The

Chase Southwest Airline credit card offer is back. You can earn 50,000 points for spending $2,000 in 3 months. This is equal to $800 in airline tickets or $500 in gift cards. My husband did this offer and we are working on spending the gift cards. It's tempting to apply in my name, but I'm going to personally hold off for right now. See the details on the link, and remember there is an annual fee of $99. You might be able to get it back if you cancel early.

The market was at an all time high on Wednesday. I made sure to record our retirement balances. It nice to see we are nearing a milestone....$250K. We are still about $8K off as of that day. And unfortunately the market is going back down. It really is interesting to see that just over 10 years ago we only had $25,000 invested for retirement. And even four years ago the market was so low we only had $69K...it had been much higher prior to that drop. I'm glad we just keep investing regardless of the markets ups and downs. It does pay off!!

Do you know of any new credit card reward offers? Did you also check your investment accounts when the market was at it's peak the other day?

Last night, I came home to a note from my daughter, that said, "We are out of conditioner. We have two shampoos in the closet but no conditioner. What is with this madness?" Made me laugh.

Then this morning I found we only had two partial rolls of toilet paper in the house! Yikes. Time to go to the store again. When my husband heard I was going he said he needed deodorant. Now it seems I had a list of things to get.

I stopped by Walmart to purchase the above items in addition to counter cleaner and toothpaste. I did buy more than one of several of the items. I had two coupons which reduced my expense by $3. I spent $53.13. I used one of the $50 gift cards we earned with our Southwest Rewards card. So just a little out of pocket. I will get that $50 sent off to the mortgage this week.

The toilet paper I wanted to buy at Walmart had three different sized packages, 12 rolls, 20 rolls and 27 rolls. I noticed the signage on two of them had a graphic stating "Low Price". I did the math on my phone calculator, the lowest price per roll was on the 20 roll package. This was the one with out the "Low Price" sign. I just thought that was interesting. Apparently, Walmart knows they can sway purchases to higher priced items by putting these signs up. I will say the package I bought was probably $2 cheaper than I pay at Target. That part is a little annoying.

It was nice to stock up on a few things knowing that once I spent that money on the gift card it was heading to the mortgage. What kinds of things do you keep heavily stocked in your home?

My husband's check was pending yesterday so I started recording and paying bills. So many of them are automatic: life insurance, phone and electric, water softener rental, Roth investments and college savings. Makes paying bills easy.

The good news is I paid the remainder of the Southwest Rapids Rewards card. A nice $572 no longer owed. The balance is zero. The card will be cancelled once I get those gift card rewards in the mail. Hoping that is soon!!

I made a $115 payment to the American Express card that I charged my daughter's Washington DC trip on. It is zero interest, so I'm paying it back at a rate of $150 per month. The balance is now at $750. We also have started fundraising for this trip. Might work out to get some money back or at least enough for spending money.

We also made some tax deductible contributions. One to the music program at school. I'd rather do this than participate in their fundraisers. The second contribution is to a Walk N Roll fundraiser that our former neighbor's daughter and their family will benefit from. Wish we could participate this year, but we have other obligations.

Seems like lots of money flowing out, but we did contribute to our Roth IRAs and college savings accounts this period like always, so that is good.

I also received notification that my Swagbucks money was deposited in my PayPal account. I also did a Pinecone survey yesterday. Once that money is in the PayPal account I will withdraw it and send the money in to the mortgage!

It's all going as planned. Any new snow developments? Any debt paid off this week? Any charity donations?

I should have mentioned this yesterday in my post about the Target deal, but iTunes gift cards are 10% off again this week. I bought a $15 one last time for my oldest daughter. I paid $13.50 for it with Target gift cards I had. She buys stuff on there quite often. And since then, my youngest daughter actually made an iTunes purchase, so I'm thinking she needs one in her stocking too. I can use my newly acquired Target gift cards to make the purchase!

Also prepaid phone cards at Target are 10% off as well. We don't have one of these, but if you do, that is a savings to take advantage of.

Snowflakes are slow to come by so far this month. I earned $0.37 last month on my CapitalOne 360 Savings account. Our bank refunded our ATM fees of $8, and gave us $0.05 of interest. Thus my snowflakes amount to $8.42. A little paltry.

