Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

The only spending yesterday was my husband's haircut and tip. He spent $13.70. As a soldier he gets his hair cut every two weeks and he tips generously. I think $4 of that is a tip! He's always been a generous tipper, and it used to bug me, but I've come to terms with it. Why should I be the one to squash his generous spirit?!

We are getting passports next week. I discovered last night that we don't have a certified copy of my husband's birth certificate. I'm shocked! I looked through a lot of paper (and I became aware of how much we have that we could still get rid of) We do have two copies of it, but not the ones with the raised seal. So I'm going to send a request for one to the county of his birth. That is $17 to the county. I'm going to send it Priority mail, which will be $6.45. I'm also hoping I can purchase a prepaid Priority envelope so the birth certificate can be sent back the same way. That will add another $6.45 to the cost, for a total $29.90. This definitely was not an expense I was expecting this week.

We have $74 before the birth certificate and postal costs. I think we are going to see a high school basketball game tonight. Depending how many of us go, it will be $12 to $18 for admission.

Only two more days to go on our limited budget!

We aren't getting snow here. In fact in our area it was just rain this morning. I'm referring to the money snowflakes. Or found money.

We were charged a $15 fee from Verizon for going over on our data this last month. The main problem was my husband early in our billing cycle updated all his apps while using data rather than wifi. That made traveling over Thanksgiving a bit harder. We had a few times we used my phones GPS while out driving which takes a lot of data. You have no idea how hard all four of us tried to stay under the amount once we were getting notifications. In the end we used 0.040GB more than our allotted amount.

I went online through Verizon's chat feature and asked for the fee to be waived, explained we didn't want to change plans since that would more money out of pocket over time than the fee, and explained we never go over. They did point out the new plans do have rollover data. But the immediately granted me a waiver of the $15 fee! I was very pleased.

I did some spontaneous paper decluttering this weekend. I came across billing from my daughter's oral surgery. I had made a note that we overpaid by $26.20, however I never called to get the funds back. I did make that call today and I should have a check in 4-6 weeks (I hope it comes faster)!

I thought I was getting $20 from an Ooma referral, but that must not have panned out. Maybe the person returned it. And I thought our USAA Subscriber's payment would go up like it has every year, instead it was far less! Last years amount was about $85. This year we received $45. I'll take it, but I was disappointed.

I'm keeping my eye out for other snowflakes coming our way! How are you doing with snowflakes this month?

Friday's spending was on a few grocery items and alcohol. I'm not a fan of how much we spend on alcohol. I'm sure it could be far worse. Total between those two runs was $55.

The only spending on Saturday was for a soda. We stopped into a gas station to use the restrooms. We also make a point to buy something in exchange for the convenience. Total spent $1.59.

Today our spending was on laundry detergent and groceries for the week. Grand total was $95. I did make a point to plan simple and frugal meals, so that did help keep the spending low.

So now we are left with $88 budgeted until payday on Thursday. My husband will probably need fuel and a haircut this week. There is plenty to cover both.

As of today we have $239 left to spend before payday on the 15th of this month. Personally, I'm staying out of the stores, and limiting my driving. I'm also eating things from our fridge and pantry that wouldn't be my first choices, but that will help the grocery bill. I may revise our meal plan for next week to make sure we stay within budget as well.

Right now I feel pretty confident we can make it within our spending limits, but sometimes things come up that can't wait. So my fingers are crossed we can do it.

Since I'm doing Christmas shopping, I have been spending my time at home decluttering a bit. I always feel we are pretty pared down, and that is true compared to many, but I can always find something we no longer need and use. I have an update of my progress in this area on

Your Organized Friend. Is anyone else decluttering this month?

I just purchased a roundtrip ticket for my daughter to come home for Christmas. And I used Southwest Airline tickets to cover the whole thing! I did have to pay that small Federal fee, but that amounted to $11.20. It is kind of nice to get that benefit once in awhile. I may need to start using our airline rewards card a little more often to rack up the points faster.

