Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

We got another band fundraiser! Twenty five percent of the profits go to the child's band or choir trip fund. In the three years we have been in this district and participated in the fundraisers we have earned $80 for my daughter's trip. Glad to have it, but it doesn't add up fast at all.

It seems most of the sales have been to my parents or my husband's coworkers. Since my husband's last week of work here is THIS week (and we only found out today), there is no point in selling to them. My parents don't need more stuff and would probably rather give straight to my daughter for souvenirs (not that they even need to do that). So we are skipping it completely. So much simpler really!

I'm waiting for the furnace repair people to call sometime today. Our furnace has decided to shut down once or twice a day since Saturday. We can always get it back on by turning the thermostat off and then back on. A service person was here Monday afternoon but since it was working they were not 100% sure of the fix. We decided to wait and look for some codes that appear on the unit when it fails to help diagnose the issue. Well we have those codes, so hopefully once someone comes the issue can be fixed.

Has your furnace been working this season? Are you a believer in fundraisers or not?

I issued a challenge on

Your Organized Friend to declutter 15 items today. Join in!

We sold our old refrigerator last night. I posted it on Craigslist at 3pm and by 6:30pm it had been picked up. They paid $100 for a very nice 10 year old fridge. They even commented how nice it was. And it was...it just didn't match the house that we will be selling soon. It does look much better. I really glad we didn't have them haul it away for recycling. It will still get some use and we have $100!

I see that two people have already used

my referral code to Ooma. This means I have $40 coming my way in about six weeks. The deadline for the current $89.99 offer is on Friday, January 30, if you are thinking of switching from a traditional land line.

I'm working with the Pinecone Rewards program to figure out the problem with cashing out my 300 points for $3. I sent them a screen shot of what options I'm seeing after then had me try clearing my browser history. I even changed browsers as another option. We will see what happens!

In moving news, we are still waiting on orders. We really can't move forward on anything until that part is finalized.

Have you sold an appliance before? Did it sell fast like mine?

I did a Pinecone survey over the weekend and they credited my account with 300 points today. I always redeem right away for $3 to my PayPal account. But today that is not an option. My only options are $5, $10 or $15!

I'm disappointed that they keep making things harder and harder. Didn't we get a $5 check in the mail for each survey in the past? Then it changed to $3 for awhile. There was also a time when the Paypal option came right to us, rather than going to the third party to pick our reward and wait another day for the Paypal deposit.

For now, I will continue to participate. The best thing about Pinecone is the ability to get cash for the time spent. I don't like that I know have to wait to meet a threshold for payment. It's not a nice way to treat their participants in my opinion.

So no cashing out for me today. I'll have to wait at least for one more survey to get $5. I may be easier to just wait for four more surveys and then cash out that way.

Had anyone seen this change prior to my mentioning it?

I did a Pinecone survey over the weekend and they credited my account with 300 points today. I always redeem right away for $3 to my PayPal account. But today that is not an option. My only options are $5, $10 or $15!

I'm disappointed that they keep making things harder and harder. Didn't we get a $5 check in the mail for each survey in the past? Then it changed to $3 for awhile. There was also a time when the Paypal option came right to us, rather than going to the third party to pick our reward and wait another day for the Paypal deposit.

For now, I will continue to participate. The best thing about Pinecone is the ability to get cash for the time spent. I don't like that I know have to wait to meet a threshold for payment. It's not a nice way to treat their participants in my opinion.

So no cashing out for me today. I'll have to wait at least for one more survey to get $5. I may be easier to just wait for four more surveys and then cash out that way.

Had anyone seen this change prior to my mentioning it?

I know I've mentioned that we have our landline with Ooma. It is a phone line that operates through our internet connection. We purchased ours over a year ago for about $100. We continue each month to pay only for the required taxes, which for us is currently $3.81. Our landline doesn't get used to often, but it is nice to have considering we pay so little for it.

If this is something you might be interested in you might like to know that the

Ooma Telo is currently on sale for $89.99 and is shipped for free. The offer expires on January 30. So you will need to act fast.

