Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

Sooo...we have been tracking all of our expenses on YNAB. My husband seems to have more transactions than I do! His are smaller though usually. We didn't actually budget categories until tonight. Yep. About nine days after pay day. But this was good for us, because we could see how much we had already spent in the categories and were able to determine/guess how much we would need for the remainder of the month.

As a result of us finally getting our budget in YNAB we decided we did have plenty to put towards our Citi credit card balance which I mentioned yesterday. After making a $1084 payment yesterday and then a $1432 payment tonight, our new Citi balance is $986.75. Ah, so much better to get that paid down to a much more reasonable level.

I also did a little tweak to our normally scheduled payments. I usually charge our Verizon bill to our US Bank Visa at this time of the month and then pay it in full with our paycheck on the first of the month. I decided to change that to the 15 of the month paycheck, since the US Bank Visa bill isn't due until the 7th of the following month (or in the case of the current bill, Nov 7). Making this change allowed me to change when I will pay our electric bill. I was going to pay it now with current funds, but realized it isn't due until Oct 10 and if I moved the Verizon payment I could pay it with our paycheck on the 1st of Oct. This freed up nearly $260, which I promptly sent to the Citi card. I like it when I can find extra cash.

We technically have $409 budgeted that we have not spent yet. And there are just six days left to go in the month. It feels we have finally turned a corner. It is possible some of it could be related to YNAB, but I think primarily it is just that our spending has come to more reasonable levels again after the move and college beginning. Whew! Feels so much better to have things under control.

I will add a little caveat...more spending is coming. We will be taking at least one trip by airplane this fall, maybe two. And then there is still a possibility of some new furniture. It does help to be caught up...or close to it at least. It helps make the trip(s) and furniture seem possible without pulling from the savings we have worked hard for.

I need to remember to budget to pay for YNAB next pay period.

I have no idea when I joined Checkout 51, but I finally accumulated the minimum for cashing out. This means a $20 check is on it's way from Canada which is where the company is located.

My husband sent me a link and I saw on the Today show that Susie Orman is giving away (free) a personal finance online course. It's available until tomorrow (Friday, September 25) until 8pm EDT. I went ahead and signed up. Not sure how much I will do with it at this point, but there are always things to learn. One thing she mentioned on the show was student loans are okay, but only up to the amount you would expect to earn in your first year out of college. I know way too many people that have not followed this rule. And of course, I understand why it happens.

The balance on our Citi credit card is just over $3K. Today, I made a payment of $1084 to cover the treadmill purchase earlier this month as well as travel expenses my husband made on the card. I probably have another $1,200 to put on it leaving us with about $1200 left to pay. I think I'm finally seeing the end of the tunnel on this most recent debt accumulation!

I do have some more items I could list on eBay to bring in some cash. It's a matter of getting the time to get the items listed. Maybe Sunday this week would be best...before company arrives the first weekend in October. The cash from these sales would definitely go to pay down the last of the Citi card.

I did get paid from the eBay buyer that was having problems. I sent that item in the mail today. The item being returned should arrive tomorrow. If it looks in good order I will refund that buyer. I think I may just donate this item since I don't have any way to check if it is really faulty or not. Last I knew, just weeks ago, it was working. It is very possible it just didn't work with the buyers version.

We have another bill from the University. The expenses are primarily due to marching band. We needed to purchase shirt, shoes, gloves and a few other items for a total of $114. She moved in five days early (not included in main housing contract) for $160, but a $40 credit was given to those members that were selected. And then there was another $73 and change from book purchases. Our next bill of $307 is due Oct 12. I do have money set aside at least.

I did get paid from the eBay buyer that was having problems. I sent that item in the mail today. The item being returned should arrive tomorrow. If it looks in good order I will refund that buyer. I think I may just donate this item since I don't have any way to check if it is really faulty or not. Last I knew, just weeks ago, it was working. It is very possible it just didn't work with the buyers version.

Still going along well with YNAB. Pointed out to my husband that he recorded one of his expenses on a credit card that I know he didn't have in his wallet! He made the changes.

