Updated: We are not getting the puppy referenced in my post. I did more research and agree with those of you posting that a Jack Russell is not the dog for us with cats. Thanks for responding!

Our family is considering getting a puppy. A female Jack Russell. We are visiting it on Saturday! It is a little daunting since as a family we have not owned a dog, only two cats. My husband and I each had a dog growing up.

I now need to read up on how to introduce a puppy to cats and have them get along. I read about them needing to be crated or on leash in the house until we(the pack leader) can control the dog and teach it to not chase the cats.

What else should we know? Share anything or point me to a book that would be helpful.

(In other news, I got another $20 reward from Ooma for referring someone to their services. At this point, I'm making money on my home phone!)

We went to see Garth Brooks in concert on Saturday in Chicago. It was fabulous!!!!

Now I'm playing catch up on everything needing to be done here at home along with paying bills since today is payday. I'm also trying to estimate my husband's travel reimbursements for a couple of recent trips. He actually worked Saturday and Sunday morning in Chicago, so our transportation, hotel and some food were covered! This made the cost of the trip far less expensive. The work part wasn't even originally planned for the date we chose to go to the concert.

I just wrote a check for $55.11 for my daughter's high school graduation cap, gown and tassel (and maybe a stole?). They get to keep everything! When I graduated, we only kept the cap and tassel. The gowns were rented and turned back in right after graduation. We are skipping the fancy announcements since she doesn't care for them. We will likely make our own...although as I write that I'm really wondering if we should just get 25 of them. Those would cost $28.75. Although, then I'm realizing those wouldn't have her name on them, and to get the name cards adds even more ($18+). Now I'm back to making our own. Since ALL of our family is out of town, we really don't expect too many of them to make the trip for the ceremony. She also isn't into the open house party thing either. So...we'll keep it simple and frugal.

I had over $31 from Chase Rewards that I redeemed and matched with an extra mortgage payment. Included in that payment was a recent purchase made with Amazon gift cards and our US Bank rewards. This all means $57.12 in snowflakes and less mortgage debt. I like that!!

I have earned more than $5 from Ibotta and should be able to cash out now. I just need to make that request. I completed a Pinecone survey last night and received credit this morning, so claimed my cash!

I went shopping for groceries today and spent under $90! It seems like forever since my bill was so low. I did try to make our meal plan using things we already had on hand. Tonight I made egg casserole because I had the milk, eggs and bread on hand. I did buy mushrooms, sausage and cheese for it. Would have been cheaper to just do eggs and toast, but I will use the extra cheddar cheese for tacos later in the week and extra sausage on our pizza. I made sure to use my Target Cartwheel app for savings, as well as a few printed coupons. I always love a successful trip at the grocery store!

Now I need a nap! It's been a tiring few days. How was your weekend? Did anyone else see Garth Brooks?

Since I recently made a large purchase of tissues, I thought I'd at least make a note of the purchase and the total number of tissue boxes in our home as of this date.

On September 5, 2014 I purchased 24 boxes of Puffs Ultra Soft tissues for $21.68. This was purchased with an Amazon gift card obtain from Southwest Rapids Rewards Visa. Shipping was included or free with our Amazon Prime membership.

Prior to this purchase I already had 7 unopened boxes of tissues being stored in our home, along with several opened boxes of tissues. One of those recently was used up and discarded.

The current tissue status is as follows:
5 opened boxes of tissues
30 boxes of unopened tissues



I have stored 6 boxes in my new laundry cabinets, 10 boxes in the linen closet near my daughter's bathroom, 6 boxes in the garage entry closet, 7 boxes in my bathroom under the counter, and one box in the basement bathroom.

The tracking begins! What I really want to know is when we finish the last box of tissues, or at least no longer have 30 boxes stored. This will give me an idea of the average amount of tissues we use in a given period of time.

I mentioned earlier this month that I realized with my daughter turning 18 in March, I might not be able to contribute to her Coverdell Savings Account next year. Vanguard did confirm that after her birthday, we can no longer contribute to her account.

The plan has been to contribute $2000 per year for each of our daughters. If I stay with our current plan of contributing by month she would only have $501 as of her birthday. This is short $1499 of the goal.

I have made a new plan to get the $2000 into her account by her birthday in March. We will contribute $667 for January and February and $666 for March. The additional $500 invested each month with come from our Roth contributions in those months. For the first three months of 2015, our Roth contributions will be $208.33 each, rather than the $458.33 we currently each contribute monthly.

Beginning in April, the contributions for our oldest daughter will end. Our new Roth contributions will increase to $541.67 each for the remaining 9 months of the year. In the end we will contribute to all accounts the same amount we usually do, but the timing and monthly amounts will be different.

