How much have you saved?

[RobbieB]

I know, I'm a bad influence -

But my new (36 year old) boat only cost $6800. And the slip at the marina is only 200/mo.

So I save the cost of a pickup trunk (to tow it) and a new house with a bigger driveway (to store it) Gotta be million right there!

 

[Scuba]

I didn't buy a yacht, so there is a million dollars saved, right there.

Love this answer! [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

 

[Sunset]

I earn about $2K in Credit card rewards per year, without doing much effort.

Last year I shoved some money around to banks to earn $1K, it was more effort than the Credit cards :/

I have a short list in my wallet, which CC to use to maximize the usage. pretty easy to look at as I grab a CC.

 

[teetee]

I don't believe in credit cards. Everything you get from them is from you, you just don't recognize it.

The same part is that I like to save money from finding good deals online. Recently someone on a different forum posted that including the phone purchase cost and the plan, they spend around $30/mo/line for their smartphone spending. I followed the same method, and my smartphone spending in the past four years was averaged $1.6/mo/line. Before that it was even cheaper because I had a flip phone with $10/year prepaid.

Once I reach the retirement age I will definitely try the gov sponsored free phone plan and see if their 'free' phone+plan is true.

 

[11522914]

Those are pretty impressive numbers. Congrats! My yearly savings are probably around $750 from credit card cash-back and signup bonuses. I have no idea what my "all in" yearly savings (including coupons, "negotiations", loyalty points/rewards) from all sources would be. But I'm quite certain they are nowhere near $6k/year.

I realized long ago that I'm the kind of person who likes to exert fairly minimal effort to get cash rewards/discounts, to the tune of maybe 5-6 hours/year. Anything more than that starts to feel like w*rk, honestly. But I get that it's a fun pastime for many folks and can be quite lucrative for those who take it seriously and devote a fair amount of time and energy to it.

Thanks. You're right, this is a fun pastime for me and I thoroughly enjoy doing it. Being retired I can certainly find the time to devote to it and honestly it isn't that much time.

 

[11522914]

Exactly. If your saving is proportional to spending (cashback programs, CC rewards, etc.) then greater savings doesn't necessarily mean you've come out ahead. It just means you've spent more money on more stuff for a fraction less.

I prefer to use total spending as a financial metric.

Definitely used total spending as a financial metric to determine when I could retire.

That being said a huge chunk of these savings are for items I would have purchased anyway. Food, clothing, gas, electricity, water, home improvements, restaurants, etc. I just chose the credit card and portal if applicable that provides the best savings.

 

[WhenIsItTime]

I don't believe in credit cards. Everything you get from them is from you, you just don't recognize it.

The same part is that I like to save money from finding good deals online. Recently someone on a different forum posted that including the phone purchase cost and the plan, they spend around $30/mo/line for their smartphone spending. I followed the same method, and my smartphone spending in the past four years was averaged $1.6/mo/line. Before that it was even cheaper because I had a flip phone with $10/year prepaid.

Once I reach the retirement age I will definitely try the gov sponsored free phone plan and see if their 'free' phone+plan is true.

In regards to not recognizing my credit card benefits are actually from me…

I use a CC for everything. Simple 1.75% cash back. I understand this to come from retailers pocket. I pay off my CC each month. Haven’t paid interest (on anything) in >10 years.

Are you suggesting my use of a CC directly increases the cost of products I buy and if I used cash, eventually the retailer would lower their prices?

What am I missing?

 

[11522914]

I don't track the totals by year, but in a good month I can get $1 - $2K in freebies and discounts. That was pre-pandemic, with a lot of that total being discounted or free concert, play and event tickets from seat filler subscriptions, library passes and Facebook specials.

Things I do: cash back credit cards; credit card signup points; bank bonuses; ink recycling; contests; thrift shop shopping; Freecycle type sites (including a free big screen TV and patio table); cash back portals; estate sales; contests; library (free event tickets, music downloads, streaming); annual passes for gardens, zoos, parks, museum and wineries; Groupons; entertainment.com coupons for half price dining; free and discounted ride share and public transportation passes for seniors; inexpensive activities through senior center memberships; seat filler memberships and veterans discounts.

A big one is product reviews - over $5K this year. Grocery Outlet shopping - they put on the receipt the savings over Safeway type prices and we usually get at least 50% off.

Thanks for the response. You are definitely one of my favorites to follow. I probably do 75% of your suggestions and will be looking into some of the other ones.

