I finally decided to redeem the $200 bonus from the Citi Thank You card. For awhile, I was thinking of redeeming the reward for a Lowe's gift card so we could put it towards the purchase of a fridge. That is on hold for now.

I ended up redeeming the bonus plus other points for a $250 check made out to our mortgage company. I would guess I will have it in a week. It came really fast last time. Once I have it, I will send it to Wells Fargo to reduce the principal on our mortgage balance! That was the whole point of getting the bonus anyway, so I'm pleased with making that happen.

I made an extra payment full of various snowflakes (extra money) today in the amount of $82.28. Less debt, we know I like that! It really is amazing how small amounts of money here and there add up.

In other news, the flute we purchased is being returned. It is actually in really great shape and easily worth the money we paid. Except, the embouchure isn't the right size for my daughter. She has a hard time blowing air through it. I thought since it was the same model my oldest daughter has it would work...but my younger daughter has different lips and it doesn't work for her! Our lesson teacher advised it be returned, so I'm in the works with that since I bought it on eBay. We will now buy local and give her lots of options to test out for the right fit. Luckily, she wasn't too disappointed by it all.

I am waiting for the seller to respond, and I'm slightly concerned they will deny a refund. The seller has a 100% feedback score, but seems to have something about 72 hours to request refund...and today is 72 hours. Of course, then there is another place on their site that say 14 days. My plan is to return it, insurance priority, maybe with signature and hope a refund would still be provided. At that point, I think I could contact the credit card company for a refund, showing I returned the item to them. Any thoughts? I know I could also get eBay involved if needed. I probably shouldn't jump to send back to quickly. Worse case, I could actually resell it.

Have you had to return anything you purchased lately? Do you have less debt than you had yesterday?

It has been a busy weekend, primarily with band and family visiting. I don't think we really overspent. I did buy about $100 in food on Thursday, which did cover all we need. There is still food to eat. No gas was purchased. Tickets were accounted for. We took out an extra $20 cash. I think we only bought three sodas, a hot dog, and one caramel corn popcorn at the two band events. I find that pretty reasonable.

I made two eBay sales. Sales total $30.98. I'm still waiting for payment, but no rush for tonight since tomorrow is Columbus Day and there will be no mail service. I relisted one item that had ended on Friday. I dropped the price, since the item seems to get a lot of people looking but no buyers.

I will spend tomorrow working out, talking with my friend who's mom died last week, hanging with my husband on his day off. I'd like to get more done, but taking care of myself and supporting others is nothing to be taken for granted.

Forever grateful for this life. How about you?

My very good friend from high school learned yesterday that her mother died suddenly. It was likely a heart attack. She was 63. My heart just breaks for my friend and her whole family. I know they will miss her so much.

The good news is financial. My husband's pay increase and back pay since September 1 for his promotion seem to have been processed. The check next week is much much bigger than usual. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see the specifics on the pay stub for two weeks, since their is only one pay stub per month.

I also have one bid on an item I relisted. And someone is watching another item. Would love them both to sell!

I did get magazines decluttered yesterday, but no new posts have been written on Your Organized Friend. I pull three recipes from the magazines and recycled them. I still have three I'm holding on to, since they have a lot of recipes I'm interested in. The blogs I'm following for the challenge indicate the the junk drawer and car should be decluttered for today. I might just be able to get those done.

Any tips on how to support a very good friend while she processes the death of her mother? I'm hours away. I expect likely lots of talking over the next days, weeks and months to come.

I sold an item on eBay over the weekend. The net profit was $23.79. Two of the items listed didn't sell, so they have been relisted and I added another one.

I really want to be decluttering this month, but I did only get to the entry way last week. I wrote a little more about the topic and some areas I may consider on

Your Organized Friend.

We are busy this month with band events and guests. It is quite enough to keep up with that, but I will do my best to dig in and find some things we no longer need. Maybe there will be more items to list on eBay!

The biggest thing I need to remind myself is that looking for things to purge only takes a few minutes each day. I'm sure I can find 10 minutes even if I have all these guests and things to get done.

In other financial news, our mortgage payment for October had $474.64 in principal reduction. Plus, we automatically send in $103.72 towards principal each month as well.

Have you sold anything recently? Do you consider October a good month to purge and declutter? I'd love to hear about any decluttering or purging you do, and even how long it took you!