I could just take from savings in March and make up the difference, but I guess I just don't want to do that. Maybe if the market is way down, I will consider it to make sure we are getting a few more shares purchased. But for now, I like the new plan!

I'm going to limit my time on the computer today. I get the pleasure of mowing our yard today. It seems to have grown a lot in one week, likely due to all the rain and fertilizer we put down last week. I'd like to get to it right away, but it is chilly out there!!

Is it also okay to call shopping work? The girls need new jackets. Both of them had the zipper break on their's in the last couple months. I hoping for decent prices, but if we end up at a sporting goods store, that may mean more cash out of pocket. However, those are likely higher quality than the last ones we bought.

Those are the working goals. There are other work tasks to complete too, but I won't bore you with all those details. Have a frugal weekend!!

This post will be all over the place...although I think financially centered!

Our electric bill is lower by $16.97 because it is a co-op and they have return some of our capital credits. Our auto insurance went down to under $400 for the next six months. That saves about $35 I think.

All my eBay listings have ended. The only other thing I sold was my daughter's Nook. She gets the profits of $34.12 since she originally paid for it herself. I have some chives plants I pulled from our landscape beds that I hope to sell if even for $1 each. I have five I need to list on Craigslist. I may also put the unsold items back on eBay on Sunday. My selling is SLOW!

I plan to open a bank account with Navy Federal Credit Union to take advantage of the 5% CD, which is only for $5,000 max, but that is an easy $250. I still need to open the account with US Bank for at least a bonus of $150. I also have an offer of $50 for opening a Discover bank account.

My daughter applied to three colleges over the weekend. As of this morning, she has been accepted to all three. Application fees came to $125 for all three. She paid with her debit card and we will reimburse her. I wanted her to have the experience of paying with her own card and handling it all on her own. The only thing she needed from me was to confirm her social security number. She does actually have it memorized at this point!

My husband's unit is getting a new commander this weekend. It's common for the commander to have a little reception after the ceremony. They are to pay for it out of their own pocket. He isn't responding to my husband's email, so my husband has taken it upon himself to order the cake, drinks, flowers and purchase napkins and plates. He took $160 out of our bank account. Praying we end up getting reimbursed!! It seems we never do for these things. Sometimes my husband is just too nice.

My husband was also asked by a coworker if we had any cell phones we weren't using. Yep. Four to be exact. We are selling for cheap, or even giving her one if she'll accept it. She is just downgrading from her smartphone, which is costing her too much time and money. We have kept our old phones simply as backup since they aren't worth anything to sell.

My girls started back with flute lessons last night. Twenty dollars per half hour for each of them once a week adds up to $160 to $200 a month. No small change really. They have both benefited greatly though, so it is worth it.

It just came to me yesterday that I should find out if there is an age limit for contributing to our Coverdell Educational Savings accounts. Yes there is. It is 18. Since my oldest daughter turns 18 in March, I need to try to get her full 2015 contribution into her account before that date. I will likely just change amounts for our Roth's and younger daughter to compensate for larger contributions during the first three months of 2015. I'm just glad I know ahead of time!

My youngest daughter is selling magazines for school. I'm pretty sure we are skipping the entire thing. I don't need any magazines and I'm really tired of asking others if they need any. They are way over priced because it is a fundraiser, too.

My 52 Week Savings Challenge account held at Capital One 360 now has a balance of $1,098. Those $57 deposits twice a month do add up!

Okay, I think you are caught up with the financial happenings here. Did you know there was an age limit on Coverdell Savings accounts? Are you taking advantage of any bonus offers from banks or credit cards right now?

I'm back blogging over at Your Organized Friend again. I basically took the summer off. It is a bit difficult to be engaged with your kids, diving in to big projects and photographing and writing about them when they are at home a majority of the time.

Today's post is about our new laundry cabinets. We installed them on Friday and it really went well getting them mounted up on the wall.

The cabinets cost us just under $400. I think the knobs were another $16. We ended up renting a compound miter saw for $17 (for four hours...only needed it for one) to cut the crown moulding. We did attempt to use our plastic miter box, but it was too flexible to make the cuts precise. We also attempted to tack the moulding with nails and hammer, but the wood is so hard that it took a lot of pounding and too many bent nails. We bought a brad nailer and nails for $32, after our military discount at Lowe's.

Considering that the only storage in this laundry room was a cabinet under the sink, we think the expense of less than $500 makes a big difference in the functionality of the laundry room. It is true we could have put up shelving for far less, but for this type of home, the cabinets made the most sense. They match the kitchen cabinets that are in the next room. I may even use a little bit of the space to store some kitchen items that currently don't have a place in my kitchen.

Our weekend was a little spendy even in addition to the tools we purchased/rented. My husband and I rewarded ourselves with lunch out on Friday when we successfully hung the cabinets. We traveled 5+ hours back to our home state to meet our foster niece. We went our for ice cream during our visit, and purchased pizza and bread sticks for nine people. Obviously, we needed fuel for the van, which did result in a couple snack purchases. There was also one lunch on the road, too.

