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?

We completed our landscaping project this weekend. We felt like it was a pretty fast improvement. It involved removing grass (primarily dead) from four areas around the sides of our home, adding landscaping edging, landscape fabric and then rock. This cost us about $250, but it is a good improvement for the home.

We expect to add some shrubs and other shade plants, but will look for them on clearance closer to fall. I will be moving some coral bells that are in the sun to the backyard shade. I have a couple other items from the front bed that may get moved to the back as well. We are having very warm humid weather now and transplanting plants this time of year isn't the best. So that part of the project will wait.

The other home improvement spending was to special order two 33 inch wall cabinets for our laundry room. The cabinets will match our kitchen cabinets that are in the room right next to the laundry. The stain will match, too! These will be installed by us when they arrive above the washer and dryer. Our laundry room only has one base cabinet under the sink for storage. We decided cabinets were better than a basic wire shelf for this price point of home. They will provide nearby storage for kitchen items, too. We spent $392 with tax for these. We paid half now and the rest will be charged before they are delivered. I have about three weeks to get my laundry room painted!

We are back to running our air conditioner after at least a week without. It was nice to have a week of cool weather in July. It will be interesting to see what our bill is next month!

What kind of storage do you have in your laundry room? Did you do any work in your yard this weekend? Were you able to have keep your air conditioner off at all this month?

We have some areas of our yard where the grass doesn't grow well, or is completely dead. This is mainly along the house and on the north sides. We have wanted to get this spruced up for ourselves as well as future buyers.

My husband wanted to hire it out. I was willing to hear the estimate. The one guy he called never called back. Haven't seen them in the neighborhood lately either.

I decided that since it was primarily dead, that the areas were soft because of so much rain, AND the weather was cooler that I would dig these areas up today. I got them all done in less than 4 hours! Maybe it was less. The old grass is in yard waste bags to be picked up next week.

We will get plastic edging to match what already exists, weed block, and rock for the areas I dug up. This equates to 80+ feet of edging and over 150 sq ft of rock. The rock will be the most expensive part. My labor is free compared to hiring someone.

We are going to look at rock prices tonight and hope get the project started or complete this weekend. It seems my husband is all up for it now that I did one of the hardest parts.

Do you hire yard work out? Do you do your own? Do you even have a yard?

This summer is one for the books right now. Of course, it can change. It has been significantly cooler. No days above 90 degrees for us yet. And of course, lots of rain, which is good plants and bad when your neighbor's basements fill with water. I feel bad for those people. Sad to see so many belongings on the curb for pickup.

We have had many days, with the windows open! This means no air conditioning. And then of course that equates to lower electricity bills. I like that! I mentioned

electricity savings in my last post if you missed it.

With all the rain, we have not needed to water our lawn even one time. I expect this could change as we get into fall though. Of course, we are mowing a bit more as the grass is growing at a nice clip with all the rain and cooler weather.

I'm taking advantage of the cooler weather today to get our bathroom painted. We still have plenty of paint from our big paint purchase in March or April. I posted a little paint tip on Your Organized Friend when I started on the project this weekend.

Have you been painting or doing any chores because the weather is cooler? Is YOUR weather cooler? Have you been getting more rain than in a usual summer?

If you are looking for extra cash to apply towards your debt or savings, I have found that selling things you no longer need can provide that extra cash.

Since the beginning of 2014, I have sold books, cds, a couch and loveseat, kitchen table, side tables and a tv cart. I also had a garage sale in May, and sold all sorts of various items, including clothing and tools. In all, I've sold over $500 worth of our used items!

I would much rather get rid of something I own than be in debt, especially credit card debt. The interest these cards charge when you don't pay your balance in full is your hard earned money! I personally like to keep as much of the money we earn as possible.

Everybody has something they can sell. I have a friend, that last I knew had six shelves full of DVD movies. My guess is these were bought soon after a movie came out, so likely nearly full price. I know they watch them and have been generous with loaning them to people, too. I look at those shelves and think CASH! Sure some of them are dated and not likely to fetch much money, but at $1 each they easily have $180 worth of movies they could sell. My thinking is that one can still find plenty of free options for entertainment. The library for one has just as many movies that one can borrow for free.

