I just made another principal payment to the mortgage in the amount of $42.15. This was an accumulation of snowflakes in the last two weeks. There was an interest rebate, Ebay proceeds, Swagbucks cash, and a Pinecone survey payment. It really all adds up.

Tomorrow I expect the CapitalOne 360 Checking account bonus of $100 will post to my account. I'm looking forward to that big snowflake!

It feels good to be making a dent in the mortgage balance, even if just a little bit at a time.

The bonus of $150 earned on my husband's American Express Blue Cash Everyday card appeared this weekend. I redeemed it for a statement credit on the $150 balance that remained. As of this morning it has been applied and the balance is now zero.

I guess this means I have to send in another $150 to the mortgage! Since I would have had to pay the balance if not for the credit, I will just use that money to send in to the mortgage. Simple!

I remembered to count out my Box Tops for Education and found that I had over 100. I put a lot of 100 together and listed them on Ebay. They have not sold yet, but I expect they will as I set a reasonable price. They ALWAYS sell. So, another snowflake is in the works.

Swagbucks deposited last months bonuses yesterday. I was just 28SB away from cashing out for $25. So I put in the time to get those 28SBs and cashed out for $25 cash in my PayPal deposit. ANOTHER snowflake on its way.

My chauffeur service has begun operating again. My oldest daughter who is just starting to drive is needing to get to school for band activities. This means more fuel will be used. Too bad I don't get paid for this service!

We are still in the process of meeting the $2000 in spending on the Southwest card. I know we are over $1000. I'll give a more in depth update on this tomorrow.

Snowflaking debt and savings works! Of course, it may seem easy with these large rewards from credit cards. However, the smaller amounts I find, earn and save still add up. You can do it too! Anyone just getting started with snowflakes? What was your first or latest snowflake?

I seem to have racked up quite a few snowflakes since the beginning of August, so I'm sending them in to pay down more mortgage principal. Why wait, right?

Here's where the $157.63 all came from:



I took cash I had in my Christmas Fund to 'buy' the Applebee's gift card that came in the mail from MyPoints. It is a Christmas gift anyway. I used the Menard's rebate and Citi Rewards to make purchases, but am now taking the cash I would have spent on those purchases to send to the mortgage. Make sense? I hope so!! If not, ask me to clarify.

This now means that we have paid a $6,153.91 down on our mortgage balance. Like! Like!

Our mortgage is our only long term debt. All other debt that may occur on credit cards is promptly paid off. Now that I'm sending in extra principal I want to keep track of how much we have paid down. I'm not sure why I don't want to disclose the amount of our mortgage, but I just don't. I will simple track the amount we have paid off.

We took our mortgage out on July 3, 2012. We have made payments on time every month. We have only recently made principal payments, specifically June and July. The June principal payment was $56. In July, I made two payments, $250 and $500 specifically. Including those amounts we have paid of $5,996.28!!

I wish I knew I was so close to the $6K mark yesterday when I rounded up to $500. I should have sent in another $4!

I don't know exactly how I will track this, probably a simple sum of principal on a spreadsheet. I can post a screen shot of our progress. I also need a firm goal. I know I did some calculations several months back. I was a bit overwhelmed with those, so I'm not sure I kept them. I'll keep working on getting a better grasp of this goal.

Oh, and did anyone notice that the Christmas and Equity snowflakes I have accumulated in 7 months equal $1555.65! That averages out $222.24 per month. If I can keep up that pace I should be able to get another $1100 before the end of the year. I have a feeling it might be more!

The good thing is I have a firm grasp on accumulating snowflakes and sending them in to pay down the mortgage! Yippee!!

July was a spectacular month for accumulated snowflakes. And really there were some snowballs in there to help! Those credit card rewards were key to making this month so great. I was proud to actually get a few things on Ebay and earn a little more cash towards this new goal. Total snowflake earnings for July.....$748.39!!!!



All snowflakes are going directly to pay down principal on our mortgage. I sent in just an extra $56 last month. This month I have already sent in the $250 check from Citi Thank You Rewards. And today, I'm sending in the remaining snowflakes $498.39. I think I should actually just round it up to an even $500. I think I can swing the extra $1.61 from my own pocket. Don't you?

My Snowflakes for Equity ticker shows a goal of $1000. I think I might need to revise the goal, since I'm almost there! I didn't quite expect all the credit card rewards when I made the goal. I'll have to really think through what I think we can accomplish before the end of the year.

