Yesterday I posted the first half of the Money breakdown.

Today, I’m going to dig a little deeper. I’ve run the numbers, and the results totally surprised me. Here goes.

My next question is:

1) Which type of monetary transaction was more worthwhile? Trying to save, make a profit, get refunds, or track down funds owed to me?

As you recall, I asked 150 times in the Money category. Yesterday I identified four types, or aims, for these requests: those resulted in “Profits,” “Savings,” “Recouped” funds, and what I “Was Owed.”

Here’s a graph that compares how many successes I had in each type and the total number of requests.

For successes here, I’m not including the times a request was granted but I didn’t act on it. There were 8 such transactions. For example, if a store agreed to give me $16 off a pendant and I never bought it, that’s not money I actually saved. I’ll use that success to look at how often people reward asking by industry and location, but I don’t want that to enter into my calculation of how effective a saver I was. And in case you’re wondering, it’s only in the Saved category, and a difference of a few percentages — nothing monumental!

Here are the success rates, more clearly:

At a quick glance, this suggests I had a much easier time getting something for nothing (Profit) than meeting any other financial objective. In the words of a linguistic genius I’ve never met, “WTF!!!!????”

2) What if we look at this in a different way?

Average gain per type of request shows how much I gained, spread across all attempts.

Once again, Profit stands out. This is because of one whopper of a gain, the airfare voucher, spread over relatively few attempts (36). Once again, Recouped is measly, and Was Owed is huge, suggesting my few efforts paid off — as they should have. It was money that I should not have had to ask for in the first place.

Saved looks small here, especially give the scale. But the actual dollar value is surprisingly high. At least, I didn’t expect to save an average of $13 per transaction every time I asked. That’s factoring in the wins and the losses. In other words, just the habit of asking led to $13 back in my pocket, every time I tried. Sometimes I gained nothing, but sometimes I gained hundreds.

DAMN!!!

3) What does this mean? Is it better to pursue profits or savings?

In 365 days, I sought Profit 36 times and Savings 92 times.

But that’s not because I felt Savings would lead to greater gains. Rather, because that’s what I was already used to doing.

In fact, I frequently told myself to pursue profits, i.e. aim to maximize growth rather than minimize loss. But I kept returning to savings.

4) Why?

My focus on saving over profit says a lot about how I view money, and also where I stand financially. My whole adult life, I’ve been student, and the idea of stretching dollars is heavily inculcated. Don’t get me wrong — I definitely know how to indulge! But… even when something is a splurge, I tend to calculate if there’s a way to cut costs. It’s the grad student way, I suppose. Or the daughter of Eastern European immigrant way. Or simply the Roxy way?!

On the flipside to high savings are low profits: Since I don’ t have a full time job, and grad school stipends in the humanities are non-negotiable (last I heard), I have very few opportunities for getting raises. The side work I do here and there has potential, but even those raises would only add up to so much. So the only profits, besides those rare raises, are about scoring freebies. (By the way, of course I could open a business or invest in the stock market, but that wouldn’t be a “Profit” as I’ve defined it — i.e. gaining cash or goods simply by asking.)

Considering Profit was quite lucrative per transaction (see graph above), and also that I earned the most in the Profit category (see graph from yesterday, below), this reinforces the idea that I should switch gears and focus on Profit.

At least, this year shows that seeking profits was a worthwhile enterprise.

However.

Profit in this case is usually the equivalent of asking for a freebie. I did that with the voucher, and several other transactions where I tried to upgrade in some way. That’s cool: once in a while, I asked for and snagged some lucrative treats. But is it a sustainable model?

I think not.

This brings me around to a final revelation for this post, which is really just a reinforcement of what I learned the day I opened Women Don’t Ask, last July.

The first salary negotiation is do or die. The profits I need to be aiming for aren’t those random but lucky wins — though those are valuable, and I’m not discounting them. The one area I have some control over, and an area with big potential payoffs, is my future salary. So that’s where I need to focus.

I mean, the graph says it all. Profit is the way to go.

