I did get six workouts in last week. I skipped Saturday and Sunday because of guests. Although my sister kept trying to get me to do some exercise cards...my back just can't do some of those moves! I did lift weights two days last week, so only 8 more of those days to go this month. And I still need 14 cardio workouts. I'm about to leave for the gym to get both cardio and weight lifting in.

The really good news is that by watching calories and exercising more I have lost 7.2 pounds in 21 days. I have much more to lose, but it nice to see the scale change! One day at a time, one meal at a time, it all comes together in meeting a goal. This is similar to saving money, too. Although for me, it takes a little more willpower to watch my food intake. I use myfitnesspal.com to track my calories and exercise. I have logged in for 21 days straight. That part gets a little addictive. I've also been reading blogs on the site to get inspiration. As we here at SA know, reading others successes and struggles is helpful in reaching our goals.

My snowflakes are coming in slow this month. I did use the $25 Target gift card yesterday when I bought groceries. I will send that and the savings from a lower water bill in to the mortgage today. That makes $29.33 for the month of March. There are snowflakes making there way here, but the arrival is unknown for now.

Are you working on a health goal? Did you make a payment towards debt this week? Are you expecting some snowflakes soon?

I stayed up way to late the last two nights with company in from out of town. I enjoyed the time, but I am wiped out today. It sure doesn't help that the time changed!

I managed to get to the grocery store (Super Target) and used the $25 gift card in the mail, plus some coupons, my cartwheel coupons and my Red Card to save some cash. The gift card will be included in the snowflakes. I also received another $5 gift card for Target for buying two vitamins. Now I'm stocked up!

Good news on the Southwest card, is that my husband has already spent nearly $350 on his work trip on the card. That will be so helpful. I think there is another trip this month that might help with the spending requirement, too!

The bad news on Discover is that I inquired again on the $150 promotional bonus. This time they stated the time frame to meet the bonus must pass before they apply the bonus, regardless of meeting the spending requirement. Did they tell me what date that is? No. I have now inquired about this specific. I like the Discover website interface and how easy it and helpful it is to use, but the online customer service is vague at best. Not willing to offer up information, unless specifically asked. I have had much better assistance with Chase and Capital One. The bonus is earned. It will arrive. I just need to be patient!

We had limited spending this weekend. About $16 at Subway for dinner last night. And I think $3 at McDonald's as my daughter wanted a snack after she went on an outing with me. A rare occurrence, so I didn't mind that expense. Otherwise, fuel on Friday and groceries today. I like those kind of weekends. I will take them when they occur.

Did you lose sleep this weekend? Did you have any fast food, or company visiting you? Anyone waiting patiently or impatiently on money to arrive?

My husband's Chase Southwest Rapids Rewards Plus Visa arrived today in the mail. I have already activated the cards. The countdown to spend $2000 in the first billing cycle begins! We will receive $500 worth of gift cards once we meet the requirement.

The online account shows the first payment due as March 26, so based on other Chase credit card accounts, I think the statement date will be March 29. So I really only have three weeks to make purchases to likely avoid paying the $69 annual fee. Well, I will have to pay it, but I can request a refund. Does that seem right to those of you who have done other Southwest Visa offers?

Our first purchase will be to pay our high electric bill from February. A whopping $172! Crazy cold winter leads to high heating costs. I have quite a few things to charge to this card, including our tax payments, an auto insurance payment, two donations, an upcoming cell phone bill. I might be able to get my husband to pay for his weekend travel on the card...but maybe not since they do like him to use that government card. That would sure help though! Worse case scenario is to buy gift cards for upcoming purchases. I think we can do it!!

In other good news, we received a $25 Target gift card for some spending we did on our USAA card back in November. It finally arrived. Another snowflake for March!

How quickly could you rack up $2000 in spending? And what would this spending be on? Would it include a splurge or would you be able to spend that on regular expenses?

My husband's Discover card statement closed yesterday. We have already spent the $750 to meet the $150 bonus, but it was not applied to our rewards account. I inquired my email. The response was the $150 bonus will be applied within 8 weeks. Ugh. They sure like you to hang around waiting for your cash don't they? I was really hoping we could both redeem those rewards this month. Now it doesn't look like it.