The link above is my referral link. I do receive a $20 credit if you use my link. The referral program is offered to all members, and would also be available to you several times a year. This makes the cost even less!

I knew this was coming ever since my husband's promotion and raise. We owe the federal government income tax. At this point it looks like $630. I did change the withholding so it could have been far worse. I'm going to change the withholding again for 2015, so we may not owe quite as much.

No complaints here. I don't mind paying in. It means I had access to that money nearly all year. No free loan to the government.

At this point, I will wait to pay the money owed. It isn't due until April 15th, so I'm not sending it in much sooner than that! There are six pay periods before and including the tax deadline for us. I will save $105 each month toward the amount we owe and have just the right amount at just the right time!

There is a small chance I may have missed some interest owed, so if that information arrives I will make the adjustment. I did several bank offers this year, I'm not sure if I missed one!

Do you know if you will get a refund or owe for your taxes?

I guess Citi now gives out FICO credit scores for free with many of their cards. I have the Citi Thank You Preferred card, so I looked mine up.



I always like to see anything above 800! The report does indicated I have recent inquiries. Yep, that's true I'm racking in the rewards from credit card companies!

Do you have a Citi card that will provide you your FICO score? Another card perhaps? If you don't have a card there are sites such as Credit Karma and Credit Sesame that will give you a similar score for free.

I must have signed up as part of a class action suit in regards to EmergenC, which I have purchased. Today in the mail I had a settlement check from EmergenC for $17.98! That makes for a super snowflake for our credit card we are paying off.

I am also sending the $25 PayPal deposit I received from Swagbucks to the other credit card. This helps meet the minimum payment that is due for the month.

In the end the snowflakes mean less debt. I like that!!

We finally took the plunge and bought a new fridge today. I think I mentioned the possibility of purchasing a stainless steel one in the past to match our current appliances, and possibly include it in our home sale.

We bought one that nearly matches our current one in size, just 20.5 cubic feet of volume. It is still a top freezer model too. Odd considering how so many of them are the french door style, right?

The sale price was $808 at Lowe's. We got 10% off with our military discount and then added another 7% back on for sales tax. Final price was $778.10.

We actually bought Lowe's gift cards for about 8.5% off the face value. We purchased them at

Raise and the printable vouchers were instantly emailed to me! In the end we bought too much because the ice maker that we were told was $50 was discounted to $25.72, but then rung up free since we bought it with a qualifying refrigerator! We still have $50.43 on gift cards.

The gift cards we purchased were valued at $828.53, but cost us $757.64 out of pocket. Definitely worth it! I really need to buy discounted gift cards for things more often.

The new refrigerator will be here Sunday. Our current one still works great, but the plastic handles smell awful in warm weather or if you get too close. I think the time the fridge spent on the moving truck for three weeks in July baked all of our hand oils and other grime right in. And we have tried numerous things to clean them. (Sorry kind of gross I know). We also realized it is probably more than 10 years old!! It could be sold for cash. However, the plan right now is to keep things simple and let Lowe's haul our old one away. As I write this though it is tempting to post it on Craigslist to pick up on Saturday. If not picked up that day then it could still be hauled away on Sunday.

How old are your appliances? Have you sold your old appliances for cash or let them get hauled away?

We got notice from the flute teacher that she will not be teaching the last week of January. That means we save $40! I think that is going to be considered a snowflake that I can apply to some of that credit card debt (that we are not paying any interest on).

Is it odd to be just a bit excited that the lack of lessons is a good thing?

My husband will move out to the east coast in early March. (Officially still waiting on orders) He knows a husband and wife living out there that have a two bedroom apartment and offered him the second room. No charge for rent!

They do pay for electricity. Other utilities are included in their rent. If the electricity jumps with my husbands phone charging and computer use he will pay the difference. He will buy his own foods and hopefully some snacks to share! Maybe he can carpool and drive with one or both them. That would help them save on fuel.

I'm relieved. It makes the process of moving much easier. I'm a little hesitant though. I don't know that letting another person stay in your apartment is really allowed without authorization by the complex. I also wonder how long the couple will really want my husband there. I think the wife travels quite a bit, so maybe that will help.