It was asked in my last post about our mortgage pay down progress. Before today's extra principal payment I think we have paid a total of $5000 from the principal balance. That is a bit of a guess. I will work on getting more details for my next post. This is something I've been needing to do so that I'm tracking our progress a little better.

So, how do you think we did for July? Did I accumulate enough snowflakes?

My husband will be doing more travel in the coming month. I always miss him when he is away, but financially I'm looking forward to it. His expenses usually are covered by the Army...unless he splurges at a steak place. And that does happen. Sometimes we make a little money on the deal. Just a little.

What I really like is that the grocery and gas spending drop here at home. He has more 'needs' (read as wants) than I do, or allow the girls to have. Thus we eat simply and stay home a little more. I hope to set aside about $400 while he is away. It really will just go to savings, so not too exciting, but I like the idea of really working towards it to make it happen. Once he leaves I will start tracking our expenses.

I have one item with a bid on Ebay. Six of the auctions end tomorrow. I hope to see a little more activity before they end and sell another one or two. Once the other items end on Tuesday, I will pay my fees and withdraw the proceeds so I can send those in with my BIG August mortgage principal payment.

I'm also looking forward to payday so I can replenish the saving account. Remember I had to pull some money out to cover that accidental EXTRA mortgage payment I made? It has all worked out just fine, but I'd like that money back in my savings account. I did remember to cancel my automatic payments so we don't end up making an August payment when one isn't due.

I think I'll head outside to get some exercise in. It is so much cooler here today. It feels like fall. What kind of weather are you having where you live?

The Citi Thank You award of $250 was received by our mortgage company, Wells Fargo, and applied correctly as a principal payment. Worked perfect!

I look forward to sending in another nice big principal payment later this month. All the July snowflakes, minus the reward above, total over $450. And I still have some Ebay proceeds to include, too!

I did put more items up on Ebay Sunday and will put some CDs up today. There are several CDs that are just not worth anything...either rejected by secondspin or only offered $0.05. Those will go to Goodwill.

Did anyone make an extra payment on debt this month? Tell me about it!

Yesterday seemed like an 'in' money day. The mail brought the much awaited check from Citi Thank You rewards. A check for $250 made out to our mortgage company. It's in the mail this morning with the slip indicating our loan number and that it is to be applied to principal.

I actually took a picture of the check so you can see it is really true. Rewards for spending on things you purchase anyway!



I sold an item on Ebay yesterday, too! I will net nearly $19. I already put it in the mail as well. I don't like to keep the customers waiting. I will apply the funds to the Snowflakes for Equity once I redeem all proceeds from PayPal, which will likely be at the end of the month.

I still have four items on Ebay. The auctions end on Sunday. I have more things to list though. In the decluttering process I have found a few movies and cds that we are no longer interested in keeping. My husband saw the pile last night and promptly whet to his truck and brought in 8 cds that have been in his truck for a year without use. There are a few I can definitely get some cash for!!

Of course, there was still some outflow of cash yesterday. It is so hot here, ice cream sounded really, really good. We purchased from the store, so we should have several treats over the next few days. The nice thing is it actually feels a little cooler this morning.

If you didn't see

my post yesterday, check it out. You could make $50 in a few simple steps!

A little oops. I forgot to add more items to sell on Ebay last night. Still no bidders on the items I have listed, but it is still early in the week. It may be the items are not in great demand. A couple might sell better closer to Christmas for gifts.

Since I think we'll be around home this weekend, I hope to put some items on Craigslist. We have several items that would be great for a college student or someone moving into a first apartment. These items were purchased for my husband when he was living in Virginia for 9 months.

My husband and I both received credit card offers in the mail today. Mine for US Bank...offering $100 to open the card and spend $500 in 3 months. I'm sure I will pounce on this once we get closer to completing our Southwest card purchases. We are still waiting for that card. My husband's offer was from Citi, no bonus just 18 months 0% interest. Pass. We need cash if you want us to open a card with you!!

I did receive a $5 Target gift card this week for a Planter's nut purchase. I tossed it with the Christmas gift cards for now. Although, I should probably use it when I'm there today and just add $5 to the Equity Snowflakes. Yep, I'll do that, since it is the goal right now.

I'm also on a very minor decluttering kick! I went through our cup of pencils and pens that sit on the kitchen counter. I also thinned out the junk basket that sits nearby as well. It looks so much better. Now to find another drawer that I can purge from!!