I still have not purchased sheets. I decided to buy myself new workout pants, as one of the three pair I own also decided to get a hole in them. I decided working out and not having to do laundry as frequently was more desirable then having matching sheets for the moment. I'm guessing I'll be spending nearly $50+ on sheets when the time comes. I think it just may go in the budget for next month!

Yippee! My husband is using the YNAB app to enter in his expenses so far this week. He even pointed out to me yesterday that he did so. And I'm not sure that tracking caused this, but he decided to take some coffee from home this morning!

We've been have problems with any mail being forwarded from our old home to our new rental place. It worked for awhile when we moved to the apartment AND from the apartment to the rental. But nothing direct from the house...and it was requested and input THREE times! Today we finally got a bill in the mail from the old house. It was for that darn mold test. Just $50, instead of the $75 I remembered. At least mail is coming our way.

Most everything we get mail for has been updated as much as we can, so we haven't been too worried, but there are things that come through that we don't have any control over.

Turns out I have a buyer returning an item they bought last week. They are stating it doesn't work. I know I tested it before I sent it off. And another buyer is having trouble paying me through PayPal for another item. A bit frustrating!

I'm should be able to cash out my Bing Rewards tomorrow for a $5 Amazon gift card. After that one, I will have $41 in gift cards. I'm hoping to get $60 so I can make a 'want' purchase.

I claimed two offers on Ibotta today for grocery shopping done yesterday. Once those posted, I was eligible to cash out. I picked PayPal and my $10 was sent immediately. I love how quick it was.

I'm currently $1 away from cashing out my first $20 with Checkout 51. I'm not as much of a fan of this site, but I'm determined to get to the cash out amount and be done with them.

I washed the sheets on our master bed today. When I pulled them out the fitted sheet was ripped in the middle. I knew they were getting close to the end of their life span since the elastic was getting loose. I didn't really want to buy new sheets this week. And I really don't HAVE to, as we have extra set for emergency situations such as this and there is a set on our guest bed. However, I am having guests early in October, so I think I will need to buy new soon! For tonight at least the emergency set will work so I have a little time to look for a deal.

Where do you buy sheets? Do you have a thread count or style you like? Do you use Ibotta or Checkout 51?

We are moving along with YNAB. My husband has now downloaded it to his phone, but still needs to sign in. I paid all the bills, but we have cash left to budget for the rest of the month. I actually cleared the budget for the first half of the month. It did help me in paying bills yesterday. I knew exactly what amount to pay on the credit cards we used. However, my budget amounts were completely arbitrary. I do understand how to adjust them though, so that will get better.

My big question, which probably sounds strange. Is YNAB your only way of tracking your money? Is it truly like your check register? I'm having a really hard time letting go of the check register and excel sheets I use, but yet I can see if I can move everything over I would probably like it really well.

We are still on the trial portion for the next 14 days. I'm pretty sure we are committed to pay for it when the trial ends. My husband definitely sees that using the mobile app to input transactions will be really easy and helpful.

I want to carve out some more time to take some more classes. It would be even better if we could take the classes together.

It is payday today. The market was up. And I sold another item on eBay! And the weather was a 10 out of 10 in my book. It's like all of the stars aligned and angels are singing. At least it sort of feels that way!!

I'd pay bills usually, but DH is not available to work on YNAB until Thursday, so we will wait. I can probably start on it a little tomorrow, but I want him to learn along with me, so if I do too much it won't help him.

I think ten minutes after I returned from mailing the eBay item I sold yesterday, I sold another item. I promise to ship the next business day following payment so it's not a big deal. If I had waited a bit I could have mailed them at the same time. But of course, I didn't know!

As far as the stock market is concerned, I still haven't sold any shares from my daughter's college account. I'm watching the markets to see if they get closer to break even for the year at least. I would like to sell as few shares as possible. The lower the share price the more shares it will take to come up with the dollar value I need.

I also lucked out getting a big survey completed on Swagbucks today for 175 SB. I had a 50SB one as well. Even after redeeming nearly all my Swagbucks yesterday, I already have 535 again tonight. Moving right along towards my snowflake goals.

How was your day? Did the stars align and angels sing?

