One a year, I start dialing for dollars. When the dialing starts, my co-workers make sure no one interrupts me. Every little bit adds up. $5.00 a month is $60.00 a year for a total savings of $300.00 in our five year budget plan. My usual haul is around $10,000. a year in reduced costs.

Once every 3 years I focus on reducing our financial costs, and realize as much as $10,000. a year in savings.

I keep every scrap of paper from every product we buy. Two days before the warranty ran out, our computer died. The result was a brand new computer, plus a $125.00 credit sent as an apology for making me sit on hold so long, and so many times.

As others have pointed out, companies are making a fortune off making customers sit on hold, transferring them from one department to another and other stall tactics.

I think people have hit on something here. Companies send customers to collection agencies - right? Time to reverse it and give customers a collection agency of their own - call it, Dialing for Dollars.