I'm still waiting on our US Bank Reward to be applied as well,probably worth at least $140. I also have $100 in referral money coming from Ooma sometime. There are snowflakes out there, they just seem to be stuck in the sky!!

I purchased a DVD for my daughter's birthday from Amazon. I used the Discover card to make the purchase and used $3.26 of my available rewards towards the purchase. So I have that little snowflake, as well as a Pinecone survey payment from earlier in the week.

I have worked out six days this week! I also did two of my weight lifting workouts as well. The eating and watching calories is going pretty well, too. The less I eat the less we spend on groceries which is a bonus.

Anyone know how long it took you to get your Discover bonus? This is DH second billing cycle that just ended. Did you get any snowflake money this week? How is your exercise goal coming along?

My husband got a text message indicating our Wells Fargo debit card has been blocked. Well this is clearly phishing as we don’t even have a Wells Fargo debit card! We do have a mortgage with them, but that is it. Luckily we know not to fall for those type of panic messages. If you ever get ANY sort of alert about an account you have it is best to contact the servicer at their published phone number, email or in person rather than any number or email provided in the message.

My husband applied for the Southwest Rapids Rewards Plus card and was approved. We need to spend $2000 in 3 months to get $500 worth of gift cards. My goal is to complete that spending within ONE credit card cycle so I can request the annual fee of $69 to be refunded. My husband applied for one of the other Southwest cards last fall. We were able to get the $99 fee refunded with a simple email request.

Now spending $2000 that fast seems a little daunting, but I know we have a $400+ auto insurance payment due, $400+ owed to the IRS (plus a fee for paying with a credit card), we have two donations we want to make for about $150+, we should have the card in time to charge our $150 Verizon wireless bill, as well as a $150+ electric bill. I’m open to charging our groceries that we usually put on our Target Red Card for the 5% discount. I know there will be gas for our vehicles and since spring is coming VERY soon some clothing purchases or at least gift cards for those. We also have that mini trip to visit a college.

I have not quite met the spending for my Discover card, but I will get that done in the next few weeks, too. It looks like I have $200 left to charge to meet the $750 spending requirement to get my $150. Right now, I'm waiting on billing cycles to close for my US Bank card and my husband's Discover. The spending requirement has been met on those and will bring us about $275 in rewards.

I did not work out yesterday, but I did today! 1/20 workouts for the month of March have been completed. I really NEED to workout everyday, to make my weight loss plan work. I also need to get in some weight lifting as well. I think I will make a goal of 12 days where I do weightlifting. And increase in activity is a good thing and I got to start somewhere.

It feels like this week is shaping up to be busy, maybe it is because I have to work out. Do you know about phishing? Are you embarking on a new exercise routine? Is your week going to be extra busy or more relaxing?

I found $638.04 in snowflakes for the month of February. No complaints, however, I did notice it was less than last month by over $84. But I had many more rebates last month. All the money went to pay down the mortgage principal!

As of this month I am at 34% of my goal for the year, which is $4000 in snowflakes. Or money that is not earned from my husband's paycheck!

Here's where all those snowflakes came from:


Did you track your snowflakes this month? How did you do? What did you do with your snowflakes?

I wrote a post on

Our Money Blog about some of my thoughts for this pay day, if you are interested.

The Swagbucks and Pinecone snowflakes arrived in our checking account. Is it me or is Paypal getting quicker at sending money? I have already scheduled this $28 to go to the mortgage principal. Less debt!!

So that washing machine part arrived today. I did a load yesterday and no leaking occurred after. Well maybe a slight drip or two. I'm doing another load now. I wonder if all that dripping the other day was a fluke? I don't want to spend time and money replacing the part if it isn't necessary. We won't get to the part replacement until this weekend, so I have some time to contemplate it.

We are making plans to visit a college in another state over spring break. My daughter has some interest in it. Since she is a Junior this year, it is time to start looking. I attended this institution for two year but transferred to another city, same state and university system to complete. A little looking shows that my graduation, her ACT score (29) and GPA (4.0) might make her eligible for a large scholarship that would easily reduce tuition to the in state amount. My husband also has Post 911 GI bill benefits that could be used for her as well.