I know that I have Swagbucks money coming as well as $525 in gift cards from Southwest. So I will just patiently wait and know it will come together. I could also make something happen with some Ebay or Craigslist sales, but the truth is I'm not motivated.

I'm going to try to make it a no spend day. I received yet another $10 coupon to Kohl's, so that is tempting, but probably should wait until I can take one of the girls along for some of their needs.

Know of any other good savings deals out there this week that might be on someone's NEED list?

The vehicle registration 'bill' came in the mail yesterday. For my van and DHs truck the yearly tags total $480. Next year will be lower, as my van will be old enough for the lower rate. The savings will be $78. This means I could save a little less each month to compensate for that, but I have a feeling a teen car will be in our future, so I should just keep setting the same money aside.

I know I paid the registration last year with a credit card, and paid an additional fee to do so. I justified it since the charge helped to earn a credit card bonus reward. May do that this year, if I see a card we should get for the rewards. I have until mid October to decide on that one.

I save monthly for the car registration money, so I'm all set to pay it. Do you save monthly for your vehicle registration? Or just come up with the money when it is time?

Swagbucks graciously credited my account, and other users, with my monthly bonus Swagbucks yesterday. A day early. As a result, I was able to redeem 2500 Swagbucks for another $25 PayPal cash deposit. I will count this as a September snowflake once I have it in my account.

Not sure if you noticed my side bars with my snowflake earnings for the year, but combined I have saved $2,113.13 since January 1. Average monthly earnings/savings of $264.14. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I really wish everyone understood and used this concept to either save for a goal, or to make a small dent (which leads to a big dent) in paying off debt. It doesn't take much effort at all and really pays off. And I don't mean just Swagbucks, any little bit of cash that comes your way is a snowflake. There's that birthday money, the refund for something you returned, a rebate, a coupon used, or the interest you earned. These, and many more, can accumulate to big chucks of money toward your goal.

At the rate I have been going, I should be able to come up with another $1000+ before the end of the year. I like that idea! Anyone have a snowflake goal for the remainder of the year? Anyone one to start today accumulating snowflakes? I'll cheer you on!

As I expected, our Chase Southwest Airlines Rewards card statement closed over the weekend and the bonus miles were awarded. We now have 53,128 miles available to redeem. This translates to $525 in gift cards.

I will be discussing which cards to order with my husband, but the possibilities I'm interested include Walmart, Lowes, Sears, Amazon, Kohls, JC Penney, Barnes and Noble, Eddie Bauer, Aeropostale, Bath & Body Works, Panera, Bed Bath & Beyond and Pier One. Of course, I won't be getting one of each, but those are what I have narrowed the choices down to.

I really try to avoid Walmart, but I could easily get groceries and toiletries there to use the gift cards. We always end up buying some clothes at Kohl's over the course of the year. I expect with fall weather arriving we will be there soon! And Amazon would definitely get used, since we have their Prime membership, I do buy things there when they are less expensive and they arrive just two days later!

Home improvements are always on the list, thus Lowe's is an obvious place to spend some of the reward miles, too. Many of the other cards I listed above aren't very common places we spend money, but they are often given as gifts. Turns out I think we are giving fewer gifts this year...so that means I probably don't need those. I could always buy the gift cards I need at Walmart, too!

I noticed a $10 credit on our USAA card, which we haven't been using. It was a reward I earned in April. I believe our auto insurance will be charged to that card any day, so just a little less money to send in. Of course, I will count that $10 as a snowflake for September!

What gift card would you choose to redeem?

I mentioned in my last post that I accumulated $557.48 in snowflakes this month. Those were all sent to pay down mortgage principal, so less debt. And this is BIG; we have sent in $1,361.87 since I started accumulating snowflakes for equity in late June of this year.

Here's where all the August money came from:


Not sure if September has the possibility of earning more snowflakes, but I'll give it a try! I know that we should be able to redeem the Southwest Rapid Rewards in the amount of $500. Since those come in the form of gift cards, I will use them for everyday purchases and use the cash I would have used to send in to the mortgage. I will only count them as a snowflake once I make a purchase. Does that make sense?

The good news on the Southwest Card, is that with a inquiry to customer service we have been given our Rapid Rewards number. I should be able to get that set up, so I can do a redemption next week. Happy, Happy!!