A few years ago, I had a challenge on this blog to make $100 a month selling on Ebay. I think my average was less than that in the end, maybe $80, but it challenged and encouraged me to find things in our home we didn't need. At the time, I think the proceeds were applied to a car loan pay down or a home equity loan. I didn't sell anything unique. My kids had outgrown jeans, shoes, toys and books. I sold (and still do) Box Tops for Education, and old army paraphernalia. Anything I found that I was done with I checked Ebay to see if there was a demand for the item. If there was I sold it. If it didn't sell on Ebay I would save it for a garage sale, which back then my neighbors and I would have two times a year. If items didn't sell at the garage sale I would donate them.

As consumers, we are bringing in new things to our home on a regular basis. I think of selling the old kind of like getting a rebate on the original cost of the item, or a discount on the new item I purchased. If we never get rid of anything when we bring in new, we get overrun with our own stuff! I challenge you to look at your stuff in a new way. It can be turned into cash to help you with your financial goal of paying down debt or saving. You will feel less stress with less debt and less stuff. I guarantee it!!

Do you have a habit of selling your old things? Do you sell on Ebay, craigslist or at garage sales? What do you do with your proceeds? Anyone interested in an Ebay challenge for the remainder of the year?

I had to go to the store to buy a specific item this morning. I ended up buying three because I could get a $5 Target gift card if I did. This is something we will definitely use, so not a big deal to stock up.

I will count that $5 gift card as a snowflake and send that $5 to the mortgage since Target will give me $5 off my next purchase!

Snowflakes are all around us if we take time to notice! I hope to get a post up this week about my sources of snowflakes and other ideas for you to look into. Did you find any money recently that you can put towards your snowflake goal?

I put a new post on

Your Organized Friend about my new cleaning task today.

I sold some pretty inexpensive furniture on Craigslist this morning. An end table, a coffee table and tv stand that we originally purchased for $70 at Walmart. I had them listed for $35, but lowered the price to $30. The man asked if I would take $20. I said yes, since I was ready to have them moved on. Now I have $20 cash and less clutter!

We did some decluttering in my daughter's room yesterday. There is more to do as she is a little slow in going through things. We found a few picture books and trinkets my sister can use with her kindergarten students. I have a new post up on

Your Organized Friend about a quick clean up I did with pictures.

I'd really like to get some items posted to Ebay tonight. I let you know if that actually happens! Are you selling or decluttering right now? Where did you get your last snowflake of money?

It seems I have received the cash for the last Ooma referrals. I had three at $20 each, so I have a credit on our USAA card in the amount of $60. They don't ever really tell you when they are going to pay out, so it is a little bit of a surprise. Money in our pocket is always a nice surprise! I will likely use the credit for basic expenses, probably one tank of gas! Since the $60 is a snowflake I will then get that money sent to the mortgage.



My husband had some Army travel a little while back and has been reimbursed. Some of his expenses went on our Wells Fargo American Express card, so I need to get those paid off with the cash received from the Army. There is more travel coming up soon for him and I'm going to make sure he uses the current cards we are working on for bonuses. We might as well get benefit from spending that is going to get reimbursed!

I received our first Verizon bill. I have only seen the balance, which seems a little high, but I think it is likely a prorated thing. I will double check before I pay it. I think making this payment on the WF Amex card will put us VERY close to meeting our $3K spending requirement. It will then be time to switch to the Southwest Rapids Rewards card.

I'm trying to sell some furniture on Craigslist, but so far no interest. The spammers aren't even interested. I think someone will want them, but it may be not the right time or the price is a bit too high. Worse case they items will be donated. I will not be keeping these items around indefinitely.

I have another post up on

Your Organized Friend. I'd love you to stop by over there. Share the site with friends, too!

I woke up thinking about this, so my thoughts may be a bit random. I was thinking how some people make do well financially and others do not. Now, I realize there are more factors involved, but knowing how to say no is actually important. I think Dave Ramsey has mentioned this a few times, too.

So many people say, yes, I want that and then buy the item they want. It seems in no regard to whether it fits into their financial plan. My husbands coworker rode on a motorcycle for the first time on Wednesday, spent Thursday looking online at bikes and purchased one that same night. Really? She didn't even know she wanted a bike until the day before? She doesn't have a license to drive it yet, but of course, she did. I don't know if she bought it with cash or credit. If she did buy it with cash, great. However, was that the best use for the cash?

