Being evil to save money
Photo credit: trekkyandy via Flickr
Always take the last donut
Ever feel guilty for taking the last donut or chocolate bar from the snack table? Don’t! Even if you’re not hungry – TAKE THE DONUT. TAKE IT. You can stash it for later and potentially save yourself a trip to the store when the 3pm munchies set in. If it’s a wrapped up snack, even better – no rush to eat it. It’s practically money in the bank.
This is something I’ve actually done. There are often snacks set out at work and I will generally take a bit more than I need. If it’s perishable, I’ll usually eat it with my afternoon coffee. If it’s not perishable, I may eat it or not. The extra goes into my “snack drawer” (it’s like the emergency fund of empty stomachs) or gets taken home for Brian to take with his lunch the next day.
Limited time promotions are a couple’s best friend
Ever wish your 6 month cable and internet promotion would never end? Well, it doesn’t have to! Even though most of these promotions are targeted for new customers, cable companies generally consider you a new customer if you have not subscribed to their services within the last 6 months to a year. If you’re a couple or you have a roommate, simply have one person sign up to get the promo. Then when it is expired, cancel the service, ask to be removed from their list of customers, then have the other person sign up for the promo! Alternate until your cable company has an aneurysm. Cheap cable for all! If you have multiple cable and internet options, then it’s even easier. Cycle through the promotions and companies, alternating the person on the bill each time.
This is another trick that Brian and I have done. With any service, it pays to know the rules and regulations that the company uses and to take advantage of them. After all, if the situation were reversed, they would not hesitate to bill you for everything you’re worth.
But why pay when you can get it for free?
Instead of paying for internet at all, why not get it for free? Many people still do not lock down their wireless signals and even those that do, most have poor password protection. Swoop in, and enjoy. Or, if that’s too evil for you, consider getting your internet from the local coffee shop, hotel or retail business. If you stand close enough to the building, you don’t even have to go inside and spend money!
I generally am not stupid enough evil enough to simply steal other people’s internet. It’s not very secure and it’s not a great long term solution to saving money. If you do need to cancel internet for whatever reason, I’d suggest simply getting a library card and availing yourself of their internet services. This is what Brian and I did when our apartment burned down.
Online all the things!
25 Responses to “Being evil to save money”
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I love how you compared your snack drawer to an emergency fund for your stomach. LOL. That’s awesome!
I’m not sure that I do anything I consider evil; even if it was “evil” to somebody else, it’s probably commonplace for me and something I don’t see as such.
An empty stomach is totally an emergency – can’t concentrate on work then.
I guess I’m evil (or just a bit) too since I totally do all those things. Especially the donut thing
Only a little bit evil
Lol! Awesome post! I have done the cable thing, but I just call them and ask for a deal and threaten to cancel if I don’t get it. Worked for a few years, but now I just got their “slower” high-speed plan and don’t have to hassle anymore.
It’s harder here in Canada. In Vancouver, we basically only have two options for cable companies, and they are both quite pricey.
I’m not a snack type guy believe it or not.. ok once in a while but not at work.The team brings donuts almost once a week and I just leave them but some of my mates they will eat 2 or 3 and take some for later, they don’t give a toss and neither do I. I like how you say you have an emergency stash lol. I’ve (borrowed) lol the open air internet before because of bad connections in the country but only for a short time. I didn’t feel bad, they should secure it. Great Post.. but can’t think of anything else evil yet but if I do I’ll come back and post it lol. Mr.CBB I’ll post on my Facebook to see if my fans have anything interesting to share.
Haha… maybe that’s just the way a male oriented work place is. I’ve noticed that at my current work, it’s everyone for themselves when it comes to snacks. At my in biology research, which was female dominated, there would always be a pastry or two remaining.
Thanks for sharing. Shoot us a FB like. We’re sitting at a sad, sad “2″ at the moment. :/
I am just too nice. I always offer the last donuts/snack to others at work. But no one usually wants them so I eat them or split with a co-worker.
You can do the limited time promotion thing if you call after the six months and tell them that you’re going to quit because the other company’s promotion looks better. Usually they’ll give you the reduced rate because they don’t want to lose you.
We’ve tried, but I think the lack of competition here in BC prevents a lot of good deals. Shaw generally doesn’t care if you switch to Telus. Telus does care, but they often can’t offer as good a price as Shaw does for the same channels. Sigh.
Oh I just thought of one. I listen to music on youtube rather than paying for it to put on my mp3 player
I use chrome’s cache to save my music from Playlist.com It’s probably illegal but it’s not my fault Chrome saves all music cache for me to use. Sue me!
Jk.. plz don’t sue me.
I had no idea you could do that! I will file that way for more evilness in the future…
Oh that’s a good one! I’ve done that too.
As I was reading about your donuts proposal, I remembered my bf brought home the last donut – hehe. Guess what I’m munching on now?
Nice. Have to admit – I’m a little jealous….
I have actually tried on jeans to find the size and style I liked an bought them on Ebay. We’ve done the cable switch as well, but it is a bit of a pain because we only have satellite TV in our area so the new company always have to come and change out the dish, but it does save quite a bit of money.
Oh that’s a good idea. I haven’t tried buying clothes via eBay yet. It’s good that you tried them on first though. I always find that the fit is different with different brands, even when something is the same size.
I once tried on a pair of runners at a shop and then bought them online. I wouldn’t feel too bad but the salesman spent a LONG time with me, and I feel too guilty to even go up the street that shop is on now.
His price was $250 and I got them for $90 shipped.
The guilt is worth it.
Ahhh well, it’s his job to show you shoes. I wouldn’t feel too bad.
When I worked in retail, I never minded helping people out and I always told them straight up that they’d get a cheaper price from our online store. I didn’t get paid commission though hehe.
I think there is a limit to the whole “why pay for it when you can get it free” motto.
We have a guy at work who comes in at least once per week to fill up his gigantic water bottle with the filtered water from work. He lives about 100m away, but still, this is a bit nuts in my opinion.
One day I questioned him about it and he said that over a few years he would end up saving money by doing this. I couldn’t really see it being a good use of his time vs the effort put in, but I wasn’t about to argue with a crazy man.
Wow. That’s dedication!
I would say that going to the effort of filling up on filtered water at work is not only a little bit evil but a little bit silly. If the free filtered water is that important to him, it should probably be a budgeted expense…
I definitely know people who do the cable trick – especially groups of students living together.
I had free Netflix for awhile, we used a friends login and password while we were deciding if we wanted it. Netflix got wise after awhile though and we had to pay up.
I also know people who hack gaming consoles to force them to accept free games, and who download movies illegally, those are HUGE money savers.
With movies, I find that I watch them so infrequently that I can just reserve and borrow them from the library when I want to watch them for free. At my current work, they actually have a huge library of movies and TV shows that you can borrow and watch. Kind of nice to get that stuff for free without having to be evil (or illegal….)!
Someone has to take the last donut and if someone is telling me outright to take it, then I will
I was at work training last week and they had cookies. I took 2. I have a huge appetite for a petite person.