Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

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Chase Southwest Airline credit card offer is back. You can earn 50,000 points for spending $2,000 in 3 months. This is equal to $800 in airline tickets or $500 in gift cards. My husband did this offer and we are working on spending the gift cards. It's tempting to apply in my name, but I'm going to personally hold off for right now. See the details on the link, and remember there is an annual fee of $99. You might be able to get it back if you cancel early.

The market was at an all time high on Wednesday. I made sure to record our retirement balances. It nice to see we are nearing a milestone....$250K. We are still about $8K off as of that day. And unfortunately the market is going back down. It really is interesting to see that just over 10 years ago we only had $25,000 invested for retirement. And even four years ago the market was so low we only had $69K...it had been much higher prior to that drop. I'm glad we just keep investing regardless of the markets ups and downs. It does pay off!!

Do you know of any new credit card reward offers? Did you also check your investment accounts when the market was at it's peak the other day?

I have accumulated $86.42 in snowflakes since the beginning of September. I sent those off yesterday to pay down the principal balance on the mortgage.

I earned enough Swagbucks to redeem $25 for a PayPal deposit. It would be nice to receive that before the end of the month, so I can send it in as another snowflakes!

My husband had a couple recent trips for work. One of them he drove our personal vehicle which means we will be paid mileage. The government avoids this usually. They now prefer a vehicle to be rented because it is less expensive. And that's the right thing to do from a government standpoint. The good thing is we might make a little cash on the deal this time. I'm still waiting for the deposits and to know that he paid off his government travel card in full.

I wanted to get a little shopping in at Kohl's today, since I have a $10 off coupon and gift cards. However, my volunteering at school went long and I need to get a final coat of paint down on our garage steps while the weather is nice. In the end it is fine to hold off on the spending!!

Do you receive mileage payments for travel you do? Does the payment cover your cost in full or partially?

I sent an email to Chase requesting the cancellation of the Southwest Card as well as the return of the annual fee. The card was cancelled. And I was told the annual fee of $99 in full will be returned. It will take one to two billing cycles to appear as a credit. We can then request a check for the credit amount, which will take about two weeks to arrive.

We went into the Southwest deal knowing the card had an annual fee. I knew there was a chance the fee would be returned, but I was okay with it if it didn't since I would still be ahead by $401. Once we get the fee back we will be ahead by the full $500.

I don't know whether I will count the $99 as a snowflake or not. Right now it seems better to send it off to the Red Cross to help with disaster relief. I'll decide when it actually arrives.

Have you paid an annual credit card fee before? What benefits do you get from it? Have you had a fee returned? Do you think I should snowflake our fee or give to charity?

Last night, I came home to a note from my daughter, that said, "We are out of conditioner. We have two shampoos in the closet but no conditioner. What is with this madness?" Made me laugh.

Then this morning I found we only had two partial rolls of toilet paper in the house! Yikes. Time to go to the store again. When my husband heard I was going he said he needed deodorant. Now it seems I had a list of things to get.

I stopped by Walmart to purchase the above items in addition to counter cleaner and toothpaste. I did buy more than one of several of the items. I had two coupons which reduced my expense by $3. I spent $53.13. I used one of the $50 gift cards we earned with our Southwest Rewards card. So just a little out of pocket. I will get that $50 sent off to the mortgage this week.

The toilet paper I wanted to buy at Walmart had three different sized packages, 12 rolls, 20 rolls and 27 rolls. I noticed the signage on two of them had a graphic stating "Low Price". I did the math on my phone calculator, the lowest price per roll was on the 20 roll package. This was the one with out the "Low Price" sign. I just thought that was interesting. Apparently, Walmart knows they can sway purchases to higher priced items by putting these signs up. I will say the package I bought was probably $2 cheaper than I pay at Target. That part is a little annoying.

It was nice to stock up on a few things knowing that once I spent that money on the gift card it was heading to the mortgage. What kinds of things do you keep heavily stocked in your home?

The month and time are actually going fast, but it seems my snowflakes are slow to accumulate. I did get my Pinecone payment today, so that and my last cash from Swagbucks are being transferred to our bank account. I will get to make an extra mortgage payment soon.