My oldest kitty is 10 today! We sang Happy Birthday to her. She is clueless, but it was fun for us.

We paid $758.83 towards the principal balance on our mortgage in the month of September. This might be the least we have paid this year! I did skip a $275 payment that I have been making nearly all year. We just had a lot of expenses this month, and I need that cash. It may mean I have to make up the difference later in the year to get to my goal.

Most of the balance reduction was from our regular payment, but the snowflakes I accumulated did exceed the extra I send in to round up our payment. The break down is below:



For the year, we have paid $11,240.93 on the balance. The goal is just under $14K, specifically $13,993.00. That means we have just $2,752.07 to go to meet the goal by year end. This is an average of $917. Since the principal portion of our payment is generally $472+, the other portion has to come from extra payments and snowflakes. Prior to this month our extra payments were $378. That means I only really need $67 in snowflakes each month. I may not make as big of extra payments from income if I can get more snowflakes.

I did relist three items on Ebay yesterday. I did want to list a couple more things, but I wasn't motivated enough. It will be fun to see if I can come up with some new sources of snowflakes in the next few months.

How much debt did you pay off in September? Any amount is good in my book. Don't let my high debt pay off amounts scare you. Sending in just an extra $5 is sooo worth it, because over time it all adds up and makes a difference!

I accumulated $182.20 in extra money(or snowflakes) for the month of September. All the cash went to pay down the mortgage!

Here's where the money came from:


Also, it could have been higher if I was able to redeem some of my Southwest Rapids Rewards points. That would have been $200+. (See other posts for why I can't redeem...yet.) I also could have redeemed $200+ from our newest credit card Citi Thank You Preferred, but I'm holding off to determine if we will use this money for a new fridge.

I do have a Pinecone survey reward being transferred to my bank account and an Ooma $20 referral reward that will be counted as the first snowflakes of October.

I did make some financial moves that will generate some extra money in future months. I opened a Discover CashBack Checking account for a $50 bonus. I opened a joint US Bank Checking account for a $200 reward, as well as set up a CD at Navy Federal Credit Union which will net us 5% interest on $5,000 over then next year.

I'm happy with the snowflake progress of the past month and looking forward to those future rewards? Did you track your extra money earned this month? How much did you accumulate? Did you save it or pay down debt?

We went to see Garth Brooks in concert on Saturday in Chicago. It was fabulous!!!!

Now I'm playing catch up on everything needing to be done here at home along with paying bills since today is payday. I'm also trying to estimate my husband's travel reimbursements for a couple of recent trips. He actually worked Saturday and Sunday morning in Chicago, so our transportation, hotel and some food were covered! This made the cost of the trip far less expensive. The work part wasn't even originally planned for the date we chose to go to the concert.

I just wrote a check for $55.11 for my daughter's high school graduation cap, gown and tassel (and maybe a stole?). They get to keep everything! When I graduated, we only kept the cap and tassel. The gowns were rented and turned back in right after graduation. We are skipping the fancy announcements since she doesn't care for them. We will likely make our own...although as I write that I'm really wondering if we should just get 25 of them. Those would cost $28.75. Although, then I'm realizing those wouldn't have her name on them, and to get the name cards adds even more ($18+). Now I'm back to making our own. Since ALL of our family is out of town, we really don't expect too many of them to make the trip for the ceremony. She also isn't into the open house party thing either. So...we'll keep it simple and frugal.

I had over $31 from Chase Rewards that I redeemed and matched with an extra mortgage payment. Included in that payment was a recent purchase made with Amazon gift cards and our US Bank rewards. This all means $57.12 in snowflakes and less mortgage debt. I like that!!

I have earned more than $5 from Ibotta and should be able to cash out now. I just need to make that request. I completed a Pinecone survey last night and received credit this morning, so claimed my cash!

I went shopping for groceries today and spent under $90! It seems like forever since my bill was so low. I did try to make our meal plan using things we already had on hand. Tonight I made egg casserole because I had the milk, eggs and bread on hand. I did buy mushrooms, sausage and cheese for it. Would have been cheaper to just do eggs and toast, but I will use the extra cheddar cheese for tacos later in the week and extra sausage on our pizza. I made sure to use my Target Cartwheel app for savings, as well as a few printed coupons. I always love a successful trip at the grocery store!

Now I need a nap! It's been a tiring few days. How was your weekend? Did anyone else see Garth Brooks?