We don't buy everything we want because we have other goals, such as keeping our emergency fund funded, saving for college and of course retirement!

I think back to when we were first married and given $1000 from my parents as a gift. It was very generous. Did we go out and buy something with it? No. We honestly didn't need anything after all the other things we received. We saved it. And having that money there was the very beginning of our savings. Over time it just felt good to have the money set aside just in case, so we kept it there.

My husband just interrupted my writing to talk to me about a video he was watching on rational thought and emotional thought. Yes!! This is exactly it. Some people, like the woman mentioned above, make decisions based on emotions. They don't ever look at if those emotional choices are rational. Does the emotional choice make sense towards your financial goals?

I realize making rational decisions is likely somewhat built in for some of us, but I think it is everyone's capacity to learn that skill. All it takes is a few extra moments of thought. The woman above could have done all the looking and riding she wanted, and then taken some time to think about the numbers and how spending that money could impact her other goals. Would she rather spend it on a vacation, has she put enough away for retirement, if she financed it will the payment cause a problem paying other bills.

The truth is the purchase may have been on a whim for her, but it might actually be a wise and rational choice. It likely will save her gas money to drive the motorcycle rather than her SUV.

The ability to use our rational thought and say no at times helps keep us focused on our financial goals. I'm thankful that my husband and I have practiced using our rational thought in making financial decisions.

Have you noticed if your finances are guided by your emotional or rational thoughts? Do you use both?

Don't miss my lastest post on

Your Organized Friend, about the three in, three out rule. You know that one don't you?

I made a large principal payment on our mortgage debt yesterday. My plan this entire year is to send $275 each time we are paid on the 15th of the month. So far I have been able to do this every month this year. I added $18.86 to that payment, which is money I have accumulated in snowflakes this month. Not much, but it adds up!

We made a purchase on Craigslist last night. I have wanted an entertainment center for our basement television since we moved in almost two years ago. We have tried many different pieces of furniture we own and currently have the tv on a too small cart. It works, it is free, but it isn't quite right.

We purchased this upgraded entertainment center for $125. It is only six months old according to the previous owners. It is not solid wood, but for our needs it is perfect. I'm not even bothered by the little water damage on the top. All other entertainment centers I've been interested in were over $300 so this is a significant savings. Once we are feeling better we will make the switch.

Despite being sick, earlier this week, and still recovering today, I have been able to stay a little organized. I wrote about this on

Your Organized Friend yesterday.

Did you make an extra payment to your mortgage this month? Do you sell on more on craigslist or buy?

I have accumulated a few snowflakes for June already!! Pinecone deposited $6 into my PayPal account. And I received two $5 Amazon.com gift cards from Swagbucks (one of those was accumulated with Bing rewards).

Today has been productive! I ran errands and worked out at the gym. I first went to the laundromat and put a comforter in one of the big washers and then left while it was still washing. I figured no one can get it out while it is running since it is locked. I knew what time to be back. I left to drop off three winter coats at the dry cleaner. I then went to Goodwill to drop off some more items left over from the garage sale. After that I stopped to put fuel in my van. At this point it was time to get back to the laundromat. I waited a few minutes while the cycle completed and then moved it to a dryer. I walked to a store to buy an item and return to wait for the dryer, which was just another 15 minutes.

After all those errands, it was time for the workout. But since I have been home, I have run two loads of laundry, cut up fruits and vegetables for dinner, and started cleaning my oven (I'm doing it in stages).

I sure enjoy productive days AND snowflakes! Has your day been productive? Have you accumulated any June snowflakes yet?

I closed my Capital One credit card. This is the one which was upgraded to Quicksilver offering 1.5% rewards and no annual fee. In an effort to reduce our open lines of credit, we decided to close my account and leave my husband's open. I am an authorized user on it, so we each have a card. Right now we aren't using the card since we are working on obtaining the bonus reward with the Wells Fargo American Express Propel World card. But it is a good 'go to' card for earning rewards. I like that I don't always have to track the 5% categories like some cards.

I'm also going to look into closing my husband's Chase Freedom account. We only have one card for it and I don't think we have used it since he received his bonus reward months and months ago. It may have 0% interest, but I don't think we need to keep it open even with that offer! Hopefully you saw my previous post about a limited time offer to open a Chase Freedom account to get a $200 bonus for spending $500. Best return I think I've ever seen!

