I'm making peanut butter cookies (with chocolate chips) to celebrate my daughter's half birthday. I'm thrilled to have all the ingredients in the house! She will be thrilled that I thought of her.

I wish I could say that makes it a no spend day, but I ventured out in negative temperatures to get my hair cut! I'm crazy.

If it is crazy cold where you are, you might check the air in your tires. My van alerted me yesterday, that mine were low on air. Stay warm!

I have nearly $1100 set aside that I was trying to decide what to do with. I now know what it is being used for.

I sent my husband to get the oil changed in the car yesterday. Turns out a major repair was needed to the tune of $975! When they lifted the car (2002 Ford Taurus) up the strut on the back left of the vehicle broke stabbing the tire at the same time. Guess what? We HAD to get new struts on the back and a new tire.

We already had a similar thing happen to the front end about a year ago. This is VERY common on these cars. It won't happen again since these are manufactured different than the original. Thank goodness! I'm so thankful we were not driving it at the time.

This car repair will set us back at least another two weeks on the home equity loan. At this point, I might just save up the money I need and then pay it off rather than little bits at a time. With my husband's overseas travel getting closer there are bound to be unplanned expenses. What I mean is my husband hasn't thought ahead to what those are and/or hasn't thought to tell me. Ugh!

My stress level has gone through the roof in the last 24 hours because of this car repair on top of other things going on. Crazy, really. I should be grateful we have the cash right now to pay it off without dipping into the emergency fund. I'm just disappointed with the set back. I will get through this!

I just finished cutting my Christmas cards into small gift tags for next years holiday gifts. I often use sticky gift tags I find on clearance or even blank address labels. Next year I won't need these. I will write on the back of the card tags I just made, punch a hole in the top and tie it to the gift.

My sister actually did this for this past Christmas and they turned out great. The holiday colors of the cards coordinate with the wrapping paper. I realize this isn't an original idea. It's been around. One can just write on the wrapping paper with marker to avoid the gift tag altogether.

It took me all of five minutes to make over 36 gift tags. I recycled the remainder of the cards and scraps. I will toss the tags in with my holiday wrap so I can find them next year.

I really am thrilled with this. I almost bought a package of sticky gift tags for $0.99 just before Christmas. The tags were wrapped in plastic, so I decided not to buy them. The cut up cards will be a great free and plastic free alternative.

You could find a pair of sissors and cut up your cards, too!

Our basic goals for 2010 break down like this:

1) Max out our Roth IRA's
2) Save 7% of basic pay in TSP
3) Pay off home equity loan
4) Save money for college
5) Add money to our emergency fund
6) Pay down/off van loan
7) Save cash for a truck
8) Convert IRA's (if feasible)

I plan to flesh these goals out with exact numbers soon. These goals will take us into 2011 when we expect my husband to return from overseas.

The retirement goals are automated, so these will be easy. The home equity loan is top on my list with an expected payoff at the end of February!

We often have focused goals. One or two big ones at a time. My husband's deployment will bring in extra cash so we are going to tackle several goals at a time.

I went roller skating with the girls today. And I actually fell down once! The palms of my hands hurt. We were able to skate and rent skates for $4.50 per person and skated for nearly three hours.

The rest of the day will consist of organizing. The basement has become a bit of a catchall recently. I'm going to set some clear piles for donation, ebay and garage sales. The donation pile will end up at Goodwill tomorrow! I'm also going to take down a few of the holiday decorations. The tree will stay up until Friday.

Enjoy your last few days of the year!

Among the numerous gifts we received this Christmas, we received cash or cash equivalents.

$30 Cash
$20 Barnes and Noble
$25 JC Penney
$50 Scheels

We feel very blessed.

Yep, the day after Christmas and we are going shopping. We want to hit Old Navy for an exchange. The store also has jeans on sale, which my daughter's both need. Might as well get a good deal on them!

We will spend the rest of our day prepping for travel. The snow has finally stopped. Our area really didn't get too much, but our destination did. We just need to make sure the roads are clear and safe. Our time away will be less than originally planned, too. So be it.

