My Chase Sapphire card statement closed earlier this week and more reward points were awarded. Specifically, the 5000 points for having an authorized user use the card were applied. Plus the basic points normally earned with purchases. The rewards were equal to $71.13!

I have redeemed the rewards for a statement credit and will send the funds I would have sent to the credit card to our mortgage principal.

I figured out we need to spend just under $350 on the Chase Sapphire card to earn the 50,000 points. We should easily meet this requirement before the next statement closes at the beginning of next month.

It is now time to decide which cards to open next. Obviously, I'm aware of the Southwest card offer for $500 in gift cards for spending $2000. There is an annual fee that probably could be refunded IF I meet the spending requirements in a timely fashion. This time of year is our lowest spending, so I don't know that I could spend $2000 that fast.

I'm leaning towards opening a US Bank Visa to get $125 after spending $500, and two Discover cards (one for me and one for DH) in order to get $150 each for spending $750. Same amount of spending but spread over different cards. About the same reward if the annual is not refunded on the Southwest card.

The US Bank Visa is a mailed offer that I don't see online. Not sure if I would get that again. The Discover offer is unusual as well from what I have read. Generally, their bonus is $20-50. I feel the Southwest card offer is likely to occur with more frequency and I can try that one again later in the year. With the Southwest card only gift cards are an option if not redeemed for airline miles. I much prefer cash...or statement credits work for me too!

I wrote another post on

Our Money Blog about a goal I have for the next week. Fingers crossed I can make it work!

I'm 11 for 12 with my green smoothies this month. I actually forgot to make one on Saturday. I remember at 9pm in the evening, but felt too full to partake. I did have one today, so I didn't fail at the goal too long.

Any thoughts on my next credit card rewards plan? Does it makes sense to skip the Southwest offer for now?

I did return that item I mentioned in my last post to the store today. I now have a tidy sum of $1.90 in my pocket. Once I spend that I will send the same amount to pay down mortgage principal.

I ran errands today, making four stops in one trip. One stop was the return, one was the library, one was for my daughter's hair product, and the final one was for a few extra groceries. I needed more greens for my smoothies!

After several no spend days, I did spend today. About $50. I don't feel bad about it or anything, but I happened to remind myself of some frugal things I did do that probably save us money over time. I wrote about that at

Our Money Blog, if you want to take a look.

Did you do something frugal today? What was it?

The statement on my husband's Chase Freedom account closed two days ago. Yesterday, the bonus rewards equal to $200 posted. I quickly transferred the rewards over to the Chase Sapphire card and redeemed them, along with some miscellaneous rewards sitting the accounts for a statement credit. The amount was $225.03.

As of this morning the credit has been applied. I made a payment yesterday to the mortgage principal for the same amount. Now we have $225.03 less debt!

I also found a snowflake! It seems I had rewards on my Capital One card in the amount of $2.54. I haven't been using the card, and don't plan to right now, so I requested a check rather than a statement credit. I will have to wait awhile to get that, but it's on its way!

I plan to use a Visa rewards card for $10 while I'm out running an errand today. I also think I have an item to return. So a few more snowflakes are in the works as well.

And if you are curious, my total snowflakes for the month is $384.26! Can't complain about that. Have you paid off any debt this year yet? Did you make a payment larger than normal?

I purchased some ear buds for my daughter on Amazon.com the other day. I still have credit from Swagbucks earnings, so no money out of pocket. But since I put Swagbucks earnings to the mortgage I had to match that purchase with a mortgage chip. It was $7.80. Little amounts add up!

I'm anxiously waiting for our Chase Freedom account to close. When it does I expect to see rewards equal to the bonus offered for opening this card. I believe it was $200...for spending $500 on the card. That's a very nice return.

There are some rebates I'm waiting on as well, one for $50, one for $18, and nearly $30 from Ebates. I know the Ebates one won't arrive until February. I do hope those others arrive this month. I want to make a big dent in our $4,000 snowflake goal early in the year.

We aren't quite to our spending minimum for the current credit card bonus, but I came across a mailing for a US Bank Visa. The offer is $100 for spending $500. There is a bonus of $25 once per year, so really $125. It expires January 13. I will likely jump on this one, since I have never done a US Bank offer. I'm also aware of the $150 offer by Discover for spending $750. My husband and I could both do this one. That would be another $425 for spending $2000. Again...a pretty good return.

I think today will be another no spend day, since I'm home with the girls. How about you? A no spend day?

