Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

Today when we left the grocery store our air conditioning was only blowing hot air. It did briefly come on and was cooling great, but then it went off again. We checked the relays as we read that could be an inexpensive fix, but they seem okay. I expect we will have our van in to get this repaired this week. We drive it everywhere and it actually still warm enough to need and want air conditioning. Although, I'm sure glad it is not July or August.

I'm hoping this is not a major repair to the tune of $500 or more. We just committed to the Europe trip, and my daughter told me she is going to do 17 credits next semester (compared to the 13 she is taking this semester), so that is going to cost more in February when it is time to pay for them.

I have some snowflakes to report. And they all go to pay down the Europe trip.

$17, USAA Visa Rewards
$3, Pinecone survey
$2.32, Ebay sale
$1.08, Discover Rewards
$0.07, Checking account interest
$23.47, TOTAL

Now under $4,700, with a payoff total of $4,695.53.

Today is payday, but we won't do our budget until Sunday most likely. I expect we will have some funds to throw at this.

I want to make a conscious effort to pay ourselves back for this trip to Europe we have purchased for our daughter. The total cost upfront is $4719. We put it on a credit card. We will pay off in full by the due date, November 23.

The plan is to keep track of paying ourselves back, since most of the cost is coming from savings. If I set up a tracker here we can all follow my progress in making this happen. It would be great if we could make it happen by the time of the trip in late June. However, I have another tuition payment in February, that I need to pay out of pocket as well.

So the ticker is set up on the side bar and I will update it as we go along! I expect to cash Pinecone survey points and some other rewards soon. I also need to add some things to eBay for sale soon also!

Matthew came by where we live. We are fine and still have power and water, although some in our city do not. There have been a LOT of road closures due to water exceeding banks of rivers and streams. Those storms bring a lot of rain!!

School is cancelled tomorrow and my husband would have been off anyway due to Columbus Day holiday. We are keeping ourselves busy at home and off the roads.

Just before the storm arrived we did stock up on water, non perishable food, batteries and a new lantern. I was able to use gift cards at Target and Home Depot for the purchases. We earned them from one of our credit cards. We have not used any of the items. I plan to keep them all packed away until we do need them. A survival kit of sorts. I'm sure next year we may need to pull things out and evaluate if we want to replace them.

I've heard from news reports of many people looking for ice, and fuel now that the storm has past. We honestly don't have that much food in our home that would even need to be iced if we lost power. We would just eat it before it could go bad.

Our cars have full tanks of gas in them and we have extra fuel from our lawn mower we could use. We also don't own a generator, so we wouldn't be trying to run something like that!

Are you prepared for a natural weather disaster?

I was looking at our American Express account today and noticed that there was a new offer providing 10% off a cable or satellite bill. The offer is good through 1/31/2017. Limit on credits is $30. So I think the offer can be redeemed for more than one bill. I plan to use the American Express card for three months and will be able to redeem close to the $30 limit.

We just enrolled our daughter in her WWII Europe trip for this summer. I paid in full. I did charge it to our Southwest card, but we have the cash on hand. I will get some miles and a little extra purchase protections. The trip is 14 days and includes a lot for $4719. We did add on a side trip to Versailles for $100.

My daughter is going to pay for some of the additional spending money she will need to cover at least one meal a day, souvenirs and a few other extra side trips that may come up. She will also need to pay for her passport.

I now need to come up with a plan to make sure we pay ourselves back for the purchase. If I had signed up for the payment plan I would have been paying about $569 a month, which is probably doable.

I had to laugh last night when we left the meeting about the trip because I was talking about the cost. He said, isn't there some card you can apply for and get $500 in rewards?! I guess he has come to see that is a way to bring in some cash. And it probably wouldn't hurt to look around and see if any offers come up.

I mentioned a few months ago using an Amex offer for Boxed.com to buy a lot of toilet paper. Specifically, 114 double rolls!!

My husband and I each have a different Amex card account, so I decided to dip in again with his card. The offer is to spend $50 and receive a $20 credit. Shipping is free with the Amex card (or at least some promo code I found last time that is related). I bought to 36 count double rolls of toilet paper and added in two large bottles of sriracha sauce as I'm having trouble finding it at the commissary and my husband uses it on everything!

