I feel so far behind here on this blog!

I have paid off all of the transactions we put on credit cards in the last two weeks off. It's so nice how YNAB just keeps setting that money aside and the money is there to pay it. I'm going to continue paying credit cards every pay day. I don't wait for due dates usually. Oh, and I will need to buy YNAB in the next two days. I did put the cost in the budget, of course.

I was able to make a $336 payment to our Citi card that we've had a monthly balance on, but no interest. The new balance is $650. I'm pretty sure I need to pay this by the end of the month so I'm not charged any interest! I think that will be no problem. We have over 20K points that we need to redeem too. Probably for gift cards. Once that is all complete I think I'm closing this one. Along with a few others that really aren't being used.

I accumulated quite a few snowflakes. I was hoarding Amazon gift cards in hopes of buying something I wanted. I did get there, but now the item is back ordered and won't arrive for a few weeks. Today I used $30 worth of gift cards to buy Tenzi, a dice game my daughter wanted. I paid extra to make sure it arrived tomorrow. We have company coming and may get stuck in the house while Joaquin goes by our area later this weekend. So my earnings for my want became earnings for my daughter's want.

We have made airline reservations for the Thanksgiving holiday. I paid $882.18 for three of us to fly. The deal wouldn't have been as great if it weren't for that Southwest Companion Pass that my daughter has through the end of the year. So far we have only used it twice, but it sure has been a bonus! We also used hotel reward points to secure a hotel before and after the flights because one is super early and the other arrives pretty late in the evening and we have a drive to get back home since this airport isn't in our town.

I made sure to make a payment to ourselves for the tuition we covered from our savings account. This extra is really coming from the savings in changing our W2 withholding. It sure helps to have a plan!

In other expense news, my youngest daughter has been invited to go on a trip to Europe the summer of 2017. We have to pay for it, as it is two teachers going that are getting the tour together. It is definitely educational in nature. My daughter wants to go and other than the cost there is no reason she shouldn't go. The cost is $4345 for 14 days. We don't have to sign up yet...the latest we can decide is February 2016. Decisions, decisions.

I'll try to get a tally of my snowflakes posted in the next few days.

My 31 Days of Decluttering and Organizing has begun today. Go

here to view.

My husband did change the withholding on his W2 to 18 last week. The change is already showing on his paystub for pay on September 15. The goal was to avoid having any further withholding through the end of the year, as we have determined we have already paid enough to cover taxes on our return. The increase in pay is $259.32 each paycheck through January 1. This money is going straight to savings to pay ourselves back for tuition just paid.

We have a CD with Navy Federal Credit Union that is expiring on the 17th. It was a 5% interest CD for 12 months. The maximum we could invest was $5,000, which we did. That means $250 earned! I only wish all our money was earning this rate. I may invest in another CD with NFCU that has a maximum investment of $3K earning 3% for 12 months. Much better than 1% on savings. I'll get that all figured out once the CD matures next week. Does anyone know of any CD specials with secure banks earning a decent rate?

We will have a little spending tonight as we are going to an away high school football game to see our daughter perform with the marching band. Admission is $7 each. Plus concessions, we usually need a least a water since they won't let you bring any in and it's HOT here! I gave my daughter $15 since we weren't sure about dinner, but she thinks the band boosters are covering the cost of pizza for the group. (The game is 45 minutes away and they leave right after school...going to be a LONG night!)

Really hoping to keep the rest of the weekend LOW or NO spend!

I ran two errands today. One to Target, where I decided to include grocery shopping as well. And also to get fuel in my van.

At Target, I wandered around looking for home decor items, or anything on clearance I needed. Guess what? Did find anything! So no spending on that kind of stuff. I did see some things I liked if we change up our decor with new furniture, but that has not been decided. I was able to claim $1.40 in rebates from Ibotta and $1 from Checkout 51.

I stopped at a different gas station today so I could use a deal on my American Express card. Spend $25 at Exxon and get $5 off. I put exactly $25 in. And Amex has already indicated that I used the offer! I think my husband has this on his card also, so will make a point to use that next week.

