First, a couple of updates. I have received another Pinecone Survey payment, and I made another transaction on my Capital One 360 Checking account. Just two more to go. My husband just needs to spend another $28 on the Capital One Quicksilver card. I'm waiting for the American Express card he applied for to arrive in the mail. Once it does, one of us will apply for the Southwest card.

I keep seeing a bank sign that flashes 3.00%APR. I stopped to watch it the other day. It's called Green Checking, so I'm assuming this is technically a high yield savings account. This might be our next best bet for some savings on our excess cash. I will get in soon to inquire further, as I can't find anything on the bank's website.

I have looked at other area banks for their high yield rates. Most don't give the rate for over $25K. There are always stipulations such as direct deposit, or 3-5 automatic bill payments, or 10 debit transactions.

Does anyone have a high yield checking account? How does yours work? Which rate are you getting? Is it worth it to you?

I finally have my

CapitalOne 360 referral link. I don't know that any of you want to use it, since the incentive for you is not as great as it was at the beginning of July during their Independence Day Sale. I receive $20 deposited in my account if you use my link for the 360 Checking account. If you open the savings account, I only get the $20, if your initial deposit is $250 or more. The interest rate is 0.75% APR. Thanks in advance if you use the link.

My total snowflakes for July so far total $133.47. I expect this to be much, much higher by the end of the month, since I should easily have another $400 in credit rewards redeemed by then. Thus my principal payment to the mortgage will be a nice big one compared to the $56 I sent in last month.

We started using the Capital One Quicksilver card two days ago. I used it to pay the electric, phone and internet bills, as well as that $75 speeding fine my husband incurred in May. We only need to spend $157.09 to meet the $500 spending requirement. We will then net $100 in Rewards. I expect we will use the card to buy fuel for our vehicles over the next two weeks and meet the requirement with no problem.

I'm only 70 Swagbucks away from redeeming another $25 PayPal cash deposit. I expect I can accumulate those by the end of the day.

How are you snowflakes coming along? Are you still looking for ways to accumulate snowflakes? Anyone selling on Ebay?

I went to the frequent flyer rewards site to see what the gift card options are. While they have over 50 stores, only a couple of them are ones we shop at frequently. Kohl's would be the best, but I don't spend $500 there...even in a year! I am not a fan of Walmart, but would shop there if I had a gift card.

There are several others gift cards that would be appealing for gifts. Specifically, Applebee's, Eddie Bauer and Bath & Body works. I'm sure I could make it work, but I really want the full value of the reward and not have to work so hard to get that value. Cash really appeals, not so sure about all these gift cards and airline miles.

I did see that this Southwest Rapids Rewards Visa offer is good through August 6, per a discussion on

FlyerTalk. Of course, it could change at any time. I'm going to mull it over another day or two. I still need to discuss with my husband as well.

In other financial news today, I did receive my $25 PayPal deposit from Swagbucks. I directed PayPal to deposit it, along with $3 from Pinecone, to my bank account. More snowflakes for July!!

Yes, we do participate in credit card rewards. We are responsible to pay them off on time without interest. We only charge what we would normally purchase and have the cash to pay off. Currently, all credit card rewards are helping to build equity in our home.

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards card is now offering 50,000 bonus points after $2,000 in purchases in 3 months. This is equal to two round trip airline tickets on Southwest or $500 in gift cards. There is a $99 annual fee for the Premier card, and $69 if you apply for the Plus version.

I was tipped off about this card offer from

MyMoneyBlog. I haven't decided weather to apply or not. I really don't like having to pay an annual fee...even once! I realize I would have a net gain.

I like that we could redeem the points for gift cards, so if I look at it as though I was putting my $99 on a gift card and gaining $401...then it does seem more appealing. I also think there is a possibility of flying for a vacation in the next 12 months, so that is actually appealing as well.

Will you jump on this card offer? Do you think it is worth the annual fee? Where do you fly on Southwest Airlines?

The American Express Blue Cash Everyday card shows the $150 in statement credits have been applied to the account. The new balance is now $1051. I will save this months payment I planned to make towards the Snowflakes for Equity. I will pay $150 per month on this card, until it is paid. It is 0% interest thus I'm not in a hurry to pay it off. The charge is for the trip my daughter will take to Washington DC in the spring.

My husband received a Capital One card in the mail today. It is Capital One Quicksilver. It will earn 1.5% cash rewards. I had not heard of this card, until I went looking for one for him to apply for. There are no rotating categories and rewards can be redeemed for cash or statement credits. He will earn $100 for making $500 in purchases. We will actually use it very soon to pay the electric bill. The rest will be our regular expenses and maybe a bike for one of our daughter's who is now ready to start riding again.

