Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

Okay, that is a very strong statement. But I had to share that I was finally successful at cooking dried black beans! It feels like a Christmas miracle. I've tried a couple times before with no success. The beans were still unedible after hours of soaking and cooking.

I know someone here mentioned that using old beans could be part of the issue. And knowing that I have neglected bags of beans before cooking, I decided I needed to try again.



And yes, fresh beans worked out just like the direction stated! So tonight we had brown rice, black beans (which were seasoned with cumin, onions and garlic), salsa and sour cream. Yummy!! And pretty cheap.

I have at least 5 cups of beans left. I have put 2 containers of 2 cups of beans in the freezer. The rest were mixed in with the leftover rice, so someone will have some lunch this week. Probably me!

I haven't made any goals or plans yet for 2015. I found out our housing allowance which generally goes up each year, is staying the same. Not the end of the world, but a bit disappointing. The increase in my husband's pay is going up by about $105 a month.

I'm going to need to adjust pay for withholding after the final pay day of the year on December 31. We had changed it so there would be no withholding for the last three months when I realized we had been putting too much in. The college benefits threw me for a bit of a loop in planning! I'll know much more after this tax season.

I know we will save for retirement and college which are set up automatically. We would really like to take a vacation. I think with YNAB we will better be able to track this and make more concentrated progress.

The good news is there is no debt! We don't need to be focused on paying anything off. Thus the major focus to save or at least pay in cash those things we are putting our priorities on.

I'll get back to you in the new year on more specific goals. Are you planning to attack any big financial goals in 2016?

Although our Christmas shopping is done, we did some shopping today for needs. At Ulta. Where the checkout line was horrendous! Not that I was really surprised. The man buying his daughter's makeup just about had a heart attack when they gave him the total! The stuff is expensive and adds up fast. I don't think they had any coupons. We were buying one liter of conditioner and a tiny bottle of hair serum of some kind. With 20% off and $6 in rewards our total was $26.49. That conditioner bottle should last me six months. It seems the shampoo lasts about twice as long!

I bought a long sleeve shirt on Land's End today. I've been wanting a gray one to replace one I got rid of last winter. Today, I was able to get it for half off, free shipping and will get a $15 credit because I used our Chase Freedom card through the Visa Checkout system. The total before the credit was $17.90. I had to throw in a child's fleece hat $3.97 to get my total high enough for the credit offer. I will donate that since both items together will only cost me $2.90!

We went out to lunch today. We tried a new pizza place here in town, called MOD Pizza. It was really good! With drinks for three of us we spent $31. We ate late, so hoping dinner here at home can be light. Oh, and the meal was in our budget!

We have plans to watch Polar Express tonight also. It's been a few years since we watched it...and I was contemplating decluttering the disc. Guess it stays for now!

We received lots of goodies (food primarily) in the mail from my parents today. Their Christmas gift to us. They know the kinds of things we like. And there should be nearly zero clutter as a result. There were some candles...which could take awhile to burn though.

I hope you are all enjoying the lead up to the holidays! If you are stressing out...please don't it isn't worth it. I have heard of too many people getting upset this time of year for various reasons. That makes me sad when it should be a joyous time. It seems to come from putting too much pressure on ourselves to please others or expecting too much of the season. We have scaled back considerably and I can tell we are all enjoying ourselves so much more!

I sold more shares of my daughter's college fund the day interest rates went up and the market went up. I'm selling to cover the cash we used out of pocket to pay tuition and housing last semester. I still need to withdraw another $2K before the end of the year. Although if the market keeps tanking, I may just forget it!

It's officially holiday break! We have no particular plans. I'm hoping we can find some low/no cost things to do at home or in the area before Christmas. I guess my husband has a few more days of work before then too!

I did buy toilet paper and got $1 back from Ibotta for the purchase. Always nice to find some savings. I have nearly $16 accumulated with

Ibotta and will have to wait until I'm at $20 to get cash through Paypal. I would guess it will happen before the month is out, since there are a lot of rebate opportunities this time of year! That's my referral link. You get $5 and so do I after you claim your first rebate.

We've been looking for new furniture since we moved in. And we found it and decided what we wanted awhile ago. We finally decided to make the purchase this week. We bought three pieces of leather, a couch, love seat and push back chair (recliner). With taxes, delivery and some leather protection warranty, we paid $2,921. We receive our furniture on Monday!