Our cell phone bill is $246. This is with Verizon. I'm sure those of you with Ting are sitting there with your mouth hanging open!!

We have been using our US Bank Cash+ card to charge our cell phone bill so that we can get 5% off each month. This month that was a discount/reward of $12.30.

Once the statement closes, I apply the reward to the statement balance and then pay the remainder. Today that meant $233.80 out of pocket.

It appears I can pick this same 5% discount on cell phone services for next quarter, too. So I'm signing up again.

Someday, I may get Ting or a similar service. But for now, I'm happy with the additional 5% discount offered by my US Bank credit card.

Saw

this offer on Hip2Save today and I was able to complete it. The $5 is a credit on your Paypal account that you can use when shopping. It does not appear to be $5 that you can withdraw for cash.

Just click through the slide show and expect the credit to arrive in a week. Happy shopping! Where do you think you might spend your $5?

I found

this link at Hip2Save today for new people to sign up to complete survey's with Pinecone Research. The $3 payouts add up!

If you don't meet the requirements, you may not be offered membership. But it doesn't hurt to try? All completely free.

What do you do with your Pinecone survey money?

Okay be prepared for lots of links...none that you are required to click on. I got wind of a deal on furnace filters today fro

Hip2Save.

The deal is here at Home Depot to purchase a 12 pack of furnace filters for as low as $1.58 per filter shipped free. It turns out I'm in need of filters later this month.

I worked the deal a little harder to squeeze a little more savings off. I picked a 12 pack that would fit my furnace and was priced at $19.06 before taxes. With tax the total price was $20.20.

I went looking for discounted Home Depot electronic gifts cards (that I could use online) and came upon a gift card worth $16.17, but discounted more than 9% for the price of $14.63. I bought the card closest to the price without going a large amount over because I wanted to minimize my out of pocket cost.

Once I had made the gift card purchase on Raise, I went looking for a cash back site that I'm signed up with for the best discount. I must note here that it did take over an hour to receive the actual electronic gift card from Raise, but that it did work with no problems! I ended up using TopCashBack for as the rebate site because they were offering 3% back rather than 2% at Ebates. Only a $0.20 difference, but it all adds up!

So the final transaction went like this. Logged into TopCashBack, clicked on the Home Depot icon for 3% cash back, my total for the purchase at Home Depot was $20.20. I paid $4.03 on my credit card and used the gift card purchased for $14.63, but worth $16.17 to complete the transaction.

I paid $4.03 plus $14.63 and will get $0.57 back from TopCashBack. Effectively, I'm purchasing 12 furnace filters for $18.09 (with tax) and each filter is less than $1.51. A little extra work to save more than $2, but it was fun to get a deal on something I need anyway!! Now I'm set for a full year.

Do you follow Hip2Save deals? How much do you pay for a furnace filter?

Those are my affiliate links for Ebates, Raise and TopCashBack. No need to use them if you aren't interested.

This post will be all over the place...although I think financially centered!

Our electric bill is lower by $16.97 because it is a co-op and they have return some of our capital credits. Our auto insurance went down to under $400 for the next six months. That saves about $35 I think.

All my eBay listings have ended. The only other thing I sold was my daughter's Nook. She gets the profits of $34.12 since she originally paid for it herself. I have some chives plants I pulled from our landscape beds that I hope to sell if even for $1 each. I have five I need to list on Craigslist. I may also put the unsold items back on eBay on Sunday. My selling is SLOW!

I plan to open a bank account with Navy Federal Credit Union to take advantage of the 5% CD, which is only for $5,000 max, but that is an easy $250. I still need to open the account with US Bank for at least a bonus of $150. I also have an offer of $50 for opening a Discover bank account.

My daughter applied to three colleges over the weekend. As of this morning, she has been accepted to all three. Application fees came to $125 for all three. She paid with her debit card and we will reimburse her. I wanted her to have the experience of paying with her own card and handling it all on her own. The only thing she needed from me was to confirm her social security number. She does actually have it memorized at this point!

My husband's unit is getting a new commander this weekend. It's common for the commander to have a little reception after the ceremony. They are to pay for it out of their own pocket. He isn't responding to my husband's email, so my husband has taken it upon himself to order the cake, drinks, flowers and purchase napkins and plates. He took $160 out of our bank account. Praying we end up getting reimbursed!! It seems we never do for these things. Sometimes my husband is just too nice.

