Post Your Wins

[Gailete]

Got a decent raise today! (First time I've gotten a raise in a number of years.)

Good for you!

[Thrif-t]

My girls said they wanted some rain boots for Christmas so I was looking on the Zappo's site today. Decided to keep looking. Tonight I have a $30 just for you code in my inbox. I just got my son some shorts

[Thrif-t]

Wa-hoo I posted some losses on the other thread now I just got a phone call on a WIN!!

We have a cement street and the City is replacing some of it. I called them up to see if they would replace the apron of my drive cause the snow plows have just taken out big chunks of it. After 4 phone calls and no one calling me back the Street Supervisor just called and said the City will replace my apron when they do some parts of the street. Yippee!!

I'm so glad I asked. My DH gets embarrassed when I try to get things "free" but geez their plows ripped it up. I don't get why people are afraid to ask for things, so what all they can say is no. But look I got a YES cause I asked

Edit.. just got another win for my pocket book. My second DD just got a job on campus. Yay! She's tried for one since school started but practically all on campus jobs you have to be work study eligible and she's not. This job you don't need to be work study eligible. Oh good! She just needs a little something for some pocket money. Wa-Hoo.

[Gailete]

We had snow plows take out our mailbox and of course wouldn't replace it and our is the extra large, more expensive one. We had to buy a new mailbox and pay someone to build a new pole and attach the new mailbox. GRRR We have been here 10 years and in the first couple of years had the mailbox wiped out twice. the first was the baseball bat wielding teenage boys who don't realize or care that depending on someone's work the owner would have had to work 6or 7 hours up to only 1 hour to get the money to pay for the destruction. Most people would not like to work almost an entire day to pay for a new mailbox. That would be a negative win.

[Nutria]

Growth in net worth

Given what our N/W is now (just above $700K) and what it was 4.5 years ago ($385K), it's grown at a CAGR of 18.2%.

[msomnipotent]

I'm counting this as a win even though it is not. I spent $500 on a silver plated punch set on ebay and even though I specifically asked about wear and was told there was none, most of the pieces were worn down to the base metal and would be unuseable. And of course, the seller gave me a hard time about returning it. I was fully expecting a partial refund and I would have to get on a plane and hunt someone down. I got the full refund two days ago, which corresponds with the drastic increase in offers for butt buddies I have been getting in my email account. I went from 1 or 2 a week to about 70 today.

And why a silver plated punch set, you ask? Because a sterling silver punch set is completely impractical! I have wanted one for 2 years, and it was going to be my Christmas present. Looks like I'm sticking with a new Coach purse for Christmas.

On a brighter note, we switched our cell phone plan from 3 shared GB per month to unlimited and will be paying less. My sister added us to her plan and gets a discount through her employer. Our first bill was just as much as usual, but it included some fees and didn't include the employee discount. I'm really curious to see the price difference in the next bill.

[Gailete]

I'm counting this as a win. I got my latest electric bill yesterday. I was tired and hurting so I didn't open it to see the usual bad news. My husband as part of his piano rebuilding was 'cooking' a soundboard in our downstairs bathroom shower stall for all of the summer. It had to stay at an even temperature so wouldn't grow or shrink. He finally could install it into the piano and we could turn off the heat. We had a mild summer and rarely had to turn on the whole house AC. Nevertheless, our electric bill has been through the roof and it didn't help when last months was estimated at over 1400 KWH used! I open the bill I got yesterday anticipating the usual $200+ bill like we have been getting all summer. It was $0.00!!!! they still owe us $13.06. Obviously, I am very happy to see this. It may not seem like a 'win', except that I had managed to get the last two months paid, but I honestly had no idea how I was going to pay another big bill this month.

[disneysteve]

It was $0.00!!!! they still owe us $13.06.

Why do they owe you money? Are you on a budget billing plan? Do you have solar panels that generate more than you use?

Is your husband rebuilding pianos for profit or just a hobby? I hope he's making enough to offset the higher utility bills. It concerns me that you weren't sure how you were going to pay the electric bill generated by his "cooking" activity.

[Gailete]

By their new calculations we had over paid the last two months that they billed us for, minus what we owed for this month, we still have $13 against next month’s bill.

My husband rebuilds pianos for a living, although this is the last one since he just doesn't have the physical oomph for it anymore. He will get a healthy sized check when finished, but it isn't like we get a payment on a monthly basis, so we live mostly on my SSD check as well as our on-line store which hasn't been doing this past year as well as we would have liked. One of the reasons that I have been pushing so hard to get our rental property paid off (less than $2K now) so we will have more cash coming in each month. I feel like I have been on a steep uphill climb financially for years, but I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, finally. When we got married I was making over $35K a year and he was doing well with his business and three weeks after we got married I got slammed with a virus of some sort that took me from mild to severe RA almost overnight and I haven’t made much money since. I don’t even want to think of how much I would be making now as an RN if I hadn’t gotten to sick.

[disneysteve]

By their new calculations we had over paid the last two months that they billed us for, minus what we owed for this month, we still have $13 against next month’s bill.

My husband rebuilds pianos for a living, although this is the last one since he just doesn't have the physical oomph for it anymore. He will get a healthy sized check when finished, but it isn't like we get a payment on a monthly basis, so we live mostly on my SSD check as well as our on-line store which hasn't been doing this past year as well as we would have liked. One of the reasons that I have been pushing so hard to get our rental property paid off (less than $2K now) so we will have more cash coming in each month. I feel like I have been on a steep uphill climb financially for years, but I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, finally. When we got married I was making over $35K a year and he was doing well with his business and three weeks after we got married I got slammed with a virus of some sort that took me from mild to severe RA almost overnight and I haven’t made much money since. I don’t even want to think of how much I would be making now as an RN if I hadn’t gotten to sick.

As for the electric bill, we often have the same issue with our gas bill since the meter is in our basement. If we aren't home on meter-reading day, they just estimate our bill so sometimes it is higher or lower than actual usage. The electric and water meters are outdoors so that never happens.

Sorry that your husband isn't able to continue the piano work. I can understand how physically demanding that must be. At least you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope things turn around soon.

[Thrif-t]

I found $150 in an old wallet today.

[Gailete]

As for the electric bill, we often have the same issue with our gas bill since the meter is in our basement. If we aren't home on meter-reading day, they just estimate our bill so sometimes it is higher or lower than actual usage. The electric and water meters are outdoors so that never happens.

Sorry that your husband isn't able to continue the piano work. I can understand how physically demanding that must be. At least you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope things turn around soon.

The weird thing is, they converted the meters to be able to be read as the meter reader drove by so that 'estimated' bills should be a thing of the past! We still get estimated every other month.

[Nutria]

The weird thing is, they converted the meters to be able to be read as the meter reader drove by so that 'estimated' bills should be a thing of the past! We still get estimated every other month.

Maybe they only drive by every other month?

[Gailete]

Maybe they only drive by every other month?

Probably they do, but in the literature they sent us about the changeover, it was supposed to eliminate estimated bills. I don't think we have ever had an estimated bill that was excessively LOW though! Makes you wonder.

[Nutria]

I don't think we have ever had an estimated bill that was excessively LOW though! Makes you wonder.

As long as it all balances out... Anyway, I run our own bill leveling program, which builds up an excess in the slack months (winter for electricity, and summer for gas) and drains it off in the heavy months.