How did you do with your snowflakes in August? Do you have a goal for September?

I made another principal payment towards the mortgage today in the amount of $107.70. That is the last one I will make for August. That money came from a water utility refund, a Swagbucks cash and Ebay proceeds. A little work and a little luck!

I actually made five extra principal payments this month which reduced our mortgage principal by $557.48! That is more than a regular mortgage payment reduces our principal. And yes, that is the total snowflakes for the month, too.

We are still waiting on our Southwest credit card statement to close so we can start redeeming gift cards. It should close on Saturday, so we are close to getting our hands on that $500.

I sent the OBi adapter for VoIP back to Amazon. Their estimate of shipping is $5.37. That is how much my refund will be reduced. Most of my family is not real excited about permanently giving up our land line. We do actually call home when we are out to check on our kids. So, for now, we are keeping it. I might still try Ooma, but I'll be looking for a good price. Maybe used on Ebay, but need to see how that works.

I've come to a screeching halt installing my Google Voice calling plan. They don't have ANY numbers in my area code. Or my last area code or the one before that. Clearly, this Google Voice things is not available everywhere. Too bad I didn't check before I bought the adapter!!

I bought the OBi adapter on Amazon for $39.00. Shipping was free with our Prime membership. No tax...thanks internet. I can return to Amazon and pay $4.99 plus $0.75 per pound. Since it is less than a pound, I expect the refund to be reduced by $5.74.

I could also sell it on Ebay. I see others listed for slightly more than I paid but those include free shipping, which means the shipping would have to come from the proceeds. And I would have Ebay fees on top of it. I think it really ends up being better to return it even if I get shipping deducted. Live and learn I guess!!

Now I need to search my other options. I'm leaning towards the Ooma, which is three times the cost of the unit I bought. This service will charge me the federal fees of $3.71 per month. I did notice I can use a Citi promotion for one day shipping from Amazon if I buy the Ooma unit from there. Tempting!

Or we could just skip the land line altogether. Oh geez, I really thought I had it figured out. More to come later.

My daughter is a Junior in high school this year. This means college is going to be upon us soon. I can tell by the mail we are beginning to receive too!

The school sent out information about a seminar for ACT test preparation. It's a 7 hour course on a scheduled day off of school and is $79.

My daughter is an all A student. She tests well on standardized tests. No test anxiety. She writes well, too. Does she NEED to take this seminar?

What alternatives are there for preparing for this test? There seem to be books available (library and Ebay), and a practice test for less on the ACT website. What is really necessary?

While I wait for those of you ahead of me to weigh in, I'll keep browsing the ACT website to see what I can find.

Our over the air antenna is in the attic and working! We get all the stations we are suppose to. The picture is so much clearer. My husband thinks we might need an amplifier, but we are going to wait and see.

The cable boxes are boxed up and set aside to return to the service provider. The next step, is to set up our Google Voice phone number through the internet connection. That will be done tomorrow. If all goes as planned, I can cancel phone and tv service by the end of the week!

If you are interested in knowing which broadcast television stations you might be able to receive in your area, check out the

FCC website. We are receiving all the 'green' stations and one 'yellow' station. Since several stations broadcast more than one channel we have 23 channels plus a radio station. The last thing I will add is that we are receiving several stations that are over 70 miles away. We purchased an antenna that would pick up this distance.

I'm happy to report I have been using my gym membership after a summer lull. The girls have been in school for 5 days and I made it there four of those days. I really hope I can stop and ultimately reverse my weight gain. I feel pretty positive I can.

Are you exercising? Is your goal maintaining or losing? Do you pay for a gym membership? Or workout for free in some other way?

If you read my post this morning, you know we had abandoned the plan to put an antenna in our attic, primarily for safety reasons. The biggest issue was climbing IN and ACROSS our attic which has no floor boards to walk on to fish a cable across and down to our basement. We just didn't feel safe.

The new plan still starts in the attic, but goes outside and along the edge of our siding to the connection that is already available outside. This does not require us to get IN the attic. We can attach the antenna by simply standing on a ladder BY the attic opening. Safely!!

We are excited. We have put in some cash to make this happen, however, we will quickly recoup the money by cancelling our basic service from the cable company. And this is the same amount we would have spent by going IN the attic.

