It's payday!! Who doesn't love payday? As a result, I am able to make our new regular principal payment to the truck loan. That amount is $230.05. That brings our principal balance to $6,988.95!! We are under $7K for the first time.

I checked our money market account today. We earned $36.09 in interest for the month of October. We save our interest each month, that way we can earn more interest on the account!

I redeemed some Lean Cuisine Delicious Reward points today towards one movie ticket (Fandango) and two microfiber dish clothes. I think they will all be given as gifts.

We are getting very close on our $3,000 spending on our Chase Sapphire card. We have another $300 to go. I expect gas in our two vehicles, a grocery run, and a Red Cross donation will get us there very soon. That will mean earning 40,000 points to be redeemed for $400 (which will go to the truck loan).

That's the news from here today. I really hope those of you on the East Coast know we are sending hugs and best wishes your way, while you deal with the changes Sandy has brought. Check in when you can!

I'm doing a brain dump on ideas of ways to save. I want to help my sister. My sister works as a first grade teacher. Her husband has been unemployed for 15 months. Unemployment has stopped, although he has asked for an extention. He has been denied, and is currently appealing.

From what I've been told by my sister, they have reduced spending. Only recently did she cancel Netflix, but not cable. I did talk to her on the phone while she was in a drive thru the other night. She had just finished an 11 hour day and didn't want to cook. She mentioned getting her eyebrows waxed, apparently only twice a year.

Our husbands both had their birthday this last weekend. I asked if we should skip birthday giving this year. She had already bought an iTunes gift card. It was worth $25, but she used a $10 Target gift card she received free when she could a flu shot, so spent less. I sent my brother in law a $40 check since he turned 40.

I did tell her about the Chase Slate card with the zero balance transfer fee and 0% interest. She did apply and transfered a credit card balance. I mentioned that she might consider selling some old landscape rock that has been piled in her back yard. She said she thought that too, even though her original plan was to put the rock in other areas of their yard. Not sure if that plan has any legs.

They are a couple that seem slow to move on things, but I'm concerned that they will get futher in debt if they don't make some more drastic changes. So I'm just brainstorming for now based on what I know about her. I will let her know of things I think of when the situation arises.

Make own laundry detergent.
Don't buy greeting cards.
Skip birthday and holiday gifts.
Color her own hair.
Make a meal list, and a grocery list of low cost meals. Make meals ahead and freeze.
Buy a DivaCup (look it up if you want to know).
Ask for medication samples from doctor.
Sell things on craigslist (they have plenty to sell).
Stop drinking soda.
Refinance mortgage, if they can qualify on her income alone.
Sell one of their cars (husband bikes nearly everywhere anyway).
Sell used books.
Cancel newspaper, recycling pick up service.
Cancel cable.
Make own cleaning products.
No car washes.
Cancel landline (think it's bundled with internet though).
Skip all pedicures, manicures, and eyebrow waxes.

Okay...my brainstorm is done for now. I may add more later. I know you don't know my sister, but do you have any good ideas for the average american who's income has been cut in half?

We received our Chase Slate card in the mail this weekend. My husband will be activating it shortly. We will be requesting balance transfer checks soon, too.

Chase gave us a $7,500 credit limit, so we will be able to transfer nearly all of the truck loan balance to this card. It has 0% for 15 months and it is free to transfer balances. Yes...free. Otherwise, I wouldn't be transfering this money at all!

This offer is available for anyone to apply on the

Chase website. No guarantee of your acceptance of course. It's really only good if you are paying interest on a credit card or loan and you can pay the charges off in the 15 months. Of course, if you can get a reprieve from any interest for 15 months and move the money for free it may be worth...I'll let you do that math!

I'll let you know how this transfer all works out and how the loan balance reduces to zero...super fast!!

We have a slush fund. Not sure where I got that term. Maybe Dave Ramsey.

For us a slush fund is stash of cash in our second account that is a bit seperate from our emergency fund. We don't touch the emergency fund, unless it is an emergency (or we can pay ourselves back in like 12 seconds)!

My husband is paid twice per month. Each paycheck is allocated to bills, investments, $900 cash for groceries, gas and miscellaneous. Left over cash gets put towards our goal...which is the truck now! It basically comes down to a zero based budget...every dollar goes somewhere.

However, I don't track every budget category known to man. It's too much work! So sometimes we do spend more than our paycheck, or more than that $900 that I allocate to variable expenses for the pay period.

Where does that extra money come from? The slush fund. I just transfer what money I need from there from time to time. Sometimes it's less than $20, sometimes it is more. The slush fund only have a few hundred dollars in it. If it gets down to zero or close to it, then I add some funds from a paycheck. Right now that would mean a little less to send into the truck loan.

We do pretty well keeping our spending within the limit we have given ourselves, but is nice to have a slush fund to dip into for those expenses that one doesn't always forsee.

Do you have a slush fund? Do you keep it in cash, another account, or right with your other funds?

I made $96.63 this week with Ebay sales. That is profit after the fees! I will also be putting a few more things up this Sunday, as well as, likely relisting an item from this week that seems to be overpriced.

I received a $3 payment from Pinecone Surveys this week, too!