My total after a $2 rewards credit was $50.76. I will owe $30.76 after the Amex offer. This purchase will also get us closer to redeeming $25 in rewards on the Amex card as well.

Now I'm stocked up even more on toilet paper. And for what it's worth we haven't even used half of the 114 rolls I purchased last time.

If you want to try Boxed.com my referral offer is

I totaled the interest on our cash investment for the month of September and came up with $80.18. I think this may be the highest monthly total in awhile. Not positive on that, as I don't track it anywhere but in my blog posts. It would be higher as I have more money at invested at higher rates (2% plus) than ever.

I sure wish it was more, but $80 month does equal $960 a year that we don't even have to work for.

A little more spending today, primarily snacks and alcohol. Neither were needs. But we are down to $166 left through payday on Saturday.

I've already worked on October's budget. I've allocated the money for rent, flute lessons, water and electricity. I've funded money for groceries, fuel, entertainment and spending money among others. The latter categories were funded to the tune of $1,125.And that is for about half the month.

The good news is I added $730 to savings.

Turns out we may end up letting our daughter go to Europe this summer for a World War II trip. We knew about the trip last year, but hesitated signing up and then had some concerns about the safety of international travel. So we thought the option to go was gone. Turns out it isn't. Still need to get more details, but she was told it is $4600 for a 14 day trip plus spending money and the cost of a passport.

I posted a few days ago that we had $300 left in our budget until payday on October 1. We do have other cash, but we are saving that money! This is the money we can spend if needed.

Today my husband filled his truck with fuel for $34.45. I made a $25 donation to a charity. I paid the university for a book my daughter charged to her account for $28.73. I also asked my husband to pick up coffee at the commissary on post. He spent $23.38, which must be for more than coffee, but he's not home yet so not sure on that charge.

We are down to $193 and change left our budget for the next two days. I expect a couple more small expenses, but nothing major.

My daughter's flute lesson was cancelled so that will mean a credit of $25 on my account for next month. As a result of not driving to the lesson, it means I didn't get a chance to go into Kohl's looking for anything to buy with my $10 rewards coupon. So for now I have saved some money!

How much cash do you have left until your next payday? And when is your next payday?

Just five more days left in the month of September. The year is going by really fast!

We have just over $300 that was originally budgeted for the month of September expenses. If we can spend half of that amount or less I will be very pleased. I expect gas and maybe a couple personal needs expenses.

I will send the extra funds to savings!

On Saturday, a check arrived in the mail from our old electric company. It was a co-op so it was a return of capital credits in the amount of $19.07. I added that snowflake to our savings account.

I went through all of our accounts on YNAB today to make sure I had all of them reconciled. It was pretty easy since I had recently paid all of them down to zero! We really need to close some of our credit card accounts....as I'm really liking the idea of simplifying those.

I sent a payment to my sister by Bill Pay last week for a fundraiser her daughter was doing. I honestly didn't want the stuff, so let her girls pick candy, figuring it was a consumable and wouldn't add to the clutter, but would still support the school. This made me realize, I should use Bill Pay for our rent! I've been writing out the check and envelope and slapping a stamp on it every month for over a year. I was always so used to a mortgage payment being automatically deducted. It was nice! So I'm giving the landlord a heads up that the check may look different. I don't think there will be any issue, and now I know I won't forget, which almost happened this last month.

I use Bill Pay for our trash service, but all other bills are automatically paid from a credit card or checking account. What do you use Bill Pay for?

One of our kitties isn't feeling so well. GI imbalance the vet says. I did get my first visit free, but a test and meds cost me $80.92 today. I don't like that she isn't doing well or that I had to spend money, but that is how it goes. Will try to have this expense come from this pay period and avoid pulling what I put aside for savings a few days ago.

Yesterday was spendy. I bought some goodies to send in a care package and then mailed two packages. I wasn't exactly looking to spend more than $15 on the gifts, but ended up finding a few more items for another $15. Not a big deal really, and I don't have any regrets. It just all added up fast!

I sold an item on eBay. Look like I will net about $6. I almost gave up on that item even selling, so that was a nice surprise!