The graph doesn’t lie. The graph knows. Listen to the graph. Laugh at its silly jokes. Invite the graph to a blockbuster summer movie opening, but don’t take its hand. Yet. Love the graph. Take the graph on walks, and tell it how great its hair looks after sex. Give the graph the bigger piece of cheesecake. Tell the graph you have bought adjoining cemetery plots and smile coyly it when it asks why. Surprise it with a trip to Alaska, then propose. Marry the graph. Move into a two bedroom condo with the graph, which has an office or space for “whatever.” Mention, on a sunny Saturday morning, that you’ve subscribed to Cookie and you have an announcement. Go on an impromptu road trip with the graph, get out of gas in the middle of Iowa and, while waiting for AAA to show up in a field of soybeans, talk about the things you might have done if you weren’t doing this. Dream together. Have kids with the graph. Come home exhausted one day and find the graph asleep in bed with the younguns, and wake it up just to say you love it more than your children. Admit you had been watching the graph from across the street since you were both 8. Admit you’ve saved scraps of its DNA for potential cloning projects. When the graph mentions the words restraining order, hug it and rock it gently.

Next: On Location!

Tuesday I discussed in general terms what I asked for, and I laid out a few basics. Here, finally, is the next installment!

So. You’re probably wondering the same thing I was wondering: Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

More like:

1) How much extra cash did La Roxy gain in this year of daily asking?

Yesterday I reported that there were 150 monetary requests. (Recall that “Money” included any good or service that had a dollar value, as well as cold hard cash I acquired or saved, by asking.)

So I should just count the dollars in the money category and voila! — right?

Actually, it’s not that simple.

First we need to cut out the requests where I asked for a discount, got it, but didn’t claim it for whatever reason. There were 8. That amount is $243.

If we add up the rest, the grand total is:

Not bad! In fact, that’s around 20 percent of my yearly income. Imagine if someone with a “real” salary asked daily, on a bigger scale, seeking bigger and harder discounts. I’m all a-tingle at the thought of it.

Unfortunately, though, $4,579.39 is still not a very “helpful” figure. I mean, it includes things like refunds. If I asked a store to return a picture frame I bought but lost the receipt, is that really money “gained”? Or is it money that I’m entitled to? What if they bent a rule for me? What if it was obvious the frames weren’t used, but the manager had the final say and it was a mean manager? or a nice one?

2) What if I only counted the money that resulted in an increase in my net worth?

That would mean skipping the transactions that involved refunds and similar compensations. Basically, I need to find out how much cash and goods I either acquired or managed to not spend — simply by asking.

Let’s first split up the Money category into four groups:

“Profit” is any money I earned by asking, where I gave nothing in return. It’s also something I wouldn’t have otherwise obtained or paid for. That includes my raise, the airfare voucher, and all the extra perks and goodies that came my way.

“Saved” refers to money I didn’t spend, but would have without asking. Basically, these are the various discounts I snagged. Less expenses mean more money in my pocket, so they’re a different sort of gain.

The next two are trickier.

“Recouped” is the money I spent and then regained by asking for special treatment or an exception. Like the picture frames. It also includes goods I obtained as compensation for an error. For example, when Mr. A and I had bad service at Denny’s, I asked for a dessert on the house to make up for it. These aren’t exactly gains, but they’re still an improvement of the status quo, the norm, etc, through asking.

“Was owed” is not technically a gain. Rather, it’s money I was clearly entitled to but still had to ask for. A cashier credited $25 back to my card, because I asked her to double check my receipt. No doubt I should have gotten that money, but if I didn’t ask for it, I might have missed out. There were 5 such transactions.

By the way, this chart shows only the requests that resulted in gains. Memo from the Department of the Obvious: Looks like I managed to save most frequently.

But these numbers aren’t useful without some context.

3) How profitable was each type of request?

Wow. So even thought I sought Profit less than half as often as I sought Savings, I gained around $500 more in there. A pair of airfare vouchers gained in January, worth around $1,330, is what boosts that amount.

The very low “Recouped” total makes me think that in the future, maybe I could cut those losses and focus on maximizing profits.

And scary how big the “owed” category is. This is money that should have come my way, and if I’d been asleep at the wheel, it might not have. Makes me want to be much more vigilant. Also kinda annoying. Just sayin’.

So to find out how much I’ve gained this year — and not just recovered — by asking, let’s add up the first two groups, Profit and Saved. That value is:

For the rest of the analyses, “Total Sum” will mean $$4,579.39, while “True Gain” will be $3,204.89. I’ll usually work with the first figure, but the second is cool to know.