We proceeded to buy more pizza on our return home, since we didn't have much food in the house or the energy to grocery shop until yesterday. The groceries, including toilet paper, contact solution, batteries, and deodorant, were $155. I also made a shopping trip to get workout capri's since I was done to one pair. I spent $32 on those.

So...not our best weekend from a money standpoint, but it was good to visit family, meet the cutest 8 year old girl, and get some projects and tasks completed.

Did you save or spend this holiday weekend? What was the best part of your weekend?

So tired this morning. I had to pick my husband up from another airport that is nearly 2 hours away. He plan landed just before 11pm last night. So glad he was awake enough to drive back. I told him to ask for mileage reimbursement from the Army because that just isn't right that I needed to drive to get him. If it had been a school night or winter driving, I would have insisted on him getting a rental car.

I completed a Pinecone survey last week, so I expect another $3 next week in my PayPal account.

I sold three items on eBay this past week. One was an auction and the buyer has not paid. Boo. The other two were small sales, but I will have that money to throw at the mortgage.

I made another Target run yesterday, as another couple school supply requests were needed by my daughters. While I was there I stocked up on Kleenex, and vitamins which earned me two $5 Target gift cards. I used the one I earned from the previous day towards the purchase. My out of pocket expense was $53. So easy to drop big money sometimes. I used a $0.75 coupon on each of the three Kleenex bundled packages and was able to earn one of those $5 gift cards. I figured out that each box came to $0.77!

I did return two clothing items to Target that I purchased last weekend. That put $30 back in my pocket before that purchase above, so it does offset some of my new spending.

My youngest daughter and I got a free hotdog and soda from our school's booster club when we went to view the end of marching band showcase. I think they should have given them to the marching band kids after. It was so hot for them.

And it seems I have now been tagged in the Ice Bucket Challenge as well by my sister. My daughter still has not done hers, so now our whole family needs to get it done. My sister did point out that

SMA is similar to ALS only in babies. Her friend's daughter died as a result and she was less than 2 years old. She's donating to both causes. I may do that as well.

Hoping the weekend can be a little less spendy! But groceries will need to be bought.

I had a little Facebook conversation with my niece yesterday. She is 20 and been out of high school for over a year. She did go to college in her hometown for the past two semesters. She had a plan to move to California, where her Dad lives. Oh, and she just met him right after graduation last May.

Her Facebook post was about how she was to have left to go out there yesterday, but she had now delayed the move until mid March. She mentioned she needed to save more money in order to make the move.

I'm pretty sure her parents are not helping in any way, other than one of them will drive with her when it is time to go out there. She may still be living at home, but I know I heard some talk of living in an apartment.

I responded to her Facebook post advising her to make her savings goal specific and to break it down to figure out how much she should be saving each week or month to meet her goal. I also advised to do some research about the costs involved in moving, school tuition and fees, cost of gas, utilities and deposits. In other words, I advised making an educated guess as to how much to save.

Her response was, "You're 100% right, I've just been saving as I go, but I definitely need goals."

After that little response, I wrote again to say, "Hoping to get there, just doesn't always do it." She responded that she does need to actually start planning.

I don't have a lot of contact with my niece, since she is in another state. I don't know where her parents stand financially, but I would guess it is like the average american family, with credit card debt, car debt, mortgage and a little investing. And probably a tiny emergency fund. As a result, I couldn't help myself to give a little advice.

I hope it helps her. She is very motivated to get her college degree, so I think she has the potential to make the financial goals to get where she wants to go.

Have you found yourself giving financial advice to someone you don't normally discuss such things with?

School started today and with that plenty of forms came home. There are also things we need to buy, although a few are wants.

First was another pad lock needed for my daughter to lock up her ceramics projects in a locker each day. The lock was $3.41 at Target. And I bought another soda while I was there!! Ack. Same daughter needs to pay the art supply fee of $10.50. I took out cash to pay for that. At least, I lucked out and don't have to pay the fee for the younger daughter's art class. Apparently that school has done away with the fee.

I also wrote a check for pictures for the younger daughter. I bought the same package I always do that gives me an 8x10, two 5x7 for the grandparents, four 3x5 that we give to the aunts, and the rest are those little exchange style size that we give to anyone else that might want one or to give to friends. This was $23.50. I paid with the credit card. This is technically a want, but a little bit of a need since we do traditionally buy the school photos. Ours actually turn out really good and it makes the grandparents happy.

The next check I wrote was for $36. I bought three short sleeve band t shirts with this years theme on them. We will wear these to the football games, marching band competitions, and pep band performances. Of course, later we use them to work out in or just wear around. Again, this is a want. We did skip them the first year, but enjoyed having them last year, so we are in again this year.

