The Frugal Duchess: Recovering My Frugal Groove: Update #2: Saved $500 in One Day: $2 Challenge

Monday, August 20, 2007

Update #2: Saved $500 in One Day: $2 Challenge

Day Two of the Save $2 challenge included a grand slam. A 30-minute phone call saved us about $500. Here's what happened. Today when he opened the mail, my husband studied a pitch from Earthlink that was priced well below our current plan with AT&T/Bellsouth.So my husband hit the phone.

His (polite) pitch: "Can you match this deal? Or should we consider moving our business?"
The conclusion: Our monthly phone bill/Internet/long distance package dropped by roughly $80 a month for the next six months or $480, plus a $50 refund for the current month.

By the way, the editor of Budget Savvy recommended a similar strategy for cutting your cable bill in this post.

When playing the match-this-deal card, it's important to really have a competing offer in front of you. The rate-cut appeal seems stronger, when you actually quote numbers and terms from the competing pitch.

In terms of our daily challenge, my husband's savings plan equals: $500 or $2.58 a day for the next six months.

Meanwhile, while organizing my working materials this morning, I found a lot of loose change:

one quarter

11 dimes

six nickles

22 pennies

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total $1. 87

Additionally, for lunch I had a Lays potato chip craving, which is easy to satisfy because I live near a little store. But I skipped the chips and saved 99 cents (and about 200 calories)

Day Two Total:

$1.87 found money

$1.00 skipped chips

$2.58 daily portion of $500 telecommunications savings

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$5.45 Day Two Savings

Year-to-Date Total: $7.75