In other news we are traveling to Nashville to see my daughter's band march during the half time show for their bowl game. She needs to get there anyway, so thought we would drive and enjoy the game and city ourselves. We have paid $200 for tickets and parking, and the hotel for 3 nights is just under $500. I have Marriott points, but because it's a busy time for hotels, the points needed are outrageous! So we'll just earn more points.

So...my husband and I are going to make the trip our Christmas gift. We were looking at buying new speakers at the cost of $400, but we decided that can wait. Likely we can buy those in the spring, after we have paid tuition.

I'm looking to accumulate some

Swagbucks to earn Amazon gift cards to buy some needed items, such as razor blades. I figure every little bit helps the bottom line.

And I'm grateful once again to be a renter. The disposal is leaking and likely needs to be replaced. So the plumber is coming to take care of it and it won't cost me anything! I am annoyed that the landlord asked us to call instead of doing it himself!

In the last few years, I have done less and less shopping in stores. And this counts for Christmas, too! It is amazing how much less I spend when I avoid the stores. The displays are so tempting and inviting and there is ALWAYS a deal. The less I am in the store, the less I spend. It is directly correlated based on my own experience.

I think not having the newspaper coming to our door, reducing our mail and catalog delivery, and unsubscribing myself from store email lists have also made a difference.

Target is one of my favorite stores. I honestly love nearly everything about it! Before we moved it was my primary grocery store. I scanned the ads almost religiously and inevitably found something in the ad that was a good deal so I'd add it to the list. And honestly, it was usually something we would use. However, we didn't always need it right then. I could have probably waited for the next sale. And during this time of year it was easy to add some of the deals to my gift list just because why not it is so cheap!

Now that I shop online, I feel I'm a little more aware of what I'm buying. I'm not entirely sure why that is. It may be simple because I have a list, I find the item, add to cart and checkout. It's easy to do that on specialty sites and Amazon. If you are trying to meet a threshold for free shipping, then you are likely ending up with more than you need.

I did have to shop for a couple items in the stores, primarily for stocking stuffers and my nieces gifts. The nieces gifts were themed and had a lot of different things to them, so that meant going to different places. I'm hoping to avoid that next year!

So far our out of pocket cost for Christmas gifts is just over $500. I budgeted $600, so we are right on target!

Do you shop more online or in stores? Do you spend less if you stay out of the retail stores?

We had a lot more spending in late November than I budgeted for. I just didn't think through our trip expenses and things we would end up buying our daughter while visiting very well. So to compensate we have about $500 for spending over the next 12 days.

We go grocery shopping tomorrow. I have a meal plan in place. I'm going to do my best to keep to the list. We need to be eating less anyway, so the lack of cash should help!

In other really good news, my sister and her husband adopted their second daughter (their older daughter's sister) today! A happy family of four. My gift to them is to make a photo book of her first year with them. That first year won't be complete until May, so I have some time to accumulate pictures and set some cash aside to get it made.

I think I've mentioned the two other times that I made purchases at Boxed.com, so I might as well mention my third order. I snagged our favorite Dunkin Donuts coffee, 96 count Always, 67 oz Prego pasta sauce AND as set of 6 Cuisinart knives. I wasn't looking specifically for knives, but I had seen a similar set at some store and I really do need them!

My order total before rewards of $17 was $68.92. I charged the $51.92 to my husbands American Express card. He had an offer for Boxed.com. Spend $50, get $15 cash back. The final cost out of pocket will be $36.92. I basically feel like I got the knives free and similar prices for the other items that I would buy at the Commissary anyway.

If you are interested in $15 off a $60 order, use my link

here. I think that allows you to get free shipping. I do like to buy in bulk when I know that the price is just as good or better than what I would pay in the store. It's also nice to stock up and know we won't need to run out to the store for the things we are stocked up on.

The cash we have in our bank accounts has earned us $75.40 in the month of November. I'll take it, even though I'd like more! Don't I say that every time I report on interest earned?

I believe I'm nearly done Christmas shopping. I still need some stocking stuffers. My husband and I will buy a joint gift this year once we have some additional funds in our account.

Are you finished Christmas shopping or just getting started?

I'm expecting some snowflakes (found money) in the next couple weeks.

