Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

For the last two days I have had workmen at our house replacing some siding and a sliding glass door. They probably could have finished yesterday if it were not for the huge downpour of rain yesterday afternoon.

I'll be writing a large check soon for about $2800. It will come from our money market fund. Better than a credit card, right? I knew saving that extra $7K last year would be worth it.

It's all good. And I'm thrilled with the work performance. Some of the best money ever spent.

We are getting DH ready for school. Tonight we ordered four dress shirts for his uniform. I guess the uniform shirts have changed since the last time he needed to wear it. And he so rarely wears it! And don't ask me why he needs four. Two are short sleeve and two are long sleeve. Cost $115!

Right now he is getting ready to order a new ribbon rack for his uniform, too. He's earned another Bronze Star and another ribbon for recent service. Time to get it all updated in time for school next month. Price of the ribbon update:

I bought my Dad a gift certificate for a golf store for Father's Day. My sister is splitting it with me, so my cost is $30. Now to figure out what to get DH. I think I have a $10 cash card to Sports Authority that will help cover a pair of shorts or a workout shirt. I will be checking with the girls to see if they have a good idea.

I have an appointment with the Honda Dealership to have the oil changed and tires rotated this week. More money will flow out then.

I really feel we are going to be in a spendy place until fall, when we are all settled and back in our routines. I think I'll just go with it and know that it will work out in the end.

We went out of town for an Army family event. That sounds more fun that it was, but it also wasn't as bad as it could have been.

The Army scheduled us to ride a bus on the six hour trip, feed us all meals on Saturday and breakfast this morning, and paid for our hotel. We actually skipped the bus and drove ourselves.

Our allotted per diem was $111.50 for each of us to cover meals on Friday and Sunday. That is $446 total. We knew this would be plenty to cover gas and our food expenses, thus the reason we drove ourselves. We spent about $80 in fuel, $40 in miscellaneous expenses and $80 on a dinner out including tip. Thus we came out ahead by about $240.

Can you tell, I'm just ball parking those numbers? It's been a long day, but I'm still pretty close. We could have banked more, but it was nice to take the girls out to a nice dinner and spend quality time together on the drive to and from our destination.

I just wrote a check towards DH's new apartment application/deposit. It was $185. Thus the money we made on the trip can cover this expense, too.

I seem to have a swarm of money thoughts running through my head. I'm not even sure if this post will make any sense.

I know of money coming in: approximately $1200 from DH's deployment, which should have been paid by now, but is being rejected for payment for a second time. Long story. Also, travel reimbursement for a trip this weekend for the Army. Maximum amount $440 allowed. We'll have to keep our expenses low to end up with extra funds.

I have $65.95 in my paypal account from the sale of dvds, and survey payments. I've noticed that MySurvey has been offering quite a few surveys recently. Nice! We have $50 in rewards from our debit card that are tempting me. My plan at the beginning of the year, I told myself that I would not redeem these until the holidays. Must hold strong!

DH has decided on a place to live. It is an apartment rather than a weekly extended stay hotel. Obviously, it should feel more like home that way. We will need to buy him a twin bed, and a coffee maker. Right now, we think we have enough extras of things in our home that can be moved with him.

The rent will be $945 a month, prorated for partial months. Utilities should be less than $120 per month. The deposit is only $150. There are allowances provided by the military for moving. Once these funds are paid we can use them to cover some of his living expenses.

Some of the payments from the military for moving might be taxable. I need to see if this is going to be an issue for us. I don't think that it is since four months of this year our income was tax free.

It's about time to sign the girls up for tumbling and dance. One year total for the entire experience is $808. I pay in full each year, because they waive the $90 recital fee if you do. I should save up for this expense, but for some reason I don't. I just pull funds from our account when it is time to pay it. This might be the last year since will be living elsewhere the following year. It just depends what they want to do.

I should list some items on ebay. I have an ipod, teva shoes, a very nice film camera and flash, and a router that I think could be sold for some nice cash. But right now, I'm just not motivated. It feels like there is just a lot going on.

See? My head is swarming with thoughts.

DH returned home from a three night trip to check out housing options for his five month school. There are two options he is willing to stay in. We will be discussing those and making a decision over the next couple days.

This quick trip cost us: $710.22. This included airfare, car rental, fuel, food and hotel (which was actually free with Marriott Reward points). Of course, I would have rather spent the money on something else. But not bad considering!

The girls rooms have been decluttered. Well, as much as one can actually declutter a 10 year olds room. They do love their trinkets.