Depending on how it all shakes out, I think we owe them something. A nice gift card or gift to show our appreciation for their hospitality. I'm open to ideas!

In other news, I redeemed more Swagbucks for a $25 PayPal deposit. That will go to those two credit cards I'm working on!

So tell me, how would you show your appreciation to someone who lets your stay with them rent free for several months?

Wow! I guess we may have been overspending. Today I was able to sweep $1125 to savings. It feels like forever since I did that. I think the spending has slowed down in the last month and that allowed us to catch up on some other bills. Not that we were behind or owed anyone any interest or late fees.

We did have some bigger expenses we cash flowed: tires, brakes, senior pictures, college admission fee. That makes a difference in what we can set aside to save.

It just feels good to put a huge stash of money aside. Even if I might need it soon for new tires or federal taxes.

Do you think your spending is down in the new year? Have you save more than you usually do this month?

I have accumulated another $64.73 in snowflakes (extra money). And I made sure to get them sent off to a credit (0% interest) card so our debt will go down.

We have two credit cards that we are running balances on. I'm stubborn about not wanting to use our savings I guess. I have the money to pay them in full. It is just nice to have 0% interest and not have to dip in to other cash.

I sent the above snowflakes to our Wells Fargo Amex. It had a $700 balance. With the payment deducted, we owe $635.27. Less debt! And paid with snowflakes!!

The other credit card we have a balance on is our Citi Thank You Preferred. It has a balance of $661.27.

I plan to pay off the Wells Fargo Amex first so that we can close it. It also has a hefty annual fee after the first year, so we don't want to be hit with that!

While I was checking balances I decide to redeem 2,500 Citi Thank You points for a $25 Panera gift card. I figure it is good for a family lunch or night out. I will match debt reduction or savings when we use it.

Have you redeemed any credit card rewards this month? Did you pay off some debt, or accumulated any snowflakes?

We hosted former neighbors at our home this weekend. They wanted to see the show choir events happening at my girls high school. Admission is pricey for show choir compared to marching band!! We paid $32 for three of us to get in today.

We did get our money's worth however. We saw eight different shows, which is nearly four hours worth of entertainment. We had a super time! One of the choirs was our varsity team. They were at the very end of the day (evening), my girl actually went back up to school to see them. They did fabulous!

I would have rather not spent the $32 plus the money we spent on food for lunch in the cafeteria, but we had a super time. I can say the money was well spent!

Thanks for all the support and good wishes regarding our move. My husband will be moving sooner than I would have liked and that makes me sad. I prefer to all go together. But I have time to work on all the logistics and feelings the move means. I was actually proud of myself for admitting how sad I am being so far from my college bound daughter. And also I'm sad for my youngest daughter basically needing to move so far with us and be an 'only child'. The truth is she would be home with us the next three years by herself regardless of where we are, but it just feels far! And that makes me sad. I'm pretty good at dismissing emotions...which is NOT healthy, so I'm proud of myself for recognizing it!!

One of you has lived in the state we are moving to. I'm sorry I need to be vague. I may consider disclosing briefly and then deleting, but the Army is big on our social media security and it is really for our safety that I don't. I want to, I really do!!

Did you pay for any entertainment this weekend? Was it a one time expense like mine? Did you do something for free?

I'm going to be a little vague since this is Army related, but we are moving! It is nearly official. My husband was nominated back in November for a job. We were told we would hear something in December. It was apparently decided in December, but my husband only heard about it two days ago. He did get the job which is on the east coast. When he was nominated his initial reaction was no thanks, but he was pretty much told that it was an honor to be nominated and it isn't a job you pass up as it is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's also a job on a Army post. Which is so different from the units we have been connected with here.

He has to report pretty soon. The girls and I will be staying put to finish out the school year. Our oldest is graduating!

I was so close to coming up with my goals for 2015, but they didn't included running two households for four or five months! I'm kind of back to square one.

I think I'm in a state of shock honestly. We are Midwest people. We wouldn't pick this state in most cases, it will be fine and lovely I'm sure, but a huge change to move so far from family. Right now we can drive to see everybody. Now we can still drive, but it will take a couple days rather than several hours. I guess I need to have a airline ticket fund!

