Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

Sold several books to a used book store: $5
These were garage sale leftovers.

Pet sat 2 cats and 2 kittens for 2.5 days: $25
The kittens were soooo cute.

It feels good to see money trickling in. Of course, I'm not against seeing a flood of money!

Whew! Those sales are always a whirlwind. I've almost got the house back together.

I only saved two bins for a possible spring sale. Some items might get posted to ebay for the holidays.

I have about four small boxes of items to drop off at Goodwill. I'm also going to take some books into the used book store. I know it won't amount to much but I'd like a few dollars anyway!

The total sales for the two day sale were $664.50. My portion was $144.50. And considering I had a sale back in July and made $150, I think that is pretty good.

Okay back to work...still need to put tables and empty bins in the basement.

Once every four months I check our credit reports for free with one of the three major credit bureau. My online calendar reminded me today that it was time to check in with Equifax.

I went to the

I'm participating in a garage sale this Thursday and Friday with my neighbors. It was a little up in the air if we were going to follow through. But we are!

I have all but a small bin of items already priced and ready to move down the street tomorrow. I'm donating a couple tables and putting up the signs. Of course, I will be there to staff the sale, too.

I'm REALLY looking forward to moving these items on. If they don't sell, I expect most of them to be donated to Goodwill. A few items might be held back to sell on ebay.

Today I need to wrap up some errands around town. The cats need food and I have batteries and CD's to recycle. I think Best Buy has a drop box for those.

And if you were at all wondering: I did get all my windows and blinds cleaned last week! They look fabulous.

This week has seen very little spending. Can you say $5 for concessions for DD to attend a school social and $4 for a few loaves of bread? I expect some of that concession money back, too!

I know you want to know the big secret of staying out of the stores. Right?

Cleaning windows and blinds. Yep, that is the secret. I'm spending a majority of my free time this week cleaning each and every slat on our blinds. I'm also cleaning the windows inside and out. On many windows this involves removing the window and cleaning the track they slide on, too. It is a dirty job. But one that must be done...especially if the house is to go on the market soon.

Nope. Still don't know where we are going. We hope to be moving in January. Not that I like the idea of moving during the winter. At all. Unless I'm moving somewhere warmer!!

My advice this week: stay home, clean something, and save some money!!

We will likely have spent the most ever for airline tickets this year. DH has traveled roundtrip two times already and we are expecting at least three more trips before the end of the year.

We have purchased a ticket for a trip in October. Paid about $345 for that one.

Right now we are looking into tickets for two trips home in November. Specifically Thanksgiving. Yesterday when I looked the tickets were going for over $600! Today, they have come back down.

Got a call from DH while I was writing this post. Officially, two trips in November are booked. Total $733 for 8 nights at home. It's worth it, but hard to choke down the cost!

Our regular payment to the truck loan hit yesterday. Our balance is lower!! Yipee.

Interest $39.21.
Principal $289.92
New Balance $13,309.38

Looks like it will take more than one more month to get below $13K. Unless I make an extra principal payment. Hmm...might just have to consider that!

The news from here...money keeps flowing out. Luckily it is still flowing in, too.

DH prepaid rent for October. The office receptionist thought it odd to pay so far in advance! She even offered to hold it until the first. He declined. Just take our money please! We sure don't want any crazy late fees that we had in August.

I paid our real estate taxes online today in the amount of $1471. Up from last year. Of course! I used the checking account and was only charged $0.40 for the service. That's cheaper than mailing them a check. It would have been about $30 or more to use a credit card. No way would I pay that kind of fee.

DH booked another airline ticket to come home for a four day weekend in October. We got a better deal than his last trip. We saved nearly $100!

We are going to be billed for auto and homeowner's insurance early next month. And our car registration will be due in October, too. October is always our biggest month for cash flowing out.

Do you also have one month a year that is the biggest flow of money out? Which month is it and why?

Netflix is changing their plan options as many of you know. I decided to change my plan to unlimited steaming only. Right now, we seem to watch the most from those selections.

Dropping the 2 discs out at a time saves us $7.42 over what we have been paying and keeps us from spending an additional five dollars per month that would have resulted with the new plan fees.

At some point, I might switch back to getting some disc. Right now, I think we will just grab a Red Box movie when needed.

Did you make a change to your Netflix account this month because of the new fees?

May we never forget today, September 11th. Remember the day. But also find gratitude for life and resiliency.

