Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

I mentioned the group gift my husband's siblings are getting my mother in law in another post. Things have changed. The item was to be a media console that looks like a fireplace and is a heater. The picture I was shown and price given initially was $250. Although there are seven siblings total, only five are participating. So that would be around $50 each.

The youngest sibling showed the picture to my mother in law who said it wasn't big enough. There were not enough spaces for her dvd player and cable boxes. Another sibling went looking for other options and found a $400 one. It was decided to ask my husband's mom again if this one would work. It turns out she wants the money so she can shop for one herself.

The question then was how much money the group should give her. In the end it was decided we would give $350 as a group. We had all been willing to put in nearly $90 a piece. This new amount would be $70 each. Of course, this is still above the original $50 we thought we were going in on!

We usually spend $35-40 on my mother in law, so we are spending nearly double our budgeted amount. This comes down to a reason I don't like group gifts. They don't turn out like you expect them to.

Now, I'm not mad at how it turned out. But it does confirm my desire not to participate in the future. I'm not really thrilled that my mother in law requested a large gift and then changed it to cash. I do think she will buy the item and I would guess she will like it. It is so different from my parents who could care less if they get a gift and often tell us we don't need to get them anything. My mother in law is on a fixed income, and usually we get her a bottle of wine, nice soaps or lotions and some quarters for her condo washing machine. Quite a difference, huh?

The other unfortunate outcome of the gift discussion was one sister getting mad at a brother when he was upset about all the group texting. The brother's wife even indicated they had limited texting. The sister was trying to get everyone's advice and do us all a favor in doing the shopping. She felt shut down by their responses. We were later asked to contact the brother to tell them our decision on the gift. This was fine with us and easy in the end because he didn't answer his phone and so we left a message. Just yucky communication between some family members for something that should be enjoyable.

We won't be visiting this side of the family this year, so in the end we are just going to write a check and send a card to my mother in law. It feels a little odd, but if she is happy that will be the most important thing.

Do you think we should have handled the group gift differently? What do you think of someone asking for a gift than changing it to cash?

I opened a joint checking account with US Bank back in September to earn a $200 bonus. We easily met the requirements over a month ago, which was a direct deposit of $500 each month. I emailed once and didn't get a response...at all.

I decided to try once more before I went to the branch. What can I say, I'd rather deal with things online! Luckily this time someone responded. They confirmed I was offered the bonus promotion, based on the number I had given them and signed up with. The email indicated they could confirm I met the requirement. The next step was for them to forward it to their Customer Care Unit, which will further review the account. I should expect a credit or at least email response in 2-3 business days.

I hope the wait is nearly over. I haven't been impressed with the ability to connect with the bank online that is for sure. Otherwise, we have had no issues with our transactions and so forth. I expect to keep this bank account at least through the move next year, since it can be helpful to have a local bank branch during a home sale transaction.

Did anyone else get a US Bank Checking account offer? Was your promotion applied timely?

I made my husband go with me to Target today. I had a 20% off our entire shopping trip coupon that I earned last week. I needed him to help me because I knew I would be buying more than one cart worth of stuff. And that is really hard to handle with the crowds less than two weeks before Christmas.

I made a list of items I knew we needed, which included toilet paper, trash bags, toothpaste and other household items. I then added current groceries from my meal plan through Friday. I also added food items I knew we would eat before the end of the year. A turkey, bread, cheeses, crackers, candies, marshmallows, ect. I also added a few items such as batteries, a pizza pan, a placemat to match the ones we already have, and several stocking stuffers.

I even bought a second Christmas tree! I didn't really think we would get one, but after a coupon and 20% off it was under $40 for a seven foot tree. It will likely be our first themed tree and will help make our basement more festive. The theme is still yet to be determined. I think I will make it a surprise for my girls. Maybe...not sure yet.

The bill before our discounts and coupons was $473! It is rare that I spend more than $150 at the store in one given trip. We did buy some alcohol which was not discounted, but in the end after the coupons, 20% off and our 5% red card discount we paid $351.58! My receipt says we saved $157.64, which I assume figures in the savings from items already on reduce or on sale before the discounts at the register.

