Author Topic: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!  (Read 42679 times)

aloevera1

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #200 on: October 10, 2024, 11:58:43 AM »
I am filing expense reports like there is no tomorrow.

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #201 on: October 20, 2024, 11:11:10 PM »
I just paid the credit card I use infrequently but keep because it's my oldest (my goal is to use it just often enough to keep it from being canceled for inactivity, and possibly to be slightly annoying to the issuer, a large bank I don't much like), and I deposited the reimbursement check from the last time DH visited the dentist. Small things, admittedly, but they need to not sit around or get lost.

Also, I took back something that didn't fit as well outside the store as it did in the store.

I'm definitely covering the "boring" part here, this weekend.

Shamantha

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #202 on: October 21, 2024, 04:15:01 AM »
A year ago or so the bank where I kept a separate savings account changed from free to paid.  I knew that, but was too lazy to do something about it at the time and then forgot about it, as these costs are deducted from the amount saved and do not appear on my regular payment account at my standard bank. I never looked at that savings account as it had automatic contributions and there was no need to go into it. This weekend I did log in and saw that this cost me 35 euros over the past year. I closed the savings account and put the money in my standard savings account, at the same interest rate. Also stopped the automatic contributions. I opened the savings account 15 years ago or so because I like the social engagement of the bank, but not at any cost!

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #203 on: October 21, 2024, 10:17:47 PM »
Yay, @Shamantha ! That's exactly the kind of nuisance fee elimination this thread is here to support.

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #204 on: October 21, 2024, 10:32:24 PM »
I just pulled the receipts out of my purse for the last couple tax-relevant house parts, and put them where such things go so we can find them next spring.

aloevera1

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #205 on: October 22, 2024, 08:51:17 AM »
Cancelled the amazon prime trial yet once again! :)

Dicey

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #206 on: October 22, 2024, 01:50:30 PM »
DH wondered why a friend hadn't repaid me for some expenses I had incurred on her behalf. Uh, I'm pretty sure it's because I forgot all about it and never gave her the info. I'd better get on that. Thanks to this thread for creating an accountability space. Stay tuned. BTW, that's only to see if I get my shit together and get it done. I'm positive she will repay me, but her life has been very busy, too. How can she repay money I haven't asked for?

Shamantha

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #207 on: November 05, 2024, 08:36:58 AM »
When I retired 1,5 years ago I no longer had access to MicroSoft Office via work, so I took out a personal Office 365 subscription. This comes with plenty of storage space on OneDrive. Previously I had a Dropbox account for personal use, which cost me 11,99 EUR per month. It has taken me until today to copy all my files from Dropbox to OneDrive and save this money. This lazyness cost me 215 Euros. But at least I am now free of these costs, so quite happy that I *finally* took action.

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #208 on: November 17, 2024, 11:23:20 PM »
I just put in a claim for a class-action settlement where I'm pretty sure I'm part of the class. Check for $6.50, here I come! (I have no idea how much it will be. DH once got ~$400 in a class action for having a faulty phone.)

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #209 on: December 19, 2024, 12:12:29 PM »
I don't often pursue bank account offers, but there's an account bonus on an account I decided to open for general reasons. I just set up the direct deposit required to get the bonus, with a calendar reminder to go turn it off again in a month or two, when the requirement has been satisfied.

Rural

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #210 on: December 19, 2024, 07:50:57 PM »
In-plan Roth conversion started in my 403b in late November, and then I noticed it was taking a long time in time to call and get the error on their end fixed before EOY.

oneday

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #211 on: December 19, 2024, 09:39:17 PM »
#1 - logged in to turn on the fancy background on my rarely-used credit union and noticed they'd rolled my CD over despite their promise in writing not to. Replied to that email & got the new CD cancelled the same day, penalty free.

#2 - did All The Steps and got a refund from a fraudulent eBay purchase.

oneday

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #212 on: December 27, 2024, 01:04:15 PM »
Shopped my renter's insurance policy and saved 63%! Did all the steps to get the paperwork to the office, and have an email scheduled for Monday to cancel the old policy. Refund in January, probably.

