About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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December 8, 2009
I’ve always been an advocate of just asking for a discount, negotiating, or requesting fee waivers. Negotiating and haggling take a lot of practice, but you can always start small with requests for refunds, discounts and waivers. It’s a simple question, and worded politely, can save you a bundle!
November’s forays:
Success! Requesting a little stand to go with the piece I’d picked out as a gift from Little Dipper Castings. I knew my giftee would never wear the piece as jewelry, but would love to display it. The seller was nice enough to throw in the requested display block, free. [saved $9 on the chain]
Success! Chase charged me an incoming wire transfer fee of $15. As I’d called 4 times in the past verifying that I would not be charged, and been assured that I wouldn’t be, I called them back and the CSR immediately reversed the charge. [recouped $15]
Success! My wireless optical mouse rolled over and died. I love this thing and desperately needed it to keep my hands from seizing up with cramps from using the [I think] mildly insane touchpad. It’s got a few bats in the belfry. A call to Logitech, and five minutes on hold, and voila! A new mouse will be shipped out [via slowest ground shipping possible] without my having to return Defecto Mouse. [saved ~$45]
Work in progress! That pesky rebate: Those guys aren’t keeping my money! I called and pestered them, and tried to point out that they’re idiots for recording the shipping date as the order date nicely, and the guy acknowledged it, but couldn’t get them to process the rebate without sending in a second resubmission. It’s been sent in, and I’ll follow up again until they send my check.
Success! AT&T hasn’t been applying the FAN (15%) discount to my account since my contract started 19 months ago despite my verified eligibility. Three phone calls later, the last of which was more than a little frustrating, yielded both the $6 discount from now on, and a credit on my account for the entire contract period. [recouped $114]
This set was about small wins for me, but Oil and Garlic recently had a great fat honkin’ win!
It’s kind of fun keeping track of these wins, big and small. If anyone wants to join in the fun, or submit their own for inclusion, please email me!
December 7, 2009
What’s in my wallet is about to be changed: I’m subbing in a new credit card to earn car repair purchase points.
**Please note that I don’t use the card any more just to earn points and I definitely don’t carry a balance. That would defeat the purpose of creating this passive income stream.
Chase Cash Plus is my daily go-to card earning 5 points per dollar back on gas, groceries, and drugstore purchases, 1 point per dollar on all other purchases. My favorite redemption is the 5000 points = $50 check. It’s a tiny drop in the bucket, but it’s cash and who doesn’t love cash? [SingleMa. But she has a point. My cashback goes straight in the bank so I don’t spend it.]
Right now, though, I foresee minor problems with my car cropping up again, in addition to things I never bothered to fix: the fog light housing, the dings and dents, the self-inflicted injuries. As usual, the cosmetic surgery will wait, but the lock repair is necessary, the light goes wonky and only works if you set it just so, and the smashed housing should be fixed sooner rather than later.
Thanks to the Drive Miles Options, I have $75 worth of points rolled up, but don’t forget the fine print! Miles redemptions requires an equal number of purchase points. This means switching over from my Chase card to the Driver’s Edge card for all regular purchases. I’m not sacrificing the 5-1 points ratio on the bonus purchases, just the 1-1 dollar-point ratio.
I’ll have to spend a hefty sum on the Driver’s Edge card to rack up the required points, but when you combine the purchase points with the matching Drive Miles, it’s a 2-1 ratio and free money for car repairs to boot. Not a bad match, considering I’m saving myself from spending cash ($150) out of pocket. Compared to the delayed $50 cash redemption ($40 of which is already earned), it’s no contest.
December 5, 2009
If not a little bit of irony?
December 4, 2009
Free Vistaprint card design
I was recently roundly scolded by my mentor for not having business cards when we met a potential professional contact.
Me: But .. but .. we’re on vacation!
But she’s right: you should always have some sort of contact card to give to people you meet in case you’d like to keep in touch. Even if they don’t keep the card itself because they input the information into their preferred electronic device like FB does, they will have gotten your information. That’s the idea, anyway.
I’m so of the electronic age that I’ve just gotten by exchanging phone numbers via email or inputting a phone number on the spot and calling the other person so they can save my phone number. Who hasn’t done that? That’s just not good enough for professional purposes, though, it’s just too informal for certain contacts.
Ordering cards had been on my list of things to do anyway, so what was I waiting for? I hopped on the computer that same night and took a quick Twitter poll about whether or not Vistaprint was any good. My main concern was that the cardstock would be some cheap shoddy material, but …. (thanks @gingercorsair and @punchdebt!)
It seemed worth the gamble so I clicked through the Vistaprint options and ordered a set of 250 business cards with blank backs ($1.99) instead of their printed logo, 21-day slow shipping ($5.67) and matte finish (free) for less than $8.
My other options were Uprinting.com and @TheyCallMeCheap recommended that I try Moo which I’d never heard of before. If I didn’t like the cards Vistaprint produced, I would try Moo next.
The cards were ordered on the 18th and delivered on the 27th – less than 2 weeks! That’s pretty good for someone who neurotically tracks shipping as soon as an order is placed.
The cardstock is average and acceptable for my purposes – they’re not flimsy but they’re not the super thick 100-lb weight premium paper that could inflict a life-threatening paper cut either. Best we keep it that way.