My husband was also asked by a coworker if we had any cell phones we weren't using. Yep. Four to be exact. We are selling for cheap, or even giving her one if she'll accept it. She is just downgrading from her smartphone, which is costing her too much time and money. We have kept our old phones simply as backup since they aren't worth anything to sell.

My girls started back with flute lessons last night. Twenty dollars per half hour for each of them once a week adds up to $160 to $200 a month. No small change really. They have both benefited greatly though, so it is worth it.

It just came to me yesterday that I should find out if there is an age limit for contributing to our Coverdell Educational Savings accounts. Yes there is. It is 18. Since my oldest daughter turns 18 in March, I need to try to get her full 2015 contribution into her account before that date. I will likely just change amounts for our Roth's and younger daughter to compensate for larger contributions during the first three months of 2015. I'm just glad I know ahead of time!

My youngest daughter is selling magazines for school. I'm pretty sure we are skipping the entire thing. I don't need any magazines and I'm really tired of asking others if they need any. They are way over priced because it is a fundraiser, too.

My 52 Week Savings Challenge account held at Capital One 360 now has a balance of $1,098. Those $57 deposits twice a month do add up!

Okay, I think you are caught up with the financial happenings here. Did you know there was an age limit on Coverdell Savings accounts? Are you taking advantage of any bonus offers from banks or credit cards right now?

I was made aware of another cash back site when shopping online. It's called

TopCashBack. Free to sign up, and can cash out anytime and for any amount (which is far different from Ebates).

I figured it was worth my time to sign up and get the $10 which is still showing as pending in my account. If you want the $10, feel free to sign up using my referral link. You can then advertise your referral link to your friends and family and receive $10 when they sign up.

As you probably know I will consider the $10 a little snowflake to put towards paying down our mortgage! I love these little unexpected ways to get cash.

Feel free to leave your referral code in the comments after you sign up! And, if you knew about this site, how long have you been a member?

ETA: It looks like the initial $10 may stay in pending status, until you have earned $10 in cash back status from the site. But at that point, you will have $20 to redeem. If anyone else reads it different, let me know.

I know I'm the one that suggested this selling challenge on Saving Advice, but I'm sure getting off to a slow start! Can I blame it on school starting last week? I have had items listed and I have sold a few. These items just aren't big profit makers for me.

In the entire month of August I put $44.83 back into our pockets. I mean I'm not making a true profit on items I purchased and am selling used for less. I put this money to the mortgage of course. So the selling does pay off in less debt and over time, a little less interest paid!

I have an item to relist tonight or tomorrow, since I had a non paying bidder. There are still four items listed, that I may switch to auctions. Undecided. I know there are a couple books on Half.com, but those will just sit there until they sell. Although by December they will go to Goodwill if no one shows interest by the end of the year. Can't have excess clutter for too long!

Are you selling anything? Do you think sales are slow or brisk for you right now?

Today is payday. I paid off charges made to various credit cards, so we are back to zero on all except one. No interest has accrued on any of course!

I made a big payment towards the principal balance of our mortgage in the amount of $349.41. This includes the planned $275 we make on the loan at mid month. We accumulated $48.08 in rewards on the Chase Freedom card over the last two months. That snowflake money was included in the payment in addition to some Pinecone survey and eBay proceeds. It all adds up to reduce debt! We only have a little over $3,600 to meet our the goal of paying off nearly $14K on the mortgage this year.

I have a bid on one item on eBay. There are several items listed and most at Buy It Now prices, so one has to wait until someone pulls the buy trigger. I may change these on Sunday to get some movement on them. I want the cash for them now.

I still haven't hit $100K in my Roth IRA account yet. The market has been down recently, but it could still happen this year. And I don't mind buying some more shares at lower prices!

I hope everyone has a thrify weekend!

I have some money tidbits today. I earned another $3 from Pinecone.

On eBay, I have a bid one one item and now someone watching another item.

I sent my $5 Starbucks egift card from Discover to my sister who is prepping her classroom for school. My mom is there helping. I thought they could use a coffee break sometime today. I've had the egift card in my email inbox since May! I think it's time someone used it.

Nothing is decided about college. We really enjoyed our visit to the college north of us. I personally would go there in an instant!

I purchased some items from iHerb today. I had over $9 in rewards, met the minimum spending for free shipping and paid less than $13 out of pocket for about $25 worth of items.