Dicey

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #213 on: December 27, 2024, 05:15:03 PM »
Not me, but DH. Our new homeowner's company sent us a notice of non-renewal, due to moss on the roof and a tree that had branches growing over the roof. The tree is a lovely Monterey Ash and there is no way we were getting rid of it, so DH has been standing on the roof trimming branches bit by bit for weeks. Next he's been scrubbing and power washing the moss off the roof in between rainstorms. He then used a weed sprayer to apply nine gallons of sodium hypochlorite. The insurance company wanted a video of the roof, but the file was too big. "Take pictures" they said, and DH made yet another trip up the ladder.

We just got a call from our broker. The insurance company has agreed to write a new policy, yippee! Now to see what they charge us.

BTW, sodium hypochlorite is also known as bleach. OMG, that shit has gotten expensive! The cheapest price we could find was $2.49 for a half gallon. We had to go to two stores to get enough. I hate the waste of 18 plastic jugs almost as much as I hate the fact that power washing the roof shortens its life-span - ack! The irony is that it's hot enough here in summertime the sun kills the moss naturally. But nooooooo, the insurance company wanted it done now. Ugh.

Yay for Mr. Dicey for doing that wet, difficult, dirty, boring, buck-saving busywork!

oneday

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #214 on: December 28, 2024, 12:28:01 AM »
Go Mr Dicey Go!

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #215 on: December 28, 2024, 02:43:30 AM »
Not me, but DH. Our new homeowner's company sent us a notice of non-renewal, due to moss on the roof and a tree that had branches growing over the roof. The tree is a lovely Monterey Ash and there is no way we were getting rid of it, so DH has been standing on the roof trimming branches bit by bit for weeks. Next he's been scrubbing and power washing the moss off the roof in between rainstorms. He then used a weed sprayer to apply nine gallons of sodium hypochlorite. The insurance company wanted a video of the roof, but the file was too big. "Take pictures" they said, and DH made yet another trip up the ladder.

We just got a call from our broker. The insurance company has agreed to write a new policy, yippee! Now to see what they charge us.

BTW, sodium hypochlorite is also known as bleach. OMG, that shit has gotten expensive! The cheapest price we could find was $2.49 for a half gallon. We had to go to two stores to get enough. I hate the waste of 18 plastic jugs almost as much as I hate the fact that power washing the roof shortens its life-span - ack! The irony is that it's hot enough here in summertime the sun kills the moss naturally. But nooooooo, the insurance company wanted it done now. Ugh.

Yay for Mr. Dicey for doing that wet, difficult, dirty, boring, buck-saving busywork!
I'm mostly surprised that they're giving you the opportunity to cure. So many insurance companies identify problems as a pretext and excuse for declining to renew. California law really needs to change, and I'm afraid what is going to take is letting insurance companies set their own rates that balance between competitiveness and cost recovery.

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #216 on: December 28, 2024, 01:15:10 PM »
I laundered my pile of terry cleaning cloths that I use in place of paper towels and other disposable products. Then I ran a tub clean cycles and cleaned the worst of the crud out of the drain filter and door gasket.

Dicey

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #217 on: December 28, 2024, 10:39:49 PM »
Not me, but DH. Our new homeowner's company sent us a notice of non-renewal, due to moss on the roof and a tree that had branches growing over the roof. The tree is a lovely Monterey Ash and there is no way we were getting rid of it, so DH has been standing on the roof trimming branches bit by bit for weeks. Next he's been scrubbing and power washing the moss off the roof in between rainstorms. He then used a weed sprayer to apply nine gallons of sodium hypochlorite. The insurance company wanted a video of the roof, but the file was too big. "Take pictures" they said, and DH made yet another trip up the ladder.

We just got a call from our broker. The insurance company has agreed to write a new policy, yippee! Now to see what they charge us.

BTW, sodium hypochlorite is also known as bleach. OMG, that shit has gotten expensive! The cheapest price we could find was $2.49 for a half gallon. We had to go to two stores to get enough. I hate the waste of 18 plastic jugs almost as much as I hate the fact that power washing the roof shortens its life-span - ack! The irony is that it's hot enough here in summertime the sun kills the moss naturally. But nooooooo, the insurance company wanted it done now. Ugh.

