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

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

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

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

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

Late this evening, after mentioning that stocks were at an all time high, I was thinking about where our retirement accounts might be at the end of 2015.

My prediction for 2015 is that our accounts will exceed $360,000. We ended 2015 with just over $311K. We expect to contribute about $18K this year and based on predictions of 8-10% return in the market, we could easily reach $360K.

So yes, that is my prediction we will end the year with $360,000 or more (of course preferably more!) at the end of 2015.

Do you know where your retirement accounts may end up at the end of the year? Care to make a prediction?

The S&P 500 closed at a record high again today. I can't wait to look at our balances. I look when things are up and ignore it when the are down. So to me it seems like the market is always up when I look at our balances.

My husband ordered another Army Service Uniform (Dress Blues) for work and a new pair of shoes. I was expecting over $400. I was wrong. Just $360 including alterations and the shoes. I like it when things are less than I expect, even if only by $40.

Tonight we need to pick up cat food and maybe pick up more items at Lowe's with our credit. Otherwise we will stay in and stay warm and maybe catch a movie on Netflix. We signed up again, since my husband has found any things he likes during our free trial. I think it has been nearly three years since we had a subscription with them.

Will you check your retirement and investment balances now that the market closed at an all time high? Do you subscribe to Netflix or other services for entertainment?

I worked for an hour yesterday on how to adjust withholding and increase our retirement contributions. It took awhile because I didn't agree with the numbers the IRS Tax Withholding Calculator was giving me. The calculator said to withhold 5 to get a $300 refund next year, it's actually 6 I need to withhold for that type of refund. If I did six the refund would have been much larger and that is withholding far too much. They did have our expected tax correct though!

I was also using Paycheck City to calculate the various net pay scenarios with different amounts going to retirement. In the end we are going to increase retirement by 2% of my husband's basic pay, to a full 10% going to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). This will be an increase of about $150 a month. We are going to keep contributing to Roth IRAs since we are still in the 15% tax bracket for our taxable income.

We are now contributing 17.5% of gross wages. I think this is the highest percentage we have been at, up from about 16% at one time. I should consider increasing it again to start getting closer to 20%. Especially while we are in my husband's highest earning years. There are only about 8 years left before he retires from the military. We want to make it count, right?

I feel so much better having taken care of these changes now, early in the year. It would be so easy to just say I was busy and then find ourselves owing a lot to the government, or not taking advantage of investing more.

Did you have to change your withholding this year to avoid paying taxes next year, or even over withholding? Did you increase your retirement contributions?

I'm not sure I've been clear on my blog this year about our savings. I am still participating in the 52 Week Savings Challenge. And I do have a goal to increase the equity in our home (up until the point we sell).

We are saving $57 each pay period (twice per month) for the

52 Week Savings Challenge. Clearly I made my own rules. The end goal is the same saving over $1300 by the end of the year. Last years money saved in the challenge wasn't ear marked for anything in the beginning. In the end we used that money for my daughter's band trip this spring. It was perfect because we already had some money saved to put towards the deposit. Then when it was time to make payments we always had money in this fund to cover them. We make our final payment (from last year's savings) on Tuesday.

This year we don't have a plan for the money yet. For now we will save. If we don't have a need for it by year end, I may actually consider investing it! And just start again next year.

I think I may have mentioned the equity goal. Ha. Just went and checked and yes, I have mentioned it.

The paying off $5000 in mortgage equity will be a combination of things. I'm currently adding $104.94 to our mortgage payment towards principal. It makes for a nice even mortgage payment. This means we pay off more than $585 each month. For six months, that pays down $3510 on our mortgage. That means I'm short of the goal by $1490, or $248.33 per month. Last month, I set aside that amount and will continue to do so through June. By the way the end of June is the deadline, as I'm going to guess that is the month we will close on this house when it sells.

I'm making a point to save $124 each pay period for the equity/mortgage goal. I currently have $372 set aside. I will be setting up ticker on the sidebar soon to track our progress.