If anyone sees an offer for a Citi card for more than $150 in gift cards, I'd like the link. I was able to get $250 with the Citi Thank You Preferred card because I was mailed the offer. Right now I can't find anything online with an offer that good for him!

Am I making you dizzy with all this credit card offer reward stuff? It is really, really for those of us organized to keep track of it all. Please don't use credit cards if you can't avoid interest or late fees, or might not be organized enough to keep it all in check.

I officially have the first reward from the credit cards I opened to obtain bonus cash. And it is from Capital One in the amount of $105.07. The cash bonus was $100, plus the regular 1% cash back bonus. We spent just over $500 on the card to achieve the bonus.

Yesterday morning our balance on the card was $158.84, which was for our Verizon and Netflix bills. Since the cash rewards were available, I redeemed them as a credit to the balance. I paid the remainder of the balance ($53.77).

Since I used the credit rather than waiting for the check, I simply have set the $105.07 that would have been used to pay the bills mentioned above in our Snowflakes for Equity. So that is one of the first July snowflakes!

I am waiting for the Citi Thank You card statement to close to earn $250 in rewards. I originally thought I would have to redeem these for gift cards, but it looks like a statement credit is an option. I do see that it does need to be redeemed in an even denomination, but as long as I get the $250 that works for me! We ended up charging over $1400 on the card. I have paid all but $244. I actually should charge another $6+ to get to an even $250 so I can actually redeem the full $250 as a credit. I will then simply move our cash that would have been paid towards the bill to the Snowflakes for Equity.

I still don't have my Capital One referral code. I sent an email message stating the issue again to see if I can get it resolved today. I did not have the two deposits to confirm our bank account, so that hold up is delayed. I know that I can get a referral code eventually and there are always $20 referrals. I just know that anyone signing up is more likely to do so when there is a great bonus in it for them as well. I am happy that it has worked for everyone else!

Happy Snowflaking!!

If you aren't aware,

Capital One 360 is having a three day promotion that ends tomorrow. There are multiple ways to earn bonuses by opening different accounts. And you can even refer friends to earn additional bonuses.

I chose to open a checking and savings account. The checking account bonus is $100 and the savings bonus is $76. There are stipulations for both, of course. But they are easily obtained.

The checking account does not require a minimum balance but simply 5 debit card transaction or 5 mobile deposits or a combination of both. I deposited $100 and will make small purchases that would be part of our normal spending. I have 45 days to complete the transactions. The $100 bonus will be deposited on day 50. This will be taxable, but it's still extra money!!

The savings account requires a $500 deposit to earn the $76. That bonus is already pending in the account and will start earning interest today! The interest rate is 0.75%, which is competitive, but not the highest that I know of. The bonus will be available for redemption after 30 days. The $500 I transferred is some of the Christmas Snowflake money. I'm not shopping yet, so it might as well earn some interest.

There is a Refer a Friend promotion that could generate another $76. You refer two friend for $20. There is another $36 bonus given for the referral on July 31st. Unfortunately, I opened my savings account first and it put a hold on the accounts while the confirmation deposits are made. Thus I'm not eligible to refer at the moment. But once I am, I will post my referral link. If you sign up, try opening the checking account first!

I opened this as a single account and now I'm wondering if I can open another one for my husband. Anyone know the answer to this? Does this sound like an offer you might look into? Or have you done the offer already?

I sent $56 toward the principal on our mortgage today. This is money from Swagbucks and Pinecone surveys that I accumulated in June. Our regular payment was pending and the bank will add it to our regular payment to pull one payment from our bank account. I was able to specify that the money will go to principal.

It does seem strange to make a little extra payment, but I know that the small amounts add up to make a difference. It feels good to put money I don't need to live on to make a difference in our debt, which is the mortgage at this point.

Our goal isn't to pay it off, but to be in a good position when we need to sell for the next Army move. Luckily we have a few more years here to make a little difference.

Did you make an extra principal payment on your mortgage this month? Was your extra payment over or under $100?

Another good month for snowflakes this month. I seem to be doing really well at averaging over $100 per month. Last month was $170, so this month at $119 is well below, but this has been a really busy month. I didn't sell anything on Ebay or Craigslist.

Some of the snowflakes finished up the Christmas fund this month. Happy to meet that goal so early in the year. The remainder $56 is going to be applied to the mortgage to help increase the equity we have in the house. Right now I plan only to track the actual funds allocated towards the equity. There will be equity obtained by paying more to principal which means less interest, but that is a little harder to track here.