It's not hooked up yet, but we have the beginning plans for tv service that will cost us $0 per month. How do you receive your television service? How much do you pay?

One of my Ebay items was bought last night on a Buy It Now bid. One items will sell Sunday night as it already has bids. The other item has about four people watching it, so I'm optimistic it will sell.

I guess that means more snowflakes in my future!!

I did hear back from the mortgage company about our escrow analysis. As I mentioned yesterday, our property taxes are increasing significantly. This was expected as the home is a new build.

I know some would say to contact the mortgage company only when they ask for more money, but in my experience this just leads to larger requested amounts. Either upfront or added to the payment. The first property tax payment is due before the end of September, so really I'm just sending in the money to get it paid on time.

I was pretty close with my numbers yesterday. I had based mine on an effective date of September 1. They ran theirs based on October 1. I suppose they need to give proper notification...even though I directed the change.

We need to send in a lump sum of $1,880.13 before October 1 to make up the shortfall. This is fine with me because I have been saving monthly for this increase in property taxes. By September 1, I will have exactly $1800 saved. And the extra $80.13 can come from that September 1 paycheck with no problem.

Our new payment will increase because of the amount they need to collect for escrow from $1083.56 to $1,311.28. The interesting thing is I've been saving $300 per month, and paying that lower mortgage payment. Once I switch to only paying the new mortgage payment, I will actual 'save' $72.28 each month. Happy, Happy!

I did find out that since this is a VA loan, we are required to escrow for the life of the loan. YUCK! But it's actually okay since we don't expect to be here for the life of the loan.

I received my $25 from Swagbucks in my Paypal account today. I just ordered it Monday! That was super super fast. I will transfer that to my checking account so I can make another principal mortgage payment. More people are watching my Ebay items that end on Sunday. Bid high, I say!!

I'm not really watching the stock market, but I know it has been down. Glad it was down when our automatic investments were pulled to our Roth IRA and ESA accounts. More shares for us!!

That's my financial news. Now I think I may go shop at Kohl's with my $10 coupon...for something that costs just a little over $10, of course!!

I did receive the $100 bonus on my Capital One 360 Checking account right on time as promised. I have sent it in to be applied to the principal balance reduction!! Ah, I love bonus money.

One item I put on Ebay has a bid, so it will sell on Sunday night. That just means I'll have less stuff, and less debt because that snowflake is going to the mortgage, too.

I deposited a check into our account yesterday using the mobile feature. In my rush, I indicated the check was for $30, when it was really for $60. Oops! Luckily, the system caught it overnight and my account was adjusted for my error already this morning.

Our taxes on our home are increasing. I knew this would happen. Our home was a new build and valuation and taxes lag behind. I've been saving $300 a month in preparation for this. My calculations show I need to send in $1,654 to meet the banks standards for our escrow account. Our payment will need to increase as well to accommodate the increased taxes. I sent an email to the bank to see if they agree with my calculations and asked them to run the analysis. I'll update you when I hear back.

Did anyone else go for the Capital One checking bonus offered at the beginning of July? If so, did you get your bonus yet?

Yesterday I needed to get groceries. I tend to shop at SuperTarget as it is the closest and I'm used to their setup. I often, but not always, go online to clip/print coupons from their website. I did that yesterday and found two that I was able to use. At the same time, I clicked on information about Cartwheel, which I understood to be a smartphone app. It is that, but those of use without them can still use it!! I loaded coupons onto my Cartwheel and was able to print out my discounts which had the bar code the cashier needed. What is really interesting is that I ended up with discounts I didn't even load! Have no idea how that happened. I saved $2.36 because I printed off the Cartwheel savings. I did use my Red Card too and saved another $4.67. The other coupons were a savings of $2.50. And I got another $0.35 off for using my own bags. It all helps!!

We made a trip to Menard's to return an item we didn't end up using. When we bought it I was pretty sure we wouldn't need it. We should go with our gut on those types of things. At least we were smart enough to return it for a refund, which was $13.90.

I received a $10 coupon from Kohl's in the mail. I will definitely use this later this week for some new undergarments. I will try to stick to the $10 if possible.

Did you return or sell anything recently? Have you used Target's Cartwheel yet?

The only thing in my mailbox yesterday was a check! I wish every day was like that. Although I'd settle for a deposit into our checking account everyday, too. The check was a return of a utility deposit that we were required to pay last year to have our water turned on. A nice $60 back in our pocket.

