Yep, I'm kicking the home equity loan with another $12.00. This is interest from our money market account for this month. Can't wait until rates go back up!!

I also sent away for another $10 mysurvey check. It will be here in a few weeks. It will also go to the loan payoff.

My daughter turns 8 on Saturday. This means a $1 increase to her monthly allowance. The girls receive $1 for every year old they are. So, starting this month I pay out $19.00 instead of $18.00! I should teach them to save their increases...hmm, I wonder if that would go over?

Anyone remember way back to April when we bought our new HDTV at cost from my BIL? We'll today the $200 rebate finally came in the mail.

I've never had a rebate come back so slowly. Or, maybe I have. When it's $200, you keep track of it just a little closer than if it was $2.00. Well, I do anyway.

Thrilled to finally have it, too. It is arriving at a great time, with a few travel trips ahead of us and a birthday this weekend. Just a nice cushion of cash to have available if needed.

I would really like to see it go to the home equity loan, but I will need to wait to see how a few things shake out.

Off to put it into the bank...via online deposit. I love it!!

I'm fired up!! I made another payment to the home equity loan today in the amount of $5...yes, $5.00.

Why such a small amount? It's my Pinecone survey check I received in the mail yesterday. All survey money is going to the home equity loan.

In the last 7 days, I have made three extra payments to principal on the loan. Two for $25.00 and one for $5. My regular payment on this loan is only $118...so I've almost made an additional half payment.

I'm so excited to get moving on this, even if it is just a small dent at this point. Having paid off some debt in the past I know that the small payments make a difference, too!!

Some of our goals for 2008 are:

1)Save 15% of gross salary - retirement
2)Save $2000 for each child - college
3)Save down payment & purchase newer van
4)Begin to payoff home equity loan. (Really would like to pay off by May 2010)

We are on track to meet goals 1 & 2. We make contributions monthly to meet our yearly goals. Retirement is automatically. I do write checks for the education accounts...same time every month.

Goal three was accomplished last month with the purchase of a 2007 Honda Odyssey. We've been waiting over a year to make this happen.

I began working on goal 4 as of last week when I made my first extra principal payment of $25. Today I sent another $25.00 payment towards the loan. By the end of June, I hope to be able to send over $350 extra per month. I also intend to put any extra money on I make on ebay, craigslist, garage sales, and surveys toward this loan as well.

Final take home for the 5 items I sold on ebay will be $25.75! Pretty good average.

I still would like to find another $25 worth of items to sell. This may not happen until August. I have dance shoes to sell, but I think I may get a better price on them in early August when people begin thinking about such things.

I also have a few dance clothes that have been outgrown, too. I need to start searching garage sales for new dance shoes and leotards.

My ebay sales ended yesterday. Out of 13 items I sold 9. I don't think I will relist the other items at this time. Some items were mine others were my neighbors.

My 5 items grossed $29.65...not too bad. I will take a break from sales for a few weeks while I find some more items to sell. I know they are in this house somewhere!!

The listing for my couch expired yesterday, so I have relisted it for $100. I had it down to $125 before. I'm dropping it again in hopes of getting it out of here, while getting a little cash, too. I need to get the couch out since it is now a bit crowded with the new to us piano I purchased last week.

I have a Land's End couch cover that I was selling with it, but have decided to sell it separately on ebay.

We had my best friend and her family here for a visit this past weekend. She wrote me a check for $50 to cover food, gas (since I drove them around) and other incidentals. It definitely helps me and I know they appreciated not having to stay in a hotel two nights.

Weekend spending was a little high because of the guests and outings. Seemed to be mostly snacks for my kids.

Upcoming expenses, small increase to insurance premium because of new van. We owe $26.76 for the remainder of the period which ends in October.

Youngest daughter will have a birthday in July. She wants a hamster. We will probably have a party of some sort. On this one, it may be out of town with the grandparents. Decisions still have to be made on that because it is more costly to travel than stay home for obvious reasons.

Youngest daughter is in Bible School this week. They have a mission project to collect toiletry items for kids and young adults. Going out today to buy a few items to donate.

DH was paid recently and I have put $675 in our slush fund. I think some of this may get spent before the next pay period, but the goal is to hang on to at least half of it.

Sign up for dance lessons is this coming Saturday. I have the cash set aside for this. For the whole year, it will be either $730 for two classes or $1025 for three. One daughter is still deciding if she wants to take the extra class. I'm wishing she doesn't...but will be fine either way.