Thursday I was able to cash in more Swagbucks for a $25 deposit in my PayPal account. I also have a Pinecone survey to complete. Those two snowflakes will be allocated to July. I expect to count the credit card rewards in July, too!

Did you track your snowflakes for June? How did you do?

I believe we are now done with the three credit cards I took out in my name for the rewards. With the spending part that is! Now to pay them off before interest is due. Those companies are not getting one extra cent from us.

I charged the Washington DC trip early last week on the American Express Blue Cash Everyday card. That charge of $1201 has posted. And the rewards of $150 are already available! I plan to redeem the reward and put the $150 I would have paid into the equity fund. I will do this when I pay bills this weekend. Right now my plan is to pay the money off at a rate of $150 per month, since the account is 0% for over a year. I will keep you posted, so you know I'm keeping my promise to pay it off.

The Citi card was just under $500 in charges when we left for vacation. I have not added up our expenses yet, but I can see the balance on the card is around $885. There are also charges of over $300 pending, so we can put a fork in that card. We have met the $1000 in spending to redeem $250 in gift cards once the rewards post. I will also have this card paid down right away when I pay bills this weekend. I'll keep you updated.

I think I mentioned that I'm just waiting for one more charge to post to the Capital One card to meet the $500 in spending. It is our Verizon bill of $150. Since I'm expecting $100 in rewards, my plan is wait for the rewards to post and redeem as a credit, pay the balance and save the $100+ in rewards in the equity account. I might change my mind and wait for a check, but I doubt it.

Now...I have to talk to DH about applying for these same cards, so we can start the cycle again for another $500 to $600 in rewards!

We are currently taking advantage of credit card bonus and reward offers to make a little cash since we can't get good interest rates on our savings with out increased risk. While credit cards do involve risk, it is risk we able to manage by charging only our regular expenses and paying them off right away. I only suggest this to those responsible enough to avoid any interest charges.

I don't have much time to write this but I wanted to post a quick update. We have had a low key weekend, and spent part of our day with the other Army families at my husband's unit. We met his co-workers for the first time and many very nice family members. It was a good day.

The spending on the credit cards for the rewards is going well. As I said before, we will meet the minimum $500 spending on the Capital One card at the end of the month when our Verizon bill posts to the account. I just got the first statement, so I expect the rewards to be applied by the next statement. I paid for the Washington DC trip with the American Express Blue Cash Everyday card this week. That card also had a $500 minimum purchase limit, and we easily met that since the trip was just over $1,200.

In the meantime, we are working on the $1000 of purchases on the Citi Thank You Preferred card. At last check we have spent $460.70, so we are nearly halfway there. Our vacation expenses will be charged to the card, thus I expect we'll be over the minimum to receive the rewards by the end of the week.

Quick enough? I'll get more details to you when we return from vacation.

I booked three nights of hotel stays for our mini vacation get away. Total cost $172.48!

Here's how it is going down:

First two nights will be at a Marriott Residence Inn. We will get the government rate of $77 a night for a two room suite. We will get a King bed and the girls will take a pull out couch. They serve free breakfast and have a manager's reception in the evenings we are there. There is a kitchenette, if we decide to eat in for a meal or two. We do like to eat out on vacations, but at least it is an option. With tax the total stay will be $172.48.

The third night is in another town. We will stay at a Hampton Inn. We used Hilton Honors points we accumulated last year during out long extended stay in a hotel during our move to make this hotel stay FREE! We get free breakfast at this hotel as well.

An average of $57.50 a night is not bad in my opinion. And considering we should get three breakfasts and two dinners for four people included makes the deal even more valuable.

Our other costs will be fuel for the van, additional food and snacks, and admission to some attractions. We hope to have a nice mix of free activities in there as well. I think it will turn out to be just enough time away and low on the vacation expenditure scale as well.

Do you like to stay at hotels that include a meal? Do you save up points for free hotel stays? And don't you think it takes forever to rack these stays up? I do!!

I finally had to verify my account with Swagbucks today. I had redeemed $25 PayPal this weekend and it was refunded. I reordered and was prompted to verify my account. I did this by text message. The other option was snail mail. And now my PayPal money has been reordered!

It's a low key weekend here. It's hot and muggy, my husband had two wisdom teeth pulled Friday and we were busy with the art fair last weekend. It feels good to stay relaxed.

I have earned enough Swagbucks for ANOTHER $25 PayPal cash deposit. This will make $350 from Swagbucks since the beginning of the year. Not bad, huh?