Am I thrilled about spending $350 in one trip? Not really, but we got so much stuff for that money. I'm also thinking this will save me quite a few trips in the coming days before the holiday. I know I will need to go back for a few perishables and more dinners at some point, but we are stocked up well now! I am happy that I may not need to go out to the store for awhile!

Did anyone get the 20% off coupon at Target last week? Did you also use it to stock up and buy gifts? Does anyone have a themed Christmas tree? What is the theme you have or would have if you did?

I found some great items on clearance earlier this fall that I thought I could give as gifts. Most of these were from Kohl's. I have one makeup kit, a spa gift set, a pair of slippers, a wallet, four small rugs, and two bottles of nail polish. I think I probably got all of that for around $30. I may actually return most of it!

Why might I return? Does anyone really want a rug for Christmas? Just an odd gift that doesn't make sense now. The make up kit was going to be for a niece, but now I need to mail something, so want something lighter and less bulky. the slippers were going to be for my mom (sister mentioned she already bought some), the spa kit was going to be for one of the adult females on my husband's side (now no longer exchanging). I may give the wallet to my husband. The nail polish will still get included in the original planned gift. I may have $20-$25 worth of items to return!

Today, I went to use a $10 JC Penney Reward and one of their $10 off $25 coupons. Unfortunately my purchases didn't come up high enough to allow me to use both. I spent $20 with tax for four items, but three of them were kind of last minute gifts that would need to be mailed. So thinking I could buy all of these items and spend $15, really will mean spending nearly $30 once I factor in shipping. Now I need to decide whether to keep the gifts and be okay with the money spent, or return the last minute gifts and only spend about $5.50 for the one item I really wanted to get.

Do you ever find yourself returning gifts before you give them? What prompts you to return before giving?

I was just notified by USAA that we should expect our annual subscriber distribution tomorrow. It will be $69.19. I don't know why I look forward to this expected, but not always promised source of funds.

USAA also reimbursed us for ATM fees last month in the amount of $6.45. There was also a whopping $0.03 of interest.

When I add those snowflakes/extra funds to a recent rebate received ($8), Pinecone survey payments ($9), and a used up $5 Target gift card, I have more than enough cash to make the final extra payment on the mortgage for the year.

This means we have met the goal!! Our mortgage balance will be just under $X15,000 after I make a payment of $97.67 tomorrow.

I'm so excited to have met the goal I set out to reach at the beginning of the year. It always seemed possible, but there was definitely work involved. It paid off!

All snowflakes we accumulate through the end of the year will be applied to our savings account. We spent nearly $3K recently on tires, brakes, new timing belt and a flute. That money came from savings. It is time to pay ourselves back. I will still track the snowflakes until year end for a grand total number.

Later this month, I will flush out new goals for 2015. I'm sure some goal will include the need to track snowflakes!

Did you think we would do it? Are you surprised or not?

I received one of the two outstanding rebate checks in the mail today. It was for $8. I deposited it on my mobile phone while I was waiting for my daughter. I also ripped up more than half the mail and piled it into one envelope for recycling. Easier to have the mail head straight there than make a pile!

There is another $18 rebate I sent in, but I would guess I won't see that one until January. It would be nice to see it before year end, so I could apply it to the mortgage.

I had to make a mini store run this evening because I was out of yeast to make pizza dough. I had enough for one crust, or two thin crusts which the girls don't really like because they are to crunchy. While I was getting the yeast, I picked up three microwave meals for my husbands lunch this week. I figured this would keep him from eating out or driving 30 minutes round trip to come home for lunch (although I do like to see him).

I thought about wandering around the store to find stocking stuffers, but decided that would take too long and likely end up in more spending. I need to have a plan for what to buy for stocking stuffers first!

Have you received any rebates this year? Does anyone know of a source for yeast in larger quantities than the basic little jar? Do you plan stocking stuffers or just wing those?

