Where did this come from?

My printer was out of ink, so I decided to try Cartridge World in Midvale, UT.  They refill your printer ink, which saves you money vs buying a new ink cartridge.  I had never tried Cartridge World before, but I have bought ink from refilled cartridges before from other places.

Back in the old days, you had to send your cartridges out to have them refilled.  It could take a week or so.  For this reason, two sets of ink cartridges were a good idea: one set in your printer, and one set that you could send out to have it refilled.

My spare cartridges had been lying on a bookshelf in my living room for awhile- probably left out as a reminder that I would need to refill my ink soon.  Now I was OUT of ink.  I grabbed the cartridges- HP 15 black and HP 78 color, and headed to Cartridge World.  They had a color cartridge in stock, so they took my empty cartridge and sold me one that was already refilled.  They did not have a black in stock, so they refilled the cartridge while I waited.  It was nice!  It didn't take long.  I didn't have to leave it there and wait a week or two to retrieve the cartridges.  Quick, same-day service.  PLUS, it saved me about $30 by not having to buy it new.

I went home and tried to install the new ink cartridges.  When I opened the printer, I found that my printer DOES NOT take HP 15 & 78, it takes HP 564 (black, magenta, cyan, and yellow).



You can see the obvious differences in the cartridges.









WHAT IN THE WORLD?!
These cartridges look nothing alike.  How could I have confused the two?  I'll just have to chalk it up to a blonde moment.  But a couple of things just don't add up...

I have had those extra cartridges for awhile.  I assumed that they were my spare set.  I have never owned any other printer.  Where did these other cartridges come from?  And where was MY spare set for my printer?  I just paid to refill cartridges that I can't even use!

Luckily, they were nice about it at Cartridge World.  They took back the refilled cartridges, and exchanged them for the cartridges that I actually needed.  Crisis averted (whew).  AND the cartridges that I actually needed came to about $9 less than the other ones, so I saved EVEN MORE money!  Thank you Cartridge World!

First Month's Successes and Failures

I committed to trying out WakeUp Now and being honest about my personal experiences.  I meant to blog about my first month of WakeUp Now at the beginning of August.  Where has the time gone?  I can't believe it's time for school to start again.  Watch for my August results in about a week or two.

I definitely had my ups and downs the first month.  I set out to discover if WakeUp Now could really save me the money that it claims, and whether it would be a good business opportunity for me.  Here are my successes and failures the first month...

Successes:

The savings are definitely worth it!  The first week, I saved $38.48.

The first $30 days? $146.68

WakeUp now uses a savings tracker that resets every calendar month.  For this reason, I will also give the data in calendar months and from this blog forward.

June savings: $38.48 (remember, it was only one week)

July savings: $162.18 (because there were a few more savings the last week in July, after my 30 day mark)

So how did I save all that money?

• Free offers including music downloads, movie tickets, free samples, etc
• Printable manufacturer coupons (Juice, Chips, toothpaste, deodorant, etc)
• My husband bought a PS3 controller (normally $50) for $17.50
• We saved $30 on my husband's contacts.

And that's not all!  Included in the membership are three magazine subscriptions.  I did not add these to the monetary value, but it allows me to receive these without having to pay for them.  So which three magazines did we get?  Men's Fitness for my husband, Redbook for me, and Discover magazine to share.

I set up my cell account to get the 22% discount, but it takes a billing cycle or two before it kicks in, so I did not include the cell phone discount into the monthly savings this first month. 

Other successes:

• I set up my financial planning
• I set up taxbot (and I have already tracked approx. $200 in deductions using taxbot)
• I attended some webinars in order to familiarize myself with the product.

Failures:

• I did not complete my 15 day sprint to success (I didn't help 3 people to sign up in my first 15 days.  If I had completed it, I would have earned an extra vacation on my one year membership anniversary)
• I mentioned WakeUp Now to some of my friends and family, but I blundered my way through- telling them the things that I had found out, but none of it came from my own experience.  I was not sure what to say about the company, or how to get people to sign up.
• I didn't involve my mentor as much as I should.  Many of my friends and family has said, "We'll see if it works for you, and then MAYBE I'll try it."  I need for them to talk to Evan, or one of my other mentors- someone who is actually making money doing this.
• People in my organization: 0 (just me)
• I didn't make any money.

