Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

I made (along with my daughters) some more simple gifts with fabric and ribbon we had on hand. Another key chain with a basic key ring I found in a drawer. A zippered pouch with handle. A small tote bag for my 3 year old neice. Fabric bookmarks for our young reader friends and relatives (we made about 20!). Coasters. And bean bags (which are actually filled with rice).

All free with what we had on hand!







My oldest daughter had the idea of bookmarks. The fabric pieces were 2 inches x 7 inches, with about 1/8th seams. We didn't put any interfacing in, but one could for a stiffer bookmark.

What item is your favorite?

I estimated our taxes awhile back. I did both Federal and State. We had a low income year because combat earnings are not taxable. As a result we actually qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Kind of odd really.

Current estimates are:
Federal $3,867
State $1,075
Total $4,942

This works out great, since we suspended our Roth contributions to make cash flow easier while running two households. We will use this money to get our contributions to maximum by April 15th.

Right now we are each short $2,083.31. Or $4,166.62 for both of us.

The only reason I was willing to suspend the contributions because I had estimated the tax refunds to be large enough to cover our shortfall.

Of course, my estimates are approximate for now. There is another day and half of combat pay that will be used before year end bringing our income down. We also have made a few more donations.

Oh and the 'extra' will just be saved in our emergency fund. We expect to be moving in 2012.

I sold my last item listed on ebay last night. Only another $5, but it counts! It's already out in the mail box for delivery.

We also received our annual deposit from USAA. I believe it is a return of premium for members. Our amount this year was $25.16. It was deposited directly into the emergency fund.

I have a few more things I may list on ebay, but I do have to get some cleaning done today. One daughter is having a friend over tomorrow and I can't let the house stay in the state that it is in.

Okay the deal is on again. If you are on Facebook and you search for Target's home page, there is a link for a coupon. The coupon gives you a $10 Target gift card when you purchase $50.

I personally shop there quite often since it is 3 minutes from my house. I was going to get groceries today so it works well. I can use the gift card towards a couple more gifts I will need to buy.

Last time the promotion was out, I was able to roll the gift cards as payment for the next purchase. I was able to print 4 coupons at that time.

And if you use coupons for things you are buying anyway and give the gift card coupon first, you end up spending less than $50 and still receive the gift card!

Let us know me know if you use the deal and how it went.

One dollar and 66 cents spent at Old Navy on my new Chase Freedom Card. That's it. I made my one purchase and now it is time to reap the rewards!!

I feel a bit evil about this. Earning $300 from one measly purchase. But not too evil!

In the mail yesterday. A check for $255. Somewhat unexpected. My older daughter officially decided to stop tumbling. She loves it, but doesn't love the recital part. And it is a big part for this studio.

The check was for prepaid tuition (which is stated as non refundable in their policies). I thought maybe we would get the costume deposit back since we cancelled early enough. Nope...we received 5 months of tuition plus the costume deposit.

Can't complain. It seems cash it just flowing in!!

My Chase Freedom card arrived in the mail today. I have activated it. I also enrolled in the bonus categories to get 5% cash back.

The woman on the phone confirmed that I will receive 30,000 bonus points after one purchase. A purchase of any amount. The points then can be redeemed for $300!

Exciting! Now to decide what my purchase will be. I might just do our annual charity donation since it is one of the bonus categories.

After I went to bed, I sold two more of the five items I listed on ebay yesterday. Only one remains available. The sales totaled $102.40. I made $100 in a very short amount of time. I would say that was one of my best sales ever.

Of course, I will need to pull ebay's fees from that, which are getting higher everytime I list something! And my daughter probably netted about $30 from that total for her camera.

Good luck to those of you who said you would be listing this week. My tip...add the Buy It Now option. It is free in most cases and if you make it reasonable, people will snap the item up.

Late this afternoon, I decided to get a few things listed on ebay. I have a fair number of items lying around that should be sold rather than donated.

Right now is a pretty good time of year to get up the gift type items and the holiday clothing.

The first thing I listed was an old iPod. I listed at an auction price and a Buy It Now...I don't think it was listed for more than 10 minutes before it sold!! Maybe I under priced it, but my research said it was a fair price. And I'm happy for the cash it brought.

