April was a very nice month for little bits of money flowing in. It's hard to call them snowflakes in spring! The cash was from Swagbucks, a credit card bonus reward, refund of ATM fees, an eBay sale, and a Pinecone survey. The total for the month was $98.96!



I will have a jump start on May because I see this morning that another deposit was made from Swagbucks in my PayPal account. I also am waiting for my latest eBay purchase to clear since the buyer sent an eCheck.

The total for Snowflakes since the beginning of the year is $517.98. The goal is $750, which at this rate will be no problem by the time Christmas rolls around. Snowflake really do add up!!

Anyone have a new source of snowflakes? What would you say is your primary source of snowflakes? Right now mine seems to be Swagbucks, but in the past I would have said eBay sales.

I don't even know really what we have been spending our money on! It just seems like there is no money left at the end of the pay period. Payday is Wednesday and I don't expect to spend much of anything. I have enough gas, not sure about my husband though.

I need to pay the flute teacher $20 if my daughter feels up to going. She came down with a very rough cold this weekend. She will text me after band today to let me know whether she wants to go to the lesson. I'd actually like to save the money.

My husband leaves for his annual training later this week and will be gone a good portion of the month. I hope he won't have time to spend much money there. This could mean some extra savings. I hope!

I will pay bills tomorrow and hope there is some money that can be saved. Of course, I'm very grateful that we are not going into debt. We always have the cash to cover our needs and clearly some wants.

I have one item on Ebay that ends this morning. It will sell, so that is some money flowing in! It's all good, right?

I checked my spam folder tonight, which I rarely do. Turns out I was receiving Pinecone Survey requests in the last couple weeks. I just didn't know it since they were in my spam folder! I was able to complete one survey tonight, but it seems I missed out on a couple others.

I wonder if this explains why I still have not been paid for returning a product to them. Maybe they thought I was inactive. Well, I'm active again as of tonight and will receive my $3 tomorrow in my PayPal account.

All Pinecone Survey money is added to my Snowflakes for Christmas fund. I was able to redeem my Swagbucks today for $25 in my PayPal account. I hope I receive that money by the end of the month, so I can count it towards this months snowflake total!

The only thing I have purchased since Sunday is gas for my van. I must not have filled up my van the last couple of weeks, because gas prices seemed lower to me. It still cost me over $50 to fill up my tank. I need to fill up about every 7-8 days right now.

That's all the news from here for now!

I noticed that I have some rewards with USAA. One was a $25 credit on our credit card statement for having spent over $250 at a home improvement store. We purchased a storm door, which easily helped us reach the goal for that reward. I will pay off the card and add $25 to our Christmas fund by the end of the month.

We also have accumulated enough reward points with USAA to redeem for $25. I will wait to redeem those until later in the year and hope there are more points to redeem at that time.

I plan to put two to three items up on Ebay tomorrow night. The proceeds will be added to our Christmas fund as well.

I've decided that if I accumulate more than $1000 in snowflakes this year, that I will put the remainder elsewhere. My first instinct is to put the money towards our mortgage, but the second thought is to start using it to fund vacations. Once I get to the $1K mark, I will decide for sure.

I'm also very close to earning that next $25 from Swagbucks that I will redeem for PayPal cash. It will take another three to four days most likely as I'm at 1925 SB's.

Anyone earning any great snowflakes, credit or debit card rewards? Selling on Ebay or craigslist?

I went to Menard's today to have our storm door price adjusted. We purchased the door for $299 plus tax. At the time there was an 11% rebate promotion going on, so I did send that in. The day after we purchased the door, it was on sale for $269. Whoa. A 10% mark down.

Menard's is a home improvement store if you aren't familiar with the name. They are interesting in that any rebates they offer come back to you in the form of a merchandise credit check. This can only be used in their stores.

Right now we have about $40 worth of rebates being processed, plus today I had the door price adjusted which resulted in another credit at the store in the amount of about $32!

I'm sure we will be buying more things there as summer arrives, so not a big deal that the money is a credit, but sometimes I really wish they would just give cash back!!

Do you like cash back as store credit or cash? Are you aware of Menard's? Do you like the store, or prefer others?

I may be old fashioned for still balancing my checkbook. The checkbook is a free excel program/spreadsheet I found online. It does all the math for me!