I will admit it was tempting to use some of this money to pay down my tires this last pay period. But I'm standing strong, knowing there will be more cash flowing in that can be applied to my tires. We did jump ahead on getting tires since it is the time of year where good tires are especially needed and my husband was around to do the drop off of the vehicle, while still getting my girls transported. Otherwise, it may have been better to wait for cash on hand. (We do have a healthy emergency fund...but this wasn't an emergency.)

It feels good to save each pay period for our goals. In fact I know we have to pay $638 when we file our taxes. I'm saving $105 each pay period through the beginning of April to come up with this money. I currently have $315 set aside, so we are right on track to have the money when the time comes.

These are just a few items I'm working on saving for, in addition to retirement and college. What kinds of things to do you save up for?

I hadn't checked our retirement accounts since the end of 2014, primarily because the market was dropping. But I've also been busy. I noticed the markets closed at an all time high on Friday, so I checked our balances this morning.

We are up about $9,500 since the end of the year! And about $5,200 from our all time high back right before the end of last year.

I paid $22.75 in swowflakes towards the Wells Fargo credit card. New balance is $393.19. I have a large amount of items to attempt to sell on eBay. Maybe I will actually get those listed on Sunday. When they sell they should make a nice dent in that balance.

All other bills and credit cards have been paid, with the exception of my tires and the balance already existing on the Citi Thank You credit card. I did pay $715 of new charges off. I expect I can pay off the tires on March 1. I could pay them off right now, but since I have 0% interest I'm just waiting for more cash to flow in.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It is so strange for me to wait this long into the year to really post financial goals. However, this upcoming move has distracted me with other things to think about.

As of today, our goals for 2015 are:

Maximize our Roth IRA contributions.
Save 8% to TSP (may actually increase to 10%).
Save $2000 for each daughter for college.
Continue my 52 week savings (which is $57 per pay period, or $114 per month)
Pay down $5000 in mortgage equity end of June 2015.
Use snowflakes to pay off $1386 in credit card debt on two 0% interest cards.

The retirement and college investments are set up on automatic withdrawal, so those are easy. Right now I'm manually saving the $57 each pay period. I did it automatic last year, so that may work out again this year, too.

The paying off $5000 in mortgage equity will be a combination of things. I'm currently adding $104.94 to our mortgage payment towards principal. It makes for a nice even mortgage payment. This means we pay off more than $585 each month. For six months, that pays down $3510 on our mortgage. That means I'm short of the goal by $1490, or $248.33 per month. Last month, I set aside that amount and will continue to do so through June. By the way the end of June is the deadline, as I'm going to guess that is the month we will close on this house when it sells. I do realize that isn't a sure thing, but one can hope it goes that smoothly!

I've mentioned a couple times we have debt on two credit cards. They are at zero percent and resulted from some bigger purchases. From what I can tell the Wells Fargo balance was $700 at the beginning of this year. It is now at $415.94. The Citi TY card was at $686.27 and is now at $636.27. So I have already found $334 worth of found money/snowflakes to apply to this goal, leaving $1052 to go. I may get impatient with these debts and just pay them off, but for now this is the plan! I will try to get better at tracking them and letting you know the progress, too.

The truck is still in the repair shop this morning getting a sensor replaced and a new battery. We are looking at another $300 spent there. With my tires and alignment the day before, we will have spent $1100 in car maintenance in two days. Happy for savings for these types of things. (And thinking my 52 week savings will simply help the savings account recover from this expense)

Am I the last one to post my goals for 2015? How are you doing with your goals? Has anyone had to revise your goals?

I received my Big Fat payment from Ebates. That is how they refer to it. I only received $8.40 in my PayPal account, so I wouldn't exactly call it fat.

I promptly requested the money be transferred to our checking account. I will ended up sending it to the credit card we are paying off. It is currently at 0% interest, so no worries.

The specific card we are working on is the Wells Fargo World American Express card. It has a balance of $460.09. I will have this paid off before May, as I believe that is when the assess the annual fee of $175! I am NOT paying that, so I will be canceling this card very soon after. Of course, I also would like to redeem any final points we have accumulated, as well.

I'm in the process of dismantling my dishwasher. We are pretty sure now that the fix is not a simple O ring. Darn. It's probably some sort of pump. Not sure which one yet or what it will cost, but I really would like to fix ourselves, so save the labor. It could still come down to someone coming out, just not ready to admit defeat until I've looked around some more!