I also made sure to record the two purchases in YNAB. I used my mobile phone, but only once I got home and saw my receipt. It would be best to record these things purchases right when they happen.

I'm home for nearly the rest of the day. I hope to spend some time learning YNAB a bit more. I especially need to understand credit cards more clearly. At least I don't have to add interest!!

We downloaded YNAB this weekend. I've taken one class and entered in some things (primarily savings pots that already exist in our checking account). Tomorrow is payday so seems a good day to start using it! I think initially I'm going to be entering things the old way in my spreadsheet to make sure it is lining up with what I expect YNAB to do.

My husband and I did sit down last night for a discussion. He is now aware of our total cash savings, the current amount on credit cards (not paying any interest), the net income, our expenses and how much we are saving annually for retirement. He seemed very pleased to know all the details. He was a bit surprised that there wasn't as much extra as he thought. He admitted to spending thinking that with his raise there is a lot of extra. There really is plenty. To me, it's about not wasting the extra on lunches out. We need to make sure we are accomplishing what we want with our money.

It was a good start. We didn't make any decisions on buying anything new. No changes have been made to anything yet, which is fine. We'll get where we want to go soon.

The first month of YNAB will be interesting as I'm not entirely sure how much we spend on groceries or gas each month. I will do my best to make an educated guess. The nice thing is I do know how to save cash for non monthly expenses, such as an insurance bill. I already have that part of the budget figured out....well for some things. I'd like to do this for more items as we move forward.

What do you like best about using YNAB? Did anyone try using it and then give up?

We seem to be making a mental list of things we want to buy. We don't have the cash to buy it all before the end of the year.. At least I don't think so. Tuition is a factor. That's part of the process we are starting on. Making the list, prioritizing and then making a plan/budget on how to acquire these things.

So here's the list at the moment:
A treadmill (more need than want)
A computer or tablet (not a need)
Two chairs for our living room
Lamps and table for living room

Seems there may be something else, but this is where we are starting. I do realize used are possibilities and that a tablet is cheaper than a computer in most cases.

I really think we are going to start using YNAB (You Need A Budget). At least I have suggested it to my husband. I think a budget on things like eating out and alcohol expenses would help both of us keep these to a minimum.

I'm excited at the possibility of working together on some of these goals. I don't know that it will go super smooth since I do tend to work on everything on my own. I expect I will still do the nitty gritty detail work on our finances, but talking a bit more and making some decisions together will be good.

Oh, and a reminder to myself we also need to figure in some airline tickets for our daughter to fly home and maybe for us to visit family. We live so much farther away from family than before we have not had a budget for travel expenses.

I now have more information about the costs of tuition this semester, what can be claimed for the American Opportunity tax credit and how it will impact our taxes owed. And the good news is we will owe less in taxes as a result!

The bad news(good news?) is we have already had too much tax withheld to cover our taxes. A whopping $1775. Yes, most people rejoice at such things praising the government for providing them a tax refund. Unfortunately, I blame myself. I actually increased our tax withholding to compensate for the fact that we would no longer be able to claim the child tax credit (of $1000) for our oldest daughter and my husbands increase in pay. I didn't take the time to figure out about the college credits available and how that would impact our taxes. Oops!

The good news is I have changed our withholding to 10 for the time being. In order to avoid any more withholding we need to claim 18! My husband will need to do this in person, as I can't change the amount higher than 10 online. Once it is changed to 18 his monthly paychecks will be $518 larger! Money that I plan to set aside for the tuition bill in February.

Of course, I will need to change the withholding in January to make sure we do have money withheld in 2016! I haven't figured the correct amount to withhold right now, but trust me I will do a better job this year in getting it right. I will have more clear information this time around.

Do you know where you stand on your withholding and taxes owed for 2015? Is it possible you need to make changes due to a change in circumstances? Do you prefer a refund or just to owe a little on your tax return?

Our trip to Universal Orlando did cost a bit more than I expected, but I have no regrets. We had a very good time with plenty of memories!