I know they told me it would be returned. I just didn't make a note of it anywhere. My husband thought I was probably tracking it. Well no, once the money is gone, I don't expect it back.

I know you all will expect that I will put it towards the mortgage. I'd like to do that, but we have just spent quite a bit recently. There was also an unexpected expense of a rental car of $110 to get my husband to a school. The government won't reimburse as it was not authorized. The airline had to route him to an airport two hours away!! I'm sure he will check with the airline today about compensation on his way home, but I'm not holding my breath with the airline providing compensation. That $60 helps soften the blow on that charge. That's my thinking on it right now...I may decide to throw it at the mortgage in the end.

I received my $25 from Swagbucks yesterday and redeemed my $3 from a Pinecone survey, which should arrive in my PayPal account today. I will then transfer that money to checking. That money will go the mortgage as soon as I have it!

I'm about ready to make a change to our home phone. We will buy an Obi adapter for about $40 that will connect to our internet. We then plug our regular phone into that. The provider will be Google Voice so we can make local and long distance calls for free. Google Voice does not provide 911 service, but Anveo provides that for $12 per year, which is all we will pay after the initial hardware investment. That is a huge savings!

We currently pay $30.76 monthly for our home phone, which includes all those taxes and zero long distance. If we do use long distance we are charged $0.14 per minute. I use my cell phone if I need to call long distance. We get very few calls on it, but it is nice to have since all of our cell phones are based in another area code. We can't really port our current number to Google Voice without a lot of work around, but we can pick a new number for free which I have decided is just fine. I will need to notify family, schools, and service providers of the new number. A bit of a pain, but worth it for the savings.

We may also invest in a tool that crimps CAT5 cable so we can have our internet router, and OBi system upstairs rather than the basement. We lose some processing speed by having it in the basement. Our house is already prewired with CAT5 and coaxial cable, so we just need to pull out the cable from the wall and put on the adapter plug(RJ45). I might not be using all the right terminology, but I do know what the plan is! The tool is about $15.

I'm excited about all of our possible changes and reducing our bills. I now just need my husband to be home long enough to make these decisions and help me make the physical changes.

I know some of you have already ditched your landline which is a great savings! Does anyone use VOip at there home? Do you use Google Voice? Tell me about your experience.

We have emergency fund money and some 'house' money that I want to earn better interest rates on. I have several possibilities I will be talking to my husband about. The biggest problem with earning these rates is the hoops we have to jump through to get them.

The best rate is 3.20% at a bank local to our state. It is a rewards checking account. We can deposit up to $25K. We will have to make 10 point of sale transaction with the debit card issued to us per month, in addition to 3 automatic withdrawals to third parties (or as an alternative one direct deposit). That interest rate would allow us to earn $800 on $25K in one year.

The next best rate is 3.0% at a very local bank, that I could walk to in five minutes. It is also a rewards checking account. The maximum amount that can earn that interest rate is $10K, with 0.1% for balances over $10K. This account also requires 10 point of service transactions, and one deposit or one automatic withdrawal.

There is also a

deal with Bank of the West. No special interest rates, but cash bonus up to $150. To get the $100 we would need to direct deposit $250 each month for I think at least two months. To get the $50 we would need to use the debit card 10 times each month for two months, each transaction has to be $3 or more. This one seems a little complicated, for a low return, but I think it could be done.

And BeAWealthyWarrior has mentioned the NFCU offer on her blog that is also a possibilty to earn 3% on $3000 for 12 months. There are hoops to that offer as well, including a regular direct deposit for 12 months to a checking account. Although once set up that one would be easy. I'm just realizing that I actually do save $300 a month for property taxes. I could just move that plan there for the next year. Now that I thought of that I'm getting a little more interested.

The auto withdrawals that these account require are too big of an issue because we have plenty of things that are on auto withdrawal...investments, water bill, electric bill, gas bill, water softner rental, our mortgage payment, cell phone bill, and tv/phone bill.

I'm really not ready to give up our USAA account as our primary bank, part of that is because I know all the account numbers! Ha. However, to keep the initial principal intact and earning the great rate, I would need money to go into each account to cover the ten debit transactions and any auto withdrawals that are set up.