We don't pay interest on any credit cards, we pay our balances in full. We are charging only purchases we would normally make to get the bonus offers credit cards offer. The bonuses are being applied to our mortgage to pay down the balance. Please do not attempt this type of plan if you are paying interest on your credit card debt.

Now I know what is like in the Arctic! I did go out mid afternoon to put the trash and recycling out for tomorrow morning. I also ventured to get the mail one house down and across the street. Luckily it was a quick trip!

I received money in the mail. A $10 Visa gift card as a rebate for something I purchased at Kohl's in November. I wish it was a check, so I could just deposit it. I have to buy something to make it count now. I will match my savings on a purchase with a principal payment on the mortgage.

You would think not leaving the house would make a no spend day, but no. My daughter's are finally reaching the end of the usable life on their Nook Color chargers. One doesn't work at all, and the other is hit and miss, on whether it will charge or not. I found one on Ebay for about $18. The seller has already notified me that it has been mailed at the post office! This purchase will give some more life to their Nooks.

My frugal happening today was eating leftover turkey soup that I made yesterday. The soup was made from Thanksgiving turkey I had put in the freezer. Tasty and toasty warm! I found two dimes in my husband's work pants, as well as a receipt for a $2 item that we need to return.

Since our windchill temperatures are going to drop near 40 below zero, the schools have cancelled school again tomorrow. This is the longest winter break we have ever had. It has been very relaxing to just hang at home, get organized, and get things cleaned, but I'm not looking forward to that electric bill next month. The only plus is that a bigger bill will help meet our spending goal for the credit card bonus.

Did you stay inside today? Did you do anything frugal? Was there any money in your mailbox? Did you buy something online?

Our regular mortgage payment posted yesterday. The principal portion was $448.88. Yes! Less debt.

I just sent off the snowflakes we have accumulated in the last few days. A big snowball of a payment in the amount of $151.43!

Here's where those snowflakes came from:

I update my tickers at the end of the month, so you won't see a change there for awhile.

In other goal news, I have had three green smoothies. Just twenty eight days to go. The last two days I have had pineapple in my smoothies, which I found to be very refreshing!

How are your New Year's goals coming along? Progress yet? Are you still working on goals? At least one financial goal is a good start. If you work on one you can be very focused!

I've been been busy being lazy with the family home for the holidays. I've written some posts, but I haven't paid bills for January yet...so I am slacking with my financial life. Most things are automatically paid, so no worries.

The good news is that I checked our Capital One 360 accounts today and found money!! I had a deposit of $60 which is bonus money for my Black Friday referrals. My husband had a deposit of $75 in his savings account for meeting the opening requirements on that account.

There were also two $4 checks in the mail from Vanguard today. It seems sending in $167 per month for 12 months actually exceeds the $2000 maximum contribution limit for Coverdell accounts. I think the year before I made an adjustment to one of the contributions to avoid this problem. I should just make the monthly amount $166.67. Or at least set up a reminder for January or December to make the adjustment to the amount. I'm counting these extra funds as snowflakes.

We rented another movie last night using Amazon credits, so I will match the amount and send that to the mortgage. It was $4.99.

I believe our issue with Honda is resolved and it seems we get a deal as a result. The issue was a faulty oxygen sensor. We paid out of pocket and then when I mentioned it here a reader (snafu, I believe) wondered about it being covered under warranty. We have Honda Care and yes it should have been processed with them. The dealership has cut us a check which my husband picked up today. We thought a swipe of our credit card would have been easier, but because we are claiming after original transaction the dealership needs to show a check to Honda Care. The nice thing for us is less money out of pocket for the repair by over $300 and we get the benefit of having this amount show up on our credit card and count towards our $3,000 spending requirement!!

I haven't moved all my snowflakes around or made a payment to the mortgage yet, but I'll get to it soon. It's just nice to know I have some money to put toward that goal already!

December was a very good month for snowflake earnings. It seems there were lots of sources this month, too. All $311.99 went to pay down our mortgage balance as planned.

Here's where the funds came from:

I simply keep a running tally all year long in a spreadsheet. I will add a new sheet to track 2014, so I can compare this year to next year.

Oh and this year final total was over $3K, when I include the snowflakes I saved for Christmas and the snowflakes we sent to the mortgage. Grand total for 2013 is $3287.73. And the bulk of that did arrive in the second half of 2013, so I really think my $4,000 goal for 2014 is very possible.

What was your 2013 snowflake total? Share. Any amount is a great thing! Maybe next year you can exceed this years goal.