Here's the approximate breakdown of costs:
Airline Fees $144
Park Tickets $604
Hotel Cost $695
Hotel Parking $52
Rental Car $191
Food/Gas/Souvenirs $668
Airport Parking $42

Grand Total $2396

We did Early Bird Check in for Southwest on both legs of the trip, which added $100 to our cost. It was worth it leaving, but on the way home our flight probably only had 60 people, so need for it. But you don't know that ahead of time.

Hotel costs could have been much less, however, we did get Express Passes included to cover all three days for four people even though we only stay two nights for that cost. (Third night at different hotel was paid with reward points) If we had purchased Express Passes (Unlimited version) for three days for four people it would have cost us over $1400! That is not a typo. There is no way I would have paid that, which is why staying on site is such a deal even though the cost of the hotel seems pricey it isn't for what you get.

I mentioned the rental car issue in yesterday's post. Originally I though I was getting a rental car 'free' with reward points.

Of course, we could have limited souvenirs, of which there really were only six or seven items. My husband had some pricey beer. We did eat Clif Bars in our hotel room each morning so that saved us a bit, but if we wanted food in the parks we ate it. I tried Earl Grey and Lavender ice cream, which was yummy! With it being so hot, water was probably our biggest expense. I didn't have time to do enough research, but we could have refilled our water bottles with water at the Coke Freestyle machines for FREE! Oops. Lesson learned for next time!

So it's all good. I'm using a little bit of our house proceeds and army reimbursements to pay for the trip.

Transportation on our trip was more than planned. It seems I thought I had reserved a rental car using Southwest Rapid Reward points. However, when I went to double check all of our reservations I couldn't find the rental car, only an email stating I had redeemed a reward. It seems the reward I redeemed is a voucher for Dollar Rent a Car that was mailed to me (well mailed to my old address). I still have yet to receive it.

So less than 24 hours before we needed a rental car I was on the hunt, using every rental car company and coupon codes I could come up with to find the least expensive option for us. We really wanted to pick up our car at the airport rather than a shuttle (this does increase the cost). We also wanted a reliable company (some companies have terrible reviews). We went through USAA and got a mid size car for $191 prepaid with Budget. It was definitely more than I wanted to pay. Later my husband asked about other options to get to the resort since we barely needed the car. Shuttle service or Luxury Town car round trip for four people would have been at least $144. It turns out we did leave the hotel resort area one night for dinner and stopped to get something at Walgreen's. We also used the car to get to our hotel for our third night's stay closer to the airport. This stay was at a Fairfield Inn and we used reward points. Staying at the resort would have cost us over $300 for a third night. Oh, and we also ate at a restaurant on our last night and we drove there.

So the rental car wasn't a bad deal considering how we used it to save us a little money. It just cost me much more because I originally thought I was getting a rental car for free! Well, I am getting a 'free' rental car but not for this trip.

We paid $20 per night to park on site at our resort hotel. That fee was expected since I was planning on a rental car. We would have saved that fee had we not rented a car.

And finally, we parked at the airport for $12 a day. Our parking tab was $42. Again, we could reduced that amount in half if we had parked off site. We ran into backed up traffic on our way to the airport and decided it was better to just pay the higher cost of parking than be late for our flight.

So it is what it is! I think in the end it worked out fine for why we rented a car and what the alternatives would have been. At least the airline tickets didn't cost us anything out of pocket!

We received a payment for our temporary lodging expenses yesterday. The amount was $1550.50. This is less than the rent we actually paid for 30 days. But the Army made this payment based on their calculation for 10 days worth of lodging and meals. Works for me!

I can now make the final payment on our Citi Premiere card, which is under $800. That will make the balance zero. It should remain that way and we will get it closed in the near future.

I still have a running balance on our Citi Preferred card, maybe about $3K. This card has 0% interest, so I have been just paying what I can from paychecks. I will need to dip into savings soon to get it all paid off, which is fine. I haven't even used all the money the Army has sent yet.

I expect I can put at least $1500 on it today, and have another $500 available on pay day. Of course, we have our trip expenses, but some of that Army money is covering the trip. I'm finally feeling a little more in control of the cash inflows and outflows again.