Here's my list of things to know about me:

1. I was born in 1972 in a midwest state.
2. I've been married 20 years to the same man.
3. I have two daughters age 19 and 16.
4. We move often with the military, currently living in the southeast.
5. I have a college degree in Banking and Finance, and worked for a major mutual fund company.
6. We started our marriage with $10K in credit card debt due to a failed business my husband started before we were married.
7. We have two cats Liberty and Riley.
8. I love tacos!
9. I have experience selling a lot of our used stuff on eBay.
10. My favorite season is autumn.
11. I'm considering raising honey bees when we retire.
12. I suffer from anxiety and dislike driving on the interstate (I blame it on military moves!)
13. I'm voting for a third party candidate.
14. I write another blog called

For a brief moment in time, we have zero charges on any of our credit cards! I paid them all off yesterday. There were no pending charges and we haven't used them since. That feels pretty good. We rarely have more than $1000 in charges at any one time, and we always pay them off before any interest would accrue. Technically, we pay them off twice a month when we are paid. Easy!

We put $1100 into savings. I need to build that back up after paying tuition earlier in the month. I also funded car repairs, auto insurance/registration, birthday and Christmas gift categories. Oh and set aside another $200 for plane tickets. We tend to do most of our savings in the second half of the month.

I also paid our vehicle registrations. The cost has dropped about $100 since last year since our vehicles are getting older. I think we will be at the current rate one more year and then the fee to register is just $50 each per year. Some advantages to older vehicles! I should recalculate how much I set aside to pay this each month to account for the difference.

I redeemed some credit card rewards this week. I had enough points to redeem a $50 gift card to Target. It's on it's way in the mail. I also redeemed just under $7 from US Bank (which is 5% off our cell phone bill each month). I requested this as a statement credit. I also intend to redeem $17 from USAA on our credit card account. Turns out that is the total cost for our Netflix subscription and Ooma telephone for the month! I will redeem for a credit and save that money in our savings account.

I used a Staples gift card (a previous credit card reward) tonight to buy a ream of paper. The cost was $0 out of pocket, but the actual ream is $2.99 (after rebate). Did you know that Staples sells one ream of multipurpose paper (500 sheets) for $7.99? There is no way I would have paid that with out the $5 rebate. The rebate won't arrive for 6+ plus weeks. It comes in the form of a Visa Prepaid card. Essentially, I shift some of the Staples cash for Visa cash, which is a much better deal!

Yesterday we only spent $10 on three items (all needs) and today $0 out of pocket since I used the gift card to buy the paper. Tomorrow is payday!!

Turns out the tire wasn't leaking air. We think I saw another warning light and didn't look closely to realize it wasn't warning me about the tire. So all is good. And the warning light has not returned!

And even better news, the air conditioning is working. In fact, we got it working on Friday night. We turned it off for several hours since it seemed it wasn't doing any good having it on. In the meantime, the temperature rose to 87 degrees. We decided to turn it back on and see if it would do anything. We left the house for about four hours and the temperature returned to 80 degrees. By Saturday morning it was cooling as expected! So our landlord canceled the appointment for service that was originally scheduled for today.

I did sell two small items on eBay in the last few days. I paid my fees and have the money being transferred to our savings account. I do like accumulating snowflakes.

Today was a no spend day! I don't expect much spending before payday on Thursday. Right now, I know I owe my sister less than $20 (waiting on the total from her) and I need to buy hair products.

First of all, I paid tuition in full today! No loans. So happy with that. I honestly wasn't sure I could make it happen this year, but without trying it seemed to work out just fine.

The air conditioning on the upper level of our home has stopped working today. It's 83 degrees up there tonight. I wish we would have noticed earlier in the day. Now we have to wait until tomorrow to even get anything scheduled, and I fear that it won't be tomorrow that they come out. We sleep upstairs so it's not going to be pleasant. We do have a guest room on the lower level, so we (my husband and I or our daughter) could sleep downstairs. The only good news is the repair won't cost us anything since we are the renters!

Last Friday our Honda Odyssey notified us with a little light on the dashboard that the air pressure on one of the tires was low. We stopped by and filled it with more air for $1. (I remember when air was provided free!) Tonight I thought the light came on again. My husband was going to take it to get filled and the light wasn't on again...so maybe it's not a problem. I'm really not sure what light I actually saw then?! But for now, no repair needed.

