Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

Our new Wells Fargo American Express card arrived in the mail yesterday. It was shipped from the next state over thus the prompt receipt. We have already used it!

Our gym membership was expiring. We paid $750 a year and half ago and our last day for the membership was yesterday. We finally got a sales person to assist us last night. I say finally because it seemed every time we inquired in the last month, no one was there to help. We had been mailed a renewal offer of $750 for 12 months, rather than 18 months like our original deal. The sales guy tried to offer us two years for $998. Sure that sounds like a better deal, but it is MORE money and the odds are very slim we will still be in this town for another 2 years let alone 15 months. After much discussion and indicating we would go work out and talk about it, the tune suddenly changed to adding 6 months to our current offer. So same deal we had the first time we signed up. Honestly, I was hoping for LESS than $750. I really tried with the guy and I think I did get us what is right for us. I won't need to pay any more money before we move...unless we don't move (but I think the odds of that are slim). At any rate, we charged our gym membership to the new Wells Fargo card. Well on our way to $3000 in spending, with something we needed to purchase anyway.

I do have an email in to Wells Fargo to confirm that previous Amex reward offers won't exclude us from this one. The card is in my husband's name, thus the email rather than a call. I could have him call, but he would just be confused about the whole reason I'm having him call! We decided to use the card even if we are exempt from the rewards. My gut says we will get the rewards since this is technically a Wells Fargo program, rather than an Amex program.

Do you prepay your gym membership? Or do you pay monthly?

I sold two items on Ebay yesterday. A pair of shoes and a CD set. I'm still waiting for payment though. The gross amount of the sales was nearly $26. I want my money!!

We did some shopping at Kohl's this weekend. I used the rest of our Kohl's gift cards, so I need to get that money spent on gift cards sent to our mortgage. In this case we have used up $100 in gift cards from Kohl's.

I have two Pinecone payments totalling $6 in my PayPal account. I am waiting for my Ebay sale money before I send all that money to my checking account and then on to the mortgage.

We are finding more things for the garage sale. My husband and I went through an older tool box and found several things we don't need. We even found a rechargeable drill that no longer charges...will anyone buy that? I think it's trash unless someone knows how to replace the battery. Why store something that doesn't work, right?

Since I am mostly decluttering and staying focused on the garage sale, my organizing blog, Your Organized Friend has taken a back seat. However, I did post a little trick I have for

storing reusable water bottles today. You might also take a peek at my prior post, since there are pictures of my basement getting messy again!

I am waiting on our Wells Fargo American Express card to arrive. Fingers crossed it is today. Our gym membership expires today and we need to renew. We have been in talks with them hoping to negotiate a better deal, but the sales people are never there when we are to get things firmed up. I think they will let us wait a few days to pay on our new card if it doesn't arrive today. I also need to pay an electric bill and order photo prints for my daughter's art fair. It won't take long to meet that $3000 spending requirement!

Did you sell anything this weekend? Have you received your Wells Fargo Amex card yet? Did you do find any non working items in your recent decluttering?

I spent a portion of my afternoon pricing all those items in my basement that I have set aside for a garage sale. The sale will be next Saturday. I will still need to price the pile in my garage. I also expect there will be a few more things we find in the house to let go of. I will have the girls look at a few things today after school that I think they have outgrown. I also have a toolbox I need my husband to look through.

It does feel good to be letting go of some stuff. It really does help to dig deep when getting ready for a garage sale. That is likely where the stuff you don't need is lurking!

This is the first sale I have had in our new home and since it is city wide, I expect a good turn out traffic wise. I don't know what kinds of things people buy around here. It will be interesting to see! I'm also curious about how much my snowflake will be.

We have a music event tomorrow which will require about $7 or $8 to for admittance. I also have a feeling lunch out would be helpful for all of us because of the timing. Mother's Day will be low key. Just spending time together and getting some projects done is likely the plan for the day. I don't expect any gifts, as my husband has been out of town. I'm not sure it is even on his radar! I'm all good either way. I might be able to get him to get groceries with the kids though.

Will you have a garage sale this year? Does your place get good traffic, or are you in a bad sale location? Will you celebrate Mother's Day, or are you keeping things low key, like me?