Four auction items still up and running. They all have a Buy It Now option too. We'll see how it goes this week. Anyone else selling on ebay this holiday season?

Update: I sold another one already. A camera. This is fun!!

On Friday I finally gathered up all those items I found during the recent purge and made a run to Goodwill to drop them off. The store is only five blocks away so I'm not sure why it took me so long to make it there.

I always make a note of everything I donate and even go so far as to take a picture. I attach the receipt given by the charity to my list and file it in with our tax documents for the year.

Yesterday, we gathered up our pennies and other coins and dropped them off at a local Salvation Army kettle. We went to a specific location since our neighbors were ringing the bells. They were bringing in quite a bit of money even in the brief time we were there.

You have just a few weeks left to make your final charitable donations for the year. Anyone want to share a unique way you give to others? Time or money?

I made a cosmetic bag last night for my sister in law. She is the one receiving most of the Bath and Body Works gifts.

Here's the cost breakdown:
Zipper (40% off coupon at JoAnn's) $1.05
1/2 yard gray fabic (inside) $1.74
1/2 yard print fabric (outside) $2.44
Ribbon purchased at a garage sale for $0.25

Of course, I didn't even use all the fabric or the ribbon, but if I did it would have cost $5.48. In reality it cost much less.

I did use interfacing to attach to the inside part of the outer fabric to make it stiffer. I already had that and the thread on hand as well.

Here's the picture:

Our family always gives gifts to my best friend and her family. We don't live in the same city any longer so generally we mail them to each other. She is married and has three children close in age to my girls.

Buying gifts for five people could be a financial drain, but I usually buy their gifts with coupons or on clearance. This is what I'm getting each of them this year:

Friend: Hallmark ornament worth $9.95, used a $5 off coupon. Out of pocket: $4.95 plus tax.

Friends Husband: A wallet on sale for $9.99, used a $10 off a $10 purchase coupon at JC Penney's. Making this item FREE. (Yes, I did purchase one other item for my daughters stocking to get to the $10 limit)

Teenage Son: A $10 gift card to a gas station. It was free with my renewed newspaper subscription. I'm still waiting for this to arrive in the mail. Fingers crossed it does.

Teenage Daughter: $10 Aeropostle gift card. My daughter has had this for a year and isn't going to use. I'm exchanging my last $10 Target gift card with her. Thus another free gift!

11 Year Old Son: I bought him a small lego set at Target for $9.99 and used a $5 Target gift card. My out of pocket cost was $5.32 on my Target Red Card.

Did you notice most items were free? I only spent $10.57 to purchase gifts for five people!! I'm not sure if these will be mailed or not, but it should only cost another $5 if I needed.

Thanks to My English Castle for pointing out the great deal at Target that can be found on their facebook page. Spend $50 and get a $10 gift card.

Once you find the link on the Target facebook page, it takes you to a page where you can print the coupon for the gift card.

Umm...I did this twice today already! The coupon expires tomorrow, December 3rd. I also used coupons for the items I was buying and used my Target Red Card. These were given after I qualified for the $50 spending. One of my totals came to $43.92 after coupons.

I only bought items we normally buy, including cheese, walnuts, toilet paper, pop, crackers, milk and a few other items I needed for holiday baking.

I know for sure that I'm using the two $10 gift cards to purchase alcohol for my brother in law. It's like getting his gift for free!!

I redeemed some MyPoints recently for a Bath and Body Works gift card in the amount of $10. Lucky for me two people on my list wanted items from there!!

I happened upon a printable coupon that you can find at the

retailmenot.com website that offered one item free after a $10 purchase. The free item can be worth up to $13!!

I did two different purchases. The first purchase included Japanese Cherry Blossom body cream ($12.50) and two soaps ($5 each). In this case the body cream was free with the printable coupon. I used the $10 gift card to cover most of the $10.60 total. I only spent $0.60 out of pocket!

The second purchase included another Japanese Cherry Blossom body cream ($12.50). Can you tell someone likes this? I also bought a Shimmer Body Lotion ($14). With another copy of the printable coupon I received the body cream free. My out of pocket cost was $14.84.

In the end I ended up with five items from Bath and Body Works and spent $15.44. That averages out to $3.09 per item!! On an even more interesting note: the $14 item is a gift for my daughter but will be from my mother in law who gave me cash to do the shopping. So the other items actually were free and not paid from our cash! Yipee!!