What kinds of things are you doing of late that save you money, make you money or improve your life in some way?

We met the minimum spending of $500 on my husband's Capital One Quicksilver card and earned $107.53 in rewards. The first statement has not even closed yet! I already redeemed an account statement credit and moved the money we would have sent in as a payment to the Snowflakes for Equity! Which now has a balance of $423.08 for July. Not bad. Not bad at all!

I do foresee quite a few expenses in the coming months: athletic shoes for the girls, school supplies, school fees, an oil change, and rental of a sod cutter for landscaping.

We also are considering a new bike for our daughter, an entertainment center for one of our tv's that is on a cheap $20 cart and looks plain goofy, and maybe a power washer. We live in more of a rural area, near a medium sized city, and boy do our vehicles get dirty. My husband is really into keeping cars clean, but at $6 to $10 a wash, I think we could actually save money if he washed our cars at home. The only way I could get him to do that is with a power washer, about $300. Men...and their toys. It would be more efficient. Definitely not a need. I'll grant you that one. But it just might be more economical considering the nearest car wash he'll consider using is more than ten minutes away.

My ebay items are out there, but not any bids or many watchers. I didn't do the best job of researching prices, so I may need to adjust next week if nothing sells. I do have a couple things I hope to get listed this evening, maybe I'll do better with my research tonight!

Anyone else have a power washer for their cars? Is this overkill, or does it seems like a good idea in our situation?

I cancelled our Netflix membership this weekend. We can still watch it through the 21st, but we did all agree recently that we can't find much to watch on the site as we once could. Saves us $7.99 a month! We will use Amazon Prime for most streaming and of course our local library!

We purchased a pizza over the weekend from Pizza Hut, after I placed my order online, I realized there was a coupon I could use. I inquired when I picked the pizza up and saved $5.99. I love when that happens.

I made a donation today to the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation in the amount of $100. My sister is running a half marathon this fall and is raising money for the charity. I picked up the fees too for another $7.69, so all the money will go to the charity. I charged this to my husband's American Express Blue Cash Everyday card. With this donation and two future charges, we only need to spend another $165 on the card to be eligible for the bonus of $150. I know I will need fuel for the van this week, I have lots of chauffeuring to do!

I did list five things on Ebay last night. Not much action yet. I have at least another five to seven more items I hope to list on Tuesday night, so they all will end on Sunday. I also listed two books on Half.com.

My daughter received a $100 bill from her grandparents for her birthday. While I'm not shocked about the amount, I was surprised when she brought the bill to me last night and asked if she could have $20 bills instead! Ah...so much easier to spend that way, right? I actually think it is just a bit intimidating for her.

Do you feel uncomfortable will large bills? Do you like to have large bills in your pocket? I've thought I might just hold this $100 bill as emergency cash, since we aren't exactly prepared in that way. Although smaller bills probably would be better in an emergency situation. What say you?

I checked our retirement accounts...up over $42K since the beginning of the year. Very happy to see this improvement. Have you checked on your retirement lately?

My husband applied for the Southwest Airlines Rapids Rewards Premier Card today. He was approved! We are very close to the spending minimum on the Capital One Quicksilver card, maybe another $40 left to spend to meet the $500 in spending.

We received my husband's American Express Blue Cash Everyday card yesterday. We have not used it yet, but will put our regular Verizon cell phone bill and our Amazon Prime membership on the card. I have already set those charges up to be applied when due. We will use that card for another $270 to meet the $500 in spending before we move on the the Southwest card.

I just did a quick tally of credit card rewards we have received and expect to receive on cards we have applied for: $1476. Nice sum of change! I expect the total will exceed that before the end of the year. And this doesn't include the 5% savings on the Target Red Card.

Do you have a tally of your savings so far this year, with or without credit card rewards?

First, a couple of updates. I have received another Pinecone Survey payment, and I made another transaction on my Capital One 360 Checking account. Just two more to go. My husband just needs to spend another $28 on the Capital One Quicksilver card. I'm waiting for the American Express card he applied for to arrive in the mail. Once it does, one of us will apply for the Southwest card.

I keep seeing a bank sign that flashes 3.00%APR. I stopped to watch it the other day. It's called Green Checking, so I'm assuming this is technically a high yield savings account. This might be our next best bet for some savings on our excess cash. I will get in soon to inquire further, as I can't find anything on the bank's website.

