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Archive for September, 2011

Checked Credit Reports

September 28th, 2011 at 09:19 pm

Once every four months I check our credit reports for free with one of the three major credit bureau. My online calendar reminded me today that it was time to check in with Equifax.

I went to the

Text is annualcreditreport.com and Link is https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
annualcreditreport.com website to obtain our free reports.

Turns out everything checks out okay. It is amazing to me how long some of those credit cards stay on a report long after you have closed them. Some of those cards I closed in 2003 or before!

I will check our reports again at the end of January. And I won't forget because my calendar will send me a reminder email. So nice! Smile

Garage Sale is This Week

September 27th, 2011 at 03:00 pm

I'm participating in a garage sale this Thursday and Friday with my neighbors. It was a little up in the air if we were going to follow through. But we are!

I have all but a small bin of items already priced and ready to move down the street tomorrow. I'm donating a couple tables and putting up the signs. Of course, I will be there to staff the sale, too.

I'm REALLY looking forward to moving these items on. If they don't sell, I expect most of them to be donated to Goodwill. A few items might be held back to sell on ebay.

Today I need to wrap up some errands around town. The cats need food and I have batteries and CD's to recycle. I think Best Buy has a drop box for those.

And if you were at all wondering: I did get all my windows and blinds cleaned last week! They look fabulous.

How To Not Spend Money

September 22nd, 2011 at 08:06 pm

This week has seen very little spending. Can you say $5 for concessions for DD to attend a school social and $4 for a few loaves of bread? I expect some of that concession money back, too!

I know you want to know the big secret of staying out of the stores. Right?

Cleaning windows and blinds. Yep, that is the secret. I'm spending a majority of my free time this week cleaning each and every slat on our blinds. I'm also cleaning the windows inside and out. On many windows this involves removing the window and cleaning the track they slide on, too. It is a dirty job. But one that must be done...especially if the house is to go on the market soon.

Nope. Still don't know where we are going. We hope to be moving in January. Not that I like the idea of moving during the winter. At all. Unless I'm moving somewhere warmer!!

My advice this week: stay home, clean something, and save some money!!

Airline Tickets

September 21st, 2011 at 04:55 pm

We will likely have spent the most ever for airline tickets this year. DH has traveled roundtrip two times already and we are expecting at least three more trips before the end of the year.

We have purchased a ticket for a trip in October. Paid about $345 for that one.

Right now we are looking into tickets for two trips home in November. Specifically Thanksgiving. Yesterday when I looked the tickets were going for over $600! Today, they have come back down.

Got a call from DH while I was writing this post. Officially, two trips in November are booked. Total $733 for 8 nights at home. It's worth it, but hard to choke down the cost!

Truck Balance Is Lower

September 20th, 2011 at 09:39 pm

Our regular payment to the truck loan hit yesterday. Our balance is lower!! Yipee.

Interest $39.21.
Principal $289.92
New Balance $13,309.38

Looks like it will take more than one more month to get below $13K. Unless I make an extra principal payment. Hmm...might just have to consider that!

Prepaid the Rent

September 15th, 2011 at 03:50 pm

The news from here...money keeps flowing out. Luckily it is still flowing in, too.

DH prepaid rent for October. The office receptionist thought it odd to pay so far in advance! She even offered to hold it until the first. He declined. Just take our money please! We sure don't want any crazy late fees that we had in August.

I paid our real estate taxes online today in the amount of $1471. Up from last year. Of course! I used the checking account and was only charged $0.40 for the service. That's cheaper than mailing them a check. It would have been about $30 or more to use a credit card. No way would I pay that kind of fee.

DH booked another airline ticket to come home for a four day weekend in October. We got a better deal than his last trip. We saved nearly $100!

We are going to be billed for auto and homeowner's insurance early next month. And our car registration will be due in October, too. October is always our biggest month for cash flowing out.

Do you also have one month a year that is the biggest flow of money out? Which month is it and why?

Changed Our Netflix Account

September 14th, 2011 at 03:14 pm

Netflix is changing their plan options as many of you know. I decided to change my plan to unlimited steaming only. Right now, we seem to watch the most from those selections.

Dropping the 2 discs out at a time saves us $7.42 over what we have been paying and keeps us from spending an additional five dollars per month that would have resulted with the new plan fees.

At some point, I might switch back to getting some disc. Right now, I think we will just grab a Red Box movie when needed.

Did you make a change to your Netflix account this month because of the new fees?

Never Forget

September 11th, 2011 at 01:32 pm

May we never forget today, September 11th. Remember the day. But also find gratitude for life and resiliency.

I'm thankful for my husband, our children, our strength and health.

What are you grateful for?

Roth Contributions on Hold

September 10th, 2011 at 01:39 pm

I put our monthly Roth contributions on hold last month. It made a huge difference in how our cash flow felt. With DH living in another state, money is much tighter. The lack of roth contributions helped ease the tension.

We decided to keep our monthly contributions on hold until the end of the year.

Now I can't say I'm real proud of this decision, but our goal is still to max out our contributions. It might take until April 15th, but we will make the investment in our future.

I expect that we will receive a large refund this year because of wages that are within range to be eligible for the earned income tax credit. Nontaxable combat pay helps us meet this criteria. Kind of odd, considering the time in combat was our highest earnings ever. So, if needed the remainder of our 2011 Roth contributions will come from this money.

We still do not have our next duty assignment. The sooner we know where we are going and can get this house sold the better for our emotional and financial health. I personally can't wait!

School Picture Purchase Equals Credits

September 9th, 2011 at 03:39 pm

I bought my daughter's school pictures. Spent $31.50. The pictures arrived this week. Enclosed is a Shutterfly code to redeem for $20 worth of merchandise on their website. It doesn't have to be a picture of my daughter.

I'm thinking a Christmas gift, a calendar or even Christmas cards would be nice. It doesn't expire until the end of January, so I have plenty of time to think about my options.

Wow!!

September 8th, 2011 at 08:04 pm

Wow! It has been gorgeous here the last few days. Highs in the low 70's. No humidity. The air conditioning hasn't run for about four days now. I have even slept with the window open since it isn't getting too cold at night yet. Nice to think we are saving a bit of cash and energy in the meantime.

Yesterday I purchased a gallon of stain at Home Depot. Turns out there was a $5 rebate on it! And we qualified for the military discount. That gallon of stain will only cost about $24, rather than over $32. I bought the stain for our deck. I completed the floor of our deck today and it looks much much better. I will find another day to do the railings. But in the meantime, I'm just happy this update didn't cost too much.

We Had A Spendy Weekend Too

September 5th, 2011 at 10:31 pm

We had a spendy weekend. By choice. Since DH was home for a long weekend visit, we treated our time together a bit like a staycation. Primarily this meant we ate out much more often than we usually do. It was enjoyable not to cook and to eat some yummy food. We did make dinner together at home one night and that was fun, too. I hope to try that more next time he is home.

We enjoyed our time together. It was worth every penny!

$5 Coupon For Reuseit.com

September 1st, 2011 at 05:59 pm

If you would like $5 off your first order at Reuseit.com, use coupon code: rcw2oku

Text is Reuseit.com and Link is http://www.reuseit.com/
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