My sister owes me $36. I forgot to ask her about it when I was visiting, but she will mail it to me.

I'm pretty sure Ooma will be crediting my credit card at least $20 for a referral here in a couple days.

USAA provides a subscriber discount every year. Last year it appears to have been over $80, so I expect it will be just a bit more.
I noticed I also have $42 in rewards with our USAA Visa.

And finally I also have $19.47 in my Paypal account that is from two small eBay sales. I'm withdrawing it to our savings account.

That is $155 worth snowflakes! I love snowflakes and found money. I haven't been tracking well at all this year. I hope to get a new start in 2017.

I made

Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies for the first time a couple days ago. They are yummy and actually pretty easy. I have enough molasses to make a second batch. And I have already frozen them. They look just as good coming back out of the freezer too.

I cancelled another credit card last night. It was my Citi Thank You Preferred card. I've had it for awhile, and noticed we had added new cards and were using those more. Why keep extra cards if they are never used, right?

I simply sent a message through our account requesting the cancellation. I had a super quick response and when I logged back on the account had been closed. Easy!

The next step is to record in my notes that I cancelled the card and cut the cards up. I kind of like the finality of cutting up a card. I also moved the card account on YNAB to the closed account list.

We still have TEN credit cards open. Want to know what they are? Sure you do!

Target Red Card (5% off Target purchases)
US Bank Visa (5% off cell phone bill)
Chase Freedom (rotating 5% cash back categories)
Kohl's (various discounts)
Discover (rotating 5% cash back categories)
Southwest Visa (miles to fly on Southwest)
USAA (1% cash back)
American Express Blue Cash Everyday (various cash back, plus 3% grocery stores, 2% gas stations) (we have two of these)
Marriott Rewards Visa (hotel rewards)

I'm considering getting rid of Chase Freedom, although I've had it for a long time. I also probably don't need the USAA either, but currently we are using it for most of our expenses. I'm liking how quickly USAA is adding the cash back to our rewards account. And there is no minimum!

The cards that I'm finding most difficult to actually use are the Southwest and Marriott cards as their rewards are miles and hotel points. We pay annual fees for these cards! I'm NOT getting rid of Southwest though, because I do charge airline tickets at least four times a year. I am getting benefit from it. I haven't decided on the Marriott card yet. I think I need more time to decide and figure out how fast I could accumulate points if I used it more regularly.

How many cards do you have?

We have credit cards, but never pay any interest on our charges. All balances are paid in full by the due date, or before!

I just got wind of this promotion, so I thought I would pass it on. You can get $10 off $25 book purchase at Amazon. It expires, TONIGHT, November 27 at midnight PST. The code you need at checkout is HOLIDAYBOOK.

I already used it! I'm buying the Hamilton book for my youngest daughter. She is a fan of the Broadway play music. She hasn't seen the production, but this should give her some more insight on it. The book retails for $45. Amazon has had it for $27 with Amazon Prime. After the promotion, I scored it for $17! Quite the deal.

In other news...it looks like I will sell two of my items on eBay tomorrow. One other auction has someone watching it, so that could happen too. May end up with $25 or so.

The stock market has been up in the last couple weeks. I think it helps the election is over. The S&P is now up 8.63% for the year.

Our retirement accounts are up over $50K for the year. That does include the cash we invested. The actual amount is $386,448. I'd love to see $400K, but I think that may be pushing it considering we only have another $1600 to invest before year end. I will watch to see how it plays out.

I saw a billboard at the airport this weekend that said "No one ever wishes they waited to start investing for retirement." That may not be an exact quote, but you get the idea. It is NEVER to late to start saving for retirement. Something saved will be better than nothing saved. I think the same thing is true for college savings.

I'm making some photo gifts for Christmas this year. I'm making a photo book for my older daughter of her high school marching band pictures. I'm two years late on it, but I think it will be meaningful and unexpected. I should have made it for her graduation, but we were in the middle of getting ready to move at that time and it was just to overwhelming to take on. It was 50% off, so around $18 before shipping. I'm sure there is going to be a better deal at some point, but I'm just happy to have it done and on it's way!