I think it would be best to use the GI bill benefits for our older daughter, as you never know when the benefit could be pulled or changed. I think it could virtually make her college cost zero. We then could transfer what we have saved in her ESA to her sister. Right now we have over $30K saved between the two of them. Our youngest daughter won't go to college until Fall 2018, so we have over 4 years to continue to save and for that money to grow.

My best friends son, who is a senior, just decided to attend a private school. His grades are high, but ACT was 24. The school did offer some grants and reductions in tuition. In fact, because they waiting awhile to decide the school actually offered MORE money. My friend and her husband will take out a parent PLUS loan and their son will take out the maximum student loan allowed of $5500. I think that makes their portion around $20K for ONE year. My friend said he will work all summer and have to apply all his earnings to reduce the amount of their portion. They are putting their son on notice that this is a one year trial basis. If he isn't accountable, they won't pay for this private college. Considering they are still paying on her husband's college at the tune of over $600 per month, I'm amazed they are taking on more debt. Although I shouldn't be. They finance EVERYTHING! But they do both work full time and also have part time work as well, so they do seem to make it work.

We expect my husband to get promoted this year. I expect that extra income will help us with the college costs when the time comes. I hope this allows us to at least cash flow the room and board portion of college.

It feels good to be on track to handle college. Are you saving for your child's college? Did you help them with college tuition? If so, did you take out loans or cash flow the cost?

I sold on item on Ebay today. I'm not sure if I'm getting the profit or my daughter. It was a gift to her years ago. Seems to be a collector item. She is saving for PhotoShop, so I think I will give the proceeds of $19.46 to her. Although, I'd love a snowflake for the mortgage.

Actually I do have a couple of snowflakes that should arrive in my bank account in a couple of days. Twenty five dollars from Swagbucks and $3 from Pinecone. I hope it is here by Friday so I can count it towards this months snowflakes!

A few purchases have been made in the last 24 hours. I ordered that valve for the washer, which has now been shipped and charged to my Discover card for $48. We also bought the newest Thor movie. I didn't know it was coming to video yet, but my husband said we were going to rent it this weekend. We own ALL the other Marvel movies, and we (they) watch them multiple times, so it makes sense to me to buy it. Unfortunately, it might not be here until Monday. We won't be renting though know that we bought it. So that was $19 I think. It was probably cheaper on Pre-Order so I wish I had known.

I thought there was something else I bought. I'm probably remembering that my husband agreed to buy from yet another Girl Scout. Another $21 in cookies. It is supporting some coworkers who have supported our girls in fundraisers, and we do like GS cookies. I told him NOT to buy Thin Mints this time around. I'm watching calories and don't need them.

I had to contact Ooma last week because they had not yet billed me for February and they were late in December, too. Today I had to call because they charged me again on Monday. Double billed for February. I guess I just need to let there system do it's thing and catch up on it's own, but when you expect to be billed on the 6th and aren't it is annoying. They did credit me for the extra charge.

I also received notice that our gas bill will be increasing from $28 per month to $50 starting in April. I was billed a similar amount last spring and summer and built up a credit thus the really low $28 bill for quite a few months. Well, with this really cold weather we have used up our credit balance. It is all fine with me. As long as I know ahead of time of the change I'm okay with budget billing and the changes that come with it.

I think that is the financial news from here. I'm looking forward to payday, as I like to do all the recording of bills and adding money to savings. Do you have any utilities on budget billing? Have you been double billed for anything lately? Did you cave to the girl scouts and buy cookies? What is your favorite?

I used up more items yesterday! I made steel cut oats in the crockpot with the last (expired two days ago) four cups of milk. I divided the batch into four servings. I already ate one this morning, too. I made a batch of boxed brownies to use up the sour cream. Crazy huh? It replaces the oil. My kids haven't seemed to noticed the difference! We ate our pizza last night along with two of the three remaining apples. I have to say those apples did help me eat less of the pizza.

There are still things to use up. I'm trying to focus on those things that have been in the cupboard and fridge for awhile. Some things we always use up. Like cheese and crackers. Others like milk, not so much. We have some ground coffee we received for Christmas that we used some of and then DH declared he didn't really like it. I will use it up this week, when he is not drinking coffee at home. I plan to have a mozzarella tomato sandwich for lunch...probably today and tomorrow to use up the ingredients left over from the last time we had those for dinner. Apparently some of us are getting burnt out from eating those! Not me. I think they are yummy. Although maybe a little caloric for my diet.