A few remarks:

1) Much of the Profit came from a single transaction, the $1,330 airplane voucher. I realize it “skews the data” (is that how scientists talk? excuse my ignorance), but I’m including it because it was a valid request. If I write it off as a fluke, that undermines the whole idea of the project, which is to find out how much one can gain by asking DAILY. If anything, this propitious aberration shows the value of persistence and seeking opportunities everywhere, all the time.

2) At the start of the project, I figured the total amount gained would be much bigger. I had planned on buying a car, but my Nissan is hanging on. And I expected to have graduated by now, or at least negotiated a starting salary for my first full time job. I really hope my car lasts, but I’m definitely expecting to do more salary negotiations in Year Two.

3) I realize I’m super comfortable with haggling and bargaining. The next challenge: finding ways how to make my money grow, not my losses to shrink.

In conclusion, because of renewed efforts and the ever-pending salary negotiation I’ve been working up to, I’m expecting to see a much bigger total, same time next year.

Next: More money! Followed by Location…

A few basics

For this an all other ask-o-logy reports, feel free to reblog, email or otherwise disseminate, but please give credit to The Daily Asker and link back here. Thanks!

For the introduction, click here.

To magnify any graphic, click on it.

In one year, from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, I asked:

365 days
411 times

For the purposes of these discussions “benefits” and “gains” will be used interchangeably to refer to any monetary gain, offset loss or refund, as well as time, experience, convenience, and/or information, obtained through asking or negotiation.

Other key terms will be defined as they come up.

The first, and most basic, question I had:

1) Does asking pay off?

To answer this, let’s look at a few elements first.

Total successes versus failures. Of the 411 requests, 5 were inconclusive. Either the results weren’t good or bad, or I’m still waiting to hear back (free stock). 279 were net gains. And in 16 cases, I got what I requested but didn’t act on it. For example, I obtained a discount on diamond earrings, but never bought them. I also got a discount on a boat tour in Hawaii, but it was canceled because of bad weather. So in those 14 cases I obtained what I asked for, but failed to claim it for a variety of reasons. I counted those as successes, but those dollar amounts won’t go into the tally of total gains.

In all, 295 times people gave me what I wanted. That’s 295 times I would not have asked and ended up worse off than I did by asking.

And 111 times, people refused.

So roughly speaking, 7 out of 10 times, I improved my situation by asking.

Pas mal!

Next, as a basis for the subsequent interpretations this week, it helps to know what I asked for. For the rest of the charts and analyses, I’m not going to use the 5 inconclusive results. The total I’ll be working with is 406, not 411.

2) Did I ask more for monetary and material benefits, or rather for experiences, time, access, privileges, fun or other nontangible benefits?

This pie chart oversimplifies the categories. Here are some explanations:

“Money” refers to any monetary or material request that can be translated into a dollar amount. Sometimes it was obvious: I saved $5 at a farmer’s market. Other times I required translating a free or upgraded item into a dollar amount. But, bottom line, requests in the “Money” category were all about saving or earning money.

Next most common was “Convenience or Comfort.” These are the requests that aimed to make my life easier. Could you lend me your sweater? Could you stop smoking here? Etc.

“Information or Instruction” is pretty self-explanatory. Reviewing the data, I found that these were sometimes last-minute requests — a mix of midnight desperation, plus curiosity. Basically, if I hadn’t asked anything, I could always hit up a stranger for info at 11:55 p.m. Learning some tips from a pool shark was such an example.

“Access or Permission” contained some of my favorite requests. Some could be cross-listed under “Convenience or Comfort” (e.g. Can I use your bathroom? is hazy). But here I used my gut feelings to sort them out. If the request tested someone’s willingness to make me comfortable, I put it in that category. If it was more about breaking a rule, crossing a line, or letting me penetrate where I shouldn’t, it was about access. Got it?

“Fun” was any wacky or zany request that I attempted for… pure glee. Try on someone’s shoe, provoke an unsuspecting stranger, bite into an onion ring. Many of these could be cross-listed under “Access or Permission,” but if they were more exciting than essential, I put them in this group.