Have you reduce any of your credit cards lately? Did you open an account lately?

I have several new posts on

Your Organized Friend if you are interested.

I'm considering the garage sale a success!! We were open for about 5 hours and brought in about $185. Several big items left our home and plenty of little ones as well. My profit is only $140, since I did sell some items for a friend.

Traffic dropped off significantly after 1 pm, so we closed early by about three hours. Very worth it to me to get cleaned up and then be able to spend some time with my family today. We also dropped our garage sale leftovers at Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Goodwill...most of the clutter is gone!

I have not come up with a plan for the sale profits. I'm hoping the money will go to some new furniture, but it may just get thrown to the mortgage so it doesn't melt before I get the furniture!

I planned to pay bills on Friday, but I didn't get it done since I was setting up the garage sale. It will be a priority for Sunday.

Did you sell anything this weekend? Do you still have bills to pay? Did you buy anything at a garage sale?

I did get paid for one of my Ebay sales yesterday. I have already mailed it off. I still have one more that I'm waiting payment on. I really do try to be patient with these buyers, but it is hard to wait. I want the money and I want the item gone!!

I did send in a $131+ snowflake to the mortgage on Monday. Mid month is when I normally send another $275 to knock off more principal. Right now I plan to do that, but I do need to pay bills and see where we really stand and if that payment still works. It seems there has been quite a bit of spending lately!

I am prepping for the garage sale on Saturday. I will haul everything I have priced that is in the basement up to the garage today. I likely will not set up until Friday, since I have a trip planned for tomorrow. If you want to see my garage sale piles or the mess that it is making in my basement I have pictures posted

here.

It seems I know many people moving and packing right now. And that always leads to people decluttering. I think that is why I have really been able to dig deep this time and pull out a lot of things we don't use. Clutter comes in all forms too. In fact after reading another blog post I was inspired to do some decluttering that would not have come up in preparing for the garage sale. I have a post on Your Organized Friend today about that!

This is my second post today. I did an update about the Wells Fargo Amex card in my previous post. I also keep thinking there is some else financial to share, but it is not staying with me. If it comes to me, expect to see a third post!!

I sold two items on Ebay yesterday. A pair of shoes and a CD set. I'm still waiting for payment though. The gross amount of the sales was nearly $26. I want my money!!

We did some shopping at Kohl's this weekend. I used the rest of our Kohl's gift cards, so I need to get that money spent on gift cards sent to our mortgage. In this case we have used up $100 in gift cards from Kohl's.

I have two Pinecone payments totalling $6 in my PayPal account. I am waiting for my Ebay sale money before I send all that money to my checking account and then on to the mortgage.

We are finding more things for the garage sale. My husband and I went through an older tool box and found several things we don't need. We even found a rechargeable drill that no longer charges...will anyone buy that? I think it's trash unless someone knows how to replace the battery. Why store something that doesn't work, right?

Since I am mostly decluttering and staying focused on the garage sale, my organizing blog, Your Organized Friend has taken a back seat. However, I did post a little trick I have for

storing reusable water bottles today. You might also take a peek at my prior post, since there are pictures of my basement getting messy again!

I am waiting on our Wells Fargo American Express card to arrive. Fingers crossed it is today. Our gym membership expires today and we need to renew. We have been in talks with them hoping to negotiate a better deal, but the sales people are never there when we are to get things firmed up. I think they will let us wait a few days to pay on our new card if it doesn't arrive today. I also need to pay an electric bill and order photo prints for my daughter's art fair. It won't take long to meet that $3000 spending requirement!

Did you sell anything this weekend? Have you received your Wells Fargo Amex card yet? Did you do find any non working items in your recent decluttering?

I spent a portion of my afternoon pricing all those items in my basement that I have set aside for a garage sale. The sale will be next Saturday. I will still need to price the pile in my garage. I also expect there will be a few more things we find in the house to let go of. I will have the girls look at a few things today after school that I think they have outgrown. I also have a toolbox I need my husband to look through.

It does feel good to be letting go of some stuff. It really does help to dig deep when getting ready for a garage sale. That is likely where the stuff you don't need is lurking!