It doesn't seem there is much activity financially. I paid all the bills and sent in the catch up payment on our mortgage escrow account. I attempted to enroll my daughter in Driver's Education, but the class was full. She is number four on the waiting list, so for now I have saved $375.

We still have not spent even $1 using those gift cards we received with our Southwest Rewards. I do like looking at that stack though! So shiny. I could use a new hair dryer from Amazon, as I see mine has melted in some place from the heat. That can't be good!

Markets were up today, so I hope to record our retirement totals. When the market is down I tend to ignore the recording. I just like to see a consistent move up I guess!

So nothing too exciting financially here. Today seems to be a no spend day!! Who doesn't like those, right?

Food pickings are getting a little sparse here at our house. We've all managed to find something for lunch. We will have pasta with sauce for dinner, with a side salad. I think we may make biscuits too. I think we have enough for breakfast as well. So my goal is to get to the grocery store before lunch tomorrow morning. I hope to make the list this evening. And browse for coupons in the morning.

It will be a no spend day here. I'm watching football and getting some cleaning done between commercials. I also had a painting project to work on earlier. No cost for that as all the supplies had been purchased prior to today.

We will head out later today for a photography field trip. My daughter is taking photography this year, so we'll have lots of trips out to get some required shots. Might need to see if we can find some sculptures around town. A good way to learn some more about our new city. At least it is free!!

I earned a $5 gift card at Target the other day and I was going to use it and save the cash as a snowflake towards towards the mortgage. Yesterday, I went back and bought Kleenex on clearance for my sister's classroom. I had the gift card for $5, three coupons totaling $2.10, my cartwheel coupon for 5% off and 5% with my Red card. I probably paid less than $2 out of pocket for 8 boxes of Kleenex! I love it when I can get deals like this. And of course, this helps out my sister. I told her about the deal so she might be able to find the same deal and stock up even more.

Any good deals this weekend for you? Or were you able to have a no spend day?

A large white envelope was dropped in our door by UPS this morning. I wasn't sure what it was and it was address to my husband. I texted to see if he knew what it was. He didn't but said I could open it.

Gift cards!!



These are the gift cards we redeemed from our Southwest Rapids Rewards credit card bonus. We received the following:

$25 Panera
$100 Walmart
$200 Kohl's
$200 Amazon.com

Why do I now feel like shopping?! Anything thing I use these for will need to be backed up by cash I send in to the mortgage to pay down the principal.

When I drove by Walmart earlier today, I realized I may be able to use the gift cards there for gas. Maybe. Haven't done this before, so it may or not work. Anyone used a gift card at Walmart to purchase fuel?

I'll keep you updated on the progress of using these rewards. It could take months, or not. We'll see.

My husband's check was pending yesterday so I started recording and paying bills. So many of them are automatic: life insurance, phone and electric, water softener rental, Roth investments and college savings. Makes paying bills easy.

The good news is I paid the remainder of the Southwest Rapids Rewards card. A nice $572 no longer owed. The balance is zero. The card will be cancelled once I get those gift card rewards in the mail. Hoping that is soon!!

I made a $115 payment to the American Express card that I charged my daughter's Washington DC trip on. It is zero interest, so I'm paying it back at a rate of $150 per month. The balance is now at $750. We also have started fundraising for this trip. Might work out to get some money back or at least enough for spending money.

We also made some tax deductible contributions. One to the music program at school. I'd rather do this than participate in their fundraisers. The second contribution is to a Walk N Roll fundraiser that our former neighbor's daughter and their family will benefit from. Wish we could participate this year, but we have other obligations.

Seems like lots of money flowing out, but we did contribute to our Roth IRAs and college savings accounts this period like always, so that is good.

I also received notification that my Swagbucks money was deposited in my PayPal account. I also did a Pinecone survey yesterday. Once that money is in the PayPal account I will withdraw it and send the money in to the mortgage!

It's all going as planned. Any new snow developments? Any debt paid off this week? Any charity donations?

