Post Your Wins

[QuarterMillionMan]

$302 win at SLS Las Vegas.

[Gailete]

For $15 you could get a phone with speakerphone feature. Seems like a good use of a few dollars of your savings.

I realized that I had skipped mentioning something. I know I could get a speakerphone or a couple, one for upstairs and one for down. The truth of it all is, at this point in life I hate talking on the phone. I'm now married to the person that I spent much time talking on the phone to before we were married. I do not get the thrill or understand why people want to be connected and talking to each other constantly. Nor do I understand why folks seem to think that everyone wants to hear their private phone calls, or is that so we think they are important? Clueless here.

I have only fought for phone time when I was 15 and had a boyfriend as did my sister. We were only allowed to be on the phone for 10 minutes at a time. Our boyfriends would keep the phone tied up all night as we each got our ten minutes times 5-8 times in an evening. Now that old boyfriend I do like talking to on the phone and have gotten to a couple of times in the last few years. Nothing like having your husband send a phone number to your old boyfriend so he could call me at the hospital when I had surgery! He is still a very good friend.

[disneysteve]

I know I could get a speakerphone or a couple, one for upstairs and one for down. The truth of it all is, at this point in life I hate talking on the phone. I'm now married to the person that I spent much time talking on the phone to before we were married. I do not get the thrill or understand why people want to be connected and talking to each other constantly. Nor do I understand why folks seem to think that everyone wants to hear their private phone calls, or is that so we think they are important? Clueless here.

I only mentioned the speakerphone because you mentioned having difficulty physically holding the phone for any period of time, so just trying to be helpful.

That said, I agree with you. There are only 2 people I talk to on the phone on any regular basis, my mother and my cousin in Florida, and those conversations almost never exceed 10 minutes, less for my mom.

And people using speakerphone in public drives me nuts. I've had numerous times where I walked into an exam room to see a patient and they were on the phone with the speakerphone and when I came in they just told the other person to hold on, expecting me to talk to and examine them with this other person listening. Sorry, no, that's not happening. End your call and you can call them back when we're done. I don't know what is wrong with people.

[disneysteve]

I made a blog post about this but it fits here too. I found out a couple of months ago that I'd be getting a raise. This was unexpected as I'm only in year 1 of a 3 year contract but management decided to change the pay scale. I gave more details in the blog post.

Anyway, bottom line is my pay is going up about $8,000/year so about $670/month. After taxes and 401k that should be somewhere around $450/month take home I'm estimating. Also, it is retroactive to July 1 so once I sign my new contract, which I'll probably do in the next day or two, I'll get a catch up payment for the month that already passed.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I've had numerous times where I walked into an exam room to see a patient and they were on the phone with the speakerphone and when I came in they just told the other person to hold on, expecting me to talk to and examine them with this other person listening. Sorry, no, that's not happening. End your call and you can call them back when we're done. I don't know what is wrong with people.

HIPAA law comes to mind first and foremost among other things.

[disneysteve]

I got a notice today from the company I have my disability insurance and DW's life insurance with. The dividends on our policies increased so our combined monthly premiums have dropped by $23.95. That's $287.40/year less. Not bad at all for doing absolutely nothing.

[scfr]

DIY Win: We just installed a new kitchen faucet. We could have paid Home Depot $129 to install it for us, but we did it ourselves. It was a 2-person job and took us quite a bit longer than it would have taken a pro, but we saved the $129, got to enjoy a bit of marital teamwork (a "relationship-building exercise" for sure), and a sense of satisfaction. There was only 1 tool we needed that we didn't have (basin wrench), but we were able to borrow that from a neighbor. We are a bit tired, but happy.

[snafu]

Well done! As a home owner, You Tube can really be your friend. They explain, demonstrate and keep it understandable, allowing home owners to at least try to do repairs they understand before calling in trades.

As a new home owner, our 1st plumbing issue was a disengaged pop up drain stopper. It felt too silly an issue to warrant a plumber! We quickly discovered it's harder to fix than imagined because you are so uncomfortable, lying on your back in a small cupboard, with the added problem of terrible lighting. It likewise taught to control the junk under the sink! Better to limit to 3 containers which can pull out, drawer-like.

Since your DIY effort was successful, I hope it's Ok to suggest creating a Home Care Fund with about half the savings that resulted for your DIY. It feels like such a Win!

[disneysteve]

It felt too silly an issue to warrant a plumber!

I totally agree with the sense of satisfaction of fixing something yourself, and I've posted a few similar stories myself. That said, one of the most useful things to have is a good handyman. We've had a few over the years. These are folks who can usually fix just about anything and charge very little to do so.

If you own a home and don't have a handyman, ask friends and neighbors and find one. Something relatively simple, like changing a faucet, that the big guys are charging $129 for, might only be a $25 job with the right person. At that price, it's usually worth paying someone else and not spending your day doing it yourself. Or, if you attempt a project yourself and run into trouble, it's good to have somebody to call to come in and finish it. A couple of months ago we bought some new light fixtures and I ran into trouble installing them so I called our guy and he came out and finished the job. I think he charged us $15. An electrician probably would have charged $150.

[QuarterMillionMan]

YTD realized gains shorting & investing in individual stocks (not including retirement accounts).

[disneysteve]

I just bought $50 of AMC gift cards for 32.64% off, so total of $33.68 for $50 worth. Then when we use them, we get $5 credit for every $50 spent with the AMC rewards program so final cost will be just $28.68 for $50 worth of movies. Not a bad deal at all. We don't go to a lot of movies but it's much more affordable entertainment at nearly half off.

[Gailete]

I just bought $50 of AMC gift cards for 32.64% off, so total of $33.68 for $50 worth. Then when we use them, we get $5 credit for every $50 spent with the AMC rewards program so final cost will be just $28.68 for $50 worth of movies. Not a bad deal at all. We don't go to a lot of movies but it's much more affordable entertainment at nearly half off.

Sounds like a great deal! I haven't been to the movies in 17 years or more so how many movies can you see for that? What does popcorn run these days? And those boxes of movie theatre candy that you can get for about $1 at WM, what are they running?

[QuarterMillionMan]

In my Merrill Lynch account every month it pays about $145 in dividends (about $5 per day), invested in HYG which is iShares ETF in High Yield Corporate Bonds which pays a 5% dividend yield. Total amount invested is $34,000.

[Nutria]

And those boxes of movie theatre candy that you can get for about $1 at WM, what are they running?

Doesn't matter when you buy candy at Walmart and then sneak it in your purse.

[Gailete]

Doesn't matter when you buy candy at Walmart and then sneak it in your purse.

Well yes, you are right about that. Movies and their concessions stands are something that I haven't been around for a long while. Just like a couple of months ago about the cost of formula and asked a girl that had it in her cart, yet she didn't know as she got it for free with WIC checks. A couple of weeks ago I got 6 cans of powdered formula through the Vine program (for free) and the MSRP was $150! How can people afford babies these days? Since I have picked up baby stuff lately I got an ad this morning for some baby toys. One teething toy was $28! Blows my mind and I think I am getting a bit too old!

I was able to pick up some patterns in the last couple of weeks that sold really fast. I paid $1.24 for two of them and they sold over this past weekend for $34.57 after expenses! That is a win for me!