Booking a plane ticket 101

Apparently my mom and I just can't get it right....Due to a few mistakes while booking plane tickets, the following has resulted:

~$150 additional to change a plane ticket that I booked to depart from my destination airport vs. the departing city.
~Returning home at 10PM instead of 10AM...AND then getting delayed and returning home at 2:30AM instead, getting 3 hours of sleep and then working a 12 hour shift for my internship.

How else do you learn but through trial and error... MAYBE next time we will get it right...