Post Your Wins

[Gailete]

We heat with propane and to get the best deal, we have to pay for it all at one time. Last year we had a mild winter so that we had paid for about a tank and a half to the good for this year's heating season. Since it is hard to judge usage at the beginning of September, I would rather pay more than less. If our prepayment runs out, and they come to fill us up, they would leave us a bill for anywhere from $500-700+ depending on the going price, with 5 days to pay to get a very small discount. The first year we were here, I about had a heart attack every month getting those huge bills. We have been on prepay ever since. 2016-17 heating season left us to the good for the first time in 10 years. Sometimes we might have a few gallons left, but never an entire fill up plus!

When I lived in town with gas heat, the meter reader before he retired and probably hundreds of house keys on his key ring so he could read the meter of those that had them in the basement such as mine. Since I was single the first year I was there and had to go out to work so was never home for meter readers, I gave him a key as well. Not something you could do in some places though.

[Thrif-t]

Ok guys coming back to give an update on my WIN!! Got my new driveway apron today. Got the whole thing not just half of it like the City originally said (win #1). Was asking the foreman how much that would've cost if I paid myself, he said around $3k, (win #2!!). Said I got a better grade of cement than what I would've got if I had a regular drive put in because it's an industrial grade they use for the streets. Whoop-whoop.

Although some of the neighbors have already made snarky comments about their tax money putting in my drive. The foreman told me the project is at the end and the city had money left over so that's why I was able to get the whole apron done. He also said there were some other drives around the City like mine that weren't replaced cause they came across them at the beginning of the project. So for once something worked out for me

..on another note I can't believe how much it costs to put in a cement drive!!

[msomnipotent]

Verizon has been billing me for almost $40 that I don't think I owe. The first person to call couldn't even explain what the charges were for. I can't log in to see the charges because we switched to be under my sister's plan and I'm technically not a customer anymore. I had to talk to several people but managed to get the balance written off. I would have paid if I thought I owed it, but the second person said it was for charges in Oct and I switched in Sept.

I felt that I should have had a credit coming because I was told by 2 Verizon employees that we should not have been charged $60 in upgrade fees because we went through Best Buy and not Verizon. What really chapped my pants was that the 3rd person kept insisting that I was actually coming out ahead because they gave me a credit for the balance of Oct that I supposedly didn't use, and they credited me over $1,000 for the phones. My whole point was that they didn't "give" me anything. I paid the retail price Best Buy listed for the phones. Verizon can't bill me for time I didn't use, so that "credit" is just unused days being removed from the bill. I'm coming out $60 behind because I'm being charged for something I was told twice that I shouldn't pay. So I think settling for writing off the balance was more than fair on my part. Honestly, their billing was more complicated than hospital billing.


I also lost 10 pounds playing Pokemon go. The bad news is that all of my pants are falling off. I have to go buy more clothes. My clothes are so old that I assumed that they were all stretched out, but I weighed myself at the Rheumatologist's office and surprise!

[kork13]

Background: My wife has had to go dairy free right now, because our infant was having negative reactions to it through her breastmilk (bloody stool). But most commercial breads contain milk, so I decided to try baking our own bread at home. Taking to a friend about sourdough baking, I found that sourdough bread often does not use milk, & I love sourdough, so I decided to try it. Starting with nothing but flour & water, I grew my own yeast in a sourdough starter (though I did kill my first attempt), and in the last week, it's become ready to use.

Now..... I love to cook, and in most cases, I'm actually fairly good at it. But my nemesis for years has always been baking, or most specifically, bread baking. I have always had trouble getting breads to rise properly (or really anything with leavening), so they always turned out super dense & unappetizing.

But....Lo & behold, my first loaf this week actually turned out PERFECTLY, and my second loaf last night did as well. I was shocked (because normally breads turn out so poorly for me). It's a simple recipe, but I've been able to get a nearly flawless sourdough sandwich bread, starting from nothing but flour & water. I'm tickled with excitement. At this point, I can basically stop buying bread at the store, and we can just bake our own here at home. We normally go through a loaf a week for sandwiches, toast, etc. Now, I can bake a fresh loaf each weekend, and we're good to go. Not a huge monetary savings, but it simplifies my wife's temporary non-dairy requirement, and it does save us about $10/mo. But the bigger win for me is simply that I've somehow managed to get bread baking right, and with scratch sourdough no less! I'm pretty excited, and kinda just wanted to boast a bit.

