My shopping this weekend was primarily online. I got up early on Friday to order $300 worth of Target gift cards at 10% off, using my Discover card for hopefully 5% cash back. Just now I ordered some items for my daughter's online, for around $60. I'm actually getting close to being done with them!

We went to a botanical garden out of state on Saturday and used our American Express cards since they were considered a small business. Our other Small Business Saturday purchases were at a local liquor store to stock up on a couple of bottles of liquor we usually buy. We didn't end up doing a third transaction. We ran out of time and ideas before stores were closing. We did all of this after returning from a 4+ hour road trip. All a good deal though.

I paid bills this morning and seem to have quite a bit extra that I likely can apply to paying ourselves back for those tires and flute purchase. I will start figuring that out soon!

Did you do any holiday shopping or visit a small business on Saturday? Are you current on your bills?

I have a link in the previous post about the Capital One 360 offers if you are interested.

I've been out of town, but returned home to remember the Capital One 360 Black Friday sale. The particulars are on their website, but if you open your first checking or savings with them you can earn a $100 bonus for EACH account.

Find out more

I had to go back to the grocery store because when we purchased wine on Sunday, they only rang up 11 of the bottles. I needed that 12 one to show on a receipt so I could redeem a rebate worth $18. Luckily they were cool about it, and rang up another bottle, and gave me the additional discount for another 6 bottles. I paid another $1.93 after that so that I can get the $18 back! Well worth it.

We have been notified by Wells Fargo that we are short in our escrow account. This is because our property taxes increased by $306. The shortage is just $244.67. We have the option to pay in full before Jan 1, or have the amount spread across the next year. Normally, I would be inclined to pay the shortage up front. However, I really expect we will be moving, thus sending in more money a larger refund check later just doesn't appeal to me. I will have the amount spread across the next 12 months this time. Because of increased taxes and the shortage, our new payment will increase by $43.78. I think we can handle that change.

We may be changing our upcoming travel plans do to weather. I'm not a fan of anyone driving when roads are snow and ice packed. It is just not safe and not worth the risk of an accident.

It looks like we will make a little money from my husband's last travel trip. A whopping $25.81. Seems like a snowflake to me! I will add that amount with the $6 I have from a refund and a Pinecone survey and send to the mortgage to meet that goal by year end.

Have a super Thanksgiving! Stay safe and enjoy those you love and care about.

Finally. My husband's promotion was in September. The pay took a few weeks to catch up and thus had back pay. I finally know what each paycheck will look like. I can start making some plans on how to allocate the money. That makes this math geek happy!

We have $500 deposited to US Bank once a month. It was a requirement of their checking account bonus offer. We should meet the requirement soon and get $200. Once that money is firm, I will cancel the $500 deposit. I don't need money going into all sorts of accounts for no reason! (Although, I'm remembering that it might be nice to have a bank branch when we go to sell the house...I'll ponder that before I make changes.)

I've done some more Christmas tasks and decluttering this weekend. I've written about it over on

I sent $27.32 to the mortgage today to pay down some more principal. I do all my extra mortgage payments online by the way. So easy!The money was profit from that latest eBay sale and a Pinecone survey check. I love extra funds!!

I also sent $40 to savings that would normally be spent on flute lessons, since they are not having a lesson next week. I'm paying us back for the new purchases of tires and a flute.

I did spend money today, but only on groceries. About $48 at Super Target. I made sure to buy $50 worth so I could use the coupon to receive a $10 gift card. My total was less because I used their Cartwheel app, and my Red Card. I bought items for dinners through next week and a few things I need to take for Thanksgiving. I still have a few more things to purchase, so I will go back again tomorrow and see if I can reach $50 again and use coupon I had sent to my phone. That will mean another $10 gift card! I will likely use the gift cards for other holiday expenses, either a gift or food.

I also sent a $300 check with my daughter to make a payment towards her spring band trip. I took the money from the 52 Week Savings Challenge funds I have accumulated. It seems I will have an extra $300 saved. I expect to use that to pay ourselves back for those tires and flute as well. I will get that squared up before the end of the year.

I can't say much about it since it isn't a done deal, but a job possibility for my husband is in the works. It does require a move and he would likely move ahead of us relatively soon if he is chosen. As always is the case with these military moves, I have mixed feelings.

That's the news from here. Getting so close to meeting that mortgage goal for the year!! Did you spend money today, or pay off debt?

I'm a sucker. I was reading Hip2Save this morning and saw a possible clearance deal on Carter's clothes at Babies R US. Items were ringing up for $0.03. Yes 3 cents. It was 20 minutes before the store opened here which is just 5 minutes up the road. I quickly showered and went looking. And found...nothing at Babies R US that was marked anywhere near 3 cents. Probably good. I only personally know one baby right now.

Babies R US was next to Staples. I went in to see if they had a certain candy (chocolate covered sunflower seeds) for my daughter's stocking. No they did not, but I continued to wander around looking at clearance deals. Things were not marked, thus I was not interested. I ended up in the folder aisle and purchased a set of five poly folders for $4.99 plus tax. I will use and have wanted some, but was it a need? No.

My next stop was just up the parking lot to drop off movies rented from the library. Free!

I then proceeded to Walgreen's because I remembered they had this popcorn snack my daughter liked. A bit pricey at 2 bags for $5, I thought. Instead it was 2 bags for $6. I think that other price was the week before. I also picked up two packs of gum (buy 1 at $0.99, get one free, and five paper gift bags for $0.29 each.