That's the news! I'm sure there will be plenty more to say about all of it as it happens. Have you moved more than 15 hours away from your home base before?

Our water bill was under our self imposed budget of $95 by $13.39. This does include trash service and $18 to the city for sewer debt. So it isn't all water! I do like it when it is under budget, since I count that money as a snowflake or found money.

Swagbucks came through today with my $25 redemption for PayPal cash. I have already requested transfer to our checking account.

I'm STILL working on getting my thoughts together about our 2015 goals. Several of them are really the same. Why change what works, right?

Stay warm out there!

Here are the goals I set for us in 2014, with the results in italics. I think we did fabulous!!

1) Accumulate $4,000 in snowflakes from any source other than my husband's income to help reach our mortgage principal reduction goal. Yes! Accumulated $5,218.60 in snowflakes for 2014.

2) Pay down $13,992.99 in mortgage principal. This will bring us to an even balance at the end of 2014 of $X15,000.Yes, met this goal exactly.

3) Save $50 per month to be used for Christmas gifts. Yes, we did this, too! The money was used for Christmas, but we did exceed this budget amount for various reasons.

4) Save $57 twice per month towards the 52 Week Savings Challenge. The funds to be deposited in my Capital One 360 Savings account. Yes! This was all automated and helped us fund our daughter's band camp trip coming up this spring.

4) Save $167 per month for each daughter for college, which is $2,000 each or $4,000 for the year. Yes, since it was automatically withdrawn we didn't miss one contribution!

5) Save 8% of my husband's basic pay in his TSP. This is a 1% increase from last year. This was automatic too. And we didn't really notice the change at all.

6) Save $458.33 each month for each of our Roth IRA's. This will meet the maximum limit allowed.Yes! This was also done by automatic investments from our checking account. I just record it each month.

7) End 2014 with $20,000 or more in our emergency fund. As of January 1, we are at $19,909.05. So close! We ended the year slightly lower at $19,854.81. If I had realized we were so close, I may have made an effort to fund it to $20K!

Make some goals! Make them realistic, but stretch a bit too. Break the big ones down into smaller goals, automatic your savings and investments, and maybe even minimum payments. Make it easy to reach the goal by getting out of your way!

Were you pleased with your 2014 financial results? Are your goals realistic for 2015? Do you or will you automate any of your investments or payments?

This post is about both kinds of snowflakes, the found money variety and the frozen variety. It just began snowing here this afternoon. We are expecting at least six inches and it will come down fast. School decided it was worth dismissing early on their first day back from break. With the amount of snow and expected drop in temperatures, I'm not sure they will have school tomorrow or even Wednesday. But right now I just need my husband to get home safe!

I sold an item on eBay last night. My proceeds were just a little over $20. I did get it into the mail earlier today. I relisted three others that didn't sell. I usually relist a few times, sometimes adjusting prices, and if they don't sell they get donated. I don't want to hold on to everything!

I redeemed Bing Rewards for 500 Swagbucks, which I received right away. I was also able to redeem Swagbucks for $25 PayPal cash this weekend. It arrived really fast last time, but it isn't here yet.

Are you getting any snowflakes, of either variety?

Our oldest daughter turns 18 in March of 2015. At that time we can no longer add investments to her Educational Savings Account. We usually invest $2,000 each year. In order to get the entire $2000 into her account before her birthday, we will need to increase her investment amount from $167 to $666.67.

We are lowering each of our Roth IRA investments from $458.33 to $208.33 to help make up for the increase. We will increase the amounts up to $541.67 after the final March contribution to our daughter's account.

Our investments are all set up automatically from our checking account with Vanguard, so I made the adjustments online. I also put a reminder to make the changes in late March on my online calendar.

Have you made your investment plans for 2015? Did you make any adjustments?

First, I'm a little slow on my 2015 goals, just like The Deacon's Wife. I will get there. Officially the first paycheck for 2015 isn't until mid month for us, so we have time.

Yesterday our only spending was $5 at the gas station, but we used a gift card to pay for that little soda splurge. We needed a pick me up during our filing cabinet purging. I have a post on that at

Your Organized Friend.