I also put a college of marching band pictures from this year for my younger daughter. I didn't get a lot of good pictures, but a band dad took a ton and my daughter made it into a couple of them. He was nice enough to share them. That 8x10 collage is only a couple dollars and I will get a frame so she can put it on her wall.

The final photo gift is a calendar for my parents with pictures of their four grandchildren. I have not completed it yet as I'm hoping to get a couple pictures of the four of them together over Thanksgiving. I also am purchasing it separately so I can have it mailed directly to them. I think it will cost me $12 or so with shipping.

Do you make photo gifts for Christmas? Are you the recipient of photo gifts? What kind are your favorites?

I think the last credit card we opened was the American Express Gold Rewards card. It was less than a year ago. We met the spending requirement and received our bonus reward in gift cards earlier this year.

Yesterday, I had my husband call to cancel. It was in his name, and sending an email wasn't an option. He told me the woman did try to keep him as a customer by offering a $75 credit on travel expenses. We are traveling soon, but tickets and hotel are already covered. I'm glad to have it cancelled. It would have had a big annual fee had we kept it.

I'm getting close to wanting to cancel a Citi Thank You Rewards card I have. I did have some points, that I just redeemed on Amazon towards a Christmas gift. Those points amounted to $6.18. Happy to use, but we aren't using the card as we have other rewards cards we are using more regularly. I hope to get this one cancelled once I see the payment was recorded. I think I can probably sent a online message to get that done.

Have you opened or cancelled a credit card recently?

I had charged my daughter's summer trip to Europe on our Southwest Visa early in October. I needed to pay it off by November 23 to avoid interest charges. And I did just that yesterday. The balance is now zero.

We were able to cash flow all but $1400. That amount I took from savings. I expect I will be able to cover most of that next month, and have paid ourselves back.

I feel really good about how it turned out. I could have been making monthly payments of nearly $600 for eight months, but I feel much better having it just done and paid for. My focus now is to accumulate another $4000 for February tuition.

We also need to set aside money for passports in December. We decided my husband and I should have them also, especially if something were to happen and we would need to fly overseas.

I'm not surprised, but November has definitely not turned out as no spend for us. We are spending within our budget as usual, but I'm not able to back off getting some things we need.

Last weekend we went shopping for some new clothes. I bought one shirt, my daughter four shirts and my husband picked up a sweater and a belt. We shopped at Kohl's and after some great coupons and discounts we paid $83. I don't think we had any items that came up to more than $20 after the discounts. We were all due for something new, especially since we are going to attempt some family pictures over Thanksgiving. I had a six year old top I could have worn, but decided I could spend a little money to be wearing something not so dated!

I've also started Christmas baking, which meant buying baking supplies at the store on Sunday when we shopped. I bought only the ingredients I needed. I will pick up the rest after Thanksgiving when I'm back at the grocery store.

I've also started Christmas shopping. Just yesterday I spent $25 at Hobby Lobby buying some items for my niece and my daughter. I also purchased a couple gift items online that should arrive tomorrow.

I'm striving for a stress free holiday and part of that involves spending in November, so I don't have to be out in the store shopping. I'm thinking ahead about stamps, cards (actually skipping this year), gift wrap, the gifts themselves, decorations (including lights), and baking. If you want to read more about Stress Less Christmas and my daily Christmas missions go to my other blog

Your Organized Friend. Feel free to look at November and December archives from last year too.

So while I attempted to be low spend this time of year, it is just reality that there is spending. I'll try again in January and/or February.

Did you try no spend this month? How are you doing?

We save $50 a month towards Christmas spending. Before November I had $500 already set aside. I'm about to add another $50 on payday tomorrow.

I've already started buying gifts! So far that spending is about $140. I expect I will be done buying gifts before I fund the Christmas account for December. I'm going to try to keep the spending to $550 just for this reason.

I think in years past I used found money, or snowflakes to help fund Christmas. I probably blogged about it here on the blog. I'm still getting some snowflakes but I just put them in our general savings account. They end up being applied to college expenses for the most part.