I have looked at other area banks for their high yield rates. Most don't give the rate for over $25K. There are always stipulations such as direct deposit, or 3-5 automatic bill payments, or 10 debit transactions.

Does anyone have a high yield checking account? How does yours work? Which rate are you getting? Is it worth it to you?

I guess all my posts are going to be about rewards for awhile. All these rewards are snowflakes towards mortgage debt. Less debt is good!

Yesterday, I received my CaptialOne 360 checking debit card. I activated it right away and used it to pay for my daughter's haircuts and vitamins. The two purchases go towards the five debit card purchases I need to make to get the $100 reward. Only three purchases left to go.

I have received my bonus ThankYou points on my Citi Thank You Preferred card in the amount of 25,000. I was hoping I could redeem for a statement credit rather than gift cards. Unfortunately, those credits are not nearly as valuable as the gift cards. I would only get $100 in statement credits for those points. I did find out that I can redeem those 25,000 points for a $250 check made out to our mortgage company though. That is exactly the reward I want. I will have to call to get that ordered, but I will do that today!

We are only $40 away from making the minimum purchase requirement on my husband's Capital One Quicksilver card. We have purchased two tanks of gas and my husband charged his lunch yesterday while he was out of town on business. Again all charges made on this card are regular expenses for our household.

I'm pretty sure we will take the plunge and open the Southwest Rapids Rewards Premiere credit card soon. We will only open one in my husband's name to begin with. It does have a $2000 spending requirement. I don't want to jump on two cards too quickly. It makes it harder to track and I don't want to not make the spending requirement. I'll let you know when we are approved for that one.

I hope to have some Ebay updates later this month. I have been coming across quite a few things lately that need to be sold. I'll start with five to six items this Sunday.

Here's to more snowflakes!!

I finally have my

CapitalOne 360 referral link. I don't know that any of you want to use it, since the incentive for you is not as great as it was at the beginning of July during their Independence Day Sale. I receive $20 deposited in my account if you use my link for the 360 Checking account. If you open the savings account, I only get the $20, if your initial deposit is $250 or more. The interest rate is 0.75% APR. Thanks in advance if you use the link.

My total snowflakes for July so far total $133.47. I expect this to be much, much higher by the end of the month, since I should easily have another $400 in credit rewards redeemed by then. Thus my principal payment to the mortgage will be a nice big one compared to the $56 I sent in last month.

We started using the Capital One Quicksilver card two days ago. I used it to pay the electric, phone and internet bills, as well as that $75 speeding fine my husband incurred in May. We only need to spend $157.09 to meet the $500 spending requirement. We will then net $100 in Rewards. I expect we will use the card to buy fuel for our vehicles over the next two weeks and meet the requirement with no problem.

I'm only 70 Swagbucks away from redeeming another $25 PayPal cash deposit. I expect I can accumulate those by the end of the day.

How are you snowflakes coming along? Are you still looking for ways to accumulate snowflakes? Anyone selling on Ebay?

I logged on to our bank account today to find those pesky Capital One 360 test deposits. They were there. A whopping $0.27. I will add to my snowflakes for this month. (And, no, I still can't refer a friend. Ugh.)Something wasn't right however...the balance was...well significantly lower.

We have only had about six transactions since payday. They were all there. It took me awhile to figure out that I made an extra mortgage payment! The August payment to be exact. Apparently, I did this when I made that extra $56 principal payment on Monday. I thought this was just the regularly schedule payment I was seeing, but no that definitely not what I was seeing.

Our regular P&I payment is $973.66. The second payment this month had $437.99 go to principal and $535.67 to interest. I'm guessing interest will accrue until September though, thus making our payment in September have more interest taken out right? That isn't good. Or I guess we prepaid that interest now, so the next payment due in September would just be divided normally? I'm confusing myself!!

Luckily, there is plenty of cash in the checking account to cover it. I just need to keep track of that until August. And pay that money back with the August payday. I also need to go in and cancel our regular payment for August because right now Wells Fargo has it scheduled to withdraw.

I will definitely call tomorrow to see if they can back the payment out or change it to full principal payment. I'm open to thoughts and ideas on this. I have never make this mistake in all the years we have had mortgages. Apparently there is a first time for everything!

Happy Independence Day!

I sent $56 toward the principal on our mortgage today. This is money from Swagbucks and Pinecone surveys that I accumulated in June. Our regular payment was pending and the bank will add it to our regular payment to pull one payment from our bank account. I was able to specify that the money will go to principal.