I took a walk around the neighborhood, stopped at a garage sale and bought two hanging shoe holders for $1 each. I will use them in hall closets to keep gloves, hats, sunscreen, umbrella and such organized. They are a pretty teal and black floral too!

My husband's wisdom teeth were not impacted, but needed to come out due to cavities. Since they are far back in the mouth they could not be drilled, thus just a basic visit to have them pulled. He says it would taken an Act of Congress to get approval to have not impacted teeth pulled by an oral surgeon, which is what he wanted to do. Turns out he did fine. Now he's a little groggy on Vicodin and Aleve! As military member he will not have to pay out of pocket. Even the Vicodin was free. We did have to pay for the Aleve and some extra gauze pads, which was about $7.

I've been cleaning and doing laundry today. If the humidity drops, I hope to mow (might need gas) and get to the grocery store tomorrow. I hope to buy enough groceries to last through the end of the month. We do have a few vacation days before the end of the month so a few less meals needing to be cooked at home.

This evening we do have to go out to attend a chamber concert my oldest daughter is performing in. Last night we got to hear her play a duet on her flute with a harpist. So pretty!! The concert is free.

Are you doing anything outside of your home that is free entertainment today or tomorrow? What is your best free thing to do outside of your home?

The Citi Thank You Preferred card that I received earlier this month has been used just a little in the amount of $25.11. There actually was a statement issued already! That amount has been paid as of this evening.

This card has a $1000 minimum purchase to earn $250 in gift cards. We have three months to meet the goal. We will use it for everything we normally purchase and our small in state vacation at the end of the month. I expect by the end of the month we will have met the goal. Just $974.89 to go.

In fact, I did use this card today for fuel in my van, a gift card for my dad, and a book of stamps, which was around $85. I think my husband probably used it to pay for his haircut.

I do have a few out of the norm expenses that can be charged if needed. Prescription sunglasses and flute maintenance specifically.

The spending needed on these cards for the $500 in rewards bonuses is going fast. I may have my husband apply for these cards soon, so we have them on hand for another round of rewards. He will be able to apply for one additional card, Chase Freedom, so his ability to earn some rewards will be slightly larger, $600 I think.

On another note, I'm just 500 Swagbucks from earning another $25 gift card. I have not made goal at least two days this week. I wouldn't have anyway with vacation planned for later in the month. I don't want to be glued to Swagbucks when I can be enjoying my family and the beautiful scenery of the Mississippi River, right?!

Are you taking a vacation this summer? Are you flying or driving? Are you staying close to home? Who is traveling the farthest away?

Using credit cards to obtain rewards is only for those with cash to pay off purchases right away before interest accrues. And those organized enough to keep track of the charges, and due dates. We are not making purchases we wouldn't be making normally. All rewards are to bulk up the savings in our down payment fund.

The Citi Thank You Preferred card that I received earlier this month has been used just a little in the amount of $25.11. There actually was a statement issued already! That amount has been paid as of this evening.

This card has a $1000 minimum purchase to earn $250 in gift cards. We have three months to meet the goal. We will use it for everything we normally purchase and our small in state vacation at the end of the month. I expect by the end of the month we will have met the goal. Just $974.89 to go.

In fact, I did use this card today for fuel in my van, a gift card for my dad, and a book of stamps, which was around $85. I think my husband probably used it to pay for his haircut.

I do have a few out of the norm expenses that can be charged if needed. Prescription sunglasses and flute maintenance specifically.

The spending needed on these cards for the $500 in rewards bonuses is going fast. I may have my husband apply for these cards soon, so we have them on hand for another round of rewards. He will be able to apply for one additional card, Chase Freedom, so his ability to earn some rewards will be slightly larger, $600 I think.

On another note, I'm just 500 Swagbucks from earning another $25 gift card. I have not made goal at least two days this week. I wouldn't have anyway with vacation planned for later in the month. I don't want to be glued to Swagbucks when I can be enjoying my family and the beautiful scenery of the Mississppi River, right?!

Are you taking a vacation this summer? Are you flying or driving? Are you staying close to home? Who is traveling the farthest away?

Using credit cards to obtain rewards is only for those with cash to pay off purchases right away before interest accrues. And those organized enough to keep track of the charges, and due dates. We are not making purchases we wouldn't be making normally. All rewards are to bulk up the savings in our down payment fund.

I began using the Capital One card this weekend while we were at my daughter's art fair exhibit ($550 in gross sales). It was at a town 30 minutes away, thus we ate out a little bit and treated my parents to dinner at home after the event ended on Sunday.