Yea! I feel like snowflakes have been slow in recent months. Not that I'm trying too hard. Most are from credit card rewards.

I redeemed 2200 Swagbucks for a $25 Amazon gift card. I seemed to qualify for quite a few surveys in the last couple days. I guess I qualified for the Swagup because I got my 50SB a few minutes after redeeming.

I also sold an item on eBay. It looks like my proceeds will be $11.60.

I'm using these snowflakes to buy a few house wants from Amazon when I have accumulated enough. I'm getting closer to getting one item I want.

Oh, wow, it has finally cooled down a bit here in the Southeast! The humidity has dropped dramatically. I mowed our lawn for the first time (DH has down it all the other times) today and really enjoyed being outside. Exercise, fresh air and a trimmed yard all at the same time. And no money spent!

I have a couple transactions to put into YNAB today. We spent $30 at the football game (we basically ate dinner there). There was Walmart trip that night, too. And then yesterday my husband needed to withdraw cash for his trip. I guess I can't really record that yet since I don't know what he is spending it on.

I've been reading some ten day email subscription from YNAB that I signed up for. Today is Day 5. It's about budgeting with your spouse. I found a PDF of the entire series

here. It's probably all worth reading, but I particularly liked how the author wrote about budgeting with a spouse. I know it can be hard for many couples. We don't really do it and we are after 19 years of marriage finally going to take a stab at it. I sent the email to my husband to read before we start working on our next budget for this next paycheck.

I'm working feverishly to accumulate Swagbucks and Bing points so I can buy some wants on Amazon. I'm a bit out of practice and things have changed at lot since I was doing it on a regular basis. Any tips on how you like to accumulate your SBs is appreciated. I do have over 1800 and I'm looking to get 2200 to get a $25 Amazon gift card.

I've done two Pinecone surveys recently, but I'm just at 900 points. I like to wait until I'm at 1500 to cash out for $15. Fingers crossed I can get a two more surveys before the month ends!

I'm also listing at least three items on eBay today after I get my cleaning tasks done. If those items sell they will help me purchase some of these wants!! It sure helps to have a goal to spur me on to earn a little cash. That and I finally have some time to do so.

What financial goal are you primarily working on? If you don't have one, what would it be? Do you budget with your spouse? How often?

My husband did change the withholding on his W2 to 18 last week. The change is already showing on his paystub for pay on September 15. The goal was to avoid having any further withholding through the end of the year, as we have determined we have already paid enough to cover taxes on our return. The increase in pay is $259.32 each paycheck through January 1. This money is going straight to savings to pay ourselves back for tuition just paid.

We have a CD with Navy Federal Credit Union that is expiring on the 17th. It was a 5% interest CD for 12 months. The maximum we could invest was $5,000, which we did. That means $250 earned! I only wish all our money was earning this rate. I may invest in another CD with NFCU that has a maximum investment of $3K earning 3% for 12 months. Much better than 1% on savings. I'll get that all figured out once the CD matures next week. Does anyone know of any CD specials with secure banks earning a decent rate?

We will have a little spending tonight as we are going to an away high school football game to see our daughter perform with the marching band. Admission is $7 each. Plus concessions, we usually need a least a water since they won't let you bring any in and it's HOT here! I gave my daughter $15 since we weren't sure about dinner, but she thinks the band boosters are covering the cost of pizza for the group. (The game is 45 minutes away and they leave right after school...going to be a LONG night!)

Really hoping to keep the rest of the weekend LOW or NO spend!

I ran two errands today. One to Target, where I decided to include grocery shopping as well. And also to get fuel in my van.

At Target, I wandered around looking for home decor items, or anything on clearance I needed. Guess what? Did find anything! So no spending on that kind of stuff. I did see some things I liked if we change up our decor with new furniture, but that has not been decided. I was able to claim $1.40 in rebates from Ibotta and $1 from Checkout 51.

I stopped at a different gas station today so I could use a deal on my American Express card. Spend $25 at Exxon and get $5 off. I put exactly $25 in. And Amex has already indicated that I used the offer! I think my husband has this on his card also, so will make a point to use that next week.