It does seem strange to make a little extra payment, but I know that the small amounts add up to make a difference. It feels good to put money I don't need to live on to make a difference in our debt, which is the mortgage at this point.

Our goal isn't to pay it off, but to be in a good position when we need to sell for the next Army move. Luckily we have a few more years here to make a little difference.

Did you make an extra principal payment on your mortgage this month? Was your extra payment over or under $100?

I believe we are now done with the three credit cards I took out in my name for the rewards. With the spending part that is! Now to pay them off before interest is due. Those companies are not getting one extra cent from us.

I charged the Washington DC trip early last week on the American Express Blue Cash Everyday card. That charge of $1201 has posted. And the rewards of $150 are already available! I plan to redeem the reward and put the $150 I would have paid into the equity fund. I will do this when I pay bills this weekend. Right now my plan is to pay the money off at a rate of $150 per month, since the account is 0% for over a year. I will keep you posted, so you know I'm keeping my promise to pay it off.

The Citi card was just under $500 in charges when we left for vacation. I have not added up our expenses yet, but I can see the balance on the card is around $885. There are also charges of over $300 pending, so we can put a fork in that card. We have met the $1000 in spending to redeem $250 in gift cards once the rewards post. I will also have this card paid down right away when I pay bills this weekend. I'll keep you updated.

I think I mentioned that I'm just waiting for one more charge to post to the Capital One card to meet the $500 in spending. It is our Verizon bill of $150. Since I'm expecting $100 in rewards, my plan is wait for the rewards to post and redeem as a credit, pay the balance and save the $100+ in rewards in the equity account. I might change my mind and wait for a check, but I doubt it.

Now...I have to talk to DH about applying for these same cards, so we can start the cycle again for another $500 to $600 in rewards!

We are currently taking advantage of credit card bonus and reward offers to make a little cash since we can't get good interest rates on our savings with out increased risk. While credit cards do involve risk, it is risk we able to manage by charging only our regular expenses and paying them off right away. I only suggest this to those responsible enough to avoid any interest charges.

I made the first payment to Capital One today in the amount of $348.44. These are all the charges that have posted to the account at this point. I actually went to make the payment last night, but the electric bill payment that I schedule had not posted. So I waited. It was there this morning though!

I have our Verizon phone bill and Netflix scheduled for later this month. Those charges will complete the minimum spending requirement to receive the $100 cash. I will make the final payment to the card on July 1st.

I do have to remember that it is sometimes easier to ask for a statement credit when redeeming these rewards, rather than waiting for a check in the mail. So my first step before making the final payment really should be to redeem the rewards towards the final balance. Then pay the final balance and stash the money I would have paid on the card in our house down payment account. See? One has to be organized and think ahead on these things!!

Do you pay your utility bills online with a debit or credit card? Or do you snail mail the check? Anyone pay their utility bill in person?

The Citi Thank You Preferred card that I received earlier this month has been used just a little in the amount of $25.11. There actually was a statement issued already! That amount has been paid as of this evening.

This card has a $1000 minimum purchase to earn $250 in gift cards. We have three months to meet the goal. We will use it for everything we normally purchase and our small in state vacation at the end of the month. I expect by the end of the month we will have met the goal. Just $974.89 to go.

In fact, I did use this card today for fuel in my van, a gift card for my dad, and a book of stamps, which was around $85. I think my husband probably used it to pay for his haircut.

I do have a few out of the norm expenses that can be charged if needed. Prescription sunglasses and flute maintenance specifically.

The spending needed on these cards for the $500 in rewards bonuses is going fast. I may have my husband apply for these cards soon, so we have them on hand for another round of rewards. He will be able to apply for one additional card, Chase Freedom, so his ability to earn some rewards will be slightly larger, $600 I think.

On another note, I'm just 500 Swagbucks from earning another $25 gift card. I have not made goal at least two days this week. I wouldn't have anyway with vacation planned for later in the month. I don't want to be glued to Swagbucks when I can be enjoying my family and the beautiful scenery of the Mississippi River, right?!

Are you taking a vacation this summer? Are you flying or driving? Are you staying close to home? Who is traveling the farthest away?

Using credit cards to obtain rewards is only for those with cash to pay off purchases right away before interest accrues. And those organized enough to keep track of the charges, and due dates. We are not making purchases we wouldn't be making normally. All rewards are to bulk up the savings in our down payment fund.

