tens thousands of Wisconsin’s Civil War and Spanish-American war veterans, and even a popular state museum with countless relics, including the preserved remains of Old Abe the War Eagle, who had flown to national fame during the Civil War. By 1903, people were wondering if it was time for a new capitol building.