As it stands now, I have actual charges on the Capital One card in the amount of $348.44. These charges are as follows:
$_42.05 Z Restaurant
$_26.75 Art Fair purchase
$__3.20 Frozen yougert
$_59.94 Fuel for my van
$_53.34 Groceries
$_15.23 Michael's (frames)
$127.09 Electric bill
$_20.84 Laptop battery
$348.44 Total Purchases

Our Netflix subscription will be charged to the card on June 20 for $7.99. On June 29 when my Verizon wireless bill posts to the account in the amount of $150.85 we will meet the $500 minimum purchase requirement to receive the $100 reward.

Payday is Friday and I'm juggling a few cards and due dates, but there will be payments made to this card before one statement is even issued. Gotta love online management of credit cards and cash rewards!

Using credit cards to obtain rewards is only for those with cash to pay off purchases right away before interest accrues. And those organized enough to keep track of the charges, and due dates. We are not making purchases we wouldn't be making normally. All rewards are to bulk up the savings in our down payment fund.

My Christmas fund goal this year is $750. Today I just received the final snowflake of cash to complete it! And it was the most unexpected snowflake ever...a check for $13.26 for a Diamond Class Action Settlement. I must have filled out a claim form all the way back in 2008(according to the website) Those legal filings and claims take forever!!

The balance of the Snowflakes for Christmas fund was $688 at the end of May. I have received $25 from USAA rewards, $25 in PayPal fund earned through Swagbucks and now a check for $13.26. That means June earnings are $63.26 and my Snowflakes for Christmas now total $751.26.

Now that wasn't hard at all since those small amounts of money just add right up! Have you meet a financial goal with snowflakes of cash recently? Have you received an class action settlement check, EVER? Was it big or little?

I did get the other two credit cards I applied for in the mail today. I still have to activate them. As I use them, I will show you what expenses we are using them for and how we will earn some extra funds towards our mortgage down payment.

I received another snowflake from Swagbucks in the amount of $25. It was deposited in my PayPal account. I will be putting that money in our Christmas Fund. With this money and the rewards I got the earlier this month I'm just $12 away from this years goal!!

I've been a member of MyPoints for a few years, but I stopped the emails a few months ago. As a result, I forgot about that avenue to earn gift cards. I recently remembered it. It is a much slower earning rate, so my goal is to get another 200+ points and redeem my final gift card. After that I will close the account.

Our weekend will be spent at an art fair in a nearby town, where my daughter is exhibiting and hoping to sell prints of her drawings for the very first time. We will actually have to collect sales tax! We have never done that before, but will include it in the sales price to make sales simple for customers. I also got to use my rusty Excel skills to figure our costs, tax and profit on each piece of art work.

Do you buy art? Do you budget for it or buy it spontaneously?

My American Express Blue Cash Everyday card arrived in the mail today. I forgot that this card has 0% interest through September 2014, just like the Citi Thank You card I applied for.

I will use one of the cards to make the full payment for the Washington DC trip, which I must do by the end of the month. This way I can make payments towards the balance over the course of the year without paying any interest or dipping into other cash savings. If I used the AE card, the rewards are offered as a statement credit, so this would work well for redeeming.

I expect to pay off the balance long before the trip in April, but at least I have a little wiggle room and can control when I pay it off. This way is much better than making payments directly with the travel company as they charge all sorts of processing fees. Yuck. I also have the protection from the credit card company if anything goes awry with the travel agency.

The bonus offer on the AE card is $150 for spending just $500. This transaction will be $1250, so there is no problem meeting the minimum. The rewards are given as a statement credit as I understand it. I will redeem at one time when I would have made a payment and keep the payment money in cash to save towards our mortgage goal.

It does help, I think, to use the card for large transactions, rather than a lot of little ones. It is just easier to manage and track the where I am in meeting the requirements.

Anyone know of any good bonus offers for opening any other type of account, brokerage, checking or savings? I'd be interested in those offers as well as a way to bring in extra cash to meet our goals.

I redeemed some rewards with USAA over the weekend and it posted to our checking account yesterday. The amount was $25!

I only need $62 this month to meet the Christmas Fund goal, so this recent redemption is very helpful. I will be even closer once my last Swagbucks redemption actually arrives in my PayPal account.

I did get my free plants in the ground yesterday. Boy, am I sore from digging up that 6x9 space! I did buy $18 worth of mulch today for the bed, but it is now raining.

The girls are officially done with school. I'm looking forward to less driving and getting more organized around the house. I hope I can find some things to sell on eBay or Craigslist while I'm at.

The bad news is our water bill went up this month. We did do some deep watering for awhile this spring to make sure that the sod planted late in the fall really took. I think it was worth the extra $20+.