This month there were errors, just not the math type. I input an ATM withdrawal twice. I typed our mortgage amount as $15 more than normal. And I included a transaction that should have been on the credit card. It was a return that I recorded in the checkbook as a deposit.

With those errors, I was showing we had about $34 less in the account than we actually did. This is always better than having more than you think you do!

Do you still track and balance your checking account?

P.S. I'm about to redeem more Swagbucks for $25 in PayPal cash. If you are interested in earning rewards too, click the link on my sidebar to join for free!

The two clothing items I had on Ebay last week netted me $12.93. Not bad for used clothing! This snowflake will get added to the Christmas Fund.

I read our town's newsletter and noticed they are sponsoring a city wide garage sale on Saturday, May 18. I don't really know if I have enough stuff for a sale on my own, but I do have things. We even have furniture I might be willing to put on a sale. I think this is going to be a way to meet some neighbors...I need to join forces with someone with lots of stuff!

I would apply any furniture proceeds to new furniture. We have two couches that are showing extreme wear now that we have had them 17 years! Our kitchen table is still functional, but is just as old, worn, and dated. Something to think about as this sale draws nearer.

Anyone else selling on Ebay, or gearing up for a spring garage sale? Did you find any new snowflakes this week?

The capri pants I purchased for my daughter yesterday at Old Navy were free!! Based on their website, I expected them to be about $20. At the store they were marked at $15. I redeemed my $15 rewards to make them absolutely free. No sales tax was charged. I simply exchange my paper rewards coupon for a piece of clothing!!

I've had an Old Navy Visa card for years. We primarily bought the girls clothes there. Occasionally, I would make purchases outside of the brand during special reward promotions. However, my oldest daughter finds their clothes don't fit her body. The youngest is on the final girls size for pants and no longer likes the shirt offerings in her size. I would say our Old Navy shopping days are over, therefore, I expect to cancel this card by the end of the year. I'd rather use a regular card at this point to get cash rewards I can use anywhere.

Do you have any store cards you keep for the rewards or special offers?

I already have some snowflakes for April!

I cashed in Swagbucks for $25 in PayPal cash. I could have picked up Amazon.com gift cards, but decided that I like the cash better.

I have two items on Ebay. One has a bid. The other is being watched. So more April snowflakes on their way.

Do you see snowflakes in your future?

My youngest daughter tried on her capri pants from last year and found that they were too small. Not surprised! So I listed them on Ebay tonight. Might as well get them listed now since the weather is beginning to warm up.

In other news, we found out my oldest daughter, age 16, was accepted to exhibit her art in the Emerging Artists pavilion at a nearby art fair this June. She is thrilled. She isn't really interested in selling her original work, but we hope to display many of the drawings and find a way to make prints that can be sold.

So...it seems like another avenue to earn a little college money! If this goes well, I hope I can get her going on Etsy. Anyone have any tips to suggest for a first time art fair participant?

March was an exceptional month for snowflakes. I found snowflakes in our house which I sold on Ebay. I received a snowflake reward from our bank. There were lots of snowflakes from Swagbucks. And Pinecone sent two surveys for even more snowflakes. See what I mean? Snowflakes were everywhere!

Here's the breakdown:

Last month my total Snowflakes for Christmas was $216.07. Once I add in the $202.95 from March, the new total is $419.02. More than half way to the goal of $750!

In my opinion, one can snowflake their way to any goal. Savings or debt, they both work! How are you using your snowflakes?

I will be back on Monday to update where we are on our yearly goals since, the first quarter will be complete at that point. I hope you will consider joining me by commenting on my blog or posting to your own blog.

I said I wasn't going to list any more things on Ebay for awhile, but when I received the mail on Tuesday, I changed my mind. In the mail box, was a lunch bag from Lean Cuisine. I sold two of them last week, rather quickly, so I put this latest one up and it sold within 24 hours.

I received the Lean Cuisine lunch bags free by entering in codes from meals we purchased. Not exactly free because we did outlay money for the meals. A nice bonus for something we buy anyway.

Lean Cuisine just sold out of this years free lunch bags, so I suppose the price they may attract on Ebay will be higher. Maybe I should have waited!

At any rate, I have $8.37 to add to the Christmas Fund. March has been a good month for snowflakes. I will update you on my monthly results tomorrow!