I also made sure to record the two purchases in YNAB. I used my mobile phone, but only once I got home and saw my receipt. It would be best to record these things purchases right when they happen.

I'm home for nearly the rest of the day. I hope to spend some time learning YNAB a bit more. I especially need to understand credit cards more clearly. At least I don't have to add interest!!

I paid the big fat University bill today in full. I had the money in savings. It was $7,198.55. I have not yet pulled any money from her ESA, since the market is down. It was looking good for a very little while this morning. Not that I planned to make a sell order today. We have time.

You will be glad to hear that I did some entering of things into YNAB. I watched another tutorial which was helpful. I entered in all the credit cards we use regularly, with their current (PreYNAB balances). I entered only the $X I set aside at the beginning of this month to spend on the irregular purchases of the first half of the month. I budgeted that money into categories...starting with guesses really. Got to start somewhere though!

After that I went back and recorded actual purchases, most of which were on one credit card. There were a couple others on the Discover card and one in cash. I did have to adjust the budget. Originally I had no money for car repairs, but we did have a $129 expense for car maintenance. I had at least two other categories like this as well. The budget still shows $325 left, but I see it is assuming I want to pay all the card balances with this current income, which isn't exactly what I normally do. So, when I have a little more time I will look at that closer.

I'm feel better than I'm working on it. It does take time, but I do hope the investment is more clarity in how we spend some of our money.

I told you in a previous post I have been procrastinating setting up YNAB. And yes that is still true. It is a bit overwhelming with various credit cards and checking accounts to keep track of. I expect this alone may help me get some more cards cancelled and consolidate a few accounts.

I'm determined to get something entered on YNAB this week. I have a 'real life' friend who uses it and was asking me how it was going. I know she will ask again about it later in the week, so that is going to be my motivation.

I'm going to start by entering our disposable income each paycheck. This is $X amount that I set aside each paycheck after all fixed expenses are accounted for, such as rent, allowances. So those fixed items are going to stay off the budget for now. What I really want to know and be aware of is where is the $X going. I know it goes to things like groceries, dry cleaning, gas, postage, haircuts, entertainment, eating out, coffee, alcohol, toiletries and cleaners, and school fees.

My plan is to get back to you by Friday with another YNAB progress update. Oh, and yes, I realize this isn't exactly how YNAB is intended to work, but I need to start slow and simple just to get myself started!! Otherwise, I'm going to procrastinate. And yes, I'm still on the free trial. No money spent yet. If I don't get fully on board with YNAB by the end of this month, I'm not buying the subscription.

My husband has a four day weekend due to the holiday. Although because they are getting ready for a conference next week he needs to go in to work on Sunday for awhile.

We took advantage of the time off to get some errands done. The first involved getting a few more civilian clothes for him to wear. One shirt(on clearance for $10) and a tie. We tacked on two 99 cents cards with our purchase at Kohl's so we could get over the $30 to use a $10 off coupon. Spent around $22 for those four items. Very pleased since business casual clothes can get pricey.

We took our truck in for an oil change, tire rotation and replacement of cabin filter. The bill was over $120 at the dealership. The big mistake was letting the dealership do the cabin filter. We have replaced that ourselves in the past. It cost $22 for the filter and $40.99 for labor!! Ugh. I looked up the cost of the filter on Amazon. Only $8.09 with 2 day shipping with our Prime Membership. We are good with maintenance on our vehicles but my husband also tends to react with yes at anything the dealership suggests without knowing if we have recently done it or if it is something we can do easily ourselves. I'm definitely going to get a spreadsheet set up with our past maintenance and start recording what we should have done and when. Maybe there is an app? Do you do a good job at keeping track of vehicle maintenance?

Finally, our big splurge for the day was a USED treadmill. I saw one someone was selling locally for $1000 that was nearly new. We weren't convinced it was the right size motor for my husband who would prefer to run nearly daily. But it seemed a bit like a deal compared to a $1500 new one we had been keeping our eyes on. Before we committed to this local sale one, we stopped by Play It Again Sports and found a nearly new treadmill that was almost exactly the same spec wise as the $1500 one. The were asking $799. And for $50 more they would delivery it up to upstairs bonus room. Sold! After tax and delivery it was around $908. Cheaper than new, but like new, and delivered for less than we were considering. I will definitely use it since we don't have a gym membership. I expect my daughter is interested in it also. Fingers crossed it doesn't become a clothes hanger!!