We are getting so close to meeting the goal of getting our mortgage paid down to $X15,000. I just made a principal payment of $53.88, which was from one eBay sale and $25 worth of Target gift earned and used for groceries.

We now only have $97.36 to go meet the goal. I know it will happen. There are lots of sources that will come to fruition before the end of the year that will be applied to the goal.

As you go to make your goals for next year, think big! Stretch your goals and then make a plan to make them happen. The journey this year to accumulate found money/snowflakes is just proof you can find money in all sorts of places to help you meet your goals.

When I was making the goal for 2014, I knew some debt would be eliminated just by making our regular payment. I figured out where that would put us without any extra cash. I then subtracted my $4K snowflake goal. After that I looked at what extra income I could apply. I know some of it was from my husband's raise last year. Based on all of that information, I was able to come up with end goal of where I wanted our mortgage balance to be at year end.

Tracking and reporting where we were on the goal each month was helpful to know that we were on track or if we were behind. If we were behind, it often motivated me to look for more cash offers, list something on eBay, or work a little harder to earn some gift cards with Bing and Swagbucks. Everything little thing added up to get us to the goal.

So, again make your goal BIG. Stretch yourself to make it happen. I will say one goal is usually easier to work on than multiple goals. So if you don't have an emergency fund established that might be the perfect place to start. If there is that one credit card or loan hanging over your shoulder, then make a plan to pay it off or way way down. You won't regret it! And as always, I will cheer you on!

Do you have a big goal you accomplished this year? Do you have a big goal for next year?

It's nearly too warm here for real snowflakes. But I have done three Pinecone surveys in the last two days, so another $9 will be on its way to the mortgage shortly.

I'm planning to do my Super Target grocery run today. I will use up $25 worth of earned gift cards while I'm there and will consider these snowflakes/extra money as well to send to the mortgage.

We used our Amex cards last week on Small Business Saturday. Our credits have posted. It seemed to take longer than I remembered from last year. One of the places we went was a Botanical Garden. Admission was $10 each, we each purchased two admissions, expecting $10 back on each of our cards. Turns out I was only charged $10 rather than $20, a mistake at the museum that I didn't catch. So together they charged us $30, but with the two $10 Amex credits we only paid $10 to get in. Nice!

It does always amaze me the deals you can find this time of year. I have a $10 Reward from JC Penney. I need to just purchase over $10 worth of items, so I'm sure I could pick up something in the store for nearly free! Although, I do need to remember that I received the reward because we spent nearly $100 there recently on clothing. But even so, there seem to be coupons and offers all over the place that can really reduce the amount spent out of pocket.

Did you get your American Express Small Business credits? Do you have any extra money coming to you? Or a reward that could get you something for nearly zero out of pocket?

I'm not really a fan of group gifts. My husband has six siblings and they have often gone in together for a large gift for their mom. It is nearly always something she wants, or someone says she wants. I've seen her reaction and she does always seem pleased.

Part of the problem is that some of the siblings can't afford to pay their share of the gift, or even participate. So the group gift becomes a smaller group and a larger burden financially. That has resulted in us opting out of this plan for many years, it seemed to put an end to it for awhile.

This year the group gift has come up again. I think we are actually going to participate. My mother in law wants, according to my husband, a glorified space heater. It's actually a media console for under her flat screen tv that looks like a fireplace mantel and will actually electrically heat up. It's about $250 at Walmart. Our share is likely to be at least $50, maybe more depending on how many people are going in on it.

I think I'm willing this year to participate since we do have the cash, she does want it, and we may not actually be at Christmas this year. (Does that make it a guilt gift?!) It's easier to mail a check then purchase gifts and mail them. So it will be more than the $30 I usually spend, it will be easier and make her happy.

Do you participate in group gifts? Do you avoid them?

Today was a no spend day for me! No store shopping, no online shopping. It was nearly a no spend say for my husband, since he bought two sodas on his way home. I'm glad I can report that at least one day in the month of December I didn't spend any money.

