The statement on my husband's Chase Freedom account closed two days ago. Yesterday, the bonus rewards equal to $200 posted. I quickly transferred the rewards over to the Chase Sapphire card and redeemed them, along with some miscellaneous rewards sitting the accounts for a statement credit. The amount was $225.03.

As of this morning the credit has been applied. I made a payment yesterday to the mortgage principal for the same amount. Now we have $225.03 less debt!

I also found a snowflake! It seems I had rewards on my Capital One card in the amount of $2.54. I haven't been using the card, and don't plan to right now, so I requested a check rather than a statement credit. I will have to wait awhile to get that, but it's on its way!

I plan to use a Visa rewards card for $10 while I'm out running an errand today. I also think I have an item to return. So a few more snowflakes are in the works as well.

And if you are curious, my total snowflakes for the month is $384.26! Can't complain about that. Have you paid off any debt this year yet? Did you make a payment larger than normal?

I purchased some ear buds for my daughter on Amazon.com the other day. I still have credit from Swagbucks earnings, so no money out of pocket. But since I put Swagbucks earnings to the mortgage I had to match that purchase with a mortgage chip. It was $7.80. Little amounts add up!

I'm anxiously waiting for our Chase Freedom account to close. When it does I expect to see rewards equal to the bonus offered for opening this card. I believe it was $200...for spending $500 on the card. That's a very nice return.

There are some rebates I'm waiting on as well, one for $50, one for $18, and nearly $30 from Ebates. I know the Ebates one won't arrive until February. I do hope those others arrive this month. I want to make a big dent in our $4,000 snowflake goal early in the year.

We aren't quite to our spending minimum for the current credit card bonus, but I came across a mailing for a US Bank Visa. The offer is $100 for spending $500. There is a bonus of $25 once per year, so really $125. It expires January 13. I will likely jump on this one, since I have never done a US Bank offer. I'm also aware of the $150 offer by Discover for spending $750. My husband and I could both do this one. That would be another $425 for spending $2000. Again...a pretty good return.

I think today will be another no spend day, since I'm home with the girls. How about you? A no spend day?

We don't pay interest on any credit cards, we pay our balances in full. We are charging only purchases we would normally make to get the bonus offers credit cards offer. The bonuses are being applied to our mortgage to pay down the balance. Please do not attempt this type of plan if you are paying interest on your credit card debt.

Our regular mortgage payment posted yesterday. The principal portion was $448.88. Yes! Less debt.

I just sent off the snowflakes we have accumulated in the last few days. A big snowball of a payment in the amount of $151.43!

Here's where those snowflakes came from:

I update my tickers at the end of the month, so you won't see a change there for awhile.

In other goal news, I have had three green smoothies. Just twenty eight days to go. The last two days I have had pineapple in my smoothies, which I found to be very refreshing!

How are your New Year's goals coming along? Progress yet? Are you still working on goals? At least one financial goal is a good start. If you work on one you can be very focused!

First of all, I did drink my first green smoothie for 2014 today. One down, thirty to go!

New Year's seems like a great day to get our official financial goals down in print. There is still a possibility to tweak, but here is the plan right now.

1) Accumulate $4,000 in snowflakes from any source other than my husband's income to help reach our mortgage principal reduction goal.

2) Pay down $13,992.99 in mortgage principal. This will bring us to an even balance at the end of 2014 of $X15,000.

3) Save $50 per month to be used for Christmas gifts.

4) Save $57 twice per month towards the 52 Week Savings Challenge. The funds to be deposited in my Capital One 360 Savings account.

4) Save $167 per month for each daughter for college, which is $2,000 each or $4,000 for the year.

5) Save 8% of my husband's basic pay in his TSP. This is a 1% increase from last year.

6) Save $458.33 each month for each of our Roth IRA's. This will meet the maximum limit allowed.

7) End 2014 with $20,000 or more in our emergency fund. As of January 1, we are at $19,909.05.

I feel pretty good about these. Several are easy. College and retirement have been automatic for several years, so they will not be difficult. The real stretch is finding $4000 or more in snowflakes and meeting the mortgage goal. I'm up for the challenge!

Are any of your goals going to be a stretch for you? Did you make financial goals?

Our mortgage is our only debt. My goal is to pay down more principal than if we just made regular payments. I've already mentioned that all my snowflake earnings for 2014 will go to pay down the mortgage principal. I hope to get $4,000 from that source alone.