I'm thankful for my husband, our children, our strength and health.

What are you grateful for?

I put our monthly Roth contributions on hold last month. It made a huge difference in how our cash flow felt. With DH living in another state, money is much tighter. The lack of roth contributions helped ease the tension.

We decided to keep our monthly contributions on hold until the end of the year.

Now I can't say I'm real proud of this decision, but our goal is still to max out our contributions. It might take until April 15th, but we will make the investment in our future.

I expect that we will receive a large refund this year because of wages that are within range to be eligible for the earned income tax credit. Nontaxable combat pay helps us meet this criteria. Kind of odd, considering the time in combat was our highest earnings ever. So, if needed the remainder of our 2011 Roth contributions will come from this money.

We still do not have our next duty assignment. The sooner we know where we are going and can get this house sold the better for our emotional and financial health. I personally can't wait!

I bought my daughter's school pictures. Spent $31.50. The pictures arrived this week. Enclosed is a Shutterfly code to redeem for $20 worth of merchandise on their website. It doesn't have to be a picture of my daughter.

I'm thinking a Christmas gift, a calendar or even Christmas cards would be nice. It doesn't expire until the end of January, so I have plenty of time to think about my options.

Wow! It has been gorgeous here the last few days. Highs in the low 70's. No humidity. The air conditioning hasn't run for about four days now. I have even slept with the window open since it isn't getting too cold at night yet. Nice to think we are saving a bit of cash and energy in the meantime.

Yesterday I purchased a gallon of stain at Home Depot. Turns out there was a $5 rebate on it! And we qualified for the military discount. That gallon of stain will only cost about $24, rather than over $32. I bought the stain for our deck. I completed the floor of our deck today and it looks much much better. I will find another day to do the railings. But in the meantime, I'm just happy this update didn't cost too much.

We had a spendy weekend. By choice. Since DH was home for a long weekend visit, we treated our time together a bit like a staycation. Primarily this meant we ate out much more often than we usually do. It was enjoyable not to cook and to eat some yummy food. We did make dinner together at home one night and that was fun, too. I hope to try that more next time he is home.

We enjoyed our time together. It was worth every penny!

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I received the yearly notice about our property taxes yesterday in the mail. Our taxes increased from $2,820 to $2,942. That is an increase of $122 per year or 4.3%. Most of the increase is to our city and the school district, so I won't complain too much. They seem to do a good job with the resources they are given.

I recently received our homeowner's insurance bill, too. It also increased.

I save monthly for these expenses. With the increases, I am short. I will make up the difference out of the regular paycheck and then increase monthly savings with the hope of being on target next year. Although...next year we might have sold the house and be renting.

I had a couple items listed on craigslist. I thought I had an interested buyer. Yesterday they were a no show. I did have an email much later in the day, indicating they were no longer interested. That was nice. I guess. I was looking forward to a $40 sale. Darn.

Today, I'll be painting our interior garage door with paint I have on hand. Free home repairs make me happy!

Once I'm done with that, I need to clean bathrooms. DH will be home for several days this weekend. Yipee!

I cancelled our newspaper subscription last month. We have missed it. Today, I ventured out to fill our gas tank with fuel and buy a paper.

Turns out my newspaper was free with the purchase of fuel!! Yipee.

This might be my new Sunday routine.

I tried to write this post yesterday. I lost it and gave up.

I have been starting to do some small home repairs and maintenence on our house in preparation for selling or renting. Our move is coming we just don't know when or where yet.

Over the weekend, I recaulked two sinks and a shower. I throughly cleaned our storm door glass and front window. This included taking a razor blade to them to remove small splatters of paint from when we had the house painted last year. They look much better.

I also began making some drywall repairs. Very minor. Just filling in with spackling, sanding and repainting. Yesterday, I opened four different colors of paint to complete the job. I feathered out the paint and it seems to blend pretty well.

Today was basic mowing of the lawn. It needs to be watered more and fertilized. I took down the garden about two weeks ago...we planted too late, thus no produce. Oh well, for the best likely. That area now needs to be reseeded. Need to borrow a rake to flatten the area out.

So far I've used spackling, caulk and paint that we have on hand. I'll need to buy the fertilizer and grass seed. I'll probably head out to do that today.

And the list goes on...there is more to do. Including making a decision on replacing some vinyl in the laundry room. It has chips in it...just like it was when we bought it. We probably need to price it to decide.