Citi Thank You card was not in the mail again today.

We decided not to go to our state fair, as it is now a two hour drive. We are coming up on the busy marching band season and need some time at home. I expect not going will save us nearly $150! That is a plus.

I'm going to open the box my wedding gown from 18 years ago is preserved in today. I will be trying it on and hoping I still fit in it(just kidding...that will never happen!!). Actually, I will be washing it and preparing to send it to an

organization that turns gowns in to Angel Gowns for babies who have died in the hospital. I have decided this is a better use for it than sitting in my closet. My daughters are not attached to it and don't have any interest in wearing it.

Those are my tidbits. Do you still have your wedding dress? Save any money this week? Will you visit your state fair?

I have sold three items recently on eBay and have net $27.18 after fees and shipping. Snowflake! I still have six items listed and I'm moving two to Half.com since there wasn't much interest on eBay this week. Those items may get donated at some point. I should note that I actually listed five new items yesterday. There are still more to list, but a little at a time works best for me!

We rented two instant watch movies on Amazon last week and used our Amazon.com credits I received from Bing Rewards and Swagbucks. That spending was $5.98. Snowflake!

I really don't like shopping at Walmart, but they have the kinds of things we normally buy (just usually at Target). Today, in the parking, lot there were police and sheriff vehicles and someone standing in handcuffs. This store backs up to Target and their parking lots are like night and day of each other! I didn't feel unsafe, although depending on what it was all about I probably would have left if it had started while I was there.

I bought 6 boxes of tissues and very large bottle of hand sanitizer for my sister who teaches kindergarten. I will give those to her later this fall. I also stocked my husband up on soap, deodorant, and shaving cream. And finally, I bought two bags of mulch since I realized quite a bit washed away last month in the rain. This shopping trip was about $35, but with other spending over the last week, we have used up two $50 gift cards at Walmart. Snowflake!

Right after I submit this post, I will make a $133.16 payment to our mortgage with this snowflake money. Less debt!

Can you say you have less debt today then you did yesterday? Do you give the teachers in your life extra supplies?

One of my listed items sold yesterday and I expect one will be bid on and sell later today. I made just over $10 on the first item. A few of the items are listed longer and may actually take longer to sell. I'm okay with that.

I hope to get more items listed later today. If there are a couple that don't sell I will likely relist. Eventually, I give up on items, but sometimes it just takes more time to find the buyer.

Do you have items you are selling right now?

Finally some progress on my SA Selling Challenge! I put six items up for sale on eBay tonight. I also listed a book on half.com.

I have quite a few more things to list, but I'm so glad I finally got the few up that I did. The rest will come later. Now I hope they sell. I did list many of them with the Buy It Now option, but one is an auction ending on Sunday.

Wish me luck!

Southwest has awarded my bonus points to my rewards account. I now have 52,683 points. I think my husband's account has about 600+ points that I may transfer over to round up to 53,000. That would mean I could redeem $525 worth of gift cards.

I may however not redeem all of my points. I have a friend that recently moved to the Houston area. I might want to go visit, but I'm not sure yet if that is really realistic schedule wise since we both have high school kids with busy schedules. The airfare is a better deal for the points than redeeming for gift cards. I'm still pondering, but I expect to redeem a little more than half the points for gift cards.

We received two surprise snowflake checks in the mail today. I love these types of snowflakes the most! My husband and I each got a check for $25.60 from a Trans Union class action settlement. We first requested to be part of the class action in September 2008!! That is not a typo. 2008. Crazy. But hey, I take my cash where I can get it. I've deposited the checks and I'm going to send the money to our mortgage pay down goal, which is where all snowflakes go to rest.

Do you use Southwest rewards for airline tickets rather than gift cards? Did you receive a class action check lately?

I love mail days with checks!!

We received three separate checks from Wells Fargo Rewards today adding up to $450. I deposited them online using my phone. Easy!!

That was quick. I think I requested those this past Sunday. I will make a extra principal payment to our Wells Fargo mortgage for the same $450.

In other news, we are splurging on Garth Brooks tickets. We had a misunderstanding this morning so I wasn't online buying them when they went on sale. As a result we are buying from Stub Hub, and at a price OVER the face value. But the seats are pretty good and if the tickets were that price direct I would likely have paid it. I've always wanted to go and missed my chance the first time around. My husband and I are going with his coworker and his wife. Should be fun!!