It will be interesting to see how college and making payments feels in the next couple months! It's coming up fast.

The escrow check from our mortgage company arrived today. A nice fat check in the amount of $2,033.05. We are still owed $21.98 for cancelling our homeowners insurance. The insurance company sent that money to our mortgage company, but apparently it did not arrive in time to be included with this check. I'll be depositing it using my mobile phone!

We are still waiting on one more Army reimbursement. It should cover some of our time in our temporary apartment. I'm guessing that could take a couple more weeks.

One day soon all the money flowing out and in will settle down a bit. It has been a crazy year so far!

Awesome! Our bank, USAA, has a free notary public service. This is the first time I have lived near one of their financial centers. I took advantage of the service today for a document the school needed to enroll my daughter in school. It took all of ten minutes to include the wait. Free and painless. Glad to have that marked off my list.

I also used the ATM to get allowance money for my daughters. The each get a little spending money each month. That's all we give. If they want something that cost more than they need to save for it. It's kind of a way for them to learn to manage their money and for us to stay in budget with any wants they want!

Our temporary apartment gave us the final rent due for our stay through the 14 of July. It was slightly less than I thought by $30.11. That means I can send that money to pay back the rent we already paid for the last half of July in our rental home.

My youngest daughter turns 15 this week. I bought $50 worth of gifts before we moved and they are already wrapped. She indicated she wanted a t shirt from an online store and a new sketchbook. She knows the t shirt will arrive late, so I will order that today. I was able to get the sketchbook she wanted for $4.55. I will have to figure out how to wrap that one creatively. I've actually got one idea to use some fabric.

In other news, my oldest daughter received the list from her music professor of music she needs to buy. It came to $114 before shipping! I guess that would be similar to some text books. We'll get that ordered next week so it can arrive at our new house.

It is payday here, but still no reimbursement from the Army yet. I still think it could arrive by Friday. Fingers crossed anyway!

June was the least productive month for accumulating snowflakes so far this year. I'm not complaining. I will take any snowflakes I can get!

I'm pretty happy about earning those Ooma referrals since they make up the majority of the June snowflakes. I haven't actually used those yet, but I will! All other snowflakes went to pay down the credit cards.



I'm hoping soon I can start saving the snowflake money to help out with college expenses. I'm sure there will be some that will be a bit unexpected!

Did you total up your snowflakes or extra money found for June? What did you do with yours?

I paid some miscellaneous charges on different credit cards this weekend. No interest was charged on any of these...because I don't EVER pay interest on credit cards.

Kohl's $44.48
Chase $8.54
US Bank $47.34
Target $305.25
Citi Govt $22.23

I also used snowflakes to pay $24.88 on our Citi Thank You card. I have around $560 left in our checking account to apply to recent purchases on both Citi cards. Once I figure which amounts should go to which card I will make those payments. Paying off current charges or any debt for that matter feels good!

We went grocery shopping at the commissary on post this weekend. I will say it seems prices are better there. I wouldn't have believed it after seeing prices at the Post Exchange which I think are inflated. For example a tub of butter I had been buying back home for $5.69 was $4! I bought turkey bacon (Oscar Meyer brand) for $1.50 that I would have easily paid $2.25 for previously. The commissary does add a 5% surcharge to help pay for future buildings and locations. We also need to tip the baggers (hate this part). Our tip was $3. Despite these extra fees, the total bill seems significantly less. I love that!

We are really close to post right now, but it will be a 20-25 minute drive from our rental home. Of course, my husband is on post every work day. I can get him to pick things up. I expect though we may shop here for most things if we can. I just need to have a lot of $1 bills on hand for tips, as well as plan well for our needs so I don't have to be making a lot of trips.

Still waiting on the reimbursement from the Army. I do hope the money arrives this week!

Yes, I do get the title is one of those oxymorons! I need to get some thoughts on paper about our savings and credit card debt. We are still waiting on reimbursement from the Army that will cover some of our credit card debt.