I have plans to put three items on Ebay tomorrow. An electronic pet, a cat toy and a series of books. I may also have a curtain panel to list as well. Worth a try to get a few more things sold. I pulled the table we listed on Craigslist last week. I had zero responses. Not even spam! I will relist when the weather gets a little warmer AND take some better pictures.

What did you use up? Is your fridge or cupboards cleaner because of the use it up challenge? Are you selling anything right now?

I listed four hardback books of a series for my daughter last Friday. She sold them with a Buy It Now option yesterday. I even go the package to the post office last night. She made $36.54, which averages just over $9 a book. She's happy with the cash.

I did actually use up the refried beans and tortillas yesterday at lunch. Yummy! We did eat all the applesauce cake as well, so that is not going to waste. Our dinner was tortilla soup. There are leftovers for today. My daughter took some to school and I expect I will eat some for lunch. I finished a jar of jam this morning, but another will be opened tomorrow I'm sure. It seems things are getting under control and used up in a timely way. There some egg noodles I need to find a use for. We don't usually buy them, but I used some in turkey soup and didn't need them all. Obviously I could use them with pasta sauce pretty easily. I will keep that in mind for lunch in the next week or so.

We are having chicken tonight. I think I will bake the chicken in barbeque sauce to use up that container of sauce. We are having roasted vegetables, to include carrots, brussel sprouts and red potatoes. The carrots and brussel sprouts do need to be used up! I will pour olive oil over them along with some basil, thyme, salt and pepper. I might have some onion to include with those veggies too.

I think I have time today to make banana bread. We don't need to eat it, so I will likely freeze it for later. I just want to get the frozen bananas used up. Banana bread comes in handy for breakfast when guests are here, so I know it will get used.

Keep up the great work using up your food leftovers! Anyone use up any cleaners or personal care products this week? What will you use up today?

If you are interested in doing paid surveys for Pinecone, I have a link

here. Pinecone doesn't provide me any incentive to pass this along. I just thought I'd share the link since they sent it to me by email to refer friends and family.

I noticed my daughter used up the salsa yesterday. Now one less container in the fridge! I ate some of the leftover taco fixing for dinner last night. I think I will eat the rest for lunch today. Although there may be more refried beans than I can eat in one sitting. But I will clean up the green onions, the shredded lettuce and maybe the tortillas.

I don't plan to bake anything today as we know have banana muffins and applesauce cake sitting on the counter. We sure don't need more bake goods. I'm actually trying to watch my calories, so I will be avoiding them. I guess that doesn't help use them up if I make something else but don't eat that. I think the family will eat them though. I can freeze the muffins if needed.

Tonight I will make tortellini soup, which always has leftovers, but ALWAYS gets eaten the next day. I like when leftovers take care of themselves.

Were are having a heat wave here. It will be 39 degrees here today! Happy for the melting of all the snow. Of course, a Winter Weather Storm watch has been issued for tomorrow afternoon. That means more snow! I can tell it is getting closer to spring as I see more birds and they are singing in the mornings. Our cats have noticed this too!

Will you be signing up for Pinecone? What did you use up yesterday or plan for today? What kind of weather are you having today?

I should really call our challenge Twice Monthly Savings challenge. Our automatic deposit to our savings challenge will take place on Monday. Another $57 deposit will bring the balance to $295. This covers weeks 1-9 and 48-51.

I still don't have specific plans for this money, but it may eventually go for a car for our teen daughter or a vacation further down the road. It just feels good to make a specific and planned savings deposit. We save more than this each pay period, but the amount varies.

In other news, I did list our old kitchen table and chairs on craigslist for $150. No interest yet, but I put it up late last night. I also listed a series of books on Ebay for my daughter. Again no leads yet! But I expect there will be.

How are you doing on your savings challenge? Are you trying to sell anything?

My Swagbucks money arrived in my PayPal account yesterday, so I requested that money to be transferred to our checking account. There was also a Pinecone payment in there, so I pulled that too. That will be $28 going to the mortgage! I will likely make that payment tomorrow when I'm paying bills.

My husband's paycheck is already pending in our bank account. I like paydays that arrive on the weekend...it means we get our money a little early.