My youngest daughter was challenged by a friend to do the #icebucketchallenge for ALS. She will do the challenge, but I also plan to make a small donation since that is the point of the challenge in the end. More money out!

I'm sure there will be some other unsuspecting expenses popping up. It just makes me glad I didn't fall for a home decor item at Target that was 50% off for $17.48. That was enough for to cover one t shirt and then some!

Tomorrow, I need to run to Target to get some things we have run out of. I would have picked up today, but I didn't have some of the coupons with me. I need yeast, butter spray (want?), and shampoo for the girls. I noticed Kraft macaroni is on sale this week, so I may pick up some boxes to donate to school later this fall when they do their food drive. I'm trying to think ahead when I can.

Any big school expenses for you? How was your spending today? Did you not spend, when you wanted to? Have you heard of or taken the Ice Bucket Challenge?

I made another sale on eBay last night. It looks like a net of $7.99...another snowflake! I added a few more items for sale on Half.com and eBay. Many of my items are listed as Buy It Now and are 30 day listings. They could really sell at anytime.

I will get that item mailed and also take my wedding dress to the post office. I was able to get the dress into a fairly small box (8x7x6). It weighs just under 2 pounds and will only cost about $7 to mail. I have requested confirmation that my dress is received and a tax donation acknowlegement. I also did take some lace, pearls, and silk material from the dress, for my own keepsake uses. It has really been a joy to have taken the dress out of the box that it has been preserved in for 18 years. It really was a great dress! I'm glad I'm moving it on, since my daughter's aren't interested and it can go to a good cause.

DH and I have still not sat down to talk about the spending. I think it might be best to try to show him on Friday (payday) when I'm paying bills. He can just observe and ask questions as I go along. If he gets really intersted, I might want to start YNAB (You Need A Budget). I think with us both having smart phones we could track spending into categories to see where we really are.

In other news, I did take the kitten to the humane society for our county. I decided that it was the best plan, since we weren't ready for another cat, I didn't want it in the hands of someone who would torture it, it's cute personality will win someone over and the humane society will do a great job at vetting a new owner. I did find that this shelter is committed to finding a home for each animal they serve no matter how long it takes. So I think it's a win for the kitty and us, too! I do plan to make a donation to the organization, since they didn't charge me anything for bringing in the found kitty. I think it would be good to help them out.

Any more sales out there this week? Do you support your humane society? Do you use YNAB, or another budgeting system? Do you share that system with your spouse or partner?

And I'm not worried that he does. He just usually never cares! He said he was thinking about his promotion salary increase (that we are still waiting on orders for) and then thinking he doesn't know where our money goes except for what he personally spends. Generally he just buys pop, water and gas for his own needs. He will go to the store to get things if I ask. Other than that he really only knows little pieces of financial information based on what comes up in conversation.

I also told him the checkbook won't tell him a lot since, most of the transactions are on credit cards and only large payments show up in the checking account.

We didn't make a plan to discuss, yet. But I'm sure we will. I'm also not worried. I'm actually hopeful that this will simply make him more aware of our overall spending. Maybe he will have some great insight or idea that I hadn't thought of. And he really should know what is going on with his paycheck. I ended up handling things because he trusted me. I was the one that got him out from under that failed business debt less than a year after we were married.

Is your spouse a little out of touch with your finances? If not, how to you handle your finances together?

I have some money tidbits today. I earned another $3 from Pinecone.

On eBay, I have a bid one one item and now someone watching another item.

I sent my $5 Starbucks egift card from Discover to my sister who is prepping her classroom for school. My mom is there helping. I thought they could use a coffee break sometime today. I've had the egift card in my email inbox since May! I think it's time someone used it.

Nothing is decided about college. We really enjoyed our visit to the college north of us. I personally would go there in an instant!

I purchased some items from iHerb today. I had over $9 in rewards, met the minimum spending for free shipping and paid less than $13 out of pocket for about $25 worth of items.

Citi Thank You card was not in the mail again today.

We decided not to go to our state fair, as it is now a two hour drive. We are coming up on the busy marching band season and need some time at home. I expect not going will save us nearly $150! That is a plus.

I'm going to open the box my wedding gown from 18 years ago is preserved in today. I will be trying it on and hoping I still fit in it(just kidding...that will never happen!!). Actually, I will be washing it and preparing to send it to an

organization that turns gowns in to Angel Gowns for babies who have died in the hospital. I have decided this is a better use for it than sitting in my closet. My daughters are not attached to it and don't have any interest in wearing it.

Those are my tidbits. Do you still have your wedding dress? Save any money this week? Will you visit your state fair?

