Over
the past couple of weeks I have been taking advantage of a couple of
opportunities that were presented to me in order to save a few dollars.
Sometimes the numbers added up pretty fast while other times it was only a
little here and there. Either way, they are all providing a little bit of a
return and putting a few extra dollars back into our account. Actually, by the
end of the week, all those small sums added up and turned into a rather nice
return.
There
were really two parts to this whole operation this week… price matching and a
credit card promotion. While it did take some time this week, in the end it is
going to save us hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the next year. It
just goes to show that if you take a few minutes and put in a little effort,
you can make things a little easier.
It
started a couple of weeks ago when there were a few items that I had to
purchase for the house. Not the cheapest things but not really high priced
either. When I had a couple of minutes free in the middle of the work day, I
pulled up the Sportsman’s Guide website to see if they had what I was looking
for. It turns out that they did so I put the items in my shopping cart, typed
in my coupon, and selected the 4 pay plan to ease the payment pain.
Everything
went smoothly but I was curious to see if there were any other websites that
were offering a better deal. Sportsman’s Guide offers a price match guarantee
for 30 days from the time the order is placed. There were a few sites that had
the same price, a few that were selling it for more, and a couple that were a
dollar or two cheaper. I wasn’t about to call over a couple dollars. And there
is was… a $25 difference. With website and item number in hand I called
customer service and had the price matched within minutes. However, this was a
onetime opportunity to save some money. My other call this week was more
fruitful.
At
some point during the day on Tuesday I got an email from a company regarding my
credit card. The offer was for free transfers of other accounts (normally 3%)
with a 0% APR for 1 year on those balance transfers. This particular card has
the lowest interest rate so has always carried the highest balance… hence no
room for transfers. So I gave them a call on Wednesday to explain the situation
and to see if there was some way that I could take advantage of this offer.
It
never fails whenever I call them, they found a way to make it work. Now,
instead of paying a nearly 20% APR on a couple other cards, we are now paying
0% for the next year and, if needed, carry a 12% APR afterward. The percentages
may not mean much at first glance but, over the course of a 12 month period
this could potentially save us hundreds upon hundreds of dollars (it will also
lower our monthly payments pretty significantly). I am sure that many of you
may think that this is boring but it saves me money so I am very interested.
The
essential thing to take away from both of these is that there are opportunities
to save money / keep money in your pocket if you just pay attention. I am sure
there are a number of opportunities that I have missed in the past but, in this
instance, I was fortunate enough to catch them. When all is said and done, all
it takes is a few minutes from you day and a willingness to work with the
people on the other end of the line. It was a great week for saving money.
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