Today we expect to get haircuts and shop for a calendar for my youngest daughter. I want a calendar too, but not sure if it is a need. I do use it to notice when dates are but tend to record most things on my online calendar.

We also plan to go to the music store today or this weekend. We have a credit with them after purchasing the most recent flute. It is $157. Equal to 10% of our purchase price. It must be used in January. It going to be a shopping spree at the music store! Some of it will go to purchasing music we know we need, but the rest is up for grabs. I'll let you know what we end up with.

I'm close to getting enough Swagbucks to redeem for $25 in PayPal cash. I decided to go for the cash for awhile, so I can put that money directly toward two credit cards we are paying off. The each have about an $800 balance (no worries, no interest accruing). I should have them paid off in a few short months, or tomorrow if I decide to just use cash on hand!

The CD we have with NFCU is 5% interest on our $5000 balance. We earned almost as much interest on that money last month, as we did on nearly $35K in our money market. I do regret I didn't get some of that money invested into a CD two years ago. With an upcoming move, and the intention of using some of it towards the next down payment I will wait to do anything.

Do you use a wall or other paper calendar? Or just digital? Do you have paper to purge? What is the highest interest rate you are earning on your savings?

2014 has been a great year. We were and are all well. We got to visit with family and friends numerous times. Financially, we continued to invest and pay down debt. Again, a very good year!

Today, the last day of the year, I managed to close my Discover Checking account. I got the bonus, I don't need it any more. I also emailed Chase to close my husband's Chase Freedom account. We haven't used that in months and don't expect to. Most importantly, I paid the bills!

I packed away some of the Christmas decorations. Before I put the items that were out back in the bins, I made sure to pull out the few things that did not get put out this year so that could be donated. I even went as far as pulling some glitter star ornaments that I was given several years back OFF the tree so I could donate them. Every year when they come out, I hesitate about putting them on, but then we do anyway. This time they are going BEFORE the next Christmas.

I made sure to get to Goodwill today to drop off my final bag of donations for the year. I got my receipt, although I likely won't qualify to take the deduction. That is okay. I'm more excited about less stuff!!

I also made the final grocery shopping trip for the year. I was able to go about three days longer than planned because of all the leftovers from Christmas. We had half a pumpkin pie that I finally had to toss today. It has been a week in the fridge, and I decided it was too late to freeze. And since we weren't interested in eating it it was time to go.

We will stay in to celebrate New Year's Eve and Day as a family. We will play board and card games tonight. Maybe a movie. We will eat lots of snack type foods, including fresh vegetables and fruits! Tomorrow I hope we can all do a little work to put away our Christmas trees. I also secretly hope to get my husband to go through some papers that I think can be recycled or shredded. He does know about them, so it won't be a big surprise.

After the New Year, I hope to write more about our finances in 2014 and our goals going forward. I just haven't had time to think about all of those yet!

Are there certain tasks that you do at the end or beginning of each year? How will you celebrate New Years?

Happy New Year Saving Advice!

December was a pretty lucrative month for snowflakes/found money, since I finally was able to get US Bank to credit my account for the $200 bonus they offered us to open a checking account. Rebates were helpful too! The one from USSA was nearly $70. Snowflakes for December accumulated to $441.43, so it was a great month for snowflakes.

Here's where December's snowflakes hailed from:


*****Designates where the snowflakes stopped going to mortgage payoff.

Really it was a super, super year for snowflakes. The best one yet! And we made them all count, by sending all but the last several to our mortgage to help pay down our balance. Less debt by snowflakes!!

Are you ready for the final tally? For 2014, our accumulated snowflakes (found money) came to $5,218.60!! The goal was $4,000, so we far exceeded the goal. So very thankful and happy to have made it this far. I didn't have much doubt, but it is nice to know we made it!

To see my Google spreadsheet of all snowflakes for 2014, you can click

here. It's just way to big to post here.

I plan to track snowflakes again in 2015! I have yet to make a goal, but I will. Do you want to join in and track your found money next year? I'm definitely up for some competition!

