Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

The title for the truck arrive in the mail today. We officially own our truck free and clear!! I asked my husband this weekend if he was excited that we had paid it off. He really wasn't. He thought it was likely because I'm the one who make the payments and keeps track of it. Yeah, probably so. It's all good either way!

My Ebay buyer did pay this afternoon. I will print the postage and get it to the post office tomorrow. I did a return of the Old Navy jeans to get the better online price and use my reward money. Now instead of $32.10 for two pairs of jeans, I actually paid $13.18 for two pairs. Pretty good deal!!

Here's a free Flavor Code off the A&W root beer bottle I bought last night for a pick me up: 6SFZ ZDA7 SFPQ. If it doesn't work, it probably has been used by someone else. Act fast! Now if I could just get a survey to credit on Swagbucks so I can meet today's high goal!

The two items I had up on Ebay did not sell. Darn. It could be I need to adjust the beginning price, or the items are not big sellers. I did not relist, but may do so next week.

I have one item from the week before that I'm still waiting payment on. I did hear from the buyer this morning, who indicated a family emergency and forgetting about their bid. The buyer has a good feedback score, so I think this is likely true. I wrote back to indicate family comes first and I can be patient until payment is made. The buyer indicated some issues getting the payment to go through overnight and I sure don't want this to add to any stress they may be going through.

Once I have been paid for the final item, I will pay my Ebay fees, and then have the proceeds in my PayPal account transferred to my checking account where I keep many of my Christmas snowflakes.

Any luck selling anything this week?

We are now debt free except for the mortgage! I really like saying that.

This mortgage was taken out on our brand new home in our new town in July 2012. It is our first VA loan, which did not require any down payment. This means we paid an insurance fee to do so. I can't say I'm too proud of those last two statements. My thought process was to get into a house without our equity, so that in the next move, we have the down payment ready to go in cash, without needing to sell the house.

Our rate is 2.75%. It is adjustable, but fixed for five years. After five years it can go up 1% per year, up to five percent. The maximum rate the loan could ever go is 7.75%, which isn't a bad rate historically. However, we won't be here for much more than six years and maybe only three. I'm also not too proud of buying a house considering the need to move frequently.

Were there houses to rent here? Yes. Did I see too many that met my standards, would allow cats and had a fair rent for the space? No. I actually did some calculations that put us at spending the same amount for housing whether we rented or bought. If we rented the rent would be high, but would equal our house payment, plus real estate agent fee when we sold. So, I chose the house. We get to deduct interest. We get to decide if we paint or not. We get to keep our cats with us. We are in control.

In the next 2.5 years, I would like to build our house equity and down payment fund to a total of 20% of the original value of the home. We had over 10%, but not the full 20%. I actually may increase that goal, but for now I think it is the most logical and obtainable.

The proceeds from our last house are in a money market account earning 0.85%APR. I'm on the lookout for a better rate right now. I have thought about sending it in to the mortgage, but that would not jive with my original thought process. Sending the money in would decrease the balance owed and decrease the amount of interest we are paying each month...thus increasing our equity faster. I do know that! And it is a little appealing.

I'm thinking that an additional principal payment every month to the mortgage would be the best. It increases the equity and reduced the interest paid each additional month, just not in the same way as sending in that lump sum. I will need to run some numbers to see where we might end up in 2.5 years and see what the difference would be. I know which will be better, but by how much is the real question.

So, the main goal going forward is to increase net worth, which will increase easily as we save and continue to pay down the mortgage. I will likely start tracking this soon on the blog, so stay tuned.

I think I opened up a big discussion topic here, so feel free to chime in with your thoughts and ideas. Be nice, but honest, please! What would you do based on the situation outlined above?

I added a ticker to my sidebar to keep track of the total of snowflakes I have accumulated for Christmas. I will update it monthly. The current total shown is through the month of February.

Yesterday, I redeemed the points I've accumulated from Lean Cuisine meal for a $15 Amazon.com gift card. It immediately arrived in my email inbox. I think quickly added it to my Amazon account. It's kind of nice, to a reward for something I buy anyway.

