Post Your Wins

[kork13]

Small win: Cashed in points from a receipt collecting app for $40 cash. We've averaged ~one $40 redemption per year, so nothing to write home about.. but it does remind me that I should cash in some of my credit card rewards, as well as my Pinecone rewards balance... I've got at least $300 waiting between those.

I typically use those rewards/cash back to supplement when our spending is a bit higher than typical... Christmas is a common period for me to pull those, to cover Christmas gifts, travel, etc.

[disneysteve]

A loss and then a win.

Every now and then I get the urge to do a little gambling so I download the casino app, deposit $50, and play. I did that last week and over 2 days lost the $50. I deleted the app and moved on. Yesterday I felt like playing a little more so I reinstalled the app, deposited another $50, and started playing. By the end of the night I was able to withdraw the $100 I had initially put in and play with what remained. This morning, I withdrew $110 more. I'm done now.

[Jluke]

My 401k balance finally crossed the $600k level.

back in late March the balance was down to 367k. I just held and bought like I normally do.

stay the course worked (this time).

[disneysteve]

I have an appointment to get my COVID vaccine tomorrow at 3:00!

[disneysteve]

My wife uses a Keurig coffee maker. She's good about finding deals on pods and usually pays about 30 cents each (normal price is 50-60 cents). There's a discount store nearby that sells past-date food items. Last time we were there, she bought 2 pouches of ground coffee for $1.99 each. She's been using that in the Keurig instead and has been keeping track of how many cups she gets out of it. Yesterday, she said she made her 14th cup and still had some left. So that's about 14 cents/cup, just under half the price. Now we just need to take a trip over there and hope they have more coffee she likes. Their stock varies due to buying outdated items.

[cypher1]

Earlier in Nov my employer announced 401K company match of 6% is back in effect starting in Jan. So now I'm back to investing 34% of total gross income to retirement (including HSA and Roth). My initial annual goal was 33%.

Mint Mobile just texted me saying they're increasing data plan from 3G to 4 for free. Best $15 plan for me so far.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I have wanted tiger eye, aventurine, and amethyst earrings to go with bracelets or necklaces of the same. More than a year ago I came across a pair of 1980s earrings that had low grade, tumbled versions of all these stones, plus an orange stone that I don't recognize. Today I took them apart and remade them into four simpler pairs, kind of hippy looking, which is okay with me. Cost to me is 50 cents a pair.

[Thrif-t]

I forgot to tell you guys that my DH bought 5, $20 scratch off tickets for everyone in our family for Christmas. We decided before we started scratching that any of us that won, we would split it 5 ways.

Our DS won $500, so we each got $100!!

But my DH being the gambler he is took his $100 and bought 5 more $20 scratch offs, we kept winning enough to buy 2 or 3 more scratch offs 6 different times before we were done. So DH forfeited his $100 winning to keep the game alive for a week (going back and exchanging his winnings for more scratch offs).

All in all, we ended up getting 31 ($20) scratch offs and pocketed $400 off the initial $100 investment. That was a first for us and fun!

[disneysteve]

Old Comcast bill vs new Comcast bill

[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 often share cooking wins on here to prove that anyone can do it because I'm NOT a big cook, and because I know from experience (and from what I see & hear from others) that food spending can easily get out of control.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

So we hit $2M in our portfolio today. I've been waiting was hoping end of last year but I will take it. Based on rule of thumb, so in 7 years we should have double that and be around 48 and $4m should be enough to retire maybe even with a paid for home. Let's see what happens.

[james.hendrickson]

This qualifies as a very small win. I found nine cents this morning on my way to work. Its not much, but its better than nothing.

[bjl584]

So we hit $2M in our portfolio today. I've been waiting was hoping end of last year but I will take it. Based on rule of thumb, so in 7 years we should have double that and be around 48 and $4m should be enough to retire maybe even with a paid for home. Let's see what happens.

that's quite an achievement
congrats

[disneysteve]

My wife did her first craft vendor fair this past weekend. Although the turnout there wasn't great, she did sell a few items and took a custom order for another. I posted a number of photos of her booth on social media. As a result of those photos, she's already sold one more bag and gotten an order for a pillow (which will likely lead to other orders from the same person).

Advertising works!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Okay so 11 months later....We can now fit 1 car back in the garage. We can never ever fit more than 1 because we have stuff in 1 bay but last year with the pandemic we turned the other bay into storage. Well I was like we are not going a year without parking in the garage and DH you are starting a new job in a week. We are doing this....