I sold a book and Box Tops for Education on eBay yesterday...and net another $14! The net total is about $187. Not too shabby.

I still have two items listed. I'm not sure if they will sell. One seems like it should, so I'm not quite sure what it hasn't. I may need to change it in some way to guarantee a sale.

I have earned enough to get a $5 Amazon gift card through Bing rewards. I haven't redeemed them yet. I'm getting closer to earning another $25 gift card or cash from Swagbucks, also. These seem to be my monthly averages on these.

I sure do like the small amounts of money that come in! Let it snow. Let it snow!!

It's official. All the items I have sold have resulted in $173.24 after fees and shipping! Some items were from the Wii U lot that I purchased. The others were old military gear.

The money is definitely going to offset the purchase of all the new to us Wii U items, and the gifts we purchased for our adopted family (spent about $250 on them).

I have three items currently listed for this next week. I think I have more I can list tomorrow, but I may be winding down with the sales. It feels good to get some of this military gear out the door. I knew it was worth money, so I lugged it halfway across the country (well, the movers did). It's finally time to get it out of here to free up some space!

So excited that my buyer from last Monday finally paid for their auction. I can get it in the mail on Monday!

I had one item sell yesterday with a Best Offer...but they have not paid. Ugh. I'm not sure if I didn't have that set up right, as I usually require immediate payment for Buy It Now auctions.

I have four auctions ending today and two already have bids. Some of these items are offsetting the cost of the Wii U I purchased for my daughter, so that is also exciting.

I have at least one or two more Christmas themed items I found in our stash that I'm going to put up for sale. If they don't sell before the holiday, they will just be donated?

Are you doing any selling during the month of December?

I'm terrible at remembering we have savings that earns interest. Maybe because it isn't much. One account earned $25, while two CDs earned almost $29 in the month of November. We also deposit $25 into a savings account as part of the agreement on one of the CDs. So we are accumulating $75+ each month. Not a lot but it counts!!

I sold another item on eBay yesterday. Already paid and mailed! That is another $12 added to the $63 profit. If the buyer of an auction that ended Monday would pay I have ANOTHER $12 to add. Hoping the payment is soon. I also have a bid on another item!

I mentioned photo books a few posts back. I did get one complete for my parents. It was $9.99 plus $7.99 shipping. It has photos of the grandchildren. It will arrive in time to wrap and mail for Christmas. I think I can fit it in a Flat Rate Priority envelope, so shipping should only be an additional $6. I debated about having it sent direct, but it seemed less personal. Nice gift for less than $25.

I paid all the current credit card spending. One card had over $1200 on it! But since we use YNAB, I knew the money was there to pay it. Our available spending is a bit sparse for the next two weeks, since there was a little overspending on our Thanksgiving trip. I don't think it should impact us much, since we just plan to stay home and do minimal outings.

I completed a Pinecone survey last week. I was credited today. And since I had 1500 points, I redeemed them for $15! I should have that money in my PayPal account soon. Yes, more snowflakes!!

I'm looking forward to Payday on Thursday. It seems our cash is running out. We should be fine and within budget until then. It's just time for more cash!

I'd like to get some items listed on eBay soon. I have items that should sell. I just need to get it together and done!!

Our moving company sent their insurance company over today to take picture of items damaged and broken during the move. Of course, we already took pictures, but they need their own. Now we wait to hear what they will offer us.

Yippee! My husband is using the YNAB app to enter in his expenses so far this week. He even pointed out to me yesterday that he did so. And I'm not sure that tracking caused this, but he decided to take some coffee from home this morning!

We've been have problems with any mail being forwarded from our old home to our new rental place. It worked for awhile when we moved to the apartment AND from the apartment to the rental. But nothing direct from the house...and it was requested and input THREE times! Today we finally got a bill in the mail from the old house. It was for that darn mold test. Just $50, instead of the $75 I remembered. At least mail is coming our way.

Most everything we get mail for has been updated as much as we can, so we haven't been too worried, but there are things that come through that we don't have any control over.

Turns out I have a buyer returning an item they bought last week. They are stating it doesn't work. I know I tested it before I sent it off. And another buyer is having trouble paying me through PayPal for another item. A bit frustrating!