I had over $150 in cash at our house due to getting cash for fundraiser that I wrote just one check for and getting paid for that sewing work. I took all the cash plus some change I scrounged up and made a $158.65 payment on our Target Red Card. Obviously, I made this payment in the store. I still owe more on the card, but I will pay that off tomorrow when I pay bills.

My daughter has found 10 books she wants to get rid of. Preferably she would like to sell them. One series has sold on Ebay for $50 with free shipping included. She keeps her books very nice, so I think hers can sell for this amount easily. The other series isn't as clear about the price it sells for. I might try $25 initially. Maybe I can get them posted later tonight if I have boxes for them.

We really need to list some furniture on Craigslist soon. We have a kitchen table and four chairs, a couch and a love seat. I'd like to try this weekend, but I'm not sure if my husband will be on board with that. I'd like $300 for all pieces. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I picked up The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert at the library today. I'm looking forward to reading it...for free of course.

I also picked up two small bags of candy at the store today. This is for Valentine's Day tomorrow. I might make a couple homemade cards for my girls. We will have manicotti for dinner at home. That is our frugal celebration!

Do you have frugal Valentine's plans? Did you sell any books or borrow one from the library?

On the coldest day of 2014 so far, our snowball arrived. Cool! That snowball is the Chase Sapphire bonus of 50,000 points for spending $3,000+. The actual awards credited this month was 51,016, which is equal to $510.16.



I have redeemed them for a statement credit which generally appears the next business day. This will leave me with $42.08 left to pay which I will pay right away tomorrow, leaving the balance at zero.

Since I don't have to pay $510+ on the credit card, I made a payment towards the principal balance on our mortgage. The amount, of course, is $510.16! Yea. Less debt!!

I expect a Pinecone survey to arrive in my Paypal account today. I'm still waiting on a deposit from Swagbucks. But it seems things are moving right along in the snowball department.

I have several financial things happening on Monday that I'm looking forward to. Yes, they are small, but fun for me just the same.

1)Our Chase Sapphire card statement will close, and the bonus rewards should then be available. Once this happens I can apply them to the balance, pay the small amount remaining, and then match the rewards with a big fat mortgage principal payment.

2)Our internet bill will post to my US Bank card and I will have met the $500 in spending to earn about $125 in rewards. I don't know yet when the statement closes or how quickly rewards are given.

3)My daughters recent Etsy purchase is available for pick up at the post office. I originally purchased with our credit card. Once she has it in hand, she owes me about $80.

4)If I'm lucky, I will receive cash in my Paypal account for Swagbucks and a Pinecone survey.

5)I plan to pay a few bills and make an extra mortgage payment for the sewing project I completed.

It's the little things some times that make the difference, even in personal finance! Are you looking forward to anything on Monday?

I was paid for a sewing project today that I did for my Mom. I now have $45 more in my pocket than I did this morning! I will figure my profit for the work and send that amount to the mortgage since I consider this side gig a snowflake. I will actually keep the cash she gave me and use for flute lessons later in the month. That means I shouldn't need to pull any money from an ATM for the rest of the month!

My husband came home from work and was interested in going out to dinner. He said we haven't done that as a family for awhile. True. But I had dinner all planned and ready to go. And the girls wanted to watch the Olympic opening ceremony on television. So we saved a little cash, since we kind of made plans without him.

We made a purchase today of tickets to a concert in late May. My daughters are excited. By that statement you might expect it is some boy band, but no....it is a violinist! My parents are coming with us since it is in their town, so I purchased six tickets with fees for about $175. I put it on my Discover card, ya know to help meet the spending requirement for the $150 bonus!

That is the financial news from here today! Best wishes for a thrifty weekend.

Regular readers know we have been taking advantage of credit card bonus offers to make a little cash. All funds earned from our regular spending on these cards is going to pay down our mortgage balance. If we could get decent rates on savings accounts, we would do that instead.

Currently, we are working on spending on three cards to obtain bonus cash. I thought you might like to see where we stand on those. We both have a Discover It card that we each need to spend $750 on to receive $150 in bonus cash. I also had a special offer from US Bank for which I need to spend $500 to receive $100 in bonus cash. There is an opportunity to claim an additional $25 at the time of redemption on that card.