Less than one week of 2009. I want to make a list of things to accomplish before year end. How about you?

Ah...the weather in the midwest likes to change every minute. As a result, our travel plans have come to a near screeching halt. Of course, it is for our own safety, so I'm not complaining.

Instead of traveling on Thursday, we will get to stay home and have our first ever immediate family Christmas!! We can sleep late, or get up early. We can take a nap and stay in our pj's all day if we want.

Yes it is disappointing to not be with other family. Unfortunately, it is difficult to argue with mother nature! We hope to travel soon after the storm clears and it is safe to drive. Getting all of my inlaws together again is going to be another act of nature in itself.

Snowed in for three days: should be cheap!

We will be buying a new computer in the near future. Specifically, a laptop.

We have one now that my husband will take with him during deployment. That will leave me needing a new one. And yes, it is a need.

A computer, with email, and the ability to send and receive videos is essential to our emotional well being during deployment.

Right now, we have a pretty good idea of what we want to buy. The current price is very good at $449, through Monday. I'd rather wait until after the holidays to take on this additional expense. However, I wonder if the price will go up considerably if we wait. Or will the price drop after the holidays. Does anyone know?

We could even wait a couple months. I just want the best price.

This year my out of pocket costs for gift wrapping were near zero! Technically, I bought many of the items in the past, so they cost me something at some point.

I wrapped most items in wrapping paper, which I already owned. I save bows from previous years, if they still look good, and reuse them. This year was no different. I also seemed to have a stash of gift tags. I've decided for future years not to buy gift tags, but use red or green card stock to make a small folded card(the size of a business card) to tape on the gift.

I also wrapped many gifts in gift bags! I skip the tissue paper in most cases and close the top of the bag with tape to keep out little hands and eyes! The gift bags get used over and over, too. I have an abundance of these this year and will give my mom a stack so she doesn't go out and buy new ones.

The only thing I bought for gift wrapping was tape...on sale of course. This is a good item to buy with Walgreen's register rewards if you don't know what to purchase.

How do you keep your gift wrapping costs down?

Wow! I love my kids, but I do appreciate when they head back to school. Today was very productive and so far spend free!

Here's what I accomplished:
Christmas Cards
Vacuumed
Cleaned three bathrooms
Washed kitchen floor
Worked out at gym
Balanced checkbook (yes, I do this)
Made grocery list

We have a busy weekend that I need to prepare for tonight. Stay warm and enjoy your weekend.

Guess what? Another snow day for the girls of the creditcardfree household! Our street didn't get plowed until sometime overnight. The temperatures are dangerously cold with the wind chill. I'm pretty sure this is why school was cancelled.

We just finished a game of Monopoly(Disney Themepark Edition). I had a couple of monopolies, including one set with castles (hotels)!! One of my daughter's landed on my property and owed me 550 wishes (dollars). It caused her to go bankrupt! Game over.

They are now painting and I'm going to catch up on housework. Laundry and vaccuuming are on the list for this afternoon. The last couple days have been fun, but tomorrow I'm going to NEED to get out of the house for a bit.

Stay warm!

We are officially snowed in in the creditcardfree household. I think we got 14 inches at least. The snow is expected to blow at blizzard speed until this evening. Even if we wanted out, the 5 foot drift that blocks our garage is standing in the way. I sure don't want to dig it out in this wind!

Luckily, we still have power, heat and internet! I received an email from our bank (USAA) that they paid us $24.55 as a subscriber's account distribution. I think that means we are members and investors in some way. This is more than double what we received last year. The bank had a good year! I think the longer we remain with them the bigger the distributions are. We'll take it!

The snow day is going well. We've made peanut butter cookies, cleaned one bedroom and are about to start wrapping gifts. One child, who can't wait, is tugging on my sleeve right now! It's a good snow day.

I'm thinking the next few days will be no spend days. The snow is about to hit us hard here. We have two inches on the ground as of this morning and up to 12 inches more to arrive tomorrow. Ugh!

In the meantime, we will stay warm inside, play games, address Christmas cards, wrap gifts, listen to music, bake a goodie, drink warm beverages and enjoy each others company.