I think I mentioned that we got around $1400 for damage done to some of our furniture during the move. We are applying all of that to the purchase. I'm going to throw some snowflakes at it in addition to using some savings. Eventually we hope to sell one sofa that is replacing so that should help a little, too.

The latest snowflake is $12 from Pinecone. CrazyLibLady mentioned that the $3 cash out option was back! She was right, so I used my 1200 points for $12. I expect that money in my PayPal account tomorrow. Which reminds me I had another small sale on eBay for which I probably gained $4.50 after fees. The little amounts add up!

I'm nearly done with all Christmas tasks...yes, shopping is done, wrapping is complete, some gifts mailed. Just working on the menu and getting grocery list together. Oh, and I need to send our eCard yet as well. Otherwise, I'm just enjoying the season!

Amazing that so much has been fixed on this site so fast. Why did it take so long to get such a quick response? I sent Jeffrey a private message yesterday. I thought others had done this in the past. At any rate, it is good.

I redeemed 2500 Swagbucks for $25 in my PayPal account last night. I was tired of Amazon...spent too much there lately! The money was already in my account this afternoon! Super fast!! And now I'm transferring it to my checking account.

Another snowflake to add to the list.

I suppose I stopped doing snowflake updates around the same time that we stopped being able to add pictures to our blogs. Maybe that will be a thing again. Not sure that I feel too confident on that yet.

Last month, in November, I accumulated just under $80. Specifically $79.29. Primarily made of Bing, Swagbucks, Ebates and US Bank (credit card) rewards.

So far December has far exceed November. I will disclose that total at the end of the month with details too.

The year to date total for 2015 is $2612.56...so far. I think there will be some more to add before the year ends. I have had better years of accumulation, but with a major move this year I'm not going to beat myself up about it!

Have you continued to track your found money in 2015? Will you have a total at the end of the year?

We received our 'refund of premium' from USAA. We get one every year. And each year it seems to go up! Last year it was $69. This year $81.12. This sort of makes up for the fact that our auto insurance rates went up when we moved.

I don't have specific plans for the money other than to save the money. I'll count it as a snowflake for the month. I'm guessing it might help cover the cost of college books in the spring. Or could offset the money spent for our adopted family. However, I think that actually ended up being covered by our Christmas budget!

Today, I'm spending money on postage to mail two gifts. I bought fuel for my van. Later I'm getting a haircut. We are also out of coffee, so need to pick that up! Dinner is planned for here at home tonight. We may have lunch out tomorrow as we will be viewing our daughter in the Christmas parade downtown.

I'd like to think it will be at least a low spend weekend, so we don't have much more to spend until payday! And as I write that I've been thinking about doing a no spend month, likely in February. It's the shortest month, even with it being a leap year! And I think it may be one where we don't have as much going on. Has anyone done a no spend month recently, ever or want to?

Apparently we took out cash last month at enough places to get our ATM fees refunded to the tune of $11.25! I'm thankful our bank refunds these (only up to $15), but I don't like that we paid them in the first place.

I did find (and told my husband) about ATMs around us that do not charge fees for withdrawals. Another thing you have to adjust to when you move!

We just booked an airline ticket for our daughter to come home for about 13 nights. It could have been longer, but she needs to go with the marching band to the bowl game before she returns home. She will be in California on Christmas Day as it turns out. The cost was just over $600! I would have booked much, much earlier, but couldn't until we knew the whole bowl schedule. I should get her spring break trip booked right now, too.

I sold a book and Box Tops for Education on eBay yesterday...and net another $14! The net total is about $187. Not too shabby.

I still have two items listed. I'm not sure if they will sell. One seems like it should, so I'm not quite sure what it hasn't. I may need to change it in some way to guarantee a sale.

I have earned enough to get a $5 Amazon gift card through Bing rewards. I haven't redeemed them yet. I'm getting closer to earning another $25 gift card or cash from Swagbucks, also. These seem to be my monthly averages on these.

I sure do like the small amounts of money that come in! Let it snow. Let it snow!!

It's official. All the items I have sold have resulted in $173.24 after fees and shipping! Some items were from the Wii U lot that I purchased. The others were old military gear.

The money is definitely going to offset the purchase of all the new to us Wii U items, and the gifts we purchased for our adopted family (spent about $250 on them).

