
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 :-)
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When we had to close to all but urgent care, I changed our personal budget to prepare for losing my income so my employees could keep theirs. I stopped my RRSP (retirement) contributions and my LOC pay-down plan to conserve cash.
Since then, our government has instituted a wage subsidy and we've been very busy. I'm going to be able to keep my wages as they were. I've also received a decent tax refund from last year.
So, for the next pay and going forward I'm going to return to budgeting for the RRSP but keep the cash in my chequing account for the short term in case we need it. Once things are more solid again with the business income, I can sweep all that money into the investment account at once. It's like the best of both worlds, and I'm not wasting the $$.
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My gas bill was half what I had budgeted for! For variable bills, I always look back at past months and try to err on the high side when budgeting. Yay extra money to budget!
In past months I would just allow the extra to stay in that category and rollover but I have been pushing to reach my monthly buffer (and it just makes me happy to see my INM category get bigger).
So that was an extra $25 going to June!
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Had my last Hello Fresh box. I know that delivery meal services aren't the best option for most, but for me (who only eats a bit at a meal and is cooking for one) it has done great things for my cooking skills and budget in that I don't do fast food/take out as much. I also milked every discount code I could get.
They have recently been having supply and delivery issues (which is completely understandable) so I had planned on not ordering any more for a while.
My last recipe was Pork and Poblano Tacos. Sounds yum - except the peppers, cilantro, and shallots were spotted and moldy. 😣
I have never had so many issues with a recipe with them. I luckily had a green pepper, dried cilantro, and onions at home so I could still make the mean.
The one thing I will say about Hello Fresh is that they are very responsive with customer service. Normally if there are any issues they will credit your account. I called and asked for a refund instead. They gave me $18.00 back to my account (which is more than I think 2 shallots, a poblano pepper, and fresh cilantro costs definitely).
Score. I still got to have the meal, and now I have $18.00 more dollars to put towards my INM category.
I also canceled my HF account. (I did save all of my recipe cards so now my job is to cook it all again on my own.)
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Did some spring cleaning and a Fresh Start on both our shared and my personal budgets. Switched internet providers, saving about US$45 (450NOK seeing as we live in Norway) a month. Sent out a query to our insurance companies to see if we could get a better deal by bundling our life, contents, travel and car insurance together (will choose the best one out of the replies if so). worked out a plan with my partner to snowball some of his debt, (he has a number of smallish loans from me that I need to be paid back, a credit card and a mahoosive student loan), transferwised some money and paid down on my own NZ student loan - one more payment til I'm under NZ$60000, which is a bit of a psychological win (my compulsory overseas payments drop by half then - though I'll be keeping them up high to pay it off sooner), and referred two friends to Ynab! Happy Tuesday all round.
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I'll be receiving $75 for completing a survey on personal money management. It was a series of questions unlocked over about two week, but averaged about 5 mins a day. It was also easy to answer because I use YNAB. My answers were basically repeating the 4 rules and mentioning the app. The questions were a good reminder of what it's like to not have a budget.
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[UK based] Things I generally do:
This week I will be doing my tax return ie as soon as I can after year-end, so I know what my tax bill will be ASAP (doesn't mean I have to pay it immediately), but conversely if I am due a refund, it will be paid immediately.
Last week I shopped around for telecomms contracts. Negotiated ruthlessly when renewing my landline and mobile phone contracts by putting the date in my calendar, and choosing the "I am leaving" option when I phoned up (that part of the call centre can authorise bigger savings). I've also got an ongoing discount on my landline for referring a family member. This week I am shopping comparison sites for fuel suppliers.
Bought a second hand mobile phone from high rated seller on Amazon - Music Magpie. Already got an old cheap SIM only contract. My house insurance covers my phone.
Buy second hand books from Amazon sellers
I almost never drink alcohol for health reasons, that saves a fortune. I normally meet friends for walks in the park, swimming, coffee etc instead of meals out. I do hobbies which are pay as you go, eg dance classes - currently online :(
I am a member of a seat filling mailing list for cheap last minute theatre tickets (PM me for details if you are in London). They are currently sending out links to free streams of great productions.
I delay buying things by having a Purchases list on my mobile to let me really think about it first. Often snap photos of things I like in shops (inc bar code and size if I have tried it on) so I can decide later and order online if I really do want it.
Plan meals for the week using a nice notebook. Look back in it and learn from my culinary mistakes! I also did a one off food costing exercise a while ago, some parts of which shocked me. I don't usually shop around as I have no car.
I don't generally use vouchers or loyalty cards because they encourage me to buy things I don't want (I would if I had a car and bought petrol/gas).
Bought a reusable coffee cup: sometimes save 20p on my coffee with it, sometimes bring out my own coffee, depending on how virtuous or skint I am feeling.
