Post Your Wins

[Thrif-t]

Congrat's Steve! But I find that odd that they would send scholarship money to a student who has already graduated, that's different. All the scholarships I've ever seen from my girls schools, one of the requirements is you are still in school.

But I'm glad she got it to put towards her loans

[disneysteve]

Congrat's Steve! But I find that odd that they would send scholarship money to a student who has already graduated

Well it’s for last year. I just don’t get why they can’t award it sooner. The same thing happened last year and the year before.

[rennigade]

Changed out a timing belt/idlers/water pump on our subaru over the weekend. Parts cost $300 and I gave my buddy $100 since he helped. Took around 5 hours total. Dealership wanted $1100 for the same job. So saved around $700.

Wasnt that difficult...just time consuming. Basically watched youtube videos and followed instructions that way. Its one of those jobs that looks really intimidating but in reality its not.

[creditcardfree]

Redeemed $71.89 from our Amex card, and $45.95 from our Chase Freedom card. I can tell from the rewards that our spending was higher this last month. But cash back is nice! We are saving it towards a big goal we have.

[Thrif-t]

I got a $25 Fandango Gift Card as part of a rebate for motor oil we bought last winter. Had no clue the gift card was coming along with the $3 rebate.

We used it on Fathers Day to go see a movie. I had to create a Fandango account so I could redeem the gift card for movie tickets, and now that we saw the movie I got an email that I earned a $6 reward. So now I have $6 in my Fandango account and I can use that to buy another movie ticket at my theatre that has $5 movies all day Tuesdays. 2 first run movie tickets for $4 (after $6 reward), can't beat that

[msomnipotent]

I have added up my receipts and it looks like my vet bills are "only" going to be $5,300 instead of the $6000 to $7000 they estimated. Only 3 more treatments to go!

I ordered a bunch of iris bulbs for my father for Father's Day. They don't ship until late summer and several of the bulbs went on sale. I asked for and got an adjustment. It was only $5.90 but it is the principle!!! Everything goes on sale right after I buy it!

[disneysteve]

A couple of weeks ago I bought a container of shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese at the supermarket to make cheese crisps to snack on at work. They are so good and last week I bought another container. Then I looked at the label and realized the unit price was $21.00/lb! As much as I love making the cheese crisps, I had to find a cheaper source. I knew that if I bought the cheese in a block and grated it myself, that would be cheaper, so I checked and they do charge a bit less for that but still $19.00/lb.

We went to BJ's Tuesday night and I looked to see if they sell it. Sure enough they do and it's only $10/lb. I jumped on that and just went home and dropped it in the food processor to shred it. So I went from paying $21 to paying $10. That's a win for me.

[creditcardfree]

I returned three shirts (rash guards) our family bought to wear on our beach trip. Didn't wear these, so now have $43.30 back in our pocket. I had a feeling it would happen, so made sure to keep tags on until we knew for sure we were going to wear them.

[Thrif-t]

A couple of weeks ago I bought a container of shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese at the supermarket to make cheese crisps to snack on at work. They are so good and last week I bought another container. Then I looked at the label and realized the unit price was $21.00/lb! As much as I love making the cheese crisps, I had to find a cheaper source. I knew that if I bought the cheese in a block and grated it myself, that would be cheaper, so I checked and they do charge a bit less for that but still $19.00/lb.

We went to BJ's Tuesday night and I looked to see if they sell it. Sure enough they do and it's only $10/lb. I jumped on that and just went home and dropped it in the food processor to shred it. So I went from paying $21 to paying $10. That's a win for me.

My DH buys grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from an Italian Import store by his work and pay's $10/#. Being Italian, it's a staple in our house for pasta and soups. I remember when it used to be $6/#!! But $10/# is still cheaper than what it is in the town we live in so all our family gives him their orders for cheese and he buys it for everyone

[disneysteve]

My DH buys grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from an Italian Import store by his work and pay's $10/#.

I thought $10 at BJs was quite fair even though I had to shred it myself (which I did with the food processor in a snap). It sure beat $21 at Wegman's.

[Thrif-t]

I thought $10 at BJs was quite fair even though I had to shred it myself (which I did with the food processor in a snap). It sure beat $21 at Wegman's.

Sorry to go Off Topic everyone, but cheese tastes so much better if you shred yourself instead of buying pre-shredded. I can't believe how much better things taste when I shred cheese vs the pre-shredded stuff.

[disneysteve]

Sorry to go Off Topic everyone, but cheese tastes so much better if you shred yourself instead of buying pre-shredded. I can't believe how much better things taste when I shred cheese vs the pre-shredded stuff.

I agree. And normally I won't shred the whole block at once. I'll shred it as I need it. Otherwise the stuff I shredded gets dry and not fresh just like the pre-shredded stuff.

