The $20 reward I ordered from MySurvey on April 4 finally arrived in my Paypal account yesterday. I had inquired with them and they indicated their processing system was backed up. I do have another reward of $10 pending with them. I hope that this one doesn't take quite so long!

This money is being added to the Christmas fund! I will have an update in a few days with my total and April's funding sources.

How is your Christmas fund going? Is it growing fast?

Wow!! I'm really starting to feel that our house will sell and maybe even this week. We have three showings scheduled tomorrow. Two of them are repeat clients that want to see the house again with their parents. They are coming to my house at the same time tomorrow night. There will be at least 10 people milling about the house deciding if it is right for them.

Fingers and toes crossed. Prayers said. And I already had a celebratory glass of wine! Send the good vibes this way.

It's been so long since I signed up for Pinecone Research surveys that I forgot that one needs an active link to get to the sign up form. Because of the discussion in other blogs, I went looking for a link on Google. Guess what? I found one.

Pinecone Research is a free, legitimate survey company that pays $3 for every survey you complete. The money arrives in your Paypal account the business day following your survey completion. The surveys are relatively easy and often require you to try a product in your home. After the trial, you complete another survey with your final opinion.

There are no kickbacks or incentives to me for referring you to this

link for Pinecone.

I have been averaging about $15 a month with Pinecone in recent months, but it can be less at times. The nice thing is you only a complete a survey when they send a link to your email address. So no extra time wasted on surveys you don't qualify for!

Are you a Pinecone member? Tell us what you think of them, so others can know if it is right for them.

I redeemed more points today from MySurvey. I picked paypal funds in the amount of $10. I redeemed points earlier this month for $20 and have not yet received those yet. I sent an email inquiry about that. Hopefully by the end of the month I'll have my $30 from them. I said before I was done with them, but I did a big survey recently that made it worth staying with them for the next $10...but now I think I'm done. I just need to get that money in my account!

I will add this money to my 2012 Christmas Fund!

The house is still on the market. We have had lots of activity and showings. It has only been three weeks. There has been one second showing, but they decided on another house. We have another two showings schedule for the weekend. There is also another party that wants to view the house again with her brother. I guess they need to schedule a time to come together. It will sell and I'm looking for that offer to come soon!!

You can purchase a $10 Amazon.com gift card from their new

AmazonLocal site today only for $5. I heard about it from MyMoneyBlog.

Since this is my primary funding for Christmas this year, I decided to pull the trigger and buy one. Are you going to buy one?

I redeemed my final $5 AGC from Swagbucks for the month of March. The other $20 worth I counted towards February, since that is when they were earned. I'd love to get enough by the end of the month to earn a $25 or $50 AGC. To meet that goal, I'm running Swagbucks TV while I'm spring cleaning.

I also earned $3 from Pinecone. I did notice that I actually earned $18 per month the last two months. Not bad. I hope March turns out to be similar.

It's a beautiful day here. I will walk outside with my neighbor and try to get some more cleaning in. So far I've done two sets of blinds and cleaned the upper kitchen cabinets. If I can get the lower cabinets done, I will try to touch up paint them later this week. It's the one dreaded task I have on my list. Cabinet painting. Yuck!

No word on orders yet, which is what is keeping me from doing much regarding selling the house. I will just keep plugging away on cleaning until then.

Anyone else getting the spring cleaning bug? What kinds of tasks are you working on?

Here's a run down of my snowflake earnings since the beginning of 2012. I'm in the middle of redeeming four $5 AGC that I earned in the last half of February. I'm counting them towards February even they will arrive in March.



My total is up by $97.80 since last month! Awesome.

How are your Christmas Fund Challenge totals coming along?

I'm having my Paypal funds transferred to my checking account in the amount of $27.80. The funds are from an Ebay sale and Pincone surveys.

I was right that it was a good month for Pinecone surveys. I completed six for a total of $18.00. The Ebay sale was a pair of jeans that netted me $9.80.

These funds are snowflakes towards the Christmas Fund. I will post a complete update of all those funds in a couple days.

How many Pinecone surveys did you complete this month?

My $200 CitiDividend Reward check arrived today in the mail. Time to close that card! I'm going to attempt closing online. Those funds will just be saved for now. There is a move on the horizon!