I'm should be able to cash out my Bing Rewards tomorrow for a $5 Amazon gift card. After that one, I will have $41 in gift cards. I'm hoping to get $60 so I can make a 'want' purchase.

I claimed two offers on Ibotta today for grocery shopping done yesterday. Once those posted, I was eligible to cash out. I picked PayPal and my $10 was sent immediately. I love how quick it was.

I'm currently $1 away from cashing out my first $20 with Checkout 51. I'm not as much of a fan of this site, but I'm determined to get to the cash out amount and be done with them.

I washed the sheets on our master bed today. When I pulled them out the fitted sheet was ripped in the middle. I knew they were getting close to the end of their life span since the elastic was getting loose. I didn't really want to buy new sheets this week. And I really don't HAVE to, as we have extra set for emergency situations such as this and there is a set on our guest bed. However, I am having guests early in October, so I think I will need to buy new soon! For tonight at least the emergency set will work so I have a little time to look for a deal.

Where do you buy sheets? Do you have a thread count or style you like? Do you use Ibotta or Checkout 51?

It is payday today. The market was up. And I sold another item on eBay! And the weather was a 10 out of 10 in my book. It's like all of the stars aligned and angels are singing. At least it sort of feels that way!!

I'd pay bills usually, but DH is not available to work on YNAB until Thursday, so we will wait. I can probably start on it a little tomorrow, but I want him to learn along with me, so if I do too much it won't help him.

I think ten minutes after I returned from mailing the eBay item I sold yesterday, I sold another item. I promise to ship the next business day following payment so it's not a big deal. If I had waited a bit I could have mailed them at the same time. But of course, I didn't know!

As far as the stock market is concerned, I still haven't sold any shares from my daughter's college account. I'm watching the markets to see if they get closer to break even for the year at least. I would like to sell as few shares as possible. The lower the share price the more shares it will take to come up with the dollar value I need.

I also lucked out getting a big survey completed on Swagbucks today for 175 SB. I had a 50SB one as well. Even after redeeming nearly all my Swagbucks yesterday, I already have 535 again tonight. Moving right along towards my snowflake goals.

How was your day? Did the stars align and angels sing?

Oh, wow, it has finally cooled down a bit here in the Southeast! The humidity has dropped dramatically. I mowed our lawn for the first time (DH has down it all the other times) today and really enjoyed being outside. Exercise, fresh air and a trimmed yard all at the same time. And no money spent!

I have a couple transactions to put into YNAB today. We spent $30 at the football game (we basically ate dinner there). There was Walmart trip that night, too. And then yesterday my husband needed to withdraw cash for his trip. I guess I can't really record that yet since I don't know what he is spending it on.

I've been reading some ten day email subscription from YNAB that I signed up for. Today is Day 5. It's about budgeting with your spouse. I found a PDF of the entire series

here. It's probably all worth reading, but I particularly liked how the author wrote about budgeting with a spouse. I know it can be hard for many couples. We don't really do it and we are after 19 years of marriage finally going to take a stab at it. I sent the email to my husband to read before we start working on our next budget for this next paycheck.

I'm working feverishly to accumulate Swagbucks and Bing points so I can buy some wants on Amazon. I'm a bit out of practice and things have changed at lot since I was doing it on a regular basis. Any tips on how you like to accumulate your SBs is appreciated. I do have over 1800 and I'm looking to get 2200 to get a $25 Amazon gift card.

I've done two Pinecone surveys recently, but I'm just at 900 points. I like to wait until I'm at 1500 to cash out for $15. Fingers crossed I can get a two more surveys before the month ends!

I'm also listing at least three items on eBay today after I get my cleaning tasks done. If those items sell they will help me purchase some of these wants!! It sure helps to have a goal to spur me on to earn a little cash. That and I finally have some time to do so.

What financial goal are you primarily working on? If you don't have one, what would it be? Do you budget with your spouse? How often?

For the first time I have sold some of our household items on Facebook! I made $33 selling a patio umbrella with stand, a leaf blower and a push broom. It appears I have another possible sale tomorrow night that should net another $10 for a dresser.