The Citi Thank You Preferred card that I received earlier this month has been used just a little in the amount of $25.11. There actually was a statement issued already! That amount has been paid as of this evening.

This card has a $1000 minimum purchase to earn $250 in gift cards. We have three months to meet the goal. We will use it for everything we normally purchase and our small in state vacation at the end of the month. I expect by the end of the month we will have met the goal. Just $974.89 to go.

In fact, I did use this card today for fuel in my van, a gift card for my dad, and a book of stamps, which was around $85. I think my husband probably used it to pay for his haircut.

I do have a few out of the norm expenses that can be charged if needed. Prescription sunglasses and flute maintenance specifically.

The spending needed on these cards for the $500 in rewards bonuses is going fast. I may have my husband apply for these cards soon, so we have them on hand for another round of rewards. He will be able to apply for one additional card, Chase Freedom, so his ability to earn some rewards will be slightly larger, $600 I think.

On another note, I'm just 500 Swagbucks from earning another $25 gift card. I have not made goal at least two days this week. I wouldn't have anyway with vacation planned for later in the month. I don't want to be glued to Swagbucks when I can be enjoying my family and the beautiful scenery of the Mississppi River, right?!

Are you taking a vacation this summer? Are you flying or driving? Are you staying close to home? Who is traveling the farthest away?

Using credit cards to obtain rewards is only for those with cash to pay off purchases right away before interest accrues. And those organized enough to keep track of the charges, and due dates. We are not making purchases we wouldn't be making normally. All rewards are to bulk up the savings in our down payment fund.

I began using the Capital One card this weekend while we were at my daughter's art fair exhibit ($550 in gross sales). It was at a town 30 minutes away, thus we ate out a little bit and treated my parents to dinner at home after the event ended on Sunday.

As it stands now, I have actual charges on the Capital One card in the amount of $348.44. These charges are as follows:
$_42.05 Z Restaurant
$_26.75 Art Fair purchase
$__3.20 Frozen yougert
$_59.94 Fuel for my van
$_53.34 Groceries
$_15.23 Michael's (frames)
$127.09 Electric bill
$_20.84 Laptop battery
$348.44 Total Purchases

Our Netflix subscription will be charged to the card on June 20 for $7.99. On June 29 when my Verizon wireless bill posts to the account in the amount of $150.85 we will meet the $500 minimum purchase requirement to receive the $100 reward.

Payday is Friday and I'm juggling a few cards and due dates, but there will be payments made to this card before one statement is even issued. Gotta love online management of credit cards and cash rewards!

Using credit cards to obtain rewards is only for those with cash to pay off purchases right away before interest accrues. And those organized enough to keep track of the charges, and due dates. We are not making purchases we wouldn't be making normally. All rewards are to bulk up the savings in our down payment fund.

Now that I have completed our Snowflakes for Christmas, 2013 edition, I need a new place to put the snowflakes to work.

I will be adding these future 2013 snowflakes to our home equity. Sometimes, I may add them to cash that we are allocating to our future down payment or I may send them straight to the mortgage company to help pay down our principal balance. I leaning towards the latter. I will likely only move the money into the savings account or to the mortgage once a month. I will track it all here on the blog just as I have done with our Christmas Snowflakes.

The new goal will be called Snowflakes for Equity. I have made the goal $1000, which I think is a little high, but definitely possible. I hope to accomplish this new Snowflake goal by the end of 2013.

The exciting part is that I have money to add to it already! I received a $3 payment from Pinecone Surveys and my most recent $25 PayPal cash deposit from Swagbucks today. That's $28 towards our mortgage equity position!

Anyone working on paying down their mortgage? What is your plan? Little payments often, large lump sums, or a regular payment every month? Maybe a combination?

I think I've mentioned this offer before, but I thought I would bring it up again in case it may benefit anyone in their debt pay down journey.

Chase has a credit card called

Slate that is currently offering 0% interest for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers. The really nice thing is that you can transfer your balance from another card(s) for no fee in the first 60 days. This is only worth it, if you can pay off the balance you transfer in full within the 15 month time frame.

If you already have a Chase card, it is unlikely you could transfer that balance to this card, but you could call and ask!

And just so you know, I don't get any compensation for this referral. Just trying to help my fellow savers!

I ran across

this article on Yahoo today, where the couple paid off $50,000 of debt in one year by living on less than half their income, living with their parents, and having a grocery list of ten items.

The grocery list of ten items was: eggs, milk, bread, chicken, salmon, broccoli, brussel sprouts, asparagus, berries and oatmeal.

