Since May we’ve made a couple of big purchases and taken a couple of trips for which we’ve found some groovy new ways to save. Singularly the savings were pretty impressive, but all together, I look like a budgeting superhero.
On a side-note: Why couldn’t I find any superhero women pictures that didn’t have kankles? For the record, I am not a man but I sure don’t have kankles either.
Saving on Priceline.com
For the most part, Hubs and I tend to be immune to advertising gimmicks; or at least if one of us becomes mesmerized by the persuasive television box, the other is there to slap him/her upside the head. This is why we never tried Priceline before. William Shatner wasn’t fooling us, no sir.
On a weekend trip to Ft. Worth, however, we found ourselves hotel-less and curious. We downloaded the free app and were ready to “negotiate.” Feeling rebellious we offered $40/night (technically $20, because we were splitting the room with a friend) for a 3 star hotel, and honestly didn’t think it would work. We got it. Cha-ching!
Booking through Hilton directly, the room we got normally runs around $189/night.
We saved $149.
Saving on Budget Rental Trucks
We bought a new kitchen table and needed a way to transport it because no matter how we worked the angles, we just couldn’t seem to fit it in the Audi. I should note, we bought it about 400 miles away from where we needed it.
If you’ve ever shipped through a moving company before, you know that the prices can get up there – around $550 for our set. So, I went to our usual source for truck rentals, U-Haul, who’s bid wasn’t much better – $400ish + mileage.
I actually was freaking out, wondering if I would have to cancel my order for my dream table (which I got at a dreamy, never-ever-gonna-happen-again price). Out of curiosity I checked on Budget’s rates, not expecting much, and was pleasantly surprised.
Budget charged $220 for the rental.
We saved at least $300.
Saving on Refurbished Stuff
A while back I wrote a little ditty about all the things you can buy refurbished. I finally decided to take some of my own advice and, as it turns out, I might just know what I’m talking about (sometimes).
First, we bought a refurbished Dyson at Overstock.com. A true status-symbol in the house-wife world, but at full-price, I found it a bit out of our vacuum-budget range.
Regularly priced at $400, refurbished the price goes down to $250.
We saved $150. And I finally became a tried and true, Dyson-wielding house-wife.
More recently I took the plunge and opted for a refurbished MacBook, rather than an unseasoned newbie. It was frightening at first, I must say, but I’ve been extremely pleased with this beauty thus far.
New, the MacBook is priced at $999, we paid $750.
We saved $250.
Comments
6 responses to “Recent Financial Experiences – New Places to Save”
You need a girl superhero with no kankles and dollar signs on her chest. I have my eye on a refurbished sewing machine, half the price of a new one, not that I’ll have time to sew or anything, but I’ve felt naked without one.
Totally had a great experience on Priceline as well. Actually, have used it multiple times resulting in really good savings. Best hotel efforts have been getting a room in Downtown San Francisco for $70 that normally went for about %160, and getting a VERY nice room in the Monterrey/Carmel area for about $100 – when it normally went for well over $200.
No matter what that superhero graphic looks like, it doesn’t take away your superhero saver status:)
Good to know that Priceline works everywhere. I was actually wondering about that because we’ve only used it in the one city.
Is it superficial of me to still want the cape? 🙂
I think I know what I’m going to be for Halloween!
Wal-Mart has some wonderfully priced machines. I agree, you want to have one out on your craft table. It says, “I may not have the time to sew, but I could if I wanted to.”
Both of our macs are refurbished, so is my ipod touch. Never had a problem with any of them. Don’t remember how much we saved, but it was a lot.
And you just can’t beat the customer service of Apple. Best decision I’ve made all year.