Finally, “Time” refers to any request that was primarily or exclusively about saving… you got it… time. Sometimes it was a close call between “Time” and “Convenience or Comfort,” but it came down to this: even if saving time was a convenience, if I could differentiate that request from other convenient ones and add a minute or hour to my day, then I counted it under “Time.”

A simpler way of breaking it down, which will be useful in future analyses:

3) Did I seek monetary/material or other benefits?

I asked much more frequently for “Other” (non-monetary) benefits: 256 times. That is, for every monetary request, there were about 2 non-monetary ones.

4) Within these categories, where was I more successful?

In other words, was I more likely to meet my goal when I asked for monetary/material benefits or rather for access, experiences, information, etc. I bet you have a hunch, you savvy reader. But let’s double check!

Out of 150 “Money” requests, 92 were approved. Out of 256 “Other” requests (all that were not “Money”), 203 were approved. Asking for non-financial benefits was much more likely to be met with approval:

Apparently, not only did I ask for “Other” benefits more often, but I was also more successful there. Is this causal or coincidental? I’m not a statistician, but if you have any ideas, please email me or drop a comment, below!

5) Now, looking again at the specific categories outlined above, which type of request was most likely to be successful?

To determine this, let’s break down “Money” and “Other” into the more precise categories to see successful I was in individual area.

I measured how many times my requests was approved in each category, versus how many times I asked. Here’s how it stacks up:

Or if you prefer, in the next graph I’ve indicated clear cut success rates: number of successful askings divided by number of askings, per category.

My favorite finding here: Fun. Out of 32 attempts, only 5 people didn’t play along.

You rock, Humanity!

One speculation about why it was so easy to get Information or Instruction (90% success rate): I was aiming low. This category included requests for directions and questions to experts who were happy to teach or share their insights. I imagine that if I’d been asking for more “valuable” or at least elusive information, this percentage would have dropped significantly.

Another point: Overall, it was a lot easier to get my way when I asked to alleviate a basic need.

So whether it’s due to the hard times, our culture or just human nature, my year of asking shows that people are much less likely to part with their cash than they are willing to be warm and cuddly. (However, this may also be because I asked more strangers monetary/material questions, and more friends and family comfort questions. Details on complicating factors like how my approach, and who I asked, could have shaped the results, coming in the next few days.)

As for actual payoffs… check back in a future posting!

Tomorrow: How the “Money” category breaks down, and asking by location.

A few basics

For this an all other ask-o-logy reports, feel free to reblog, email or otherwise disseminate, but please give credit to The Daily Asker and link back here. Thanks!

To magnify any graphic, click on it.

In one year, from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, I asked:

365 days
411 times

For the purposes of these discussions “benefits” and “gains” will be used interchangeably to refer to any monetary gain, offset loss or refund, as well as time, experience, convenience, and/or information, obtained through asking or negotiation.

Other key terms will be defined as they come up.

The first, and most basic, question I had:

1) Does asking pay off?

To answer this, let’s look at a few elements first.

Total successes versus failures. Of the 411 requests, 7 were inconclusive. Either the results weren’t good or bad, or I’m still waiting to hear back (free stock). 283 were net gains. And in 10 cases, I got what I requested but didn’t act on it. For example, I obtained a discount on diamond earrings, but never bought them. I also got a discount on a boat tour in Hawaii, but it got canceled because of bad weather. So in those 10 cases I obtained what I asked for, but failed to claim it. I counted those as successes, but those amounts won’t go into the tally of total gains.

In all, 293 times people gave me what I wanted. That’s 293 times I would not have asked and ended up worse off than I did by asking.

111 times, people refused.

So roughly speaking, 7 out of 10 times, I improved my situation by asking.

Pas mal!

Next, as a basis for the subsequent interpretations this week, it helps to know what I asked for.

2) Did I ask more for monetary and material benefits, or rather for experiences, time, access, privileges, fun or other nontangible benefits?

This pie chart oversimplifies the categories. Here are some explanations:

“Money” refers to any monetary or material request that can be translated into a dollar amount. Sometimes it was obvious: I saved $5 at a farmer’s market. Other times I required translating a free or upgraded item into a dollar amount. But, bottom line, requests in the “Money” category were all about saving or earning money.

Next most common was “Convenience or Comfort.” These are the requests that aimed to make my life easier. Could you lend me your sweater? Could you stop smoking here? Etc.