US Bank: $427.82 of $500
Discover(Me): $35.94 of $750
Discover(DH): $126.86 of $750

I am close on the US Bank card. I will probably pick up some vitamins at Walmart and get fuel in my van to meet the minimum spending requirement.

As for the other two cards, I expect we will be charging six concert tickets for about $150, the electric bill which is $167, cell phone bill for another $150, fuel for our vehicles and other odds and end spending. I might bump up payment for our auto insurance to meet the spending as well. I already have the money set aside for that bill, so that makes it easy.

I have a balance of $552 on my Chase Sapphire card and the money to pay it, but I expect the bonus of over $500 to be available when the statement closes on February 10. When it is available I will request a statement credit and pay the remaining balance to bring the card back to zero. No interest has accrued of course, because I would never let that happen!

That is where our credit card reward activity stands. It feels things are moving slow on those cards, but I think the main reason for that is less spending. And that is a good thing!

Make sure you read my blog post from yesterday about how to pay off debt using the debt snowball, if you find yourself with multiple debts.

That Ebates payment arrived in our checking account and I sent it right off to pay down the mortgage. Less debt! That is the first snowflake for the month of February. It's a little slow going, but I know there will be more arriving at some point.

My daughter has a minor condition that is bugging her. My mom has it and there really isn't a known cure, but there are plenty of things to try to provide some relief. One of these items was a type of vitamin marketed directly for this condition. She gave it a try...two bottles priced at nearly $25 each. In the end she said it didn't really seem to work. Fine. There is a money back guarantee for one purchase. I sent a request to the company with the receipt and UPC code today. I don't know how long it will take to receive, but the process has begun to get some of our money back.

I redeemed some more airline miles my husband has accumulated. These are for our newspaper subscription. I know we are probably aren't getting the best value from those miles, but we really never fly any where for pleasure. We might as well get something for them, rather than nothing. And our town's newspaper is pricey...$66 for 13 weeks of everyday delivery. That is $5 per week! If I were to pay upfront for the entire year it would come down to $4.95 per week. I rarely read it...but I like to do the suduko puzzle while I eat lunch. I could find this online for free if I wanted. So for now, we will use airline miles, rather than pay out of pocket for the paper.

Do you purchase a subscription to your newspaper? How much do you pay? What do you like best about the paper? If you don't read the newspaper, why is that?

My rebates from Ebates arrived in my PayPal account today. I have requested the $29.35 to be moved to my checking account. I will then send that money to the mortgage!

I bought another 8 bags of cheese for $1. There wasn't a limit, but I do have limited space in my freezer for storing, so that is all I bought.

I returned an item at Joann's Fabric for $3.52, but then purchased new machine needles (with a 40% off coupon) for $2.24. I made the original purchase in cash, but they give returns less than $5 in cash. I now have an extra $1.28 in my wallet.

I received a postcard in the mail from USAA for a reward promotion we participated in. We spent $1200 quite awhile back and were to receive a $25 gift card. The postcard was a link to claim the gift card. I chose Target. We won't receive it for 4-8 weeks. I have to say it isn't a great reward, but at the time of the promotion we weren't working on any other rewards, so it was a bit of a bonus.

Next week our Chase Sapphire billing cycle should close, so our reward should be available at that time. I'm looking forward to that, so I can make another big payment to the mortgage with it.

As you can see it wasn't a no spend day, but some snowflakes are on the way!

I was hoping I could write that this month was my largest snowflake total ever. But it isn't. It is the second largest total since I began recording in 2012. I accumulated $725.45 in cash from non-income sources. Credit card rewards definitely made a difference this month. This is 18% of my $4000 goal for the year. Here where that money all came from:



As promised, I put all this money towards paying down our mortgage. As a result we have less debt! Our mortgage balance is down $1,276.53 for the month. This represents 9% of our mortgage goal for the year, so we are ahead of schedule. Love it!!

I think quite a few of you were going to track your snowflake earnings this year. Do you have a total for January? It's not too late to start keeping track and looking for those snowflakes.

I requested my $3 Pinecone survey money to be moved from Paypal to our checking account. It probably won't arrive in my bank account until Monday, but I'm going to count that one for January.

I did my sewing project and ended up not using one of the rolls of thread. I will return that soon, which will put just under $4 back in my pocket. My sewing project will net me about $35! (My client was my mom.)