I have three items currently listed for this next week. I think I have more I can list tomorrow, but I may be winding down with the sales. It feels good to get some of this military gear out the door. I knew it was worth money, so I lugged it halfway across the country (well, the movers did). It's finally time to get it out of here to free up some space!

So excited that my buyer from last Monday finally paid for their auction. I can get it in the mail on Monday!

I had one item sell yesterday with a Best Offer...but they have not paid. Ugh. I'm not sure if I didn't have that set up right, as I usually require immediate payment for Buy It Now auctions.

I have four auctions ending today and two already have bids. Some of these items are offsetting the cost of the Wii U I purchased for my daughter, so that is also exciting.

I have at least one or two more Christmas themed items I found in our stash that I'm going to put up for sale. If they don't sell before the holiday, they will just be donated?

Are you doing any selling during the month of December?

We are helping buy gifts for a family in need. It was a last minute decision on our part. The gifts need to be dropped off on Monday.

Under the heading of toys for a 13 year old girl is listed Educational Books. Thoughts on that? My sister said all books are educational. However, I wonder if non fiction is the direction they are pointing. Or possibly trying to avoid certain types of teen novels.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to read them. We are shopping later tonight or tomorrow morning with our 15 year old daughter that probably will be a great help, too.

If you haven't started using the Ibotta app for rebates and cash back on things you probably already buy...now is the time. You can get $5 for signing up

here. That's my referral link. I will also get $5. You will need to accumulate another $15 in redeemed rebates in order to cash out for Paypal or Venmo (cash out minimum is $20). There are also some gift cards you can redeem for including Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart and iTunes (some have higher thresholds).

Just trying to save you a little money! You are welcome.

I think I've mentioned before that my husband qualifies for the Post 911 GI Bill which he can transfer to me or our daughters. It is 36 months of benefits, which we have currently split into 18 months for each of our daughters. We were planning to start using it next year and we still might.

The exciting news is there is no cap each semester. The benefit will also pay non resident tuition! That was news to us. This would be especially important for my oldest daughter if she were to take more than four years to graduate. Currently one of her scholarships covers a large portion of the out of state tuition. It is renewable but only covers four years. It's that possible fifth year that this benefit could help to cover everything that isn't covered under that scholarship. We have time to figure it out. And who knows she may get other scholarships.

In addition to the tuition benefit, there is a housing benefit and money towards books! I knew about those as well. Feeling blessed that this is available for our family. Now we just need to be smart and use it when it is the most beneficial.

I'm terrible at remembering we have savings that earns interest. Maybe because it isn't much. One account earned $25, while two CDs earned almost $29 in the month of November. We also deposit $25 into a savings account as part of the agreement on one of the CDs. So we are accumulating $75+ each month. Not a lot but it counts!!

I sold another item on eBay yesterday. Already paid and mailed! That is another $12 added to the $63 profit. If the buyer of an auction that ended Monday would pay I have ANOTHER $12 to add. Hoping the payment is soon. I also have a bid on another item!

I mentioned photo books a few posts back. I did get one complete for my parents. It was $9.99 plus $7.99 shipping. It has photos of the grandchildren. It will arrive in time to wrap and mail for Christmas. I think I can fit it in a Flat Rate Priority envelope, so shipping should only be an additional $6. I debated about having it sent direct, but it seemed less personal. Nice gift for less than $25.

I paid all the current credit card spending. One card had over $1200 on it! But since we use YNAB, I knew the money was there to pay it. Our available spending is a bit sparse for the next two weeks, since there was a little overspending on our Thanksgiving trip. I don't think it should impact us much, since we just plan to stay home and do minimal outings.

I sold four items on eBay yesterday. I have already received payment for three netting a profit of $63 after fees!

The items I sold were included with the used Wii U I bought on eBay a couple weeks ago. There were some valuable items in there we don't need. Turns out I got a really good deal!! My out of pocket cost is now $237 rather than the $300 I paid. I have one more sold item I'm waiting for payment on, as well as three more from this purchase that I'm attempting to sell. I feel confident I can get under $200.

I'm also selling some military gear. I have one offer which I have countered. The other items probably just need more time! I'm putting the proceeds into the vacation fund...aka the fund for my daughter's plane ticket home.

That's what my husband is giving me for Christmas. I found them refurbished on eBay today. The actual amount was less because I had a $2.28 Ebates payment in my PayPal account that arrived last week.