I'm always on the lookout for new sources of snowflakes. Do you have any ideas to share?

It's nice to see zero once in awhile!

I just made an online payment to our truck loan that will pay the loan off in full. The payment was $1443.30, which includes the final $4.04 of interest due.

We originally took this loan out in May 2011 for $14,776,70. We made regular payments on it for 15 months. In the last 8 months we have made big, big payments to get the loan down to ZERO!!!

We are debt free, except our mortgage. Happy, happy, happy! I'm looking forward to getting the title in the mail. That always makes it seem real when you pay off a vehicle.

The question of the day: Do you have debt on your vehicle(s) or is it paid off? Do you have a plan to pay it off? Are you saving for the next vehicle?

Last week I put three items up for sale on Ebay. All items sold last night. Two buyers have paid, their items have shipped. Those three sells grossed $30.23.

After those sales, ended I put three more items up for bid. Amazingly, one of them sold right away with a Buy It Now offer!! That brought another $8.99. It sold so fast, makes me wonder if I priced it right...but its not a big deal.

Right now there isn't much activity on the other two items but last minute bids are most common, so nothing to worry about.

I received $3 from Pinecone today for a survey I took on Friday. That goes to the snowflake challenge for Christmas. It's a good start to the month!

My husband is up for promotion this month. He is in the group this year that is considered 'below the zone'. This means he is being looked at one year ahead of schedule. We feel he has a very strong chance of being promoted, as all of his evaluation reports give him top marks. One report says, 'best captain I have worked with', another says 'promote below the zone', and yet another says 'currently working at the level of a field grade officer'.

A promotion to Major will mean an increase pay by 17.5%. This includes the increase in our housing allowance. I've only done the math to calculate the gross pay. I've decided not to make a big deal about looking at the net pay, or figuring how to allocate the increase. At this point, I think most of it will be saved!

I don't want to get my hopes up too high, even though I'm pretty confident this will happen for him. I think we will be disappointed if it doesn't happen. And not because of the money. Only because of his very hard work. He really does go above and beyond. He takes the work very serious compared to so many of his peers.

Feel free to send good vibes our way. It all helps!

Two items on Ebay will sell tonight since they have bids! I'm still weighing your responses to the poll in my previous post.

Yesterday was payday and I did find some money to put on the truck loan. I sent in $593.81 to be applied to the principal balance.

Our new loan balance is $1,439.34.

We are under $1500. So, so close!

This loan WILL be paid off by the end of the month. Right now I'm just contemplating when that will be. It just has to feel right, I guess. The most likely scenario is to make another payment on March 15 (next payday), make a regular payment on March 17, and then take the final amount from savings to have it paid off just after that.

However, my other thought is....just pay it off now! I can then apply the same money mentioned above to savings to pay ourselves back. In the meantime, I save us some interest (a whopping $4).

So for fun, I'll take a poll. Pay off now, or pay off later in March? Let me know.

I'm looking for higher interest rates. We have FNBO Direct for our money market account, which currently pays 0.85%. I want more!

I did some online searching and found Everbank, which has a 6 month promotion of 1.25%, combine that with their ongoing rate, it works out to 1.01% APR for the first year. That's better than our current rate.

I just don't know if I want to move it. I'm not familiar with the bank. It feels like a hassle, but I know it is a matter of setting up the account and making the transfer. With more money comes more responsibility, right?

I do want the money to grow, so this would be one step in getting a little more cash flowing in there. Too bad interest rates are so very very low! Ick.

Has anybody used Everbank?

My previous post is about some snowflakes.

Our money market paid us $25.59 in interest for February. I just leave the interest in there to compound on itself. I don't really want to get in the habit of spending that money.

Our water bill was $4 less than last month. The electric bill was $30 lower. It's always nice when utility bills are less than the month before...if only that could happen all year long! Generally, when our bills are lower, the savings gets added into the truck loan repayment amount. After that is paid off, that amount will go to savings.