Have you ever sold a promotional item on Ebay or elsewhere?

We are actually getting snow here in the Midwest. It has been falling all day, but it is melting on the roads, driveway and sidewalks. My kind of snow!

I sold three items on Ebay this week for $15.93. I will net less after fees, of course. Two items didn't sell. I may relist those another time. For now, I'm taking an Ebay break.

I earned enough Swagbucks to redeem for another $25 PayPal deposit. The second for this month. The first one just arrived in my PayPal account tonight.

All of those snowflakes will be added to the 2013 Christmas Fund as usual! I will post an update next week to show the total of all March snowflakes and where I stand on this years goal.

Are you in an area with snow? Did you earn any snowflakes this week? What kind?

I made a quick run to our Super Target today to get a few groceries. I made sure to grab my coupons. I buy a lot of off brand items, so coupons don't always apply. However, Target does have grocery coupons on their website that are easy to print off and often good for many of their private brand items.

These are the coupons I used today:
$1.00 off two packages of eggs
$0.50 off Annie's Macaroni, on sale!
$1.50 off six Lean Cuisine meals, on sale too!

Buy One, Get One Pantene products. I bought conditioner ($3.89)and mousse ($3.99). The coupon took $4.99 off this deal. I paid $2.89 out of pocket.

Buy One, Get One Edge shave gel. Each shave gel was $2.09. The coupon took $$3 off, which means I paid $1.18 out of pocket for two cans of shaving cream.

It's just nice to get a good deal on things you buy anyway. And I do try to stock up things like conditioner and shaving cream when I find a really good deal. However, I really don't stock up on things we don't use. I also don't stock pile more than six months worth of anything. It's just not worth it to me.

Do you use coupons? Do you make many trips to find those good deals? Do you skip the coupons? What is your take on them?

I sold three items on Ebay this week for a gross total of $20.46. One was earlier this week, and has already been mailed. The other two items ended tonight and I'm waiting on payment. I will add the net amount to the Christmas fund.

If you followed my snowflake accumulations last year, you noticed how small amounts of money over time became a large amount of savings. I believe it was over $1400 in 11 months! If that impresses you, I encourage you to read my blog post about

compound interest as it applies to savings. I found a great calculator that you can explore, too!

Anyone else have Ebay or Craigslist sales this week? Have garage sales started in your area?

We have a new Kohl's store that opened about 7 minutes from our home. The closest one before was at least 20 minutes away. I received two $10 off any $10 purchase coupons in the last week or so. One by mail, the other by email.

As one was expiring last night, I took my husband with me to complete two transactions. We purchased two six packs of socks which were marked at $8.99 each. We also grabbed two packages of tissue paper for 1.99 each. We walked out of the store paying $2.10!!

The socks are bright fun, no show socks for our daughters. They will received them in their Easter baskets. They actually NEED these socks, so even better. The tissue paper will get used eventually.

I love to score those kinds of deals! Have you found any great deals recently? Please share.

I'm off to another town today to meet a friend for lunch and social time, so this is a quick update.

I relisted two items on Ebay with lowered start prices. I added another three items. Since I started these on a Tuesday evening, I made the auctions just five days long, so that they end on Sunday. Sunday is my preferred end date, and tends to be a good day of the week for people bidding on auctions.

I'm still busy doing some mortgage calculations. My first order of business is to decide where I want us to be in 2.5 years. Once I know that, I will decide where to put the money. I'm leaning towards a combination of saving cash and sending in extra principal payments.

I wrote a little essay last night on saving for retirement on

my other blog. I have deemed March Retirement Savings Month! I hope to write several more post themed around retirement before the month is out. You will likely see a few of them here.

I have enough Swagbucks to redeem for $25 in PayPal cash, so I will be cashing those in soon.

I'm looking forward to payday this Friday. It will be the first payday we don't have to pay on the truck loan! I plan to put most of the money in savings to help make up for that last big payment we made.

What are you looking forward to this week? Something personal? Financial?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Any luck selling anything this week?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Try to keep your weekend frugal!

February was a good month for Snowflakes primarily because of

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



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

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

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

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

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

I did end up accumulating enough

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

Do you have money flowing in today?

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

I'm hanging out at

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

I have over 600

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

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

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

Have a super Monday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you are interested in signing up for Swagbucks,

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

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

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

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

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