The cash from all these sales should get the balance on the Citi card from January finally paid off.

Selling on Facebook is still just as difficult as selling on Craigslist. People are still flakes about committing to an item. Don't say 'interested' if you don't at the same time tell me when you might want to pick it up!

I've given myself a limit of a week to get some of these items sold. If the items do not sell, I expect to donate or possibly trash the items. I don't want to move things I don't want anymore!!

Do you have any tips for getting people to commit with Facebook sales?

We are getting closer to selling our home. We had a talk with a realtor nearly a month ago. We decided to wait to commit to her, but as of this week we felt confident she was the right gal for us.

The plan is that we will have pictures taken right after Easter with the hope that the grass is greener. We will sign the listing agreement later that week and by early the following week (mid April) the home will be on the market! We would list right now, but we don't want to close until mid June at the earliest, and with our neighborhood being hot we don't want to put it out there too soon and then have it look stale just because of our closing date being farther out.

The realtor is going to start talking about our home and asked if we were willing to show it before we list. Ummm...yes! I'm ready to show it and happy we have a clear plan on where we are going from here.

Is anyone else, besides LAL, selling a home this year? Anyone buying?

My daughter's band trip to Orlando Florida is over. She returned with a smile on her face. It seems it was a really good time and I think she learned some things musically and socially.

I'm secretly thrilled that she returned with some of the cash I sent her with. She took $200 and came home with $121.84! She spent her $78+ on three souvenir pins (one given to her sister) plus water, snacks and a couple meals (most were included in the trip cost).

I can't really call the return of my money in this case a snowflake, but I will be putting it towards some recent costs, such as two new pairs of glasses (one for each of my daughter's) that were charged on a credit card.

In other news...we contacted the realtor we spoke to nearly a month ago to let her know we are ready to start moving forward. She and I are going to talk more tomorrow.

I made another eBay sale. Item was $32.95, so my proceeds will be less than that. We also found a toy in my daughter bedroom to list online. I hope to make at least $10 on it. I might also have two skirts I could sell as well. I haven't decided on those yet though.

I took advantage of a couple Target offers this week that provided $5 gift cards. There is an offer to spend $20 on various health care type items, such as hair care, razor blades, lotion, sun care, soap, deodorant and more. Over two days I bought $40 worth of items, using $13.50 in coupons and received $15 in gift cards. In the end all the items cost me $21.50, and actually probaly even less since I used my Target Red card for the 5% off. I love it when deals, sales and coupons align!

My husband has been fully reimbursed for his portion of the move. We received one payment for the actual travel entitlements which amounted to $628.29. I used about $128 to reimburse cash taken out of our savings account, the remaining $500 went to cover some of the clothing purchased for my husband, gas for travel, and the one night in a hotel.

We received a second travel payment which was for moving some of our household goods. It was primarily all of his clothes and army equipment. It is a taxable payment and was reduced by 25% for withholding. The net amount was $365.90. I will also use this money to pay off some more money we have recently put on credit cards in the last couple weeks.

I feel better when money is flowing in!

I had five auctions end on eBay last night. Three sold, two did not. The gross sales were $67.50. I plan to donate one of the items and hold the other for a better time of year. I still have one item listed which I will maintain as a Buy It Now sale for another three weeks. If it doesn't sell in that time I will take it down for awhile.

My PayPal account is getting fat with these recent sales, a Swagbucks deposit as well as a pending Pinecone deposit. I hope to get all the money transfered and sent to the Wells Fargo Amex card by the end of the week. I'll let you know what my final snowflake total is then!

I'm on a pretty active sales page on Facebook for my area. I can see that if I listed some items there I might get some takers. I'm not ready to do that yet, but I'm thinking about it.

If memory and my notes serve me correctly, we started 2015 with $700 in debt on our Wells Fargo American Express card. It is at 0% interest, but we need to pay it off soon so we can cancel the card and not be charged a hefty annual fee.

I have been making payments all year on the card. With a payment of $109.52 which is all snowflakes/found money(primarily from eBay sales), we know owe just $185.29.

I'll be honest this is getting a bit tedious for me. I may just pay it off next week. I do have some more auctions that could net some more cash, so I will likely wait until after that.

