Post Your Wins

[disneysteve]

I got called into work at urgent care yesterday because they were short handed. That's $480 gross, about $345 take home after taxes and 401k.

[amarowsky]

I had a few pretty big ones, in order from big to small;
1) graduated and got a new job paying slightly more, but more vacation and much larger routine raises, opportunity, and bonuses.

2) earned almost $5k from taxable account from dividends + disbursements (before tax).

3) found and leased my inherited rental home to a great renter who's paying $200 above my cost.

4) my personal residence value is now up to $167,000 estimated. Up from the $75k I paid for it in 2010 (only owe 68k ish now).

All in all, pretty good year! Very busy and productive, also got married and bought a pet baby cockatoo 🐦 and traveled out of the country 3 times!

Don't mean to brag, this has just been the best year of my life. Especially after losing my mom to cancer and spending the past two years working full time and going to school full time. Feels good to reap the deferred fruits of the hard work and sacrifice.

[disneysteve]

Feels good to reap the deferred fruits of the hard work and sacrifice.

That's great! Congrats on all of your wins, the new job, and everything else.

There is great satisfaction in seeing the payoff for all of your efforts.

[msomnipotent]

I was bored and decided to clear out some old emails yesterday. I found $75 worth of discounted Outback gift cards and $50 worth of Ulta. We used the Outback for dinner since I was really sore (I have RA), and the $50 will be used for Christmas gifts. My 11 year old wants perfume, so there you go. I'm waiting until Ulta has their Christmas sales. I can usually get a nice robe, perfume, and some other extras for free with a $40 perfume purchase, and I happen to need a robe. But I really should keep better track of my discounted gift cards.

I also cashed out $150 worth of credit card points for a gift card to Petsmart. We absolutely need a larger aquarium due to overcrowding. Waiting for the black Friday sale when their $650 aquarium goes on sale for $300, so about $150 + tax cash cost for an aquarium we were planning on spending $650 for is pretty good. The bonus is that we already have a filter that will work with an aquarium that large, and the employees I talked to recommended not to add rocks for a cleaner tank. I was budgeting $150 for rocks and decorations.

[Outdoorsygal]

A Win & Loose

A co-worker resigned so I am taking her 50 1/2 hr shift this weekend. I'll clear $600 net working Fri 3pm to Sun at 5pm as I did last weekend. It is going to be a LONG next 4 days- 87 hrs.

Snce this entire shift is overtime for me, my company cannot afford to have me work that shift regularly So it is available this month and December. Better than nothing!

[97guns]

picked up a collectible cookie jar from goodwill for $2.04 + tax and its been bid up to $26.67 on ebay so far with 4 days left

[cypher1]

Today I decided to shop for a pair of tires, as I needed to replace both my rear Blizzak winter tires since the tread was already pretty low. Finally searching on CL , I found exact model/pair as originals with 70% tread left advertised for 160.

Talked the seller down to $140 and to meet at the mall close to my work (instead of driving out another 30 min one way). Turns out he was selling all 4 instead of a pair, as he only posted the first 2 in the pictures. Brand new, these sold for $150 per tire. So I didn't object.

[scfr]

Some recent wins:

I volunteered to work Christmas Eve.

We bought ground coffee, a staple in our household, at a post-holiday sale.
It was 75% off of the high retail price, which translated to 26% less per pound than what we usually pay at Costco.

Also, DH was just selected for a focus group that will bring in an extra $100. That will pay for a lot of home-brewed coffee.

[msomnipotent]

I just saved a chunk of money on our Grand Canyon trip. A car rental (for a normal car and not van/luxury/convertible) was over $600 for the week we are going. Apparently, everyone is going to Phoenix when we are. We are landing on a Saturday night and most of the rental places will be closed so I thought we would have to pay the enormous fees at the airport. We worked it out that we get picked up from the airport by my in-laws who will happen to be there when we are, and we can stay in their RV that night. They will take us to an Avis near their RV park the next morning and we go to the canyon from there.

So we are saving about $300 on the car, $183 on the hotel room, and they want to take us to breakfast. To make a long story short, we had to rearrange all of our plans because they decided to come with us for part of the trip (which we honestly don't mind) and changing all of the hotels saved us another $200 on top of the other savings. I'm glad I paid a little extra for the free cancellation reservations instead of the "pay now and save" ones.

[StormRichards]

A true WIN for me this morning.

$25 plus free shipping to Fanatics.com from a 7-11/Dr. Pepper/Fanatics contest.

[StormRichards]

Also won $5 on a $3 scratch off ticket from that same trip

[GoodSteward]

Finally decided to get a Google Pixel, and I love it! When buying the phone the system messed up and didn't charge me sales tax. I contacted support to be an honest guy, but they said it was an automated system. Nothing to be done.

Saved me $52. Win for me.

[disneysteve]

I don't have total confirmation of this yet but I'm excited anyway.

I am in the process of transitioning my "side job" from per diem to part time. That will make me eligible for their health insurance policy. The monthly premium is actually slightly higher than my current coverage (an extra $20/paycheck). HOWEVER, my daughter's therapy will now be covered.

For the past 2 years, we have been paying out of pocket for her therapy. It is currently $185/week so $740/month. That has been a huge drain on our finances. If the new insurance covers it, we stand to save a bundle. I'm not sure what the copay is but let's say it's $50/visit. That means $40/month more for insurance plus $200/month for copays. That would still put us $500/month ahead of what we are currently spending. I sure hope that's how it plays out.

[rennigade]

For the past 2 years, we have been paying out of pocket for her therapy. It is currently $185/week so $740/month. That has been a huge drain on our finances.

Didnt your daughter receive a large settlement that will pay out for years to come? Why isnt that money being used for therapy?

[disneysteve]

Didnt your daughter receive a large settlement that will pay out for years to come? Why isnt that money being used for therapy?

That money is being used for college .

Her need for therapy stems partly from that case, probably, but there are a lot of other issues rolled in as well so it's not 100% related.