Some recent snowflakes:
$5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks
$5.72 from Ebates
$3 from Pinecone
$22 eBay sale
$25 flute lesson refund (hurricane related)

I think there may be some other snowflakes I could list, but they are not coming to mind right now. I haven't been as good at tracking them this year!

How do you save for Christmas?

I hope this is my last post in regards to the election, but I think economic factors were a big issue for many voters. I remembered being a part of a forum discussion where the OP was pointing out how hard it was to find a job in her small town. Here is the

link if you want to read. If you haven't driven through the farm fields or stopped in a small town, it may be hard to imagine what life is like. Some of them you really wonder why people even stay there. But again, that link is a glimpse into how it is like for some people.

Today we splurged and went to another movie: The Accountant. It was violent, but a VERY good story line in my opinion. We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant just prior. Very yummy and inexpensive food.

Prior to eating lunch we had run a couple errands. My husband got a used book, and I had a credit to cover the full amount. I picked up gum, and cleaning supplies at Home Depot with a gift card. I bought an iTunes gift card there also, but they wouldn't let me buy it with a gift card. I tried!

We also began looking at cell phones at Verizon. We didn't fall in love with any. My husband said if his screen wasn't giving him such issues he would be willing to stay with his phone. We may consider trying to replace the screen ourselves like we did with his Samsung Tablet. I'm sure it would be cheaper than buying new phones. I need to consider long and hard about moving from my Android phone to an iPhone. I have a MacBook Pro and would love them to be more in sync with each other.

Almost time to watch our favorite college football team. I'm going to try to work on a photo book while I watch. Not sure I can do both, but I'm going to try.

Our daughters woke up very upset this morning. One has a friend that is very fearful to walk around on campus. I personally am not fearful, yet I am so sad that others are.

Hug someone if you are feeling sad or scared. Talk through your feelings. Remember that we are more alike that we are different. There is more good in the world than we can possibly be shown on television.

Be the good!

My girls are big John and Hank Green fans. Every year they have some special types of merchandise they sell. This year is no different they both wanted something. One is getting a shirt and the other a hoodie. These are Christmas gifts, so I can now say my shopping has begun.

I'm also working on a photo album for my older daughter. The album will be as many pictures I can find from her high school marching band days. I wish I would have done this at the time of graduation...but we were getting ready to move!! I have a coupon for a free 8x8 book and just need to pay shipping.

I also put together an 8x10 photo collage of about 7 marching band pictures for my youngest daughter. Several of them are from their final competition where they are pictured with all their awards. This band doesn't seem to get as much professional pictures to be purchased, but one dad has a super nice camera and is in the pit crew, so he can get great shots. He is sharing them with us for no charge!! I will order the book and collage at the same time. I expect to buy a frame for the collage as well.

Have you started any Christmas shopping? I have a plan to finish by the end of November. I might need a couple extra days in December, but the goal is before that.

I ended up with $11 in my wallet after the weekend. We usually have cash on hand for all our marching band adventures. The season ended Saturday night on a high note. Our daughter's band was named Grand Champions at their last competition!!

Today I gave my daughter the $11 to donate to school. They are collecting funds to purchase grocery store gift cards for those in need this Thanksgiving. She gets community service hours for her donation; one hour for every $1 donated. So our small donation saves her from actually volunteering 11 hours of time! I did tell her she could use some of her own money to add to it if she desired. Not sure she is as I think she is hoarding money for her Europe trip.

So other than that donation, it was a no spend day. I'm hoping to gain some bookstore credit tomorrow when I sell some books and CDs.

It was a spendy Sunday.

We took our younger daughter to see Dr. Strange. Great movie! I don't regret the movie tickets. I had allocated cash towards this expense. I do regret the pop and popcorn though...I should have put a snack in my purse instead. My husband would have bought the soda either way. At least we went during matinee pricing.

I bought new running shoes. My last pair lasted about three months. I poked a hole with my big toe, and the soles were very worn. This time I bought the same pair, but decided to go up a half size. I've been walking A LOT...easily 5 miles a day. At that rate, one does go through shoes much faster. The shoes cost me $95.99 at the Post Exchange...no sale tax and probably 30% cheaper than buying at a traditional store.