Thanks to an SA reader here, I earned a $5 referral because they signed up for Ebates using my link on the sidebar. Thank you!!

That money won't actually be in my hands until February since Ebates only pays out four times per year. I'll take it when it comes though. In addition to the referral money I have another $24.35 pending in rebates for some recent shopping I did during the holidays. That extra step of going through the Ebates site does pay off.

Click the

link on my sidebar, if you find yourself doing any online shopping today. I actually get a bigger bonus if one more person signs up today!! So I have my fingers crossed here, that someone has some shopping to do and wants cash back for doing so.

I received $25 from Swagbucks and $25 in USAA rewards this week in our checking account. I used the $10 Target gift card towards groceries this week. And we spent $2.99 in Amazon.com credits to watch a movie online last night.

All the funds above total $62.99. I sent that amount to pay down the mortgage principal. That might be the last one for the year, but I'm open to a few more snowflakes if they fall before the end of the year.

With this last payment it has pushed our mortgage balance under another $1K milestone. So the balance is now like this $XX8,992.99. I think we will be able to get at least that $8K plus change paid off this year....and probably a little bit more. I'll update the goal and plan on that soon.

We are still working on getting our recent repair on our van covered and paid by Honda Care. My husband is going to walk into the dealership today to get it taken care of. Fingers crossed. We don't have any reason to think it won't be covered. They didn't have our Honda Care information, and just seemed to be too busy to handle it when we called last Saturday.

Any one new going to track snowflake money next year? Will you use it to pay down debt, save for a goal or both?

I sent $12.99 in snowflakes to the mortgage today. Nine dollars was from three recent Pinecone surveys. And $3.99 matches the money we used from an Amazon gift card from Swagbucks to rent a movie a couple nights ago.

I redeemed reward points on USAA for $25 cash. I expect it to be in our checking account in a couple of days, and then I will send it to the mortgage.

We had an interesting experience at Target yesterday. We were purchasing groceries. The cashier took a coupon, and scanned my cartwheel barcode. However, she forgot to give me the extra 10% off the store was offering or my bag discounts. I think when she tried to give those, after the cartwheel, it locked up her entire computer! We ended up at Guest Services with our cashier scanning our groceries again. We did get all of our discounts: Cartwheel, bag discount, coupon, additional 10%, and 5% for using our Red Card. We also received a $10 Target gift card for the inconvenience. We ended up paying about $108, with an original total of over $135. It was a very good experience overall in customer service.

I also went out spending a Kohl's last night. I was in need of a down alternative comforter for our guest bed in our basement. It gets cold done there! The original price was $89. We had a $10 Kohl's coupon, plus 30% off. I convinced my cashier to let me use my American Express card to pay for the purchase, even though I should have only been able to use my Kohl's card. An offer on AE, will provide me $10 since I made a purchase of over $50 at Kohl's. In the end I paid $59.91 with tax, and will get the $10 credit from American Express. I also received $10 Kohl's cash to use after Christmas. Not too bad!

I don't expect to be on the blogs for several days because of holiday gatherings. Happy merry making!

I set my modified 52 Week Savings challenge to fund itself automatically. I wrote about that and the benefits of automatically saving for a goal on

Our Money Blog, if you are interested in reading about that today head on over there.

Today I wish I could automate my grocery shopping! We are hours away from getting a pretty big snow storm of up to 9 inches of snow. And this follows the ice storm we had yesterday. I need to get out to get a few days of groceries, plus the items I promised to bring to our holiday gatherings.

We attempted to call the Honda dealership about the repair of the oxygen sensor earlier this week. Honda Care indicated it should be covered, and that it is best to get the benefit through the dealership rather than be reimbursed. The dealership didn't seem to want to deal with it on a Saturday and simply took the information and said they would get back to us on Monday. This might end up being a bigger hassle then expected, but we are pretty sure it will get worked out in our favor. Our Honda Care warranty was purchased through another dealer in our old town, thus this dealership doesn't have our Honda Care information on file. The warranty is good through October or November of next year, unless we break 100K miles before that. We are only at 73K now, so I don't expect that to happen.

We rented a movie on Amazon.com last night. I have a gift card on my account. I will match the money spent with a payment to the mortgage principal, since that gift card was earned from Swagbucks.

I love that so many of us are planning our 2014 goals. I will be posting ours in more detail soon after Christmas. Maybe some of you lurkers will want to start a blog in the new year to keep track of your goals. I know we would love to cheer you on!