Conclusion:

For July, I have a net savings of $62.18, so the membership more than paid for itself just in the benefits.  If the savings continue like this, it will become more and more worth it (like when the cell phone discount kicks in).  The savings seem to be worth it, but we will see if the savings are always this good, and we will see if I can make any money.

Doing business by email

I live in a planned unit development.  We have a clubhouse that can be used by all, or reserved for special events and private parties.  The following happened as I was trying to reserve my clubhouse:

I called the HOA to ask a few questions about reserving the clubhouse, and check availability.  The receptionist told me that I need to speak to Alison, but that she wasn't available, and it would be easier to get in touch with her by email.  She wouldn't even give me the option to leave a message.  So I accepted the email address.

I sent an email asking about advance notice to reserve the clubhouse, security deposit, etc.

Alison answered all of the questions in my email but stated that in order to reserve the club house, I would need to fill out a reservation form.  She said that the form could be mailed, faxed, or submitted electronically, BUT she DID NOT include a copy of the form, nor a link to where I could access the form or submit it electronically.

EXCUSE ME?!  I obviously want to reserve the clubhouse!  Why couldn't she be thorough and include the form and/or a link to the form.  This causes me MORE work because I have to email her again to ask for the form and/ or the link.

I emailed her again asking for the form, asking if it was available on a certain day, and asking if she knew the address to the clubhouse.  She DID NOT send me the form, but responded that she didn't know where my clubhouse was.  She continued by saying that I should ask my neighbors were it is.  She didn't answer my question about whether it was available, just asked what time I needed it.

HELLO!
I KNOW where my clubhouse is, I just wondered the address so I can tell other people where it is.  There are other PUD's in my area, and I wanted to make sure they get to the correct clubhouse.

FURTHERMORE, she couldn't say, "There is another party that day, it depends on what time you need it."  Nor did she say "It's available any time that day, what time are you thinking?"  She was implying that she wouldn't even look up the availability on that day without the time.  AND she still didn't send me the form!

I emailed her back with the time.
She emailed me back and said that it was not available.  Couldn't she have just said that when I asked her about the day?

Then I had to email her back to check other available dates.  Is there a calendar somewhere I can look at the availability for myself?  Can't I just talk to her on the phone so that she can check multiple dates for me?

What is so annoying to me about all of this is (besides her incompetence) is that I have to do all of this through email.  That means that I have to wait for her answers, and I have to email her multiple times to get the info and forms that I need.  It would have saved me multiple emails if she would have just sent me the form in the first email, and it would have saved me a lot of time and headache if I could have just spoken to her on the phone.

My two cents take away lesson if you do business by email:

I realize that forcing people to conduct business with you through your email may be more convenient for YOU, but think about your CUSTOMERS!

If you do business this way, please think ahead.  If you tell them that they need to fill out a form, include the form and/or a link to the form so that your customers do not have to email you FIVE times to get ONE thing done.  And think about doing some of your business by phone.

WakeUpNow- Too good to be true?

I recently discovered WakeUpNow.  This company makes a lot of claims about being able to save people money, help them manage their money, and help them make money.

They claim that they can save the average household about $300 per month.
They claim that there are hundreds of discounts on online shopping, printable manufacturer coupons, cell phone discounts, travel discounts, deals on eating out, entertainment and movies, home services, etc.

They also give access to money-management software, taxbot to help record tax deductions, protection services to protect against identity theft and fraud, etc.

There is also a way to make money through sharing this secret with others.

I feel a little skeptical because it sounds too good to be true.  I watched YouTube videos about it including this one:

I checked with the BBB at http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/computers-hardware-software-and-services/wake-up-now-in-orem-ut-22245038.  They have an A rating.

I decided that I'd better try it for myself.  I signed up for WakeUpNow on June 27, and I plan on chronicling my experiences here to show the world if it is really worth it.  Are the savings worth it?  Can I actually make money doing this?

Follow me as I try this for myself, or sign up and try it along with me.  For more information about WakeUpNow visit http://manypenny.wakeupnow.com/