Is it bad to say I'd like to find another $150 to charge to the card before we cancel? I think that amount would get me to the threshold with points to redeem $25. I guess I should start using it for purchases in the next two or three weeks. I'm sure I will have expenses that will add up to that. I already tried looking at our utilities but none of them accept American Express for payment.

That's the status! At least the amount owed is going down. I am looking forward to one less card soon.

I have more eBay sales in the works. One item sold this afternoon and two that currently have bids will end on Sunday. There could be more. I have my fingers crossed that is the case.

I will likely relist any that didn't sell this go around. At a lower price of course! I'm also going to look in my stash of items to see if there are another couple that I could get listed on Sunday. If memory serves me correct, I may have two.

All sales money is going to pay off the Wells Fargo credit card. I was able to make a payment from one of my accounts to the card for about $78. I want to make another payment, but found out I can only make 5 payments in one calendar month, so I'm waiting a bit longer (after the eBay sales end) to make another payment. My current balance on the card is $294.81. I'm getting there!

My husband made it to our new hometown late yesterday. He is on the east coast and made it ahead of all the storm stuff brewing out there! I feel less stressed now that he is there safely. He is now MORE stressed that he is there because of needing to acclimate to new surroundings and people. We will survive.

I haven't checked on his expenses yet. It was one night in a hotel, gas and food. I know he took cash out in case of tolls also. The good news on those expenses they will get reimbursed. Hopefully quickly!!

I had lunch with another soldiers wife yesterday. Spent nearly $20 on lunch and tip, but we hung out at the restaurant for nearly 3 hours! I always love a nice social lunch.

I have an eBay buyer wanting to return an items. They weren't the size she thought they were. It's not clothing and I don't think I had measurements on the listing, but she didn't ask before buying either. I have offered to take them back, she pays shipping and I refund purchase price only. Personally, she would be ahead to try to list them herself for sale. If she returns them to me at her expense, she is out nearly $20 in shipping! And she only paid $11 for the item. We will see what she does!

How is the weather on the east coast for those of you that way? Are you expecting any reimbursements? Have you returned a purchase to an eBay seller before?

I had another eBay sale last night, which I promptly shipped today. There seem to be quite a few people watching items I have listed. I hope more sell over the weekend so I can ship on Monday! I have at least one item maybe more I need to list this weekend as well.

It's payday, but our day has been busy. I hope to get all bills paid tomorrow and pay down more on our credit card debt.

Have a great weekend!!

I listed four items for sale on eBay on Sunday, and then yesterday proceeded to add another 13 items. And as of last night, I sold two items. Gross proceeds were just over $68!

My husband got a speeding ticket yesterday. I had even said, "don't speed" before he left! Ugh. He got impatient with someone going below the speed limit. He went around, but way faster than the speed limit. The ticket is $114.

So I guess some of the sales will help pay off the ticket in addition to the credit cards we are working on (which are at 0% interest). And I just sold another item while writing this email, so make that $76 in sales!

I'm just excited to finally get some of these items listed. I have more, but need to find some big boxes to put them in! I'll check the free boxes at the post office today when I mail the sold packages.

Have you ever had a speeding ticket? Are you selling anything right now?

I earned enough Swagbucks to redeem for $25 in Paypal cash, and it arrived today in my Paypal account. I have already requested transfer to my bank account. This money will go to pay off the Propel Amex card we have a balance on. (No interest is accruing!)

I listed four items on eBay last night and expect to keep adding items everyday this week. Any sales will be considered snowflakes and will help reduce that credit card balance listed above.

I don't plan on opening any credit cards for bonuses until after our move, or at least until we have housing secure. This will likely keep my snowflake progress lower than in the past. At least for the first half of the year. I may also stop working on Swagbucks for a little while,since I have a lot of things to work on getting ready for our move.

Where are most of your snowflakes/found money coming from this month?

We sold our old refrigerator last night. I posted it on Craigslist at 3pm and by 6:30pm it had been picked up. They paid $100 for a very nice 10 year old fridge. They even commented how nice it was. And it was...it just didn't match the house that we will be selling soon. It does look much better. I really glad we didn't have them haul it away for recycling. It will still get some use and we have $100!