Currently, we have about $5500 on two credit cards. We just surpassed $3K on our newest card, Citi Prestige. We will get 50,000 Citi Thank You points that we can redeem for about $500 in gift cards. The rest of the debt is on our other Citi Thank You card.

We will need to pay the Citi Prestige in full when the statement closes. I think we have until very August to pay it, which I don't expect to be a problem. The Citi Thank You card is still on 0% interest through September. We will also pay it in full before any interest is charged. You won't see me paying ANY interest.

The cash we are expecting from the Army is about $5500. How good is that? There may be more if we can get our apartment complex to give us a daily itemized receipt for the first 10 days of our stay. I'm not sure it is going to happen, but we will keep trying.

I also went back to see how much money we took from savings during this process of selling and moving. Approximately $4800! Nearly $2900 was for a deposit on our rental home and rent for the first month. I have to keep reminding myself of that because it seems like so much money! I will be paying ourselves back for all this cash outflow as soon as possible. If I don't repay the actual deposit I'm not too upset on that since I expect we are good renters and able to get most of that back when we move on.

Oh and we are still expecting just over $2K from our escrow account. That should help get us back to where we were several months ago.

I seem to just need to keep convincing myself it is all okay. It' a little nerve racking to know we have $5500 on credit cards and are down $4800 in our savings. I suppose technically our savings is up because of our house proceeds, but I kind of think of that as separate. I wasn't borrowing cash from our home equity when we owned the house, I don't want to be borrowing from it now either.

Specific enough, or still vague?

I saw

this article over at CNN. Stocks for 2015 are expected to earn about 6% this year. That is less than last year by far, but I'll take it. Any growth is good!

I cancelled our newspaper subscription in May and was told to expect a refund. I checked on it at the beginning of June and was told it would go back to the original credit card, which I realized was closed. Then they indicated a check would be cut. I now know the check has been issued and mailed to our old address on June 17. I guess it will be forwarded! Hoping it arrives soon, so I don't have to keep tracking it.

Verizon needed to verify my husband's employer in order to keep providing us the 15% employer discount. Usually providing the work email does it, but the military has such high security standards that didn't work. The other option was to submit a paystub (with income and ssn crossed out). I thought I did it before we moved, but could find no confirmation. I uploaded it again this week, and today we received confirmation that they were able to verify the employer and we qualify for the discount. Can't remember how much that ends up being, but it all counts!

My husband checked about the Temporary Lodging Expense. The receipt we had doesn't qualify. It isn't billed daily and it cannot say lease on the receipt. We are inquiring with our property manager about providing the bill in the way the army is requesting. If not, it's not the end of the world, but a little help paying for this temporary apartment would be nice.

We might go to the beach this weekend. It's just under two hours away. It would probably be a day trip. We won't go if it is too hot like it has been or if it will be too rainy. I'll need to really be careful about putting on sunscreen. I must have missed some spots when we went to the pool the other day...I'm burnt!

I was notified by email to activate my 5% off categories for the third quarter on our Chase Freedom Card. It's gas stations and Kohl's. I also choose my categories for our US Bank Visa. I picked 5% for furniture and cell phone and 2% for restaurants. Not sure if we are going to be buying furniture, but it is a possibility so might as well look for a little more of a discount!

Are you okay earning just 6% on your investments this year? Do you get an employer discount on your cell phone bill? Do you have any cards you need to make sure to select or activate rewards for next quarter?

I logged on to our mortgage account this morning. It's Paid In Full! In fact, I get a little interest back of $15.94. No mortgage debt for the near future seems pretty nice for now. We'll see what I think after living in a rental home for couple months!

I did check with our mortgage company and they said it will be two weeks before they start processing the escrow refund, which takes three days, and then 7-10 days to receive the check in the mail. So easily three weeks from now before we get the check. The full amount I'm expecting is $2054.93. I'm sure I can find something to do with that money!

My husband filed our travel voucher for our trip to our new town on Friday. We will get 23 cents per mile for our just over 1000 mile trip. This covers fuel.

We will get a per diem (a flat fee) for hotel and food expenses. My research says this will be about $875, but my husband things slightly more.