I put in a sell order today, which will happen tomorrow because of the holiday. I'm selling shares of my daughter's Educational Savings account. We have been using the money primarily for housing, because the tuition portion is easy for us to pay out of pocket.

The housing portion for the fall semester is $5,641. I sold enough shares to cover $4750 worth of housing. The remaining $891 will come from our pocket. I likely can save that much this month anyway, so might as well apply it to that bill.

The other portion of tuition and fees (after scholarships) is $3,288. We are paying this out of pocket too. Our savings account has built up over the last several months, so not a big drain at all.

I've come to realize that not having any debt of our own, and thus any payments we are obligated to, helps so much in being able to pay for college out of pocket. I know people with two car payments which are easily in the $450 range each. If one could avoid those payments that is $900 a month one could apply to paying tuition...that's 10,800 a year!

We had been saving $2000 a year for our daughter in this Educational Savings account. One cannot contribute to them after the beneficiary turns 18. After those contributions stopped, I still saved the money. I haven't actually made it a line item in the budget, but I'm starting to think that I will so I can see the money available and set aside specifically for college.

I also noticed that we spend less on groceries when our daughter doesn't live with us. It's hard to tell exactly how much, maybe $50 a week or $200 a month. We give her $100 each month for miscellaneous expenses right now, so we may have another $100 we can set aside each month. There may be other impacts of expenses without her living here, such as a few dollars saved when we go out to eat, or pay admission to the movies.

The act of saving something every month for college all these years did add up. But continuing to save has definitely helped limit the burden of needing to take out loans as we enter year two of college. And wow, not having any car payments or other loans sure helps too!

If you are in the thinking about how to pay for college. I would definitely consider that they money can come from savings, student's income, current cash flow (at the time of college), scholarships and then loans if needed. The money doesn't have to all come from the same source!

I think I mentioned in a past post recently, that we had likely accumulated $1500 in snowflakes this year so far. I haven't kept exact track so that is a rough estimate. I could have been making a point to set it all specifically aside for college. So think side gigs along with the other sources I mentioned above.

I started a six month Diet Bet on May 3. I won round one, but did not win rounds 2-4! Ugh. I keep trying and have been making progress, just not at the prescribed pace. I have been great at exercise, and have even found a friend during the process! I walk the neighborhood as does she with her dog. We kept running into each other and saying hi, eventually we introduced ourselves and chatted a bit more. Now that school has started and we are going to walk and talk!

Now that I'm on month 5 I am determined to make it to my goal weight by October 3. I have just over 6 pounds to lose. I'm committed to walking more and adding in some squats and push ups. I'm going to drink at least 80oz of water (10 cups) everyday and I'm back to really watching my calories and food intake.

As I have learned AGAIN...I can't out run/walk a bad diet. One has to keep trying to reach those goals. Weight loss is similar to managing finances. If you don't try you are going to miss every time.

I don't regret doing the Diet Bet even though I have failed a few months. I think it has kept me going and more accountable than if I didn't do it. It is always there in the back of my mind reminding me of what my goal was: my health. I might even consider another one after this one ends, as I know I have more to lose when I finish this one.

I've already mentioned how my daughter needed to buy a specific dress online for her choir class. That was $85.50. It may need to be altered too, so that adds to the cost. She also spent $114 on art supplies for her two drawing classes. I reimbursed her for those expenses since I will be able to claim those as required supplies for classes with the American Opportunity Credit.

My high school daughter came home with the picture order form. I do always buy these, but buy the smallest package that will provide the grandparents and a few aunts a picture. With tax I paid $37. Next up, the yearbook. They go all out at this high school with colored and glossy pages. I think the advisor is probably doing a disservice by allowing the yearbook kids to pick all the bells and whistles. It only make the yearbook an option to fewer kids. We have always bought them, and I did ask if my daughter felt she needed it and the answer was yes. I paid $68 plus tax for the yearbook. And finally, she needs a new academy shirt for the engineering program they have at school. That is another $28. I did also pay the Junior class dues of $35 which go primarily towards prom. At least I'm almost positive I will not have prom expenses, as she isn't interested in going.