I'm starting to work on small repairs around the house. The kind you put off, or just get used to living with.

In the last couple of days, I have repaired some minor dents in the drywall with spackling, sand paper and paint. Turns out I had all the items needed on hand. I just opened the old cans of paint, stirred well and dipped the small roller in! Easy. And free.

We bought caulk for the bathrooms a couple months ago. This weekend I finally took care of updating the caulk by the sinks and our shower. I still need caulk by the tub in the girl's bathroom, around all the toilets and a section near the kitchen sink. All the tools are here, I just need to commit the time to it.

I also cleaned the front window and storm door using a razor blade to clean up very minor paint splatters that were made when the house was painted last year. I suppose I need to clean all the windows inside and out, and dust the blinds.

A few other items I'll be working on in the coming weeks: staining the deck, moving dirt in the back yard, planting the grass seed and watering the yard a bit more regularly.

Cleaning and repairs that need to be done and if I tackle a little bit everyday it will eventually get done! Luckily many of the items can be done for very little, if any, money. Yipee!!

We received our payout for the DITY (Do It Yourself) move. It was less than estimated. Boo.

We were quoted $1,141.68 based on 1000 pounds and mileage of 1117 miles. DH moved 980 pounds and I assume drove that distance(!). We received $989.94. A difference of $151.74.

As I write this post, I looked up the Travel Advice of Payment (AOP) and it shows the amount I estimated based on the new weight of 980 pounds: $1,118.85. But then they subtracted out $128.91. Boo again. Not sure if the constructive costs changed from the time we received the estimate and the move occured.

The AOP shows our out of pocket expenses were $603.20. This means per army records we earned $386.74 on the move. This will be considered taxable earned income for 2011. I've got to remember to keep an eye out for that tax form!

All the money for the move has been paid. Things are getting back to normal, as much as they can, considering we are living in different parts of the country. I'm beginning to put my extra time towards small home repairs, improvements and cleaning in preparation for moving or renting this house out.

Eye appointments were yesterday. My oldest daughter wanted to get the same frame as last year, so we headed to Target Optical. I was expecting to pay around $180. Instead I got away with paying only $26.50 (includes tax) for a whole new pair!!

Last year I bought the worry free guarantee for $25. Which would replace the glasses if there was a prescription change or damage to the lenses. It is valid for 15 months.

For a $25 copay, we are getting the same frames and lenses with her new updated precription. All we have to do is give them the old pair when the new pair arrives.

She won't have a recent back up pair, but at 14 we rarely have issues with lost or damaged glasses. And we can get glasses made in an hour if really desperate. I actually could have her pick out a inexpensive back up pair at Walmart. Hmmm...something to think about.

Just thrilled with getting two new pairs of glasses for a combined total of $126.44. Average price: $63.22. For a years worth of vision it feel nearly priceless!!

Our truck loan payment posted yesterday. We pay $329.13 each month. This month $40.04 was interest, and $289.09 went to principal.

The new balance is $13,599.30.

My daughters are back to school. We kept spending on clothes to a minimum with needs only. Unfortunately, for one daughter that meant new capris since she put holes in each pair she owned over the summer. We bought the basic supplies and supplemented some with used items from last year.

Today the girls visited the eye doctor. Eye exams were covered by our insurance. Only have purchased one pair so far...at JCPenny's for about $99. The other pair is likely to be purchased from Target. They have a sale...so maybe that pair won't be too much more. Finger's crossed.

School pictures are coming up. Getting ready to dole out some money for those. These are really the only professional photographs I have of my kids, so I try to keep the cost in perspective and buy a pretty basic package each year. I think the pictures turn out pretty good.

My ice maker part is not yet in, or I haven't been called yet at least. Since the leaking part outside of the refrigerator seems to have stopped, I'm not so worried about how quickly I get the repair for the ice maker done. I should just go to making my own cubes. I did order the part, or authorized it, so I feel obligated to follow through. I'm just second guessing my need for the part, if I can just make my own cubes.

That's the financial news from here. Just trying to keep spending to a minimum. And it is working pretty well.

Well, no charge for today's service call, since I have a part on order now. The service man was not entirely sure what was causing the frost build up. Maybe opening the freezer too often? We are just going to watch that one for the next few days. It actually wasn't leaking in the last 36 hours. So maybe nothing!

