How I made $881.25 in three days

When dh emailed me from work about the urgency of cutting back our budget, I looked things over once again and managed to free up $881.25 in my work on this over the last three days.

Here is where the money came from:

1.) When I called to check on the options with our cable bill and asked tons of questions to the customer service rep about our options, I was offered a $17 per month discount to keep all the same services. That was easy. This is an annual savings of $204. (They guaranteed this rate for a year.)

2.) I figured out that since we will keep cable for the time being, I can commit to using the Exercise TV channel and drop my health club fee of $25 per month (no contract). This is an annual savings of $300. Whoo hoo!!

3.) I figured out that we could save $125 over the next year by putting $500 of pre tax income from dh's paycheck into a medical flexible spending account. That $125 is the tax savings and I especially love to save when it comes to taxes. This is an annual savings of $125.

4.) I figured out that if we partially prepaid our next installment of property taxes before the year ends, we will see the tax deduction benefits in just 30-45 days (when we do our taxes and get to deduct these expenses.) This adds $237.25 in tax deductions that we would not have had until 2010 had I not figured this out. This is an annual savings of $237.25.

5.) I figured out if I transfer an Rx to Walgreen's this week, I will make $15 from the $25 gift cards they are giving out for transferred prescriptions. This generic med only costs me $10. Total savings here is $15.

I love this kind of creativity. These are honestly my favorite ways to save money.

I wonder if I can find even more ways to save?

I have honestly been chiseling away at our budget now for 15 months. I am amazed that I can still find things to cut at this point that aren't even painful at all.