My husband has been using our credit cards for when he travels...that means we can accumulate more rewards! He had a trip last week and was already reimbursed for expenses. Unfortunately, he spent more than what he is reimbursed for. Only by $30. Probably, a few too many beers at the sports bar.

I paid $832.43 to the Wells Fargo American Express and $78.59 to the Chase Freedom card. It feels good to make payments and see the balances go back down. We do have balances on the cards, but no interest is accruing because I'm paying the balance in full before the due date. We also have 0% on the Amex, so a few of our bigger expenses are still there because honestly I like having my cash in my account, too. It will all get paid and I have no worries that we are spending more than we can handle.

I'm waiting for the Citi Thank You card to arrive. All new charges will go on that card to get the award of $200 in gift cards (or a check to our mortgage) after spending $1,500.

Tomorrow we are traveling to look at a college for our oldest daughter. She's not keen on this college, but I think it is good to look at several before completely deciding! I think I only looked at one. And then I transferred after two years.

Are you waiting for a credit card to arrive, or maybe a check payable to you? Do you charge work expenses and then get reimbursed? How many colleges did you visit when you were looking?

I did end up redeeming $300 worth of gift cards with my Southwest Rapids Rewards. I can't remember the breakdown, but I got gift cards for Amazon, Walmart, Lowe's and Kohl's. I have another 20K+ points I can redeem for an airline ticket or gift cards, but I'm waiting to decide if I do want to use them for an airline ticket or not.

I also requested cancellation of my Southwest Visa from Chase. I had a negative balance on the card of just over $119, which was from a trip my husband took and had the charges reversed. (There's a blog post about it if you are really interested in those details.) Of course, I requested the funds be return to me, in addition to the annual fee.

I expect I will get a check and the gift cards in about a week or so. The check will get cash and then use the funds towards payment on another card. As I use the gift cards I will match the money that would have been spent with a payment to the mortgage.

I don't have any card rewards we are currently working on, so I expect I will apply for the Citi Thank You Preferred card I mentioned a little while back. My mailed offer is for 20,000 points after charging $1500 . The points are redeemable for gift cards and in the past I was able to redeem for a check made payable to our mortgage company, which is what I would prefer to do again today.

Today, I'm taking the girls shopping for school supplies. The needs for high school are not nearly as extensive as elementary in my opinion. Folders, paper, pens and pencils usually covers it. I will try to find a deal on tissues as those are a constant need it seems.

Are you school shopping for supplies or clothes yet? Have you applied for a new rewards credit card? Or redeemed any credit card rewards?

I seemed to have several updates today, so I'll just throw them all into one post.

Swagbucks posted my most recent $5 Amazon gift card. The points were actually accumulated through Bing Rewards. We just used $4.99 in Amazon gift cards this weekend. So with the new gift card that posted we are back to $10.01 in Amazon credit. That gift card money used does count as a snowflake!!

Yesterday, I requested a refund on my husband's government card, since we had a negative balance of $35.47. He overpaid the card over a month ago. I thought he would get it corrected but he forgot and paid the same amount he charged thus we still had money owed to us. It looks like it will go to our bank account, rather than a check.

I have made over $95 in various charges to our Southwest Rapids Rewards card in the last several days. I thought we had met the requirement for spending, but when my husband had a hotel charge reversed we were short by about $95. The statement closes around the 26th of the month, so we are now set to met the requirement and I expect be rewarded our 50,000 bonus points (equal to $500 in gift cards). I plan to close the card after I redeem the points. At the time of closing we will have a negative balance of over $100 because of the reversed hotel charge. I expect Southwest will mail the money along with a return of the $99 annual fee.

I did end up redeeming our Wells Fargo American Express Propel World card points in the form of checks. I expect those will arrive quickly! I will then deposit them to our account and make an extra mortgage payment. This is likely far quicker than the 4-6 weeks predicted to credit the points to our Wells Fargo mortgage directly.

I can feel that summer is winding down, and school preparations are ramping up. Registration materials have arrived along with bus schedule and school supply lists. We will owe $130 in registration fees next week. I hope to get a clear list of the items we need to buy for supplies in the next day or two. There are already great sales out there! We do check our stash and reuse items when we can. I know backpacks, lunch bags, padlocks, pencils, pens and even paper are covered. I plan to buy hand sanitizer and tissues to give to my sister who teaches kindergarten.

I have not listed anything new for sale on Craigslist or eBay yet. I did have a couple things on Craigslist earlier this month but was getting a lot of spam replies, so I pulled things down. I have things for eBay but honestly have not been motivated. I also don't like to list things and have them end when I'm out of town, which is a possibility soon. It will all happen eventually!

Are you already getting ready for kids to return to school? Have you redeemed any Swagbucks or listed on eBay? Have you earned any credit card rewards?

I have a Pinecone survey waiting to be completed. That means I will have $3 to apply to my snowflake goal.