Our housing allowance from the government is increasing by $102 tax free dollars. I will apply this money to the mortgage pay down goal, which is $1,224.00 for the year.

As of today, the mortgage balance is $X28,992.99. My goal is to get that balance to $X15,000. This means I need a total of $13,992.99 in principal payments to meet the goal by this time next year. If we just made regular payments we would pay off $5455 in debt.

Even with the sources of pay down mentioned above, we are still $3,324 short of meeting the goal. I either need to find plenty of other snowflakes or simply find room in the budget to pay off more debt. I think there is definitely room in the budget. I will work on this in the coming days to see how it might be best to go about this. Part of me wants to just wait until DH gets his raise, and then it is no problem, but I think that is me being lazy!

Another big goal, right? If I don't make a specific plan, I'm pretty sure the whole idea will be put to the wayside and forgotten. And that is not what I want. I want to make a big impact in our financial picture this year!!

Is paying down your mortgage a goal this year? Are you specific in how you will accomplish this? Maybe you have another debt you looking to reduce, do you have a clear plan for getting there?

I already know what my snowflake goal is for 2014. It is big! Last year, my initial plan for snowflakes, or money from non income sources, was just $750. I actually exceeded that goal by 4.5 times!! I just wanted that $750 saved for Christmas. I hit that amount in early June. It seems flakes snowballed from there. I would say primarily from credit card bonus rewards. Who knew I would jump on that?!

So the big 2014 snowflake goal is $4000.00. No that isn't a typo! This will be about a 17% increase in my 2013 total, which I will disclose and update at year end. It does feel like a big goal. A stretch for sure, but I really do believe that big goals can be reached, and so often exceeded!

This year, I will be putting all snowflakes towards paying down our mortgage balance. I will still save for Christmas, but that money will come from our regular income. I didn't need $750 this year. Next year, I'm looking to save $600 for Christmas. I will just set aside $50 per month. Easy. Simple. Done!

I know some of you are going to start tracking snowflakes in the new year. Does anyone have a goal for the amount they want to accumulate? What will your snowflakes be used for?

I received $25 from Swagbucks and $25 in USAA rewards this week in our checking account. I used the $10 Target gift card towards groceries this week. And we spent $2.99 in Amazon.com credits to watch a movie online last night.

All the funds above total $62.99. I sent that amount to pay down the mortgage principal. That might be the last one for the year, but I'm open to a few more snowflakes if they fall before the end of the year.

With this last payment it has pushed our mortgage balance under another $1K milestone. So the balance is now like this $XX8,992.99. I think we will be able to get at least that $8K plus change paid off this year....and probably a little bit more. I'll update the goal and plan on that soon.

We are still working on getting our recent repair on our van covered and paid by Honda Care. My husband is going to walk into the dealership today to get it taken care of. Fingers crossed. We don't have any reason to think it won't be covered. They didn't have our Honda Care information, and just seemed to be too busy to handle it when we called last Saturday.

Any one new going to track snowflake money next year? Will you use it to pay down debt, save for a goal or both?

All of the goals below have been completed for 2013. I didn't realize we paid off the truck this year. I thought it was the year before! Funny how time distracts from the details.

1) Make maximum contribution to both of our Roth IRA's. And contribute 7% to husband's TSP.
2) Pay off truck loan.
3) Snowflake a Free Christmas with $750.
4) Save $4,000 ($2000 each daughter) for college.
5) Pay for new intermediate flute with cash.
6) Pay for vacation with saved cash.
7) Pay for furniture and landscaping with cash.
8) Increase equity in home by paying down debt and saving for the next down payment.

We do not have any debt for the furniture purchase, which was a new kitchen table and chairs, the vacation, flute or landscaping. We still have $300 on the American Express for my daughter's Washington DC trip in April. I just thought it easy to pay on it monthly since it was at zero percent and I knew I could pay it in full at any time. I'm actually waiting for a reward on the card to apply to the balance, so one reason I'm not paying it off too quickly.

I will do another post about our mortgage progress for the year before year end. Those snowflakes do make a difference!

I wrote a new post over on

Our Money Blog...if you want to check it out. I really want to devote more time to that one, I might need to rebrand it and do different topics than I do over here. If anyone has ideas, or thoughts on it, I'd love to hear about them.

Yesterday, I paid all the bills in full. The only amount on the credit cards is the Washington DC trip, we are slowly paying the balance off at 0% interest. Only $300 left to pay, which means it will be paid off in February. Actually, I might just pay that off next pay period now that the amount is so low.