I spent over $13 while I was out all because I thought I'd hit a MEGA deal at Babies R US for clothing I don't need! What is wrong with me?!! I'm actually laughing at myself, but really...?!

The only thing maybe worth returning is the poly folders, but I have one and use it and really think I will use the others. I will chew the gum, give one bag of popcorn to my daughter in her stocking, and I'm sure get use out of the paper gift bags. The other bag of popcorn has been consumed by the family already.

Does this stuff happen to you, too? Please tell me yes. Please!

If you don't already have the Chase Freedom card, this offer is the best you will find for this spending limit. You apply for the card, spend $500 and get $200 cash back. No annual fee. Interest rate is 0% for the first 15 months. And the card has rotating cash back categories.

I sold an item on eBay and made a profit of $24.32! Once I have the money in hand I will send it in (to the mortgage of course) with the recent Pinecone Survey payment I received.

I ordered Senior Pictures today for my daughter. I was happy I didn't need to put down another deposit. I simply need to pay when they are ready for pick up, which is in about eight weeks. That will give me a little time to stash some cash away!

I bought another gift for Christmas. A pair of socks! It is a bit of a tradition among some of us to give socks to one another. And we really look forward to it. These were $7.99 at Kohl's. I used my $5 coupon and 30% off coupon. I only spent $2.24!

Did you score a deal recently, or find any snowflake money for your goal?

I've got to jot down a few ideas for financial goals next year. Sorry if it is not clear. I'll expand later when I'm clear myself!

Pay ourselves back for tires, and flute.
Pay down another $5K on mortgage by June.
Increase TSP %.
Moving fund/emergency fund. $2K?

We have stayed home today, since snow is falling and causing accidents on roads. I made sure to purchase groceries for the week yesterday with the intention of staying home this weekend.

Of course, just because I'm home doesn't mean no spending. Thanks to the internet I was able to purchase one of the bigger gifts for my daughter on eBay. It currently sells new for about $177 on Amazon. I was able to get one in nearly new for $130, which included shipping. I'm definitely pleased about that.

I put the charge on my new Southwest Rapids Rewards Plus card that arrived in the mail yesterday. All new purchases will be applied to this card to meet the $2K spending requirement. I have already put gas ($40) and one of my grocery runs ($25) on the card, too.

I'm discussing my Christmas planning and tasks completed on

I just wrote last night about the possibility of closing our American Express cards soon. But not quite yet, since I'm going to want to take advantage of their Small Business Saturday promotion.

I read all the details on My Money Blog. You can read about it

We have been using a lot of different credit cards lately. I'm going to be cutting this back soon!!

No interest, but different ones for different reasons, and not all of them logical. Tomorrow is payday, so I made sure to pay off the Target Red card, two different cards for gas purchases, Kohl's for recent clothing purchase, the Chase Freedom card that the utilities were automatically paid on, and the most recent card for nearly all other charges the Citi Thank You card. Oh, and the Discover card for recent online Christmas purchases.

Seriously, we have too many open cards. We are not having any problem paying them, but it gets really hard to remember them all! I almost forgot about the Chase Freedom card today, until I was trying to figure out where the utilities were charged. All the cards do send me emails, so I likely would never really forget.

We have open Amex cards that haven't been used in over six months. Maybe more. I keep them open for those offers they put out from time to time to get cash credit for certain purchases at certain stores. I just looked back at my savings with them and I saved $70 in the last five weeks of 2013, and just $5 in 2014. So unless, they offer up some really great deals this year, I may let go of the Amex cards.

In other news, I've already used some of the Christmas funds saved this year to pay off purchases I have already made. That feels good.

I have set aside the $275 that I normally send to the mortgage pay down this time of the month. I'm going to hold it and try to get the remaining $256 needed outside of December's planned principal payments from snowflakes/extra money. I guess that means I really only need to hold on to $256 of that money to ensure meeting my goal. I'll put the $19 towards paying ourselves back for some recent large purchases.

Are you getting paid this week? Do you pay your bills just at the time of pay day or multiply times during the course of a pay period?

I received the $50 cash bonus for opening the Discover Checking account. I wrote one check for $25 (to a non profit) that hasn't cleared yet, otherwise I would be closing the account.

I will end up sending that $50 to the mortgage, since it is officially extra money/snowflake!

Did anyone else do the Discover Checking offer? I received our offer in the mail. I think you have to have the Discover card to be eligible.

Target and Target.com will be offering Target gift cards at 10% off on Black Friday. Just in the morning from 6AM to NOON. This will probably be the only offer I take advantage of. I plan to buy the maximum of $300 worth, since we easily spend that much there on groceries each month. We usually use our Red Card, so this will simply save us an extra 5%. Definitely read the fine print on this offer, since you cannot use the gift cards purchased that morning until Saturday (although I don't know how they can track that). I'm going to buy mine online.

It will be a little tempting to go shop on Friday morning. We will be visiting my parents apartment and they live right next door to an outdoor mall. They can see the back side of JC Penney from their apartment! Right now, I don't even know what I would need to buy, which is a good thing. I'd rather just stay in bed anyway!

Will you buy Target cards at at discount on Black Friday? Will you do any shopping that day? If so, what are you looking to buy?