I realize some of these expenses are not required, so I'm definitely not complaining. It just amazing how much stuff they throw at you at the beginning of the year.

I have not done a great job of tracking our snowflakes this year. Well I did a good job through part of March. I have an Excel documenting them up through then. The total on those is $216.54.

A lot of snowflakes get absorbed into our budget and don't necessarily become savings. At least for parts of this year. I did get quite a few rebate checks (over $200) that did get put into savings. I also starting diverting eBay proceeds to our savings account as well. It's those credit card rewards that get absorbed into our spending on YNAB.

I can tell that the snowflakes diverted to our savings account are equal to $566.58. But again, I didn't track any credit card rewards since March!

I do know I redeemed $550 rewards from American Express Gold. So that means we have over $1000 in snowflake earnings this year. It is probably closer to $1500 with interest and other rewards I'm not listing. By year end, I can probably get a final picture.

I just wanted those of you who know and have read in the past all about my snowflake earnings, that we are still earning them and saving a majority of them. I'm just not doing a great job of tracking them.

I have let go of actively earning Swagbucks for now. It was taking up to much of my time. I wanted to put more focus into my health and mental well being. I found that Swagbucks was contrary to both of those. I did like earning the points and the gift cards, but sometimes other things are more important that free cash! I'm actually still earning some by default from people that are referrals. I have 300 points right now and did nothing to earn them.

I'll try to be a little better about pointing out the little amounts of money we earn. They really do add up! I mean I could pay 1/2 my daughter's tuition (not housing) this semester with the money we have earned in snowflakes. That's not a bad thing at all!

$43.70. That is how much we have left of our budget until payday on Thursday. Our checking account still has $8K in it, so we aren't broke!

I did spend about $25 today at Walmart. Not a fan, but it is close, so we end up there occasionally. I bought a large umbrella, package of pens, composition notebook, ant bait (ants in my kitchen...not a fan!!) and a soda.

I also wrote the first check to the school for $35. Each grade pays dues. They are higher for Juniors and Seniors because of prom. Dues were only $5 last year and I think all the students get a spirit t shirt with the money. My daughter doesn't plan to go to prom. It's just not her type of things. But we pay what we owe. She can't even get a locker assigned until she brings in the money!

My older daughter had to buy a specific dress for her choir class this year. Dress, plus scarf and shipping was $85!!! She will wear it three times. I did tell her she should ask around if anyone from a previous class had one to sell, but she either didn't OR couldn't find anyone her size. Maybe she can sell hers next semester. I do get to count it towards required class expenses when figuring our taxes, so that helps a little.

The plan is to make the next two days no spend days! I feel pretty confident we can do it.

We are in the midst of marching band season for my youngest daughter. Well, oldest daughter is also, but she's out of town. We pay $7 each to get into every football game we attend. Tonight we also bought food and drinks. We spent $8.50 on four beverages, nachos and a hotdog. It was hot! We may have been able to skip a couple beverages if the weather was cooler.

I did a little clothes spending yesterday. I need a few new pairs of panties. I have a favorite brand and style, and I don't buy them very frequently. I also browsed the clearance racks and found a pair of capris in my new size (yea, for weight loss). I bought them plus four pairs of panties for $30 at Kohl's. I did have a 30% off coupon so that helped quite a bit. I was willing to spend $30 on three pairs of underwear before I walked in, but I walked out with an extra pair and the capris for that amount. Very happy!

My husband is helping his friend move tomorrow. This is actually the couple that let him stay with them for three months in their apartment before the rest of us moved out here. They offered their space for free! We will always be grateful. We definitely want to help payback that generosity in any way we can.

We have $300 left until payday. I think we can make it!

I've sold a few more items on eBay. I netted less than $15, but that is money in and stuff out, so I'm happy. I have eight more items listed. I'm not sure they will all sell, but if they end without interest, then they will get donated.

I haven't had a Pinecone survey lately. Although, I know I've done some of the household questions. I decided to log on to their website. I found I had $3 that I could cash in. Nice surprise!

I'm transferring more money from our money market account to Navy Federal Credit Union. We had a certificate mature and they now have an offer of 2% for 20 months, up to $20,000. I decided that 2% is better than .95%, so I'm going to maximize the amount we can invest.