Anyway....while paying bills I made our first regular deposit to the 52 Week Challenge. I had a beginning balance of $10 and added $57. I will add $57 twice per month and by Nov 15th next year I will have the full $1,378, plus interest. I did send that money to my Capital One savings account for easy book keeping.

I was actually able to put $748 aside into savings, which is the biggest amount I have been able to set aside for savings in awhile. I hope I didn't miss something, but I think we just spent less. I still have over $200 in the Christmas fund. A little more of that will likely get spent, but maybe a good chunk can go to the mortgage before the end of the year.

We have made one purchase on my husband's Capital One debit card. Only four more to go to qualify for the $125 bonus!

My dad bought me a Mega Millions ticket today. I offered to pay him the one dollar, but he refused. It would be nice to win, but the odds are not in our favor. I really NEVER play the lottery, but it is fun to think about winning.

Do you play the lottery? How often? How much have you ever won?

Several snowflakes of money have come my way in recent days. I finally got them all added up and sent off to the mortgage to pay down more principal.

My big snowflake payment was $207.50. Yippee for big payments!!

I did include some of those American Express offers. I would have spent that money anyway...so the cash credits are definitely bonus money! Here's where the money came from:

I am happy to report I have paid all the Christmas gifts we have charged to credit cards. Right now, it seems I am done shopping!! I may have another $5-10 of stocking stuffers to pick up, but I'm mulling that over.

Anyone else just about done with their holiday shopping? Anyone pay down some extra mortgage principal this month?

Here's a list of money tidbits from recent days:

I completed a Pinecone Survey today. I expect I will get my $3 payment for that later in the week. I'm also secretly hoping to get a sample!

I'm trying to convince my daughter to try purchasing glasses online. We looked at Target optical, but noticed many of the glasses are plastic frames, and she prefers the wire ones with nose pads. We will look at other local stores as well, but I think online might save us quite a bit of money!

The return I made to Lands End at the end of October ended up arriving as a check in the mail, rather than a credit to my card I originally purchased with. I read on their website that this was because the purchase was over 9 months old. Either way I got the money!

We rented a movie on Amazon last night for $2.99. Since this was gift card money used I will match the purchase and send the funds to our mortgage debt.

Our bank reimbursed us for $3 in ATM fees and paid us a whopping $0.03 in interest. I always include these in our snowflake accumulations.

I have Ebay auctions ending today. One will sell, the other four are definitely up in the air as to whether they will or not. The proceeds also go to the snowflakes for equity goal.

We turned on our gas fireplace last night. As a result we will definitely see higher bills. I'm okay with it as it seems to make everyone happy and cozy in the evenings. My goal is always to wait until November 1, so we did make it a little longer this year.

We will be making another trip to the library today. We went Friday when the girls were off from school, but they have now read all the books! They want more to have with them during the week. Libraries rock for free entertainment!

I plan to log into our banks, and investments and various accounts to update our new phone number today. This means I can call tomorrow to cancel our land line. I just paid the bill that includes the phone service for the month of November. I expect they will credit days not used to our next bill, which will only include internet service.

My birthday is next Sunday. I tend to get $100 from my parents each year. I'm looking forward to getting some new socks, a purse, a shirt or two and a fleece to spruce up my wardrobe. I will be looking for good prices, so I can get the most for the money.

Well, that is my list of money tidbits. I had more than I realized. Do you make use of your library? Do you receive money for your birthday? Do you spend or save it?

My only intentional snowflake goal was to save $750 toward Christmas. We met this goal back in June. In the meantime, we have take advantage of some credit card rewards. Those snowflakes and snowballs have been applied to our new goal of reducing the debt on our mortgage. I think I initially defined that goal as $1000. And as you can see from the side bar, I more than doubled that goal. As of the end of October, we have $2077.73 that has been sent in to pay down debt. Those two goals combined and accumulated in just 10 months equals $2,828.99.

I might as well shoot for an even $3,000 in snowflakes by the end of the year. That leaves me with $171.01 to go. I'm pretty sure I can do it! In fact, I'm pretty sure I'll exceed it. Thanks Be A Wealthy Warrior for the idea!!

My first snowflake for November are: $48.22 for the Lands' End return I made yesterday and $0.44 from Capital One 360 for interest. That money is already pending payment on the mortgage. Ya know, so the snowflake doesn't melt!