We should also get funds to cover moving about 1100 pounds of household goods in our van. My guess is that is around $1000 right there.

The military doesn't pay for selling a home like corporations sometimes do. Everyone always seems surprised by this. The military doesn't really support purchasing a home simply because moves are so frequent. The military does provide a Dislocation Allowance (DLA) and it is based on rank and if you have dependents. Our allowance will be $3,453.76. Crazy odd number huh? Not sure where they get these numbers!

There is a potential that we could get some funds to cover a portion of our rental apartment. This is called Temporary Lodging Expense and covers up to ten days. We aren't sure if it is only for hotels though. I'm also not sure if my husband has submitted this request for funds yet. And I don't know if the amount will just be ten days of our actual cost or more based on some predetermined amount. It could range from around $700 to $2900 if we are even eligible being in this apartment. Fingers crossed we could get a little bit as it would sure help!

Much of this money will pay off current credit card charges incurred during our move. This will leave us debt free. I'm also hoping there are enough extra funds to pay ourselves back for cash we used to make our rental home deposit, airline tickets and even that big repair bill on the house!

I'll report back once the funds are received and let you know the totals and how I used those funds. I'm hoping it's by the end of the week!

I was reading the forums and was alerted to the fact that Target gift cards from online resell sites are selling for less than face value by at least 8.5%. I went looking and noticed that ZenGiftCards is selling them for 10.5% off. I have not used ZenGiftCards, but I have used Cardpool.com and Raise.com to make purchases. Do you own due diligence before making purchases with companies you aren't familiar with!

Target gift cards online are always eCodes. This generally means that the gift cards can only be used online. However if you have the Target app (not Cartwheel) than you can upload the gift card to the app and show the gift card on your app to use it in the stores.

I really want to buy one, but I'm a little hesitant deciding how much. Right now I shop there all the time primarily for groceries. With the move this will change, thus probably less spending at Target. However, I'm thinking there will be some college expenses to purchase there.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up if you are a big Target shopper and want to save even more than you might on your Red Card.

I moved $7,500 from our money market account to the savings account at Navy Federal CU which finally posted today. I applied online for the CD this morning. I guess that doesn't mean it is open earning interest quite yet, but very close! We now have more than have of our EF money at NFCU earning anywhere from 3.5-5% interest. Pretty good in this environment of super low interest rates. If I could put more money in I would!

My husband arrives home today (and about 10 hours earlier because he got on an early flight this morning)! Graduation is tomorrow for our oldest daughter. He will be here the remaining time before we move (he has a lot of vacation to use up before Sept 30 or he will lose it). We will be busy, but we are excited to be back together!

Have a super Memorial Day weekend! Don't spend too much...there will always be another sale.

I had recorded our retirement totals on Friday, but then check them again this morning since I saw the market had a good day yesterday. In total our holdings increased $1200 in just one business day. That's a nice chunk of change!!

We are currently just under $334K in retirement funds. I don't write that to brag, but to remind you that you can save money and it does add up. Our balance in May 2003 (yes 12 years ago) was just $25,700. We have been maxing our Roth IRAs for at least six years, maybe a bit longer. We also put 10% of my husband's basic pay into his work TSP account, and that is a recent increase from 8%, and I think at one point we only did 6%. And currently our entire monthly contribution to our retirement accounts is 16.64% of my husband's gross pay. Sometimes I actually wonder if this is too much!

I hope you are investing your earnings for your retirement. It does pay off. The sooner you start the less you need to contribute, too. It's okay to start small and gradually increase as you can.

Did your retirement accounts increase yesterday?

I found out Navy Federal Credit Union is offering 3.5% CD for military member this month. It is for 15 months for up to $7,500. We currently have $5K there already in a 12 month CD earning 5% through September. This new offer isn't as good, but it is much much better than a savings account or money market. Time to transfer some money over there.

If you are possibly eligible, make sure to read fine print, as I believe there is a Direct Pay or allotment requirement which I read there was no minimum for...$1 a month might just be enough.