We were notified of our homeowner's insurance increasing by about $100 for the next year. This so annoys me. I know prices of the replacement cost more, but without ever making a claim it seems unfair.

Our current premium is nearly $700, specifically $693.46. Even that is more than I prefer to pay. We do get several discounts just to get to that amount. Our deductible is $1000.

I decided to make some changes which I can do online with USAA. I increased our deductible to $2000 for all claims other than wind and hail. When you live in the midwest wind and hail are generally the most likely claims on homeowner's insurance. I also decreased the coverage on our personal belongings portion. You all have seen pictures of my house on

Your Organized Friend. We really don't have a lot of stuff. So now we have coverage of $122K of belongings rather than $180K. I think this seems reasonable. Our new premium will be $668.19, which is saving us just $25 over the current premium, but over $125 if we had kept our coverages the same.

We have the $2K to meet the increased deductible IF something were to happen. I just think the odds, especially in a new home are pretty slim.

Did you have an increase in your homeowner's insurance? How about a decrease?

We applied for a new credit card. We were approved, too. I was tipped off by Monkey Mama in my last post. It isn't for everyone, but it seems like the right offer to jump on for us. It is the Wells Fargo Propel World American Express card. We need to spend $3,000 in three months to receive 40,000 bonus points equal to $400. We should be able to redeem our points for a credit to our mortgage which is with Wells Fargo. And we all know tha I have been putting ALL bonus reward money towards paying down our mortgage so this really is perfect.

We won't keep the card long term since it has a crazy high annual fee after the first year. I think it is $175! I would never pay that unless I was getting major benefits to offset it.

We have quite a few things we can charge to the card to meet the spending requirement. One is our gym membership which is due any day now (fingers crossed the card arrives fast) and is over $700. We are also in the market for a used/refurbished Apple computer for our daughter. We have a little mini trip coming up, and some home improvements. Those things along with our regular spending will sure have us meeting the requirement in no time.

I'm paying the small charge on my husbands Discover card today. Once that posts, I will be requesting a cancellation of that card. I will also request a card from my Discover account for him. We will need it when the 5% cashback on gas comes up in July!

The money my husband had in his Capital One 360 checking and savings accounts has arrived in our primary checking account. It will get moved to savings. I have sent a request to CO360 about cancelling the accounts. I was able to do the savings when I made the transfer, but that didn't happen with the checking account.

I have also decided that I will cancel the Old Navy card. Yes, it is my oldest card and could effect my credit score. However, I'm okay with whatever results from that. It will only get worse the longer I wait and I really, really don't want the card anymore!

It feels good to get some of these financial tasks done and have things more consolidated. I like things simple really.

Is anyone else applying for the new Wells Fargo Amex card? Have you cancelled any credit card or bank accounts recently?

I finally got to cleaning up and decluttering in my garage yesterday. I posted many, many pictures of my progress on

Your Organized Friend!

The stack of credit cards we have sitting around was getting out of hand. It really helps to just focus on one card when you are working the reward bonuses. Lately, we have been using more than one card for various reasons. We are both using our seperate Capital One Quicksilver cards for everyday expenses to get 1.5% cash back. However, we also bought paint recently and I wanted the 5% back the purchase, so I used our Discover card.

We have open cards with Chase, Capital One, Discover, and American Express, USAA, Old Navy and Kohls. We also have debit cards with Capital One for our 360 accounts. And I have a PayPal debit card.

Yesterday, I started the process of figuring out which ones we can eliminate. I have cancelled the PayPal debit card and Chase Sapphire Preferred. I requested a new card for me from my husband's Capital One Quicksilver account. This way we have one account to manage. Once I have that card, I will cancel my Quicksilver card.

I was about to cancel (or attempt to cancel) my husband's Discover card, when I noticed $2.51 in rewards. I decided to use those first. My youngest daughter's birthday is in about two months and she has a birthday list going. I used my rewards on Amazon to purchase a cover for her new tablet. I also used some Amazon gift cards I earned from Swagbucks last month! So I will make the final payment on the Discover card and then cancel that one. I haven't completely decided whether to cancel my Discover card yet. I see they have 5% cash back on gas stations for third quarter. So tempting!