I did a return at Kohl's the other night and got a merchandise credit since the purchase was on one of those gift cards I had. I then asked for a price adjustment to my Kohl's card for the amount of the credit. They couldn't apply it directly, but since I had the receipt of a recent purchase I charged to the card, we did a return and applied and reapplied the merchandise credit and another gift card. Now my balance owed is less!! In the process of repurchasing the item, I earned $10 Kohl's cash. Bonus!!

I did purchase the Ooma Telo. That's a VoiP (voice over internet protocol)phone system. There was an offer to purchase it for $99.99 with free shipping. Once we have it up and running and test it for a few days, we will notify our phone company that we want to cancel. This will save us about $27 per month.

Although, the savings won't really be saved as I expect to upgrade to a smartphone soon, and a new data plan will likely be another $30. We are going cell phone shopping this weekend. We want to check out the 97 cent smartphones at Walmart. We will check directly with Verizon, too, so we know which plan we will have and see who really has the best deal. I do know that I likely will be able to save more by having a smartphone. I can pull up coupons, use Target's cartwheel for discounts, and compare prices when I'm out shopping. That alone might lower the true cost of the data plan. I'll let you know what I get.

I was reminded on the forums about buying gift cards at discounts. I think I even mentioned a deal I did on cat food awhile back using a discounted gift card. I purchased mine from

Cardpool. However, there are many more sites. One is Gift Card Granny which combines the gift cards at many sites into one, which is great to find the best discount. Be sure to read ALL of the fine print. Generally, electronic gift cards received by email can only be used online. These discounted cards save you money before you even make a purchase. And if you combine it with a store coupon you save even more!

Our Halloween night ended with just 8 pieces of candy left. I began the night handing out two per kid because last year I only had 10 kids show up. This year was closer to 25! Big difference. I even gave away some plastic rings/toys that we found in our decluttering. Big hit!

I think I packed enough content into one post for today. Do you buy discounted gift cards for regular purchases? Did you end up with more or less candy that you started with last night? Will you make a snowflake goal for next year?

I sent the final extra mortgage payment of $55.90 to the mortgage today. That snowflake consisted of $25 Swagbucks, $6 in Pinecone survey payments, Ebates of $15.76 and Southwest Rewards of $9.14. The Ebates and Southwest Rewards were earned Amazon.com gift cards that I used towards a purchase today.

My October snowflake earnings came to $479.20! Wow. What a great haul. It seems much of the earnings were because we used a majority of the gift cards earned from the Southwest Rapids Rewards Visa. I did have $50 from Swagbucks and a whopping $15 in Pinecone surveys.

Here is the full breakdown:

I don't expect November will be quite as lucrative. We are not currently working on a bonus reward, so there won't be any big credit card rewards. We are going to use our USAA card this month. If we spend $1200 (which I'm sure we will), we earn a $25 gift card. We will also earn points on those dollars that should get us close to another $25 in cash. Not bad for not taking out more credit!

I'll talk more about our credit cards, the rewards and any outstanding balances tomorrow. Using credit wisely has been a money maker for us this year...and we have used all those rewards to pay down the debt that is our mortgage. You know I love LESS DEBT!

How many snowflakes did you accumulate this month? It's not a competition, so share. Any snowflakes are a good thing!!

We used the Panera Bread gift card we earned from the Southwest Airline rewards tonight for dinner. Dinner for the four of us was $32.25. The gift card was $25. So we still paid $7.25 out of pocket.

As promised I am sending the value of the gift card used to the mortgage. So now we have $25 less debt because we ate out for dinner!

After our dinner we went to the mall to walk around. We didn't buy anything. This particular mall is dead. On the upper level there are only three stores still open, and there are less than 15 on the lower level. There are still two major department stores. There is a plan in place to revitalize the area, but they keep getting delayed. It would be nice if it happened while we still live here!!

Do you have a 'dead' mall in your town? Did you eat out for lunch or dinner this week?

Ironically, after I posted about the delay in the travel payments by the Army, my husband was notified he was overdue on making a payment to his government card. As a result he looked into it and found that he had routed the requests into a, to use his words, black hole. He resubmitted and it was paid today! Glad that is taken care of since he is going to start traveling again.

I used the money to pay toward the Citi card where we had some recent purchases. There is still a little bit on there...less than $100. Since I don't really want to pull from savings, I will pay that off with next week's paycheck. No interest being accrued as the charges are recent and the card does have 0% currently.

If you have an American Express card, you might look into

this offer posted on My Money Blog. Get $25 for $75 purchase at Staples. Gift cards count, including those for other stores like Kohl's and JC Penney's! My husband and I each had it on our accounts. If I use it, I will likely buy gift cards, so that I'm simply shifting money we would use anyway. I find Staples VERY overpriced. I will stop in this weekend to see what my options are.