I did shop garage sales yesterday, but came home with empty hands. I enjoyed the outing despite the heat. I did see some things I might look for in the future, but nothing that needed to be bought at that moment.

I came home quite energized to work with my girls on clearing out their rooms. We filled three traditional sized Rubbermaid bins with stuff to get rid of. Yipee!! Some will get tossed or recycled. Some will get donated and the rest will be sold in some form or another.

I moved those bins to the basement and will plan to sort those this weekend. Amazingly there are at least four more bins in the basement with stuff to sell. I really need to get stuff listed on ebay. For some reason I'm procrastinating.

Oh, I did receive my $38 payment from secondspin.com for the DVD's I sent them. Obviously declutter can pay off!

I'm conflicted this morning. Deciding what to do with my day. Part of me wants to hit some garage sales. Part of me wants to declutter and find things to sell. Hmmm...

I don't need anything specifically from the garage sales. I'm not even a big garage saler. I get burned out pretty quick after looking at other people's stuff. I just like get out once a season and I know of two neighborhood sales. Last year, I found some weight watcher books that I resold online and made $10. So, it can be profitable. Hmmm...

I already have a small swimming pool listed on craigslist and a pile of 13 items I should really start listing on ebay. I still need to declutter the girls rooms where I'm sure to find more things to get rid of. Hmmm...

I guess I could do both, right? Yep. That's the plan I'm going with. Thanks for listening. It's nice of you to lend an ear.

I know the market is all haywire. And likely due for some sort of correction. However, here in the CreditCardFree household we are still investing. Every month.

We contribute 15% of our gross income to our Roth IRA's and my husband's TSP. Why not buy on sale? We have more than 25 years until we need the money!

We are also still adding to the college funds. This is a little more iffy, since the time horizon is shorter. The earliest we would need the money is 4.5 years, but we could hold on to most of it for up to 9 or 10 years, when the youngest is in her last years of college.

For now, we keep investing. Automatically. Every month. On sale! Are you still in the market for the long haul? If not, why not?

Finally, I get to post that we paid ourselves back the money we pulled from savings for the downpayment on the truck. Yipee!!

We borrowed $78. In May we earned $89.62 in interest, so without much effort we are back to a full emergency fund. Not sure how long that will last. I expect that we'll have to use a portion for a rental deposit. At least it is there.

It is payday, and I can definitely tell that our income has dropped. It doesn't seem like there is anything left over. I think it is that we are in a spending place right now. That is how things go sometimes. Other than the truck loan, no additional debt has been incurred. For that, I am grateful. I expect I will adjust to the income in due time.

You know that you can get a free copy of your credit report once each year from each of the three credit reporting agencies, right? If not, there is a central site called

annualcreditreport.com that provides access to all three credit reporting companies.

Today I was reminded by my online calendar to check our credit reports at Experian. I will get the same reminder in four months to check another one of the credit reporting companies. In one years time, I will have checked our credit reports at all three agencies. You can look at your report at each company all in one day if you prefer. However, you will have to wait another year to get free access.

Please be aware that the site is secure and that it is perfectly okay to enter your social security number at this site only.

It appears all the information on our reports is fine, as expected. However, I was reminded of two revolving credit accounts with two retailers we rarely do business with. I think it is time to close those.

Do you check your credit reports regularly? If not, why?

My girls wrapped up the school year yesterday. My youngest finished 5th grade and around here that is the end of elementary school. I can't believe how fast it goes!

So far our only summer committment is one week of vacation bible school that my youngest will attend with a friend. Cost $10. I used earnings from surveys to pay for this out of my paypal account.

I'm sure more things will come up. However, we will try to keep the costs minimal. The library and the neighbor's swimming pool will come in handy.

Right now, we are not planning a big vacation. It is too expensive to go while getting DH ready for his summer move. We'll fit one in sometime later in the year or next summer when things settle down again.

What summer plans do you have? Are you spending more or less than last year?

We have officially received two out of three rebates back from Verizon Wireless. We updated our phones and three of them qualified for $50 rebates. A total of $150 together.

Verizon sends the gift cards as a Visa debit gift card. It is definitely not my preferred method. It just encourages more spending in my opinion. However, on payday I will simply transfer the $150 to our slush account to replace the money we put out for the phones. I will use the Visa debit cards for our regular spending during the next pay period. It all works in the end!