Yay for Mr. Dicey for doing that wet, difficult, dirty, boring, buck-saving busywork!
I'm mostly surprised that they're giving you the opportunity to cure. So many insurance companies identify problems as a pretext and excuse for declining to renew. California law really needs to change, and I'm afraid what is going to take is letting insurance companies set their own rates that balance between competitiveness and cost recovery.
I had to talk to Mr. Dicey to get the lowdown. They did NOT give us the opportunity to cure, they just cancelled us. The cancellation letter gave the reason(s) why, so DH talked to our fantastic agent. She suggested we do the work, then we could re-apply for coverage, which is what we did. A good agent is worth their weight in gold and ours is no exception.

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #218 on: December 29, 2024, 01:51:54 AM »
Not me, but DH. Our new homeowner's company sent us a notice of non-renewal, due to moss on the roof and a tree that had branches growing over the roof. The tree is a lovely Monterey Ash and there is no way we were getting rid of it, so DH has been standing on the roof trimming branches bit by bit for weeks. Next he's been scrubbing and power washing the moss off the roof in between rainstorms. He then used a weed sprayer to apply nine gallons of sodium hypochlorite. The insurance company wanted a video of the roof, but the file was too big. "Take pictures" they said, and DH made yet another trip up the ladder.

We just got a call from our broker. The insurance company has agreed to write a new policy, yippee! Now to see what they charge us.

BTW, sodium hypochlorite is also known as bleach. OMG, that shit has gotten expensive! The cheapest price we could find was $2.49 for a half gallon. We had to go to two stores to get enough. I hate the waste of 18 plastic jugs almost as much as I hate the fact that power washing the roof shortens its life-span - ack! The irony is that it's hot enough here in summertime the sun kills the moss naturally. But nooooooo, the insurance company wanted it done now. Ugh.

Yay for Mr. Dicey for doing that wet, difficult, dirty, boring, buck-saving busywork!
I'm mostly surprised that they're giving you the opportunity to cure. So many insurance companies identify problems as a pretext and excuse for declining to renew. California law really needs to change, and I'm afraid what is going to take is letting insurance companies set their own rates that balance between competitiveness and cost recovery.
I had to talk to Mr. Dicey to get the lowdown. They did NOT give us the opportunity to cure, they just cancelled us. The cancellation letter gave the reason(s) why, so DH talked to our fantastic agent. She suggested we do the work, then we could re-apply for coverage, which is what we did. A good agent is worth their weight in gold and ours is no exception.
That sounds more like the insurance companies we all know and do not love.

1967mama

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #219 on: December 29, 2024, 08:28:27 AM »
Thanks for setting up this thread. It has motivated me to deal with the little pile of Amazon returns I accumulated just before Christmas. Several low dollar orders that weren’t suitable when they arrived. Will be on today’s to-do list.

sonofsven

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #220 on: December 31, 2024, 12:47:54 PM »
Called in to a bank's "relationship banker" for a ten minute question session and will receive a $100 gift card for my time.
The suggestion of their system, based on my answer of "saving for travel", was to offer me a savings account that pays 0.1% interest.

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #221 on: December 31, 2024, 04:48:27 PM »
Called in to a bank's "relationship banker" for a ten minute question session and will receive a $100 gift card for my time.
The suggestion of their system, based on my answer of "saving for travel", was to offer me a savings account that pays 0.1% interest.

Did you suggest that their help and crappy rate weren't helping much?

Today I scrubbed the crud out of the dishwasher drain filter assembly. It was time.

I also scrubbed the haze off another half-dozen or so dishes, then put them back under or behind the ones I have yet to do. I guess it's been building up in the dishwasher, and I suspect/hope it's partly from a detergent I won't be buying again. Anyway, it yields to sufficient elbow grease, so I've been cleaning it off a few at a time. So far, I've been at it on a when-I-feel-like-it basis for months, and it doesn't seem to be coming back.

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #222 on: January 07, 2025, 12:54:34 AM »
Paid the car insurance premium and filled out the mileage thing. (Under 2000 miles driven last year for two people. We each biked further than the car went in total!)

Set up one last, manual deposit to top up my HSA contributions for last year.