Wow! I guess signing up and earning over 100,000 Southwest Rapids Rewards points gets you a free Companion Pass. I actually earned mine this year only by signing up for two different Southwest Cards this year for their 50K bonus offers. I didn't fly once!

I plan to keep this Southwest card (Plus version) open at least for 2015. I paid for the annual fee, and expect with a move somewhere we might actually need to fly to see our college bound daughter. The Companion Pass will help quite a bit!

I'm not year clear on when I need to designate my Companion. I hope I can wait until the first trip. It will likely be my husband, but could also be my youngest daughter.

Do you have a Companion Pass with Southwest or another airline?

Remember that group gift I wrote about for my mother in law? In the end we were to all give her $70. We mailed a check. As far as I know, it all went fine.

Because we didn't attend my husband's family's Christmas gathering, my mother in law sent us a check...for $80! She bought a small gift for my husband which I know cost $11 and was in with the check. Her check indicated the $80 was for me and my two daughters. Huh? Okay, she is nearly 80 years old so maybe what she wrote wasn't what she meant. In the end we deposited the check and split the money between our two daughters. I did make the suggestion to my husband that the four of us split it with $20 each or just use it for something fun together. He liked the idea of the girls getting the money, so that is what we did.

So nearly even gifts! Checks crossing in the mail. Thoughtful huh? It's all good really. Just weird!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my SA friends and readers! I hope you all take some time off from thinking about money and enjoy time with family or friends. The time spent enjoying others company can't be bought and it one of life's true gifts.

I also encourage you to consider attempting a no spend week or low spend week as we wrap up the year. This means avoiding those clearance sales after Christmas. Unless you need the item, it probably isn't worth it. The only thing I would actually buy after the holiday is the sturdy kind of wrapping paper since I ran out this year.

I'm making a grocery trip today for the last items we need for our holiday meal and hosting of family. I will guess I will go one more time before the year ends, too. Otherwise, I'm staying out of the stores for the rest of the year!

Next week, after our guests have left, I plan to write some posts about the success of our financial year and the goals for 2015. I always like reading those from others, so join in, yes even those of you who are lurking out there. Blogging about your finances can be very motivating!

Again, Merry Christmas!

The military pays us an allowance (tax free money) that we can use towards housing. The news is that the military is getting an average of 0.5% increase. Clearly we are above average with an increase in our allowance of 11.3%! That is $183 increase. We don't have to use our full allowance for housing if we don't choose to. Currently, we have a mortgage on the home we live in. Our current payment is $1,311, increasing to $1355 because of increased taxes. With our new housing allowance at $1800 per month, we are well under the allowance.

It is very tempting to put that extra money towards the mortgage, but more than likely I will just save it for the move coming up in 2015. Yes, we have already started down that road...ranking our preferences based on the jobs available. I really want to stay in our current state, but the odds are against that I think.

Once the holiday and celebrations have past I will be working hard on figuring out our new paycheck amount and goals. One thing I need to figure out is how much as a percentage to send to retirement. It is probably time to increase it again with the raise in salary and housing allowance.

Anyone else out there in the military? Did you get a bigger than average increase in your BAH for 2015?

I just saw a television ad for a credit union in our city offering a mortgage loan for 10 years. They call it a Ten and Done loan. It seems there are likely plenty of credit unions offering something similar.

When I saw it I thought...so about $20K per year if we were to stay in this house and need to pay off our loan in that same period of time. Considering we just paid off nearly $14K without too much effort, it isn't out of the realm to pay off nearly $20K each year for the next 10.

The only hiccup is we are moving this summer. The best option would be to live on an Army post, if that is where assigned, and not have any housing debt. Or pick a home with a smaller mortgage. It will be interesting to see what happens!

If you have a mortgage, could you pay it off in 10 years? Do you want to?

My youngest daughter asked me a couple days ago if it was too late to ask for a Wii game for Christmas. I said it might be. I was pretty sure I was done with all my shopping.

Quite a few of her gifts, primarily T shirts, were still to arrive in the mail. Yesterday, the last package arrived. And then I began wondering if I had semi equivalent gifts for my girls. I made a list of what I had and what I spent. I even had to open some gifts I had already wrapped! It turns out I had spent $175 on my oldest and $110 on my youngest. I budget for about $150 each. I was within budget, but a little off on the equality.