Did you get an Ebates payment? What will you do with yours? If you have a Wells Fargo Amex will you be cancelling yours before the annual fee is assessed? And has anyone done any dishwasher repair lately?

As we get our house ready to sell, we are doing a few repairs around the house. One item we need to take care of is a loud noise our dishwasher makes several times during its cycle. The dishwasher still works and gets the dishes clean.

Since, I like to save money, my first instinct is to try to troubleshoot the problem myself. I found the manual today which didn't exactly point me to the fix, but provided me with some very enlightening information! The 'light wash' setting that I always use to save water actually uses MORE water than the 'normal wash' my husband tends to choose. I even get irritated with him when I notice he has chosen that setting. Now I will not because it will be saving us 4.3 gallons of water per cycle. If you like specifics, our dishwasher uses 7.6 gallons of water on the 'light wash' setting and 3.3 gallons on the 'normal wash' setting. I am shocked at the difference!

After some looking online for a remedy to our dishwasher noise problem, we have decided to try the cheapest route first. We will install a 5/8" O ring to the water inlet valve that attaches to the spray arm on the top basket. There currently isn't one there and seems to have been the fix for several people online. I'm not sure if we ever had one, but it there is a groove in the plastic indicated one should be there. If this ends up being the fix it will cost us a mere $2.

In addition to figuring out the dishwasher problem, we installed four puck lights under our kitchen cabinets. We have a pretty dark kitchen with dark wood and counter tops positioned in the northeast part of our home. While the overhead lighting is sufficient most of the time, we felt a little extra lighting would be helpful and a small selling point in some cases. The light set (for six lights) was about $35. We made quite a mess this morning to complete it, but it was well worth it! At least I will get to enjoy the lights for a short while before we move.

Do you know how many gallons each of your dishwasher settings use? Are you using the setting that uses the least amount of water? Do you have an under cabinet lighting in your kitchen?

I knew this was coming ever since my husband's promotion and raise. We owe the federal government income tax. At this point it looks like $630. I did change the withholding so it could have been far worse. I'm going to change the withholding again for 2015, so we may not owe quite as much.

No complaints here. I don't mind paying in. It means I had access to that money nearly all year. No free loan to the government.

At this point, I will wait to pay the money owed. It isn't due until April 15th, so I'm not sending it in much sooner than that! There are six pay periods before and including the tax deadline for us. I will save $105 each month toward the amount we owe and have just the right amount at just the right time!

There is a small chance I may have missed some interest owed, so if that information arrives I will make the adjustment. I did several bank offers this year, I'm not sure if I missed one!

Do you know if you will get a refund or owe for your taxes?

We finally took the plunge and bought a new fridge today. I think I mentioned the possibility of purchasing a stainless steel one in the past to match our current appliances, and possibly include it in our home sale.

We bought one that nearly matches our current one in size, just 20.5 cubic feet of volume. It is still a top freezer model too. Odd considering how so many of them are the french door style, right?

The sale price was $808 at Lowe's. We got 10% off with our military discount and then added another 7% back on for sales tax. Final price was $778.10.

We actually bought Lowe's gift cards for about 8.5% off the face value. We purchased them at

Raise and the printable vouchers were instantly emailed to me! In the end we bought too much because the ice maker that we were told was $50 was discounted to $25.72, but then rung up free since we bought it with a qualifying refrigerator! We still have $50.43 on gift cards.

The gift cards we purchased were valued at $828.53, but cost us $757.64 out of pocket. Definitely worth it! I really need to buy discounted gift cards for things more often.

The new refrigerator will be here Sunday. Our current one still works great, but the plastic handles smell awful in warm weather or if you get too close. I think the time the fridge spent on the moving truck for three weeks in July baked all of our hand oils and other grime right in. And we have tried numerous things to clean them. (Sorry kind of gross I know). We also realized it is probably more than 10 years old!! It could be sold for cash. However, the plan right now is to keep things simple and let Lowe's haul our old one away. As I write this though it is tempting to post it on Craigslist to pick up on Saturday. If not picked up that day then it could still be hauled away on Sunday.

