I received an email from Groupon today offering $5 off any purchase. I didn't exactly need to buy anything, but it was worth a look.

I chose to buy the TCBY (frozen yogurt) offer which provides $10 worth of yogurt for $5. After the $5 off a Groupon purchase, I received that $10 Groupon for free.

Free frozen yogurt here we come!

Are you a Groupon user? What is your best deal? If not, you can click

I did receive my $20 Serve check in the mail. It's now in the bank. Right now the plan is to save it for Christmas 2012.

It did seem to take awhile to get the check. But it did arrive. Is everyone else getting their check?

Yesterday, I received notice in the mail that my life insurance premium is increasing again this year. I have had term insurance, but the term ended last year and the premium increased from $295/year to $675. Ouch. Last year I paid it and planned to change policy holders for new term insurance. However, I totally forgot about it until the notice arrived.

The premium for the next year on my current policy is going up to $720 for the year. Don't like that one bit. I have already filled out an online application with USAA and hope to have this new policy in place before the next policy is due at the end of February. The current estimate for similar coverage is $280 per year!! It may go up once they complete the medical portion, but fingers crossed it won't go up too much.

I have just about saved the $675 for the upcoming premium. It will be nice to have a little extra cash saved for something else.

On my side of the family we agreed not to exchange adult gifts since my brother in law is currently unemployed. It worked well for us; saved money and time. Turns out my parents decided to keep on giving! We received stocking stuffers with chocolate, smart wool socks, coffee, and vitamin C packets. And then a card with a $100 check. We were definitely not expecting that!

On my husband's side of the family we gave to our neices and nephews, his mother and exchanged gifts with two adults. Perfect. Except his sister was put on house arrest for a DUI and unable to attend our gathering.

My mother in law decided we should take up a collection, since SIL is unable to work, thus pay her rent and so forth. MIL started the envelope with $20. She asked if we would have cash to donate. Normally we don't have any cash on us. We use our debit card all the time. But I did have cash. So with mixed feelings we donated $25 to SIL.

We have mixed feelings because we feel this is an area of personal responsibility. SIL chose to drink and drive on more than one occassion, was caught, went to court and in house arrest and all that comes with it (unable to work) is the penalty. And if she can't pay rent, then that is part of the penalty too. Not our problem.

I'm sure our $25 and whatever amount was collected won't amount to making a huge difference. DH also doesn't think she will appreciate the thought in anyway. Or that we will ever hear a thank you. But giving $25 won't hurt us a bit either. It is what it is.

What would you do?

I opened a Sharebuilder account today. I heard of an offer to earn $75 by just opening an account with $100. It does seem the $75 takes a few weeks to show up and must remain in the account for around 120 days, but it seems like a great rate of return on such a small sum of cash. No need to make any trades, either.

I learned about the offer from

Merry Christmas! Happy holidays to my Saving Advice readers and friends. I hope you can feel peace today.

I'm especially happy to have my husband at home for Christmas. Last year he was on the other side of the globe.

What are you grateful for this season?

We had our power steering pump replaced on our Honda Odyssey this spring. It was covered under our Honda Care Plan...well the pump was, but not the replacement fluid and labor. We were just glad to have it fixed.

About a month ago or more we were notified by Honda that power steering pumps would be covered under warranty longer on certain Odyssey's, including ours. I decided to fill out the claim form and send in documentation of our repair. I asked them to reimburse the labor and fluid. I believe I asked for about $98.

Yesterday, a check for $116.92 arrived from Honda. Just the check. No explanation letter. Fine by me. I deposit the check.

Earlier in the week, we had our van in for an oil change and replaced our battery as well. Our charge for the day was around $123. It feel nice knowing that the reimbursement on the power steering pump just about covered our most recent expense.

I finally totalled up my receipts for Christmas spending. Not bad and definitely less than last year.

Total spent on gifts and miscellaneous related items was $611.68. This total already includes some gift cards and store coupons that were offered. That amount equalled about $144.54!! So I guess closer to $750 in gifts purchased.

We also accumulated cash from craigslist and the fall garage sale in the amount of $211. We sold on ebay, too. Funds from surveys added to a Paypal redemption of $74.32. One item had a rebate for $8.99. We accumulated another $95 in Target gift cards. We redeemed debit card rewards for $25. And I have to add in the $100 cash my MIL gave towards gifts, since those gift totals are included above.