This is the first sale I have had in our new home and since it is city wide, I expect a good turn out traffic wise. I don't know what kinds of things people buy around here. It will be interesting to see! I'm also curious about how much my snowflake will be.

We have a music event tomorrow which will require about $7 or $8 to for admittance. I also have a feeling lunch out would be helpful for all of us because of the timing. Mother's Day will be low key. Just spending time together and getting some projects done is likely the plan for the day. I don't expect any gifts, as my husband has been out of town. I'm not sure it is even on his radar! I'm all good either way. I might be able to get him to get groceries with the kids though.

Will you have a garage sale this year? Does your place get good traffic, or are you in a bad sale location? Will you celebrate Mother's Day, or are you keeping things low key, like me?

We applied for a new credit card. We were approved, too. I was tipped off by Monkey Mama in my last post. It isn't for everyone, but it seems like the right offer to jump on for us. It is the Wells Fargo Propel World American Express card. We need to spend $3,000 in three months to receive 40,000 bonus points equal to $400. We should be able to redeem our points for a credit to our mortgage which is with Wells Fargo. And we all know tha I have been putting ALL bonus reward money towards paying down our mortgage so this really is perfect.

We won't keep the card long term since it has a crazy high annual fee after the first year. I think it is $175! I would never pay that unless I was getting major benefits to offset it.

We have quite a few things we can charge to the card to meet the spending requirement. One is our gym membership which is due any day now (fingers crossed the card arrives fast) and is over $700. We are also in the market for a used/refurbished Apple computer for our daughter. We have a little mini trip coming up, and some home improvements. Those things along with our regular spending will sure have us meeting the requirement in no time.

I'm paying the small charge on my husbands Discover card today. Once that posts, I will be requesting a cancellation of that card. I will also request a card from my Discover account for him. We will need it when the 5% cashback on gas comes up in July!

The money my husband had in his Capital One 360 checking and savings accounts has arrived in our primary checking account. It will get moved to savings. I have sent a request to CO360 about cancelling the accounts. I was able to do the savings when I made the transfer, but that didn't happen with the checking account.

I have also decided that I will cancel the Old Navy card. Yes, it is my oldest card and could effect my credit score. However, I'm okay with whatever results from that. It will only get worse the longer I wait and I really, really don't want the card anymore!

It feels good to get some of these financial tasks done and have things more consolidated. I like things simple really.

Is anyone else applying for the new Wells Fargo Amex card? Have you cancelled any credit card or bank accounts recently?

I finally got to cleaning up and decluttering in my garage yesterday. I posted many, many pictures of my progress on

Your Organized Friend!

The stack of credit cards we have sitting around was getting out of hand. It really helps to just focus on one card when you are working the reward bonuses. Lately, we have been using more than one card for various reasons. We are both using our seperate Capital One Quicksilver cards for everyday expenses to get 1.5% cash back. However, we also bought paint recently and I wanted the 5% back the purchase, so I used our Discover card.

We have open cards with Chase, Capital One, Discover, and American Express, USAA, Old Navy and Kohls. We also have debit cards with Capital One for our 360 accounts. And I have a PayPal debit card.

Yesterday, I started the process of figuring out which ones we can eliminate. I have cancelled the PayPal debit card and Chase Sapphire Preferred. I requested a new card for me from my husband's Capital One Quicksilver account. This way we have one account to manage. Once I have that card, I will cancel my Quicksilver card.

I was about to cancel (or attempt to cancel) my husband's Discover card, when I noticed $2.51 in rewards. I decided to use those first. My youngest daughter's birthday is in about two months and she has a birthday list going. I used my rewards on Amazon to purchase a cover for her new tablet. I also used some Amazon gift cards I earned from Swagbucks last month! So I will make the final payment on the Discover card and then cancel that one. I haven't completely decided whether to cancel my Discover card yet. I see they have 5% cash back on gas stations for third quarter. So tempting!

I'm also in the process of transferring money that my husband has in his Capital One 360 Checking and Savings accounts. We opened these for a bonus during the Black Friday event I think. The money has been just sitting there earning a little cash. I decided it might as well get moved to another savings account where we earn a tad more interest. Two less accounts to think about. I am leaving my accounts with Cap One 360 as I am currenly adding my 52 Week Challenge money there. I also have my referral information out on the web and have the opportunity to earn a little cash by referring people. I don't want to pass that up!