I received the email from Ebates offering my earnings in the form of Amazon credit. This was tempting as I was about to make a purchase there, but I refrained. I decided that the purchase on my credit card would benefit me more since I'm working towards a bonus reward. The Ebates will be deposited in my Paypal account on Monday. I will be getting $29.35 back!

I'm getting close to earning another $25 in cash from Swagbucks. I made goal for the first 21 days of the month, but have decided to spend my time better this last week. I have been on everyday, but I have not always met the goal. Anything extra is great, but I do need to watch that it is not hogging my time from other important activities.

So it seems I have plenty of little snowflakes showing up soon, most of those will be counted in February. I will update my final January total on Friday. Do you have any snowflakes on the horizon?

P.S. I wrote about some frugal inactions over at

Our Money Blog today, if you like that kind of thing!

We paid $99.99 for our Ooma Voip Telo system in October. It is normally $149.99 on their site, but we took advantage of a referral sale for $50 off. Ooma has this offer again, which I wrote about several posts back.

I posted my referral code here, on Ebay and on a few coupon sites. Five people have purchased an Ooma using my referral code. I will receive $20 for each of those referrals...which if you did the math that is $100. That makes our Ooma unit FREE. I like free.

Thanks for all of those that used my referral code. It may still be good for you to use, but I don't expect I will be getting any more cash for referring you. Ooma indicated there was a five referral maximum.

I like that I can get cash for referring people for things I use and would refer people to anyway. I have referred people to Capital One 360, iHerb, Ooma, Ebates and Swagbucks. I'm not sure how much I have made this way...probably less than $300.

Have you made money referring friends, family, blog readers or strangers to a company? Who do you refer people to? How much do you think you have made this way?

Right on schedule, my husband's $125 bonus from Capital One was deposited into his checking account today. I decided to leave it in the account since it earns a little interest.

I did however send that money (took it from our checking account) and the $25 American Express reward to our mortgage this morning to pay down principal. That means the balance is lower by $125!

I generally update at the end of the month, but I thought you might like to see all the snowflakes that I have accumulated this month. A whopping $722.45!



Including our regular principal payment this month, we have paid $1,273.53 in principal. Again, I'm always happy about less debt!

Anyone else have a total of your snowflakes so far this month? Any amount is great in my book!!

I posted a tip about free tax filing on

Our Money Blog today. If you like free, take a look!

Our American Express billing statement closed on Friday. We earned more rewards, I believe from our kitchen table purchase. We had enough to redeem for a $25 statement credit. I have already requested it, but don't expect I will see it post for a couple more days.

Our balance before the credit was $150, so I just need to send in $125 to have it paid in full. The remaining balance is the last of the Washington DC trip costs. Once I have paid this off, it will free up $150 in our budget since that is what I have been paying every month. Of course, there has been no interest on this card. I wouldn't pay interest...you know that!

I will send the $25 reward money in to the mortgage since I didn't have to pay that portion on the card. I love less debt!

P.S. I'm over at

Our Money Blog today discussing my tax preparation plans.

I think I talked about our switch to Ooma awhile ago. I wanted to give you an update on how it is going.

We have had our Ooma VoiP phone service for over two months. We bought the Ooma Telo box when it was on sale for $99.99 with free shipping. We now pay only $3.74 for our home phone service per month. That fee covers the federal taxes for our area. It may differ for you. The quality of the calls is awesome! You can't tell any difference from a traditional land line. I haven't had the connections fail at all. We don't get any telemarketing calls because we chose a new number, rather than porting our current number over. It was also a snap to set up. I don't think it took us more than 15 minutes. Most of the set up time was online, picking a number and setting up our account. I definitely don't have any regrets. Obviously, if you have already dumped your land line and have gone to cell only service, than this probably doesn't interest you, but it is a great deal for those of you who may still want a home phone.

The regular price of the Ooma Telo box is $149.99 plus shipping. As I mentioned above, we bought ours when there was a sale. That sale is back! If you have been on the fence about purchasing an Ooma now is the time. The deal is again for $99.99 with free shipping. It is good through at least January 30. I'd be honored if you use my

referral code of FUD3038 when you make your purchase. I do receive a $20 credit for up to five referrals. And as I write this, I realize that once I receive those, I will have ended up with my purchase price back! Nifty. I guess the option to refer new users will be available in the future to give you the chance to get your Ooma purchase money back as well. Nifty for all of us!