Have you received a credit card reward recently? The Wells Fargo reward? Are you a Garth Brooks fan? Are you going to a concert this summer?

I seemed to have several updates today, so I'll just throw them all into one post.

Swagbucks posted my most recent $5 Amazon gift card. The points were actually accumulated through Bing Rewards. We just used $4.99 in Amazon gift cards this weekend. So with the new gift card that posted we are back to $10.01 in Amazon credit. That gift card money used does count as a snowflake!!

Yesterday, I requested a refund on my husband's government card, since we had a negative balance of $35.47. He overpaid the card over a month ago. I thought he would get it corrected but he forgot and paid the same amount he charged thus we still had money owed to us. It looks like it will go to our bank account, rather than a check.

I have made over $95 in various charges to our Southwest Rapids Rewards card in the last several days. I thought we had met the requirement for spending, but when my husband had a hotel charge reversed we were short by about $95. The statement closes around the 26th of the month, so we are now set to met the requirement and I expect be rewarded our 50,000 bonus points (equal to $500 in gift cards). I plan to close the card after I redeem the points. At the time of closing we will have a negative balance of over $100 because of the reversed hotel charge. I expect Southwest will mail the money along with a return of the $99 annual fee.

I did end up redeeming our Wells Fargo American Express Propel World card points in the form of checks. I expect those will arrive quickly! I will then deposit them to our account and make an extra mortgage payment. This is likely far quicker than the 4-6 weeks predicted to credit the points to our Wells Fargo mortgage directly.

I can feel that summer is winding down, and school preparations are ramping up. Registration materials have arrived along with bus schedule and school supply lists. We will owe $130 in registration fees next week. I hope to get a clear list of the items we need to buy for supplies in the next day or two. There are already great sales out there! We do check our stash and reuse items when we can. I know backpacks, lunch bags, padlocks, pencils, pens and even paper are covered. I plan to buy hand sanitizer and tissues to give to my sister who teaches kindergarten.

I have not listed anything new for sale on Craigslist or eBay yet. I did have a couple things on Craigslist earlier this month but was getting a lot of spam replies, so I pulled things down. I have things for eBay but honestly have not been motivated. I also don't like to list things and have them end when I'm out of town, which is a possibility soon. It will all happen eventually!

Are you already getting ready for kids to return to school? Have you redeemed any Swagbucks or listed on eBay? Have you earned any credit card rewards?

If you have considered using the

Ooma as your home phone line, they are offering the unit at $99.99 with free shipping after a $30 activation rebate. To get the offer, and learn more about Ooma home phone lines, click my referral link here.

If you have questions, feel free to ask, I will do my best based on my experience using Ooma.

I do receive $20 for each referral that purchases an Ooma unit.

I have listed two items for sale today to get the SA Selling Challenge started. On Ebay I have some Box Tops for Education, and on Craigslist I posted two bike cargo racks for sale.

I have a bin of things that need to be sold and listed, so I'm not looking through the house for stuff. I know exactly where it all is and nearly everything has a box or envelope all ready to go for mailing.

Are you planning to sell anything this week? What are you selling? Did you know you could sell Box Tops for Education?

And just a few hours later, and the Box Tops have sold! That was easy.

I hate to say it but school shopping will be upon us before we know it. I try to do some of the shopping online during the summer clearance stores have this time of year. That gives us a few new items to start back to school when it is still hot.

I try to remember to use

Ebates before I get to the site, but sometimes I'm shopping and about to checkout before I remember. In that case, I close the tab with my shopping cart still full and to to Ebates. I find the store I'm shopping at and Ebates pulls their site up for me. Most of the time, my cart is still there, but this time I'm logged into Ebates to get cash back on the purchase.

Most recently, I have used Ebates to make purchases through Vistaprint for my daughter's business cards, Snapfish to order photo prints, Redbubble for my daughter's birthday t shirts and GNC for my husband's vitamins.

Don't forget to check out online shopping for vacation needs, too! I always find it hectic to be shopping before a vacation, and it seems shopping for some things online limits the stress of running to multiple stores.

Okay...thanks for listing to my reminder! I plan to get at least ONE thing listed for sale today to start off our SA Selling Challenge. Do you have anything up for sale?