We have four cards that currently have 0% interest. I don't generally hold a balance on a card, but summer can get expensive and I guess I just want to keep those lines of credit open while they are at 0%. Once they have expired, they will be cancelled. I am putting the dates on my email calendar to remind me to cancel. The first one will be in October of this year. The oldest one is May 2015.

I have decided that we will not open any new cards in my husband's name for the next year. This is because we could be moving a year from now at the earliest. If we purchase another home, I want his credit to look okay. I do realize that the cards opened in the last year or two will show up on the report, and we can explain why we opened them, but I think it might look better to have few cards opened prior to another major purchase.

Now the next big question in regards to credit cards is the Old Navy Visa card. I have had this card since 2006. This is my oldest card currently open. My next oldest card is the Chase Freedom that I opened in 2010. I'm guessing on the actual dates. I can't remember for sure. Anyway. I think I might cancel that Old Navy card. We don't shop there anymore. The rewards are for shopping at Old Navy. It is a Visa and I can use it anywhere, but I would rather use other cards that provide me a benefit. I don't think closing the account will drastically hurt my credit score, which if it does than it is temporary.

It feels good to be getting a handle on these cards. We opened them to obtain cash bonuses. We have paid our balances in full. And we just don't need them. We will still have open credit, and more than we could ever need, so no worries about reducing our available credit.

Have you closed any credit cards recently? Why do you keep cards that you don't use? Has anyone opened a card with a good offer lately? I'm always looking more rewards!

I decluttered my desk recently on

Your Organized Friend.

I have three items to take to the post office this morning that I sold on Ebay. My daughter profited $22.57 for selling a set of six books. I profited $16.12 for selling a book, three cds and two dvds. She did better than I did! But I will take that profit and send it to the mortgage of course.

I relisted one item and listed three new items last night on Ebay. I have two more items I hope to get listed today or tomorrow. I sure like that I'm moving much of this stuff on to others.

I had a $15 coupon from Ebay last week. Some promotion. I used it to buy a hair product for my daughter that is being discountinued. It was priced at $14.99 and free shipping. Which means it was really free for us. I suppose it is a bit like getting a rebate on some of the Ebay fees I have paid over the years!

If you are interested in how I organize my gift wrap, you can see a post about that today on

Your Organized Friend. It is mostly pictures! And just another reminder, that if you want an email update when I post on my organizing blog, there is an option on the sidebar to sign up.

Did you get that Ebay coupon? Did you sell anything this weekend, or find anything to donate? How do you keep your gift wrap organized?

Cash in the mail yesterday! A check from Chase Southwest for the $69 annual fee we paid on a card we cancelled within the first two months. I also received an Applebee's gift card from a friend. It was her way of thanking me for helping her pack for her move. I will save the gift card for a night when I don't want to cook or a night out with my husband.

Do you save your receipts for items you purchase? I do. I wrote about how I keep them from taking over on

Your Organized Friend. I also have a couple AFTER pictures of my basement shelves in today's post. I still have work to do, but things are improving!

I sold an item on Ebay, as did my daughter. I also have three auctions ending today. Two have bids, so those will sell. I expect to list at least another three or four items later today.

Did you get any money in your mail yesterday? Are you still decluttering and organizing this month?

Wow, this month is starting off well for snowflakes already. I received $20 as a referral to someone opening a Capital One account. (Thanks for using my link, if that was you! ) Our water bill was under budget by just $1.93, but I'm counting that as a snowflake. I used a $50 gift card at Walmart yesterday, so I'm sending the money I would have spent there to the mortgage as a snowflake. And finally, I used the Amex offers for a PetSmart and I'm counting that $5 as well.

That brings May snowflakes to $76.93! I'm sending that money in today so my snowflakes do not melt. This means less debt, which we know I love. As it turns out, with that snowflake payment, our regular payment yesterday and the extra we tack on, we have $642.23 less debt owed!

In decluttering news, I was able to drop a pair of eyeglasses at the donation bin in Walmart's optical. It helped that I put the glasses in my purse a couple weeks earlier. I also tackled a pile of papers on my file cabinet this week. I wrote about it on

Your Organized Friend, of course!