I'm also in the process of transferring money that my husband has in his Capital One 360 Checking and Savings accounts. We opened these for a bonus during the Black Friday event I think. The money has been just sitting there earning a little cash. I decided it might as well get moved to another savings account where we earn a tad more interest. Two less accounts to think about. I am leaving my accounts with Cap One 360 as I am currenly adding my 52 Week Challenge money there. I also have my referral information out on the web and have the opportunity to earn a little cash by referring people. I don't want to pass that up!

We have four cards that currently have 0% interest. I don't generally hold a balance on a card, but summer can get expensive and I guess I just want to keep those lines of credit open while they are at 0%. Once they have expired, they will be cancelled. I am putting the dates on my email calendar to remind me to cancel. The first one will be in October of this year. The oldest one is May 2015.

I have decided that we will not open any new cards in my husband's name for the next year. This is because we could be moving a year from now at the earliest. If we purchase another home, I want his credit to look okay. I do realize that the cards opened in the last year or two will show up on the report, and we can explain why we opened them, but I think it might look better to have few cards opened prior to another major purchase.

Now the next big question in regards to credit cards is the Old Navy Visa card. I have had this card since 2006. This is my oldest card currently open. My next oldest card is the Chase Freedom that I opened in 2010. I'm guessing on the actual dates. I can't remember for sure. Anyway. I think I might cancel that Old Navy card. We don't shop there anymore. The rewards are for shopping at Old Navy. It is a Visa and I can use it anywhere, but I would rather use other cards that provide me a benefit. I don't think closing the account will drastically hurt my credit score, which if it does than it is temporary.

It feels good to be getting a handle on these cards. We opened them to obtain cash bonuses. We have paid our balances in full. And we just don't need them. We will still have open credit, and more than we could ever need, so no worries about reducing our available credit.

Have you closed any credit cards recently? Why do you keep cards that you don't use? Has anyone opened a card with a good offer lately? I'm always looking more rewards!

I decluttered my desk recently on

Your Organized Friend.

I have three items to take to the post office this morning that I sold on Ebay. My daughter profited $22.57 for selling a set of six books. I profited $16.12 for selling a book, three cds and two dvds. She did better than I did! But I will take that profit and send it to the mortgage of course.

I relisted one item and listed three new items last night on Ebay. I have two more items I hope to get listed today or tomorrow. I sure like that I'm moving much of this stuff on to others.

I had a $15 coupon from Ebay last week. Some promotion. I used it to buy a hair product for my daughter that is being discountinued. It was priced at $14.99 and free shipping. Which means it was really free for us. I suppose it is a bit like getting a rebate on some of the Ebay fees I have paid over the years!

If you are interested in how I organize my gift wrap, you can see a post about that today on

Your Organized Friend. It is mostly pictures! And just another reminder, that if you want an email update when I post on my organizing blog, there is an option on the sidebar to sign up.

Did you get that Ebay coupon? Did you sell anything this weekend, or find anything to donate? How do you keep your gift wrap organized?

Cash in the mail yesterday! A check from Chase Southwest for the $69 annual fee we paid on a card we cancelled within the first two months. I also received an Applebee's gift card from a friend. It was her way of thanking me for helping her pack for her move. I will save the gift card for a night when I don't want to cook or a night out with my husband.

Do you save your receipts for items you purchase? I do. I wrote about how I keep them from taking over on

Your Organized Friend. I also have a couple AFTER pictures of my basement shelves in today's post. I still have work to do, but things are improving!

I sold an item on Ebay, as did my daughter. I also have three auctions ending today. Two have bids, so those will sell. I expect to list at least another three or four items later today.

Did you get any money in your mail yesterday? Are you still decluttering and organizing this month?

Wow, this month is starting off well for snowflakes already. I received $20 as a referral to someone opening a Capital One account. (Thanks for using my link, if that was you! ) Our water bill was under budget by just $1.93, but I'm counting that as a snowflake. I used a $50 gift card at Walmart yesterday, so I'm sending the money I would have spent there to the mortgage as a snowflake. And finally, I used the Amex offers for a PetSmart and I'm counting that $5 as well.