Swagbucks deposited the last $25 Paypal cash in my account today. I have already requested it be sent to my bank account. I have enough Swagbucks to redeem for 3 $5 Amazon.com gift cards. I will redeem two today and one tomorrow. That will give me the first $15 in snowflakes for March!

I guess I'll have another $3 snowflake next week. I just received a Pinecone survey to fill out. If I do it today, I should have that money in my Paypal account on Monday.

My three ebay auctions end on Sunday, so those will also add to my snowflakes in March. One has a bid, the other two are being watched. I need to see what else I can put up on Sunday when those end.

Try to keep your weekend frugal!

February was a good month for Snowflakes primarily because of

Swagbucks. I earned $75 in cash and Amazon.com gift cards from that site alone. That is the best month I have ever had. I will admit I was on the site a little more than usual. The weather just made me want to stay in and cozy up with the computer.



My Snowflake Christmas fund balance for the year is $191.07. At this point I am ahead of schedule on my $750 goal, which makes me happy!

I have three items up for sale on Ebay this week. I am happy to report that one item has a bid, so it will sell. The other two have people watching.

Any news ways your have found for earning snowflakes this month? I'm interested in new ideas.

I was doing a survey on Swagbucks for my local gas utility about their website. It had me log in to my account, to test different features. While I was there I clicked on 'Budget Billing' and signed up.

I've been on budget billing before, but when we began service for our new home it was not available. After nearly nine months of billing, we are eligible. Our payment will be $43 per month. I have it set up to review every three months. Right now the highest our bill has been is $101, and as low as $7! We only use gas for our furnace and fireplace, so when it warms up we don't use much gas.

Budget billing is a great way to keep utilities even and easier to plan. There are adjustments, but I've always been notified at least one month in advance. Do you use budget billing for any of your utilities?

See my earlier post today about the truck loan!

When I saw the tax refund pending deposit yesterday, I went ahead and made a principal payment to the truck loan. It was the exact amount of the refund: $442.

So today, the new principal balance of our truck loan is $2033.15. We are getting so close to another milestone of less than $2K.

I expect to be making another payment on or after payday on March 1. This loan is going to be gone soon!!

Money is flowing in here. I see that the $442 tax refund is pending in our account for a firm deposit tomorrow.

I received two rebates in the mail yesterday. One for $7.19, which I will put in the Christmas Fund. The other for $2.41. That one is a Menard's rebate, which you have to spend at their store. When I use it to buy something we need, I will add that amount to the fund as well.

I did end up accumulating enough

Swagbucks yesterday to redeem for another $25 Paypal deposit. It has been a good month on Swagbucks.

Do you have money flowing in today?

I finally put three things up on Ebay last night. One watcher so far on one item. They aren't big demand items, but I'll be pleased if they sell. I don't need them!!

I'm hanging out at

Swagbucks today because it is their 5th Birthday Party, so they are giving out lots of codes, and there is a chance to win one of five $1000 prizes. I would love to win!

Thanks to my Swagbucks referrals for helping me accumulate so many Swagbucks in the last week and a half. I'm less than 50 Swagbucks away from being able to claim another set of 5 $5 Amazon.com gift cards once March rolls around. If I end up getting closer to 2500, I may just go for the PayPal cash.

In between codes and rounds of SBTV on Swagbucks, I am cleaning! It is starting to feel like spring. I'm mostly noticing the difference in the sunlight. We still have snow on ground, but it is melting.

I plan to take the girls to our new library this evening to grab some more books. We visited on Saturday during their grand opening and it was busy, but it will be nice visit and sit by a window. The library has been in a mall for the last few years because the city had a flood.

I did buy gas today, but I don't expect to buy anything else! Any frugal happenings for your Monday?

When we moved in July, I signed up for internet, a land line and the minimum basic television service. Our internet service is fast (fiber optic I think) and could probably be downgraded. However, I'm thinking I will probably drop the land line instead. We get more calls from telemarketers on that phone than anything.