Are you continuing with the decluttering? Do you have a place to recycle eye glasses in your area? Have you received any extra funds for May yet?

Time is going fast! We have already made it through four months of 2014. Time for an status update on our mortgage goal. As a reminder the goal is to pay down $13,993 in principal by the end of the year. This would bring us to an even balance on our mortgage of $X15,000.

We are making our regular payment and rounding that payment up to include about $103 towards principal at the beginning of the month. At mid month, we are sending in an additional $275 towards principal. All the extra funds we find, which I call snowflakes, are sent to the mortgage to help us reach our goal. Those snowflakes really add up and make a difference.

Here's all the payments that were made to our mortgage in the month of April:



As of April 30, we have paid $5,538.82 towards reducing our mortgage balance. That is 39.5% of our goal so we are ahead of schedule right now! We have just another $8,454.17 to go in order to meet the goal.

Today on

Your Organized Friend, I have another AFTER picture of my basement organization. But you also get to see another pile that is forming! Ack.

What percentage of your financial goal have you completed during the first four months of the year? Are you on track or behind? How did your decluttering go for April? Will you continue in May?

I tallied up our extra funds received (snowflakes) for the month of April using my Excel spread sheet. It was a great month! We found $876.07 in extra money. It ALL went to the mortgage. You will see there are plenty of credit card rewards and bonuses. But notice, too, that I saved a refund, Pinecone survey money, and so forth. There are ways to save extra money with out participating in credit cards.

(Just remembering that we did sell furniture for $300, that is a snowflake, too. We have not decided on a plan for that yet, so it is not included officially.)

Here's where all those snowflakes fell from:



I have 'After' pictures on

Your Organized Friend today! I have my mother visiting and I found an item in our basement that we aren't using but that she can, so I have given it to her. Last week I found a cable my Dad needs that we aren't currently using, so it is his now. Less clutter and helping others feels good.

Have you recently given anything of yours to a family member or friend that you are no longer using? How many snowflakes did you accumulate this month?

I have begun decluttering the basement this week. Of course, I will have multiple posts this week on

Your Organized Friend to keep you updated on that. I added an option on the right sidebar of the blog to get email updates when there is a new post. I think it works. If you are interested feel free to sign up.

Payday is Thursday. I will use some of the extra funds to pay off the Discover card. I used this to buy all the paint for our living and kitchen area. Actually we have enough to paint our bedroom and bathroom yet. I used the Discover card because they were offering 5% back on Home Improvement stores. I can already see about $17+ in rewards. The plan was to pull the cash from savings, but when their is extra in a current paycheck I prefer to use that money so it doesn't feel like I am touching the savings.

I have two bids on some music I decluttered earlier in the month. I moved them to auctions after two weeks listed as Buy It Now. People do like an auction!

Will you use a credit card at a Home Improvement store this spring for any additional rewards? Do you like fixed prices or auctions?

I paid off the balance in full on four different cards this morning: Target, Kohls, Discover and Capital One. I redeemed rewards on the Capital One cards in the amount of $20.75.

After those payments were made I sent in an extra mortgage payment in the amount of $45.75, which included the $25 Visa gift card I used on Thursday that had been a bonus from US Bank.

I'm feeling a bit disorganized in the last two weeks, so I hope to make a dent in getting some things done this week that will help me feel like I am back on track. For today, I will get to the gym and post office. I will also wash some bedding, as well as find a little time to declutter the basement. You can see what my basement storage area looks like before I start working on it at

Your Organized Friend. I hope to post some progress reports this week that show improvement. We were down there last night during a tornado warning but I didn't feel like working on anything during a storm. Turns out no tornado in our direct path or really in the vicinity. Better safe than sorry I guess.

Another thing I think I can get done today, and you might want to do as well, is check our Experian credit reports. I have my calendar set up to remind me every four months to check one of the three credit bureaus for free at annualcreditreport.com . I was notified at the beginning of this month and I still have not completed that simple task! I think I can do that today and then I can delete the email reminder I received!

Did you pay any cards off in full recently? Do you check your credit reports regularly? Do you have tasks you want to complete today?

Last week was so busy. I expect that it will take me a few days to catch up some financial tasks and get those posted to my blog. Thanks for understanding.