The ice maker has been making too few and hollow cubes for some time. It does appear that it is dripping and freezing. Athough very little water. Thus a possible leak, but with too few cubes, it also isn't filling right. The water fill valve is cheaper, so we are starting there. That is the part on order and with the service charge, part and labor it will still cost me $150. Luckily, only once service charge for the two visits.

If I end up having to replace the ice maker it will be $125 additional. If I was really short on funds, I would just turn off the water to the ice maker and use basic ice cube trays. Of course, I'd rather not spend the money, but I do have it.

Stay tuned. I'm sure there will be more to this ice cube saga.

I made an appointment for a service person to look at the freezer portion of my refrigerator. They can't come until Friday afternoon.

It seems that ice from the ice maker is clumping up in the bin. I also noticed that frost is forming on the lower portion of the inside door. And then, I think it's melting, causing some water to first pool on top of the fridge door, and some then drips to the floor.

For now a towel will mop up the water. Luckily it isn't a huge amount. If it gets worse, I may need to call another company. I used this company last year for my gas stove and they did a great job.

I've done quite a bit of online looking and my guess is that it is the defrost timer that needs to be replaced. I think it is defrosting too frequently for the fan to keep up. It could be a bad seal on the door, too, but it looks okay to me. I'll let you know how it works out.

My husband left school early, with permission, to get a money order to pay the late rent and outrageous late fee. He drove over an hour round trip to the management office. I thought it was closer. Guess not.

He is paid up for August and wrote a personal check for September's rent. He received receipts for both payments.

All very irritating. Caused my husband to lose sleep over it. Since the company still didn't have the check, all we can think, was the postal service didn't do their job. Lost in the mail literally.

We did put a stop on the original check and the rental company was informed of this. Nice thing is our bank didn't charge for this service. Maybe most banks don't. First time we ever stopped a check.

I have reworked our budget to handle paying the rent at mid month. We did stop college contributions for the remainder of the year. I'm also stopping our automatic Roth contributions for a time being. I expect, we will still make all of our contributions, but it helps to not have that money flowing out when things are a bit unstable with two households. Besides, I have until April 15th to make sure I get those contributions in.

We are still waiting on a payment from the government for my husband doing his own move. It should arrive in the next two weeks and equal over $1100. I'm looking forward to that.

Ugh. My husband mailed his rent check to the address as instructed. He mailed it on Saturday, July 30. It was due by Friday, August 5th. It apparently has not arrived, even though it's destination is a 20 minute drive north.

He arrived home today to a late notice. He has to pay a 10% late fee, plus some other concessions that generally are waived if payment is due on time. Total late fee is over $185!!!

My husband was warned by front office of his apartment complex when he moved in that they are very strict on late payments and even went as far as to suggest he drive a check to the office each month. Their office hours are 8-4:30pm Monday thru Friday. Guess when my husband has class? Right during those times.

DH is quite upset. I'm upset, but know that we simply learned a lesson about the type of company we are dealing with or the postal service. Not sure which. We will pay the fee, of course. And we are even going so far as to pay September's rent now. DH will call the company in the morning to clarify that they have not received the check and then leave school early to drive there and make the rent payment, late fee, and next month's rent. Oh, and we might just put a stop on that check that was mailed. We'll decide that tomorrow after speaking to them.

Frustrating at the very least. We tried to pay on time, but it just didn't seem to work out. New plan of attack is for DH to pay the rent in person out of our mid month pay. And get a receipt!!

It seems there is always someone who is suffering more than us. Right now, my thoughts go out to those in Africa, who are without food, water and even shelter.

I decided that we have cash to spare even though at times it feels that money is tight. I made a donation today to the

One weeks worth of groceries for three came to $71.41. Actually, it may be eight days worth of meals.

Pasta x2 with sauce
Baked chicken, corn on the cob
Soup and Salad
Breakfast (eggs or pancakes)
Tacos (have frozen beans and meat in freezer)
Micro meals x3
Homemade pizza

We supplement our meals with fresh fruits and veggies. We have grapes, strawberries, apples, carrots, cucumber and corn on the cob. Yum!!

We also bought basics like bread, butter, skim milk, almond milk, eggs, two boxes of cereal and granola bars. And I bought the very bad for you diet pepsi and ice cream. The girls indulged in the ice cream. The pop was mine. I'm trying to cut back!

In other news, we sold three books on half.com. It was one buyer, so we made a little extra with the shipping for a total of $3.90 profit. My daughter will receive $2 and I will retain the remainder. Fun to get a surprise sale here and there.