We are paying for the treadmill out of savings since we have a pretty healthy bit of cash and this is a small drop in the bucket. And an investment in our health is worth it!! It arrives Tuesday afternoon.

I'm procrastinating using YNAB. I know I can probably catch back up since we aren't too far into September. My husband did get paid so that is easy. I have already set up my normal way of paying bills. Thus it doesn't seem necessary. It feel like MORE work to use YNAB.

I still want to try. I'm just being honest. I'm procrastinating getting it done. Maybe this weekend? I'll let you know.

I do have one question. We make our Roth IRA investments out of our net paycheck received on the 15th of the month. Do I include these contributions as an expense? Or should I deducted them from income before I input that amount?

For those of you that use YNAB, what do you like most about using it?

August went super fast! But the snowflakes rolled in despite the business. I can thank credit card rewards for many of the snowflakes. All of them have gone to debt on the credit cards. It all helps!

Total was $183.62, which was far better than July when I only pulled in $29.17!

I will attempt to add a picture of my spreadsheet below, but just in case here is where the snowflakes came from:



Interest & Rebates $14.72
Pinecone Surveys $15.00
US Bank Visa Rewards $145.13
Discover Cash Back $8.77

How did you do collecting extra funds in August? What did you do with yours?

In September, I have some snowflakes I plan to put towards some purchases that would be considered wants over needs. I also plan use some for debt and a little for a gift for my college daughter. Do you have a plan for this month?

It's payday so I paid off more debt that has been sitting on credit cards (no interest is being charged). I feel better than it is starting to dwindle down.

Specifically paid:
$704.38 American Express (Orlando trip expenses)
$3.20 American Express (movie rental)
$360.44 Target Red Card (dorm & school expenses)
$166.58 Discover (online school expenses)

We still have just over $2,184.79 on credit cards. Considering it was over $3K when my husband and I were discussing things a few nights ago we have made some progress. The goal will be to keep spending as low as possible to try to use some extra income toward expenses.

At the same time we are working on debt, we are discussing flying to see family and college daughter at Thanksgiving. I have a Companion Pass earned with Southwest that lets my youngest daughter fly for free with me through the end of the year. This means we only need to pay for two tickets. One scenario has our flights costing $911. Which when you divide by three people flying is pretty good!! I really dislike the idea of flying during the holiday simply because it is so busy, but that is when most of us have time off work and school.

I do often use this blog to remind myself what my plans are. It can be helpful to look back months later to see what I did as well. This post is about how I plan to handle the tuition bill due Sept 12.

The total bill is $7,198.55. The housing portion is $5,154.55. The tuition portion is $2,044.00. The housing portion will come from our daughter's Education Savings Account (ESA) which is currently invested in mutual fund. The remainder is coming from savings/current cash.

I could pay $20 a semester to divide this bill into three equal payments. But that's just more outflow that I don't think is necessary. Initially, I'm simply going to transfer the full payment from our savings. We have quite a bit of cash in our emergency fund and from the proceeds of two homes.

The goal is then to pay ourselves back before the end of the year. We are adjusting our withholding to 18 (yes, that is not a typo) to have no Federal withholding for the remainder of the year. This will increase my husband's paychecks by $259.36. There are 8 paychecks remaining for 2015. This will result in $2,074.88 back into our savings account. Notice that is just over the amount of fall tuition. Because we are paying this tuition out of pocket we can claim it on our taxes with the American Opportunity Tax Credit.

The housing portion needs to come from our daughter's ESA account in order to pay ourselves back. Since the market is crazy, I'm not going to withdraw the full amount right now. Instead I'm going to withdraw in three equal portions of $1718. Currently I plan to wait to see if the market stabilizes a bit more later in September, but worse case wait until mid to late October to make the first withdrawal.

That's the plan. I think it is a pretty good one, too. No student loans, yet! Would you do anything different?