I used a $25 Visa gift card that I received from US Bank and I forgot to send the match into the mortgage, so I will get that done soon. We need to go shopping today for some clothes for our oldest daughter. Our first stop will be Kohl's so we can attempt to use the gift cards we have there.

I made another Ebay sale and have some auctions ending today. They are all Buy It Now offerings, so I think this week I will relist to true auctions and just get them sold for the going rate. If they don't sell, then they go to the garage sale or if not sold there donated.

I need to start back on the decluttering this week. I have a couple days I will set aside to do some major work on the basement or the garage. I will decide which to do based on the weather!

Have you been busy? Are you playing catch up on your goals? Will you be decluttering anything this week? Do you have anything you are trying to sell?

I have added $114 to our 52 Week Savings Challenge this month. The last deposit was $57 on Tuesday last week. I'm adding this amount twice a month on payday. Since I started this in December, I have now saved $523. This particular challenge has been pretty easy for us since it is all saved automatically. I recommend this highly!!

I wrote another blog on

Your Organized Friend. It isn't about decluttering, since I didn't get to any of that this weekend with all the painting we did. Although I will clean out my painting supply bin when we are done with our current project. I wrote about laundry instead, since I did have to get that done in the midst of the painting.

Are you still working on your 52 Week Savings Challenge? Do you have any laundry tips? Did you declutter anything this weekend, or did you just relax this weekend?

Our painting project caused us to get take out twice yesterday! The kitchen was in complete disarray for lunch. The girls said their was nothing to eat. Probably true. My husband picked up Subway for lunch. Then I picked up Pizza Hut for dinner.

The problem was I didn't plan ahead for what we would eat during our big project. And this isn't the first time that has happened. It sure could have been avoided, if I had decided and shopped ahead of time for what our meals would be on painting day.

There will be some more painting today. We are going to tackle the stairway leading to the basement. The wall extends up and is visible in our living area. We will likely be reaching up while holding on to the ladder for dear life. But right after I write this post, I'm going to make a list for the store. We will have food to eat here at home today. No more take out!!

If you want to see the color we painted our kitchen/living area, I posted a picture on

Your Organized Friend. You also get to see my painting supply bin.

Were you able to get a task crossed off your list yesterday? Did you get take out? Was it planned or unplanned?

Cash is flowing in!

I did sell that couch and love seat mentioned yesterday for a nice $150. The man was excited and said it was for his wife. Now I have more room in my garage. If you want a peek at my garage and how cluttered it is, minus the couches, head over to

Your Organized Friend and see some of my before pictures. I will be getting the garage in shape before our garage sale next month.

I sold a CD on Ebay that I need to get in the mail. I probably only made about $2. But less clutter and more cash makes me happy!

I also referred someone to Ooma, so I have a $20 referral credit. That effectively will cover 5 months of service, which is really just the Federal taxes of about $3.75 a month. I won't get the cash for six weeks or more, but it will be mine then!

We are prepped for painting and will be getting started shortly. I'm thrilled my husband took some time off so we can work together on this beautiful spring day.

In other good news, I lost 1.8 pounds! I'm very happy about this since last week I didn't show any weight loss on the scale. I watched the food intake even closer this week and it made a difference. Gee, kind of like watching the spending. Who would have thought?!

Are you sprucing up your living space (indoors or outdoors) this weekend? Do you have any extra cash or snowflakes flowing in this weekend?

We used our muscles last night to bring an older couch and love seat up from our basement and into our garage. I took pictures while they were still in the basement and promptly listed them for sale on Craigslist. I have quite a few emails to start responding to. I think there will be someone who will buy them. We are only asking $150, for the set. We have had them 18 years, so we think that is a fair price, for the condition. I think the pictures look better than they really are!

In other news, I have spent $140 worth of gift cards at Walmart. I will need to send the money I would have spent off to the mortgage. I might make it an even $150, since the gift cards are in $50 increments. Easier to keep track of. It's been a good snowflake month!

I took about 10 minutes to look at my linen closet yesterday. I found about three or four things to toss and another four things for the donate bin. If you want to see my linen closet, I have pictures on

Your Organized Friend.

My husband is off for the next four days. We are going to do some painting, as well as, spend some time with our girls. No big holiday plans other than being together.

Do you buy used furniture? Did you get any decluttering done yesterday? What is your favorite Easter candy?