The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

[Lyssie]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

uhmmm... so I came on ADBB last night, read posts, even in this thread, then checked email... to see one from Ann Taylor Loft about the last chance for the 70% off clearance sale, so I immediately went to the site to see what I needed to buy. I passed up the $20 pairs of 12 Long corduroy pants... and then went to watch a movie to get away from them.

[sadie147]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

ING does have an interest calculator on their US site: http://home.ingdirect.com/privacy/SA...avingsCalc.asp so you can see how much the interest would add up to.

I've considered also using Quicken or Microsoft money but I think i'll try to wing it on my own with a spreadsheet before I spend any $$ on any s/w.

My front door is 3' from my thermostat, and I live in a 80yr old uninsulated house, so our heating bills are impossible to keep down.

I'm thinking we should all keep track of the savings and cuts we're able to make, now matter how small, in a week from now, we should all start doing a weekly report in and we can do a running count of how much we have all saved...

Tomorrow is payday for me so that will be day1 for my budget. I'm curious to see how much of it I can put into savings if I really put my mind to it.

[boonie stomper]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

IMHO one of the oldest tricks in the retailers' books is to take, say, a $20 pair of pants they spend $10 for, mark the retail price as $100, then sell it at, say, 70% off so they make both more sales and more $ per sale.

[biogeek]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

So, my nerd brain was thinking about MP's $20,000 question again.

To calculate it out the full year, taking into account monthly compounding interest....you take your principle, so 20,000 times (1 + 0.0475/12) ^12 to get $20970.957 (principle and interest) for the year.

If you just had it in for a month, you could just take 20,000 times 0.0475/12 to get $79.17 interest earned for that first month. You would then have to add that to your original principle and then recalculate for the next month. So, I think the first way is easier to see what it would be for the entire year.

[Lyssie]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

uhmmm.. but they usually cost like, $50 a pair and they fit *sooo* perfectly which is really hard when you're my height... and they don't typically have them in that size for that price... *sighs*

That's kinda like what Macy's does. It's always a sale there.

[biogeek]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

Here's a handy site for comparison rate shopping for your next CD & other stuff:

http://www.bankrate.com/

They also have a variety of rate calculators. For those that are yearning to buy a house, there's a morgage calculator so that you can see how much richer the bank is going to get. *sigh*

There's also an interesting read about the art of budgeting!

[boonie stomper]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

I'm starting to get a headache....



Too much math in here.....

[Lyssie]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

OOOoOOOooOOoo.. lookit the pretty sine wave!!

[biogeek]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

LOL

At least some of those equations are real. I recognize quite a few!!

Sorry....no more unwanted math! LOL

[ValidRouge]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

Capital One. Yuck.

I just called to make a payment and try to cancel a card, or at least find out how to go about it with them....It costs $10 BILLED TO YOUR ACCOUNT to pay over the phone, and an additional $10 if you ask to speak to a customer service agent. What a rip off.

[sher801]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

I'm starting to get a headache....



Too much math in here.....

Hey Boonie....I have always considered myself a pretty smart individual (when it comes to school work and such) but the WORST most confusing class I've ever had (since I've been in college) was Corporate Finance. I still got a "B" in it, probably because I've always loved math, but I absolutely hated that class. The formulas and such were not like Algabraic formulas, just real confusing, like your pic up there.

[biogeek]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

Joy, in the past, I've asked customer service to waive the fee before & usually they are willing to do it. However, that was with Citibank, not Capital One.

Sherry, my worst class EVER was Physical Chemistry and a lot of those formulas are from my class. Gives me shivers thinking about it!! Oh yeah, that class was last semester, so the pain is still fresh!

For those that have DSL at home, especially with SBC-AT&T-Yahoo (or whatever they're called now), after you have fulfilled your commitment with them, you can try to get your rates lowered & usually get a gift card at the same time.

We were paying $24.95 a month, then made a phone call & got it dropped to $19.95. We then saw a deal at Best Buy for $14.95 a month + a $100 gift card. After making a phone call to AT&T, they told me that they couldn't give me the gift card, but would give me the service for $12.95 a month for a year.

Well, we determined that the Best Buy deal was better, so we cancelled our plan with AT&T, and signed up the next day at Best Buy. We were out internet service for a couple of days, but that's ok. After our 1 year service contract is over, we'll see what the best deal is again at that time.

[sadie147]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

Sooo today is payday, and ironcally my bank statement, that I normally shred showed up in my mail this morning (as did the weekly capital one application..lol no kidding ). so instead of shredding the bank statement, i'll be going over it over the weekend to see how much of my spending I can actually justfiy. Should be interesting, it's 4 pages long .

[MaggieBE]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

I am also knew to this whole budgeting thing. We do online banking so that makes things easier. Ummm Lyssie, I do not open my bank statements either. I throw them away! If Frank knew it would kill me!

We have two cell phones, a landline, and cable internet. We decided to get rid of the landline because mother-in-law is the only person that calls on it and I use it to talk to my parents in the states as with a cell phone it is so expensive! We figured that I would just have to go to his moms house if I wanted to talk to family from the states. We call up the cable/phone company to cancel. They tell us that they have a plan where if you have cable internet you can have a basic phone line for only 5 euro more. We save 50 euros on our phone/internet bills every month!

I am supposed to be on a budget for grocceries/household items but that isn't going that great. I have bugeted 150 euros a week for household supplies/grocceries. This week I spent 230. I will either have to be really frugal or take money out of the clothing budget(150 euros) to keep on track. I think there will be a lot of ground beef in my future this month.

[boonie stomper]

Re: The Millionaires Club - Saving $$ challenge!

Maggie, I've actually gone into the grocery 3 times in the last week looking to get ground beef on sale for under US $2/pound and had to come out without any. Prices here are so inflated - so I'm whittling away stuff in the freezer, old salami, frozen clams I dug & cooked last year, etc.

But, there's a "remodeling" celebration sale with $$-off total order coupons at that same store so hopefully I'll be able to get stocked up on ground beef at a good price. I wish I could eat it every day sometimes.