I'm looking forward to it!

OMG! I just added up the number of people we are giving gifts to this year. 30. I think I'm in shock! I had no idea it was that many.

I've included our immediate family, extended family, teachers, a coworker and friends. The list is pretty typical of most years.

Luckily, I've been getting some very good deals this year. For example, I bought three items from Old Navy today and paid only $2.47 out my own pocket! Nice.

Right now, there really isn't a way to trim down the list, unless I knock out the teachers and friends. The biggest part of the list is extended family. I have 10 neices and nephews, age 21 to 6 mos old. I can get away with less than $10 for the youngest ones and spend around $15 for the older ones. In fact, many are getting just that: $15 cash.

How many people do you buy for at the holidays?

We haven't headed out yet, but we have plans to spend this weekend. Gas for the vehicles and snowblower, groceries, Christmas gifts and stamps, boots and snow gloves for both girls. The snow starts tomorrow ending with a bang on Tuesday!

I think we are going to see a movie tomorrow, too. Our time with DH is going to be more and more limited in 2010, so we want to get out and do a few outings together.

I'm waiting for a check from my mother in law. She wants me to buy the gifts for the girls. No problem. Just get me the money! The amount seems to vary from year to year making it a little difficult to plan.

I think we are going to see a movie tomorrow, too. Our time with DH is going to be more and more limited in 2010, so we want to get out and do a few outings together.

We went through DH's civilian clothes. I want to get rid of the stuff he isn't wearing anymore now, rather than while he is gone or even after he returns. We did find quite a few items to donate from his heavier days over two years ago. I hope we can do a little more decluttering this weekend. The girls rooms need some help, too.

On my desk, I have 4 seperate $10 coupons for Old Navy, a $10 Kohl's coupon and $5 off a Hallmark purchase. I don't have to spend a minimum to use these, so it's like free money!

I also have a $10 off a $30 purchase at Bath & Body Works. I can used this to buy a nice gift for a sister in law, with only about $20 out of my pocket.

I'm using the $10 Kohl's coupon to buy some items for my sister. I will end up getting $30 worth of items for $11, by using the coupon with their sale.

I don't have specific plans for the Old Navy and Hallmark coupons. I will only use them if the right gift can be purchased for someone on my gift list.

I guess the marketing is working a bit on me!! Sorry, DisneySteve. I know this shopping stuff is wearing you out.

I made a big payment to our home equity loan today in the amount of $935. As a result, the loan balance is now $4,236.95!
I think we can get to under $4K by the end of the year.

I told my husband I made a large payment to the loan. He said, "What? A double or triple payment?" Umm...our regular payment is $118. That's almost 8 times the regular payment! Can you tell he doesn't pay to much attention to this stuff?

I bought 20 holiday picture cards online yesterday from Kodak. I never send out picture cards, but I took a really nice picture of our girls while we were at my parents over Thanksgiving. I found a 40% off coupon and with shipping paid $11.78. Pretty good! I now need to buy some stamps.

I'm thinking of buying our new digital camera from Amazon. I realized that I can save the sales tax by purchasing from them. The camera I'm looking at comes with an extra memory card if I buy from Amazon as well. I would save about $24 online. It seems worth it. I just need to run it by my husband.

The last few days went quickly and were enjoyable for the most part. My only Black Friday shopping consisted of picking up some lotion and soaps while we were at Whole Foods. This was around noon! So I was not one of the crack of dawn shoppers.

My husband's family has decided to draw names for gifts. We have two names, each with a $25 limit. Last year we did a white elephant exchange and the two years before the limit was $15 each. It's a bit amusing to me, as several family members are unemployed, so you'd think this would be the year for a white elephant repeat, rather than an increase in the gift limit.

Our house has been decorated for Christmas. We had a couple strands of light that are no longer working. We have decided we don't need as many lights outside anyway! Saves us cash from buying more and some energy for less lights being used!

Yesterday's mail brought us a $50 gift card from Qwest for being loyal customers. I also received the $50 restauant.com certificate last week from them as well. Nice!