“Information or Instruction” is pretty self-explanatory. Reviewing the data, I found that these were sometimes last-minute requests — a mix of midnight desperation, plus curiosity. Basically, if I hadn’t asked anything, I could always hit up a stranger for info at 11:55 p.m. Learning some tips from a pool shark was such an example.

“Access or Permission” contained some of my favorite requests. Some could be cross-listed under “Convenience or Comfort” (e.g. Can I use your bathroom? is hazy). But here I used my gut feelings to sort them out. If the request tested someone’s willingness to make me comfortable, I put it in that category. If it was more about breaking a rule, crossing a line, or letting me penetrate where I shouldn’t, it was about access. Got it?

“Fun” was any wacky or zany request that I attempted for… pure glee. Try on someone’s shoe, provoke an unsuspecting stranger, bite into an onion ring. Many of these could be cross-listed under “Access or Permission,” but if they were more exciting than essential, I put them in this group.

Finally, “Time” refers to any request that was primarily or exclusively about saving… you got it… time. Sometimes it was a close call between Time and “Convenience or Comfort,” but it came down to this: even if saving time was a convenience, if I could differentiate that request from other convenient ones and add a minute or hour to my day, then I counted it under Time.

A simpler way of breaking it down, which will be useful in future analyses:

Did I seek monetary/material or other benefits?

3) Within these categories, where was I more successful?

That is, was I more likely to meet my goal when I asked for monetary/material benefits or rather for access, experiences, information, etc. I bet you have a hunch, you savvy reader. But let’s double check.

Out of 155 “Money” requests, 95 were approved. Out of 249 “Other” requests (all that were not “Money”), 198 were approved. For these and future success rates, I removed the 7 inconclusive results. Asking for non-financial benefits was more likely to be met with approval:

Getting back to those specific categories outlined above, which type of request was most likely to be successful?

To determine this, I measured how many times my requests was approved in each category, versus how many times I asked. Here’s how it breaks down:

Or if you prefer, I’ve broken it down into clear cut success rates: number of successful askings divided by number of askings, per category.

My favorite finding here: Fun. Out of 32 attempts, only 5 people didn’t play along.

You rock, Humanity!

One speculation about why it was so easy to get information: I was aiming low. This category included requests for directions, and questions to experts in their fields who were happy to teach or share their insights. I imagine that if I’d been asking for more “valuable” or at least elusive information, this percentage would have dropped significantly.

Overall, it was a lot easier to get my way when I ask to alleviate a basic need.

Whether it’s due to the hard times, our culture or just human nature, my year of asking shows that people are much less likely to part with their cash than they are willing to be warm and cuddly. (However, this may also be because I asked more strangers financial questions, and more friends and family comfort questions. Details on complicating factors like how my approach, and who I asked, could have shaped the results, coming in the next few days.)

As for actual payoffs… coming in a future posting!

Tomorrow: How the “Money” category breaks down, and asking by location.

For exactly one year, I asked for something — a discount, a favor, a privilege, a perk — and kept log of the results in an excel spreadsheet.

I read the results twice over the course of the year: once in the spring, to calculate how much money I’d gained at that point, and then at the conclusion of the project, when I did this more detailed analysis. I did not keep track as I went along because I didn’t want knowledge of certain factors (like which approach is or seems most successful, or which industry is or seems more giving) to shape my attempts. I wanted a full year of regular, uneducated asking.

Over the next days I will post slices of data and offer possible interpretations. Here’s the tentative game plan:

Today: Introduction & A few basics: Does asking pay off?
Wednesday: Maine or Milan? On location
Thursday: Disservice with a smile: On attitudes
Friday: Don’t ask a librarian: On industry and context
Next Monday: Ask who? The gender divide
Next Tuesday: Ask for who? The altruism divide
Next Wednesday: Analysis and final remarks

Finally, a caveat about methodology and qualifications:

This isn’t a controlled experiment. I’m self reporting, and the findings are not even close to reliable.

So take everything with a big grain of salt.

Also, I’m a comp lit grad student!! Until last week, I’d never used an excel function before in my life.

That’s where Mr. A comes in. I am sworn to secrecy about his professional formation. Let’s just say he has a PhD, and he’s not a afraid to use it.

Onward! To the data!