I was paid another $3 for a Pinecone Survey. Those have been plentiful this month. I'm also trying to earn lots of Swagbucks today...it is the site's 4th Birthday.

I've kept up on the green smoothies. Only two more days to go until the end of the month. I might actually need to run to the store for more greens before Wednesday.

Oh, and I have a Goodwill run to make. I found a bag of things that don't need to move with us. Lots of cleaning and organizing will be happening here.

I have yet to make my smoothie yet today, but it will happen. I need to drink it just to get enough calories in for the day and to offset the chocolate eggs I ate!

My smoothie will have banana, mango and romaine. I'm trying to use up what I currently have on hand before I buy more of anything else.

My youngest daughter has been drinking smoothies, but not of the green variety. She likes hers with milk (or almond milk), banana and mixed berries. It turns out very purple! I'm happy with that change for now. Greens can come later.

In financial news, I was paid for another Pinecone survey today and then took another survey for them today as well...so another $3 will be on it's way on Monday. Just more that can be added to the snowflake total this month. Yipee!!

I earned another $6 from Pinecone surveys and received the money in my Paypal account yesterday. I will pull the cash from that account at the end of the month and officially add it to my 2012 Free Christmas Fund.

I noticed we earned some more debit rewards equal to $25. That will count as well once I cash those points in.

I'm also have enough at MyPoints to cash in for at least a $10 gift card somewhere. I'm going to keep these points going as long as I can this year. I'll redeem them much later this year for gift cards.

On Swagbucks, I maxed out the $5 Amazon gift cards this month worth $25. I have 900 points that I will try to accumulate towards something by the end of the month. If I don't make it, then I will apply the points to $5 AGC in March. Either way it's a good deal.

I've been doing MySurveys too. I have enough to cash out for $10. I will cash out at $20, but I'm still 300 points short there. Those surveys haven't been too kind to me lately. Oh well. It's all good.

I will cash out what I can at the end of the month. I will also report an official total then as well. How is your Christmas Fund coming along? Any new snowflakes?

Since my first statement on the CitiDividend card cycled on Friday, my rewards were posted. On Saturday, I requested a redemption, which will equal $200! Per the website, the check should arrive in 7 days.

I did notice that Citi's reward program only allows you to redeem in $50 increments. I had about $209 worth of rewards. Once I hit redeem, it just picked $200. I didn't even have the choice to redeem for less. And I won't get those other $9 worth of rewards unless, I keep using the card and come to another $50+ rewards balance. I suppose this is common, but I found it different than Chase, which allowed me to redeem all my points with them to the penny. I would say I would definitely choose Chase over Citi, if it ever came down to it.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to my $200 check! Do you have any credit card rewards that you are cashing in soon?

DH arrived home and promptly signed the $160 rebate check from Goodyear. It is now in our bank account. I have made a payment of $300 to pay off the tires in full. We will then close this card. Yipee!!

I was able to make DH's final 2011 Roth contribution yesterday. If you remember, last week, I accidently authorized the buy from a closed bank account rather than our current bank. It took a week for it to correct in their system. Maybe he ended up with more shares for his money than I did. I'll have to check.

My life insurance application was approved and effective yesterday. I signed the electronic documents. I thought premium would be effective this week, but it isn't showing up yet. Maybe it is effective next month? Not sure. At least I can now, rip up the bill from previous life insurance plan. This change has saved me $330 per year. Yes!!

I made the final payment on the CitiDividend card, using our bank's bill pay system. It arrived yesterday and I now have a zero balance. Statement cycles today and I should receive $200 in rewards. I will cash those out as soon as I can and then close that card, too.

I'm feeling better than yesterday, but still a bit worn down. I'm hoping I can rally a bit to enjoy spending the weekend with my husband!!

Have a super weekend!!

I took the advice of a commenter on my blog and made a payment using my banks online bill pay. The payment was for the CitiDividend Visa that wouldn't allow an oline payment until the statement cycled. I made a small payment to see if it would work and how fast. Basically it showed up in on my bank account and the card account the next day. So fast!

I will make the final $500 payment on Monday. The statement will cycle by this time next week. And I hope to have the rewards, $200, available to redeem soon after.

I redeemed my final $5 Amazon Gift card through Swagbucks today. I also got the final collector's bill today, along with the bonus points. Now to save for a $25 or $50 AGC by the end of the month! As of now I have earned $75 in AGC since January 1.