We use the internet all the time. We have three laptops, two Nooks, a Wii and a Blue Ray player that can all access the internet. It is nice that we don't have to lose connectivity to one device when someone is streaming a video or movie.

We currently pay $29.74 for our land line. This includes all the taxes. I'm thinking I will invest in a VoIP phone/router as a land line alternative. There will likely be an upfront cost of $50-$150 depending on the set up we go with. We will still owe taxes just under $4 a month. We would break even in 6 month or less.

My husband uses VoIP at work and never has any issues. When he calls me the connection is completely clear. I can't tell any difference.

I suppose I should cancel it and try to go without a land line while I'm investigating the switch. That would save the most money!

I don't have a huge need to keep the same phone number. It is so new, not too many people have the number. Most friends and relatives have our cell phone numbers which we did not change. If I desired to switch the number it would likely cost about $40.

So tell me do you still have a land line? If not, how does it work for you? Does anyone have the VoIP and how is that going?

When we moved in July, I signed up for internet, a land line and the minimum basic television service. Our internet service is fast (fiber optic I think) and could probably be downgraded. However, I'm thinking I will probably drop the land line instead. We get more calls from telemarketers on that phone than anything.

We use the internet all the time. We have three laptops, two Nooks, a Wii and a Blue Ray player that can all access the internet. It is nice that we don't have to lose connectivity to one device when someone is streaming a video or movie.

We currently pay $29.74 for our land line. This includes all the taxes. I'm thinking I will invest in a VoIP phone/router as a land line alternative. There will likely be an upfront cost of $50-$150 depending on the set up we go with. We will still owe taxes just under $4 a month. We would break even in 6 month or less.

My husband uses VoIP at work and never has any issues. When he calls me the connection is completely clear. I can't tell any difference.

I suppose I should cancel it and try to go without a land line while I'm investigating the switch. That would save the most money!

I don't have a huge need to keep the same phone number. It is so new, not too many people have the number. Most friends and relatives have our cell phone numbers which we did not change. If I desired to switch the number it would likely cost about $40.

So tell me do you still have a land line? If not, how does it work for you? Does anyone have the VoIP and how is that going?

I checked the IRS website this morning. Our refund has been approved and is expected to be sent to our bank on February 27. I'm looking forward to that $442 refund, since I know it is going straight to the truck loan!

I received the $25 PayPal deposit from Swagbucks this week. Just last night, I cashed in for another one! That never happens to me, but I seem to be getting quite a few big surveys, as well as an Inbox offer (Entertainment Now) that is crediting me with many, many Swagbucks. No complaints here.

My

previous post was about the importance of an emergency fund. Since you can redeem Swagbucks for cash in your PayPal account, it might just be another small way to help you fund your emergency fund or other financial goal. Dave Ramsey also has a few basic tips to get you started as well.

I am finally going to get some items up on Ebay tomorrow for sale. I've been putting it off for some reason, but I feel motivated about it now. The proceeds from the sales go in to my Christmas Fund.

Are you selling anything right now? Did you get your taxes done? Have you had a good month on Swagbucks, too?

I've said it here a few times: the establishment and maintaining of our emergency fund is what put us on the path to building wealth and staying out of credit card debt.

We started our marriage without an emergency fund. Although we did get some nice cash gifts, including $1000 from my parents. That is where our emergency fund began. We had already bought and paid for enough furniture to fit in our apartment. We were happy with what we had, so we decided to save it.

I suppose that decision right there comes from somewhere, but we did consciously make that decision to hold on to that money. I'm not sure we even called it an emergency fund then. I didn't know about Suze Orman, Mary Hunt, or Dave Ramsey, all who would have encouraged the emergency fund.

I know many people who do not have an emergency fund and they all struggle in some way financially. For many it means debt in every form, for others it is relying on others for help, and most of them don't even save much, if any, for retirement.

Establishing an emergency fund is the one thing you must start. And it often means sacrifice to do so. In our case, we didn't sacrifice much with the first $1K, but in later years, we went without many things to make sure we had established and maintained a rainy day fund.