I was thinking we could take advantage of the first two accounts I mentioned and use one account for the first of the month and the other account for the second half. Or we could each be in charge of 10 transactions for one bank. I think the latter would be easier for my husband instead of all the switching of cards every two weeks.

I think I asked another time, but does anyone use a Rewards checking account? How do you keep track of your requirements? Do you think this method may be too much of a hassle or would it be worth the return? Let me know, as I'm not sure what I even think yet!!

I'm using some of my downtime this week to research lowering some of our costs and increasing our interest income. I will be looking at cell phone service, voip home phone service, and tv service and ways to reduce those costs. I will also be looking at different banks, likely reward checking accounts as ways to increase the interest on our cash without the risk of the market.

I did find out we signed an 18 month contract last July for television service. We have thus used 13 months of the contract and would owe for service not yet billed on the contract if we cancel early. When we cancel, whether early or on time, we hope to use over the air service. We will need to install an outdoor antenna in our attic, so there will be some upfront cost. The antenna alone is $85, but we are paying $39.05 a month right now, so that will be recouped quickly. The hardest part likely will be crawling into the attic and connecting the lines already installed in the basement to the line attached to the antenna. This may require the purchase of some tools, which I hope to find a the best price possible. We hope to install BEFORE we actually cancel to confirm we get the reception we are expecting.

I'll update you later in the week with other research. In the meantime, I know about Ting and Republic Wireless, are there any other no contract plans anyone uses? Tell me what you know!

We were paid $0.04 interest on our checking account and had $4 worth of ATM surcharges refunded. I have added these to the snowflakes for the month.

I bought a newspaper and a cup of coffee this morning since I had to get up early to be at the airport. So I spent some money, but not too much.

Tomorrow I will need fuel again, since a little out of town trip seems to have drained the tank again. I hope not to spend any other money tomorrow. I actually think it is possible.

I have an item I think can be returned to the store. I think we spent about $15 on it. I hope to get that done this week.

That's it...just a few drips and drops of money!

I do have an equity goal. It just hasn't been firmed up in my brain or written here on my blog. The goal is $63,045 (or more!) The ideal goal will be to reach this by June 2015, which is 22.5 months away. This is the next possible move date, although we would like to stretch it out as far as we can. The Army dictates that so we'll see.

We have about $24,500 in cash. We have paid off $6,304 in principal since last year. I expect we will pay another $9,900 by the goal date with regular payments. This leaves $22,341 to meet the goal. On average we will need $1,015.50 per month.

If you have been reading my blog, you know that I'm sending in all the extra funds (i.e. snowflakes) to the mortgage. Right now for 2013, I'm averaging $233 per month in snowflakes. That means we are still short $782.50.

I made a list of possible places to find some of this shortfall: lower our cell phone bill/plan, eliminate our home phone, eliminate the cable bill which allows us only local channels, find and actually move cash on hand to an account(s) with higher interest rates, sell more stuff on hand, and get a job.

I think finding a job will be easier once my daughter starts to drive. She has lots of places to be and they are always conducive to work hours. I also know my husband WILL get a raise next year. So while I may not be able to average $1000 this year, I will be able to easily exceed that next year.

And if home values in this area continue to rise, then I expect some of our equity will come from appreciation. Some online sites state this area should rise by 2%...not much, but something!

I also want to apply some money from our regular income to this goal. I have made a good effort. I know the money is there. I think I'll start with just $50 a pay period and gradually increase it each month.

I need to get moving to make the changes to the cell phones, home phone and tv. The sooner I get the changes made the more I can save towards the goal. And I need to start moving money around too to get the higher interest rates.

Yikes! This is really daunting. I know it's not a perfect plan, but it is a start. Any comments or thoughts on my plan?

I have some random updates that are money related that I'll just throw out there for the enjoyment of those of you who like this kind of thing!

Last month a house just like ours, except for walkout basement vs daylight windows, sold for $5,500 more than what we purchased our home for last year. This is the amount ours was listed at but we negotiated down, but they didn't or couldn't. I'm thinking I can look at this as the current market value of our home, right? I like that kind of equity.

I found out the information above when I went looking for our property tax amount online. Turns out they have not certified property taxes yet, thus no statement. I know the taxes will go up since this is a new home and we did get a reprieve last year. I want to know how much, so I can plan.