I have enough Swagbucks to cash out for $25 in PayPal cash. I hope I receive it before year end so I can count it for 2013 snowflakes.

I received a Pinecone survey payment of $3 yesterday. I also completed TWO more surveys yesterday, so I should be receiving another $6 soon.

I found out our housing allowance is going up beginning in January by $102 tax free dollars!! I think I'll make sure to save this money to the mortgage each month since it is a housing benefit.

My Christmas shopping is pretty much complete. I may find one more thing for my brother in law's stocking, but it won't amount to more than $3-4. I need to make one final payment to my Target Red Card from the Christmas fund to cover one last gift and stocking stuffers purchased. I have wrapped everything and didn't need to buy one bow, bag, roll of paper, gift tag or tape! I did use about four small gift bags I bought on clearance at Target last year. I might look for a few of those when they start to clearance things. I think I paid $0.10 each!

I am going grocery shopping today for odds and ends and the ingredients for taco dip that my husband will take to work for their Christmas party. They are having a white elephant exchange. I think we have a DVD of something that we can give up for that. I will still have one final trip to make before the holiday for food and drinks we are taking to our gatherings.

I'm also picking up 1/2 yard of fabric to make a little bag for my daughter's friend. She wants to give a gift and suggested the idea, but specifying a zebra print! I don't have that, but the cost is small compared to what I might buy if we went shopping! I WILL get that done today.

I purchased a photo book for my parent's anniversary, which is December 27. It is a compilation of photos we took of all of our family members on their land the last time we were there before they moved. There are some house and land pictures as well. I'm expecting tears. The awesome thing is I got the book free and only had to pay sales tax shipping and, which I did upgrade to 2 day for an $1 more. Total out of pocket was $9.56! It was a deal that came with the school photos I bought of my girls. They will be thrilled with it.

Okay...lots of little updates. I've been wanting to write more about goal setting and tax planning, but I'm just busy! I will get those posts together when things settle down.

Several snowflakes of money have come my way in recent days. I finally got them all added up and sent off to the mortgage to pay down more principal.

My big snowflake payment was $207.50. Yippee for big payments!!

I did include some of those American Express offers. I would have spent that money anyway...so the cash credits are definitely bonus money! Here's where the money came from:

I am happy to report I have paid all the Christmas gifts we have charged to credit cards. Right now, it seems I am done shopping!! I may have another $5-10 of stocking stuffers to pick up, but I'm mulling that over.

Anyone else just about done with their holiday shopping? Anyone pay down some extra mortgage principal this month?

It really did snow last night. We got about three inches. And it is bitter cold! It's in the negative territory with the windchill. Therefore, I am inside the rest of the day, with only one trip out to pick up one of my girls after school.

The big snowflake arrived from USAA today, which is a return of premium they provide to their property and casualty customers. It was $67.41, which is about $20 more than last year.

I also sold 11 books and cds at the used book store yesterday. These were only worth about $0.10 each online, so to get $3.50 for all of them wasn't much, but an improvement from what I could get elsewhere. I received a Half.com payment for $3.28. Only about $.50 of that is the profit, but I'm putting the full amount on my snowflakes anyway.

Today, I'm adding up Christmas expenses, paying off the credit card purchases from Christmas and sending a snowflake payment off to the mortgage. I will post the total of that snowflake later!

Did you get any snowflakes today, the real variety or the money kind?

I bought a couple more gifts online last night. Two were purchased on Etsy. I feel good about those, since they are such unique gifts and benefit small business owners. One has already been shipped!

Two other items were purchased on Amazon. I purchased one with my American Express Blue Cash Everyday card. I had redeemed the offer for getting $25 back when you spend $75 on Amazon. And this item was over $75. The other item was charged to the Chase card we are currently using to accumulate a reward.

The unfortunate thing is this morning my $25 Amazon gift card I requested through Swagbucks arrived. A good thing really, but bad timing. I guess I should have waited. Although, honestly, I forgot I had ordered it. I'm sure there will be other purchases in the future, so not all is lost.

I'm getting really close to being done with my shopping for Christmas. I know there are still several things to get, but I'm now probably 80% done. I'd really like to finish up this week!

My Christmas fund has been sitting in my Capital One 360 Savings account since July. Earning .75% interest. Today I transferred all but $10 back to my regular checking account. From there I will start using the funds to pay for gifts I have purchased on credit cards in the last couple weeks. I also moved $80 worth of referral bonuses, so I can send those to the mortgage.