Have a super frugal Tuesday!

May was a productive month for snowflakes once again. I accumulated $170.02 without much effort. I like that!

Here's the breakdown:



This money has been added to the Snowflakes for Christmas fund. The goal is to accumulate $750, and with this month's additions, my total in the fund is now at $688!! I only need another $62 to meet my goal. That should be no problem to meet in June.

After I meet the Christmas Fund goal, all snowflakes will then go towards the mortgage. I know that small amounts make a difference over time so I know these will make a difference in the amount of interest we pay.

Check out

my last two posts to see my new plan for accumulating more income while spending. If I can't get the interest rates, might as well play the credit card game!

How did your snowflake accumulations work for May? Do you have a goal for June?

As I mentioned in my

previous post, I am applying for credit cards to take advantage of the bonus offers available. This will help earn some income, since these crazy low interest rates don't offer much.

I was approved for Citi Thank You Preferred where I will spend $1000 in 3 months and earn $250 in gift cards. This offer arrived in the mail.

American Express approved me for the Blue Cash Everyday card. I will need to spend $500 in three months and will receive $150 in statement credits.

And finally, I was approved for the Capital One Cash Rewards card. I also need to spend $500 in three months to earn $100 cash.

I attempted to apply for the Citi Dividend Platinum Select card right after I was approved for the City Thank You card, but was denied. I'm sure it is because it is the same company and they just extended me credit. That is fine.

I went looking for another card, and was thinking about applying for the NFL card that offers $200 in statement credits after one purchase...but unfortunately it is not available in my state. Darn. There are other offers out there that I may consider at another time, but for now, this is enough.

If you totaled up the rewards that brings me to $500 in cash rewards for these three credit cards and only need to spend $2000 in the next three months. Once I see we will achieve these, I will have my husband apply for the same cards and start the cycle over again.

Originally, I thought I could get $700 in rewards, instead of the $500. I lost out on $100 because I was denied for the one Citi Card. I also 'lost' another $100 because I opted to apply for the Blue Cash Everyday card, instead of the Blue Cash Preferred card which had a $75 annual fee.

Anyone else applying for credit to obtain rewards? What do you do with the cash rewards you earn?

I earned $3 from a Pinecone survey and received the samples in the mail to try. I expect that money to arrive in my Paypal account tomorrow. I will do a May Snowflake update on Friday.

I've been earning my Swagbucks, reading my library book, taking walks, cleaning, sewing and planning our vacation, thus not much spending other than gas and groceries. And those alone add up fast!

We will be going to a graduation out of town this weekend. Thus more spending on gas and eating. We will write my niece a $50 check. We already wrote in a simple note card, rather than buying a 'special' graduation card. Again, don't most people just toss or recycle cards anyway?!

We know we can use some hotel points for one night in a hotel. We expect to be away three or four nights, so that helps a little. I hope to take a cooler along since it is a road trip. At a minimum, snacks(fresh fruit) and drinks (water) can be bought ahead of time to save us from making convenience purchases! I'm willing to eat lunch and breakfast out of the cooler. We have already found several free things to do so I think we will have a fun time traveling the scenic byway of the Mississippi. I expect we will use a credit card for the vacation expenses to earn some cash back. We will pay for it in full upon our return, of course!

Thinking ahead to big expenses coming up in the next few months: prescription sunglasses for oldest daughter, new sneakers for both girls, school tuition, flute maintenance repairs, band camp fees, few more summer clothes for each of us, mulch for a garden bed we are carving out, two trees for our back yard, gifts for the daughter turning 13, and the deposit on the Washington DC trip.

That's the money mish mash for today!

I thought I'd add on to my

blog post from this morning and let you know that I did accumulate more than 89 SBs. I ended the day with 220 SB, with 9 of those from a referral which do not get added to the daily goal. Thanks, phantorn, for the referral bucks!



I did another survey on Peanut Labs for 48 SB. I had three search wins today for a total of 23 SBs. There were a few more offers in my Inbox. I did several rounds of SBTV and Games this evening while my family was watching Spiderman 3. Todays Swag Code was 'BraveSoldiers' which earned me 8 SBs.

This is a typical Swagbucks day for me. The movie was 2 hours and 20 minutes, and the additional Swagbuck's were earned during this time. Of course, I wasn't completely Swagbucks focused, but it is one way to get Swagbucks during 'down' time.

Here are the screen shots of my actual earnings today:




I hope this helps understand a little bit more what Swagbucks is about and how you can earn actual cash and gift cards with this site for free. Again, if you want to get started, click here to use my referral link.