I will tell you that every sacrifice you make to establish your emergency fund is worth it. It is worth it to forgo cable, even if the big game is on. It is worth it, to eat simple meals at home. It is worth it to keep your tax refund in your savings account than buying a new big screen television. It is worth doing your own nails, or coloring your own hair. Many here on Saving Advice would agree.

Yes, you will have to give up some things, if you are living paycheck to paycheck. The exercise in sacrifice for this one goal will teach you more than you can know. You will find you can live without many things and still be happy.

Emergencies happen. People get sick, or in accidents. People lose their jobs. The water heater or garage door breaks. Your pet is injured. Many many things come up in life that can not be planned. An emergency fund catches you when those unplanned events come up.

Sacrificing as much as you can for a short time to establish an emergency fund is so worth it. If it sounds like I'm talking to you, I am. You don't need a new car now. The vacation CAN wait. You can watch the big game for free at your friends house or a bar. You can do your own nails and hair coloring. You don't need to buy that new thing, yet. You can wait. You will live. That new thing might be cheaper on Ebay in six months. You need to establish your emergency fund now. You NEED to, no excuses. It has to come first.

Yes, you might have debt and you could pay it off with your tax refund. If your refund covers all your debts then yes, pay it off. And then start on your savings. However, if it will take you many many months to pay off your debt, turn your tax refund into your starter emergency fund. Five hundred to $1000 is a great beginning. Let it sit there in an account. Look at it, but don't touch. It's for emergencies.

No more excuses. It's time to start your emergency fund. Tell me how you started your emergency fund. Any advice to readers on ways to save? Where to save? Join in the discussion, now!

It's come up on the blogs recently about how to keep snowflakes separate from your regular income so they don't melt while you are saving them for a particular goal. So I'll share mine. It may be too complicated or simple, but it works for me.

I have a running total in Excel of snowflakes by month and source. It looks like this:



When I receive a Pinecone Payment I simply increase the amount by the amount of the payment, which is always $3 in the case of Pinecone surveys. I do the same with the other lines of the spreadsheet as well.

I keep all physical gift cards in an old bank deposit bag that I keep in my desk at home. I also include physical cash here as well.

My Amazon.com gift cards are kept in my Amazon.com account! I usually get these from

Swagbucks and simply copy the gift card code to my Amazon account for safe keeping.

I have earned and redeemed Swagbucks for electronic gift cards. I keep these in my Swagbucks account until I'm ready to print them for use. I only print if I'm taking them to a physical store or giving as a gift.

I don't keep money in my PayPal account for more than one month. I do this primarily so that if I buy something using my PayPal account, the money I've earned from Ebay sales, Pinecone surveys, or Swagbucks does not get spent. This means this money actually ends up in our checking account along with spending money. Doesn't sound like a good idea does it? Especially, since I save my snowflakes for Christmas.

However, I do actually keep my money there. When I look at our checking account balance I don't just see a balance that can be spent. I see a total of about four different pots of money, which are Christmas, escrow, emergency fund, and spending money. I could say I have a fifth pot, but it really is just money sitting there ready to be pulled for an automatic bill payment.



I keep track of how much money is in each pot. I've done this with pen and paper, spreadsheets, a sticky note on my computer and they all work. I update them anytime a balance changes, which is generally on payday twice per month.

Every once in awhile I will make sure my Christmas fund money is correct. I total up cash and gift cards on hand, money in my PayPal account if any, e gift cards in my Swagbucks account, and the cash I have in our checking account. If it all matches my spreadsheet total, I'm good. Occasionally it is not correct. Usually this is because I forgot to add something in. I may have received a rebate in the mail, deposited in the checking account, but did not register it on my Christmas/Snowflake register. If I can't find it I just adjust the cash in my checking account, usually up, to agree with the balance I'm tracking on my spreadsheet.

Oh my...does that sound complicated? It can be. Another way to handle it, would be to try to convert all extra dollars to cash as soon as possible. Spend that Target gift card on something you buy anyway, but withdraw the same amount from your checking account and save the money in an envelope.