I should have mentioned this yesterday in my post about the Target deal, but iTunes gift cards are 10% off again this week. I bought a $15 one last time for my oldest daughter. I paid $13.50 for it with Target gift cards I had. She buys stuff on there quite often. And since then, my youngest daughter actually made an iTunes purchase, so I'm thinking she needs one in her stocking too. I can use my newly acquired Target gift cards to make the purchase!

Also prepaid phone cards at Target are 10% off as well. We don't have one of these, but if you do, that is a savings to take advantage of.

Snowflakes are slow to come by so far this month. I earned $0.37 last month on my CapitalOne 360 Savings account. Our bank refunded our ATM fees of $8, and gave us $0.05 of interest. Thus my snowflakes amount to $8.42. A little paltry.

I know that I have Swagbucks money coming as well as $525 in gift cards from Southwest. So I will just patiently wait and know it will come together. I could also make something happen with some Ebay or Craigslist sales, but the truth is I'm not motivated.

I'm going to try to make it a no spend day. I received yet another $10 coupon to Kohl's, so that is tempting, but probably should wait until I can take one of the girls along for some of their needs.

Know of any other good savings deals out there this week that might be on someone's NEED list?

Thanks for the nice get well wishes. I did have a smoothie this morning. And I have been taking Vitamin C, among others, since day one of the cold. It is more of an energy issue than congestion, which is actually very minimal. I have done cardio at the gym each morning this week ranging from 20-25 minutes. Each day is a little better.

I filled up the tank with gas on the way to the gym and spent $51.04. After the gym, I stopped by Target for a few items, spending $45.42. I bought two items that were not on my list. One was a snack, which was probably not needed. The other item was buy 3, get a $5 gift card. Since we ALWAYS need these, I like to stock up during this promotion. The $5 gift card will get used and then added to the snowflake pile! My only regret is I didn't have the coupon that I usually use on that promotion.

Now time for chores! My motivation is that I will reward myself with a movie I borrowed from the library. Free rewards are good don't you think? Do you reward yourself for tasks that you dread?

I've had a cold for over a week now. The lack of energy has been awful. I made it to the gym yesterday and today, but only did cardio exercise for about 20 minutes. After that I was wiped out!

After a little rest today, I did some clean up in our garage. I seemed to handle that just fine. Clearly, it wasn't as strenuous. The lack of energy is leaving many things undone around here. I'm feel this week will be the crawl back to getting those things done. Next up is a load of laundry. And then if I still am up for it, homemade biscuits.

I expect today's spending only to be for the flute lesson, a $20 bill in my wallet will take care of it. Tomorrow, I will stock up on needs that have come up since my last shopping trip: hair mousse, a cat collar, a loaf of bread, fuel for the van and it seems one other thing.

I hope all of you are well and stay well. It's no fun to be sick.

Just noticed my Snowflakes for Christmas ticker has disappeared. I still have the coding in my blog settings and it looks correct when I compare it to the other one. I tried to copy and paste to get to the TickerFactory site, but I'm just taken to the main set up page. Does anyone know if these tickers expire if not used for awhile?

I'm not actually surprised by this, but I was unable to return the allergy decongestant product my husband bought. It is a controlled substance, thus no returns. He paid $15.50 for 10 pills. It is possible we will use them at some point. It just isn't the brand and combination we prefer. Oh well, I tried!

While I was there, I picked up four photo prints for my daughter that were taken when she was visiting a friend. I figured $0.86 to capture some memories was worth it. If I didn't make that purchase it would have been a no spend day. At least it is low spend.

Can you think of other things that cannot be returned?

I ended up buying groceries yesterday after I realized we needed something for dinner. I made a quick list for the week and got all the grocery shopping done a day early. It was a little smaller grocery bill as I will use some things on hand to make a few of the meals. I like when that happens.

As a result of that trip, today has been a no spend day. I'll take it. Those seem a bit rare around here lately.

I paid off our Target credit card charges and some gas charges on the Chase Freedom card. We are back to zero on those. The Southwest Card has about $572 due before the end of September. I will pay that off in full on Friday (payday). No interest! I like that too.