Now, what I really want to know is: What are you going to do with your Swagbucks?

Several people have been asking about how to accumulate as many

Swagbucks as I do. I will admit, I'm a bit addicted, but I also know that it is possible to make goal everyday without much effort.

As determined by the Swagbucks site, today's goal was 60 Swagbucks. This is an average goal. Most days are higher, but occasionally the goal is even lower.



I start first with completing the daily tasks, which are listed under the goal. This includes the daily poll and 'skipping' through the NOSO offers. The toolbar task is automatic, since, I have the Swagbucks toolbar downloaded on my browser. That is 4 Swagbucks right away.

I then jump over to watch SBTV. You receive 3 SB's for every 10 videos you watch, you don't have to watch the entire thing. Once the meter on the page moves up, you can switch to another video. I try to leave the meter at 90% the evening before, so that I can watch one video and earn 3 SB's very quickly in the morning to meet goal. Now I'm at 7 SB's.

While the SBTV videos start running, I attempt to search for things. Today, I probably search five or six things before I got a 9 SB search win. Now I'm at 16 SBs for the day.

I checked my Inbox, where I had two offers for 3 SBs each. These offers involved clicking on 6 different videos. This brings my total SBs for the day to 22.

While some of those Inbox videos were running, I went to check out the surveys. I try the ones with the most SBs for the least amount of time first. I was disqualified for the first one. I did receive 1 SB for trying. They give you up to five of these per day. Now I'm at 23SBs.


I do skip around on the site, so now I'm over at the Special Offers page where I right away go to the Radium One page, where I seem to have good luck. Peanut Labs is good too. I find the coupons offer where I click the link, pick a coupon, and print it. I technically don't print it out unless I really want it. My computer loads it into the que, but I go in and delete it. This earns me 9SB, which is not instant, but usually credits within 5 to 10 minutes. I do this offer EVERYDAY. While I'm on Radium One, I click on the 1 point offers, which link to Health Guru videos. Usually, you can just let them load and run and receive the point. Sometimes you need to click through the slides. The offer states what is needed. I earned 7SBs from those small offers. My total is now at 39SBs.



I end up back over at the surveys. I complete a survey worth 50SBs. The offer stated it would take 20 minutes, but it had to be less than 10 minutes total. It was about healthy cereals. At this point, I am way over the goal of 60 SBs, with 89 SBs.



The nice thing is I can be done for the day if I don't have any more time. Meeting goal nets me an extra 6 SBs. These are accumulated during the month and paid out by the fifth of the following month is a lump sum.

If I have time, I can still search the internet for more wins, play 10 rounds of games to earn another 10 SBs. I can also look for free offers to sign up for. I can run SBTV while I'm doing other things online. I also check the Swagbucks Facebook page for updates on offers and surveys that credit as well as any Swag Codes that may be released (usually one per day). I can also go back and look for surveys that I might qualify for. At a minimum, I should get another 4 SBs for getting disqualified.




I hope this run through of my morning Swagbucks routine helps. The survey I did today did help it go fast, which I always appreciate. Again, I am a little addicted and likely spend too much time on Swagbucks. I would encourage you to start slow, do only what you can and feel comfortable doing, and make your own goal. If you would like an extra $5 to spend at Amazon.com you only need to earn 15 SBs per day to accumulate the 450 Swagbucks needed to pick one up. I think I've shown you that it is pretty easy to get to 15 SBs per day. Once you get the hang of it you might even earn more than that.

Got it now? More questions? Post them in the comments. Ready to sign up? Here is my referral link.

I just redeemed more Swagbucks for a $25 PayPal deposit. I don't think this will arrive before the end of the month, but if it does it gets counted towards this month's snowflakes!

I did spend some money today because I met up with an old neighbor and good friend. Lunch at Subway was $7. Spent $10 on a 'string bag/backpack' for my daughter. And splurged on a wonderful smelling perfume at Banana Republic for $5. There were many other things I could have bought, but I'm a good frugal girl and refrained.

My friend brought me a nice bar of soap and an angel friendship ornament. A late mother's day gift. So sweet of her to think of me.

I opened a Rollover IRA at Vanguard for my husband. He signed the paperwork to transfer the last of his money at Fidelity. I dropped it in the mail this morning. Things feel simpler already.

My husband will be home for four days for the Memorial holiday weekend. I hope we can keep spending a little low, but he mentioned landscaping last night. I'm just not ready for big, BIG expenses right now.

Will you have different expenses for the holiday weekend? Will you spend more or less than usual?