It does seem I often buy my own Christmas gifts. I was contemplating a FitBit, but knew if I said that to DH he would head to Best Buy and pay full price. (He doesn't shop around for the best price.) When I saw them on eBay today, I jumped on it. I feel better trying it at that price. And that puts it in budget for our spending!

I listed more items on eBay yesterday and have five items ending today. I'll sell at least $68 worth!

I'm going to buy the last two gifts, other than stocking stuffers, today! So excited to be nearly done with the shopping. And I think I'm on budget too.

I didn't realize I hadn't posted on my own blog for over a week! We did start traveling last Monday night, so that obviously had an impact.

We just arrived home today. I have not yet, caught up YNAB with all of our spending. Many things have been entered, just not everything. So I really need to go through and see what we missed. My husband is much better at logging these right away. I usually wait until I am home. I hope the damage wasn't too bad. I know I allocated some money to several of the expenses.

Tomorrow is payday, so the money will be there to pay anything we didn't specifically budget for.

I'm nearly done with Christmas shopping. I only made one online purchase on Friday, but it helped wrap up the items I'm getting my husband. He had added something I wanted to the cart, so I ordered my own gift! I used the American Express card and will get $15 back after our purchase posts.

Are you done with your shopping? Did you travel for Thanksgiving?

We are going out to dinner tonight with the couple that let my husband stay with them for a few months before the rest of us moved here. It's a bit of a pay back dinner. They got to choose. It's a restaurant my husband and I have not been to, but the couple advise the bill could easily reach $30 a person for food and drinks. Not terrible, but not frugal either.

I don't really want to spend the money, but I'm hoping the time out will be enjoyable. And paying for a meal out is way cheaper than my husband paying for housing out of pocket while we still had a mortgage payment.

Are you eating in on this Saturday evening or going out to dinner?

I'm still doing eCards in early December, and skipping the traditional pictures and cards. However, I'm in the process of making two photo gifts. Neither one is specifically for Christmas.

The first one is for my sister and her family. They adopted a 9 year old girl this August. She had been placed with them in August of 2014. We don't live nearby so I wasn't in a rush to have a gift for the big day. I finally decided that a photo album of pictures from the first year would be welcome. My sister is extremely busy with her new life as a parent, and as a kindergarten teacher. I did have to tell her about the gift since I would need her help to obtain enough pictures. She was thrilled!! The book is over 40 pages at this point. I'm just waiting for a few more photos.

The second photo album is for my parents, the grandparents of my new niece and my children. Their album will be pictures of all the grandchildren from the last 15 months or so. I gave them a photo book two years ago and they LOVED it. It is always out on their coffee table. I've only just begun this album, but I think it will come together a little quicker because I'm limited myself to the basic 20 pages. I also chose a size that is on sale for just $9.99 plus shipping. We have come to the conclusion that since we won't be together for Christmas we don't need to exchange gifts. But since I have this idea that I know they will love and the price is right I'm doing it anyway. They also have an anniversary just 2 days after Christmas, so I can consider it an anniversary gift too.

I won't order the photo book for my sister and her family until I know for sure that I can get at least 40% off. I'm using Snapfish which currently has 50% off.

Do gift photo gifts or send photos with cards?

My youngest daughter has wanted a Wii U for over a year now. There are some new games she wants to play. I've put it off since we already own a Wii. However, she asked for one AGAIN for Christmas. So this time, I'm giving in. She is willing to pay a portion, up to half actually. I'm doing my best to get the best deal...primarily by buying used.

I purchased an Wii U with several games for $300 the other day on eBay. My ballpark for just the Wii U was $200. I kept missing out on auctions and Buy It Now offers because other people were willing to pay more. This seller had six games (including one with lots of accessories) included. At least two of the games were ones my daughter wanted. And even used would have cost me $80. I plan to sell at least three of the games to help offset the cost. I think I can sell for $65.

Another way to get the cost of this new system down is to sell the old Wii. My older daughter needs to decide if she wants to have it for her dorm room. I think she is leaning towards no. It won't bring much money, but maybe $40. And then the girls need to determine if there are any other games we already own that they want to sell. The games will still work with the new system.