It's not quite the same as canceling a subscription, but it needed to be done to avoid taxes and late fees, and it's definitely boring.

oneday

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #223 on: January 07, 2025, 12:43:06 PM »
It's not quite the same as canceling a subscription, but it needed to be done to avoid taxes and late fees, and it's definitely boring.

Along the same lines, I've changed my auto-investment to go into the IRA instead of the brokerage. When the IRA is topped up for the year, will need to do another BBB to switch back. Long-term tax savings.

mspym

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #224 on: January 07, 2025, 02:38:19 PM »
This, this is the year when we finally get wills. We've only been talking about it for four years. Best to not rush these things.

rockeTree

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #225 on: January 08, 2025, 11:39:26 AM »
Filling out forms to consolidate the HSA accounts. Both charge annoying fees, may as well only pay the one associated with the current insurance. One less thing to keep track of, hopefully.

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #226 on: January 12, 2025, 11:16:01 PM »
This one is kind of annoying. After spending the month of August 2020 not going outdoors because of the wildfire smoke covering the area at that time, I bought a couple of house-capacity air filters. I use them once in a while, when my part of California is having a bad air day, but mostly they sit idle and I open the windows if I want to clear the air of a cooking mishap or something.

The way the filter company is set up, the warranties are active as long as there's an active subscription for replacement filters. So I have a subscription set to go 15 months at a time in between, and then I go in and skip this shipment.

I just skipped my January shipment and put a note in my calendar to look again in April 2026. They can sell "my" January filter to someone south of here who needs it.

wonkette

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #227 on: January 13, 2025, 01:34:07 PM »
Not sure if I should put this in the thrift find thread or here, but I finally found an IKEA trofast ($100 new) on fb marketplace after searching for 3 months. I have two little kids with lots of toys and I knew this would fit our space perfectly. Since it is an IKEA product I knew there had to be plenty out there. But with kids to take care of and work my availability is limited and the decently priced ones kept getting scooped up. Until this weekend when I scored one for $20!

I had to resist getting a new one several times, especially after the xmas present toy explosion in our house, but I kept diligently checking fb marketplace and it paid off!

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #228 on: January 31, 2025, 08:50:19 AM »
I don't often pursue bank account offers, but there's an account bonus on an account I decided to open for general reasons. I just set up the direct deposit required to get the bonus, with a calendar reminder to go turn it off again in a month or two, when the requirement has been satisfied.

Bank auto-emailed today to report that I qualify for the bonus. (Yay?) It's totally fair, of course, that I had 90 days to qualify (fund the account with the minimum balance plus make two large enough direct deposits). They've given themselves 120 days to "review" that the requirements have been met and issue the bonus, even though the email reported that the computers correctly detected that I just did. I'll dig around in the system today and unplug the direct deposit. I don't need it to continue.

Good thing none of this is urgent.

Turtle

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #229 on: January 31, 2025, 10:45:16 AM »
Realized that I hadn’t yet been credited for an item I’d returned over a month ago.  Emailed the company and they fixed it right away.

crocheted_stache

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #230 on: January 31, 2025, 12:36:12 PM »
I don't often pursue bank account offers, but there's an account bonus on an account I decided to open for general reasons. I just set up the direct deposit required to get the bonus, with a calendar reminder to go turn it off again in a month or two, when the requirement has been satisfied.

Bank auto-emailed today to report that I qualify for the bonus. (Yay?) It's totally fair, of course, that I had 90 days to qualify (fund the account with the minimum balance plus make two large enough direct deposits). They've given themselves 120 days to "review" that the requirements have been met and issue the bonus, even though the email reported that the computers correctly detected that I just did. I'll dig around in the system today and unplug the direct deposit. I don't need it to continue.

Good thing none of this is urgent.

Direct deposit duly ditched.

While I was in there, I got the soft copy of my W2 out of the paycheck system, which doesn't directly save money, but it does save a little work scanning it and maybe means we can copy-paste numbers instead of keying them in. Goal for the upcoming rainy weekend is to round up the rest of the available tax paperwork and determine what's still missing. It's not buck-saving if we're doing it right, but taxes are definitely boring and busy-work.

Rural

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Re: BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!
« Reply #231 on: January 31, 2025, 01:41:04 PM »
It saves bucks over not doing your taxes and eventually paying penalties!