I redeemed Bing and Swagbucks points for Amazon gift cards awhile back. They have posted to my Swagbucks account and I have added them to Amazon. Ten dollars waiting to be spent!

I got my bathroom painting done yesterday. I do have some touch ups to do. The next project I will be working on is to make decorator pillow covers for my sister.

The girls and I need to do some shopping. They have a couple of semi dressy events coming up. I think we will look for dresses and hope for some clearance!! I'm also planning to treat them to lunch out since our errand will correspond with lunch time and it will be out of the way to drive all the way home after our first appointment today. The frugal me should just pack a lunch, but we rarely eat out, so I'm going for it.

As mentioned before, my husband is on the promotion list for Major. We are still waiting for orders that make it official. They are often issued at the first of the month. It didn't happen this month, so hoping for August! The plan is to save the money, but I need to figure out if some of that pay increase should be put towards retirement.

My only sale this week was the Box Tops. I didn't get items listed on Ebay on Tuesday night like I planned. There is a box of things ready to sell. I will try again soon to get more listed.

See? Random thoughts! Have you found a good clearance deal lately? Have you sold anything or found a little money (snowflake) recently?

My youngest daughter is 14 today. I'm making cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and the smell seems to have awakened her.

Her gifts were primarily purchased online. I spent just about $100. The all arrived on time and were on her list, so I expect she will be very pleased.

She is a low key child, so I don't expect we will be doing a lot to celebrate. She wants spice cake with cream cheese frosting, which I already purchased. There will be pizza for dinner. All the things a typical teen loves, right?

Since we always have a birthday to celebrate after the holiday it seems to extend the holiday celebrations. I hope everyone had a safe Fourth!

We survived a very strong storm yesterday, either straight line winds or a small tornado. No damage to our home, but a man was killed up the road when a building a collapsed on him during the storm. About an hour after the storm we lost power for eight hours. I think the food in our fridge and freezer is okay, as we really tried to keep the doors closed for the duration.

Our neighbor next door was getting water in his basement, which a sump pump when he has power does a fine job of handling. Without power it is a problem. He ended up getting a generator to handle it. We weren't getting but a drop into our sump pump.

On Sunday night we received quite a bit of rain, which ended up causing an issue with two bridges in our little town. One collapsed when a semi went over it. It is on a major highway through our town. We now can't get to the other side of town without taking a major detour. There is another road we use with frequency, that has also been closed because the road washed away. We have seen pictures of two full sized cars that fell into the area washed away.

We became aware of our lack of batteries, among a few other things that we should be more prepared for with storms and outages. Something to work on.

Don't forget that the Capital One Independence Day offers are still available through July 3. You can get a $100 bonus for the checking account and $76 for the savings.

Here's my post about the offers.

Should I throw out the milk and eggs? Any storms in your area lately?

Our oldest daughter is an artist. She has taken classes at school to learn Photoshop, Illustrator and other programs for which she has earned college credit. She was given the opportunity to borrow a drawing tablet from school this summer, so this moved up our time line for getting her a computer. The original plan was to get one before she left for college NEXT year.

We purchased a Mac Book at the local community college, which has discounted new Apple's computers. They were having a sale and took another $50 off, and the store doesn't have to charge sales tax. Our outlay for the computer was $1239. On Apple's website this would have cost us $1499 plus tax.

This is the most we have ever spent on a computer, but we feel this is a great investment for our daughter, it should allow her to use her graphics programs (which she is purchasing) with plenty power and amazing picture quality. We are excited that she has this tool that may be a key to her future career.

I put the purchase on my new Southwest Rapids Rewards card for which I need to spend $2K to get the 50,000 rewards points worth $500 in gift cards. I also charged the Adobe Creative Suite that my daughter is purchasing for $240, so clearly we are getting REALLY close to meeting that spending goal. In fact, by this weekend we should have that complete since my husband is charging some travel expenses. Easy!

This is our first Apple computer. My daughters use them at school. Are you a die hard Apple computer owner, or do you own a PC?

My husband is on the list for promotion to Major! The list was released today. There will still need to be an order cut to make it official. That order directs pay changes and the ability to pin on his new rank. Those are all just secondary to being on the list.

So happy and proud for him! Of course, I'm looking forward to saving that extra money that comes with promotion, too.

In the last four days expenses have popped up, one I was aware of and two I was not. Marching band expenses to be specific.

First, band camp is $50 and covers various things. I knew this one was coming...although I was forgetting about it truthfully. This fee is due June 6.

The second expense is a result of my daughter being chosen as a section leader for band. She is required to attend a leadership conference in July as a result. This is $55 and due May 30.

And finally, the big band trip for spring break 2015 has been announced. They are going to Walt Disney World. A deposit of $200 is due June 2. The entire trip is estimated to be $1,599, with fundraising opportunities available. We also have a little money, likely less than $50, in her account from past fundraisers that will be applied.