How old are your appliances? Have you sold your old appliances for cash or let them get hauled away?

We got notice from the flute teacher that she will not be teaching the last week of January. That means we save $40! I think that is going to be considered a snowflake that I can apply to some of that credit card debt (that we are not paying any interest on).

Is it odd to be just a bit excited that the lack of lessons is a good thing?

My husband will move out to the east coast in early March. (Officially still waiting on orders) He knows a husband and wife living out there that have a two bedroom apartment and offered him the second room. No charge for rent!

They do pay for electricity. Other utilities are included in their rent. If the electricity jumps with my husbands phone charging and computer use he will pay the difference. He will buy his own foods and hopefully some snacks to share! Maybe he can carpool and drive with one or both them. That would help them save on fuel.

I'm relieved. It makes the process of moving much easier. I'm a little hesitant though. I don't know that letting another person stay in your apartment is really allowed without authorization by the complex. I also wonder how long the couple will really want my husband there. I think the wife travels quite a bit, so maybe that will help.

Depending on how it all shakes out, I think we owe them something. A nice gift card or gift to show our appreciation for their hospitality. I'm open to ideas!

In other news, I redeemed more Swagbucks for a $25 PayPal deposit. That will go to those two credit cards I'm working on!

So tell me, how would you show your appreciation to someone who lets your stay with them rent free for several months?

Wow! I guess we may have been overspending. Today I was able to sweep $1125 to savings. It feels like forever since I did that. I think the spending has slowed down in the last month and that allowed us to catch up on some other bills. Not that we were behind or owed anyone any interest or late fees.

We did have some bigger expenses we cash flowed: tires, brakes, senior pictures, college admission fee. That makes a difference in what we can set aside to save.

It just feels good to put a huge stash of money aside. Even if I might need it soon for new tires or federal taxes.

Do you think your spending is down in the new year? Have you save more than you usually do this month?

Here are the goals I set for us in 2014, with the results in italics. I think we did fabulous!!

1) Accumulate $4,000 in snowflakes from any source other than my husband's income to help reach our mortgage principal reduction goal. Yes! Accumulated $5,218.60 in snowflakes for 2014.

2) Pay down $13,992.99 in mortgage principal. This will bring us to an even balance at the end of 2014 of $X15,000.Yes, met this goal exactly.

3) Save $50 per month to be used for Christmas gifts. Yes, we did this, too! The money was used for Christmas, but we did exceed this budget amount for various reasons.

4) Save $57 twice per month towards the 52 Week Savings Challenge. The funds to be deposited in my Capital One 360 Savings account. Yes! This was all automated and helped us fund our daughter's band camp trip coming up this spring.

4) Save $167 per month for each daughter for college, which is $2,000 each or $4,000 for the year. Yes, since it was automatically withdrawn we didn't miss one contribution!

5) Save 8% of my husband's basic pay in his TSP. This is a 1% increase from last year. This was automatic too. And we didn't really notice the change at all.

6) Save $458.33 each month for each of our Roth IRA's. This will meet the maximum limit allowed.Yes! This was also done by automatic investments from our checking account. I just record it each month.

7) End 2014 with $20,000 or more in our emergency fund. As of January 1, we are at $19,909.05. So close! We ended the year slightly lower at $19,854.81. If I had realized we were so close, I may have made an effort to fund it to $20K!

Make some goals! Make them realistic, but stretch a bit too. Break the big ones down into smaller goals, automatic your savings and investments, and maybe even minimum payments. Make it easy to reach the goal by getting out of your way!

Were you pleased with your 2014 financial results? Are your goals realistic for 2015? Do you or will you automate any of your investments or payments?

Our oldest daughter turns 18 in March of 2015. At that time we can no longer add investments to her Educational Savings Account. We usually invest $2,000 each year. In order to get the entire $2000 into her account before her birthday, we will need to increase her investment amount from $167 to $666.67.

We are lowering each of our Roth IRA investments from $458.33 to $208.33 to help make up for the increase. We will increase the amounts up to $541.67 after the final March contribution to our daughter's account.