Lately, we have been eating quite a few Lean Cuisine meals. It seems to help me out when I need a break from cooking and with watching calories. We accumulated enough codes to redeem for a lunch bag last night. My daughter picked the color she liked. Based on past experience, it will take nearly two months to arrive. But it is free.

Move Update: We submitted our choices earlier this week, but now are waiting. We don't know how long the wait will be, but sooner is better for us. The first option is to stay here, but we think that likely won't be granted. My oldest daughter has her fingers and toes all crossed for that outcome.

Here's to hoping for a low spend weekend. I do know there may be some clothes shopping involved and groceries. How will your weekend be financially?

Our federal tax refunds is pending in our checking account this morning. This means our Roth contributions for 2011 will be fufilled! Do you think I should send in the whole amount ($2,000 each) or split it up over the next two months?

I made another green smoothie today. Very similar to yesterday, added parsley and left out the chia seeds. Total calories for 24 oz is 210. Most of those calories come from the fruit in this one.

1c. water
1c. frozen mixed berries
2c. spinach
1/2c parsley
1 banana

I found a

blog by the auther of the book I mentioned yesteday (Green for Life). It has lots of information about green smoothies. I haven't read the website, but the book is packed with excellent information, so I would guess great information on the website, too.

I have to buy jeans for my youngest daughter. She's 11 but still gets holes in her jeans! Ugh. I'm picking up two of her favorite pair at Old Navy today. I'm fine with the purchase, but frustrated that she crawls around on the floor so much!!

Swaggers: I'm just 43 points away from another $5 Amazon gift card. Those points add up fast. Do you all know about the computer on the slider bar (home page)? It's worth one point to click and you can click it at least 10 times!! I click the computer and then click on the banner on the website that pops up, right now it's a Micheal's ad.

Oh, and I've lost nearly 20 pounds since late October!! I've been diet (and regular) soda free since January 1st. It feels so good.

Let's hear about your goals/resolutions. How are you doing on them so far?

All good news in the money update department!

We received our $160 rebate check in the mail for the tires we purchased on the van. It's in DH name, so I will have him sign it when he is home in a couple weeks. Technically, I could sign, since I have power of attorney, but the less I use that the better. I'm just glad it finally arrived.

I have redeemed Swagbucks for three $5 Amazon.com gift cards in the last two days. I've been racking up the points pretty fast. And just now, I received notification that the $25 Amazon gift card has posted to my account. Right now, I have $50 I could use right away! But I wont...since I'm saving them for Christmas.

I did sell the item I listed on ebay last week, with the Buy It Now option. This was the item that had a non paying bidder a couple weeks ago. I net $9.80 on the sale, which will go the Christmas Fund Challenge.

I think I also received another Pinecone survey payment that I didn't mention here previously. I have $6 from them since the beginning of the month. That I know for sure!

I checked our credit reports with TransUnion this weekend. All was good there. I check one of the agencies every four months. Since there are three credit reporting agencies, it results in a free report every time. DH thought it might be a good idea to check our girls credit reports too. Technically, they shouldn't have a report, unless there is fraud. It's on my list of things to do.

I'm hoping our tax refund actually arrives tomorrow. It is already late by 5 days, since the IRS wanted to run fraud check on the early returns. Tomorrow is the now expected date.

Are things good in your financial world?

I met the $500 purchase minimum on the Citi Dividend card yesterday when I got the girls hair cut. I even went about $20 over. Now to pay it off, and wait for the statement to cycle be awarded my $200!

I did make my smoothie for lunch today. This recipe made about 16oz and equalled 254 calories. I might need a little more for lunch, but right now I'm full!

1c vanilla almond milk
1c kale
1T peanut butter
1/2c frozen raspberries
1T chia seeds

Have you tried chia seeds? Very bland, but high in Omega 3's and has more antioxidants than blueberries. Sixty calories per tablespoon. Oh, and they are suppose to be good for staying hydrated!

I was able to fit my green smoothie in as part of my lunch. It was 313 calories and very filling!

1c water
2c kale
1 banana
1/2c frozen raspberries
1 kiwi
1 TBP chia seeds

Most of my recipes make about 24 oz and I drink the whole thing. Yummy.

I received another $3 payment from Pinecone and a sample in the mail to try. More Christmas Fund money!!