We filled up on gas and bought groceries today through the next payday. Groceries were $168.81 including laundry detergent, kleenex, cat food and a multipurpose cleaner. The gas was $33.85.

I might get my hair cut tomorrow, otherwise I don't expect any other spending tomorrow. Right now I don't see much spending this week!

Last night we didn't end up paying to get into the away football game our daughter's marching band was performing at. The band didn't leave school until 2 hours after originally scheduled. They arrived after half time. We were there in the parking lot when they arrived, but decided we didn't need to go in just to watch her play in the stands. Saved $14.

Today we spent about $24 at Subway for lunch. Definitely not a need, but it was convenient after a busy morning at a Veteran's Day Parade. I did have cash allocated in our Restaurant category.

We also spent $23 at the final marching band competition at the season. We spent $16 on admission, $3 on a program, and $4 my daughter spent at the concession stand. I always remind myself that our spending at these games and competitions help support the band (and athletic) programs.

Oh, and we bought wine to drink while watching our favorite college football team play on TV. I'm not sure the cost of the wine. Maybe $10.

Weekends tend to be when we spend the most. We can get by most week days without spending much at all.

We changed how we pay our landlord at the beginning of October. Instead of writing a check myself, and finding the envelope and stamp, I set up the rent to be mailed from our bank using Bill Pay. I notified the landlord and it was fine with them. One of the owners let me know by text message that the check did arrive.

But it has not been cashed! I checked this morning and our rent check dated November 1 has been cashed.

Edited to add: Our bank will void the check after 180 days. Thus on March 30, 2017 that check can no longer be cashed.

So...should I say something? It seems so odd. Part of me hopes they forgot and never cash it. I can't imagine they will never notice, especially at tax time.

No spending yesterday by me. My husband bought coffee for work $6.29 at the commissary. Tonight we have the last high school football game (we go to see the marching band) which will cost us about $14 to get in the gate and about $4 for our daughter to purchase concessions.

I've left a tab open on my computer for weeks to remind me to calculate my daughter's expected spring tuition, fees and housing. She signed up yesterday officially, so I finally took the plunge and started calculating.

She is taking 17 credits. Three of those are an online class, which is a bit cheaper than classroom learning by almost $500 a class. Tuition and fees are $12,726.75, but she has $7,250 in scholarship money. So we will owe out of pocket $5,476.75. Our estimated tax refund is $1375. I may not have that back when the bill is due February 12, but it can be counted on to cover the cost we take from savings. That means I need to find $4101.75 to make the payment. We do have the cash, but I would like to accumulate and cash flow that money as much as possible by February 12.

And the housing due for the spring semester is $5.015.65. She does get $353 discount because she is a second year student in the same dorm. That amount is $4662.65. We will use money we have in her education account to cover this. After this withdrawal we will have just under $5K left in her education account. We could use this for the tuition above, but expect we may want that for her final semester or some summer classes.

The goal is to finish school without loans if possible. It sure helps that our expenses are low and we don't have debt. We do have the Post 911/GI Bill benefit we expect to use starting Fall 2017. We will owe just a little for housing each semester, maybe $1000, plus some books.

I spent $13 at Walmart to pick up a few things that didn't make the grocery list on Sunday. I was definitely not looking at the status of some of our staples like salt, olive oil and butter when I made my list. I also picked up a personal care item...and actually remembered to use a coupon! I think these count as needs, rather than wants though.

I forgot to mention we ended up with some free vitamins in the mail. We ordered two months supply for my husband last week. Somehow we got someone else's order (of the same vitamins) in separate box, but with a shipping label to our home. So not really our problem. So instead of a $30 cost per month, the cost is closer to $15 a month for the next four months! Nice surprise bonus. I used our Amex card for the purchase and there was a $10 coupon off a $50+ order.

I'm ordered two Christmas gifts this week. My daughter is selling live wreaths for marching band. I'm buying one for my parents and one for my mother in law. They are approximately $35 each. These will be Christmas gifts. I let my Mom and Dad pick theirs out when they visited. The cool thing is these will get delivered to their home! I am using money I have saved for Christmas to make these purchases.