Our investments are all set up automatically from our checking account with Vanguard, so I made the adjustments online. I also put a reminder to make the changes in late March on my online calendar.

Have you made your investment plans for 2015? Did you make any adjustments?

First, I'm a little slow on my 2015 goals, just like The Deacon's Wife. I will get there. Officially the first paycheck for 2015 isn't until mid month for us, so we have time.

Yesterday our only spending was $5 at the gas station, but we used a gift card to pay for that little soda splurge. We needed a pick me up during our filing cabinet purging. I have a post on that at

Your Organized Friend.

Today we expect to get haircuts and shop for a calendar for my youngest daughter. I want a calendar too, but not sure if it is a need. I do use it to notice when dates are but tend to record most things on my online calendar.

We also plan to go to the music store today or this weekend. We have a credit with them after purchasing the most recent flute. It is $157. Equal to 10% of our purchase price. It must be used in January. It going to be a shopping spree at the music store! Some of it will go to purchasing music we know we need, but the rest is up for grabs. I'll let you know what we end up with.

I'm close to getting enough Swagbucks to redeem for $25 in PayPal cash. I decided to go for the cash for awhile, so I can put that money directly toward two credit cards we are paying off. The each have about an $800 balance (no worries, no interest accruing). I should have them paid off in a few short months, or tomorrow if I decide to just use cash on hand!

The CD we have with NFCU is 5% interest on our $5000 balance. We earned almost as much interest on that money last month, as we did on nearly $35K in our money market. I do regret I didn't get some of that money invested into a CD two years ago. With an upcoming move, and the intention of using some of it towards the next down payment I will wait to do anything.

Do you use a wall or other paper calendar? Or just digital? Do you have paper to purge? What is the highest interest rate you are earning on your savings?

I redeemed Swagbucks yesterday for $25 in Paypal cash. I guess that could be considered a help to cash I'm sending my mother in law for Christmas.

We are giving the flute teacher a gift of a $10 Panera gift card (earned through MyPoints), a lotion bought on clearance last year, and a few candies. Last lessons of the year today!

I found a penny on my basement floor and a nickel in a parking lot yesterday. It does help to look down to find such things!

I was notified by Citi about their Price Rewind program that pays you back if they find a lower price. This got me to think about our flute purchase we made last month. I haven't found a lower price, but I came across a rebate! It is $50, so I filled it out and put in the mail this morning. I remember seeing it at the store, but the employees made no mention that the one we bought qualified. I also didn't think to ask, just glad I came upon it now!

The tires and flute purchased in the last couple months are being carried on two different zero interest credit cards right now. We do have the cash to pay, but I've been waiting for the cash flow from the raise to catch up and help. With payday yesterday the tires are paid off after a $708 payment! I paid $307 towards the flute.

I completed our 52 Week Savings Challenge at the beginning of December. I had been stashing that money in our Capital One 360 Savings account. Most that money has been used to pay for my daughter's band trip this spring. I ended up with an extra $423 in the account, which I'm going to use to pay towards the flute. After I apply that payment later this week, we will owe just $806.

I have made sure to set aside some cash in our checking account to pay for the $250 admission fee to the University my is choosing to attend. I also set aside the balance we will owe for senior pictures, $210. Both of these will be charged on a credit card for points, but it is nice to have the money set aside to pay for them when due.

I did end up return a few items bought for potential gifts. I returned a pair of slippers, a spa kit, a makeup kit and two pairs of men's socks (one had hot dogs on them!). I did keep the four rugs after realizing I paid less than $1.25 each. I'll probably use one myself! Or two!! The returns netted me just under $20, but I consider it less clutter and offset for three pairs of slippers (of a different kind) that I bought for friends that will need to be mailed.

Lots of money activity here! Have you found any money? Have you returned anything you purchased recently? Have you redeemed any Swagbucks or MyPoints?

I was just notified by USAA that we should expect our annual subscriber distribution tomorrow. It will be $69.19. I don't know why I look forward to this expected, but not always promised source of funds.

USAA also reimbursed us for ATM fees last month in the amount of $6.45. There was also a whopping $0.03 of interest.

