I finally decided to redeem the $200 bonus from the Citi Thank You card. For awhile, I was thinking of redeeming the reward for a Lowe's gift card so we could put it towards the purchase of a fridge. That is on hold for now.

I ended up redeeming the bonus plus other points for a $250 check made out to our mortgage company. I would guess I will have it in a week. It came really fast last time. Once I have it, I will send it to Wells Fargo to reduce the principal on our mortgage balance! That was the whole point of getting the bonus anyway, so I'm pleased with making that happen.

I made an extra payment full of various snowflakes (extra money) today in the amount of $82.28. Less debt, we know I like that! It really is amazing how small amounts of money here and there add up.

In other news, the flute we purchased is being returned. It is actually in really great shape and easily worth the money we paid. Except, the embouchure isn't the right size for my daughter. She has a hard time blowing air through it. I thought since it was the same model my oldest daughter has it would work...but my younger daughter has different lips and it doesn't work for her! Our lesson teacher advised it be returned, so I'm in the works with that since I bought it on eBay. We will now buy local and give her lots of options to test out for the right fit. Luckily, she wasn't too disappointed by it all.

I am waiting for the seller to respond, and I'm slightly concerned they will deny a refund. The seller has a 100% feedback score, but seems to have something about 72 hours to request refund...and today is 72 hours. Of course, then there is another place on their site that say 14 days. My plan is to return it, insurance priority, maybe with signature and hope a refund would still be provided. At that point, I think I could contact the credit card company for a refund, showing I returned the item to them. Any thoughts? I know I could also get eBay involved if needed. I probably shouldn't jump to send back to quickly. Worse case, I could actually resell it.

Have you had to return anything you purchased lately? Do you have less debt than you had yesterday?