Today, I'm pretty run down with a cold. Darn. I guess I caught something while traveling. Yes, I'm drinking lots of fluids.

Tomorrow...I'm shopping online! The less time in the stores the better.

Tomorrow before traveling we are having a baking day. I'm only making two things. A pumpkin pie and banana bread. I'm making lots of banana bread since I seem to have an abundance of frozen bananas. I will give to any family members that want some.

I'm trying to watch my food intake and exercise more, so banana bread is not on my list of things to eat. Especially in abundance! Giving it way: good for me and for the receiver (as long as they aren't watching the calories, too!).

My family is getting a Wii for Christmas. I purchased the console when the price dropped to $199. But...I hear you need additional remotes. And, of course, games!

It comes with Wii Sports (I think). But, any thoughts/advice on which other game or games I should get?

I'm thinking maybe two, maybe just one, additional games initially. Those will give us plenty to play with over the holidays.

I've also heard you can buy games used, as well as rent them from the video store.

I'd love to hear what you think my initial investment should be. We will get the girls a few stocking stuffers, but the Wii is our gift this year.

My parents gave us each $100 for our birthdays. Yipee! I love cash gifts.

My sister gave us beer glasses and beer (for DH), a stainless steel water bottle and yoga pants(for me).

I feel very blessed! Basically, the cash will help offset our own birthday costs. I still don't know what DH has spent on my birthday, but I'm sure it's over $50, but less than $100.

I'm still waiting to look at our bank accounts. It's pure torture!

Oh my gosh what a crazy day! I went to a gym with two neighbors that aren't currently gym goers. We ALL signed up for memberships. I even signed my husband up, even though he has not visited!! What am I doing?

Actually, we are all really excited. In fact, we are going back up to actually work out!! Can you tell we like to be together and are excited?!

I paid an upfront membership fee of $79 for my husband and I to have a metro membership. This means we can visit other locations, including one with a running track, sauna and pool! I don't pay anything again until January 1st! I think our rate is $69/month. This seems a little high, but we are getting some extras with the ability to go to mulitple locations. I also can adjust my membership anytime to single...like when you know who gets deployed. Nice of them to work with us.

So excited!!

It's payday! I do always love me a payday. I know. Incorrect grammer. Anyway, there are decisions to be made and they are not directly related to payday.

I bought a pair of pants and a top from JC Penney a few days ago. We thought we were attending a baptism this weekend. Turns out the date has changed and we can't attend on the rescheduled date. I rarely dress up, so I need to decide whether to return the items or not. I paid $34.22 with tax for the two items. It is possible that something will come up in the next several weeks where dressy could be nice, but not necessary. So, I need to decide. Thoughts?

I'm going with two neighbor ladies to check out a gym this morning. Our membership expired this week, so I'm in the market for a new one. I will need to decide on that soon.

I have been told not to look at our bank accounts until my birthday. My husband has been shopping and doesn't want me know the amount spent or where he shopped. Ugh! Do you know how hard it is NOT to look at your bank account? It is hard!! It's even harder when it is payday and I should be paying bills. Help. I think I'm going to go crazy.

We are traveling this weekend and expect to spend a few dollars. Oh...but we are celebrating our birthday's with extended family, so cash and gifts will be exchanged. Yipee!!

I hope your payday is more fun than mine. I'm sure it will be since you can actually look at your bank account!! Enjoy.

The home equity loan should be paid off in February or March of 2010. I'm really looking forward to it, primarily because of our new plan!

We will start funding our girls college accounts again after a little more than a year off. The remaining extra funds will go to increase our emergency fund by $5000. I expect to complete that by the end of May 2010.

Once, the EF hits $15,000 I'm going to divide our extra funds towards paying off our van loan (did you know I had one?), adding smaller amounts to the emergency fund and saving for a truck!

I'll be giving you lots more information about these goals as they are happen. I know you like that kind of thing!

Deployment is getting closer. As a result there will be some extra government cash to help us realize those goals. Yipee for that. Of course, that's the ONLY positive thing about deployment. Emotionally it is a huge drag.