When I add those snowflakes/extra funds to a recent rebate received ($8), Pinecone survey payments ($9), and a used up $5 Target gift card, I have more than enough cash to make the final extra payment on the mortgage for the year.

This means we have met the goal!! Our mortgage balance will be just under $X15,000 after I make a payment of $97.67 tomorrow.

I'm so excited to have met the goal I set out to reach at the beginning of the year. It always seemed possible, but there was definitely work involved. It paid off!

All snowflakes we accumulate through the end of the year will be applied to our savings account. We spent nearly $3K recently on tires, brakes, new timing belt and a flute. That money came from savings. It is time to pay ourselves back. I will still track the snowflakes until year end for a grand total number.

Later this month, I will flush out new goals for 2015. I'm sure some goal will include the need to track snowflakes!

Did you think we would do it? Are you surprised or not?

I happen to be a fan of Lands' End T shirts, the ones that are a little fitted, but keep their shape because they have some stretch to them. I have a black one I've had for several years that has become VERY stretched out. I can't bring myself to pay full price at $25.50 a t shirt. But today they had 40% off and free shipping. I bought three and paid $15.30 each. I really do wear these for years on end, so a very good deal.

I remembered to use

Ebates so I should get another 8% cash back and I used my Discover card for 5% back because it was an online purchase.

Lands' End gave me a referral link that gives a deal if you make a purchase using my link. Details should be on the site after you click the link. Even if that deal doesn't work, they are having 40% off regular prices today with free shipping.

Happy Shopping! I hope you find the Cyber Monday deals you need and want. Do you like Lands' End products? Have you been using Ebates for your online shopping?

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've got to jot down a few ideas for financial goals next year. Sorry if it is not clear. I'll expand later when I'm clear myself!

Pay ourselves back for tires, and flute.
Pay down another $5K on mortgage by June.
Increase TSP %.
Moving fund/emergency fund. $2K?

Target and Target.com will be offering Target gift cards at 10% off on Black Friday. Just in the morning from 6AM to NOON. This will probably be the only offer I take advantage of. I plan to buy the maximum of $300 worth, since we easily spend that much there on groceries each month. We usually use our Red Card, so this will simply save us an extra 5%. Definitely read the fine print on this offer, since you cannot use the gift cards purchased that morning until Saturday (although I don't know how they can track that). I'm going to buy mine online.

It will be a little tempting to go shop on Friday morning. We will be visiting my parents apartment and they live right next door to an outdoor mall. They can see the back side of JC Penney from their apartment! Right now, I don't even know what I would need to buy, which is a good thing. I'd rather just stay in bed anyway!

Will you buy Target cards at at discount on Black Friday? Will you do any shopping that day? If so, what are you looking to buy?

We did end up eating at Chili's for lunch today. The burger we ordered was free since my husband is a veteran. It was nice to have a meal out together since that is rare.

My husband also got his haircut free at Great Clips. We skipped the yogurt and coffee that was also free, as we didn't need the caffeine nor the calories of yogurt.

We stopped in at Joann's Fabric where I spent $2.56 on a gift after an additional 20% off our purchase with the military discount offered.

It was tempting to do some more shopping, but in the end we both really were not up for it. I guess that saved us some money.

There was snow blowing around this morning, but it really didn't amount to much here. With the windchill it was only 8 degrees this morning. Quite an abrupt change after nearly 60 degrees yesterday. This means the furnace is running longer.

Our neighbors across the street have put their house up for sale. I haven't been in their home, but found out from the listing they only have a finished bathroom in their basement. We have nearly 800 more square feet of finished space, including an extra bedroom. I think the house is priced competitively. I will be interested to see how fast it sells, as there are several homes in the area for sale right now. Winter tends to be slow, but not completely stagnant.

I ordered my husband's Christmas gift today. I bid on an eBay item and was outbid already. I found another one to bid on. I may not end up with the item, but figure I have a few weeks to bid before I have to purchase at full price.

Did your temperatures drop today?

I didn't do too bad accumulating snowflakes (extra money) for the month of October. It helps that I redeemed the bonus rewards for opening the Citi Thank You credit card. The total for October was $385.94

Here's the breakdown:



I was able to make some sales on Ebay this month. They weren't big sales, but they did add up to nearly $50. It does help to have multiple ways to accumulate cash! And if you have a goal, boy, it does make you motivated to work them.