Ack! That is $305, which I had nearly zero advance warning about. A little irritated. I have the money, but what about parents who might have an issue with the short notice. I suppose they may make accommodations.

Have you had any big unexpected expenses pop up this week? Are you expenses due soon? Did you go on a trip when you were in school?

Our 18th wedding anniversary is tomorrow. But my husband has to work for the Army. Boo. And this sure isn't the first time the Army has been in the way of celebrating on our day. I convinced him to take the today off so we could spend time together! I think we might use a $25 Olive Garden gift card we received last summer to have lunch out together, if he is up for that.

I'm not sure I will get any decluttering done, but if I do I will report it sometime tomorrow. My post about yesterday's decluttering is up on

Your Organized Friend. I introduced my donate bin on the blog, too.

Our gift cards from Southwest Rapids Rewards are arriving today. I was notified to expect the package by the shipper. I made our final payment including the $69 annual fee. Once I have the cards and the payment clears I will ask for cancellation by secure message online and at the same time inquire about a refund of the annual fee. I expect they will cancel and grant the refund, which will take a few days to be applied. Once it shows the return of the refund, I can request a check to be cut. That is how it has worked in the past, so I don't expect this time to be different.

Do you celebrate events early, late, or just skip if you cannot celebrate on the actual date? Do you have a donate bin in your home?

There is lots of good news this morning. I logged on to my husband's Discover account and found his $150 bonus was applied. I have already requested direct deposit. No need for gift cards since I did just order $550 worth from our Southwest rewards on Friday.



Our city emailed me back this morning with our water bill amount. It was $79.29 and will be withdrawn from our account on Thursday. I usually allocate $95 for water (which actually includes a sewer debt payment, and trash). I think I will send the $15.71 difference to the mortgage as a snowflake.

Our daughter returned home from her Washington DC trip last night. She is so tired from early mornings. She sure didn't want to get up this morning. But she did it! She left here with $60 of her own money for spending. She bought a t shirt, a post card, and some snacks/food. She came home with nearly $15. She even mentioned looking at a magnet to buy that was 2x3 inches for $6. She thought it was overpriced, so she skipped buying it! I do like the T shirt she picked out.

Here's a link to the latest decluttering at our house on Your Organized Friend. Today I need to finish that project up by tackling this bin:



I don't really want to work on it, but I'm hoping it will go fast once I get going. I may time myself and see how long it really takes. Do you ever find yourself procrastinating a job because it seems like it will take a long time, but then you do it and realize it didn't take long at all? Strange phenomena.

I had another entry I had started to type, but my husband came home early from work! That rarely happens.

He was motivated to get some new running shoes, which he was overdue for. So we went on a shopping date to get him a pair. I browsed the clearance racks while he found a pair he liked. I didn't buy anything since I know I will be a smaller size in no time, might as well wait a bit longer. He found a pair for $99. I have no clue if they were on sale or not. I did provide my store rewards card, and he used a rewards credit card for the purchase. He will get lots of use out them since he needs to stay in shape for the Army.

Now he has left again to get his workout in. The nice thing is he will be home earlier in the evening to have a little more time with his family! Yep. That makes me happy!

Do you ever get to leave work early? How often to do you leave early?

My daughter turns 17 tomorrow. Amazing how fast the time goes! Adults would tell me this all the time. I just never believed them. I do now.

We gave her $60 cash, a $15 iTunes gift card, a necklace from Etsy and a large candy bar that she likes. We also took her to lunch at Panera today, where we spent about $35. We also picked up ice cream cupcakes from Cold Stone Creamery. Those cost $13, but it is a tradition she likes. In the end we spent about $150 on her. She was happy and we were glad to shower her with treats and gifts.

We will eat those cupcakes after we have homemade pizza for dinner tomorrow night. We have stretched out the celebrating since her birthday is on a weekday...and the first day back from Spring Break!

We are stocked up on groceries for what I hope is the rest of the month. There could be a couple of fresh veggies we will need next weekend. I have gas in my vehicle. I have cash for the flute lesson. I can think of a few other minor expenses, but it should be low key in spending for the week. I like that!!

Do you expect a frugal week ahead? Is the end of the month tight on cash for you? Did we overspend on our daughter?

We were away for a few days visiting a college for my daughter, thus the lack of posts for the last few days. When we returned, there was a check in the mail. (Just imagined some angels singing for that one!) It was for a refund of some vitamins that were 'guaranteed to work or your money back'. They have worked a little, but thought we could still get some of the money back we have spent on them. The amount was $25. I think I actually spent less than that for one bottle. It must be the amount the give regardless of what you spent. I will get that check deposited and sent off to the mortgage.

