Money

Quick FYI:

Time Warner charges $1.99 for "Unlisted" Phone number.
But, Time Warner doesn't have phone book.

So, you do not need to pay $1.99 for unlisted phone number

I used to have Blockbuster Video account (DVD rental via mail).

There is one trick I came up with, I bet a lot of people came up with the same idea.  Anyway, I thought it's worth of sharing it here.

When your month is up and if they sent your last DVDs of the month? that's when you should cancel your account.

So, you will receive your DVDs, watch them, and return them while your account is not active.  In other words, you are not paying for that few days.

When you receive "DVD received" email from Blockbuster (Netflix), that's when you re-start your membership. If you receive "DVD received" email on Saturday, then you should wait until Monday morning to re-activate your account.

See what I mean?

This way, you get extra few days or up to one week of services for free, every month.

This can easily translates into $20 - $50+ savings every year, depends on your account and speed of delevery.

These are my three recent financial failures.  My total loss was about $10.00.  But, this bothered me enough that I had to share this story here.

1. Coffee Filter: I bought these coffee filters.  A week later, I bought a new coffee machine just to realize that my new coffee machine takes different kind of filter. (I love my new coffee machine, by the way).
2. Pepper: This jar of peppers has a built in grinder.  You can't beat this price ($3.99).  Anyway, I used the grinder too rough one day.  I broke the grinding mechanism.  So, I had to buy another one.
3. Vitamin D3: I paid regular price 2 weeks ago.  A week later, I received a $3.00 coupon from Costco. 

On all these cases, packages were already opened and I had nobody but myself to blame.  Even though Costco is likely to make refund, my conscience didn't allow me to take them back.

I have to be more careful, that's all. 
Anyway, I am out $10.00 and this bothers me somewhat.  Hm...

Update

I bought vitamin D3 with a coupon, then returned it with the old receipt.

My shopping story is boring, now that I keep trying harder to save even more money. 

I set my goal to save money like crazy.  And that's exactly what I'm doing... like crazy.

In February, I transferred 66% of all my take home paycheck to savings account.

I haven't established a stable pattern of saving money, so I am not sure how this will effect my finance next month. 

### 

I have a huge craving on salty chips, especially for Doritos.
I mean, I had this craving for over 2 weeks now.
This morning, I was THIS CLOSE to pick up a bag of Doritos at Costco.  I wanted to buy a brand new coffee maker as well ($49.00). 

But I didn't buy any of those.  I bought what was absolutely needed (also healthy for me). 

Keep trying...

Picture from an action packed laundry day.

Costco laundry rack in action. 
Saving $1.25 right there.  Exciting stuff... ZZzz... 

Wow, be happy for me.
In January, I put 20% of my entire take home pay in to Savings account. I'm not sure if I can repeat that next month.

I'm going to keep trying.
But it was not easy.

*Update - February 8, 2010

I think it was a mistake that I put away 20% of my take home pay last month.  February looks very tight.  I cannot save any money this month.

It's becoming clear that I cannot become rich by doing what I do right now.  I need to keep working on my personal projects.  I need to make something happen.

Life is still very fun... very entertaining every day.
It's just not easy.

I needed fabric softener.

Costco had $2.00 coupon on Downy Fabric Enhancer.

From the very start, I thought maybe Kirkland Signature's fabric softener could be a better deal (compared Downy - with $2.00 coupon).

Below is what I saw at Costco... I didn't bring my calculator at that time.  So, I went with my gut feeling and decide not to use $2.00 coupon on Downy.  I bought Kirkland Signature fabric softener instead.

Then I came home and did some calculating.

Downy Fabric Enhancer
150 Loads
$9.96 - ($2.00 coupon) = $7.96
Unit price per load = $.53

Kirkland Signature Fabric Enhancer
174 Loads
$8.69 (everyday price)
Unit price per load = $.50

###

My gut feeling was right.  Kirkland Signature's fabric softener was still cheaper without coupon.

So, when in doubt? pick Kirkland Signature over coupon items.

When it doubt, buy it. Costco will not over-charge you.

Case in study: Food Wrap by Kirkland Signature - $8.99 (double pack)

At first glance, you might think $9 for 2 rolls of food wraps is not much of a bargain. But take a look at this.

If you are lucky, you can buy a roll of food wrap for $.99 (from a 99 Cents only store). This roll contains a 100 SQ. FT. of inferior quality plastic wrap.