Got a Euro currency card (account on YNAB of course) so I avoid big ATM fees and can charge it up when the ex rate is slightly less bad, also helps me budget for a holiday, asssuming I ever get to leave the country ever again.
This week I have continued to sell things I don't need on ebay as there is a free listing offer. I just discovered the Best Offer / Counter Offer format not the Auction format to stay in control. But I realised that ebay is time consuming and deductions add up (final seller fee and paypal fee). Scrounge boxes and newspapers to avoid paying for packaging (I pillaged polystyrene from my neighbour's trash only yesterday!)
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Mended my (otherwise soon to fall apart) jeans. Nearly invisible.
Bought a giftcard from my favourite clothes shop (where I’ll get new jeans) to help them through this COVID time, but which will also be worth 20% more in the shop.
And we were given ! an Optimist sailboat! That’s a small sailboat for up to around 15 years. Our son is 11, has had lessons for two years. We gave them a home made apple cake and a €20 giftcard. We bought a small trailer and my husband customised it for behind a bike. Without it we wouldn’t get the boat to the water at all. So we did spend money, but I think it might well be our main summer expense... as we will most likely not be able to go anywhere.
(Optimist competitions are for up till 15 years, but of course husband and I want to try it out too 😁😂⛵️)
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Through my paypal account, I signed with Acorns today. They are a small funds investing site. It only takes $5 to open an account, then it's $1 a month in fees to keep going forward. It's not complicated, they ask some questions and pick the investment mix for you. Then you get a referral link. When others use the link and you get $5, they get $5. That's like starting for free. The bonus this month is if you sign up 4 people by May 31st you get $250. I think I can find 4 people I know to sign up, as long as I split the money with them ;) Just wanted to share, sounds like a low risk way to get an extra $250 in an investment account.
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This is more of a long-term win.
I applied (and was accepted) for a new 0% balance transfer credit card. My existing Virgin card still has £11.9K on it, and I knew I was not going to clear it before it would start attracting interest (I'm focusing on a different credit card paydown - that story is in the 2020 debt paydown thread). The transfer does attract a 1.2% charge, but it gives me until July 2022 to clear this debt, and it's better than the 29% interest rate it would have gone up to had I not done it!
One of my favourite sites for financial advice is moneysavingexpert.com, as they're pretty impartial - however, I did find when looking at their recommendations, that they seemed to be pushing cards that you could "pre-apply" for through their checker. This particular card didn't work with their checker, but also had longer terms and lower fee. It helps to pay attention!
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I was making a grocery list for the dreaded shopping trip during covid and I'm really trying to rein in my grocery budget. I was out of protein powder. I buy this great vegan powder that has everything I need but it is $62 to replace and I just didn't want to pay that. Then I started researching on Pinterest for alternate sources of protein in my smoothies and came across recipes to make your own! So I started more research and then got super OCD & made a spreadsheet with all the nutritional information and played around with the amounts to replicate the same amount of calories, protein, fat, & fibre. I found the prices for the ingredients and worked out the cost for the batch divided by the number of servings. It turns out that my homemade powder is 1/2 the price with only 8 ingredients! I'd say that is a win! :)
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Paid off my student loan! Hurray!
It was still €4490.
Before, when I wanted to pay back I didn’t ‘allow’ myself, because paying off on the mortgage would mean saving more interest. Also I stopped paying back completely (that’s allowed in the system for a max amount of time) because I had cancer and if I’d die of that, I would rather leave my husband and son the money, instead of having just paid all that on the loan (loan wouldn’t pas onto them) And after that: what is the moment to have enough trust I won’t die young, to start paying back again ....? ( now, I have decided😊)
We have indeed payed extra on the mortgage, but stocks might be an even better plan... Hm, but that depends on time horizon and I’m not even sure when in my life I will be needing the money most. All those decisions sometimes make me end up doing nothing!
Now I’m about to start studying again and I still have a student loan! Pfff! Once I’d have to start paying back again monthly while studying, that would really impact my budget...
Then I read a blogpost yesterday, about the dark-cloud- aspect of a student loan. That finally made me aknowledge the emotional side of things, enough to go for it and now it’s gone. Hurray!
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Not a huge win but I'm weirdly proud of saving $60 a year by switching from the most basic savings account at my bank to their "enhanced" account. I always have the minimum balance needed for the enhanced account and that means not more $5/mo service fee. It took a 2 minute email and got it sorted. Why have I been paying $60 a year for the last 10 years without thinking about?!
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I switched from at&t to comcast for my internet to save $20/mo; the payment is $54/mo. now; this is still too much, but I was scared the $20 option would be too slow or unreliable. I do not pay for cable tv; it is too much to rationalize while I am in debt.
I wonder if I will see the day when I say that saving $20 a month is not worth the hassle b/c it was a hassle installing and switching everything. I am locked into this rate for a year and then back on merry-go-round to find the best deal.