I redeemed 600 Swagbucks for two $3 Amazon gift cards yesterday. The codes for them arrived today. I proceeded to use them to buy a DVD my daughter wants for her birthday. I only had to pay another $0.58. I will count the $6 as a snowflake and send that money to the credit card balance.

At the beginning of the month I really didn't think I would accumulate too many snowflakes. I'm not trying to hard to earn Swagbucks or Bing rewards. I didn't sell anything either.

It turns out we had a nice anniversary gift from my parents and earned quite a few different credit card rewards. And it all adds up! All of my snowflakes went to pay down the beginning balance we had on our Citi card in January. We have just $110.87 left on that now.

The grand total for April was $360.23. Lower than my total from March which was over $400, but still very good.



How did you do in accumulating extra money this month?

Our only taxable investments are our money market and CD accounts. I think with the sale of the home it is time to put some money into some stock mutual funds (maybe ETFs).

I should have invested in VDIGX two years ago when I was writing about it. It would have appreciated. Of course that is easier to see in hindsight.

I'd like to consider this money downpayment/house money for the future, which could be three years, six, eight or ten years from now. In three years, we will no longer have a child living at home (kind of sad) and may be moving again. In six years we could be moving AGAIN, and eight years from now my husband could be retiring from the military. Buying overall has been good up until this point. This round we are renting and I can see our need for a large home dwindling during the next eight years. So instead of investing in a home and 'hoping' for appreciation and payoff I think we need to invest the money for when it is time to establish long term roots.

I'm only beginning to think about this. What do you have some of your taxable investments in? Do you have a fund or etf that you have been really happy with? (I'll do my own research of course).

Although I knew we would be moving this year, I still made a goal to pay off $5000 before the end of June on our mortgage. I actually hope the house will sell and close in June, which will bring us to a zero balance rather quickly.

The balance is lower by $2,351.63 as of April 1. I expect another $1179.88 to be paid off as of June 1, which will bring the total to $3,531.51.

I decided not to send all the extra I could have been sending in. I have been setting it aside though. Right now that amount is $744. I also expect to set aside another $620 by June 15.

All together that is $4,895.51. I was surprised I was short! I might have missed setting extra money aside one week. I'm going to count it as close enough since I do expect to get our escrow funds back which will be at least $1900.

It sure helps to make a goal and stick to it. If I didn't we wouldn't be in as good of position selling our home. I'm definitely happy about that!

If we don't take on a new mortgage when we move and our current home sells, we will be debt free in 2 months. Of course, it doesn't seem the same as if we were debt free owning a home free and clear. We will still have an outflow each month on a rental, so renting doesn't free up any cash.

Fingers crossed we get a rental. The area we want is in high demand. I expect we could easily find a home for sale, but we really don't see the housing market as being in our favor in three years in this particular area. And we don't want to be landlords. So we are going to be renters for the first time in 18 years.

The money we have set aside for a future downpayment and the equity we expect to walk away from with this house will likely be invested to keep up with inflation at least. It would be nice to get it into something that would grow. Once we get past the move, I'll start looking more diligently.

I mentioned to a friend that it was tempting to invest, but thought it seemed wrong to put it into the stock market for such a short time (three years). What if it goes down? Her thought was then we just keep renting and wait to buy when the money is at least equal or greater than our initial investment. And actually, that could be a good think to continue to do until my husband retires...just keep renting.

What would you do with our future house money?

I just activated our Discover Rewards for this quarter to earn 5% cash back on restaurants and movies. I wish I would have done this before the weekend because I had a couple restaurant charges. I do expect more in the coming months with the house on the market and the moving process. We might as well get a little back from those purchases.

I moved $4000 from our money market account to our checking account. It's time for a bigger accessible buffer since we may be putting up a deposit for a rental home. I expect to put this all back after we move, or before if it seems it won't be needed.

I haven't been doing Swagbucks or Bing with much gusto lately. I'm just to busy and have my mind in other places. I have done a little, and expect to have a reward before the month ends at least.

Our auto insurance was billed to our credit card today. Just $385 for two drivers for six months with a $1000 deductible to include comprehensive and collision. Not bad. I have the money set aside to pay the bill and will do so when it is no longer posting as a pending transaction.