My daughter reminded me of her Secret Santa party in about 10 days. The girls are exchanging gifts with each other. They each drew a name. When my daughter asked the dollar limit for gifts, she was told by one girl it was $25!!!! No, we will not be spending that much. We may get a gift worth that, but I sure hope not to spend more than $15.

I expect we will shop for the gift this weekend, while we are out grocery shopping. I just today made my list for groceries based on the meal plan I made last week for the first 15 days of December. I usually make a meal list one week at a time. I'm enjoying making meal plans for longer periods of time. Maybe eventually, I will just make a plan for the month rather than just week by week!

Do you participate in gift giving at work or with friends? Do you have a dollar limit? How often do plan your meals?

I personally didn't spend a dime today. No online shopping either! However, my husband came home with two sodas after his workout. I just wanted to make note there was at least one day in December that I didn't spend money!

I completed a gift I needed to sew today. The project was a doll blanket and pillow for my foster niece. I did spend money on fabric, bias tape and matching thread. I had some of the fabric, so that helped a little.

I have my meal plan ready through December 15. Today I made a grocery list for the remaining items that I will purchase on Saturday. I will check for sales, and coupons before heading out.

My daughter reminded me of her Secret Santa party in about 10 days. She will need a gift. When she asked about a dollar limit, someone responded with $25!!!! Um, no we will not be spending that much. Maybe $15 or something worth that, but less out of pocket for sure. I hope we can gift the gift this weekend while we pick up other things. I sure don't want to be out shopping at the last minute.

Do you participate in a Secret Santa or work gifts? Is there a limit? What is it? Did you expect to have any no spend days this month?

I made two sales yesterday! One was for a book I listed on Half.com back in August. I made $1.19. The other was an item I had listed on eBay. I think the profit on that is just under $30.

That money will go to the mortgage of course. I realized an extra payment I made to the mortgage didn't get applied correctly, well it didn't get applied at all! I must not have checked the principal box. I sent an email to have it corrected.

I hope to get at least two items listed on eBay today. I want more cash to put toward the final mortgage goal!

Have you sold anything recently? Do you have plans to sell anything before the end of the year?

The goal for 2014 has been to pay down $13,993 in principal on our mortgage (our only debt). In November we were able to knock off $738.02 from that balance. The principal portion of our regular payment was $477.48, extra found money (snowflakes) totaled $156.82 and the remaining amount, $103.72 was extra we chose to add to our regular payment to help meet the goal.

We have now paid off $13,218.25 of our 2014 goal. We have just $774.75 left to pay to meet the goal. I expect the principal portion to be about $480. Our regular payment will also include an extra principal payment of $103.72 sent in at the same time. This leaves approximately $191.03 left to meet goal.

I already have a $40 payment to make towards that goal, so that means another $151.03 left to figure out. We have the cash to meet the goal if needed, but I'd like to find some snowflakes to round out the final amount. I expect this will not be too hard as I was able to accumulate that much in November!

Did you have a debt pay off goal this year? Are you close to meeting your goal? Will you make a goal for next year?

The month of November was relatively slow for extra money at least in comparison of other months this year. And I'm not going to complain either. An extra $156.82 is definitely a good thing!

Here is where the money came from:



The two highest sources were from my Discover Checking account bonus and a few eBay sales. After that it was the travel money my husband received that was in excess of his expenses. It seems that never happens.

The goal this year was to earn $4000 in extra income from various sources. I did exceed that goal a little while ago. As of the end of November, I have accumulated $4,777.17. (I like all those 7's! ) All of that money has been sent to our mortgage to pay down the principal. I had a goal for that this year, too. I will update that in my next post. We are getting extremely close!

Did you keep track of your snowflakes/extra money this year? How much did you accumulate? What did you do with your extra funds?

I happen to be a fan of Lands' End T shirts, the ones that are a little fitted, but keep their shape because they have some stretch to them. I have a black one I've had for several years that has become VERY stretched out. I can't bring myself to pay full price at $25.50 a t shirt. But today they had 40% off and free shipping. I bought three and paid $15.30 each. I really do wear these for years on end, so a very good deal.