-----------
My dad has a birthday this weekend. I bought him three XL tall polo shirts for $32 a Kohl's yesterday. And I'm sharing the expense with my sister, so it's an even better deal on my pocket book!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend and don't spend too much!!

DH is going on a house hunting trip soon. Okay, apartment hunting. We have booked the airline ticket at a cost of $438.20. Not bad for a trip that is short notice.

DH also booked a three night hotel stay for $77 a night, which is $231 plus tax. And a rental car for $175. I told him we could do better.

I searched online for member discount codes and coupons for the same rental car agency. I was able to book the same car for $148. Savings: $27. I will keep watching the rates up until the moment he goes. It does pay to shop the rates. Often you can get a better deal closer to the travel date. Not always, but sometimes.

The hotel. I gave him two alternatives. The same hotel he booked at $40 a night using earned points. Which would save $37 per night or $111. Or another hotel which we have earned rewards for free. He chose free! Wise man. The second hotel includes free breakfast and is closer to the airport and the area he will likely be looking for apartments. Savings: $231 plus tax.

Right now, without food and gas the trip will cost us $586.87. Without making the changes I did, we would have spent at least another $258.

I just thought of another savings idea. We might be able to use some airline miles towards the rental car. The air miles weren't an option with the short notice trip and the dates of desired travel. I'm off to check into that.

Less than a month ago, we cleaned out our entertainment center and found about 20 items to get rid of. Mostly DVD's. I listed them all on half.com. Only one sold in the last few weeks.

I guess I didn't have the patience to wait for the cash. Today, I boxed up 11 of the DVD's and mailed them to secondspin.com. I will receive $38 plus credit to cover the shipping cost. I requested the deposit to my paypal account.

There were 8 items that were not worth more than $0.25 each. I left them up on half.com. If they don't sell, I'll donate them.

I'm slowly working on getting rid of the clutter. The girls rooms need major help! I'm just sure there is something to sell in there.

What a weekend! We were required to attend a post deployment event in Colorado this past weekend. We drove because of lack of flights at our needed times. It's a 10 hour trip each way from where we live. We left Friday and returned last night. Quite exhausting!

We saved the government $4,600 by driving and leaving our girls at home. My husband's unit made last minute (specifically Wednesday) flight arrangement for all four of us to leave on Thursday and return Monday...total cost of the weekend would have be over $5200 for the four of us. Actually more, since I'm not including the hotel stay. However, with the girls still in school and one headed into finals we did not want them to leave on those flights. The alternative was for the two of us to drive out and invite my Mom to stay with the girls, which she was happy to do. She was only available Friday through Sunday.

So we drove. The government paid for a rental car, will cover gas, the hotel and some of our out of pocket food cost. The cost to them less than $600!

It was a nice time with DH. We could see mountains from our hotel room. Wished the girls could have been with us. Now I need to recover!

Our first truck payment was made yesterday. We paid $311.29 to principal. The interest was $17.84, which is a partial month worth of interest. We bought the vehicle at the end of April.

Our new loan balance is $14,465.39.

I could complain that we are paying off debt again, but I won't. I'm completely aware that this was a choice and a purchase we feel very pleased and confident about.

I'm editing to add: I actually think we could call this the second truck payment. Wasn't the first the $12,000 we put down? Yes. I think so!!

Searching for an apartment long distance is hard. Pictures online always look pretty good. Then you read reviews about mice. What? Who wants to live in a gorgeous renovated warehouse if mice are an issue?

Trust me. There are some very nice apartments with some awesome benefits, but man those are pricey, upwards of $1200 or more for a one bedroom. I would feel better with an apartment for $800 or $900.

That said. I think someone, likely DH, will be traveling to the east coast to apartment hunt for a couple days. Likely by airplane.

A furnished unit would be ideal, so he would not have to move very much stuff. However, we may be looking at unfurnished to save money. The only big outlay I can think of for furnishing a home for him is a bed. We'll want another one for a guest room at our next home anyway. We have an extra tv, a chair, even a couch he could take. There are extra towels, sheets, kitchen utensils that we can do without here.

Interesting enough, I'm the one thinking about this more than him. Why is that? Ugh. Beyond stressful.

Please don't comment that DH should live on post. It is not an option for many reasons. If he could live there for free or cheap he would. He can't. This arrangement is our choice in lieu of moving our girls two times during the next school year.

I updated the sidebar to include our new loan for the truck. Our initial loan balance is $14,776.68. It is a four year loan with a monthly payment of $329.13. The first payment is due this Tuesday, so we will see the balance start to fall very soon.