Do you have a nifty way to track your snowflake money? Comment here, or post your explanation on your blog.

Our regular payment was processed yesterday. We paid just $10.28 in interest. The principal applied to the balance was $318.85.

This brings our new truck loan balance to $2,475.15!!

It's nice to be under $2500. I don't have it all firm yet, but I hope to have this loan done by the end of March. I hope that comes fast.

I mentioned that I sent in $300 to the truck loan on Friday after I paid bills. The payment is scheduled for today and I will see the update tomorrow.

The payment brings our principal balance on the truck under $3K, to $2,794.00. Nice to see it getting lower!

Our regular payment is posting today as well, so I'll be back tomorrow with another update and a lower balance.

I didn't end up getting my ebates payout on February 15, because I didn't meet the minimum redemption of $5.01. I'm at $3.28. My next opportunity to receive this money is May 15. I just need to remember to use the site for any online purchases.

I did a survey Friday for Pinecone. I expect to receive my $3 Paypal deposit today. I try to hold the money in my Paypal account until the end of the month, when I redeem all deposits in there and move them to our checking account in a lump sum.

I have over 600

Swagbucks in my account. I'm going to try to get to 2500 by months end. I might not make it, but it is a goal. That will equal $25 in Paypal cash. If I don't I will have Swagbucks ready for the beginning of the month to redeem for the $5 Amazon gift cards, which are 450 Swagbucks each.

I'm taking a road trip today back to our old town. My daughter has an orthodontist appointment. For now it is worth it to go back once a year to have her retainers checked. I've already paid the orthodontist for the visits, so might as well. It will cost some gas though.

It was a bit of a spendy weekend. I bought a large bag of cat food, flute music, groceries, and a new rechargeable toothbrush for my husband (it was on clearance). All of that was around $200. It seems sometimes money flows out rather quickly, luckily not all of the time.

Have a super Monday!

Finally, I was able to complete our taxes correctly, after using a fourth online software program. You can look back at earlier posts to get an idea of the problems.

Thanks to Looking Forward's suggestion, I used FreeTaxUSA.com to complete both our Federal and State returns. Federal is free. State is $9.95. I wanted free, but I less than $10 is very reasonable. I had no problem with this program, but did have to manually input our sales tax deduction information from the IRS website, which other sites were calculating for me...one them wrong unfortunately!

We are even with our state, no money owed, no refund. This is because my husband's military is exempt from taxes in this state, which I love! We are getting a $442 refund from Federal, primarily due to paying a VA mortgage premium this year with our new loan. If not for that we would have owed $271.

The refund will be going towards the truck loan when it arrives. I would expect to have it by the end of the month. I also have scheduled a $300 principal payment on the truck, which will not arrive until Tuesday because President's Day. I'll update the loan balance when it hits the account.

I was able to cash in my Swagbucks last night for a $25 deposit in my Paypal account. I have earned $50 in gift cards and cash since February 1. I sure appreciate those of you who are my referrals for helping me earn more Swagbucks in the last couple days.

Several months ago, my husband traveled for work several different times. His expenses were less than the reimbursement. We ended up with $132 and change. I set aside in our cash fund.

It dawned on me this week, that I should just throw that money at the truck loan. It was really a snowflake. Not sure why I held on to it. Luckily it didn't melt!!

I sent in $132.02 towards principal to bring our new balance to $3,094.00. Our regular payment process on the 17th, but probably will be delayed until the 19th because of the long holiday weekend.

I also expect to have some extra funds from today's paycheck to throw at it too. Before I pay bills, I'm am going to try another software program for taxes. Turbo Tax indicated they would help me download a program for free to correct the math error I'm getting using their online program. Unfortunately, I'm not getting a timely response. I'm moving on!

Is today payday for you? Do you have less debt? More savings? I hope so!!