My daughter did get marching band changed to zero credit. The other one credit needs to stay as it is. She has 13 credits officially, we will pay about $3300 out of pocket, after scholarships for the tuition and fees. Total for books and supplies will be known shortly. She has to order a specific dress for choir, not sure yet on it's cost.

I took my daughter and a friend out for a day on the town. We ate lunch at Subway first where I spent about $20. Downtown we stopped into our local art council to see the current exhibit, however the exhibit was not open to the public. It would have been free to view.

The girls decided to paint pottery next door. It was military Monday so there was a 10% discount. Total cost was just over $23. We were there for about 1.5 hours. Their pottery will be ready next Tuesday afternoon.

And then after walking around getting hot going in and out of stores just to look, we needed ice cream. Unfortunately, we went to the most expensive ice cream place...Cold Stone Creamery. I spent $15 for the three of us to each have one small item off the menu. I wish I would have suggest a soft serve cone from McDonald's instead!

It was a good time. And a good way to end the summer vacation. School starts on Monday of next week.

My daughter is in marching band at her university. She has to enroll in this as a class. Last year she took it for credit. This year there is really no point in taking it for credit as only one time with marching band can count towards her degree. So we are saving over $700 since she is taking it for zero credit. Yes, it could count as an elective, if she did pay for it and take it for credit. And that $700 is for one credit hour at the non resident rate. She has a scholarship that covers about 10 hours at the non resident rate. We pay out of pocket for the amount over that currently.

My daughter is enrolled for 13 credits now that she changed marching band to zero credit. She thinks there is one other class that she may be able to switch to zero credit as well. She will get that all firmed up on Monday.

I'm thinking ahead. I know that yearbooks, school pictures, and class dues are all going to be coming up once school starts. Since we have been here one year, I know how this school works. The first year at a new school is like going in blind.

Here's what I'm aware of right now:

Class dues $35 (prom primarily, which my daughter won't even attend)
Yearbook $68 (goes up as the year progresses)
School Pictures $40 (not sure exactly, as packages vary)

We don't expect any other expenses from the school, but of course, that doesn't mean there won't be any.

If I ran a school, I might actually provide parents a list of possible expenses. Indicating which are required and which are completely optional. Many are optional.

We stopped at Staples last night and bought two new binders and two sturdy folders. The total was $19+, but I had gift cards so out of pocket cost was zero. I think Staples is VERY expensive compared to the discount stores. Binders shouldn't cost nearly $9 in my opinion.

Are you aware of what expenses you may have coming up from your child's school?

I made another small eBay sale yesterday. I probably only netted about $5, but that's fine. Item out, money in!

I've redeemed some rewards on credit cards recently. American Express for a $25 credit, which helped offset the charge for vitamins I bought my husband. I also redeemed just under $7 on our US Bank Visa to reduce our cell phone bill. I love the 5% cash back on cell phone bills!

My daughter left her rain jacket at home, along with several items for cooler fall days. I shipped them out yesterday, along with her bus pass, in a Large Flat Rate box. I paid $18.75. Ugh! I hope she didn't forget anything else!

It's been a calm week here so far with limited spending. I even tried to convince my daughter she may want a new shirt for picture day. She said no, she has something in her closet to wear. Turns out its the same shirt she wore last year, only in a different color! I guess that is okay. Her hair is shorter, so it will look different. She's a practical girl.

I guess I should have factored in school pictures to my budget this month. They are bound to happen that first week of school. I think she will owe some class dues. Only $5 last year, but may be more as a junior.

College starts next week for our daughter. Thus a tuition and housing bill will be due in September. This made me think of the American Opportunity Credit, and wondering how much we might be eligible for.

After a lot of number crunching and estimating, I came up with credits worth between $2075 and $2500. The maximum is $2,500 based on a maximum of $4000 paid in qualified tuition expenses. Room and board are NOT qualified tuition expenses. It is actually our biggest expense.

This means we will get a refund in the spring. I'm estimating approximately $1178, up to $1553 depending on the American Opportunity credit.

I'm going to firm it all up once we have paid tuition in full. I've thought of changing withholding for the last two or two and a half months of the year. I figure it might be nicer to have the money earlier than wait for a refund. That will require some more number crunching later.

Just so you are aware of things