[scfr]

A local bank is offering a 13-mo CD at 2.73% APY, so I scraped together a bit of cash and opened one.

Also, about 3 years ago I had a brief conversation with some colleagues about our company's 401k. I mentioned how much I like Vanguard, and how I wished I could roll my 401k there. Last week at work a colleague mentioned that he had relayed the conversation to his father (the family "money guy") who had concurred with my views. Because my colleague had a small amount of $ just "sitting around" he decided to stick the money in Vanguard (I have no idea which funds, I did not press for details), and has been very happy with the growth. A few months ago I mentioned catchup contributions to my 401K to the same colleague, and in the same conversation last week he mentioned that he had adjusted his withholding to make catchup contributions (something he hadn't thought about before) and was excited to see how much was going to his 401k from his last paycheck.

Not only does this make me happy to know that a colleague is better prepared for the future and something I said was the trigger for that, it also means a lot to me that a male of my generation (other than my husband) did not pooh-pooh my comments about personal finance simply because I am female. Until it actually happened, I didn't realize how rare and how meaningful that is.

[Gailete]

Been awhile since I've visited here between being busy, tired, and way too many dr. visits but I have had some wins along the way.

The biggest is hubby finished his last piano restoration job! Literally I thank God. It was supposed to have been done 1 12/ years ago. Somehow I had not understood him about the final payout and it was a lot less than what I expected, but I set a huge chunk aside for taxes. I had been tempted to pay off credit cards what I could and then realized if I spent all the money on taxes and cc payoffs, we would still be having problems keeping up with regular bills, etc. So the other is in the bank to draw on when needed until it is gone. Which will probably go faster than I would like, but I feel like a couple of huge boulders have fallen off my shoulders and I have felt free to kickback and relax for a bit instead of pushing constantly so that every minute that I am feeling decent to spend on working my pattern business. I do have to get busy again, but I feel almost like I was on vacation.

Another win that I don't think I mentioned was getting a gift card in the mail for a company that had a lawsuit against them and I was allowed to participate. From the paperwork that I read, I figured at most I would get $10. I got a $160 gift card! I think we are going to get a ladder that will allow hubby to change lightbulbs in the stairwell. His dad had one that he initially borrowed when building the house, but when a brother moved away he took it with him.

Hearing the good news about my son and IDL expecting a baby GIRL!!!! I have been taking advantage of baby things I can get on the Amazon Vine program. I have had a car seat and stroller for awhile, but with two cars, it is more convenient to have two car seats, and what do you know I was offered a combo carseat/stroller (MSRP ~$400)! Along with even more other baby things. I've got a big stack and apparently her sister has helped her find everything else needed for ~$100. I still want to get one of those porta-cribs for when they visit so I will be looking for that to appear on Vine . While it isn't often, my son is self-employed so can't leave his businesses, I want them to have a place to stick baby down for a nap when they are visiting or while grandma babysits while they visit with friends.

I'm sure most of you have seen those commercials for air fryers on TV. I really wondered how well they worked. I was offered a different brand of one on the Vine program. I tried it out the first time making French fries and I was not impressed to say the least. All told, following the instructions in the recipe book, it took close to 2 hours to make them. Then I got brave and tried some chicken legs after shaking them in a flour and seasoning mix. They turned out great. Crispy on the outside and done on the inside. Our area had one Old Country Buffet that closed overnight a few years back. Ever since I have missed their chicken and actually get cravings for it and this air fryer makes chicken almost the same way. At this point, just picking up a package of raw chicken and cooking them takes about 40 minutes to make chicken. While KFC takes less time if you don't count the almost 30 minute round trip and unless they are out of what you wanted, this chicken doesn't have nearly the fat and I never eat all that crispy outside skin that is almost all fat. And it is easy for me to make, currently one of the most important things for me.

I also got to try a vacuum sealer gadget for sealing food to keep it fresher and less chance of freezer burn. I like how it works and you can actually seal items that come in plastic bags, in their own bags. So now I can freeze things and not worry about freezer burn.

And the nicest win? When my cleaning lady came last week, she brought me a pint of fresh-picked perfectly ripe strawberries from her garden! Oh were they good!

[Thrif-t]

We're taking a mini trip over 4th of July and going white water rafting. First time for all of us and we're pretty excited.

For us it's a big splurge for 5 people. We're staying 2 days in a cabin, night before, and night of rafting, figured we be tired after rafting all day to drive home. So I picked the cheapest cabin that had air because well I'm kinda spoiled that way, I need a bed and air! And that's basically what we got a one room with beds and a little mini fridge and sink.

Well today we got a message that we are being upgraded to a deluxe two bedroom chalet, whoop,whoop!! This cabin goes for $400/night vs the $159/night we originally booked. This is my best win yet!!