I expect to purchase gas this week, a hair product and write a check to the flute teacher. Not too bad. I also still need to return some meds we bought that we won't use. That will be $15 back in our pocket. I'm also avoiding school fundraiser number one. Magazines. I don't need to spend the money and I don't need any magazines. We actually plan to send some money in directly to the band program this year, so I can skip those fundraisers too!

Did you have a spending day or a no spend day? What did you buy? Or avoid buying?

The vehicle registration 'bill' came in the mail yesterday. For my van and DHs truck the yearly tags total $480. Next year will be lower, as my van will be old enough for the lower rate. The savings will be $78. This means I could save a little less each month to compensate for that, but I have a feeling a teen car will be in our future, so I should just keep setting the same money aside.

I know I paid the registration last year with a credit card, and paid an additional fee to do so. I justified it since the charge helped to earn a credit card bonus reward. May do that this year, if I see a card we should get for the rewards. I have until mid October to decide on that one.

I save monthly for the car registration money, so I'm all set to pay it. Do you save monthly for your vehicle registration? Or just come up with the money when it is time?

Swagbucks graciously credited my account, and other users, with my monthly bonus Swagbucks yesterday. A day early. As a result, I was able to redeem 2500 Swagbucks for another $25 PayPal cash deposit. I will count this as a September snowflake once I have it in my account.

Not sure if you noticed my side bars with my snowflake earnings for the year, but combined I have saved $2,113.13 since January 1. Average monthly earnings/savings of $264.14. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I really wish everyone understood and used this concept to either save for a goal, or to make a small dent (which leads to a big dent) in paying off debt. It doesn't take much effort at all and really pays off. And I don't mean just Swagbucks, any little bit of cash that comes your way is a snowflake. There's that birthday money, the refund for something you returned, a rebate, a coupon used, or the interest you earned. These, and many more, can accumulate to big chucks of money toward your goal.

At the rate I have been going, I should be able to come up with another $1000+ before the end of the year. I like that idea! Anyone have a snowflake goal for the remainder of the year? Anyone one to start today accumulating snowflakes? I'll cheer you on!

I always find it interesting to hear about the things people buy. I try not to make judgements. But I find it interesting to hear of people buying wants, and then complain they didn't save enough, or don't have enough for some need.

Sometimes I just want to shake them and say, "Do you hear what you are saying?" What you are doing isn't matching up with your goals. You aren't going to get where you are going by doing that same thing over and over.

Of course, I don't usually say anything. I do at least take a moment to look at our own spending. Have I bought something lately that is taking away from my goals? Could I do better with my spending? What am I doing right?

I do know I sent DH to the store this evening for more tissues, ibuprofen, tea, and 12 hour decongestants. Apparently there has been a run on the decongestants this weekend. So instead of the generic I was expecting, he bought an allergy/decongestant combination. It was the only thing available at the store and it probably cost twice as much as I expected him to spend. In reality, it wasn't a need. We have the four hour decongestants that would work. The problem here is that my own husband doesn't think the same way about wants and needs. He assumes that since I asked for it, it must be a need. I probably would have made the trip normally, but I'm really run down with my cold.

Do you find yourself taking a step back once in awhile to see how you are spending? Is it really needs? Are you justifying your wants as needs?

I redeemed all the points I could from the Southwest Rapids Reward card. A total of 53,000 points. Or $525 in gift cards. Here's how it breaks down:

$200 Amazon.com
$200 Kohl's
$100 Walmart
$25 Panera Bread

My husband felt the most confident we would spend money at Amazon and Kohl's. I think he wasn't too keen on Walmart. I redeemed the last $25 to Panera because while we don't go there regularly we do like it when we do.

I looked back at past Amazon purchases and we easily spent $200 there since April. I also saw that we have spent over $300 at Kohl's since last September. We may not get those spent fast, but they will get used.

I was just at Walmart yesterday to pick up some Emergen C. My oldest daughter and I have caught a cold from the youngest daughter. I went there because they were the closest store open at that time that would have what I wanted. I paid $3.96 for 10 packets. I don't usually see that small box, usually I see the 30 packet box and pay $8.99. Clearly, I usually get the better deal somewhere other than Walmart. It does pay to know your prices. I still made the purchase, but won't be stocking up on that item at Walmart.