[snafu]

Good on you! Home made bread is a win win, delicious

[disneysteve]

Cashed in my change at Coinstar today and walked away with an Amazon gift certificate for just over $98.

kork, congrats on the bread. Once you get the hang of it, you realize it isn't really all that hard. My wife makes our pizza crusts, dinner rolls, challah, and occasionally other things. We have yet to get to a point where she makes our every day sandwich bread though I wish she would. Commercial breads are so full of crappy chemicals and additives. The homemade stuff is better for you and tastes so much better as well.

[tripods68]

I got my cable/internet reduced by $49 for a year.

[rennigade]

Commercial breads are so full of crappy chemicals and additives. The homemade stuff is better for you and tastes so much better as well.

And the homemade bread still isnt good for you...along with most other starchy carbs. But they do taste good!

[scfr]

Got new checking accounts opened that will earn $250 in bank bonuses.

Sorted through the Christmas decorations and sold a few things over the weekend on the community FB garage sale page for $21.

[Gailete]

I picked up a unique looking puzzle at our thrift store, still in shrink wrap for $5 and sold it this weekend on ebay for $60. I had miscalculated the shipping amount by $7 so I didn't get as much as I was hoping for, but I'm not going to gripe about it. It made for a profitable weekend.

[msomnipotent]

I forgot to turn off the auto-renewal on one of my magazines and it renewed today. I called to ask to cancel it so I can rebuy it on Black Friday and not only did they cancel it right away but they emailed a $5 coupon for my "trouble".

And I have had the Capital One savings account for one month and have already earned more in interest than I had with HSBC for the past 3 years, not even including the sign up bonus. Kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

[james.hendrickson]

My wife scored some totally 100% free cheerios (the big size) at Fred Meyer today. Big win!

[disneysteve]

We joined Costco a few months ago with a Groupon. When you joined, you got coupons for a free 12-pack of paper towels, a free 24 bottle case of their vitamin water, a free large pizza at the food court, and a $20 gift certificate. When you added it all up, it essentially made the membership cost something like $5.

We've been there a couple of times but hadn't redeemed any of that stuff yet. We went over today and got the free items, used the $20 gift card toward the rest of our order, and got the free pizza which we had some of for lunch and the rest is now in the fridge (they are huge pizzas).

[Gailete]

I forgot to turn off the auto-renewal on one of my magazines and it renewed today. I called to ask to cancel it so I can rebuy it on Black Friday and not only did they cancel it right away but they emailed a $5 coupon for my "trouble".

And I have had the Capital One savings account for one month and have already earned more in interest than I had with HSBC for the past 3 years, not even including the sign up bonus. Kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

I have multiple accounts at Capital One and have been there since they were ING (remember the Orange Ball). I have my stocks with them and a Roth IRA as well as multiple savings accounts, so I have separate ones for the different businesses for the est. taxes, the rental account security deposit, etc. We have some older IRAs at another place, but having everything in one place, sure helps me keep track of things. I know my way isn't everyone's way, but it is working. I think this has been the first time I could pay the taxes when due with 'cash'.

As I get more and more into buying on line, I think I will have to try it out as several have mentioned on different forums that it is a good place to use. I will never be like the ladies in the commercials getting huge checks back, but I wouldn't mind a rebate now and then.

Besides the puzzle that I was able to sell, my old boyfriend from when I was 15, that is a long time ago, sent me a big box of sewing patterns that he had picked up at a sale. While many of them were cut, I was able to still have a bunch of uncut patterns to list. All 'retro', since I refuse to say something that was made after I was born is vintage! LOL. If just the first batch that I listed sells, I will make $100+. I have learned to never turn down 'gifts' that are sewing related! It gives me stuff to share, stuff to sell and stuff to use. I have even had customers send me batches of uncut patterns, that they weren't going to use. They would send them for free to me and even fellow sellers have sent me freebies. Every one of those gifts was a win for me!

I also got some more wins this week. I have a rolling walker (free from the Vine program) for when I am in stores without electric wheelchairs so I can sit when needed. This week for the Amazon Vine program, I got a walker bag to carry all the stuff you need when moving around. I had been planning on making one, but this saved me the trouble. I also got gadget to help do up buttonholes and pull up zippers when hands aren't working right. I even got two new brushes just as mine was starting to fall apart! Lots of wins - I am blessed!

[tripods68]

Anyway here's my win.
Our decision to put $40K more into our taxable account this time last year resulted in 15.3% one-year return + $3200 of dividends. It's probably one of my best decision in personal finance. Sure the market fluctuates a lot, but when we already had our 30K in EF built, the decision to put the rest of our cash in the market was a no-brainer.

To add to this: I canceled my XM subscriptions renewal today I barely use. Savings us about $226.00.