I left $10 in the account as I had $10 cash here at home to begin my first four weeks of the 52 week savings challenge. My intention is to save this money separately in my Capital One 360 Savings account. Now the cash I have at home will likely be used to buy a few stocking stuffers.

I'm thinking of making a few adjustments for the 52 week challenge for me. I really just want to save some additional money from our regular income. My husband is paid twice per month, thus a weekly challenge is not quite right. The total for challenge at the end is $1,378. I already have $10. If I save $57 each pay period*24 pay periods I will have the remaining $1,368. I think I will start this right away with this upcoming paycheck on the 15th of December. I'm excited! Once I know my husband's pay increase for the year, I will look into saving that money specifically as well.

We completed our $500 in purchases on my husband's Chase Freedom account. Now just to wait for the $200 in rewards to post! We have begun putting our regular spending on my Chase Sapphire Preferred account. Looking forward to over $550 in rewards on that one, but probably not for a couple more months.

I made two stockings today for my parents, since we are only doing stocking stuffers this year and they didn't have stockings it was needed. I bought the green fabric. The red fabric, the lining, and the flannel layers, ribbon, and thread were all items I already had, so the cost was minimal.



Will anyone else be tweaking the 52 Week Savings Challenge? Did anyone meet a spending requirement for a credit card bonus? Do you have a stocking that you get gifts in each year?

I ended up referring four people to the Capital One 360 Savings and Checking accounts. One of them was my husband. The $20 per referral showed up immediately, but stated it would not be available for withdrawal until January 1. I looked at the account again today, and they are all available now. That is an extra $80 in snowflakes that I will send to the mortgage next week!

I will also earn another $60 by the end of the month, because I made at least two referrals. A total of $100 for the first two referrals. That money is not yet showing up, but it will!

Found out from Hip2Save that Bath and Body Works is having a sale TODAY only at their stores. Buy 3, get 3 free on nearly everything in the store. There is also a coupon that you can combine if your total is over $10, for an additional free item. So almost like buy two and getting four free in my mind. The link to the offer I read is

here. I'm sure those stores will be packed! And, please don't go spending on this deal if it isn't something you need to buy anyway. I will use the items as gifts for Christmas and upcoming birthdays. I might have DH gift me a couple!

Have a super weekend!!

I've been doing more shopping, in the stores and online. It's going well. I've used coupons, and have stayed within budget so far. I think Etsy is my next stop for unique items for my daughter's. They will likely browse first to give me ideas of what they like.

I used the $5 Amazon promotion discount for spending $35. On the same purchased I used my Citi Thank You card points to redeem $9.08 towards the purchase. I will pay that off and retire that card. I was glad to open it for the bonus, but can't say it is one I really want to keep.

I received a $3 Pinecone payment today in my PayPal account. Technically, I already spent it when I made an Ebay purchase. But I will be adding that $3 to my snowflakes.

I used $75 worth of Kohl's cash in the last couple of days to purchase two infant clothing items for my new niece, a 3 pack of pairing knives, two scarves, a belt, pantyhose and two containers of lotion. Not too bad. More than half of those items are gifts. I'm splitting the knives between three people. The scarves and lotions are for two teen nieces. I received the Kohl's cash when I purchased a KitchenAid Stand Mixer on Cyber Monday. It was a great deal with free shipping, 20% off, $15 in Kohl's cash for each $50 spent, a $50 rebate from KitchenAid, and I went through Ebates for another rebate. I think the stand mixer cost me about $180 after all those discounts. The mixer was a splurge, but we have been looking at them on and off for over a year.

The check engine light in my Honda Odyssey has come on twice in the last two days. Boo. It's about time for an oil change. So my van has an appointment on Monday. Hoping it is an easy fix and inexpensive as possible. At least we are working on a credit spending goal, so that will help.

My Christmas cards are mailed. I found a deal online before Thanksgiving for 25 photo cards. Then I bought envelopes because the type I bought didn't come with envelopes. After Thanksgiving I pulled out the Christmas decorations and found a full box of cards (with envelopes) that I bought on clearance at Target. I'm guessing I paid less than $1 for those. I guess they wait until next year. If I remember to use them.

I have joined the 2014 52 Week Money Challenge. I have ten dollars in my wallet, that I will put in an envelope to cover weeks 1-4. It's a beginning. I will likely put larger amounts in my Capital One 360 account. No exact plans for the money other than to find another way to save and accumulate money. This money will come from income, rather than snowflakes.