Now to wait and see how long the gift cards take to arrive in the mail. Do you think I made good choices on my redemptions?

As I expected, our Chase Southwest Airlines Rewards card statement closed over the weekend and the bonus miles were awarded. We now have 53,128 miles available to redeem. This translates to $525 in gift cards.

I will be discussing which cards to order with my husband, but the possibilities I'm interested include Walmart, Lowes, Sears, Amazon, Kohls, JC Penney, Barnes and Noble, Eddie Bauer, Aeropostale, Bath & Body Works, Panera, Bed Bath & Beyond and Pier One. Of course, I won't be getting one of each, but those are what I have narrowed the choices down to.

I really try to avoid Walmart, but I could easily get groceries and toiletries there to use the gift cards. We always end up buying some clothes at Kohl's over the course of the year. I expect with fall weather arriving we will be there soon! And Amazon would definitely get used, since we have their Prime membership, I do buy things there when they are less expensive and they arrive just two days later!

Home improvements are always on the list, thus Lowe's is an obvious place to spend some of the reward miles, too. Many of the other cards I listed above aren't very common places we spend money, but they are often given as gifts. Turns out I think we are giving fewer gifts this year...so that means I probably don't need those. I could always buy the gift cards I need at Walmart, too!

I noticed a $10 credit on our USAA card, which we haven't been using. It was a reward I earned in April. I believe our auto insurance will be charged to that card any day, so just a little less money to send in. Of course, I will count that $10 as a snowflake for September!

What gift card would you choose to redeem?

I just have some random money thoughts to share.

The water bill arrived. It was $40 more than last month and our lawn looks worse! We made an effort to water new sod in a small section of our yard as well as a new tree, but it wasn't worth spending a lot more on water to keep the lawn green in this past heat wave. So right now our yard is more yellow than green.

We turned our cable boxes in on Friday. The bill for September service was already printed and mailed. I was told to pay it in full. I will then get a credit on next months bill for the television portion. At that time we will also be billed for the final months of our contract which came to $99.80. That is all going as planned.

We earned $28.44 in interest in August on our cash. Sure wish it was more!

Our girls have Nook Color Tablets. Barnes and Noble no longer makes these. Recently, we have had trouble with one of the power cords. Then the other one got stepped on and the connection was bent. We made a trip to Barnes and Noble to look for a new cord. Unfortunately, they don't have any left in stock and don't know that they will get any more in. We checked Office Max and Best Buy. Also not available. I have looked online, but original Nook Color power adapters are not available! This will make the Nooks we own completely obsolete. Luckily, the one that has been trouble does work and on the way home from our outing I bent the connection on the other back and it does seem to work...for now. We need to find at least one cord as a back up, since both are a bit iffy at this point. It is disappointing to think these tablets might not be able to hold up long term because they no longer make the appropriate power cord. Ugh!!

Random enough for you?!

I mentioned in my last post that I accumulated $557.48 in snowflakes this month. Those were all sent to pay down mortgage principal, so less debt. And this is BIG; we have sent in $1,361.87 since I started accumulating snowflakes for equity in late June of this year.

Here's where all the August money came from:


Not sure if September has the possibility of earning more snowflakes, but I'll give it a try! I know that we should be able to redeem the Southwest Rapid Rewards in the amount of $500. Since those come in the form of gift cards, I will use them for everyday purchases and use the cash I would have used to send in to the mortgage. I will only count them as a snowflake once I make a purchase. Does that make sense?

The good news on the Southwest Card, is that with a inquiry to customer service we have been given our Rapid Rewards number. I should be able to get that set up, so I can do a redemption next week. Happy, Happy!!

How did you do with your snowflakes in August? Do you have a goal for September?

I made another principal payment towards the mortgage today in the amount of $107.70. That is the last one I will make for August. That money came from a water utility refund, a Swagbucks cash and Ebay proceeds. A little work and a little luck!

