Post Your Wins

[disneysteve]

Met friends for dinner tonight at Universal Orlando. We’re staying at a hotel nearby. Driving over would have cost $27 for parking. Not sure how much Uber would have been round trip. Checked the map and decided to walk. About 25-30 minutes each way. Saved the money and got some exercise.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Is this a win or a loss? DH was supposed to be paid today but didn't (mess up). Lucky for him he told me so I moved the money from our sink fund to our checking to cover our mortgage payment which would have bounced otherwise since I had $350 in there.

I also emailed the kids swim about missing a lesson in 3 weeks and was told I could get a credit for telling them so early. Save $46.20.

I also bought toilet paper charmin and Bounty paper towels from costco last week because they were out of kirkland brand. This week when I went back they had them in stock. So I returned the name brands and bought generic and saved $12 or $6 each.

[james.hendrickson]

Is this a win or a loss? DH was supposed to be paid today but didn't (mess up). Lucky for him he told me so I moved the money from our sink fund to our checking to cover our mortgage payment which would have bounced otherwise since I had $350 in there.

I also emailed the kids swim about missing a lesson in 3 weeks and was told I could get a credit for telling them so early. Save $46.20.

I also bought toilet paper charmin and Bounty paper towels from costco last week because they were out of kirkland brand. This week when I went back they had them in stock. So I returned the name brands and bought generic and saved $12 or $6 each.

To your first point, in my view this is a win. You were smart about your money and had savings to cover any shortfalls. The second two points are wins also.

[scfr]

Today I printed out 2 free museum passes using our library cards. (Regular admission is $10.) We'll visit the museum next weekend.

[disneysteve]

We spent the last few days at a hotel. I knew going in that they charged $25/day for parking. However on Thursday night they had a big media event happening and when we got back to the hotel there was absolutely nowhere to park in our lot or the adjacent tower lot. I drove around both lots a couple of times with no success. I finally gave up and valet parked. I didn't retrieve the car until Saturday as we didn't need it before then.

We got the bill today before checkout and they charged the $33/day valet fee, so $99 total. That was on top of the $25/day fee, or $75 total. I went to the front desk and explained that the only reason I used the valet was because of the event and complete lack or parking and I didn't feel I should be charged for that.

Not only did she remove the $99 valet fee, she also removed the $75 regular parking fee, so we ended up paying nothing. I only asked them to refund the valet fee. I was fully expecting to pay the $75 but I certainly didn't argue when she took it off the bill.

[james.hendrickson]

File this under: small wins.

I normally spend about $10 when I eat out for lunch if I'm in the office.

Last night I mustered up the courage to walk to a grocery store pretty far from my house and bought a bunch of frozen entrees for lunch. This will reduce my lunch costs from $10 to between $2 and $4 per meal. I got a couple of miles of extra exercise as well. Double win.

[disneysteve]

File this under: small wins.

I normally spend about $10 when I eat out for lunch if I'm in the office.

Last night I mustered up the courage to walk to a grocery store pretty far from my house and bought a bunch of frozen entrees for lunch. This will reduce my lunch costs from $10 to between $2 and $4 per meal. I got a couple of miles of extra exercise as well. Double win.

Good for you, James.

The amount people at work spend on lunch blows my mind. I know I earn 8 times as much as some of them. I pack PB+J or a frozen entree or yogurt and a protein bar and fruit or whatever. They order out pretty much daily, easily spending $10-15 every single day. They'd have so much more money if they'd knock it off.

[james.hendrickson]

Good for you, James.

The amount people at work spend on lunch blows my mind. I know I earn 8 times as much as some of them. I pack PB+J or a frozen entree or yogurt and a protein bar and fruit or whatever. They order out pretty much daily, easily spending $10-15 every single day. They'd have so much more money if they'd knock it off.

Oh! Thank you Disneysteve, for me, its just a matter of making the time to do the meal planning and shopping. Sometimes that doesn't always happen, but its usually the right decision from a personal finance perspective.

I've also been exploring using exercise apps like Sweatcoin to monetize the exercise I'm doing. I like these because they give you an added incentive to get out of the house and go for a walk or run.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

File this under: small wins.

I normally spend about $10 when I eat out for lunch if I'm in the office.

Last night I mustered up the courage to walk to a grocery store pretty far from my house and bought a bunch of frozen entrees for lunch. This will reduce my lunch costs from $10 to between $2 and $4 per meal. I got a couple of miles of extra exercise as well. Double win.

When we were young and very broke, DH used to buy a loaf of bread, luncheon meat, tomato, head of lettuce, and cheese and leave in fridge at grad school for the week and eat a sandwich everyday. I did the same thing. Then when I moved away he would pack me lunches premade for the week in takeout containers we had and I would eat that for lunch and dinner and never go out. My own tv dinners I used to call it. We made at that time combined around $40k in Southern California.

[bjl584]

When we were young and very broke, DH used to buy a loaf of bread, luncheon meat, tomato, head of lettuce, and cheese and leave in fridge at grad school for the week and eat a sandwich everyday. I did the same thing. Then when I moved away he would pack me lunches premade for the week in takeout containers we had and I would eat that for lunch and dinner and never go out. My own tv dinners I used to call it. We made at that time combined around $40k in Southern California.

I can't remember the last time I went out to lunch while at work. It was definitely before the pandemic, and most likely was several years ago. I work with people who eat out almost everyday. They have to be spending at least $10 a day.

[disneysteve]

Two wins today.

I happened to look at our credit card account last night to see if something had gone through and noticed a charge for $73.57 to a quilting group. My wife does quilt but I was pretty sure she didn't belong to that group anymore. I asked her about it and she said she hadn't charged anything. Sure enough it was an automatic renewal for a membership she thought she had cancelled last year. She called and they reversed the charge.

I spent the morning cleaning the garage. In the process, I listed two items on Marketplace and just sold one of them, an old radio, for $35.

[james.hendrickson]

Totally found five bucks on my way to work this morning - love it when I find random money on the street.

[scfr]

Over the weekend we bought a mirror and dining room set from Facebook Marketplace for our new house. Easily saved over $1,000 compared to buying new.

[james.hendrickson]

Over the weekend we bought a mirror and dining room set from Facebook Marketplace for our new house. Easily saved over $1,000 compared to buying new.

Heck yeah, SCFR. Way to find that value.

[kork13]

A decent win: the renters in our rental house decided to renew their lease. We had to raise the rent ~3.5% to catch up on costs from the almost 0 increase we did last year, but that's not nearly what it could be (nearly 8% higher) given the current market.

Our renters have been great, and we're happy to keep them. The rental is providing roughly 10% ROI for us, so it's been a good income stream for us.