I've been playing the credit card rewards game for decades now but I just started this year doing bank bonuses. Already made $1,500 moving 50k around. That $1,500 took a couple of hours of my time at most.

When the pandemic is over I will definitely look into seat filler memberships.

 

[11522914]

Just bought a new truck for a little over 80k... I seriously considered buying one with more options for almost 100k so the way I see it, I save 20k on this single purchase. Paid for the difference between the new truck and my trade-in with a 1.5% cash back credit card so I saved even more.

Congrats. The beauty of savings are you create the rules. Per my rules this would not have counted as savings.

I walk into the dealership, pick out a truck and say I'm paying cash and what will my walk out price be. They say $100,000 and not a penny less. I say no way and not willing to go above $90,000. We negotiate and I get it for $92,000 out the door. In this example I would count the $8,000 as savings.

 

[11522914]

we're in the other camp...trying to remember which card to use where, when and for what is just not worth the effort involved. K.I.S.S.

It really doesn't take any time to track which card to use. For instance one of my cards pays me 5% on groceries up to one year. So I use that card for groceries only. And I know in January 2022 it stops.

In Quicken you can set a reminder to pay your bills and see all your bills listed for each month. Very easy. I then just put in the header which cc card to use that offers the most rewards. Usually the rewards earning are good for a quarter. Easy peasy.

There are many websites that makes the process so much easier.

This one tells you where to get the highest return whether for cashback, travel points, cc points or portals. https://www.cashbackmonitor.com/

This one list all the best current credit card and bank bonuses deals. Very easy to find the best deal. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/

I realize that for most even this is too much effort. But since we all have hobbies that take up time we are willing to use in place of others this is one of my hobbies.

 

[11522914]

We've cashed in $5400 this year in bonus earnings - mostly from his and her credit card bonus amounts that I consolidated in a Chase Sapphire Reserve stash, taking advantage of the "pay yourself back" program making any points worth a penny and a half. Building materials, Walmart, restaurants - it tickled me to buy a $600 refrigerator for the rentals with $400 worth of points.

Congrats. I know that feeling.

 

[Car-Guy]

I walk into the dealership, pick out a truck and say I'm paying cash and what will my walk out price be. They say $100,000 and not a penny less. I say no way and not willing to go above $90,000. We negotiate and I get it for $92,000 out the door. In this example I would count the $8,000 as savings.

I would say you'd be correct in counting that as a 8k saving... You were going to buy a truck and they wanted 100k... You got it for 8k less than their opening offer.... Pretty simple math... Of course there are those that would try to twist this in all sorts of ways to fit their POV... (just, noise)

Today's car market seems to be working really different to me... Chip shortages, supply chain issues, delivery delays, inflation, etc, seem to be making buying any vehicle (new or used) more expensive. When I first asked about the price of the new truck I wanted, I was told right away that they were getting a 10k premium over window sticker for that particular model on cash deals... I was planning to pay cash for the new truck and sell my current vehicle separately.. But when I told him what I "potentially" had to trade,, the salesman became very interested... And I thought cash was king. I guess they really want used cars for reselling these days,

I know what my trade was worth (or what I wanted for it) and I knew the window sticker price of the new truck... In the end I got it for an even trade, which was what I originally wanted from a $ POV... However, on the actual sales invoice, they jacked up the price of the new truck by 10k over the window sticker, but they also showed that they were allowing me 10k more on my trade than is was worth. (WTF was that for)

To make this more complicated, I wanted a particular tonneau cover for the new truck... They allowed me a 2k allowance (a handshake deal, separate from the sales invoice)... Basically I bought an after market cover, showed them the bill and they reimbursed me for the cost.... I've never seen that before either.

Anyway, after all was said and done, by my calculations I saved 10k off the initial asking price...

 

[athena53]

Off the top of my head:

E-Rewards surveys give me 42,000 Hilton points and 24,000 AA miles every year if I do enough surveys. (There are limits on how frequently you can redeem them.) Can't quantify, of course, till I redeem them. I did get a $300 hotel night with points this year.

$525 YTD on my Fidelity Visa. Should be over $400 this year on the Costco Visa.

$25-$50 every year in Starbucks gift cards through blood bank donations.

 

[Dtail]

^^^^^^

"If" you are correct, I guess these two copied post below would not pass the smell test either? Just keeping with the theme of the thread.

Correct.
One has a cool smiley emoji and no need to comment on the intent on one of our premier jokesters @travelover.