That brings May snowflakes to $76.93! I'm sending that money in today so my snowflakes do not melt. This means less debt, which we know I love. As it turns out, with that snowflake payment, our regular payment yesterday and the extra we tack on, we have $642.23 less debt owed!

In decluttering news, I was able to drop a pair of eyeglasses at the donation bin in Walmart's optical. It helped that I put the glasses in my purse a couple weeks earlier. I also tackled a pile of papers on my file cabinet this week. I wrote about it on

Your Organized Friend, of course!

Are you continuing with the decluttering? Do you have a place to recycle eye glasses in your area? Have you received any extra funds for May yet?

Time is going fast! We have already made it through four months of 2014. Time for an status update on our mortgage goal. As a reminder the goal is to pay down $13,993 in principal by the end of the year. This would bring us to an even balance on our mortgage of $X15,000.

We are making our regular payment and rounding that payment up to include about $103 towards principal at the beginning of the month. At mid month, we are sending in an additional $275 towards principal. All the extra funds we find, which I call snowflakes, are sent to the mortgage to help us reach our goal. Those snowflakes really add up and make a difference.

Here's all the payments that were made to our mortgage in the month of April:



As of April 30, we have paid $5,538.82 towards reducing our mortgage balance. That is 39.5% of our goal so we are ahead of schedule right now! We have just another $8,454.17 to go in order to meet the goal.

Today on

Your Organized Friend, I have another AFTER picture of my basement organization. But you also get to see another pile that is forming! Ack.

What percentage of your financial goal have you completed during the first four months of the year? Are you on track or behind? How did your decluttering go for April? Will you continue in May?

I tallied up our extra funds received (snowflakes) for the month of April using my Excel spread sheet. It was a great month! We found $876.07 in extra money. It ALL went to the mortgage. You will see there are plenty of credit card rewards and bonuses. But notice, too, that I saved a refund, Pinecone survey money, and so forth. There are ways to save extra money with out participating in credit cards.

(Just remembering that we did sell furniture for $300, that is a snowflake, too. We have not decided on a plan for that yet, so it is not included officially.)

Here's where all those snowflakes fell from:



I have 'After' pictures on

Your Organized Friend today! I have my mother visiting and I found an item in our basement that we aren't using but that she can, so I have given it to her. Last week I found a cable my Dad needs that we aren't currently using, so it is his now. Less clutter and helping others feels good.

Have you recently given anything of yours to a family member or friend that you are no longer using? How many snowflakes did you accumulate this month?

I have begun decluttering the basement this week. Of course, I will have multiple posts this week on

Your Organized Friend to keep you updated on that. I added an option on the right sidebar of the blog to get email updates when there is a new post. I think it works. If you are interested feel free to sign up.

Payday is Thursday. I will use some of the extra funds to pay off the Discover card. I used this to buy all the paint for our living and kitchen area. Actually we have enough to paint our bedroom and bathroom yet. I used the Discover card because they were offering 5% back on Home Improvement stores. I can already see about $17+ in rewards. The plan was to pull the cash from savings, but when their is extra in a current paycheck I prefer to use that money so it doesn't feel like I am touching the savings.

I have two bids on some music I decluttered earlier in the month. I moved them to auctions after two weeks listed as Buy It Now. People do like an auction!

Will you use a credit card at a Home Improvement store this spring for any additional rewards? Do you like fixed prices or auctions?

I paid off the balance in full on four different cards this morning: Target, Kohls, Discover and Capital One. I redeemed rewards on the Capital One cards in the amount of $20.75.

After those payments were made I sent in an extra mortgage payment in the amount of $45.75, which included the $25 Visa gift card I used on Thursday that had been a bonus from US Bank.

I'm feeling a bit disorganized in the last two weeks, so I hope to make a dent in getting some things done this week that will help me feel like I am back on track. For today, I will get to the gym and post office. I will also wash some bedding, as well as find a little time to declutter the basement. You can see what my basement storage area looks like before I start working on it at

Your Organized Friend. I hope to post some progress reports this week that show improvement. We were down there last night during a tornado warning but I didn't feel like working on anything during a storm. Turns out no tornado in our direct path or really in the vicinity. Better safe than sorry I guess.