My daughter wasn't feeling well yesterday when we returned so we skipped her flute lesson. Saved $20 for the time being. We hope to get with her accompanist soon to practice her flute solo. More money to shell out for that, so this savings can likely go to that cost.

My daughter got a free T-shirt on her college visit for filling out a survey. Of course, we did pay $10 each when we registered for the visit. Thus I'm sure those funds went towards our meals, parking and that T shirt!

The trip also consisted of a few snacks along the way, fuel and one stop at Subway. It was fairly inexpensive, since my parents provided several meals and free lodging. Appreciate that!

That is the financial news of late. Have you received a free meal recently? Did you get any snowflakes in the mail?

I stayed up way to late the last two nights with company in from out of town. I enjoyed the time, but I am wiped out today. It sure doesn't help that the time changed!

I managed to get to the grocery store (Super Target) and used the $25 gift card in the mail, plus some coupons, my cartwheel coupons and my Red Card to save some cash. The gift card will be included in the snowflakes. I also received another $5 gift card for Target for buying two vitamins. Now I'm stocked up!

Good news on the Southwest card, is that my husband has already spent nearly $350 on his work trip on the card. That will be so helpful. I think there is another trip this month that might help with the spending requirement, too!

The bad news on Discover is that I inquired again on the $150 promotional bonus. This time they stated the time frame to meet the bonus must pass before they apply the bonus, regardless of meeting the spending requirement. Did they tell me what date that is? No. I have now inquired about this specific. I like the Discover website interface and how easy it and helpful it is to use, but the online customer service is vague at best. Not willing to offer up information, unless specifically asked. I have had much better assistance with Chase and Capital One. The bonus is earned. It will arrive. I just need to be patient!

We had limited spending this weekend. About $16 at Subway for dinner last night. And I think $3 at McDonald's as my daughter wanted a snack after she went on an outing with me. A rare occurrence, so I didn't mind that expense. Otherwise, fuel on Friday and groceries today. I like those kind of weekends. I will take them when they occur.

Did you lose sleep this weekend? Did you have any fast food, or company visiting you? Anyone waiting patiently or impatiently on money to arrive?

My husband's Discover card statement closed yesterday. We have already spent the $750 to meet the $150 bonus, but it was not applied to our rewards account. I inquired my email. The response was the $150 bonus will be applied within 8 weeks. Ugh. They sure like you to hang around waiting for your cash don't they? I was really hoping we could both redeem those rewards this month. Now it doesn't look like it.

I'm still waiting on our US Bank Reward to be applied as well,probably worth at least $140. I also have $100 in referral money coming from Ooma sometime. There are snowflakes out there, they just seem to be stuck in the sky!!

I purchased a DVD for my daughter's birthday from Amazon. I used the Discover card to make the purchase and used $3.26 of my available rewards towards the purchase. So I have that little snowflake, as well as a Pinecone survey payment from earlier in the week.

I have worked out six days this week! I also did two of my weight lifting workouts as well. The eating and watching calories is going pretty well, too. The less I eat the less we spend on groceries which is a bonus.

Anyone know how long it took you to get your Discover bonus? This is DH second billing cycle that just ended. Did you get any snowflake money this week? How is your exercise goal coming along?

My daughter sent be an info graphic chart of all the things she wants and why this morning while she was in her free period. Her wants include a violin, violin lessons, a wood piccolo, Adobe Creative Suite 6 software and a Digital Drawing Tablet. Yikes!

She knows these are all expensive things. I did see a professional wood piccolo on craigslist for $1,100. The software is about $800 new, might be able to buy for $6-700 used. Not sure on the violin likely used as well, lessons could run another $800+ per year...and I have no idea on the tablet. She hasn't even used one before. She is trying it today though. She does play flute, owns two, plus a hybrid piccolo we bought used. The violin is something both she and her sister seem to be interested in. And the drawing stuff is definitely stuff she can use to make more art and likely more money.

She asked for help from us to pay for these things in her email to me with the chart. She emails me from school pretty often, so this is just her communicating as she normally would. The graphic chart was a new thing she has recently learned. Anyway, my response was, it sounds like you need a job!

She did agree. I just don't know how quickly she will be wanting to take that path. Right now we are hoping she gets accepted again to participate in local art fair this year where she can sell some more art. I actually hope the wants spur her desire to find ways to sell more of her things. All these expensive wants might motivate her, so I'm not going to be too quick to solve her problems or jump into help.

I'm sure we will help in some way, but that it far from determined at this point. There will need to be some discussion between my husband and I. And then between all three of us.

Do you have kids with expensive wants? Is it wrong to want to help your kids gain good experience before they are out in the world. Is it wrong to give a hand up so to speak? Is there a limit to how much we should help? I'm just thinking outloud...not really sure how I feel either way.