Enjoy the season! Stay warm. Eat light. Rest deep.

I have some snowflakes for December already. I had my final Ebay auction end Monday. The sale net me $7.41 for a clothing item I would have been lucky to get $2 for a garage sale!

I also shopped on Amazon yesterday and used my final Amazon.com gift card we earned from the Chase Southwest Airlines Bonus a few months ago. The balance remaining was $21.10.

I just sent the total of those two snowflakes, $28.10, to the mortgage. We are officially over $3,000 in snowflake earnings this year. Yippee!!

I have some used books and cd's to take into the used book store for cash. They aren't bringing much, if anything, on the online sites so I'm going local.

Here's the final tally of my November snowflakes, or small amounts of money earned. It was kind of a slow month, but I am thankful for what I could accumulate. I sent the entire amount towards the principal balance on our mortgage. So less debt!!



I only got $25 from Swagbucks. I met the daily goal most of the month, but I didn't do any extra. I've just been busy with other things. I might not even make goal today. Again, busy!

My Ebay sales were minimal, but I had three other sales that benefited my mom and daughter, so I actually had higher sales. I think I'm done with Ebay for the year, unless I come across something that is in demand this time of year.

I think December should be higher than November because some snowflakes are on their way. I think some of the big credit card rewards we are working on will not arrive until January, so I expect that to be the big month.

And I just have to add that my snowflakes as of the end of November are still under $3,000, but only by $24.23! I will make the goal. I really wonder how much I should make next year's snowflake goal.

How many snowflakes did you accumulated in November?

Thank you to the person who opened a Capital One account with my referral. Much appreciated!! You earned me $80.

I opened a Capital One 360 Savings and Checking account for my husband today to get the Black Friday special bonus offers. With the checking account, he will earn $125 on Day 50, if he completes at least 5 debit transactions before the first 45 days. I deposited $50 to cover some small transactions, which should be plenty. I deposited $500 in the savings account to meet the requirements to earn $75 in the next 30 days. We sure can't complain about an extra $200 in less than two months.

I was my husband's referral. I earned $20 for that referral and $20 for the second person who opened an account with my referral. Capital One was offering $100 total bonus for referring two people during the Black Friday sale. So make that $300 in less than two months. I should have the bonus money in full by the end of December. We have been very happy with all of our experiences with Capital One, including credit cards.

There are lots of snowflakes in the works. I can see about $1215 arriving in the future months, including the $300 above. I can't wait to see what else comes up!

I know many of the regular bloggers already have Capital One 360 accounts, but if you are lurking AND want to earn $200, check out the Black Friday Sale at

Capital One.

You can earn $125 by opening a Checking account. You must use the debit card five times within the first 45 days. On day 50 the bonus is credited. There is no minimum and you do earn interest on Capital One 360 accounts.

To earn an additional $75 you can open a Savings account. The minimum deposit required is $500 and will start earning interest on day one, including the bonus. The bonus will be available for withdrawal on after 30 days. No additional requirements beyond the minimum deposit are required.

These are taxable bonuses, as they will be reported to the IRS as interest. The links is my personal referral codes. If I refer two people, I can earn $100. I expect to refer my husband, so just one of you can help me get a bonus! Thanks for your consideration.

After having family here for Thanksgiving we were left with an abundance of leftovers. I think we will be covered for most of the weekend!! Yummy.

I sent in a $32.51 snowflake to the mortgage last night. This snowflake is made up of $6 from Pinecone surveys, a $1.51 Ebay profit, and the $25 credit from American Express for the Staples offer. That Staples offer credit was applied FAST! I wasn't expecting that. So cool.

I did pay off the purchase of our new dining table and chairs in full yesterday. I took the money from savings to make the $1121.36 payment. Not fun to see the balance go down, but we like the table and I'd rather have the savings go down than see a large credit card bill!

I did sell four things on Ebay this past week. My profit was $1.51 for one auctions. Two auctions were my daughters things and she earned $18.86. She is saving her money to purchase a Photoshop program, so small amounts help. I sold an item for my mom, and she earned $5.50. The one item I had that didn't sell has been relisted and will end on Cyber Monday. If it doesn't sell then, it will be time to donate.

We bought quite a bit of wine and beer last night. We found a deal on a case (12 bottles) of wine. Each bottle was $3.98. The store offered 10% off with the purchase of 12. The manufacturer of the wine is offering an $18 rebate for the purchase of 12. This works out to $2.08 a bottle. And we drink and like this wine, so that is a bonus! I will get that rebate in the mail as soon as possible.