I remembered to use

My shopping this weekend was primarily online. I got up early on Friday to order $300 worth of Target gift cards at 10% off, using my Discover card for hopefully 5% cash back. Just now I ordered some items for my daughter's online, for around $60. I'm actually getting close to being done with them!

We went to a botanical garden out of state on Saturday and used our American Express cards since they were considered a small business. Our other Small Business Saturday purchases were at a local liquor store to stock up on a couple of bottles of liquor we usually buy. We didn't end up doing a third transaction. We ran out of time and ideas before stores were closing. We did all of this after returning from a 4+ hour road trip. All a good deal though.

I paid bills this morning and seem to have quite a bit extra that I likely can apply to paying ourselves back for those tires and flute purchase. I will start figuring that out soon!

Did you do any holiday shopping or visit a small business on Saturday? Are you current on your bills?

I have a link in the previous post about the Capital One 360 offers if you are interested.

I've been out of town, but returned home to remember the Capital One 360 Black Friday sale. The particulars are on their website, but if you open your first checking or savings with them you can earn a $100 bonus for EACH account.

Find out more

I had to go back to the grocery store because when we purchased wine on Sunday, they only rang up 11 of the bottles. I needed that 12 one to show on a receipt so I could redeem a rebate worth $18. Luckily they were cool about it, and rang up another bottle, and gave me the additional discount for another 6 bottles. I paid another $1.93 after that so that I can get the $18 back! Well worth it.

We have been notified by Wells Fargo that we are short in our escrow account. This is because our property taxes increased by $306. The shortage is just $244.67. We have the option to pay in full before Jan 1, or have the amount spread across the next year. Normally, I would be inclined to pay the shortage up front. However, I really expect we will be moving, thus sending in more money a larger refund check later just doesn't appeal to me. I will have the amount spread across the next 12 months this time. Because of increased taxes and the shortage, our new payment will increase by $43.78. I think we can handle that change.

We may be changing our upcoming travel plans do to weather. I'm not a fan of anyone driving when roads are snow and ice packed. It is just not safe and not worth the risk of an accident.

It looks like we will make a little money from my husband's last travel trip. A whopping $25.81. Seems like a snowflake to me! I will add that amount with the $6 I have from a refund and a Pinecone survey and send to the mortgage to meet that goal by year end.

Have a super Thanksgiving! Stay safe and enjoy those you love and care about.

Finally. My husband's promotion was in September. The pay took a few weeks to catch up and thus had back pay. I finally know what each paycheck will look like. I can start making some plans on how to allocate the money. That makes this math geek happy!

We have $500 deposited to US Bank once a month. It was a requirement of their checking account bonus offer. We should meet the requirement soon and get $200. Once that money is firm, I will cancel the $500 deposit. I don't need money going into all sorts of accounts for no reason! (Although, I'm remembering that it might be nice to have a bank branch when we go to sell the house...I'll ponder that before I make changes.)

I've done some more Christmas tasks and decluttering this weekend. I've written about it over on

I sent $27.32 to the mortgage today to pay down some more principal. I do all my extra mortgage payments online by the way. So easy!The money was profit from that latest eBay sale and a Pinecone survey check. I love extra funds!!

I also sent $40 to savings that would normally be spent on flute lessons, since they are not having a lesson next week. I'm paying us back for the new purchases of tires and a flute.

I did spend money today, but only on groceries. About $48 at Super Target. I made sure to buy $50 worth so I could use the coupon to receive a $10 gift card. My total was less because I used their Cartwheel app, and my Red Card. I bought items for dinners through next week and a few things I need to take for Thanksgiving. I still have a few more things to purchase, so I will go back again tomorrow and see if I can reach $50 again and use coupon I had sent to my phone. That will mean another $10 gift card! I will likely use the gift cards for other holiday expenses, either a gift or food.

I also sent a $300 check with my daughter to make a payment towards her spring band trip. I took the money from the 52 Week Savings Challenge funds I have accumulated. It seems I will have an extra $300 saved. I expect to use that to pay ourselves back for those tires and flute as well. I will get that squared up before the end of the year.