I'd be happy to answer questions as best I can, if you want to ask in the comments. Otherwise, the Ooma.com website is full of great information and reviews by other users.

P.S. I wrote a final update about my low spend week on

Text is Our Money Blog and Link is http://ourmoneyblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/low-spend-update.html

Our Money Blog, if you are curious how I did.

I received the $50 rebate check for my Kitchen Aid mixer in the mail today. (By the way, I love my mixer!) I also received my most recent Swagbucks redemption of $25 in my PayPal account.

I added these to some other recent snowflakes, added my planned extra principal payment that reflects the increase in our housing allowance and rounded up $0.20 for an even $200 principal payment on our mortgage. We have now paid over $1000 in principal since January 1!!

$102.20 planned extra principal
_$50.00 Kitchen Aid rebate
_$25.00
_$18.00 Wine rebate
__$2.54 Capital One CC Rewards
__$2.26 Menard's Return

Oh, it feels good to have less debt! Did you end the week with less debt? Any checks in your mail today?

Another no spend day! Yippee.

We actually had an inflow of cash today! There were two checks in the mail. One was $18 for a wine rebate. The other was my Capital One rewards check I requested last week for $2.54. Super fast. I will get these deposited tomorrow and sent to pay down some more mortgage principal.

I wrote yet another post on

Our Money Blog about some of my thoughts during my low spend week. I'd love to hear your comments about the post.

I'm getting ready for preparing taxes soon. I have a couple things I need. My husband's W2 will not be available until next Friday. Today, I totaled up the thrift shop value of our Goodwill donations. I'm not sure that they will help us get beyond the standard deduction, but they are ready to go if needed.

Did you get any checks in the mail today? Where are you in regards to preparing your tax return?

The low spending is going very well this week. I had two no spend day, Monday and Tuesday. Today I sent a package in the mail for $2.24 and purchased some grocery items at Target for $13.11. I needed more greens for my smoothies!

The fuel gauges on the vehicles are going down, but I will keep using the gas that is there and hope I can make it very close to Sunday before I need to fill up again.

Today was payday, which means the automatic deposit for the 52 Week Savings challenge was sent to my Capital One 360 account. My total is now $181, which covers weeks 1-7, and 50-52. I'm still not really sure what I'm saving this money for! At minimum, more emergency funds.

All bills are up to date, and I expect to pay off the American Express balance in a couple days. This is the card I charged my daughter's Washington DC trip to. She leaves in April and will have a paid for trip! The balance is at $265. I expect $25 in rewards to be available in a couple days, so once I claim that I will pay the remaining $240. I was already planning to pay $115, and since I have the remainder, I'm ready to be done with paying Amex. One less item to think about. And the even better thing...we paid no interest!

I applied for the US Bank offer on Monday. I found out today that I was approved. I like instant decisions better! I was also approved for the Discover It card. I still need to talk to my husband before I have him apply for the Discover, too. All of those cards will probably go pretty fast, since the spending requirements are only $500 and $750.

How many no spend days have you had in a row recently? Have you paid off a debt recently that you have been holding for awhile? Did you apply for credit recently? Was the decision instant or did you have to wait?

I have an opportunity to earn cash for a couple of sewing projects. Those are going to keep me busy in the next week or so. I will have to purchase fabric for one, but I consider it a business expense! And that purchase may not come up until next week. Side gigs such as this will likely to to the snowflakes for equity.

I did send in another snowflake payment to the mortgage today. It was $90.39, consisting primarily of Chase rewards, but including ATM rebates, interest and other miscellaneous reward dollars.

Today was a no spend day. There were opportunities to spend however. One daughter was home sick, but we had supplies on hand to accommodate her needs. She is fine now. The other daughter didn't like the yogurt I bought, but she has not asked me to buy something else. They didn't have her regular preferred flavor, and I suggested something else and she approved. It just didn't work. I'll eat it, so it will not go to waste.

I'm also tempted to buy two DVDs on Ebay of two seasons of a sitcom we like and own four season of already. I will try the library first. So really it has been just fine on the first day of the low spend week.

Did you have a no spend day? If not, what did you buy? Was it a want or a need?