That coupon is about the fourth item down on the list when you click on the link above. The coupon is good until December 24th. Don't forget to read the fine print. I don't believe it is good with any other offers.

I've got a few other good deals from the last several days. Stay tuned and I'll tell you about them! In the meantime, do you have any good deals those of us holiday shopping should know?

If you shop online and use a Mastercard, you can receive a $20 Mastercard gift card after spending $200.

The details and enrollment information can be found

here.

Who couldn't use free money? Isn't that line from a commercial?

I did some online shopping yesterday at Amazon and Shutterfly.

At Amazon, I bought a book for my daughter and a gift each for a niece and nephew. I also picked up cat food! Same price I would pay here, but I don't have to drive to go get it! I signed up for a trial Prime subscription to get free two day shipping. My items will arrive tomorrow.

I had a Shutterfly coupon for $20 which I earned for buying school pictures. I bought a personalized notepad for my daughter with the unusal spelled name, and two 8x10 collage pictures to give as gifts. Spent about $7 out of pocket...primarily for shipping. I now have three collage prints to give as gifts, with the free one I picked up from Walgreens on Saturday.

I have quite a few coupons and free items to take advantage of. I hope these will all help keep my holiday costs to a minimum. It seems it all adds up pretty fast!

Did you cyber shop yesterday? How is your holiday shopping coming along? Any great deals?

I applied for two different Chase credit card offers about a week ago. The Freedom card was just approved after I returned a call to their fraud department and verified my identity.

Unfortunately, I was denied for the Chase Sapphire card first by mail and then on the phone. It seems I was denied due to lack of income. Yes, I'm a homemaker. I don't have my own income.

I can't say I blame them for turning me down, but yet they also approved me for nearly $10K in credit on another card. Where do they think I'll get the money for that if I'm denied based on my income alone?

I will play the game on this one card, but after this...I'm done. Why did I think I wanted to play in the first place? Oh yeah, free money! At least I have $300 coming our way with the Freedom card.

I made a gift today. No current out of pocket cost since I had all items on hand.

I made a fabric key chain! I plan to give this to my neighbor and good friend for Christmas. She also sews so I expect she will appreciate the gesture.



The tutorial I used is

here.

I love that I came up with something from my stash! Do you have anything on hand that you could turn into a great gift for someone you know?

My sister works as a teacher. Her husband has been unemployed for four months. He made about 65% of their income. This holiday season she has made some excellent decisions.

No holiday cards are being mailed.
She is not participating in the secret santa at work.
She also opted out of the cookie exchange.

They are not giving gifts to adults. This leaves gifts to my girls and their one nephew.

I even told her she could cut back on the gifts to the girls.

Would you have the strength to do the same in a similar situation?

I redeemed rewards on our debit card equal to $25 and it has now been deposited in our checking account. This money is going to Christmas, too!

Most likely to purchase a $25 gift card for a family member. Free gifts! Gotta love them.

If you are buying gifts for free this season, tell us about it. It can be inspiring to those who haven't thought outside the box of credit for Christmas!

I'm a member at World Market. I checked my account today and found I have a $10 coupon off a $10 purchase. It was a birthday gift. I'm glad I checked because it expires on December 1st!!

I'm not sure if this will be a gift for me or for someone else, but it will be useful either way. I think I'll be stopping in tomorrow to at least look around.

I saw my good friend this weekend. I've mentioned her before back when they took out a 401K loan. Of course, I encouraged her then not to do so.

I found out they are paying cash for Christmas. They aren't using any credit. It seems she is finding some great deals. She found a very pretty dress for a niece on clearance. Regular price was $50, marked down to $14.99. She had a $10 coupon, so she paid only $4.99 plus tax for a very nice gift. She's a good shopper...thus the amount of debt!

They have paid $400 for an appraisal on their home. They are hoping for a minimum appraisal of $119K, but are hoping for closer to $130K. Similar houses in the area have sold for $114K to $140K. The refinancing could save them anywhere from $300 per month to $800 per month. In her words, $800 a month would be a game changer for them.

They already both work full time and part time. I just wish them the best. I think this has definitely taught them a lesson in frugalness.