We earned a nice little $12.83 on the money in our emergency fund last month. I'll take it. Debating about adding this to our Christmas Fund, but for now I'm leaving it out. I'd like that account to keep growing, even if by a little bit.

I relisted an ebay item last night. This was the one that I sold over a week ago to a non paying bidder. The auction will end on Sunday, or before if someone takes advantage of the buy it now price.

My daughter and I are going to the eye doctor today. Not too thrilled that we have to go less than a year after we went last time, but when you need to go, you need to go. I will put the charges on the CitiDividend card and expect to meet the $500 threshold today for our $200 reward. That's good at least.

I have accumulated $50 worth of Amazon gift card this month through Swagbucks. Yipee!! That brings my snowflake money up to $205.23.

I have spent $318.84 on my CitiDividend card. I need another $181.16 to meet the $500 minimum to obtain a $200 cash reward. Getting close. I expect gas, groceries or a trip to the eye doctor will help in meeting the goal. If I get the charges built up before February 17, I should be able to redeem soon after the statement closes for the month. I hope anyway!!

By snowflakes, I'm referring to small amounts of money that will make up our 2012 Christmas fund. I have enough points at MyPoints for at least a $10 gift card to about any department store on the site. I have enough rewards at MySurveys to cash out for $10, but I'm waiting until I have enough for $20. I think I'm halfway there.

I had to report the 'buyer' of my ebay item that sold as unpaid. I will wait until that is final to relist. I hope to sell for at least $10.

And at Swagbucks, I have over 2400 points. I redeemed my limit of 5 $5 Amazon.com gift cards this month already. If I can get enough for $25 card to Amazon or Paypal, I will redeem by the end of the month. If not, I'll start over with my five $5 cards in February. Those are cheaper anyway! I have done quite a few surveys in the last few days and the points have really added up.

It will be interesting to see what other snowflakes fall my way in the next month to come!

I've been saving snowflakes for Christmas! That is what I'm calling the small amounts of money that I'm adding to the Christmas Challenge.

Here's what I have so far:


Wow! That's a lot of snowflakes and it's only January. If you are collecting and saving for Christmas, how are you doing?

Wow! I finally added up my Christmas Fund challenge money. Most of it is from free sources, but there are a several that might be considered refunds or a return of cash that would have been earned at one time.

My total is $180.23. And it is only January!!

Serve Open Deposit $20.00
Target Gift Card $5.00
Kmart Merchandise Return$4.23
Armor All Rebate $9.00
Target Gift Card $5.00
Mastercard Debit Card $20.00
Amazon Gift cards $25.00
Lottery Ticket Win $3.00
Lunch Account Refund $4.00
Wine Rebate $5.00
Chase Rewards Excess $5.02
Pinecone Surveys $18.00
Ebay Proceeds (jan) $14.78
Half.com Proceeds (jan) $18.66
Target Gift Card $5.00
Scheel Return Card $12.71
Old Navy Gift Card $5.83
Total $180.23

It will be interesting to see what kind of total I end up with by the time Christmas comes around. For those of you participating, how is your fund coming along?

My ebay buyer still has not paid. Newbie or in the area of recent tornados. Not sure. I'll wait a bit longer to relist.

I was able to see my husband's January paystub (LES) today. Our exempt status for our state was processed correctly which means no withholding for state!! With the slight increase in pay and the state tax exempt status we have a net increase of $393.74 per month.

I want to set up our Roth IRA's to draft for $150 each per month. That will give us a head start on maximizing our Roth's this year. However, part of me remembers talking to the DH about holding on to as much cash as possible until the move is complete. I might have to just stick with that.

Either way it's all good and we are pleased with the positive financial events.

I received my rewards check in the mail from my Chase card. I only had to make one purchase to receive $300. I made a couple more, so the actual rewards check was for $305.02.

It's been deposited, and I have made a $300 online payment on our Goodyear Tire account. The new balance is now $300!!

I will save the other $5.02 towards the Christmas fund. I hope to have an update on my total later this week. What is your current Christmas Fund total?

I sold the item I listed on ebay. I'm now waiting for payment. The buyer is new to ebay, so fingers crossed they can figure out how to pay me. The item sold for about $10, so I'll net a little under that with fees.

I also received my deposit from Paypal today, in the amount of $32.78, for surveys and other ebay proceeds. I'm waiting for nearly $19 from Half.com, too.