Could you live on just these ten food items for one year? I actually think I could. Just not sure about the rest of the family!

The title for the truck arrive in the mail today. We officially own our truck free and clear!! I asked my husband this weekend if he was excited that we had paid it off. He really wasn't. He thought it was likely because I'm the one who make the payments and keeps track of it. Yeah, probably so. It's all good either way!

My Ebay buyer did pay this afternoon. I will print the postage and get it to the post office tomorrow. I did a return of the Old Navy jeans to get the better online price and use my reward money. Now instead of $32.10 for two pairs of jeans, I actually paid $13.18 for two pairs. Pretty good deal!!

Here's a free Flavor Code off the A&W root beer bottle I bought last night for a pick me up: 6SFZ ZDA7 SFPQ. If it doesn't work, it probably has been used by someone else. Act fast! Now if I could just get a survey to credit on Swagbucks so I can meet today's high goal!

We are now debt free except for the mortgage! I really like saying that.

This mortgage was taken out on our brand new home in our new town in July 2012. It is our first VA loan, which did not require any down payment. This means we paid an insurance fee to do so. I can't say I'm too proud of those last two statements. My thought process was to get into a house without our equity, so that in the next move, we have the down payment ready to go in cash, without needing to sell the house.

Our rate is 2.75%. It is adjustable, but fixed for five years. After five years it can go up 1% per year, up to five percent. The maximum rate the loan could ever go is 7.75%, which isn't a bad rate historically. However, we won't be here for much more than six years and maybe only three. I'm also not too proud of buying a house considering the need to move frequently.

Were there houses to rent here? Yes. Did I see too many that met my standards, would allow cats and had a fair rent for the space? No. I actually did some calculations that put us at spending the same amount for housing whether we rented or bought. If we rented the rent would be high, but would equal our house payment, plus real estate agent fee when we sold. So, I chose the house. We get to deduct interest. We get to decide if we paint or not. We get to keep our cats with us. We are in control.

In the next 2.5 years, I would like to build our house equity and down payment fund to a total of 20% of the original value of the home. We had over 10%, but not the full 20%. I actually may increase that goal, but for now I think it is the most logical and obtainable.

The proceeds from our last house are in a money market account earning 0.85%APR. I'm on the lookout for a better rate right now. I have thought about sending it in to the mortgage, but that would not jive with my original thought process. Sending the money in would decrease the balance owed and decrease the amount of interest we are paying each month...thus increasing our equity faster. I do know that! And it is a little appealing.

I'm thinking that an additional principal payment every month to the mortgage would be the best. It increases the equity and reduced the interest paid each additional month, just not in the same way as sending in that lump sum. I will need to run some numbers to see where we might end up in 2.5 years and see what the difference would be. I know which will be better, but by how much is the real question.

So, the main goal going forward is to increase net worth, which will increase easily as we save and continue to pay down the mortgage. I will likely start tracking this soon on the blog, so stay tuned.

I think I opened up a big discussion topic here, so feel free to chime in with your thoughts and ideas. Be nice, but honest, please! What would you do based on the situation outlined above?

It's nice to see zero once in awhile!

I just made an online payment to our truck loan that will pay the loan off in full. The payment was $1443.30, which includes the final $4.04 of interest due.

We originally took this loan out in May 2011 for $14,776,70. We made regular payments on it for 15 months. In the last 8 months we have made big, big payments to get the loan down to ZERO!!!

We are debt free, except our mortgage. Happy, happy, happy! I'm looking forward to getting the title in the mail. That always makes it seem real when you pay off a vehicle.

The question of the day: Do you have debt on your vehicle(s) or is it paid off? Do you have a plan to pay it off? Are you saving for the next vehicle?

Yesterday was payday and I did find some money to put on the truck loan. I sent in $593.81 to be applied to the principal balance.

Our new loan balance is $1,439.34.

We are under $1500. So, so close!

This loan WILL be paid off by the end of the month. Right now I'm just contemplating when that will be. It just has to feel right, I guess. The most likely scenario is to make another payment on March 15 (next payday), make a regular payment on March 17, and then take the final amount from savings to have it paid off just after that.

However, my other thought is....just pay it off now! I can then apply the same money mentioned above to savings to pay ourselves back. In the meantime, I save us some interest (a whopping $4).

So for fun, I'll take a poll. Pay off now, or pay off later in March? Let me know.