I received two credit card offers from Chase this weekend. And I'm diving in. Yes. I'm applying for a credit card!! Yikes.

Both offers only require one purchase. Talk about being easy to keep track of!

And I did talk with DH about applying. He doesn't think we need it. And the truth is we don't. The offer of cash is just too hard to turn down right now though.

I applied tonight for the Chase Freedom card which will give me $300 cash back after just one purchase. One!! It also offers 0% until December 2012. I don't plan on taking advantage of this since we don't carry balances on credit cards. But it is a nice offer.

The second offer is for Chase Sapphire Preferred. At first I thought the card was only airline miles. Even though DH is flying a ton now, I hate dealing with airline miles. Hate. But after looking at the website, I can redeem the points for cash. The offer is for 50,000 points after one, yes ONE, purchase! Those 50,000 points can be redeemed for $500 cash.

I told DH I wasn't applying for the second one because of the airline miles, but he will be hearing from me about this one. It is a better offer.

I have not applied for a card in quite some time, but I expect to be approved. I know my credit must be good enough to receive the offers in the mail.

For those of you applying for these rewards cards lately, do you think I can apply for both Chase cards close together? Or should I deal with one, close it and then apply for the other?

So excited at the idea of an extra $800 in my pocket!!

The regular monthly payment on the truck loan hit the account yesterday. We paid $37.48 in interest and $291.65 towards principal.

Our new balance is $12,705.74. I love less debt!

In other news, I did get a $100.39 check from my parents. See how my dad added $0.39 for my age. He's been doing that for a few years now. Kind of clever don't you think?

I have no immediate plans for the money. I will deposit it and keep track of it as birthday money. I might need new jeans soon, if I keep losing weight!

I find it funny that Laura had her birthday two days ago and now it is my turn! I'm 39. I feel much younger.

My parents are arriving to spend the day with me and my girls get out early from school, so it should be a fun day of celebrating.

My parents often give a $100 check....so that will be nice.

I used the Target Gift cards to buy my daughter one her must have gifts. Regular price of the item was $49.99. I had $39.54 in gift cards. I used my Target Red card to pay the balance so I received the 5% off the balance of the purchase as well.

The gift cost me just under $11.00 out of pocket!!

The gift cards were some of those $5 ones you receive when you make certain purchases. I've been saving them up. I think I've accumulated at least $60 worth this year.

It's always fun to pay less out of pocket!

Turns out I had another great coupon in my stash and I used it this weekend. It was $5.00 off a $10 minimum purchase at Hallmark Gold Crown stores.

I bought an ornament for $9.95 to give to a friend for Christmas. This, of course, still put me short of my $10 minimum purchase. Ugh! However, I decided to buy my parents an anniversary card which arrives just days after Christmas. I picked out a very nice $0.99 card to bring my total purchase above $10. My total after the coupon and tax was $6.60.

I'm very pleased that I could get a nice gift for my friend as well as a card for my parents. Glad for a great deal! Did you get any great deals this weekend?

I just keeping finding more free money that I could use towards gifts! Here's the latest deal:

I bought the girls school pictures and received a $20 coupon to spend at Shutterfly.com!! I will have to pay shipping for the items, but I think I can make use of this deal.

I wonder what other money I have lurking around in my house. Do you have any great coupons you are using for your holiday shopping?

I've written a semi small post twice. It's been eaten. I will try again later if this test post works.

I'll try to keep this short since my previous attempts to post were unsuccessful.

I have the following to add to my Christmas money:

$10 coupon off $10 purchase - JC Penney
$10 Old Navy rewards certificate
$30 reuseit credit
$7.22 credit at iherb (plus $6.81 pending)

Now to see how I can use this to get gifts free or for less!!

We are getting our new tires on Friday. We are going to apply for the Goodyear Credit Card to double our rebate. The rebate is $80 for four tires, but doubles on the credit card to $160! Plus no interest if paid in 6 months. I'll likely just pay it off and then close it.

Goodyear is also running a $10 rebate for each tire for military. Thus our entire rebate will total $200. That will more than cover one and part of another for the tires we are choosing.

And, get this, the shop we are getting tires from is having their "Turkey Sale", so we will get a voucher for a local grocery store to pick up a 12-14 pound turkey. I'm not having Thanksgiving, but I'm sure I can find ways to use up a free bird!