Still haven't pointed out the low spend month idea with my husband! And we do travel this month so I think that is why I'm hesitant to really dive in. I do think the exercise of reining spending in is a good one. We aren't big spenders overall, so there isn't a lot of excess. However, I know for our experiment in February that one can save a LOT of cash by making the intention of low spending.

Today, I came across an article where someone is doing a No Spend Month in November! And I see that Mrs. Frugalista is doing one also. I never thought that it would be possible to do in November. I'm not sure I can convince my husband, but it may be worth the try.

I made a credit card payment for our airline tickets that I charged last week. I had all but $200 of the cost set aside in our vacation fund. Between that purchase and the cost of my daughter's Europe trip, we earned 7500 Southwest Airline miles. I wouldn't count this as spending though for November, primarily because I did do it in October and it is essential to get home for a holiday when the money is available!

I just did our budget and basically after paying required bills, I was able allocate $1000 for spending through Nov 15. We could likely spend far less than that if we are super careful, but that amount is average for us. I also put $500 aside that will go towards paying the Europe trip. I'm going to see what else I can come up with next pay period before I make another payment.

I went grocery shopping on Sunday as usual. My parents were here visiting, so I didn't make a great menu plan and just told myself I could go back to the store later. I'm going to do my best to make it through Sunday without going to the store. I know I have soups frozen that I can thaw, and items to make pizza. We have lots of eggs to make breakfast for dinner. I believe there is rice and beans (and salsa). I think I bought some frozen burritos too. I bet we can make it! And that will help the budget quite a bit.

Do you think you could keep your spending down to just the essentials in November? Again not sure if I can, but I just might try it. I'll let you know how it goes.

First, I don't shop much at all any more. I don't want to acquire more stuff! However, we were out of town yesterday. And I wanted to stop into World Market. I haven't lived in a town with that store for 4 years! Boy, I was amazed at how different it seemed. The styles of the merchandise, while similar, was different. I think we spent at least 45 minutes in there. Luckily, I only left spending $16. Half the cost was for Christmas ornaments for my daughter's (a traditions) and the other half a fun gift for my youngest daughter (she had a stressful week at school). I think it may be a good thing I don't live by that store any more though. I was very tempted to buy other things!

I just made the $1800 payment on the credit card for the Europe trip. I mentioned this plan in my last post. Not sure why the ticker isn't updating...maybe a delay. New balance is $2895. Goal is to have it paid off the card one month from today, November 23. I'd love it to be from current cash, but I'm pretty sure some will come from savings and we will pay it back.

My husband received his birthday check from my parents for $100. I've added it to the birthday fund. This year we are skipping giving gifts for our birthday's, but hope to buy some bigger needs (and sort of wants) for Christmas. My birthday is next month, and I expect I will get a check from my parents also.

Our water bill arrived in my inbox. Next month the bill is $57. Last month it was $71, and the month before that $110. Definitely using less water now that the lawn growing season has slowed down. Electric bill was also down by $55!

I'm grocery shopping later today. I think the bill will be a little larger as my parents are going to be in town, so a little different style of food and more of it. But they are easy to please, so it shouldn't be too much extra.

And finally, we are about to book our flights home for Thanksgiving. Three of us flying on Southwest round trip is going to be between $1200 and $1300. We are flying on some less busy days so that helps the cost. I had this money in the vacation fund. I expect we will easily have enough points to cover my oldest daughter's flight home for Christmas. If not Christmas, definitely for Spring Break.

Even after our recent van air conditioning repair (just under $200), we put away $1800 in our emergency fund this month. That is assuming we can stay within the budget we planned in YNAB, of course.

And realistically, that money is spent. I need to put it towards the Europe trip. I expect to do just that very soon. That will put the balance of that payoff at $2895. And that is a number so much easier on the eyes!

There are two more paydays before the full payment is due on the credit card I charged it on. It would be great if I could come up with another $1800 by then. Fingers crossed!!