I actually made five extra principal payments this month which reduced our mortgage principal by $557.48! That is more than a regular mortgage payment reduces our principal. And yes, that is the total snowflakes for the month, too.

We are still waiting on our Southwest credit card statement to close so we can start redeeming gift cards. It should close on Saturday, so we are close to getting our hands on that $500.

I sent the OBi adapter for VoIP back to Amazon. Their estimate of shipping is $5.37. That is how much my refund will be reduced. Most of my family is not real excited about permanently giving up our land line. We do actually call home when we are out to check on our kids. So, for now, we are keeping it. I might still try Ooma, but I'll be looking for a good price. Maybe used on Ebay, but need to see how that works.

I've come to a screeching halt installing my Google Voice calling plan. They don't have ANY numbers in my area code. Or my last area code or the one before that. Clearly, this Google Voice things is not available everywhere. Too bad I didn't check before I bought the adapter!!

I bought the OBi adapter on Amazon for $39.00. Shipping was free with our Prime membership. No tax...thanks internet. I can return to Amazon and pay $4.99 plus $0.75 per pound. Since it is less than a pound, I expect the refund to be reduced by $5.74.

I could also sell it on Ebay. I see others listed for slightly more than I paid but those include free shipping, which means the shipping would have to come from the proceeds. And I would have Ebay fees on top of it. I think it really ends up being better to return it even if I get shipping deducted. Live and learn I guess!!

Now I need to search my other options. I'm leaning towards the Ooma, which is three times the cost of the unit I bought. This service will charge me the federal fees of $3.71 per month. I did notice I can use a Citi promotion for one day shipping from Amazon if I buy the Ooma unit from there. Tempting!

Or we could just skip the land line altogether. Oh geez, I really thought I had it figured out. More to come later.

My daughter is a Junior in high school this year. This means college is going to be upon us soon. I can tell by the mail we are beginning to receive too!

The school sent out information about a seminar for ACT test preparation. It's a 7 hour course on a scheduled day off of school and is $79.

My daughter is an all A student. She tests well on standardized tests. No test anxiety. She writes well, too. Does she NEED to take this seminar?

What alternatives are there for preparing for this test? There seem to be books available (library and Ebay), and a practice test for less on the ACT website. What is really necessary?

While I wait for those of you ahead of me to weigh in, I'll keep browsing the ACT website to see what I can find.

Our over the air antenna is in the attic and working! We get all the stations we are suppose to. The picture is so much clearer. My husband thinks we might need an amplifier, but we are going to wait and see.

The cable boxes are boxed up and set aside to return to the service provider. The next step, is to set up our Google Voice phone number through the internet connection. That will be done tomorrow. If all goes as planned, I can cancel phone and tv service by the end of the week!

If you are interested in knowing which broadcast television stations you might be able to receive in your area, check out the

FCC website. We are receiving all the 'green' stations and one 'yellow' station. Since several stations broadcast more than one channel we have 23 channels plus a radio station. The last thing I will add is that we are receiving several stations that are over 70 miles away. We purchased an antenna that would pick up this distance.

I'm happy to report I have been using my gym membership after a summer lull. The girls have been in school for 5 days and I made it there four of those days. I really hope I can stop and ultimately reverse my weight gain. I feel pretty positive I can.

Are you exercising? Is your goal maintaining or losing? Do you pay for a gym membership? Or workout for free in some other way?

I sold all three items I listed on Ebay last Sunday. Two auctions are paid and shipped. I am waiting on the last one. I expect to clear just over $22 for these items. Not bad, considering I have not used the items in several years and don't expect to ever again. One item was NEW...which is nice for that buyer.

This money will go to the mortgage once I have my hands on it. Probably by the end of the week!

If you read my post this morning, you know we had abandoned the plan to put an antenna in our attic, primarily for safety reasons. The biggest issue was climbing IN and ACROSS our attic which has no floor boards to walk on to fish a cable across and down to our basement. We just didn't feel safe.

The new plan still starts in the attic, but goes outside and along the edge of our siding to the connection that is already available outside. This does not require us to get IN the attic. We can attach the antenna by simply standing on a ladder BY the attic opening. Safely!!