 

[ivinsfan]

I don't believe in credit cards. Everything you get from them is from you, you just don't recognize it.

The same part is that I like to save money from finding good deals online. Recently someone on a different forum posted that including the phone purchase cost and the plan, they spend around $30/mo/line for their smartphone spending. I followed the same method, and my smartphone spending in the past four years was averaged $1.6/mo/line. Before that it was even cheaper because I had a flip phone with $10/year prepaid.

Once I reach the retirement age I will definitely try the gov sponsored free phone plan and see if their 'free' phone+plan is true.

Actually the cost of CC cards is on you too, even if you pay with greenbacks. It is already baked in the pricing from the get go.


As for smartphone pricing it's not apples to apples but I agree if you can buy a less pricey phone and keep it for a long time you are ahead of the game.

 

[flyingaway]

I guess the 2% credit card rewards have been built into the spending budget.

 

[11522914]

Actually the cost of CC cards is on you too, even if you pay with greenbacks. It is already baked in the pricing from the get go.


As for smartphone pricing it's not apples to apples but I agree if you can buy a less pricey phone and keep it for a long time you are ahead of the game.

Excellent point. There is no cost to using cc for me other than time and the benefits far outweigh the time spent.

I also end up buying Google Nexus/Pixel phones as I found they offer a compelling value when compared to other brands. I always wait till they are on sale, buy them new, and sell them on ebay when I'm ready to buy a new one. I found they're usually good for about 3 to 4 years. I currently have a Pixel 3aXL and love it. On top of all this the 2 Pixel 3aXL I bought for me and my wife were purchased with CC reward points.

 

[ivinsfan]

I don't save anything. I'm past saving, I'm retired.

Now I just blow that dough. No budget, no tracking anything.

But 7 years after I retired, I've got more dough than I started with. So spending looks OK -

Even with BTD, do you look to spend more then you need to for certain items?



This thread has gone totally off the rails but started with a poster asking how much do you save a year by using readily available things to lower the price of something you buy anyway. It's actually an interesting question.


In a totally lame example for some darn reason there is a huge toothpaste, mouthwash, etc war going on at Walgreens dot/com.


Between manufacturers coupons, Walgreens coupons and Walgreens cashback bonus money, they are almost giving the stuff away.



Now I use these items every single day and have a prodigious supply on hand. I'd rather do that then run to the store and pay full retail.

 

[pacergal]

I don't track how much I "save" every month, but I do use coupons and buy/stock up grocery items when they are on sale. I buy clothes off season, so they are cheaper.

my by-line is a quote I read from someone on this forum. Its a reminder for me!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

In a totally lame example for some darn reason there is a huge toothpaste, mouthwash, etc war going on at Walgreens dot/com.

Between manufacturers coupons, Walgreens coupons and Walgreens cashback bonus money, they are almost giving the stuff away.

Now I use these items every single day and have a prodigious supply on hand. I'd rather do that then run to the store and pay full retail.

I like looking for bargains like that, too. Why pay more than you have to for items you need anyway? Our closest supermarket charges 3 times more for organic produce than a local farm to doorstep deliver service does and saves time, too. I really enjoy finding bargains like that and am always on the look out. We're retired and have time to price shop like that, so why not? Most price shopping these days can be done pretty quickly online.

 

[CaptTom]

A big one is product reviews - over $5K this year.

Can you offer any details on this? I looked into doing reviews or surveys, but haven't found a good, reputable company to sign up with. I figure it would be a good way to kill time, rather than playing games or watching stupid videos on the phone or laptop.

 

[1242Vintage]

I have a post retirement part time job at a rock quarry. If I ask am sure I could get an employee discount on rocks!

Would save a ton of money the next time I need landscaping rock for the yard.

 

[RobbieB]

Even with BTD, do you look to spend more then you need to for certain items?

No, I don't look to pay more. Typically I'll find something on the internet and copy the item and google search it yo make sure I'm getting a good price. But no coupons. Sometimes I let my ACE rewards expire as I'm not there in the store or forgot to load them into my wallet.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I don't save anything. I'm past saving, I'm retired.

Now I just blow that dough. No budget, no tracking anything.

But 7 years after I retired, I've got more dough than I started with. So spending looks OK -

+1 Well said. Same here, Retired for 5.5 years.

 

[JT90505]

"...This thread has gone totally off the rails ..."

...but its gone off the rails in a fun and interesting way that made me think