The total above is $514.31!!

Soooo....Christmas was nearly free at a cost of $97.37. We paid just under 13% of the total cost of gifts out of our own funds. Amazing!

And I have to laugh a little because my first run through with the numbers led me to believe Christmas was free. I forgot to include the cash we are giving to nieces and nephews which equalled $105! Darn kids. Just kidding!!

So for those of you doing the Free Christmas 2012 Holiday Challenge, I definitely think it can be done. And I'm in for next year, too.

I've been wanting to tally my actual net Christmas spending, but I have to say it has been a bit daunting to try to go through all those receipts!

I used so many coupons, cash and gift cards to make purchases in stores and online that it is hard to back track and come up with a total. I know I did get some good deals and some of them are on my blog earlier in the month.

It seems like I spent quite a bit less. Especially since I bought for fewer people. I didn't buy for teachers, my sister and her husband, my parents, or my two neighbors. I did sew something for my neighbors but just from my stash. I also didn't buy or send Christmas cards.

I might still get around to getting a total together. If I do, I'll be sure to let you know.

Do you know what your Christmas spending was? Was it more or less than last year?

Looks like a little more money is flowing in:

We just sold a new in package camping air mattress for $25 to a man who saw our ad on craigslist.

I received notification that Pinecone deposited $3 into my Paypal account.

I also was notified that the Mastercard (debit) account we registered met the online threshold for the $20 Mastercard gift card. That will arrive in 1-2 weeks. I believe we met the $200 minimum once our phonebill was posted for payment. Cool! Otherwise I didn't nearly spend that much online.

Now...if only that Serve check or any of the rebate checks I'm waiting for would arrive!

Our automatic payment on the truck loan posted. We paid $35.45 in interest last month, but a whopping $293.68 to principal.

The new principal balance is $12,412.06. It looks like another two months before we will drop below the $12K mark.

I will actually look forward to the day the principal portion is over $300 each month. I should figure out when that might occur.

Less debt. Always feels good!

I did sign up for my Serve.com account last week and received my ATM card today. I'm still waiting for the check to arrive in the amount of $20

I don't have any particular plans for it. I guess that means it should be saved. Although that would be just enough to cover our outing today. DH and I went to see Sherlock Holmes matinee. Not too bad. He purchased a large soda, while I brought my soda can in my purse. I would have carried one in for him, but he declined and spent $5.

I've been earning quite a few swagbucks by watching videos while I'm doing other things online. I'm here anyway, might as well earn some points.

I even had a search yesterday that earned me 25 points. Tomorrow, MegaMonday, is suppose to be a great earning day on Swagbucks. Which means now would be a great time to sign up!

If you use my

DH graduated from his first course today!! He's on his way home. He will only be home for a month and has to go back and finish another 4.5 month class.

His January rent is paid. His utility bills are recently paid and most things unplugged at the apartment. The airline ticket is paid. We will combine our flexible spending/allowance money for the next month for groceries and fuel. We will only drive one vehicle, since the other is parked out of state!! Maybe we can save a little by being in one household for a little while.

I'm done Christmas shopping. Sure, I could probably pick up a few more things to stuff the stocking. But really, the girls have enough. They are blessed with many people who will be giving them gifts. I don't see how one or two more things in their stocking will improve their holiday.

All that is left to do is wrap their gifts and, of course, stuff their stockings. I could wrap today and be done in 30 minutes or less, but I do want DH to see what I've bought. He will arriving home in the next couple days for a month long break!!

Today, I'll sit back and enjoy the peace of the season. Are you done shopping or are you still out there braving the stores?

I'm not sure if you remember but this past year wage earners had a decrease in payroll tax of 2%. Instead of paying 6.2% in social security tax withholdings, the rate was cut to 4.2%.

This is set to expire at the end of 2011. Congress is attempting to extend this cut. As of yesterday, the bill has passed in the House, but is not likely (per media reports) to pass in the Senate. Feel free to Google your preferred media source for more information.

This is just my heads up to those of you looking at how your net income might look in 2012. Remember to add in an extra 2% in payroll tax witholding as one scenario.