
What did you do to improve your finances today?
This was one of my favourite threads on the old forum, and since there doesn't seem to be one here yet, I thought I'd create one :-)
-
I was wish-farming a glider chair for my son last month and had almost saved enough to buy a new one. Then I found a barely used glider for sale a few miles away for 20% of the price of the one I was saving for. Turns out the glider is a much nicer model than the one I had originally picked out too! New to us rocker for a steal, plus a good chunk of change went back into TBB.
Reply -
I had stakes in my old bank from way back in the day, that don't bring the dividends they once did. so I cancelled that to reclaim a few hundred bucks after the end of the year. This allowed me to also cancel my savings account that I don't use and that was only used for depositing the dividends.
I'm finally free from my old bank and I'm going to forget about that money I'm going to get to make for some nice surprise windfall in January.Reply -
I used a service called Trim to negotiate my Cox internet bill on my behalf, and they were able to reduce it from $108 to $85. They take 25% of the annual saving that they're charging me now, so it's a bit more this month but the saving is welcome for the next 12 months.
I also got a sizable return on my taxes that I've applied to my Emergency fund and several true expense categories that I had to ignore for the past few months.
Reply -
This month is Insurance renewal time! My pet insurance leapt up 25%. I spend 20 minutes comparing policies and saved $600.
My phones handset charges have finally been paid in full so whilst no actual effort was expended, I'll be 'saving' $30 a month (but actually using it to fund my Phone Replacement category).
I quit smoking this month. Although the cost to do that was just over a month's worth of cigarettes, my Stop Smoking app tells me that in $10 days I've saved $127.59. I plan to use these savings as weekly rewards for the first month but annual savings are around $4.5k which was a big motivator for quitting.
Reply -
Not directly finance related, but helping me become more organized which should help my budget in roundabout ways:
I finally loaded up and logged into the Chaos Control Web App and got my random sticky notes all put into proper tasks. I used the App extensively when I was finishing school, but have been really bad about it since then. Having the Web App pulled up on my PCs will help remind me to actually take care of things on my list (and maybe help me get back into the habit of using the App as well when I'm out and about) and to get things more organized in general.
Reply -
My husband was rear ended last September and his car was a total loss. The driver who hit him was on a suspended license and didn't have insurance. Our claim was ultimately paid out by our insurance company under our uninsured motorist coverage. However, rather than rely on our insurance company to go after the driver for damages, I took to the internet and found I could file a report with the Department of Transportation in Illinois where the accident happened. Their Accident Report Office did a search on the VIN of the vehicle and found it was owned by someone other than the driver and that it was covered by Allstate at the time of the accident. Allstate reach out to my hubby this week and they already reimbursed us for my his lost wages and out of pocket medical costs! $878 hit our account today and we will ultimately be reimbursed for our $1,000 deductible as well once they square up with our insurance company. So thankful!
Reply -
Because I’m not scared of my bank account anymore, but check it regularly to do my manual update, I spotted I hadn’t been paid yet for some freelance work I did.
On further investigation, all those emails that came in included instructions for how I have to crank the handle on the client purchase order system.
£500 now on its way. :)
Reply -
I set up my daughters (12 and 13yo) with their own budgets on my YNAB. How does this help MY finances? Well, now when they want something, I can tell them to check their budgets about whether they can afford it. My old mindset was "buy them all the things when they want all the things," which obviously costs me money. Now they're motivated to get little jobs in the neighborhood so they can have more $ to budget. Also, in the long run, if they don't grow up with the "head in the sand" mentality about finances like I did, I will hopefully not have to bail them out when they're adults.
Reply -
We finally got to a point where we were keeping too much money in our checking account to feel comfortable, so we opened a savings and transferred $5,000 into it today. It doesn't pay much interest but every little bit counts and we feel safer knowing that money is not linked to any type of debit or ATM card. We also learned that we qualified for the next level up checking account and will now be earning interest on that account as well. Yay for small victories :)
Reply -
A tradesman backed into our car parked on the street at the beginning of the month. The owner of the company offered us cash to fix it so the accident wouldn't go on his insurance as it was only a little more than the deductible. We took the money, didn't fix it, and sold the car (we were thinking to sell it before that happened). Didn't get much but spouse had wanted to donate it before all this happened. Altogether, we got $900 and change, which is way more than $0! Every penny has gone to the vehicle replacement fund.
I cancelled the insurance policy on the car before I had to renew it next month ($185 for that car). I also won't have to pay the various state and county fees on that car which were due soon (between $25 and $50). Plus it needed gas before we sold it, so I saved about $40 right there!
I received and cashed our Costco member rewards check.
Spousal unit switched several monthly subscriptions into coming out of his fun money account. Those totaled between $25 and $40 per month as they were variable. That's more than $300 a year that can go to something else.
We took a trip and visited family. The hotel was paid using points and our family refused our money when we tried to reimburse them for all the groceries, food, and meals they paid for. The trip came well under budget instead of over (they have really good micro breweries there that we can't get here so they paid for the beer we were stocking up on). Plus we were invited back! Not always a guarantee considering that we have very noisy, sometimes difficult children.
Reply -
I received a notification that a tech subscription I renew every 2 years (for dynamic DNS) was up in May. I decided to wait until next month to pay even though there was money in the category... which gave me time to realise I don't use this as heavily as I used to and can probably switch over to a free service. I just did that in about 15 minutes. US$50/year saved.
Reply -
Tiny win: I got an email from Apple today about an annual fitness app I subscribed to being up for autorenew. First i kicked myself for a second for not including that in my True Expenses. Then I remembered that I haven't actually used it in a few months because I've been going to the gym more. So I just canceled it! It's only $40 a year, but being more aware of my finances stopped this from being a surprise and turned it into an opportunity to save a little cash!
Reply -
With today's paycheck, I finished May's budget, and with the two paychecks left in May, we will be fully buffered and able to finish June's budget with money earned this month. I've still not decreased our monthly goals total to two paychecks which is where I want to be so I don't need any other income or the third paycheck on 3 paycheck months (Nov. 2019!) to stay buffered. Right now we do have several hundred dollars income extra income a month but I don't want to depend on it as it could go away.
So it's not exactly saving money, but as they say, scarcity breeds clarity. So in the months to come, I suspect I will be rejiggering target goals and such so I can stay fully buffered without any extra income. A year from now, I also hope to have some sinking funds fully funded so I can stop adding to them.
Reply -
We sold a car last month; the insurance for it was due this month. The leftover time from the car coming off the policy was calculated and applied against the balance. I'd budgeted a bit too much for the expected bill which means that I can decrease the monthly goal by 5 bucks or so. $5 closer to where I want my budget. Of course, then my husband says that he wants a new goal to replace the gutters. Argh! Even if I put the target off 5 years, that's a good chunk of money each month!
Too many projects, too little money...
Reply -
I am making incentives for my students, rather than buying (as much) for them to "buy" with their incentive dollars in my classroom store. I feel a little silly buying things when most of their parents are in a higher tax bracket than I, and can (and do) buy expensive things for their kids. But this gets the job done, and maybe they'll realize that these are more special than what they could get at the store. But if not, oh well. One always hopes that good behavior is something I've helped instill through my class, not something developed purely through external motivation. But now, I have to finish!!!
Reply