My daughter's have concerts (vocal and band) next week for school where they need to dress nice. My youngest has a dress, pants and a shirt that will work, but she needs shoes. My older daughter needs everything!

Last night, we went to the mall and hit JC Penney's. My older daughter found pants for $12.99 and a shirt for $14.99. With tax, I spent less than $30!! I'm thrilled that we were able to find items quickly and at great prices.

We attempted one shoe store last night, but did not come up with anything that would work. We will go again this weekend.

In addition to dress clothes and shoes, my daughter's need snow gloves and boots. They both WANT new snow pants, but they don't NEED them, so they are last on the list. I'd like to find the snow pants used, if possible.

I need new clothes, too!! For some reason, I'm always on the last of the list. Well, it's probably because I don't work outside the home.

My daughter's rodents all passed away in October. The hamster died first. Then exactly two weeks later one mouse died. Our oldest mouse, who was getting thin and arthritic, died two days later.

Cause: unknown

They are all buried by one of the trees in our yard. They each had a private ceremony. A simple unmarked rock identifies each grave.

We all grieved in our own ways. Someone wanted to get a bird. Someone had tears. A couple of us felt relief from the costs and time involved in caring for them. They are missed. Even the cats seem lost!

Financially: no bedding, food, cleaning supplies to buy. The cages and accessories are up for sale on craigslist.

I'm a planner. I plan ahead. Ocassionally, too far ahead. Two weeks ago I bought a large bag of candy for our trick or treaters. I told the family: have a couple pieces and save the rest.

A day later, my husband realizes he can't resist the candy, so buys another bag for us to eat. A big bag. Fine. I guess I could eat a few pieces of chocolate. Who am I to argue!

He mixes the new bag of candy with the first bag! What? Why do that? Here's the confession: over the course of a week we eat both bags of candy. Both bags. Large bags of chocolate candy. Now that can't be healthy. I'm sure that was nearly $20 worth of candy.

I bought another large bag on Sunday. Yes, I had a couple pieces again! But that bag is ready for the beggars tonight.

Yes. Tonight. October 30th. Our town among others in this state trick or treat the night before Halloween. Oh! And you have to tell a joke at the door.

Joke: What do witches put in their hair?
Scare spray!

Have a great Halloween! I hope I can stay out of my daughter's candy. Well wish me luck anyway.

Yep...but not for us!

One is for a woman who lived in this house prior to us. The debt seems to be in her maiden name. The company only leaves messages. If I do answer the phone, then I hear the same recorded message.

The second collection call is for my brother in law!! He lives in another state. I denied knowing him...which my husband said was okay. I don't know his situation exactly. But collectors are relentless and I don't want to get involved. That time it was a live person and she said she would remove our phone number. Good!

My BIL actually has always worked for his older brother (another BIL). He doesn't have his GED and does handyman type work for rental properties. I just found out the older BIL had to file bankruptcy. As a result not as much income/work for the brother in law we are getting collection calls for. Ugh! I'm so sorry things are not going well for either of them. It is just very sad.

As a precaution, I'm going to pull our credit reports today. I don't expect to find anything. If I find something...I'm sure you'll be one of the first to know.

My daughter has been home since Friday with what started out as a sore throat and no fever. I kept her out of school as a precaution.

Over the weekend her temperature was never over 100. She began coughing and was low on energy. She had a stuffy nose. She was still able to play games and make believe on the floor with her sister. She did not sleep extra.

Sunday night we thought she would be ready for school on Monday. Monday she looked run down and felt that way. So she stayed home and has been home everyday since because in the afternoon she will spike a fever over 100 degrees. As a result have to keep her home for another 24 hours.

Yesterday, we visited the doctor who said this is most likely the H1N1 influenza. I was shocked. I just thought she had a cold!!

Luckily tonight she is not running a fever at all. She will go back to school tomorrow. In fact, she has been catching up on homework all day. Unfortunately, the cough still remains for now.

We hardly ever get the flu and rarely have vaccinated for it. I'm glad that my daughter's experience has been mild. I have heard it has been the same with other children in our area. She now will have immunity for the H1N1 this season.

I have read some