Next month we will begin searching for piano teachers. The budget will need to be updated when we add this new expense. It may be a bit costly because the 7 year old and husband both want to learn.

Spending, spending, spending!! I really need to find more things to sell or get a job.

I listed more items on ebay for the week. I put 13 items up and one sold almost immediately as a Buy it Now.

I took a break from ebay for awhile as it is time consuming. But since my garage sale leftovers are not moving too fast on craigslist I decided to put the best items on ebay.

Some items are my neighbors, I should get a cut of the profits since I'm doing the work.

I think I'll set another ebay goal for June. Since not all the items are mine to claim profit for, I will go for $50. Maybe I'll find a few more things to sell...in fact I'm thinking of some now!!
Daughter has outgrown her dance shoes and leotard.

Ebay profits here I come!

I put my garage sale leftovers up on craigslist. I sold two children's sleeping bags and one yoga video. Grand total $7!

I have quite a few things still listed, but not too many inquiries. I will be listing many of them on ebay this weekend in the hopes of getting a few sales that way. Craigslist is just too slow for me.

Even my couch is still up for sale! The listing is going to expire pretty soon, too. I guess my price is too high.
I will probably relist and hope the right buyer comes along. I'm really not in a big hurry on it anyway.

Kids are out of school now...so, I will be looking for inexpensive, educational and fun things to do with my girls.

Tonight we played the game of Life together. I'd rather be outside, but it is very humid...so I'm sticking to indoors.

This has been a fabulous month for me with Pinecone surveys. I have completed 5 surveys for them. I received a check yesterday for $5.00 that I will add to the challenge.

New Balance = $168.42

Our regular home equity payment of $118 was posted yesterday. Only $23.22 went to principal. There will definitely be more money hitting that account in May. We are just waiting to pay for a few large dollar items before we start kicking in down.

I just realized that I did not add in the April ebay funds to the challenge. So that creates a new total of....

$520.86

Remember my ebay goal of netting $100 in the month of April. Well, I far exceeded it!! With four more sales last week, we netted out for the month at $352.44 after all the shipping, ebay and paypal fees.

I have never done so well on ebay. I think I only had one thing that didn't sell. I have to give credit to the type of items. Surplus army gear from my husband's stash of stuff. Do you have any idea how much gear we store at home? He has been in the Army for almost 17 years...so it adds up over time, especially when the Army changes uniforms!

For now, I'm taking an ebay break. It's time to gear up for the garage sale. My pile has been building. I'm so good at getting rid of things that I don't usually net much more than $100 at a garage sale, but I'm hoping to get close to double this year.

Oh, I finally branched out and sold internationally this time, too! I sent items to Argentina and France. Now I'm an international seller!! I think it helped sales, too.

I cashed in my points for surveys a few weeks back. The check arrived yesterday for $30! Mysurveys are a little slow getting their checks out, but they always arrive.

This will count towards the $20 Challenge.

New Balance = $163.42

I've met my April ebay goal of netting $100 from my sales. The official total is:

$169.00!!

I'm still working on my sales. I have 5 army related items up for sale this week that all are scheduled to sell on Sunday. The question now is for how much?

Do you think I can break $200?

I'm gearing up for a garage sale in early May, so I think for now this will be my final sales week.

I'd love to hear how everyone else is doing on ebay these days. Did anyone make themselves a goal? It has really helped me to get things moving.

I'm signed up with three survey companies that pay cash for completed surveys. I'm with Pinecone Research, Mysurvey, and American Consumer Opinion Poll. The first two pay the best. I think I've only ever received two checks from ACOP.

So if you are interested in paid surveys, click here.
There are 6 pages of companies that pay you to take surveys. Many of them pay in points first and then you can redeem them for cash. This is how Mysurvey works. I have a $30 check on its way right now!!

Pinecone Research is on the list, too. I think for a long time people on the forums were always asking about getting hooked up with them. I haven't been over there quite as often, so I'm not sure what the current trend is. Here's your chance to get in on the action.

P.S. I don't get anything for referring you either. I figured if you need a little extra money, it just might come in handy.

me! I received a Pinecone survey check for $5.00. The deposit from Revolution Money Exchange was deposited into my checking account today, as well. It was for $25.00. In order to verify my account they also deposited two small amounts totalling $0.22!! All for the challenge.

Previous Total $25.20
Add $30.22
New Total $55.42

It sure adds up fast!