I have left the truck savings ticker up since we were a little short on our $12,000 goal. We did put $12K down in cash and borrowed the amount we were short from savings. I will pay back the $78 at the end of this month.

Don't expect to see lots of extras going to pay down this debt right now. We are in status quo mode for at the least the next year since we expect extra expenses due to maintaining two households. We are still researching places for my husband to stay. I don't think we will know the impact this has to our finances until at least one or two months after he moves for school. Yep, I'm stressed about it to say the least!

The last two days have been full of home repairs, some more major than others. We exchanged out two toilet seats and a flapper (an internal toilet part). We replaced an outdoor light fixture, put mulch around all of our outside beds, replaced wood hand rails on our deck, as well as a few other rotted boards. We still need to stain or clean the deck in some way.

The biggest change was our kitchen sink. We went for a mid grade stainless steel sink and faucet. This cost us about $275. The old one was almond colored and no longer matched the white cabinets the previous owner created. Knowing we will sell in a year, we needed to get it out of there.

I noticed this morning that a neighbor was having a garage sale, so I put that old sink on the curb with a free sign. It was gone within 30 minutes! DH could not believe I would put out such a beat up sink. Ummm...it was still functional. Probably in better shape than many people have. I'm sure I could have made $10 to $20 on it. I really just wanted it gone fast. And it was gone fast!

Hae you ever set things out on the curb for free? Tell me about it.

Our siding and window man came back with an estimate to remove and replace siding on the front of our house and replace our sliding glass door: $2,779.

It's about $1200 more than I wanted to shell out. However, I do trust that this man will fix the leaks we have been having. This has to be done to eliminate issues when we go to sell the house next year. Apparently, the leaks are very common with houses as old as ours, since the builders didn't wrap houses the correct way then.

We just need to let him know that we want to proceed with the work. The work does not include painting the new siding, but it might be something we can do ourselves. Of course, he recommended someone too. Last year we had the whole house painted...so it is a bit ironic. At least we have some paint to work with.

Ah, the joys of home ownership!

Just thinking ahead to next year when we have to sell our home. DH will already be living in our new location (still yet to be determined).

I'm pondering the idea of selling our house without a real estate agent. We had really good success in selling our home in 2006 with an agent that was awesome to work with. Of course, we sold the house in 5 days too. But those agents cost money. In our case, we would pay over $10K to sell this house. I would love to be able to bank that money.

Has anyone personally sold their house without an agent? What tips would you give? What would you say the negative aspects were? The positive?

It's over 90 degrees here today. And it's humid. I should know, I just spent two hours outside for my daughter's field trip. Thank goodness for air conditioning. It is now running at our house. I think it was only 3 days ago, that the heat was coming on in the morning.

Have you turned on your air conditioning yet?

We have leaking windows. Well two, one of which is a sliding glass door. We are now looking at getting estimates for windows.

One man was just here and indicated that it may not be the window, but how the house was built. Apparently without adequate house wrap. This is likely true. A neighbor had a similar issue and the house wrap seemed to be the fix, too. So instead of window replacement we are looking at some siding replacement. We are having him price the sliding glass door replacement.

I am hoping for about $1500 to $2000. Of course, this was before I knew he was going to replace siding instead. I wonder what the result might be. I'll let you know, of course!

We decided to clean out our entertainment center last night. The girls and my husband found over 20 items to get rid of!! I checked an online site that pays cash. Their offer is about $42.

For now, I will list the items on half.com first to see if I can get a little more with a direct sell. Anything left over in a few weeks will get sold to the online site for cash.

I'm on to declutter other areas. No plans for a spring garage sale, but I might consider a summer of fall one if I find enough items. Otherwise, those items will also be donated.

I think I have some possible ebay items that I would like to get posted by next Sunday. I need to find where I put them!

Happy Mother's Day to all my SA friends!!

My husband sent in his travel voucher for his time on deployment the day after he returned, which was over three weeks ago. Just today we found out that it is being kicked back because it has the incorrect line of accounting. It is being sail mailed back for revision.

So...we wait.

This travel payment is worth over $1200 to us. So, I'd like to see it sooner rather than later. It seems every little drop off cash is more important lately. Which means I should probably start looking for things we can sell around here. At least it will keep me busy while we wait.

Did I tell you I lost a contact lens? I can't find it anywhere. I opened my case one morning and it was nowhere to be found. Down the drain? Eaten or played with by a cat? I'll never know. I've worn contacts for 24 years and have never lost one.