Another thing I think I can get done today, and you might want to do as well, is check our Experian credit reports. I have my calendar set up to remind me every four months to check one of the three credit bureaus for free at annualcreditreport.com . I was notified at the beginning of this month and I still have not completed that simple task! I think I can do that today and then I can delete the email reminder I received!

Did you pay any cards off in full recently? Do you check your credit reports regularly? Do you have tasks you want to complete today?

Earlier in the week, I realized we hadn't received the refund from the Southwest credit card. I logged on to the account and quickly realized I had not even requested the check! There was still a credit balance of $69. I immediately wrote to customer service via secure message and a few hours later they confirmed that the process of cutting a check has begun. I'm sure we will have that money this week.

I haven't had as much time to keep track of some of these things as I normally do. However, I'm getting things back on track. I just paid the Verizon bill, made a donation, checked all credit cards for current balances and the due dates. I was able to delete quite a few emails from my account that were notifying me of bills and available statements. Feel a little more on top of the finances again.

Do you find you get behind in keeping track of your finances? What helps you get back on track?

Last week was so busy. I expect that it will take me a few days to catch up some financial tasks and get those posted to my blog. Thanks for understanding.

I used a $25 Visa gift card that I received from US Bank and I forgot to send the match into the mortgage, so I will get that done soon. We need to go shopping today for some clothes for our oldest daughter. Our first stop will be Kohl's so we can attempt to use the gift cards we have there.

I made another Ebay sale and have some auctions ending today. They are all Buy It Now offerings, so I think this week I will relist to true auctions and just get them sold for the going rate. If they don't sell, then they go to the garage sale or if not sold there donated.

I need to start back on the decluttering this week. I have a couple days I will set aside to do some major work on the basement or the garage. I will decide which to do based on the weather!

Have you been busy? Are you playing catch up on your goals? Will you be decluttering anything this week? Do you have anything you are trying to sell?

I made a extra mortgage payment this morning in the amount of $73.68. This includes the $50 Walmart gift card I spent, $3 from Pinecone, $10.17 from Ebay sales, and $7.51 left from a $100 gift.

More later, busy here. Just had to pop in for a moment to say we have less debt!

I'm still really busy. Today I have guest arriving. They will spend the night, so I have a bed to make, and meals to plan and buy groceries for. I need to squeeze my workout in. I'd like a little time to catch up on finances, but it may not happen.

I used another $50 Walmart gift card the other day. All on regular needs for our household. I will match this with yet another extra mortgage payment.

I sold four DVDs on Ebay. My net proceeds were $13.71. I am moving this to checking along with a $3 Pinecone survey payment. Again, this money will go to the mortgage.

I helped a friend start packing for a move yesterday. She did great in getting rid of some things at the same time as we were packing. No sense in moving something that you no longer want. One thing we noticed she had was empty boxes from product purchases. We kept a few, but most were recycled.

This is a quick post today, since I'm short on time.

Done painting. A little more clean up to do. Relieved!

Received the $25 Visa card from my US Cash+ Visa spending. Snowflake!

I received another $20 Ooma referral, I'm up to 3 now. Money!

See...that was quick. More tomorrow!

We are using those gift cards we redeemed from our Southwest Rapids Rewards bonus. I have used $150 worth at Walmart. My husband bought a tablet from Amazon this weekend and used $100 Amazon.com gift cards. The tablet is a splurge, and a promotion gift. He hasn't been promoted yet, but the man rarely wants for anything, so when he seemed to be wishing for one, I suggested he just get it. The price was a lower than we were seeing in stores.

So with those gift cards used, I need to match the spending with money sent to our mortgage. In this case, $250! I will use $150 from current spending and $100 from savings to be replaced with my husband's first check at promotion (which is likely June).

I made another Ebay sale, which I need to ship today. I also made another $20 from a referral to Ooma. More cash!! Love it.

I'm still painting today. It will be a beautiful day, and I hope during coats one and two I can get out and take a walk in honor of Earth Day. Maybe I can take a bag with me and pick up some trash? Will you do anything to honor the Earth on this day?

I have added $114 to our 52 Week Savings Challenge this month. The last deposit was $57 on Tuesday last week. I'm adding this amount twice a month on payday. Since I started this in December, I have now saved $523. This particular challenge has been pretty easy for us since it is all saved automatically. I recommend this highly!!