My daughter is applying for a couple more scholarships. Not sure of the odds of these, but they were relatively simple to work on so she was willing. Every dollar earned is worth it to me!

Our water bill was under budget this month by over $17. I will be counting that as a snowflake and sending that difference to the Citi card balance.

I ordered cat food online through Petsmart late last week. And it just arrived this morning. I was able to get two large bags for $48.41 shipped. I easily spend $40 for one bag when I buy in the store. I think the food was on sale, plus I made sure to buy an discounted gift card through

Raise first which was discounted farther because I had a $5 reward from referring someone to Raise. So a good deal turned into a very good deal and I didn't have to leave my house to shop!

Yep, there you have it. A bunch of little money tid bits from the house of Creditcardfree.

I have paid off Wells Fargo Amex in full! The remaining balance was $44.58. All but $15 of that was from the beginning of the year. I used eBay and Raise gift card sales proceeds to pay off that portion. The other $15 just came from our regular income.

I do have 2488 reward points and expect 15 points to be added mid April for that $15 charge that posted after the last statement closed. Once I have a full 2500 points I will redeem for cash and then close the card. The closing is the most important part because if I don't, we will be charged $175 in an annual fee. I don't want that!

I also paid off the contacts I purchased a couple weeks ago. I did use money my daughter came back from her trip with and some 52 Week Savings money I had accumulated.

We have added quite a bit on our Citi Thank You card recently. All needs. I will update about that card, as well as payments I plan to make on payday.

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

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

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

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

My last post was about the generous scholarships my daughter is getting for attending the university she has chosen. I thought I'd detail the costs a bit more.

Tuition for 15 credit hours, two semesters (this is a public institution)
In state $6,480
Out of state $20,400

Fees (same for both)
$1,690

Housing (required the first year)
$9,961

Total $32,051 (for out of state)

At this point she has $20,000 in scholarships for the first year! So we are paying fees and housing/food and of course books. Her current investments for education equal $24,606. So we have the money to cover those costs. She will eventually use some of my husband's Post 911 GI Bill benefits, which will cover two years in state tuition and housing. We will give the other two years of benefits to her sister.

We are definitely feeling very blessed knowing that our daughter has earned such great scholarships based on her hard work and talent, that our investments have helped take some of the financial burdens off the costs, and humbled by the offer of financial benefits for our children by the American people for the sacrifices we have made to protect this country. It's not a small thing and we appreciate it all.

My daughters and I all need glasses. I actually wear contacts. I went to the eye doctor on Friday while they were still in school. They each have appointments on different days this week during spring break.

The basic exam is covered by our insurance but there is no other vision insurance to cover contact lens exams, contacts or glasses. In other words we pay for these out of pocket. I paid $60 for my contact exam. My contacts are on order for about $180. I think one time I was able to order online for about $90 for the pair, unless I was only buying one...which is a possibility. The doctor won't write me a prescription until he sees how these lenes work, which means I will have already purchased them. I do get a refund if they don't. The thing is I've been wearing these contacts since I was in high school. I'm pretty sure they will work!

The girls will not have contacts to purchase just glasses. We did get glasses online one time and that worked really well. We will likely look around for the right frame and price before we commit. I generally like to spread these costs out, but decided that since all of us were overdue for an exam, I wanted to get them done now before the move.

So the point of my post is we will be able to see clearly, but it is going to cost us...which means more money flowing out. I think my 52 Week Challenge money is going to cover these costs. I have $285 right now, which covers the cost I just incurred. I will use savings to pay for the girls glasses, but pay myself back using the 52 Week Challenge money which is $57 twice per month. It may take me four months to pay myself back, but at least the money is figured out.

I remember at one time thinking I should save about $800 to $1000 year to cover vision costs. I haven't set it up. Part of the 52 Week Challenge money could be our vision fund. Maybe the remainder should be our vet fund, or oil changes in our vehicles. Something I will be considering. Really I can usually cash flow this stuff, but the spending lately is sky high!

Do you have vision insurance? What is covered? Do you save for your vision expenses?