I haven't sold the coat I have listed on Ebay, but I did pull out some items that I hope to list on Sunday. A couple DVDs and CDs, as well as a few activity kits that are new. I did check SecondSpin.com but didn't have enough to where I would get reimbursed for shipping. I might get more cash with individual sales.

I hope to use this last week of October and first week of November to move some clutter out. Yesterday, I went through a stack of magazines(earned from airline miles) and pulled out just a couple recipes. The rest have been recycled. Some of our clutter will go to Goodwill for sure, but if I can make a few sales I will do that, too. It will be nice to start the holiday season with things cleaned up.

Do you like to declutter before or after the holidays? Or maybe both! If you are needing cash for gifts this season, starting selling things you don't need now. Don't forget to consider regifting if appropriate!!

In yesterday's mail we received a statement for my husband's government travel credit card. The balance is over $900, and due November 5. Generally we don't need to make payments to the card because the charges are reimbursed and directly paid by the Army. Of course, there is a process that involves submitting a travel voucher and having it approved before the funds are sent. We are now waiting on funds to be sent. And we have been waiting since several days before the government shutdown.

My husband says there is nothing he can do on his end to speed things up. So we wait and cross our fingers they make the payments by November 5th. I really, really don't want to cover for the government on that card. We will if we have to, but I don't want to!

We saw snow here this morning. It has now turned back to rain, and the snow didn't accumulate. As you can imagine, I have turned on the heat in the house. If it is cold enough to snow. It is cold enough for heat. I will wait to turn the gas on for the fireplace until at least November 1...longer if I can.

Are you waiting for money owed to you? Have you turned your heat on yet?

Our trip back to my parents house was fantastic...and fast as always. They have such a beautiful home and land that we have enjoyed for 17 years!! We took the opportunity to take family photos. I hope to use my immediate family picture for our Christmas card, if I decide to send those out this year.

The rental for the Uhaul trailer was about $83 with tax and insurance. They threw in six rental blankets for no charge. We were able to help my parents move some very heavy items to their temporary storage unit, so that was one trip. We came home with the couch and loveseat, a shop vac, a leaf blower, two bags of fertilizer, weed killer, a hoe, bug spray, a fern plant, four wall hangings, a plant stand, a hedge trimmer (that needs a battery), and a fire extinguisher!

Unfortunately, driving a four wheel drive truck nearly 500 miles while towing a trailer does use up quite a bit of fuel. My husband said we spent $160 in fuel! Yikes. Therefore, the not free couch and loveseat, plus all the other items cost us nearly $250. It seems like a lot, but we sure could not have found all those things used for that price.

We did move our old furniture set to the basement storage and it is taking up more space then I prefer. I will live with it for a little while and see if I can fit it in better down there. Otherwise, I think we need to sell it, rather than save for our daughter's future needs.

I made a snowflake payment on Friday to the mortgage company in the amount of $32.35. I love less debt!!

I think I'll refer to any payment I make over $100 to the mortgage a snowball. Therefore anything over $500 is likely a blizzard. And if it were to ever happen that I'd have over $1000 to send at once, well I'm thinking an avalanche seems about right!

Today's snowball payment towards the principal balance of the mortgage was $192.84. Much of the money came from those Southwest Gift cards: $67.82 that I used on Amazon, and $8.47 at Walmart. We also have earned $59.77 in Chase Freedom rewards, which I redeemed towards a statement credit today. I probably mentioned earlier last week that I had $25 from Swagbucks and $9.78 in interest and ATM refunds from our bank. And last but not least, after paying all our irregular bills for the year, I had a surplus of $22 in our escrow account. I'm throwing that towards the mortgage as well.

All those little snowflakes add up. I've already accumulated $275.97 since the beginning of the month! And we have now exceed $8000 paid toward the principal of our mortgage. Less debt makes me happy!!

In other news, we purchased three trees for our backyard at a nursery yesterday. They were 50% off for cash and carry. We paid $75 per tree. All are over 7 feet tall and a couple inches in diameter. We picked up a Celebration Maple tree which is already showing off it's red leaves. The other two are White King Hawthorns, which have some orange berries that will stay on the branches even after the leaves fall. Those will make for some nice winter color! We used our credit card for the rewards, but we have the cash on hand for that purchase, as it was one of our goals this year. We got them planted pretty easily after we brought them home yesterday and now I can't stop looking at them!