I will do a more complete November snowflake update in a couple days, but it looks like so far I have accumulated $146.78 this month. Not terrible, but not my best month by far. There are a lot of snowflakes forming in several areas, but those may not come to fruition until December or even January.

Time to start all that baking, I mentioned yesterday. What dish is your favorite to prepare and eat for Thanksgiving?

I sold one of my listings on Ebay today. I don't like to disclose specific items since someone could go looking. But considering I probably could have thrown these out, but yet they clearly are useful to someone, I feel pretty good netting $1.71 for them. It does look like people are shopping on Ebay more than a couple weeks ago. My items are being looked at AND watched. Fingers crossed for bids.

Youngest daughter came home sick this morning. Nearly 100 degree fever and a sore throat. Pretty sure it isn't strep since the sore throat was starting the night before last. After some pain meds and a movie she is feeling better. And she is always good with the fluids when she is home sick! I think straws help.

I made the second Swagbucks goal today. Usually I just do the first one. I received a Pinecone Survey in the mail today, so next week I should have more money in my PayPal account to add to November's snowflakes.

I'm going to make a store run. There are some good groceries sales right now. I also want to use the $10 grocery coupon at Target before it expires tomorrow.

Have a super weekend and stay warm and dry!

Oops! One of my Ebay customers ended up with postage due. It was $0.54. The buyer chose to inform me so it wouldn't happen to another customer of mine, and didn't expect or want a refund. I did refund the money because I sure didn't want that to happen. And it is just the right thing to do!

My $25 from Swagbucks arrived in my PayPal account. I have requested the money to be transferred to our bank account. I will make another mortgage payment with my recent snowflakes soon!

I did go to Snapfish yesterday and made a 4x6 collage photo as our Christmas card. With shipping I paid $3.75, since they were having a 50% off sale. I purchased 25 cards. I will now need to find a good price on 4x6 envelopes!

The sewing project was slow today. Unfortunately, I had to take it apart. It was too small to fit the case of the piccolo. I will have to make the fabric a little bigger. It was a good experience and I expect as a result I will be able to go a little quicker tomorrow.

I talked to a friend on the phone today. She organized her daughter's closet and dresser and I found things in my basement to donate while we talked. A great use of time!! And the phone call was free because I called with the Ooma.

That is the news from here. Do mail Christmas or Holiday cards? Anyone send New Year's cards?

I skipped blogging yesterday! I was here, reading other posts. I post on Sunday, and I am trying to reduce my posts to weekdays only, just to cut down on the time I am on the computer.

I went to Kohl's yesterday and used my $15 in coupons with 15% off on a purse. I paid $4.53 out of pocket. Only there is a problem. I wanted a smaller purse, and that is what I bought. It's too small for even the basics I need with me!! Ack. Now, I have to do a return and hope I can get my coupon values back. Not a big deal if I don't, but it would be nice.

I'm browsing online today for photo holiday cards. I don't always send out cards, or even cards with photos. However, several weeks ago we took lots of family pictures on my parents land prior to their recent move. There is a really nice one of our family that I think many people would be pleased to receive. I only need about 20. I did see a deal on

Hip2Save for Snapfish collage prints, 5x7 size, 20 prints plus shipping. In the example they showed the shipping was less than $2! That link is for all the photo deals that site has listed, so some might be of benefit to you.

Tomorrow I have set aside the day to sew. My main goal is to make a fabric case for my daughter's piccolo case. The hard cases for piccolos don't have handles. They are small enough to put in a backpack or bag, but she wants a specific case. She is picked out fabric from my stash and I picked up a zipper today at the store. If I can get that project done, my other daughter wants me to turn her recent latch hook rug into a pillow. Also a new project, but I think one I can work with!

My side of the family, which is just my parents, sister and brother in law have decided to just give each other stocking stuffers for Christmas. We didn't define the amount to be spent, but my sister did say it will keep us from getting stuff we don't need. In my opinion, it means that we buy something that will be used up. I have been brain storming ideas. Here is what I have, but doesn't mean I will be giving them all:

Lotion, gum, mints, homemade vegan chocolate, homemade biscotti, an orange, beef jerky, tea, socks, perfume/cologne, nail polish, lip balm, candles, coffee, duct tape, honey, homemade vanilla, handmade napkins, coasters, nuts and seeds, popcorn, jellies, sausage, cheese, gift cards, cash, dish soap, scented hand soap, a nice pen, hot cocoa, flower bulbs or seeds, a calendar, note paper.