I wrote another blog on

Your Organized Friend. It isn't about decluttering, since I didn't get to any of that this weekend with all the painting we did. Although I will clean out my painting supply bin when we are done with our current project. I wrote about laundry instead, since I did have to get that done in the midst of the painting.

Are you still working on your 52 Week Savings Challenge? Do you have any laundry tips? Did you declutter anything this weekend, or did you just relax this weekend?

Our painting project caused us to get take out twice yesterday! The kitchen was in complete disarray for lunch. The girls said their was nothing to eat. Probably true. My husband picked up Subway for lunch. Then I picked up Pizza Hut for dinner.

The problem was I didn't plan ahead for what we would eat during our big project. And this isn't the first time that has happened. It sure could have been avoided, if I had decided and shopped ahead of time for what our meals would be on painting day.

There will be some more painting today. We are going to tackle the stairway leading to the basement. The wall extends up and is visible in our living area. We will likely be reaching up while holding on to the ladder for dear life. But right after I write this post, I'm going to make a list for the store. We will have food to eat here at home today. No more take out!!

If you want to see the color we painted our kitchen/living area, I posted a picture on

Your Organized Friend. You also get to see my painting supply bin.

Were you able to get a task crossed off your list yesterday? Did you get take out? Was it planned or unplanned?

Cash is flowing in!

I did sell that couch and love seat mentioned yesterday for a nice $150. The man was excited and said it was for his wife. Now I have more room in my garage. If you want a peek at my garage and how cluttered it is, minus the couches, head over to

Your Organized Friend and see some of my before pictures. I will be getting the garage in shape before our garage sale next month.

I sold a CD on Ebay that I need to get in the mail. I probably only made about $2. But less clutter and more cash makes me happy!

I also referred someone to Ooma, so I have a $20 referral credit. That effectively will cover 5 months of service, which is really just the Federal taxes of about $3.75 a month. I won't get the cash for six weeks or more, but it will be mine then!

We are prepped for painting and will be getting started shortly. I'm thrilled my husband took some time off so we can work together on this beautiful spring day.

In other good news, I lost 1.8 pounds! I'm very happy about this since last week I didn't show any weight loss on the scale. I watched the food intake even closer this week and it made a difference. Gee, kind of like watching the spending. Who would have thought?!

Are you sprucing up your living space (indoors or outdoors) this weekend? Do you have any extra cash or snowflakes flowing in this weekend?

We used our muscles last night to bring an older couch and love seat up from our basement and into our garage. I took pictures while they were still in the basement and promptly listed them for sale on Craigslist. I have quite a few emails to start responding to. I think there will be someone who will buy them. We are only asking $150, for the set. We have had them 18 years, so we think that is a fair price, for the condition. I think the pictures look better than they really are!

In other news, I have spent $140 worth of gift cards at Walmart. I will need to send the money I would have spent off to the mortgage. I might make it an even $150, since the gift cards are in $50 increments. Easier to keep track of. It's been a good snowflake month!

I took about 10 minutes to look at my linen closet yesterday. I found about three or four things to toss and another four things for the donate bin. If you want to see my linen closet, I have pictures on

Your Organized Friend.

My husband is off for the next four days. We are going to do some painting, as well as, spend some time with our girls. No big holiday plans other than being together.

Do you buy used furniture? Did you get any decluttering done yesterday? What is your favorite Easter candy?

Feeling just slightly stressed as I write this. We have a lot going on here at our house. All good, just busy. I barely had time yesterday to pay bills and you might have noticed no blog post here or on

Your Organized Friend.

First, Ooma has their $99 promotion going again. This gives you the opportunity to buy an Ooma Telo system for $50 off their retail price. It includes free shipping. We still love our Ooma! I wrote a little more about it on Our Money Blog. If you know you want the discount, click here.

I paid bills yesterday. I had six credit cards with balances! Two were less than $10, but still. Crazy. Part of the problem right now is my husband and I are using our Capital One cards, but we each have separate accounts and no extra card for the other one. I think This is the case with a few of our cards. I will need to look into which account to cancel, so we have similar amounts of open credit. After that request an authorized user card so we can use one account at a time. Oh, and if I wasn't clear I paid ALL the balances off.