Do you plant in the fall? Do you prefer another season for planting trees? Any new snowflakes for you?

I sent in the snowflakes, or really a snowball, to the mortgage today. I mentioned these yesterday in my post. The actual amount sent in was $83.13. Less debt makes me happy!! Have I said that before? Sorry, if I have.

Our mortgage is with Wells Fargo. While I was online making the payment, I saw once again that they offer a credit card with 5% back on grocery stores, gas stations and drugstores for 6 months. We would likely get the best return on the gas station expenses. We shop at Super Target which I don't think counts as a grocery store and we rarely do any drug stores either. If we spend $400 a month on fuel, which is a high estimate, we would get $20 back per month for 6 months or $120. Not a bad snowflake for just charging gas to this card. I'll ponder it a bit more and talk to my husband.

I see another snowflake in the future. Ebates cash back should be deposited mid November. I recently made a purchase of printer ink and earned 16% back, that was $8.88 on that purchase alone. The total cash back I'm expecting is $14.76, not bad for purchases I do anyway.

I'm about ready to do a little shopping with my Amazon gift cards. My husband has a birthday this month and wants a movie, as does my daughter for a Christmas gift. I also need new running shoes...and I think I found a great price on a pair I will love! Even though I have gift cards, I know I have to pull that money out of the checking account and send to the mortgage, so I'm hesitating a bit there. Silly me...delaying a payment to the mortgage. I can't help it. Sometimes it is hard to spend.

So should I go for the Wells Fargo card even though I will only get 5% on our gas purchases? Do you use Ebates, or other cash back service for your online shopping? Should I shop for my items today, or wait? I'm interested what you think.

The annual fee we paid on the Chase Southwest card was refunded in full. We received the check this weekend. It actually included a $5.75 return we made after the account was closed and at zero balance. The full amount returned to us was $104.75. I will add the $5.75 to the snowflakes for equity. The $99 will go back into our account for now as I know there are a few bigger bills to pay.

Our auto insurance finally posted to the USAA credit card that also had a credit balance of $10. Instead of paying $433 for insurance, I will only need to send in $423. I will send the $10 to the mortgage as well.

I redeemed Swagbucks this weekend for my favorite $25 Paypal cash! We know where that money always goes, right?

We did more Kohl's shopping this weekend. I didn't get a discount because I didn't use my Kohl's card. That part is a little disappointing. We spent $60.96 there, using those gift cards we earned on the Southwest card. That means I need to match that money with a principal mortgage payment.

I earned $6 in Pinecone surveys last week. That money arrived in my Paypal account. It is in the process of being moved to checking, and then I will send that little snowflake to the mortgage.

Did you noticing the theme, here? Many, many snowflakes!! It looks like I have over $80 to send to the mortgage right now. Yippee!!

I used more of the gift cards we earned from the Southwest Airlines credit card in the last few days. Today, I spent $41.53 at Walmart for kitty litter, laundry detergent, soap, a few name brand food products, and a large hand sanitizer for my sister classroom. We also made a shoe purchase at Kohl's for $45.46. I also let my daughter rent a move for $2.99 from Amazon.com to watch on their day off from school. (Those count as October snowflakes, in case you were wondering!)

As I have said several times before, I am matching the money spent on the gift cards and sending it to pay down the mortgage principal. Those purchases equal $89.98 less debt on our mortgage. I just sent the payment off earlier today.

We have now spent just over $265 with the gift cards we earned and all of those funds have been matched and sent to pay down our mortgage. Including our mortgage payment that posted yesterday, we have paid $770.21 on the principal balance in the last 15 days. Yippee!! Less debt makes me happy.

I already have $6 from Pinecone, and a little interest from my Capital One 360 account to add to the snowflakes for October as well. It's a good start.

In other news, I did find out that many of my husband's civilian coworkers are applying for unemployment since they have been furloughed. This is allowed in our state, but maybe not in others. Unfortunately, one man just moved here from another state and has not met the 18 month resident requirement. He is still going to apply to see what happens. He may need to apply in the state he moved from as he still has a legal residence there. I hope the shutdown ends soon for all those families affected.

I also heard in our city that a group of women are collecting baby formula and food to hand out to those who were counting on WIC checks this month and don't know when they will receive them. Have you heard any good stories like this in your town?

I accumulated $236.66 in snowflakes last month. A combination of interest, rebates, Pincone surveys, Swagbucks and gift cards earned from our Southwest Airlines credit card.