We downloaded YNAB this weekend. I've taken one class and entered in some things (primarily savings pots that already exist in our checking account). Tomorrow is payday so seems a good day to start using it! I think initially I'm going to be entering things the old way in my spreadsheet to make sure it is lining up with what I expect YNAB to do.

My husband and I did sit down last night for a discussion. He is now aware of our total cash savings, the current amount on credit cards (not paying any interest), the net income, our expenses and how much we are saving annually for retirement. He seemed very pleased to know all the details. He was a bit surprised that there wasn't as much extra as he thought. He admitted to spending thinking that with his raise there is a lot of extra. There really is plenty. To me, it's about not wasting the extra on lunches out. We need to make sure we are accomplishing what we want with our money.

It was a good start. We didn't make any decisions on buying anything new. No changes have been made to anything yet, which is fine. We'll get where we want to go soon.

The first month of YNAB will be interesting as I'm not entirely sure how much we spend on groceries or gas each month. I will do my best to make an educated guess. The nice thing is I do know how to save cash for non monthly expenses, such as an insurance bill. I already have that part of the budget figured out....well for some things. I'd like to do this for more items as we move forward.

What do you like best about using YNAB? Did anyone try using it and then give up?

We seem to be making a mental list of things we want to buy. We don't have the cash to buy it all before the end of the year.. At least I don't think so. Tuition is a factor. That's part of the process we are starting on. Making the list, prioritizing and then making a plan/budget on how to acquire these things.

So here's the list at the moment:
A treadmill (more need than want)
A computer or tablet (not a need)
Two chairs for our living room
Lamps and table for living room

Seems there may be something else, but this is where we are starting. I do realize used are possibilities and that a tablet is cheaper than a computer in most cases.

I really think we are going to start using YNAB (You Need A Budget). At least I have suggested it to my husband. I think a budget on things like eating out and alcohol expenses would help both of us keep these to a minimum.

I'm excited at the possibility of working together on some of these goals. I don't know that it will go super smooth since I do tend to work on everything on my own. I expect I will still do the nitty gritty detail work on our finances, but talking a bit more and making some decisions together will be good.

Oh, and a reminder to myself we also need to figure in some airline tickets for our daughter to fly home and maybe for us to visit family. We live so much farther away from family than before we have not had a budget for travel expenses.

I now have more information about the costs of tuition this semester, what can be claimed for the American Opportunity tax credit and how it will impact our taxes owed. And the good news is we will owe less in taxes as a result!

The bad news(good news?) is we have already had too much tax withheld to cover our taxes. A whopping $1775. Yes, most people rejoice at such things praising the government for providing them a tax refund. Unfortunately, I blame myself. I actually increased our tax withholding to compensate for the fact that we would no longer be able to claim the child tax credit (of $1000) for our oldest daughter and my husbands increase in pay. I didn't take the time to figure out about the college credits available and how that would impact our taxes. Oops!

The good news is I have changed our withholding to 10 for the time being. In order to avoid any more withholding we need to claim 18! My husband will need to do this in person, as I can't change the amount higher than 10 online. Once it is changed to 18 his monthly paychecks will be $518 larger! Money that I plan to set aside for the tuition bill in February.

Of course, I will need to change the withholding in January to make sure we do have money withheld in 2016! I haven't figured the correct amount to withhold right now, but trust me I will do a better job this year in getting it right. I will have more clear information this time around.

Do you know where you stand on your withholding and taxes owed for 2015? Is it possible you need to make changes due to a change in circumstances? Do you prefer a refund or just to owe a little on your tax return?

My daughter had two good days of high school. So far so good. She can tell a lot of kids are connected to the military, since the teacher asked them to introduce themselves and say where they were born and where they have lived. That is a much better question than 'Where are you from?'. Do you have any idea how hard it is to answer that question? At least simply?

With the start of school I can feel myself getting back into routines. Laundry is getting done on a schedule. Dinner is at a decent hour. And so is getting to bed.

