Post Your Wins

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Is that a shed or a studio? How big is it? Looks great!

It is 12 x 16 ft. And it is a studio basically without the bathroom. It's a man cave. I'm gonna have a hard time dragging him out of this house ever. It was a lot more expensive than you would think. But i think a lot of it is because it's a lot bigger than what $25k would have cost to pay those companies to build it for us. I think most of those were 10x10 or 10x12 unfinished. This is about 2x size and finished completely. I mean he did sort of go overboard and I did not have to buy him a kegerator, beverage fridge, nor put in speakers in ceiling and tv.

[scfr]

Another cooking win: I cooked up a big batch of steel cut oats and used a muffin pan to freeze individual portions, then stored the portions in a freezer bag. Now I just have to grab a portion out of the freezer, heat it up in the microwave, then add toppings (fruit & nuts for me) for a really quick, easy hot breakfast.

I shared these with my mom & brother and they both loved them, so I've started making for them and delivering when I visit.

[disneysteve]

I got a payment revision notice from the company where we have my disability insurance and DW's life insurance. Our combined monthly payment dropped by $4.49 so $53.88/year.

[corn18]

Got a call from my boss last Friday and he told me I got a $52k bonus. Wasn't expecting anything since I am leaving in 30 days. Nice surprise.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

i bought butternut squash for $1.99 clearance last night and cooked it this morning for roasted curried butternut squash.

[disneysteve]

I got an email from one of the survey companies I used to do work for saying they were upgrading their incentive program and to check my account to see if I had points set to expire.

I logged in and discovered I had 5,000 points. That was enough to get me a $25 Amazon gift card so I ordered that.

[james.hendrickson]

Here is another small win: I found a quarter on the street this week. Not much, but focusing on the positive usually brings you better results, so I'll take it.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I am on budget for the food for $850/month. I decided 10% was too small I am reaching for 20% reduction. So with 5 weeks in March we need $168.96/week. We are definitely on track $160.39 groceries, $22.53 Beer, $34 Eating out ($24 living social future use and $10.39 mcdonald's).

I also bought a year subscription for $50 to paramount for star trek. If I don't use it I'll cancel but 50% savings and it's the only streaming other than amazon prime we do

[jenn_jenn]

Splurged on an ocean front suite at a swanky hotel for a weekend with friends while we’re visiting back home later this month. Paid for with points.

[disneysteve]

DD decided to file her taxes on her own. In previous years, we sat down together and did it. She asked me a couple of questions but did 90% of it on her own.

[james.hendrickson]

Called Comcast/Xfinity and got autopay set up. Total savings is $10 per month, for $120 per year.

I think a lot of cable internet companies have local monopolies, or switching costs in these industries is high. For whatever reason there doesn't seem to be a lot of appetite for customer retention on the part of Comcast's customer service technicians. I wrangled with them for about an hour, and spoke with a couple of customer service reps - they couldn't offer much beyond the autopay discount. Another thing with these guys is...you've got to watch the fine print - the autopay discount is only good for 12 months, but they'll keep billing you automatically after the 12 months.

Bottom line - even with the hassle, any cost reduction is a win. So, I'll take it.

[james.hendrickson]

Called T-mobile - my cell service provider. Got them to issue a $20 dollar credit without much hassle. T-mobile may let their customer service reps give on the spot discounts if the representative feels it is a good idea.

This is another win, albeit a small one.

[corn18]

Got an escrow analysis from my mortgage company yesterday. My property taxes are supposed to be $14,000 / year, but the first year is only $600 due to how my county calculates the first year for a new build and we didn't close until Aug 2020. So they are sending me a check for $8,793 and dropping my monthly payment by $1100. Should work out well since we will probably pay off the mortgage after I get all my severance.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Called T-mobile - my cell service provider. Got them to issue a $20 dollar credit without much hassle. T-mobile may let their customer service reps give on the spot discounts if the representative feels it is a good idea.

This is another win, albeit a small one.

What's the $20 credit for?

[scfr]

Better late than never, we will be scratching our final 2020 financial goal off of our list: we signed a contract for our new home and hopefully will be in it by the end of 2021.