This amount is far more than the early months of the year, but less than the last couple. We are not currently in the process of earning any more credit card bonus rewards, so that makes a difference. Of course, I'm not complaining! This is all bonus money that is making a difference in paying down our mortgage debt.

We still have gift cards from the Southwest credit card bonus to use. As we use them, I will add them to the snowflake list and send an equal amount to the mortgage.

My goal for October is to earn some snowflakes from selling our stuff, primarily Ebay sales. I'd also like to find another source of snowflakes. Not sure what that might be yet, but I'll let you know when I do. I'm open to ideas as well.

What was your snowflake total for September? What did you do with your snowflakes?

I decided I should track the spending with those rewards gift cards as it happens. No need to delay paying the mortgage down, right? I set up a spreadsheet with each card and it's original amount, the amount used/remaining and the amount sent in. Or something like that!! This way I can keep track of what I need to send in.

I already sent $50 in last week when I spent a $50 gift card at Walmart. Today I'm sending in $123.15 for gift cards spent on Amazon and at Kohl's this weekend. At this point we have spent $173.15 of the gift cards from the Southwest Airlines Rapids Rewards card. And it has all been matched with our own cash that we have sent in to the mortgage.

In other news, I'm still waiting for my husband's travel payments to shake out, so I can pay off his expenses on our Chase Freedom card. It should be done this week. It was nice of him to charge gas while their 5% back promotion is running. That will just mean more rewards from that card, or a forecast of future snowflakes as I see it.

This snowflaking debt is fun and so satisfying. Did you make a snowflake this week? Did you save it, spend it or pay down debt?

The girls and I went shopping yesterday at Kohl's, where we picked up a couple pairs of jeans, a shirt and a pair of shoes. The total before discounts was $104.97, but I had a $10 off coupon and a 20% off which saved $29. Of course, tax was added back in, and the total became $81.29. I used the gift cards we earned from the Southwest Airlines credit card bonuses. Each card from Kohl's is $50, so I still have $18.71 left on one of them.

We also rented Star Trek Into Darkness from Amazon last night to watch as a family. We used the Amazon.com gift card to pay for the $3.99 rental. The Amazon gift cards we received are $25 each. I only loaded one on to the account, so we now have a $21.01 credit there.

The plan all along has been to match the spending on these gift cards with cash applied to the principal balance of our mortgage. I'm having a mini debate with myself about how to handle this specifically. Should I send in the actual amount we spent yesterday, or would it be easier to track if I only sent in the money when I use the full gift card? If I do the later, I really only need to send in $50, as I have only used up that one Kohl's gift card. It really all works out the same in the end. I will mull it over today. Either way I will make a payment to the mortgage tomorrow!

I might have a little more Amazon.com spending to do. I noticed that my hair dryer is getting too hot and actually melting on the side. That can't be good! It still works, but I sure don't want my hair to catch on fire. I think I'll get that order placed today!

Do you dry your hair with a hair dryer or air dry? I'm pretty sure air drying would be the most frugal.

I have accumulated $86.42 in snowflakes since the beginning of September. I sent those off yesterday to pay down the principal balance on the mortgage.

I earned enough Swagbucks to redeem $25 for a PayPal deposit. It would be nice to receive that before the end of the month, so I can send it in as another snowflakes!

My husband had a couple recent trips for work. One of them he drove our personal vehicle which means we will be paid mileage. The government avoids this usually. They now prefer a vehicle to be rented because it is less expensive. And that's the right thing to do from a government standpoint. The good thing is we might make a little cash on the deal this time. I'm still waiting for the deposits and to know that he paid off his government travel card in full.

I wanted to get a little shopping in at Kohl's today, since I have a $10 off coupon and gift cards. However, my volunteering at school went long and I need to get a final coat of paint down on our garage steps while the weather is nice. In the end it is fine to hold off on the spending!!

Do you receive mileage payments for travel you do? Does the payment cover your cost in full or partially?

Last night, I came home to a note from my daughter, that said, "We are out of conditioner. We have two shampoos in the closet but no conditioner. What is with this madness?" Made me laugh.

Then this morning I found we only had two partial rolls of toilet paper in the house! Yikes. Time to go to the store again. When my husband heard I was going he said he needed deodorant. Now it seems I had a list of things to get.

I stopped by Walmart to purchase the above items in addition to counter cleaner and toothpaste. I did buy more than one of several of the items. I had two coupons which reduced my expense by $3. I spent $53.13. I used one of the $50 gift cards we earned with our Southwest Rewards card. So just a little out of pocket. I will get that $50 sent off to the mortgage this week.