We are excited. We have put in some cash to make this happen, however, we will quickly recoup the money by cancelling our basic service from the cable company. And this is the same amount we would have spent by going IN the attic.

It's not hooked up yet, but we have the beginning plans for tv service that will cost us $0 per month. How do you receive your television service? How much do you pay?

We were hoping to set up an over the air antenna in our attic to save on our television costs, which for us is $40 a month. We bought a ladder so my husband could attempt to get in the attic and check things out. The ladder worked great and we will use it for other tasks. Unfortunately, there are some safety issues in getting into the attic ourselves. Darn.

So for now, we put safety over savings. We'll keep thinking through other options in the meantime, preferably finding an installer. I know there are lots of times were money must be spent to keep us safe, have you run into one recently?

One of my Ebay items was bought last night on a Buy It Now bid. One items will sell Sunday night as it already has bids. The other item has about four people watching it, so I'm optimistic it will sell.

I guess that means more snowflakes in my future!!

I was talking with my sister last night. She is a teacher. She has taught English as a Second Language students, first grade and now kindergarten. Her public school district supplies all kids with crayons, pencils, scissors and glue, among other things.

She teaches in a school where many children come from poverty. Not all, but many. The parent teacher organization is nearly non existent. Other elementary schools have very active and generous PTO's. Some teachers actually get a Starbucks coffee everyday by an active group of parents! Whoa.

You know what my sister wants? Not Starbucks. She wants hand sanitizer and tissues to keep her and the kids healthy in the classroom. She currently buys these out of her own pocket. And did you know first graders and kindergartners go through lots of tissues!! I have encouraged her to at least mention the need in a newsletter. Not all parents will respond or be able to contribute, but some will.

My youngest daughter (8th grade) actually had 3 boxes of tissues on her school supply list. This had always been the case for us in all three districts our children have attended. My oldest simply had a request from the band directors last year to donate. We did...happily!

I will pick up more tissues today at the store. I will give them to the band and my sister next time I see her. I will also get a couple large containers of hand sanitizer for her as well. I will likely spend less than $20 but it will make a difference.

I hope if you know any teacher, in any grade and any subject you consider giving a tissue and or hand sanitizer donation. They really can use these things...and they are often not provided by the school.

Does your child's school ask for these types of donations? Do you give? Do college level teachers (I think there are a few of you here) need these things as well? Let's discuss!!

I did hear back from the mortgage company about our escrow analysis. As I mentioned yesterday, our property taxes are increasing significantly. This was expected as the home is a new build.

I know some would say to contact the mortgage company only when they ask for more money, but in my experience this just leads to larger requested amounts. Either upfront or added to the payment. The first property tax payment is due before the end of September, so really I'm just sending in the money to get it paid on time.

I was pretty close with my numbers yesterday. I had based mine on an effective date of September 1. They ran theirs based on October 1. I suppose they need to give proper notification...even though I directed the change.

We need to send in a lump sum of $1,880.13 before October 1 to make up the shortfall. This is fine with me because I have been saving monthly for this increase in property taxes. By September 1, I will have exactly $1800 saved. And the extra $80.13 can come from that September 1 paycheck with no problem.

Our new payment will increase because of the amount they need to collect for escrow from $1083.56 to $1,311.28. The interesting thing is I've been saving $300 per month, and paying that lower mortgage payment. Once I switch to only paying the new mortgage payment, I will actual 'save' $72.28 each month. Happy, Happy!

I did find out that since this is a VA loan, we are required to escrow for the life of the loan. YUCK! But it's actually okay since we don't expect to be here for the life of the loan.

I received my $25 from Swagbucks in my Paypal account today. I just ordered it Monday! That was super super fast. I will transfer that to my checking account so I can make another principal mortgage payment. More people are watching my Ebay items that end on Sunday. Bid high, I say!!

I'm not really watching the stock market, but I know it has been down. Glad it was down when our automatic investments were pulled to our Roth IRA and ESA accounts. More shares for us!!

That's my financial news. Now I think I may go shop at Kohl's with my $10 coupon...for something that costs just a little over $10, of course!!