In the end I found two Wii games for about $15 each. One at Target. And the other on eBay that should arrive on Wednesday.

I think she will be pleased with a couple of new games. And I'm glad it came up so I could reevaluate what she was getting.

Today I will wrap and rewrap the gifts I opened! I did end up needing to buy a roll of wrapping paper. I used up all the leftover wrapping we had left.

Other money tidbits: I did get the $200 bonus from US Bank, my PayPal money from Swagbucks arrived quickly, I tried my Bing reward code again and it worked!

Have you realized at the last minute you were low on gifts for a child?

I've been writing over at

Your Organized Friend this past month about holiday preparations and making lists. Please come check it out, and don't forget you can sign up for updates by email. I don't get or see that information, so you are anonymous!

We had new brakes installed on my van today. I thought we were getting new pads on the rear, and then thought my husband said both front and back. In the end we just got front end brakes! Cost about $197.

I did get a call from US Bank's Customer Care today confirming I was eligible for the $200 reward. It was not credited automatically from their end because my account did not have the promotion code on it. They do know I was offered the promotion and I had offered the code in my original email. In the end I will be credited the reward by the end of business tomorrow!

The brake cost is offset by the reward! Basically a wash. I like it when that happens.

Our youngest cat seems to have a UTI. It's not confirmed, but you can all guess the problems with that. The vet was not in his office, and our cat was in for a similar issue soon after we moved. They prescribed an antibiotic for the next 7 days. If not better by then she will go in for a recheck, otherwise at least another seven days of antibiotics after that. Cash out the door today was just over $20.

I took a Pinecone survey today. Another $3 coming my way soon. I also redeemed Bing Rewards for a Swag code this morning. It was sent pretty quickly but when I went to enter it in on the Swagbucks site it shows as invalid!! I did sent a help request to Bing about it. Hopefully it is fixed fast!

I redeemed Swagbucks yesterday for $25 in Paypal cash. I guess that could be considered a help to cash I'm sending my mother in law for Christmas.

We are giving the flute teacher a gift of a $10 Panera gift card (earned through MyPoints), a lotion bought on clearance last year, and a few candies. Last lessons of the year today!

I found a penny on my basement floor and a nickel in a parking lot yesterday. It does help to look down to find such things!

I was notified by Citi about their Price Rewind program that pays you back if they find a lower price. This got me to think about our flute purchase we made last month. I haven't found a lower price, but I came across a rebate! It is $50, so I filled it out and put in the mail this morning. I remember seeing it at the store, but the employees made no mention that the one we bought qualified. I also didn't think to ask, just glad I came upon it now!

The tires and flute purchased in the last couple months are being carried on two different zero interest credit cards right now. We do have the cash to pay, but I've been waiting for the cash flow from the raise to catch up and help. With payday yesterday the tires are paid off after a $708 payment! I paid $307 towards the flute.

I completed our 52 Week Savings Challenge at the beginning of December. I had been stashing that money in our Capital One 360 Savings account. Most that money has been used to pay for my daughter's band trip this spring. I ended up with an extra $423 in the account, which I'm going to use to pay towards the flute. After I apply that payment later this week, we will owe just $806.

I have made sure to set aside some cash in our checking account to pay for the $250 admission fee to the University my is choosing to attend. I also set aside the balance we will owe for senior pictures, $210. Both of these will be charged on a credit card for points, but it is nice to have the money set aside to pay for them when due.

I did end up return a few items bought for potential gifts. I returned a pair of slippers, a spa kit, a makeup kit and two pairs of men's socks (one had hot dogs on them!). I did keep the four rugs after realizing I paid less than $1.25 each. I'll probably use one myself! Or two!! The returns netted me just under $20, but I consider it less clutter and offset for three pairs of slippers (of a different kind) that I bought for friends that will need to be mailed.

Lots of money activity here! Have you found any money? Have you returned anything you purchased recently? Have you redeemed any Swagbucks or MyPoints?