I sold those Box Tops for Education on Ebay. My net profit is $10.11, which I will add to the Snowflakes for Equity.

We had garage door issues recently. The opener wouldn't close the door. It would open, but not close. We tried all the trouble shooting tips for the sensors, but it was a no go. We purchased a new set on Amazon which arrived quickly with our Prime 2 Day shipping. We swapped out the sensor that was the problem and it worked!! Cost about $25. Annoying, but no big deal.

My daughter, age 16, finally decided to get her permit and is driving a little. We will need to get her signed up for driver's ed by the end of the month at a cost of $375. Steep, but probably worth the education she will get. Of course, I will put the fee on a credit card when the time comes to earn rewards and possibly a bonus!

I was notified by USAA that our next six month premium for auto insurance will be due in October. No change in the premium...just $433 for six months. This will go on a credit card, too! I'm sure once our daughter has her license the premium will go up...but by how much is the question.

I will try to make today a no spend day. I have paint I purchased last week that needs to be applied. Might as well take advantage of the cooler weather to get it done.

I noticed that iTunes gift cards are 10% off at Target this week. I hope to stop in to get at least one as a Christmas gift. I will use some of the Target gift cards I have to make the purchase.

Was that enough random updates for you? What was your favorite piece of information?

The bonus of $150 earned on my husband's American Express Blue Cash Everyday card appeared this weekend. I redeemed it for a statement credit on the $150 balance that remained. As of this morning it has been applied and the balance is now zero.

I guess this means I have to send in another $150 to the mortgage! Since I would have had to pay the balance if not for the credit, I will just use that money to send in to the mortgage. Simple!

I remembered to count out my Box Tops for Education and found that I had over 100. I put a lot of 100 together and listed them on Ebay. They have not sold yet, but I expect they will as I set a reasonable price. They ALWAYS sell. So, another snowflake is in the works.

Swagbucks deposited last months bonuses yesterday. I was just 28SB away from cashing out for $25. So I put in the time to get those 28SBs and cashed out for $25 cash in my PayPal deposit. ANOTHER snowflake on its way.

My chauffeur service has begun operating again. My oldest daughter who is just starting to drive is needing to get to school for band activities. This means more fuel will be used. Too bad I don't get paid for this service!

We are still in the process of meeting the $2000 in spending on the Southwest card. I know we are over $1000. I'll give a more in depth update on this tomorrow.

Snowflaking debt and savings works! Of course, it may seem easy with these large rewards from credit cards. However, the smaller amounts I find, earn and save still add up. You can do it too! Anyone just getting started with snowflakes? What was your first or latest snowflake?

It's been so mild most of July that we are barely running the air conditioner. We still are running it because of allergies, but we stay pretty comfortable with fans and keeping the temperature a semi high level.

This month's electric bill is $19 LOWER than June. Now the bill is still $121, but we are cooling a 2500 square foot home, watching tv, using the dryer and dishwasher and spending time on the computer.

Were any of your utilities lower than last month? Were you expecting a lower bill or were you surprised?

Already some August snowflakes are arriving! So exciting. Here's what I have thus far:



Clearly some of those were earned in July, but they all arrived yesterday. I may just get those sent in to the mortgage soon. I do have a couple more that I think will arrive soon, so more than likely I will wait. The Capital One reward money was from depositing $500 in the savings account during their Independence Day sale. A little bit of that is interest, which is better than I get in my checking account for that money!

It was a spendy couple of days recently. Registration for school was the primary expense. We pay $65 for each of our daughters. We also purchased a family activity pass for $145. We definitely would have spent that much money on activities (football games to see the band perform, basketball games to see the pep band perform, three music concerts and a two plays) last year, so we expect the same this year. It is nice to have it prepaid! I did put the entire $275 charge on the Southwest card. I bought pictures for my oldest daughter and paid with a check since I forgot to prepay online with a credit card.

We purchased fertilizer, sprinklers and paint at Home Depot and did remember to get the military discount! I charged these expenses to the Southwest card as well. I think it was about $100.

We received a call from our gym that we owe a Club Enhancement fee. Not sure the amount since this is the first time they have indicated we owe one. A little annoyed since this was not disclosed at the time of sign up, but I bet it is in our contract. I will be looking before I pay it.