We purchased 9 gallons of Sherwin Williams paint during their 40% off sale last weekend. Saved over $200!! I purchased paint based on two coats, but the sales person said it is likely one coat will cover our light walls since it is thick paint. The reviews say the same thing. They do recommend two coats, and I have always had to paint that way, but I haven't painted with this paint before. Part of me hopes we can get away with one coat so we can use the extra gallons in other parts of the house and to save time! I used my Discover card to get 5% cash back since home improvement stores (and paint stores) are on the list this quarter.

I'm about to send in $121.24 in snowflake money to the mortgage as an extra principal payment. Most of that is the last round of Ooma referral money. We also had a regularly scheduled extra principal payment of $275 post to our mortgage yesterday. Less debt!! I like that.

Did you see there is a $10 off $50 worth of food coupon at Target this week? Great deal if you need to get your regular groceries or extras for the holiday. I found mine in the regular printed ad, but I'd look at their site to see if you can find it there. And then there's always your basic Google search.

Calorie watching is going well this week. I think the scale may actual show a change on Friday when I weigh in. I just have to make myself get to the gym. I'm already behind schedule today!

Decluttering has been slow. I'm mostly keeping up with my goal to keep things tidy each day. I've noticed that I'm moving things to different areas, but not completely dealing with things. For example, I had some papers on the kitchen counter. I did recycle some, but then I moved the pile to our desk in the basement. Same pile basically, but now in a different spot, which is closer to the file cabinet they need to be in. I will have to make a point to get to my desk area soon. It shouldn't take too long.

I have items on Ebay that we decided to part with last week. Most are Buy It Now options. One has a bid and a couple are being watched. With Easter, I think sales are likely to be slow this week. I have the listings set to renew if they don't sell this week. Any funds received I will be grateful for.

Now I feel less stressed since I was able to get this entire post written. Can you see I was a little more wordy today, with quite a few topics to write about? Will you use that Target coupon? Are you keeping your recently decluttered areas tidy? Anyone else have spring painting plans?

I closed my husband's Chase Southwest Rapids Rewards Plus card. I just received confirmation by secure email. We received all the gift cards on Friday. We did have a balance of around $150 that I paid late last week. This was after the statement closed and included the annual fee of $69. After receiving the confirmation of closure, I realized I will not get points for $80 worth of purchases. Oh, well I don't think those points could be redeemed for anything anyway! Just something to be aware of. I'm also glad to have that account closed as we had a credit line of $27,900. That is not a typo!

Here's part of the response we received when closing the account.

Please be assured that we have closed the account as
requested. Since the annual fee of $69.00 was billed to
your account within 60 days of the date the account was
closed, a refund of the fee will automatically post to
your account.

The refund happens automatically! I let you know when I see it on the account. I think it could happen this week. When it does I will request a check.

I'm going to tidy up my house, measure for paint and hand wash some clothes. Once I have all that done I might get some decluttering done. If I do, I will have the results over at

Your Organized Friend.

I'm still on a roll with getting my workouts in at least five days a week. I just need to really watch my calories this week so I can see results on the scale!

Have you closed a credit card account recently? What is the largest line of credit you have ever had? Is your house tidy right now? Anyone else keeping up with working out?

Remember those Ooma referral bonuses I received amounting to $100 on my US Bank Visa? Since I wasn't able to easily get US Bank to send me a check, I used the credit on my account to pay our electric bill of about $93, this month's Ooma taxes of about $4, and a trip to Subway for $9. Now I actually owe a little money to US Bank.

I will be sending that money I would have spent on those items to our mortgage since I had the referral money to cover them.

I haven't done much decluttering this weekend. I have tried to just keep up with basic tasks like unloading the dishwasher and putting things away after I use them. I have two new posts up on

Your Organized Friend that might inspire you to do a few things around you home, if you are interested.

I mentioned that I found several DVDs and CDs to get rid of in last weeks decluttering. I will be putting many of those on Ebay for sale tonight. I'm hoping for about $20 in sales if all works out. I will probably keep the listings going until the garage sale. If not sold by then someone else will get a pretty nice deal.

Do you get more decluttering done during the week or on the weekend?