I exceeded the $4,000 snowflake goal last month, and with October snowflakes the new balance accumulated this year is $4,620.35. It would be nice to end the year with more over $5K in extra funds earned. Just two months to make that happen with about $380. I think it's possible!!

How did you do earning extra funds for your goal?

The stock market has been going down this month. I'm not going to look. It makes me feel nervous emotionally. Logically, I know that it will go back up and that we don't need the money for another 25+ years. I also know that the shares we purchase can be considered 'on sale'. We will get more shares for the same investment dollars. And I do like a sale!

We will keep our investments the same as always. We invest automatically the same amount at the same time of the month.

Will you look? Will you keep your investment purchases the same or invest even more with prices low?

I've been participating in the 52 Week Saving Challenge since December 2013, I think. I started with an initial sum, and then set up the contributions to be funded automatically each pay period. For us, that is twice per month.

With $57 added twice per month, and three referrals bonuses from Capital One, our 52 Week Savings balance is at $1,213.53. There's some interest in there, too. Last month the interest was $0.69.

When I originally started I didn't know what the money would fund. It just seemed like a good idea to set some money aside and see how the challenge would work for us. In the spring, I decided the money needed to go to my daughter's band trip for THIS spring. I plan to continue the automatic savings through Novemeber 15, so at least three more $57 contributions. This will be a full year of contributions with an approximate ending balance of $1385+.

Currently, I only need to pay another $1100 for the trip, as we have already paid $500. She will have some trip money in her school fundraiser account, that will pay for part of the remaining balance, or be spending money (although sending her with her own spending money is probably the best idea!).

I will end up with more money in our Capital One 360 Savings account then I need for the trip. Obviously a good thing. I think I will start saving for the flute we are going to buy my daughter. I may end up buying one off eBay pretty soon. I will need this type of savings set up to pay myself back!

If you are participating in the 52 Week Savings Challenge, how are you doing? Do you saving for anything automatically? Is it something other than retirement or college?

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

Here's where the money came from:


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

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

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

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

The party on Friday was a success! We had a really great time and I think the guests did too. We ended up with a lot of food leftover. The good thing is I was able to freeze the soup leftovers and have a plan for using them when a round of visitors comes to our home in less than two weeks. I was able to return a package of plates and some serving utensils to Target, so $8 less spent. We also have quite a bit of alcohol, which will last awhile and give us an excuse for another smaller gathering.

Since payday is around the corner, I decided to send off cash from our last paycheck to pay off some of the charges from the last two weeks. The big payment was $475 on our Target Red card. Ugh. I also finally transferred money from our savings account to pay our the gym membership we charged in May. Luckily no interest, but I was tired of seeing the balance on the Wells Fargo Amex.

Even when one doesn't pay interest it does feel so good not to owe anyone anything! Once pay day rolls around I have a couple more small charges I want to complete and I will feel even better.

I hope to make the next couple weeks as low spend as possible. I will need to mention this to DH and see what he can do to reign in some of his spending. He is starting back on a diet, so it might all work out anyway! I'm also going to get back on my exercise bandwagon and counting calories. I need to get the routine down before the dead of winter really hits hard.

How was your weekend? Are you more in the midst of spending or saving?

I sent in some snowflakes to the mortgage this morning. I used $18.24 in Amazon gift cards obtained from Southwest rewards and Bing/Swagbucks. I also had a $3 payment from Pinecone and earned $5 using the Ibotta coupon app. This means we now have $26.24 less mortgage debt!! I like less debt.

So far for the month of September, we have accumulated $182.20 worth of snowflakes which all have been sent in to the mortgage.

I did skip an extra mortgage principal payment this month equal to $275. I used it to pay off some charges on credit cards. Charges that are not costing us interest, but would if I didn't use that money. I'm still ahead of schedule on my mortgage goal, so that is what helped sway my decision to use the money on the purchases versus the mortgage. And I didn't really want to pull from savings! I like my savings intact.

Where are you getting your extra funds (snowflakes) this month? How much have you accumulated.