Yesterday I made an eye exam for today, since I was long over due as it was. I went and was prescribed my regular gas permeable lenses. My eye exam was covered by our insurance, but the contact lense measurement was $58, since it is not covered. My eye doctor is independent, but operates out of Pearle Vision. On my way out, I got a quote of $75 per lens. And a promise to match any other quote I might find. Since I was in a mall, I inquired at JC Penney optical, who quoted me $60 per lens. The representative there mentioned a sale starting the 15th of the month for 20% off per lens ($48). She wrote this on a business card for me.

I decided to make one last stop. Target Optical. They also quoted me $60 per lens. I asked if they could price match the sale that JC Penney will be offering later this month. Answer: Yes. $47.99 per lens. I was sold and ready to purchase. I used my Target Red Card for an additional 5% off, bringing each lens to $45.59!

By shopping around today for my contact lenses, I saved $58.82!! Not bad for about 20 minutes of my time. And did you notice that savings makes up for having to pay for the contact measurement fee?

I have found out that I could have ordered them online for even less, about $35 per pair. It seems like more of a hassle since I don't have a fax machine to mail my prescription from. Someday, I might try it.

Did you know I can make one set of lenses last nearly four years? Very cheap over time.

Do you wear contacts? What kind? How much do they cost you?

I had been contemplating a Costco membership recently after an offer arrived in my inbox. A basic membership costs $50. The offer was for points through MyPoints. There are definitely things I could buy there, specifically, generic zyrtec. For a years supply it would cost me about $16!

However, Costco is on the other side of town. I find pretty good deals at regular stores and don't have to store the bulky items.

Today, I found the same generic zyrtec on Amazon for the same price. No shipping either (not sure why). I decided to skip that Costco membership, save the $50 and avoid buying large bulk items just because they are a good deal.

Do you have a club membership? Do you think it is worth it? Can you find the same deals in other places?

Since my husband is now home from deployment we expect to see his paycheck amounts go lower. He no longer qualifies for tax exemption, or combat pays, worth nearly $1100 per month. Boy, it sure was nice!

I will need to rework the budget in light of lower paychecks, a new loan and an upcoming move for DH. I expect the next year to be tight particularly because of the move.

It seems I will need to start watching those pennies a little closer. I might need to decide about canceling the newspaper and the landline. So hard to give up, especially when those would only save us $50 or so a month. I would expect the groceries may be the bigger issue. It seems everytime I go to the grocery store in the last month some item has increased dramatically. Yesterday, it was shredded cheese. I will need to watch for these items on sale and stock up!

I know some of you reading have already cut back in light of job losses and paycheck reductions. It now appears to be our turn. Any advice?

I added some more money to the truck savings in the amount of $1,672. That brings the balance to $11,922!! Only $78 short. Wish I had won that in Vegas.

But the real news is that we bought a new to us truck yesterday! We bought a 2007 Honda Ridgeline with just over 23,000 miles. It has the leather seats and a navigation system...which are much more than we were originally looking for. It is now sitting in our driveway!

Since our goal was to put $12K down, we went ahead and borrowed the extra $78 from other savings. We financed under $15K for 48 months at 3.39%. Some of the sales tax and registration fees were added to our finance amount. So yes. More debt. It was so fun to put down that much cash for a vehicle!! I highly expect we will pay off the truck early as we usually do, but that will likely wait as a goal until after we have moved.

We now have two Honda vehicles (both 2007) that we expect to have for quite a few more years to come. It would be nice to get the girls to college at least before we buy our next vehicles. Full cash would be awesome!

We bought the truck used from a BMW dealership. While we were waiting to do paperwork, the salesman took a few moments to talk to us about how affordable a BMW can be. Using a lease! Ugh. So not into those...the lease. I'd take a BMW if I could afford one.

We are back from Las Vegas!! I don't know how much we spent yet, but boy did it seem like we were spending money left and right. Primarily food and drinks. We aren't big gamblers and actually did very little. We got off the strip a couple times to visit Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon. Amazing sites worth seeing.

I checked our retirement accounts today and we have reached another milestone with over $150K in investments!! It doesn't seem that long ago that we reached the $100K mark. I have been told in the past that reaching the $100K mark is key. Once you make it there and continue to invest the returns add up fast.

If your accounts are over $100K, have you noticed your accounts adding up faster than in the beginning?