Our 18th wedding anniversary is tomorrow. But my husband has to work for the Army. Boo. And this sure isn't the first time the Army has been in the way of celebrating on our day. I convinced him to take the today off so we could spend time together! I think we might use a $25 Olive Garden gift card we received last summer to have lunch out together, if he is up for that.

I'm not sure I will get any decluttering done, but if I do I will report it sometime tomorrow. My post about yesterday's decluttering is up on

Your Organized Friend. I introduced my donate bin on the blog, too.

Our gift cards from Southwest Rapids Rewards are arriving today. I was notified to expect the package by the shipper. I made our final payment including the $69 annual fee. Once I have the cards and the payment clears I will ask for cancellation by secure message online and at the same time inquire about a refund of the annual fee. I expect they will cancel and grant the refund, which will take a few days to be applied. Once it shows the return of the refund, I can request a check to be cut. That is how it has worked in the past, so I don't expect this time to be different.

Do you celebrate events early, late, or just skip if you cannot celebrate on the actual date? Do you have a donate bin in your home?

I sold our old table and chairs on craiglist for $150 yesterday! I have now seen that new $100 bill. Interesting look. I have not decided if this money is going to the mortgage or to save for some other furniture upgrades. We still have a couch and loveseat to sell for a similar amount. That money could easily buy a new entertainment center for our basement. So it is tempting to hold on to.

I also sold an item on Ebay, too. It is already in the mail. My net proceeds were $10.71. That money WILL be going to the mortgage to pay down the principal. I'm expecting a Pinecone payment into my Paypal account today or tomorrow. I will withdraw both amounts after that occurs.

I was notified yesterday that our gift cards from our Southwest Rewards are being delivered tomorrow! Just in time, since I heard both my girls mention their need for clothes. This means I can use those Kohl's gift cards!

Yesterday was not nearly as busy as the day before, but I did have an appointment in the morning. I also had to get my daughter to a late lesson last night. I did manage to fit in some small decluttering tasks, which I documented on

Your Organized Friend. I also noticed my husband must be a little inspired by my decluttering. He pulled out 5-6 shirts and a pair of sneakers he no longer wants. I think he may have put those items in my garage sale pile, too. That makes me happy!

Did you sell anything recently? Do you plan to have a garage sale this spring or summer? What decluttering task could you get done today? Should I keep that cash for a future furtniture purchase or put it on the mortgage?

I am making another big payment towards the mortgage today. Recent snowflakes that I don't want to melt total $174.97. This month has been much better than last for snowflakes!

I noticed the IRS has cashed our tax payment check. I guess that is good. Now I know everything is taken care of for this tax season.

Yesterday was busy, but I did get a chance to do some basic decluttering. To find out about that you need to

click here, to visit Your Organized Friend.

I was able to get my Mad Men DVDs watched so that has been listed on Ebay along with a Creative Memories item that was found in my daughter's closet. Fingers crossed for sales! I still may get our table sold this week, if the man that was interested on Sunday gets back to me.

There is lots of good news this morning. I logged on to my husband's Discover account and found his $150 bonus was applied. I have already requested direct deposit. No need for gift cards since I did just order $550 worth from our Southwest rewards on Friday.



Our city emailed me back this morning with our water bill amount. It was $79.29 and will be withdrawn from our account on Thursday. I usually allocate $95 for water (which actually includes a sewer debt payment, and trash). I think I will send the $15.71 difference to the mortgage as a snowflake.

Our daughter returned home from her Washington DC trip last night. She is so tired from early mornings. She sure didn't want to get up this morning. But she did it! She left here with $60 of her own money for spending. She bought a t shirt, a post card, and some snacks/food. She came home with nearly $15. She even mentioned looking at a magnet to buy that was 2x3 inches for $6. She thought it was overpriced, so she skipped buying it! I do like the T shirt she picked out.

Here's a link to the latest decluttering at our house on Your Organized Friend. Today I need to finish that project up by tackling this bin:



I don't really want to work on it, but I'm hoping it will go fast once I get going. I may time myself and see how long it really takes. Do you ever find yourself procrastinating a job because it seems like it will take a long time, but then you do it and realize it didn't take long at all? Strange phenomena.