Ebay has been slow. I have two items that are relisted at lower prices and still no interest. Based on previous experience it really seems these things should sell! If they don't, I will just take a break or end up donating them.

Do you have any August snowflakes yet?

Our mortgage is our only long term debt. All other debt that may occur on credit cards is promptly paid off. Now that I'm sending in extra principal I want to keep track of how much we have paid down. I'm not sure why I don't want to disclose the amount of our mortgage, but I just don't. I will simple track the amount we have paid off.

We took our mortgage out on July 3, 2012. We have made payments on time every month. We have only recently made principal payments, specifically June and July. The June principal payment was $56. In July, I made two payments, $250 and $500 specifically. Including those amounts we have paid of $5,996.28!!

I wish I knew I was so close to the $6K mark yesterday when I rounded up to $500. I should have sent in another $4!

I don't know exactly how I will track this, probably a simple sum of principal on a spreadsheet. I can post a screen shot of our progress. I also need a firm goal. I know I did some calculations several months back. I was a bit overwhelmed with those, so I'm not sure I kept them. I'll keep working on getting a better grasp of this goal.

Oh, and did anyone notice that the Christmas and Equity snowflakes I have accumulated in 7 months equal $1555.65! That averages out $222.24 per month. If I can keep up that pace I should be able to get another $1100 before the end of the year. I have a feeling it might be more!

The good thing is I have a firm grasp on accumulating snowflakes and sending them in to pay down the mortgage! Yippee!!

July was a spectacular month for accumulated snowflakes. And really there were some snowballs in there to help! Those credit card rewards were key to making this month so great. I was proud to actually get a few things on Ebay and earn a little more cash towards this new goal. Total snowflake earnings for July.....$748.39!!!!



All snowflakes are going directly to pay down principal on our mortgage. I sent in just an extra $56 last month. This month I have already sent in the $250 check from Citi Thank You Rewards. And today, I'm sending in the remaining snowflakes $498.39. I think I should actually just round it up to an even $500. I think I can swing the extra $1.61 from my own pocket. Don't you?

My Snowflakes for Equity ticker shows a goal of $1000. I think I might need to revise the goal, since I'm almost there! I didn't quite expect all the credit card rewards when I made the goal. I'll have to really think through what I think we can accomplish before the end of the year.

It was asked in my last post about our mortgage pay down progress. Before today's extra principal payment I think we have paid a total of $5000 from the principal balance. That is a bit of a guess. I will work on getting more details for my next post. This is something I've been needing to do so that I'm tracking our progress a little better.

So, how do you think we did for July? Did I accumulate enough snowflakes?

I decided to pay my Ebay fees and withdraw the proceeds from the sales that have been paid. I want to send them in with my BIG principal mortgage payment. The proceeds thus far were $37.31. I'm still waiting for payment on one item. I have one item that will sell today. I will add those proceeds to my August snowflakes.

I will update my Snowflakes for Equity tomorrow. It has definitely been my best month EVER for snowflakes thanks to the credit card rewards.

Here are some future expected snowflakes that I'm waiting on that have been earned but not received:
$25 Paypal cash from Swagbucks
$3 Pinecone survey payment
$5+ Ebay proceeds
$150 American Express reward
$76 Capital One 360 Savings reward
$100 Capital One 360 checking reward
and we are working on earning that Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card reward of $500. I think we have only spent $500 of the $2000 minimum at this point.

Stay tuned for the July Snowflakes for Equity update...schedule to appear tomorrow!

I mentioned in my last post that my husband will be traveling for work. I guess one of the trips is cancelled...due to funding. So likely less savings if he is only gone one week.

I sold two items on Ebay last night. One person has paid. Waiting on the other. I also have one item with a bid that should end tomorrow. It's all moving along.

Today I need to get bills paid. I keep putting it off! Surprising, since I usually like to do it. I think it is just that I have other projects that are getting my attention. That bathroom painting has put my interest back on some improvements around the house and I would like to get a few things sewn and mailed to my sister. But I will pay the bills so I get work on the fun stuff!

We attended a free concert in a local park last night. Our daughter played with a flute choir ensemble prior to the city's municipal band concert. It was very good music and a cool beautiful evening free of bugs. Now I want to go to another one!!

Does your city have free music you can attend either indoor or outdoors?