I mentioned a selling challenge in a post in the last couple weeks. It seems several people are interested. I have yet to sell anything, but I'm definitely going to challenge myself for the remainder of the year to see how much I can sell of our own stuff. I also hope to get at least one item listed on Ebay this weekend!

I like to think there are no rules, but here are some guidelines:

1)Sell your items for cash.

2)Sell the items by any preferred method, garage sale, ebay, craigslist or other.

3)Track your profits (and gross sales if desired).

4)Write a blog post about your sales at least once per month, some of us may write more often, but once a month should be the minimum to keep the momentum of the challenge going.

I think people like to hear about what you are selling, so that can be shared, as well as what your plan for the money is. I also like to know about profits over gross sales personally, since that is the money you get to keep! If you are selling something you bought for a profit, I would specify that as well.

Let's sell our stuff for CASH!!

Are you in? Have you started?

I posted quite a few entries to catch up today, keep scrolling down to read more of my updates!

We survived a very strong storm yesterday, either straight line winds or a small tornado. No damage to our home, but a man was killed up the road when a building a collapsed on him during the storm. About an hour after the storm we lost power for eight hours. I think the food in our fridge and freezer is okay, as we really tried to keep the doors closed for the duration.

Our neighbor next door was getting water in his basement, which a sump pump when he has power does a fine job of handling. Without power it is a problem. He ended up getting a generator to handle it. We weren't getting but a drop into our sump pump.

On Sunday night we received quite a bit of rain, which ended up causing an issue with two bridges in our little town. One collapsed when a semi went over it. It is on a major highway through our town. We now can't get to the other side of town without taking a major detour. There is another road we use with frequency, that has also been closed because the road washed away. We have seen pictures of two full sized cars that fell into the area washed away.

We became aware of our lack of batteries, among a few other things that we should be more prepared for with storms and outages. Something to work on.

Don't forget that the Capital One Independence Day offers are still available through July 3. You can get a $100 bonus for the checking account and $76 for the savings.

Here's my post about the offers.

Should I throw out the milk and eggs? Any storms in your area lately?

The Capital One 360 offers are now up on their website. My referral link is

here. Remember to read the fine print for all offers so you know what is required of you. There is only one offer available per person. No double dipping!

Here is a screen print of the offers available. You can get $100 for opening a checking account. You must use the debit card at least 5 times for any amount within the first 45 days. The $100 is deposited to your account on Day 50 automatically. I opened mine with $50 so that I had money to spend once I received the debit card.

If you open a Savings account with Capital One 360 you must deposit $500. The cash will earn .75% interest beginning on day 1. You will earn $76 immediately upon opening, but you cannot take it out for 30 days.



Here is what you will see when you click on my link:



Are you planning to sign up for these offers? Have you participated in Capital One 360 offers in the past?

I just found out this morning that Capital One 360 is running a sweepstakes where you have the chance to win $1,776 each day through July 14th. It is a way to share what you are doing to declare your financial independence. I entered using Facebook, but you can enter through Twitter, Instagram and Email also.

I know we all have ways we save and improve our financial lives. We might as well share and have the chance to win some cash!

Check out the sweepstakes and enter if you chose

here. I do not get anything for passing this information along. Just thought I'd share...since it would be fun if one of us here were to win!

Don't forget to come back to my blog on Monday for information about the Capital One 360 Independence Day Sale that begins on Monday through July 3.

Do you enter sweepstakes on a regular basis, just on occasion or never?

Remember to stop by my blog on Monday for the Capital One 360 Independence Day offers!! I will have more details then. Here's the post I wrote last week about it:

Just giving those of you who do not already have a Capital One 360 Checking or Savings account but are interested a heads up. You will likely want to wait until June 30 to take advantage of their sale they have each year.



As you can see from the ad, the sale runs from June 30 to July 3rd. In the past the bonuses for signing up have been up to $100 for a savings account which is double the normal bonus. They have even larger bonuses if you open a Sharebuilder account. My understanding is that you cannot double dip on these offers.

I would appreciate it if you would use my referral when these bonus are announced if you heard of this great deal from me. I will likely get a bonus for referring you. And you know I like snowflakes!

The nice thing about the Capital One accounts is there are no minimum balances or fees. There is usually no direct deposit requirement, although you may have to deposit some cash to qualify or make a few debit purchases on the checking account. The details will be announced soon so stay tuned?

Does this offer interest you? Did you take advantage of Capital One's sale in the past?