With Kirkland Signature's Food Wrap (double pack), you get 1500 SQ. FT of high quality plastic wrap. That's 166 SQ. FT per a Dollar.

So, with same amount of money, you get 66% more of high quality product.

But, that's not all
Think about helping environment.
In order to get 1500 SQ. FT. of plastic wrap, you need to buy 15 of $.99 rolls. With Costco's double pack, you are saving raw material to package 13 rolls.

Everyone wins with Costco.

So, when in doubt? Buy it.

Happy shopping.

** One problem with Costco's plastic wrap is that it will take extremely long time for me to finish up 2 rolls of these. It took me 2 years to finish 100 SQ. FT. roll. So, mathematically, it will take me 30 years to finish these up. I will be in my 70's when I'm done with these. My plastic wrap can out live me. Haha..

I guess some people use a lot of plastic wrap. I don't. I always try to use containers with tops instead of putting a wrap over the food. I try not to use plastic wrap as much as possible. They cost money.

I went out for a routine Saturday night grocery shopping.

I stuck to my rule.

"Know what you're going to buy.  Buy what's on your list."

Tonight, I went to Vons, Albertsons, and Ralphs.

I spent $9.23 total. 

Before going out for lunch, I cleaned my favorite cool shades using my shirt.  Then I thought I'd photograph that moment.

These are B&L Ray Ban Chromax W2053.  I paid about $30.00 at Big 5 about 12 years ago.  Then about 6 years ago, I replaced the lens with yellow glass (prescription).  So, I spent under $70.00 for them.

When I see good sales on sunglasses, I buy them for $20-$40 and hold on to them.  This makes sense to me because it's difficult to find right glass frame at right price.  I don't want to wait until the time comes and I  have to buy something fast.  Eye glasses are like a job.  The best time to look for them is when you have them.  

Later, depends on the model, I can put clear or colored lenses.

Now with Costco's optical department, I can save even more.

Anyway, these glasses are now going for $250.00 on eBay.  
It became a hard to find item of some sort, I guess.
These are my favorite pair of Sunglasses.

My coworker and I went to Souplantation for lunch.  I even gave him my coupon so he would save $.80.

What shocked me was that he ordered a soda ($2.29 extra).  Who drinks soda with salad?  I guess a lot of people do.  He later explained that he must have soda with salad.  Hm~! 

If I didn't give him my coupon, he might have spent $3.25 more than me on this lunch.  $3.25 is a lot of money to save on a work day's lunch.  A lot of people spend $3.00 for entire lunch.

Lunch at Del Taco today

I used a "Buy one, get one Free" coupon and got two Macho Tacos for $1.71.  I saved over $3.00 by using a coupon and skipping on a drink.

I popped a can of diet Pepsi when I got back to work.

My co-worker spent over $5 on his lunch.  It's not easy to convert him into a coupon clipper.  It's not easy to persuade him when he doesn't feel the need to save.  To me, clipping coupons is a fun game.

Your Ziplock bags are not for one time use only.  You must wash & reuse your Ziplock bags as often as possible.  These bags are very expensive.  Ziplock bags must be used at least a few times.  Recycle your ziplock bags if you are done with them. 

This is how I wash my used Ziplock bags.

1. Turn the bag completely inside out.
2. Use dish soap and sponge to wash "outside" ("outside" which used to be the "inside")
   • Lay the bag flat on the kitchen sink and scrub it with plenty of detergent (pay more attention if the bag used to hold blood).
   • Rinse inside the bag briefly ("inside" will become "outside" later)
3. Dry the bag as is (bag is still inside out).
4. After the bag is dried, turn the bag inside out to its original form.
5. Personally, I do not worry about the outside of the bag. 
   • I only care about the inside where it will touch the food.

Drying.... 

Sometimes I don't get to finish all the coffee I brew.

When I have left-over coffee, I don't trash it.  I keep it for the next day.

I keep my old coffee in the refrigerator.  Next day, I put some syrup (either French Vanilla or Caramel, depends on the mood) and drink it cold.

I buy coffee syrups from Costco, but it gets a little tricky.

You can purchase coffee syrups ONLY from Jose's booth events.   Jose's sales team will visit your local Costco a few times a year.  We don't shop at Costco everday, so you may not get to see Jose's Booth for years.  You may have to call your local Costco for Jose's schedule.

My recent purchase from Jose's booth event