I also bought another game she was interested in for an amazing deal...Lego Dimensions. It costs $99.99 normally. Which is a CRAZY price for game!!!! I was able to get Target to price match it to Amazon for $84.99, then used a 35% Cartwheel offer for the game, and a 10% off gaming coupon, a $10 gift card and 5% off with my Red card to get the purchase price under $40. I grabbed the deal because I knew it was a super price. I'm not entirely sure that I will give it though. It may get returned if I decide it is too much (I normally only spend $150 on each child)! I may save it for her birthday in July. Or I could even sell it and make a little profit.

I'll have to let you know what the final cost of this gift ends up being after I do so selling in the next few weeks!

Does anyone else have a gamer in their family? Do you have ways to keep your costs down? Have you ever bought used for Christmas (I have!)?

It's been a pretty good day for a birthday. I'm a low key kind of gal who doesn't need much to be happy. But I enjoyed phone calls from my mother and best friend. We ate dinner in tonight, but my husband surprised us with cupcakes! There were also a few gifts: a pair of slippers and a new CD of Christmas music. A couple items I asked for.

I also received a $100 check from my parents. I'm not sure exactly what my plans are for that money. Maybe a new sweatshirt!

I redeemed my Swagbucks last night for a $25 Amazon gift card. It arrived today! I was a little disappointed to learn that my birthday Swagbucks were 55 SwagUps! I should have waited one more day to redeem. I'm sure there will be another redemption before my SwagUp expires.

I spent the Amazon gift card, plus two others worth $30 to purchase some Christmas gifts. I only paid $8 out of pocket on a $63 order. Very pleased with that!

If you want to catch up with my Christmas planning and preparations, check out my other blog,

Your Organized Friend.

We got our claim check from the moving company's insurance. We agreed to their settlement amounts on all but one heavily damaged item which they offered no money for. Their reason was it was prior damage. Well it wasn't listed on the damage report at origin and we know it wasn't there when we moved. We have an appeal filed for that item, although we aren't holding our breath.

The check for our damaged goods is $1437. We are depositing it into our checking account and holding it for a bit. We are interested in getting a new set of furniture, so it may be applied to that purchase. For now no big rush to spend it. I do wonder if I should put it into our regular checking and put it into a category in YNAB. The other option would be to put into a second checking we have that I'm not tracking on YNAB (except for the balance). A good problem to have I guess.

At this point, I can get rid of the broken items and choose to sell others that were part of our claim. They expect we would use some of the money to fix the damage, but we're not sure which pieces if any are worth repair. The only item I can't get rid of is the item on appeal until that is finalized. We are using the item so no big issue there.

The milder weather has meant a much lower electric bill. Our largest one was this August after moving in. It was over $300! I know much of that was the incredibly high heat, humidity and having doors open, going in and out many, many times.

I did unplug our second fridge that is in the garage within the last month. We used it rather full this summer, but we stopped stocking as many beverages. At times it was nearly empty. So unplugging made a difference I'm sure. Along with much milder weather!

I unplugged a few clocks, and have made a point of keeping some lights that I think are high energy users limited in use.

The new electric bill due at the beginning of December is $130.58. Last month the bill was $185.82. The month before it was $279! Can you see why I like these lower bills?

Are any of your utility bills lower this month?

I got my flu shot today. I don't always get them even though covered in full by our insurance. We are traveling over the holiday and I feel there's an increased chance of catching it! My daughter will get hers in about 10 days when they have a Saturday clinic.

We purchased just one new strand of holiday lights this year. I recycled three at Home Depot last week that didn't work. I really only needed one more set for our second tree. I also picked up an automatic timer. Cost at Home Depot was about $12.

We stopped by Fresh Market to buy some food items for gifts. One is for a birthday. Another to include with a Christmas gift. And the others for stockings. We spent nearly $20 on those. The nice thing about food items as gifts is they are generally consumed and don't add to the clutter of someones home!

With some planning and creative thinking one doesn't have to spend much on Christmas. We have drastically cut our budget with fewer people to purchase for. I'm also using Swagbucks, Bing Rewards and credit card rewards to off set some spending as well. I would have skipped those new lights I mentioned as well as the pricier food gifts too if I didn't already have a plan to pay for them.

This blogger has a list of ten free and almost free gifts to consider to reduce your holiday spending. I thought some of them were very clever!

Have you saved for Christmas? Will you make a budget? How do save on Christmas expenses?

No work and school for my husband and daughter today in honor of Veteran's Day. We made a little outing for lunch to a local restaurant. Spent $40 for very yummy food!