I can't say much about it since it isn't a done deal, but a job possibility for my husband is in the works. It does require a move and he would likely move ahead of us relatively soon if he is chosen. As always is the case with these military moves, I have mixed feelings.

That's the news from here. Getting so close to meeting that mortgage goal for the year!! Did you spend money today, or pay off debt?

I'm a sucker. I was reading Hip2Save this morning and saw a possible clearance deal on Carter's clothes at Babies R US. Items were ringing up for $0.03. Yes 3 cents. It was 20 minutes before the store opened here which is just 5 minutes up the road. I quickly showered and went looking. And found...nothing at Babies R US that was marked anywhere near 3 cents. Probably good. I only personally know one baby right now.

Babies R US was next to Staples. I went in to see if they had a certain candy (chocolate covered sunflower seeds) for my daughter's stocking. No they did not, but I continued to wander around looking at clearance deals. Things were not marked, thus I was not interested. I ended up in the folder aisle and purchased a set of five poly folders for $4.99 plus tax. I will use and have wanted some, but was it a need? No.

My next stop was just up the parking lot to drop off movies rented from the library. Free!

I then proceeded to Walgreen's because I remembered they had this popcorn snack my daughter liked. A bit pricey at 2 bags for $5, I thought. Instead it was 2 bags for $6. I think that other price was the week before. I also picked up two packs of gum (buy 1 at $0.99, get one free, and five paper gift bags for $0.29 each.

I spent over $13 while I was out all because I thought I'd hit a MEGA deal at Babies R US for clothing I don't need! What is wrong with me?!! I'm actually laughing at myself, but really...?!

The only thing maybe worth returning is the poly folders, but I have one and use it and really think I will use the others. I will chew the gum, give one bag of popcorn to my daughter in her stocking, and I'm sure get use out of the paper gift bags. The other bag of popcorn has been consumed by the family already.

Does this stuff happen to you, too? Please tell me yes. Please!

If you don't already have the Chase Freedom card, this offer is the best you will find for this spending limit. You apply for the card, spend $500 and get $200 cash back. No annual fee. Interest rate is 0% for the first 15 months. And the card has rotating cash back categories.

I sold an item on eBay and made a profit of $24.32! Once I have the money in hand I will send it in (to the mortgage of course) with the recent Pinecone Survey payment I received.

I ordered Senior Pictures today for my daughter. I was happy I didn't need to put down another deposit. I simply need to pay when they are ready for pick up, which is in about eight weeks. That will give me a little time to stash some cash away!

I bought another gift for Christmas. A pair of socks! It is a bit of a tradition among some of us to give socks to one another. And we really look forward to it. These were $7.99 at Kohl's. I used my $5 coupon and 30% off coupon. I only spent $2.24!

Did you score a deal recently, or find any snowflake money for your goal?

I've got to jot down a few ideas for financial goals next year. Sorry if it is not clear. I'll expand later when I'm clear myself!

Pay ourselves back for tires, and flute.
Pay down another $5K on mortgage by June.
Increase TSP %.
Moving fund/emergency fund. $2K?

We have stayed home today, since snow is falling and causing accidents on roads. I made sure to purchase groceries for the week yesterday with the intention of staying home this weekend.

Of course, just because I'm home doesn't mean no spending. Thanks to the internet I was able to purchase one of the bigger gifts for my daughter on eBay. It currently sells new for about $177 on Amazon. I was able to get one in nearly new for $130, which included shipping. I'm definitely pleased about that.

I put the charge on my new Southwest Rapids Rewards Plus card that arrived in the mail yesterday. All new purchases will be applied to this card to meet the $2K spending requirement. I have already put gas ($40) and one of my grocery runs ($25) on the card, too.

I'm discussing my Christmas planning and tasks completed on

I just wrote last night about the possibility of closing our American Express cards soon. But not quite yet, since I'm going to want to take advantage of their Small Business Saturday promotion.