I took yesterday off from thinking or working on taxes after my frustrating day Tuesday. I decided to start in again using Turbo Tax this time. The Federal return would be free to e file, and over $35 for our state return. Too expensive. I had planned to file our state return with pen and paper and snail mail it in.

Sooo...the long story short. Turbo Tax puts our Federal Tax refund LOWER than HR Block and Tax Slayer by $90, because it is somehow adding $380 worth of income that I didn't input and isn't there.

I'm soooo annoyed. I have never had this many problems with this many different tax software programs. Definitely check the math on your return before you send it off.

Maybe this is some sort of sign that I'm not suppose to file yet. Maybe something else is coming in the mail. I have no idea what it could be though.

Any tax problems you want to vent about today? Feel free to comment here on my blog and we'll cry about it together. Or just ignore me and have a Happy Valentines Day!!

Swagbucks is starting a special promotion tomorrow through the end of February. If you are a member with referrals you will receive matching Swagbucks for nearly everything your referral does up to 1000 Swagbucks. This includes the SBTV, Searches, Codes, Surveys, Daily Poll and more!

If you are interested in signing up for Swagbucks,

my referral link is on my sidebar. You can enter the sign up code 'ShareTheLove' for 50 Swagbucks to get you started.

I have earned hundreds of dollars in Amazon.com gift cards, which never expire and are good for thousands of items on their site. I have more recently been saving my Swagbucks for a cash deposit in my Paypal account as well. As of January 1, I have earned $75 worth of redeemed gift cards and cash. As of right now, I'm less than 1000 Swagbucks away from another $25 for my Paypal account.

Once you join Swagbucks, make sure you check out and like Swagbucks on Facebook. Many people there are very helpful and will help clue you in to ways to earn Swagbucks.

The best way to earn Swagbucks is to simply use their search engine and take surveys. There are videos to watch and games to play as well. Small amounts of Swagbucks add up to real money. Enough to buy yourself a nice gift or give to others!

What are you waiting for? I'd love to have you as my referral. Feel free to 'friend' me on the Swagbucks site if you have questions as well. Happy Swaggin' Swaggers!!

I received payment from Pinecone today for a follow up survey I took yesterday. I receive my money through Paypal not a check, so it is very fast! I will add this money to my Christmas Snowflake fund.

I'm reusing fabric today to make my sister a cover for her dogs bed. The fabric was once a curtain panel. It will be secured with that Velcro that I bought at Walmart two days ago. I will only end up needing 1/4 of what I bought. The total out of pocket cost for the project is $0.21.

It looks to be a no spend day...unless the flute music we ordered is available when I pick up the repaired flute. The repair was covered under a 6 month maintenance plan, which was included with purchase. I like that!

I'm taking today off from working on taxes. I'll get back to it tomorrow...and hopefully get them submitted.

It shouldn't be this hard. E filing taxes. Unfortunately, I think I know too much and know these companies I'm using are doing it wrong!! Ugh.

I'm attempting to efile using HR Block Free File available to us because we are military. I linked up to it through militaryonesource.com. I get to nearly the last portion to efile before I can actually view the forms. Everything looks great. Except. Except I see the system is going to have me send in by snail mail Form 8283, which are the non cash donations we are itemizing. I have never had to snail mail this form in. I only have one page...not six or something crazy.

Now, I should probably just do what they want and go for it. It is only the cost of the stamp, since we can efile federal and state for free. Of course, it is also suggested I sent it certified mail to have confirmation they receive the form by the tax filing deadline.

My other options?

I tried TaxSlayer also. They are also free from military. The issue I have with them is that I cannot add in our nontaxable income for figuring in our sales tax deduction. That makes for a smaller refund of $15.

I could try Turbo Tax, also free for Federal only. I haven't entered anything with them yet, so there could be errors lurking there too. I have used them in the past and things have always gone well. The state return is $36.99!!! I could snail mail the state return for the cost of the stamp. We are already even with the state...we don't owe and we will not get a refund.

Are your tax filings going better than mine? Any ideas why I'm running into problems with HR Block and there snail mail plan? Should I just snail mail the state return?