December 3, 2009
Little Miss Moneybags
tagged me forever ago and it’s taken this long to come up with seven things I haven’t already shared. And then Rina of Gotta Little Space
tagged me, too, but you’ll forgive me if I don’t double up on the work.
The Rules:
1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.
What you shouldn’t know about me:
1. I want food I don’t already have. There’s a sweet spot between wanting and having a snack in which it’s delicious, but it’s a very small window. This is how Oreos last as long as they do in my house. It’s also why I don’t buy potato chips. I’d never finish the bag before it went stale.
2. I’m a one-trip shopper: Everything has to be unloaded from the car in one go. Once I’m in the house, I’m not coming back out. [Except when it’s nearly impossible but it’s always too late to change my mind. Like the one time I bought 20 pounds of pork ribs and 20 pounds of chicken. In hindsight, that was just flat out dumb.]
3. I just yelled “LIFESTYLE INFLATION!!” at a 19-year-old contemplating an iPhone vs. Palm.
4. I’m related to crazy people who think that ionized water is a cure-all. This makes me sad. Then kind of mad.
5. In my head, dresses should always be step-in-able. That over-the-head business just doesn’t jive with me. Also, when tailored to fit and both zippers and buttons are involved, I often have trouble getting dressed.
6. It seems like the above incompetency should be mentioned to all mothers who ask me to babysit their darlings. It frequently isn’t.
7. But I still do remarkably well babysitting the under-3 age group. Performance drops slightly around bedtime prep, but the number of diapers I’ve changed should more than offset that loss.
Alright darlins, please tag yourselves because you’re going to hurt my feelings if you don’t follow through and I’m going to hurt yours if I didn’t pick you. And let me know so I can link back to you! 🙂
December 2, 2009
Here’s a What would you have done? scenario.
I got a call from my girlfriend recently. She and her husband were looking at cars to replace both their beater car and the truck he’d crashed into a telephone pole one icy night, several months ago. He was fine, thank goodness, but their car was most decidedly not.
I worry about their finances as she’s described them to me. He’s been unemployed on and off for months, though always diligently hunting and trying to bring home income one way or another. He wasn’t too proud to go back to delivering pizzas while training for his paramedic license, trying out for the sheriff’s department, and basically beating every bush possible. She’s gone back to a desk job even though she hates it and she’s not physically a desk job kind of gal – it knocks her back a-kilter something fierce. But she deals, as well.
It took several weeks but they found their “deal”: a 2000 4-door sedan for $8,000. It seemed like a great price if they could get decent financing in her name. [He’d declared bankruptcy a year ago, and so they won’t be putting anything in his name for a while.] With a mid 700s credit score, I wasn’t terribly concerned about their chances.
Except the shady dealership offered them 15% APR! And then “gave” them a “discount” to make up for the fact that as they were signing the papers, the shady salesman revealed that the car had been in an accident that caused structural damage.
/headdesk/
At that point I really wanted to
a) beg them to walk away;
b) beg them to consider alternate financing options, and find another car that didn’t have structural damage;
c) beg them to walk away, consider better financing options, and find another car that didn’t have structural damage.
She told me, in the crickets-chirping silence as I debated the above options, that her brother in law the mechanic had checked the car and deemed it driveable, but I still felt uncomfortable with their decision to proceed with the sale.
Am I paranoid? What would you have done?
December 1, 2009
| Retirement Savings |
Total: $35,309 (34,001)
|
| Emergency Savings |
Total: $36,535 (36,468) |
| Short Term Goals |
Car Maintenance: $2,225
Insurance: $2,003
Travel/Con: $550
Taxes: $3,594
Moving: $2,798
Total: $11,170 (11,696) |
| Long Term Goals |
House Down Payment: $102 |
| Investments |
TradeKing: $1,095
Prosper-ish Loan: $12,630
Personal Loan: $1,500
Savings Bond: $362 (current accrued value)
Total: $15,587 (15,587) |
| Total Assets |
Illiquid: $35,309
Semi-Liquid: $15,587
Liquid: $36,535
Expense Acct: $7,656
Goals Savings: $11,170
Total: $106,257 (105,181) |
| Debt and Liabilities |
AmEx: $799
Chase: $670
Rent: $1,360
Total: $2,829 (3,593) |
| Net Worth |
$103,428 (101,315) |
A few thoughts …..
Excel and I will have to become buddies to locate exactly when the e-fund tracking went off the rails, but in the meantime, I’ve reset the past numbers in parentheses for both the e-fund and grand total back to the correct September numbers for now.
The total NW is up again due to the uptick in the stock market and sort of controlling my expenses.
A note about the Tradeking account: as I’m a buy and hold investor, that total will only reflect the cash deposited, and not any gains or losses for now. I’m tracking that differently than my retirement accounts because I don’t have those assets in hand until I sell. Does that make sense?
Probable Upcoming Expenses:
1. Christmas gifts — $150-200 total?
2. Another pair of online courses — $1100
While I’m happy to see the NW slightly rebound, I’m not thrilled that it’s on the back of so capricious a creature as the stock market. Cash is my preferred net worth driver, unless it’s being invested purposefully. I look forward to the time when I’m generating substantive income again.