Afterwards we ventured to the the Veteran's Park in our new town. It is technically a state park and honors all veterans from the state's 100 counties. It was really well done. And free. I took lots of pictures. It was really nice to be outside on this beautiful fall day.

The rest of the day we will spend at home eating dinner we planned from our pantry. We might need to sit out on our porch to enjoy a little more of the beautiful weather!

We went to the grocery store (commissary) Saturday rather than our usual Sunday. We were wanting to combine trips, so we went early. I thought I had my list complete. It seems that was not the case. I've discovered about six things I still need. So I will go to a more local store today to pick those things up.

Prior to this trip, we have spent $207 on groceries. I would guess another $20 and we should be good through mid month.

I'm realizing I need to start using our Amex card for groceries. We have the Blue Cash Everyday which provides 3% back on groceries and 2% on gas stations. I know there is an American Express that offers 6% but I believe that one has an annual fee. I never used the American Express before because we did so much of our grocery shopping at Super Target and used our Red Card for 5% off.

I will talk with my husband about this and see if he is willing to work with two cards for purchases. We usually just work with one at a time, so this would be a change.

Do you forget things on your grocery list sometimes too? Which rewards card(s) do you use for groceries?

Did you know if you have an Amazon Prime membership you now get access to some music for free. This morning I was reminded of Harry Connick Jr's new album. I looked it up on Amazon...and it's free because of our Prime membership. I was originally going to tell my husband to get it for my birthday later this month. I guess not since it is free.

Because of my birthday this month, I have been given some coupons to use: $10 to Kohl's and $5 from Famous Footwear (there's not even one in my state). I will use the Kohl's coupon because I have several I can combine. In fact, I think I'll buy myself a birthday gift with these coupons. My husband wouldn't mind being off the hook for the purchase. I also have $10 in JCPenney rewards to use this month as well. Time to shop...hopefully for free!

Our spending seems to be right on track this month for what we've budgeted for everyday expenses. Payday is actually next Friday already! Early since the 15th falls on a Sunday.

We're going to what I think is the last football game of the season...maybe more if they go to playoffs which is actually likely. The coach of this team is a former NFL player (isn't that cool?). So we'll spend about $20, $14 just for admission and at least another $3 for dinner as my daughter is starving by third quarter. This is budgeted under entertainment.

No particular plans for the weekend. We might get some new Christmas lights. I have a post scheduled tomorrow on

Your Organized Friend about checking on our holiday lights.

We are trying to keep spending to a minimum because of our upcoming trip and recent car repairs. So far it seems to be working. I do credit YNAB for helping my husband and I be on the same page.

My daughter's both have ideas for Christmas. And so does my husband. Our youngest daughter wants a Wii U. Those are nearly $300 new. That is twice what I normally spend on them. We already told her she may need to chip in, which she was fine with. I may be able to snag used on eBay or locally on Craigslist or Facebook, preferably under $200. The other daughter has a list of graphic t shirts she is interested in. She also wants a wireless adapter for the drawing tablet she got last year. Those things I can snag pretty easily. I guess I need to get back to Bing and Swagbucks and accumulate more Amazon gift cards.

Do you use Amazon Prime Music? How is your spending so far this month? Are you planning Christmas gifts yet?

I was at Walmart last night to buy gum for my daughter. She paid for it out of her allowance. We stock up with three packs at a time, so her cost was $2. In the candy aisle I found my favorite flavor of candy canes. Wintergreen. I feel like I have been searching a couple years for this flavor. So I bought them for $2, along with the traditional peppermint flavor that was just $1. I had that item on my baking list, so I can cross one thing off.

My primary errand last night was actually the library. I had a book that was due. I had tried to renew it online, but my account showed expired. I vaguely remember there was a three month 'trial' or 'probation' period. I also had a feeling my daughter owed a library fine for two books we never got notice about their due date. So, I returned the book, renewed both our cards for three years (no charge), and paid her fine. The fine was $7.60! Two books that were overdue by nearly three weeks. I also got her account set up to send us email notification of due dates. We usually rely on those notifications. And these are newer accounts in our new town. We should be able to avoid any more fees in the future.

The reference to my baking list above can be found on

Your Organized Friend. I'm doing a lot of planning for Christmas now, so I can be less stressed in December to enjoy the season. You can do it too!