The toilet paper I wanted to buy at Walmart had three different sized packages, 12 rolls, 20 rolls and 27 rolls. I noticed the signage on two of them had a graphic stating "Low Price". I did the math on my phone calculator, the lowest price per roll was on the 20 roll package. This was the one with out the "Low Price" sign. I just thought that was interesting. Apparently, Walmart knows they can sway purchases to higher priced items by putting these signs up. I will say the package I bought was probably $2 cheaper than I pay at Target. That part is a little annoying.

It was nice to stock up on a few things knowing that once I spent that money on the gift card it was heading to the mortgage. What kinds of things do you keep heavily stocked in your home?

My husband's check was pending yesterday so I started recording and paying bills. So many of them are automatic: life insurance, phone and electric, water softener rental, Roth investments and college savings. Makes paying bills easy.

The good news is I paid the remainder of the Southwest Rapids Rewards card. A nice $572 no longer owed. The balance is zero. The card will be cancelled once I get those gift card rewards in the mail. Hoping that is soon!!

I made a $115 payment to the American Express card that I charged my daughter's Washington DC trip on. It is zero interest, so I'm paying it back at a rate of $150 per month. The balance is now at $750. We also have started fundraising for this trip. Might work out to get some money back or at least enough for spending money.

We also made some tax deductible contributions. One to the music program at school. I'd rather do this than participate in their fundraisers. The second contribution is to a Walk N Roll fundraiser that our former neighbor's daughter and their family will benefit from. Wish we could participate this year, but we have other obligations.

Seems like lots of money flowing out, but we did contribute to our Roth IRAs and college savings accounts this period like always, so that is good.

I also received notification that my Swagbucks money was deposited in my PayPal account. I also did a Pinecone survey yesterday. Once that money is in the PayPal account I will withdraw it and send the money in to the mortgage!

It's all going as planned. Any new snow developments? Any debt paid off this week? Any charity donations?

I mentioned in my last post that I accumulated $557.48 in snowflakes this month. Those were all sent to pay down mortgage principal, so less debt. And this is BIG; we have sent in $1,361.87 since I started accumulating snowflakes for equity in late June of this year.

Here's where all the August money came from:


Not sure if September has the possibility of earning more snowflakes, but I'll give it a try! I know that we should be able to redeem the Southwest Rapid Rewards in the amount of $500. Since those come in the form of gift cards, I will use them for everyday purchases and use the cash I would have used to send in to the mortgage. I will only count them as a snowflake once I make a purchase. Does that make sense?

The good news on the Southwest Card, is that with a inquiry to customer service we have been given our Rapid Rewards number. I should be able to get that set up, so I can do a redemption next week. Happy, Happy!!

How did you do with your snowflakes in August? Do you have a goal for September?

I made another principal payment towards the mortgage today in the amount of $107.70. That is the last one I will make for August. That money came from a water utility refund, a Swagbucks cash and Ebay proceeds. A little work and a little luck!

I actually made five extra principal payments this month which reduced our mortgage principal by $557.48! That is more than a regular mortgage payment reduces our principal. And yes, that is the total snowflakes for the month, too.

We are still waiting on our Southwest credit card statement to close so we can start redeeming gift cards. It should close on Saturday, so we are close to getting our hands on that $500.

I sent the OBi adapter for VoIP back to Amazon. Their estimate of shipping is $5.37. That is how much my refund will be reduced. Most of my family is not real excited about permanently giving up our land line. We do actually call home when we are out to check on our kids. So, for now, we are keeping it. I might still try Ooma, but I'll be looking for a good price. Maybe used on Ebay, but need to see how that works.

I posted earlier today about making another principal payment on our mortgage...check it out if you want the details!

I had an automatic email reminder from myself earlier this month that I needed to check our credit reports. Specifically Equifax. I finally did that today. Everything looks just fine. All those new credit cards are showing up!!

I used the free service,

AnnualCreditReport.com offered to everyone in the United States. You do have to provide your social security number, address and confirm some information about credit you currently have or had on the secure site. I had to identify our mortgage company, payment amount, the truck loan lender and that payment amount. We paid that truck off earlier this year and I already forgot what the payment was! I had to look it up.

I check one credit agency once every four months. You can choose to get all three reports now and then wait one year to look at them again. At least for free!

Do you check your credit report on a regular basis?