I see that two people have already used

my referral code to Ooma. This means I have $40 coming my way in about six weeks. The deadline for the current $89.99 offer is on Friday, January 30, if you are thinking of switching from a traditional land line.

I'm working with the Pinecone Rewards program to figure out the problem with cashing out my 300 points for $3. I sent them a screen shot of what options I'm seeing after then had me try clearing my browser history. I even changed browsers as another option. We will see what happens!

In moving news, we are still waiting on orders. We really can't move forward on anything until that part is finalized.

Have you sold an appliance before? Did it sell fast like mine?

I have accumulated another $64.73 in snowflakes (extra money). And I made sure to get them sent off to a credit (0% interest) card so our debt will go down.

We have two credit cards that we are running balances on. I'm stubborn about not wanting to use our savings I guess. I have the money to pay them in full. It is just nice to have 0% interest and not have to dip in to other cash.

I sent the above snowflakes to our Wells Fargo Amex. It had a $700 balance. With the payment deducted, we owe $635.27. Less debt! And paid with snowflakes!!

The other credit card we have a balance on is our Citi Thank You Preferred. It has a balance of $661.27.

I plan to pay off the Wells Fargo Amex first so that we can close it. It also has a hefty annual fee after the first year, so we don't want to be hit with that!

While I was checking balances I decide to redeem 2,500 Citi Thank You points for a $25 Panera gift card. I figure it is good for a family lunch or night out. I will match debt reduction or savings when we use it.

Have you redeemed any credit card rewards this month? Did you pay off some debt, or accumulated any snowflakes?

This post is about both kinds of snowflakes, the found money variety and the frozen variety. It just began snowing here this afternoon. We are expecting at least six inches and it will come down fast. School decided it was worth dismissing early on their first day back from break. With the amount of snow and expected drop in temperatures, I'm not sure they will have school tomorrow or even Wednesday. But right now I just need my husband to get home safe!

I sold an item on eBay last night. My proceeds were just a little over $20. I did get it into the mail earlier today. I relisted three others that didn't sell. I usually relist a few times, sometimes adjusting prices, and if they don't sell they get donated. I don't want to hold on to everything!

I redeemed Bing Rewards for 500 Swagbucks, which I received right away. I was also able to redeem Swagbucks for $25 PayPal cash this weekend. It arrived really fast last time, but it isn't here yet.

Are you getting any snowflakes, of either variety?

I made two sales yesterday! One was for a book I listed on Half.com back in August. I made $1.19. The other was an item I had listed on eBay. I think the profit on that is just under $30.

That money will go to the mortgage of course. I realized an extra payment I made to the mortgage didn't get applied correctly, well it didn't get applied at all! I must not have checked the principal box. I sent an email to have it corrected.

I hope to get at least two items listed on eBay today. I want more cash to put toward the final mortgage goal!

Have you sold anything recently? Do you have plans to sell anything before the end of the year?

I sent $27.32 to the mortgage today to pay down some more principal. I do all my extra mortgage payments online by the way. So easy!The money was profit from that latest eBay sale and a Pinecone survey check. I love extra funds!!

I also sent $40 to savings that would normally be spent on flute lessons, since they are not having a lesson next week. I'm paying us back for the new purchases of tires and a flute.

I did spend money today, but only on groceries. About $48 at Super Target. I made sure to buy $50 worth so I could use the coupon to receive a $10 gift card. My total was less because I used their Cartwheel app, and my Red Card. I bought items for dinners through next week and a few things I need to take for Thanksgiving. I still have a few more things to purchase, so I will go back again tomorrow and see if I can reach $50 again and use coupon I had sent to my phone. That will mean another $10 gift card! I will likely use the gift cards for other holiday expenses, either a gift or food.

I also sent a $300 check with my daughter to make a payment towards her spring band trip. I took the money from the 52 Week Savings Challenge funds I have accumulated. It seems I will have an extra $300 saved. I expect to use that to pay ourselves back for those tires and flute as well. I will get that squared up before the end of the year.

