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Archive for June, 2020

Rewards Redemption

June 21st, 2020 at 03:53 pm

It's the time of the month where I redeem credit card rewards and add them to our Pot of Possibilities!

I redeemed the following:
US Bank Visa $12.32
American Express $51.39
Chase Freedom $17.87
Total $81.58

Our US Bank Rewards will drop next month by about $8 since I will no longer use for our cell phone bill. We have been able to use a credit card to pay our rent the last three months, as the office staff has waived the associated fees since they are not working on site.

I decided a couple months ago to stop messing around with Swagbucks. It is a bit of a time suck, although I did limit the time I spent on it. I decided I do not support their advertising content, that I am clicking on to raise it's prevalence to the public. I can find other ethical ways to bring in another $300 a year. It was a good run of bringing in some cash however and I am thankful for the times it helped us out.

Everything seems up for review these days!

Army Travel Payment

June 17th, 2020 at 08:00 pm

My husband returned home on Saturday from his three week trip. I'm very glad to have him home once again!

He has submitted his travel claim voucher and it is waiting approval. Hopefully we will have funds by Friday or very early next week. The portion coming to us is $2,066.58, which is per diem and mileage. He spent $927.07 in a three week period. So after paying those charges off we are left with $1,139.51.

A nice little windfall that is tempting to spend on a few things we have been talking about for awhile. Of course, I do like the idea of putting some or all into our Pot of Possibilities, which if we do put some there, will be reported at the end of the month.

Making Financial Changes

June 16th, 2020 at 04:27 pm

Yesterday, I switched our cell phone plan to their lowest cost unlimited plan, which ended up saving us about $22 a month. I did have to switch to paying our bill with our checking account. I had been using our US Bank Credit card to receive 5% back, however the math still worked in our favor to switch. I think I had seen this offer before, but the math didn't seem to add up in our favor. I'm wondering if something else changed or if I just didn't do the math right last time!

I may close the US Bank credit card if I can figure out if another one of our credit cards gives 5% back on internet. I think one of them does. That will be the only charge going to that card, so I'm interested in consolidating if I can and still be getting decent cash back.

We also get Disney+ for one year for signing up for our new cell plan. We will use it I'm sure, but I wasn't wanting to add another streaming service when it first came out. The value of that is $6.99 per month, so definitely a nice bonus.

The other financial change is setting up some new Certificates of Deposits. I'm not thrilled with the rates as they have fallen. But I we have a lot of cash on hand and I have to have it earning something! I opened one for $25K, and will probably open a second one in a week or two for a similar amount. We decided we didn't want the a large $50K CD, as the interest rate doesn't benefit us. Instead we will have two $25K CDs, as a way to keep our options open a bit. I locked one today for 1.25% with Navy Federal. I unfortunately missed their last 'special rate'.

I started a batch of sauerkraut yesterday(first time ever) and today I began working on growing a batch of sourdough starter (also my first time). We all can grow and learn anything at any time.

Have you found a service to change or stop recently? Have you ever made any fermented food?

Wisdom Teeth Extracted

June 8th, 2020 at 02:00 pm

Our youngest daughter had her four wisdom teeth extracted last week under anesthesia. Our insurance covered all but the anesthesia, so our portion was $651. I think this is in line with what we paid for our older daughter. She has breezed through recovery with very minimal pain medication. The opioid med made her nauseous, so I picked up anti nausea medication which she took once. And after that first day she has taken just three ibuprofen. Swelling continues to go down each day. The medications were all generics and under our insurance varied from $1.60 to $2.44! Glad those didn't cost much, because they are all going to be tossed soon.

In other news, my husband is still not home from his work trip. It has been extended another 1 to 3 weeks. We are not happy with how the military has handled their personnel during their CV mission. The only positive is that we might make more money because of per diem...all though I think my husband handles stress by eating...so lots of food and snacks being bought.

It's only a week until payday and my daughter and I are not spending much being home most of the time. There is bound to be some savings from that!

POP Contributions

June 2nd, 2020 at 06:48 pm

POP is our Pot of Possibilities. This is our Big Goal renamed just this month. We just keep adding funds to it knowing someday we will want to draw on it. What we spend or invest it on is a mystery, but one with many possibilities!

Paycheck 5/1 $260
Paycheck 5/15 $260
Total Interest $164.37
US Bank $12.32
Chase Rewards $49.38
Amex Rewards $62.86
Ebay Sales $4.49
USAA ATM refund 3.00
Auto Insurance refund $97.45

May Total $913.87

YTD Total $3,794.86
New Big Goal Total $75,878.79

We crossed the $75,000 mark this month!

May 2020 Interest Income

June 2nd, 2020 at 06:36 pm

It's that time of the month where we add up our interest we earned on our cash savings last month. Rates are declining and our large CD expires this month, so numbers will likely go down for awhile.

FNBO $34.79
NFCU $129.37
USAA $0.21
Total $164.37

We threw all interest into our Pot of Possibilities!