We still need to get the spending under control. Some of it has been unavoidable. I thought I would go to the grocery store today, but upon looking around in the kitchen I had asparagus, couscous and chicken. Sounded like dinner to me! Tomorrow I think I can skate by again without going to the store. I have some frozen fish sticks that if we don't eat...will never get eaten. Not sure why we bought them, other than they must have sounded good during one of the trips where we didn't have a list. What we don't have are too many fresh vegetables...and I'm craving some greens. I think I will pick those up and see if we can last through Saturday for groceries.

One reason I'm trying to control the groceries is because I spent more money today. Cat food for the next two months $40, a $20 flute repair (that's cheap!), and $10 worth of personal spending (socks and a pair of sunglasses). The socks and sunglasses really were needs. The elastic in the socks are becoming too loose and uncomfortable to wear. The sunglasses are to replace a pair I lost at Universal earlier this month. Pretty good deal to get both for $10.48.

If we have the food, we really don't need to grocery shop anyway!! I really hope the spending is slowing down.

My youngest daughter(10th grade) started her new high school today. I'm nervous right along with her. She was going to take the bus, but there didn't seem to be anyone at our stop, so I drove her. Which is fine, I have no problem with that at all. It just added to the nerves of the day.

I'm more nervous for her than my college daughter! I guess because high school can be so tough. She is already involved with the marching bad, so may have seen a few familiar faces once she was there. It's a big high school of nearly 2000 kids. She had a hard transition last time we moved, although didn't really know the full extent at the time. I'm just hoping this is better and easier!! This school is used to lots of new kids in all grades because we are near a military post. I'm crossing my fingers that is a positive thing!!

Financially, we spent a lot more money again yesterday. My college daughter bought $160 in art supplies for one class! I paid her back. I also ordered two more things on Amazon for her, which cost $37.

Later in the day, I took my youngest clothes shopping. We spent $82 during that trip. I ordered a pair of shoes online for $55, and then a used scientific calculator for $70!

Did you add that up? $374. In one day! The money is flowing out. I'm trying really hard not to find other reasons of my own to spend. With a new home to live in, it is so tempting. So far so good though!

I received the $25 Visa Gift card from US Bank in the mail Saturday. This was a perk for redeeming more than $100 in rewards at one time, which I did less than two weeks ago. I'm glad it came fast!

I'm thinking I will go purchase two different gift cards for my college daughter with it. A food one and likely iTunes. I figure she would like to get some fun mail. And she has mentioned many times this summer she wished she had an iTunes gift card. Of course, she had plenty of cash to buy iTunes. Smart girl just didn't want to spend her own money!

I think I mentioned before that many (but probably not all) of my future snowflakes will help supplement college life!

So...I know about the American Opportunity Tax credit. It seems it doesn't cover room and board. It does cover tuition, fees and books...after scholarships. For this semester alone we have $2100 towards those costs.

If I understand correctly, I can claim tuition paid in the first three months of 2016 on our 2015 return. This means probably another $2K of expenses. So around $4k that we will pay from sources that are not college savings plans. My understanding is if I take this money from our Coverdell ESA those expense covered with this money can not be claimed for a credit. Which is fine with me since I currently plan to use that money for room and board, which I can't claim for the AO credit.

Then my understanding is the first 2K in expenses is a 100% credit. The next $2K is applied at 25% for a maximum of $2500.

Since this is a credit, it will directly impact our taxes owed. Currently I have us withholding about $520 per month for taxes. I think this is slightly more than our taxes before this credit. Now I'm debating about changing our withholding knowing this new information. If I reduce it, then I can save it for the next tuition bill in February. Or I could keep withholding the same and get a big refund, which I could then use to pay back the tuition we pay in February. I making an assumption that I wouldn't have the IRS refund by the Feb 12 due date.

Am I making any sense? Any other guidance? The credit is nearly always better than a deduction, so I'm not even looking at that scenario.

My daughter and I talked today on the phone. She finally has internet access in her room, and wireless access all over campus. It was a hard week without it, but she made it. Class start Monday, so she is all set now.

Since she could log in online she took a look at her billing statement. Tuition, fees, room and board for the first semester AFTER scholarships is $7,198.55. Scholarships amounted to $10,000. Room and board is the largest portion at $5,145.55. The tuition/fees for 18 hours came $2,044. Living ON campus is required for Freshman under the age of 19.