I can't say much about it since it isn't a done deal, but a job possibility for my husband is in the works. It does require a move and he would likely move ahead of us relatively soon if he is chosen. As always is the case with these military moves, I have mixed feelings.

That's the news from here. Getting so close to meeting that mortgage goal for the year!! Did you spend money today, or pay off debt?

I sold an item on eBay and made a profit of $24.32! Once I have the money in hand I will send it in (to the mortgage of course) with the recent Pinecone Survey payment I received.

I ordered Senior Pictures today for my daughter. I was happy I didn't need to put down another deposit. I simply need to pay when they are ready for pick up, which is in about eight weeks. That will give me a little time to stash some cash away!

I bought another gift for Christmas. A pair of socks! It is a bit of a tradition among some of us to give socks to one another. And we really look forward to it. These were $7.99 at Kohl's. I used my $5 coupon and 30% off coupon. I only spent $2.24!

Did you score a deal recently, or find any snowflake money for your goal?

I feel a bit better today than yesterday energy wise. I still have a lot of sinus pressure, but warm drinks do help!

I had enough energy to get to the grocery store. I spent $130 for the week. I do have to make a small run to another store tomorrow for a few things on sale.

I helped my daughter box up some of her artwork that she is donating to an organization that will use the art as a perk for donating. In the process, I came across a piece of art that I know one of our nephews was very interested in back in June. He's now getting that for Christmas! It's perfect. My daughter is happy about it too.

I also decided we would give two of our snow toys (block form and snowball thrower) to our nieces and nephew who are getting the state park permit. The gift will cost me nothing, but they would probably get use out of them. I will check with their mom first. If she doesn't think they want them, I have another person I think would.

I listed two items on eBay. Hope for quick sales!!

I hope you are all healthy! Wash your hands and cover your mouth when you sneeze.

The $250 Citi Thank You reward check was applied to our mortgage late last week! Today, I also sent in another $18 in extra funds (snowflakes) to reduce the balance even further. That money was from one Pinecone Survey check and three $5 Target gift cards.

The mortgage balance is now $X16,512.76. This means just $1,512.76 left to pay down before the end of the year to meet our goal. We are right on track or even ahead of schedule.

Once we meet the actual goal amount, I will stop sending snowflakes to the mortgage. I will need to use these to offset some big purchases of late, primarily car maintenance. And there's that flute we still need to purchase. We have also been buying some new uniform items for my husband due to his promotion. Just last night I ordered a new service cap to go with his ASU (dress uniform) to the tune of $105! This stuff adds up, so I need to get some of this cash back into the bank.

I have a bid on one item on eBay, so another small snowflake will arrive before the end of the month, although I may count it towards November. I also redeemed MyPoints for a Panera Bread gift card. If I use that for an outing with friends, I will match it with mortgage funds.

If you have the Discover card, remember that online purchases for the quarter earn 5% cash back. I luckily remembered this when I ordered the service cap and some vitamins online yesterday?

What is your most recent snowflake? Are you using a cash back card for your online purchases? Are you nearing a goal you made at the beginning of the year

I've got a new post at

Your Organized Friend, with a little more decluttering I got done yesterday.

The flute refund now shows on our Amex credit card, so that is a relief that it all worked out. I didn't get a refund of shipping of course, but that I do understand.

I can finally see my husband's pay stub for the month of October. It all looks correct for the pay adjustment for the Sept 1 promotion. I look forward to seeing the one in November, as that will be even more clear!

I have a bid on an item that I listed yesterday on eBay. I actually hope it sells for a little more than the starting bid. The last one like it I sold did, but you never know with this item.

I received a $3 Pinecone payment.

See? All good news! What is your good news for today?

I just signed up and learned of a new community where you can get free samples to try and then review them. It's called

Smiley360. I don't know a lot about it yet. Anyone heard of it? Once I get a mission and know more I will be sure to check back in and let you all know about it.

I also discovered ePantry. I'm not yet sure this is the direction I want to go with my purchases, but it seems interesting if you are really into purchasing sustainable products. And shipping is just $2.99!

It's interesting to see and hear about new companies and ways of doing business! Have you heard of any new business or website lately that you want to share?