The profits will go to the Christmas Fund!

In other news, it snowed overnight. I have to go out and shovel. It will count as my exercise today, since I have the girls home and don't want to venture out on the roads just yet.

It might be a good day to look for more things to sell or earn points on Swagbucks.

The money is flowing in!!

I received a check in the mail for $4 today. It was a refund of cash that has been sitting in my daughter's school lunch account for over two years. She doesn't eat at school...ever. Nice to have the money back!

I also gave a winning scratch lottery ticket that we received in another state over Christmas to my parents today. They paid me the winning amount and will redeem the ticket back at home. It was a $3 winner.

All money is going to The Christmas Fund. The four dollars isn't exactly free money, but that lottery ticket sure is.

We received my husband's W-2 and the W-2c (which showed a lower wage!) and can finally file our taxes. We are likely getting a huge amount back because of many factors. It will be nice. I'll detail that information in another post once I have everything complete.

Darn. My original quote for insurance isn't going to stand. The montly amount was to be $23.30. They have increased it to $32.90, because of a health issue I have. I'm not entirely surprised really. And it could still change because they are waiting on records from my doctor.

This is still better than the policy that I have now that will be $720 per year if I renew it. This new rate is $394.80. I was told I will hear the firm rate in two weeks or less.

Enough of that boring stuff! I do have other good news. The window pane we had installed yesterday came to $168.44. It turned out to be $65 less than they quoted. And I'm not even sure why, but I'll take it. Of course, the Citi Dividend card I wanted to charge it to didn't arrive until two hours after the window was installed. I was hoping to charge it to the new card to count toward my $500 minimum. Oh well.

I tried to redeem Swagbuck points yesterday, but was reminded that I can only redeem 5 items per month, which I already did. It's all good. I'll just keep accumulating points and redeem something bigger next month!

There is a bid on my ebay item I have listed. That means I have a sale in the near future. That money goes to the Free Christmas Challenge!

If you didn't see my previous post, check it out. It is very exciting financial news. I emailed and texted my husband about it, but no response as of yet. I hope he is excited, too!

...to the desire for Girl Scout cookies.

My daughter's friend is a girl scout and she asked if we wanted cookies. Really, who doesn't love a GS cookie? Why do they hve to have so many flavors we like? I bought 5 boxes! At $3.50 each. The math on that is $17.50 for cookies. Eek.

They come around once a year. It's for a good cause. The cookies will taste fabulous. I'll likely eat less since I'm on diet. Oh my I'm on a diet with GS cookies in the house!!

In good financial news, I earned enough Swagbucks to redeem another $5 Amazon.com gift card. I'm up to $25 now! Did I mention how it is a bit addictive? Would you agree?

Today is probably the nicest day we will have all week. So...I did a little shopping today in the stores and online.

I went to Target to get kitty litter. I planned to purchase two of the Arm and Hammer litter for $10.39 each to qualify for the $5 Target gift card. I ended up finding some on clearance for $7.62. I decided that this was the better deal, even if I didn't get the gift card. But, I did get the gift card!! I might go back for more, since it was such a good deal. I used my Mastercard gift card on this store purchase and will withdraw $20 in cash for the Christmas fund.

I bought two birthday gifts at Hobby Lobby. I used a 40% off coupon and left the store paying only $8.25 out of pocket. I like gifts that are inexpensive!

Since I shopped with Shutterfly this past holiday, I was sent a $20 credit to shop with them again. I bought 4 8x10's, 2 5x7's and 14 4x6 prints and paid $2.58 out of pocket to cover shipping and tax. I hope to use many of the prints around the house to slip into family photo frames when it comes time to list the house for sale. The prints are primarily shots of flowers and outdoor scenes.

I also shopped at iherb.com for lotions to give as gifts and stevia for my tea. I had to throw in a bar of soap for $0.68 to bring my total to $20 for free shipping. I had $14.06 in rewards credit, thus my out of pocket cost was only $6.23 for $20 worth of items. Have you checked out iherb.com? If not, you can use coupon code FIN012 for $5 off your first order. And remember, free shipping on a $20 order!!

It was great to get so many good deals today, especially on things I needed to get anyway. I'm guessing the next few days will be spend free, since we are getting more snow and I would just rather stay inside where it is warm and dry.