On Monday, I spent $78 at the vet's office. Our oldest cat had something going on with her lip and chin. Could have been a wasp sting. Not sure. Injections of antihistamine and antibiotic have seemed to put her eating well again.

Received $5 Target gift card, after purchase of some feminine products. I will add this to the snowflakes along with the $25 that just arrived in my PayPal account. Funny thing is I'm getting close to redeeming Swagbucks for another one!

The transfer of my husband's Roth IRA from Fidelity to Vanguard is complete as of Monday. I will now have him fill out the paper work to move a Traditional IRA to Vanguard and hope the final transfer goes just as fast.

I did a little shopping yesterday and picked up 6 pairs of socks and three greeting cards at Kohl's using one of their $10 coupons. I spent just over $2 out of pocket. I picked up a frame needed for a gift, for $5 plus tax, after using their 40% off coupon. And at Ulta, I wanted to purchase three of one product that was Buy 2, Get 1 Free. They only had one in stock. I was able to use a 20% off coupon and was give an rain check for Buy 1, Get 1 free, so that I effectively could still get the deal. Nice service there!

Have you received any good deals lately?

Our community is having a garage sale day today. It looks like two neighbors are participating. I wish I was. But many factors were against me.

I don't have much stuff. We don't buy much. We use what we have. There is always something to get rid of, but not always the stuff you sell at a garage sale. My girls aren't giving up there stuff as easily as when the were younger.

I missed the deadline to submit my address before I even remembered to consider it. Oops! I'm sure I could still put things out and it wouldn't be a big deal. So this was a minor factor.

My DH returned home last night from his annual training. It just didn't seem right to hold a sale the day after he returned home. We would much rather spend time together than sit in our garage.

There will be other times to have a sale. In the meantime, I'm going to walk down and check the two on our block out and possibly meet some of our new neighbors.

Will you hold a garage sale this year?

Yes, I'm still snowflaking for Christmas, but the additions seem a little slow right now, thus lack of updates. I have accumulated $134.02 so far this month, which is pretty good. It's nice to think I could reach our goal by the end of June at this rate. Which means I could actually shop at those Christmas in July sales! Eh...probably not though.

_$50.00 Swagbucks
_$70.25 Chase Rewards
__$4.78 ATM rebates/interest
__$8.99 Ebay sale
$134.02 May Total To Date

I did redeem another $25 PayPal deposit from Swagbucks that should arrive before the month ends. I also redeemed my points with Pinecone yesterday, so I should have $3 arriving sometime today. With those additions. I will need just under $75 to meet my goal of $750. It does seem I'm on track like I was last year because I accumulated over $1400 in snowflakes. In fact, I might be ahead of the game.

This year snowflakes beyond the $750 are getting put towards are mortgage. I need to be adding money in there when I can and this seems like the first place to start.

I found out my daughter has just one flute lesson left before the school year ends. The teacher is offering six lessons during the summer, with a mini recital. We can probably make five lessons. I like know we will save a little bit because we don't have those fees those weeks.

I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to snowflake debt. Have you found new sources or interesting ways to accumulate them? Do you have a year to date snowflake total?

Our homeowner's insurance is increasing for the next year by $87.61. That works out to be $7.30 a month. Can't complain. It just seems these types of bills go up every year!

We have at least $85 in credit rewards that I may redeem soon to add to the snowflake fund. I likely will wait another 10 days for the current billing cycle to close, so that I can redeem any new rewards. I figure I might as well add this to my $750 sooner than later. Once I meet that goal all other snowflakes will be saved for the next mortgage down payment. Just ready to get to the next goal!!

I also redeemed more Swagbucks for $25 in PayPal cash. Meeting goal everyday helps build those Swagbucks up fast. I think I'm averaging about $50 per month.

It is beautiful weather here in the Midwest. I will be getting my exercise in the yard today mowing the grass. I also need to decide where to put some garden beds, too. I will take the girls with me to Menard's this weekend to pick out flowers to plant for Mother's Day. This is a bit of a tradition, as my husband is often away on that day. It just times out right that it is time to buy the annuals at the same time Mother's Day rolls around. I will use Menard's credit to pay for the flowers and potting soil.

I can't forget to make a grocery run. We may be able to wait until tomorrow. Right now I think we have enough food to sustain ourselves. In fact, we may be able to go farther than we think!

Oh, and I still have not decided on Mother's Day gifts for my mother or mother in law, but I'm leaning on sewing something for each of them. I think they will appreciate them. As long as I have everything I need on hand, my only cost will be postage which will be minimal for mailing something made of fabric.

Looks like I will be busy today. I better get moving!!