The bill hasn't actually been generated yet. The first bill is due September 12. I can pay in full with a debit card or check for no additional fees. If I use a credit card they add a 2.75% convenience charge. I can also make three payments, but need to sign up each semester for a $20 fee.

It's tempting to do payments, but I'm not sure it is absolutely necessary. I will be using her college funds to pay at least $5K. I would like to pay the remainder out of some of our savings and cash flow the remaining. It's the willingness to cash flow some of it that makes me interested in making payments.

I haven't thought it through much more than what I've written here. I will take a look at balances and see what I can do by September 12. I'm grateful for the scholarships and ability to pay this bill without student loans. So grateful!

Anyone else sending a child to college this semester? How much is your first semester bill?

And now our water bill is high! But we figured out that one. There is a sprinkler head that is broken, so for about 5 minutes a day it is like turning the hose on full blast! And our new shower has all these shower heads...which my husband likes to use. More water than needed for a shower! I think he's stopped that for now.

We turned off the sprinkler in that zone as we were told the owners didn't use it because the neighbors sprinklers actually get that area from runoff. It's unfortunate we didn't notice it sooner. It's hard to catch when it is running at 5am.

The high bill could also be an issue of estimating our first bill (just a week's worth). But I feel more confident this one will be easier to get a handle on.

Really bad timing to have all these high bills while adding on college expenses. So far it seems to be working out okay though.

In addition to dealing with getting my daughter ready for college this month and having visitors, I found out my Kohl's card had been used for a purchase.

I have no idea how that happened. First, I was notified of an email change, but was having issues getting it corrected. Initially it didn't look like anything had been charged so I ignored it since I was so busy! While I was away my husband asked me about a package. Jeans? That I didn't order. Until I was home did I realize they were boy's jeans!

I called Kohl's. They confirmed my account, apologized, credited the shipping charge and offered to pick up the jeans. I figured on my end it would actually be easier to return to the store, since I know I will be there this week. They also set up a password on my account that needs to be used in order to use the card in the store or online.

I need to look around on our credit report to check on other accounts and possibly set up a fraud alert to prevent other accounts from being opened in my name. I'm also overdue from changing passwords on some of accounts. I need to get to that too.

The charge was only around $30, but so odd. Kohl's? It's not like that card can be used any other place!

Geez! It has been hot here since we moved in, but didn't expect this large of an electric bill. It's $301.03!!

It did include about $45 worth of first time fees. Plus a few other 'taxes' amounting to $10. Even so that is an expensive bill.

I'm sure having the door open all day on moving day had that air conditioner working hard. And then were other trips in and out. I think we need to increase the temperature a bit and see if we can stand it higher. I know it is lower than we had at our old home. Size wise it is about the same.

I put it on the Chase Freedom card for the rewards and once it posts I'm paying it in full with funds from our August 15 paycheck.

Moving forward...and hoping we can adjust the bill down significantly for next month!

We use our credit cards all the time and then pay balances off in full if on a interest bearing card. We have been rolling some over lately on a 0% card. I made some more payments and feeling much more current than I did last week.

Last week our balance was over $4K. Tonight after more payments were made we are down to $2,942.25. So progress! Found $14.11 in snowflakes to apply to debt in the process.

I have cash set aside to pay another $1,383 on the credit cards, but I'm waiting for a couple statements to close. There may be rewards I can apply, so I'm waiting for now. It does seem the revolving balance I don't seem to get paid off is about $1600! Ugh. Of course, I won't let them charge me a penny of interest. I will have to pay it in full by the end of October. Or the statement due date right after. I need to look back at my notes on that one.

In other news, I've lost about 6 pounds in the last two weeks. I'm watching my calories as best I can, cut back on diet soda (only one or none). I did a ton of campus walking this weekend in addition to all that walking while we were in Orlando earlier in the month. I still need to get into some sort of fitness routine. We are actually considering a treadmill...but I need this debt paid off first.

Do you own an exercise machine? Do you use it?