I read all the details on My Money Blog. You can read about it

We have been using a lot of different credit cards lately. I'm going to be cutting this back soon!!

No interest, but different ones for different reasons, and not all of them logical. Tomorrow is payday, so I made sure to pay off the Target Red card, two different cards for gas purchases, Kohl's for recent clothing purchase, the Chase Freedom card that the utilities were automatically paid on, and the most recent card for nearly all other charges the Citi Thank You card. Oh, and the Discover card for recent online Christmas purchases.

Seriously, we have too many open cards. We are not having any problem paying them, but it gets really hard to remember them all! I almost forgot about the Chase Freedom card today, until I was trying to figure out where the utilities were charged. All the cards do send me emails, so I likely would never really forget.

We have open Amex cards that haven't been used in over six months. Maybe more. I keep them open for those offers they put out from time to time to get cash credit for certain purchases at certain stores. I just looked back at my savings with them and I saved $70 in the last five weeks of 2013, and just $5 in 2014. So unless, they offer up some really great deals this year, I may let go of the Amex cards.

In other news, I've already used some of the Christmas funds saved this year to pay off purchases I have already made. That feels good.

I have set aside the $275 that I normally send to the mortgage pay down this time of the month. I'm going to hold it and try to get the remaining $256 needed outside of December's planned principal payments from snowflakes/extra money. I guess that means I really only need to hold on to $256 of that money to ensure meeting my goal. I'll put the $19 towards paying ourselves back for some recent large purchases.

Are you getting paid this week? Do you pay your bills just at the time of pay day or multiply times during the course of a pay period?

I received the $50 cash bonus for opening the Discover Checking account. I wrote one check for $25 (to a non profit) that hasn't cleared yet, otherwise I would be closing the account.

I will end up sending that $50 to the mortgage, since it is officially extra money/snowflake!

Did anyone else do the Discover Checking offer? I received our offer in the mail. I think you have to have the Discover card to be eligible.

Target and Target.com will be offering Target gift cards at 10% off on Black Friday. Just in the morning from 6AM to NOON. This will probably be the only offer I take advantage of. I plan to buy the maximum of $300 worth, since we easily spend that much there on groceries each month. We usually use our Red Card, so this will simply save us an extra 5%. Definitely read the fine print on this offer, since you cannot use the gift cards purchased that morning until Saturday (although I don't know how they can track that). I'm going to buy mine online.

It will be a little tempting to go shop on Friday morning. We will be visiting my parents apartment and they live right next door to an outdoor mall. They can see the back side of JC Penney from their apartment! Right now, I don't even know what I would need to buy, which is a good thing. I'd rather just stay in bed anyway!

Will you buy Target cards at at discount on Black Friday? Will you do any shopping that day? If so, what are you looking to buy?

We did end up eating at Chili's for lunch today. The burger we ordered was free since my husband is a veteran. It was nice to have a meal out together since that is rare.

My husband also got his haircut free at Great Clips. We skipped the yogurt and coffee that was also free, as we didn't need the caffeine nor the calories of yogurt.

We stopped in at Joann's Fabric where I spent $2.56 on a gift after an additional 20% off our purchase with the military discount offered.

It was tempting to do some more shopping, but in the end we both really were not up for it. I guess that saved us some money.

There was snow blowing around this morning, but it really didn't amount to much here. With the windchill it was only 8 degrees this morning. Quite an abrupt change after nearly 60 degrees yesterday. This means the furnace is running longer.

Our neighbors across the street have put their house up for sale. I haven't been in their home, but found out from the listing they only have a finished bathroom in their basement. We have nearly 800 more square feet of finished space, including an extra bedroom. I think the house is priced competitively. I will be interested to see how fast it sells, as there are several homes in the area for sale right now. Winter tends to be slow, but not completely stagnant.

I ordered my husband's Christmas gift today. I bid on an eBay item and was outbid already. I found another one to bid on. I may not end up with the item, but figure I have a few weeks to bid before I have to purchase at full price.

Did your temperatures drop today?