I can think of some that I don't know if even I would want to get: toothpaste, floss, shaving cream, razors, shampoo, batteries, saran wrap or foil.

If I was going to put a treat in your stocking that costs less than $20 and isn't going to be junk or take up space later, what would you want? Do you give stocking stuffers to anyone on your list?

Again, sorry about the Christmas topic prior to Thanksgiving. I seem to be starting to focus on making my lists and getting some tasks done!

I called and cancelled our home land line today. The cancellation is effective today. We will get a prorated credit for remainder of the month that we have been billed for. I was disappointed to find out that we will still be charged the Universal Service Fee for the broadband internet portion now. This means our savings will only be $19 per month rather than $30. However, we can get free long distance on the Ooma, so I still think this works out very well considering all of our family and some of our friend are long distance.

My daughter did pick out a pair of glasses online. I ordered them this evening. These weren't cheap, but cheaper than I paid last year. The final total with scratch free, UV and anti glare lenses shipped was $134.94. I know I paid over $225 last year at Target for her glasses. If they don't fit, or seem right visually we can return them for a refund. The company will pay the shipping from what I read online, if a return is requested.

My husband was able to get a free haircut at Great Clips today in honor of Veteran's Day. A nice benefit as he does get his haircut with more frequency than the girls and I who have long hair. I'm sure he still tipped generously!

I'm considering a Red Cross donation for those in affected by the typhoon. Those images of destruction are so sad. I just remembered we may have some airline miles we could donate. Not sure if that is the right help or not though. I will check our options.

Do you donate to disaster relief? Have you donated airline miles? Have you purchases glasses or contacts online? Was it a good experience?

Here's a list of money tidbits from recent days:

I completed a Pinecone Survey today. I expect I will get my $3 payment for that later in the week. I'm also secretly hoping to get a sample!

I'm trying to convince my daughter to try purchasing glasses online. We looked at Target optical, but noticed many of the glasses are plastic frames, and she prefers the wire ones with nose pads. We will look at other local stores as well, but I think online might save us quite a bit of money!

The return I made to Lands End at the end of October ended up arriving as a check in the mail, rather than a credit to my card I originally purchased with. I read on their website that this was because the purchase was over 9 months old. Either way I got the money!

We rented a movie on Amazon last night for $2.99. Since this was gift card money used I will match the purchase and send the funds to our mortgage debt.

Our bank reimbursed us for $3 in ATM fees and paid us a whopping $0.03 in interest. I always include these in our snowflake accumulations.

I have Ebay auctions ending today. One will sell, the other four are definitely up in the air as to whether they will or not. The proceeds also go to the snowflakes for equity goal.

We turned on our gas fireplace last night. As a result we will definitely see higher bills. I'm okay with it as it seems to make everyone happy and cozy in the evenings. My goal is always to wait until November 1, so we did make it a little longer this year.

We will be making another trip to the library today. We went Friday when the girls were off from school, but they have now read all the books! They want more to have with them during the week. Libraries rock for free entertainment!

I plan to log into our banks, and investments and various accounts to update our new phone number today. This means I can call tomorrow to cancel our land line. I just paid the bill that includes the phone service for the month of November. I expect they will credit days not used to our next bill, which will only include internet service.

My birthday is next Sunday. I tend to get $100 from my parents each year. I'm looking forward to getting some new socks, a purse, a shirt or two and a fleece to spruce up my wardrobe. I will be looking for good prices, so I can get the most for the money.

Well, that is my list of money tidbits. I had more than I realized. Do you make use of your library? Do you receive money for your birthday? Do you spend or save it?

I made another sale on Ebay today for which I probably will net about $5. Happy about things finally selling this week! I redeemed Swagbucks for $25 in PayPal cash. I hope it arrives soon.

I received three Kohl's coupons in the mail yesterday. On one mailer I got 15% off plus $5 off a $5 purchase. The other mailer had a $10 off a $10 purchase! I don't think I can use the dollar off coupons together, but I hope to use the larger one and the percentage off one towards a new purse, which I will likely purchase with birthday money.

I'm still slowly decluttering this week. I need to get down into my storage room, where I'm sure I'll find quite a few things we just don't need. I hope to make my run to Goodwill tomorrow morning when I take my Ebay sale to the post office. Less clutter before the holidays feels good!

Tomorrow I hope to show you a frugal holiday decoration for my porch that I made from things I already own. Stay tuned!