We had a fabulous time on our anniversary trip. We did some furniture browsing. We ate Cajun style food in a festive restaurant. We were entertained by a comic. Lots of free time to be by ourselves...away from the kids!

Ebay sales this week were awesome. I sold all items I put up for sale!! I don't think that has ever happened to me. Gross sales for the week were $93.35. I will update my April goal amount later when I have the net amounts. I have two people sending money orders. Although that will save me some paypal fees, I have to wait longer to ship the items out. I should learn to be more patient about that.

I found $.10 on the ground while on my mini vacation. I also have redeemed my $25 for opening a Revolution Money Exchange account. It should hit my checking account in a couple of days. I will add it to my challenge money when it gets here.

On the left side bar, I've added a new page for my April Ebay goal. Again, the goal is to net at least $100 with sales on ebay. So far so good. I'm almost to $75.

Overnight, I sold some t shirts. This was a Buy It Now sale. The person pays immediately and then I ship it out. There is no need for the buyer to wait for the auction to end. So, I'm popping it in the mail today before I head out on my anniversary overnight date.

I think of my ebay sales as a online garage sale. I'm not trying to get much more than I would at a garage sale...okay maybe I am!!

Turns out from last weeks sales of 12 items I netted $74.16! That's an average of $6.18 per listing. Definitely nothing to sneeze at.

The nice thing about a online garage sale is that you can have them any time of year. Right now it is cold and rainy here. I'd much rather be inside by my fireplace making sales than in my cold garage.

Now I will be having a garage sale in a couple of weeks and I will enjoy that too. For now, I'm just pleased to be getting rid of some of our stuff. It's all apart of our spring cleaning.

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On another note, my DH and I will be celebrating our 12th anniversary tomorrow on April 12th. We have never had a honeymoon, so we feel lucky to get to go out of town for one night and spend some time alone together. My sister is coming to stay with the girls.

Yes, it won't be our most frugal anniversary. We have had plenty of those. I'm sure this won't even happen every year. So, I'm really going to enjoy this one!!

My food scale saves me time and money. Want to know why? I use it to weigh my packages I sell on ebay! This scale is a cheap one I bought at Walmart for $9.99 a couple of years ago.

I use it to weigh the package prior to listing. Once I know the weight of the package I visit the US Postal Service website and view their rate chart. This helps me decide what to charge for shipping. I do add a little extra to the shipping to cover my costs for packing tape and envelopes. Knowing the weight of the package ahead of listing the items, saves me the mistake of underestimating shipping an item. That would then cut into my profits on the item itself!

I save so much time by being able to weigh my packages at home. After an item sells, I reweigh the item and pay for shipping through Paypal and print out a paid shipping label from my computer. I could arrange for the post office to pick up the packages, but I drive by the post office everyday on my way to the gym, so I simply drop them off. I do not have to wait in line...AT ALL! I'm the post office for about 20 seconds!

All this because of my food scale!!

Well, while I'm here as an official blogger I might as well participate in the $20 challenge. I do have a little income come in here and there between surveys and ebay.

It would nice to see what the total is at the end of the year. It is not something I normally track. I just deposit all extra money into our slush fund.

Yesterday, I received a $5 Pinecone survey check. There will be more coming, I've done more surveys with they as of late. I love the product trial ones!! At the end one can get a total of $10 from two surveys and a free item to try! Love it.

Old Balance: $0
Add: $5.00
New Balance: $5.00

are going up this evening. I only have a few items ready to go this week. Mostly children's book series, and a pair of girls sandals that are like new!

It has been since early December since I've had this many items up for sale at one time. It must be my spring cleaning mode that is getting me motivated.

I should be able to get more on ebay than I would at a garage sale for these items. Last year I sold over $700 worth of stuff on ebay. All of it was just laying around our house!! You would think that I would have run out of things to sell, but with growing girls and changing interests there is always something.

My goal is to see how much I can earn in the month of April. I'd be happy with $100. I'll let you know how it goes.

My husbands diet Coke addiction makes me a little money. The coca-cola products are running a promotion called My Coke Rewards. Each package or bottle contains a code that can be entered online for points. A consumer can then redeem the points for products or coupons.

Personally, I like CASH...so I sell the unused points on ebay. These are in high demand and they sell every time.

I put this earned cash into our slush fund. It adds up pretty fast!!

Who else has unusual ways of earning a little money on ebay?