All those funds have been transferred to my bank account and added to the Christmas Fund...which is now over $1000. Based on last years spending, this is way more than I need to fund Christmas. I hope that means I can set the extra aside for Vacation...or maybe that truck loan will need another payment.

Little amounts add up over time! What ways are you making small amounts of cash to meet your goals?

The escrow check from Wells Fargo arrived today! Over $1800 that I'm pretty sure just needs to go to pay down that truck loan. I'm going to mull it over a bit more this evening.

The $25 Red Robin gift card I redeemed from MyPoints arrived today too. The other gift card, $10 BP, arrived on Monday. I have already counted this money in the Christmas money.

I did make another ebay sale!! The item I added Tuesday night sold last night and I mailed it today. It looks like I have netted over $97 on five items. One is still listed...and while it has been viewed, no one is watching it. I would guess I have it priced to high.

It is fun to see money coming in the mail, even if it is expected. Did you get any money in the mail or your bank account today?

As I've mentioned before, I'm collecting small bits of cash, primarily from non-income/free sources to pay for Christmas 2012. I call these snowflakes.

I received notification of a deposit from Ebates into my paypal account. The amount was $18.11!! The rebate is from a purchase of two ceiling fans.

I also received $3 from Pinecone from completing a survey for them yesterday.

I'm transferring that cash to my bank account where I'm keeping track of all the Christmas money I have thus far.

And if I haven't mentioned it, I already redeemed $20 worth of Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards this month!! I am only 15 away from redeeming one more.

I hope to get some things listed on ebay or craigslist this weekend. That cash will go to pay for Christmas as well!

It's practically a snowstorm around here! How is your Christmas Fund?

I heard back from Wells Fargo today. I did have to email customer service as Petunia 100 suggested. Our lending consultant never returned my email, which is fine. It probably isn't her job to handle those adjustments.

I indicated to them that our escrow account and payment was much too high considering taxes for the next year are very low.

Our payment will change from $1313.61 to $1083.56. A savings of $230.05 per month. There is an excess of funds in our escrow account in the amount of $1,840.33. I have requested they mail this money back to us. I know that the taxes will increase next year. I will likely hold the escrow money for when the taxes are increased.

However, it's our money! We should earn the interest on it, even if it is a small amount.

I do like how prompt they were in reviewing the account. I'm glad I can make the request and adjustments when necessary! It's almost like handling own escrow. Almost.

Now what to do with the payment savings? I'm thinking the truck loan might just need to benefit!

About two weeks ago, I finally moved the proceeds from our house sale to our money market account. Of course, it was a very simple transfer.

We are earning 1.35% on the money, as a special offer from FNBO Direct. Along with the other money in the account we earned a whopping $17.05 in August. It's something that is better than nothing.

Are you earning a good interest rate on your savings? How much? And where?

Today and yesterday I redeemed

Swagbucks points for gift cards. I snagged two $5 Amazon gift cards and two $10 Gap gift cards. The Gap gift cards were on sale at Swagbucks for fewer points than usual. They call this a Braggable Bargain. I guess it is since I'm talking about it!

I have quite a few teen neices that these gift cards will be perfect for. Not sure yet, if that is the entire gift, or if I will add more. The last few years I've only given them $15 in cash, which isn't a lot, but they get plenty of gifts, so I think they are fine with it.

I have more Swagbucks I plan to redeem tomorrow. They sure help make Christmas shopping easy and free-er! I will update my Christmas Fund account status in a few days. It's been a good month! You just might be shocked at how much I've earned. Any guesses?

I'm thinking about Christmas already. I decided to pull the trigger and order two different gift cards using the points I've accumulated thus far with MyPoints.

I redeemed 3700 points for a $25 Red Robin gift card and another 1700 points for a $10 BP gift card. Both should arrive in the mail in 4-6 weeks. If I remember correctly, they usually arrive much sooner.

I will add these to my Christmas Fund. I already know who the lucky recipients are. Nice planning if I do say so myself!

I still have another 200 some points and if i accumulate enough for another gift card then good for me. Anyone else a MyPoints member? Have you redeemed anything recently or racked up a huge amount of points?

It seems the market is doing okay these days. I just checked out balances and it looks like things are back up. The last time I looked was in June. The S&P 500 year to date return is over 12% since the beginning of the year. Very nice!!

Have you checked your retirement balances recently. Are you happy with where things are headed? You are investing for your retirement right?

I think I have been doing so well saving up for 2012 Free Christmas because my snowflakes have a job. I read an article by The Family Ceo where she does something similar in several categories. It is kind of a way to budget, too. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Giving Income Streams New Jobs

My husband did some traveling for the Army last month. He was finally paid from the trip. Some went towards the his government card and another $200 came to us. I'm not sure at this point what his actually expenses were that may have come from our accounts originally. Not much, so I guess this is profit!

It has been over two years since he has done much traveling for the military. I don't remember how we handled it before. I'd like to save the profits towards something. I think he'd like it if I suggested another flat screen tv. We can get a deal through his brother who will sell it to us at cost. That goal will help with the motivation and help us put a system in place to track the money.

We are going to lunch today (a date), so I hope to discuss then. Perfect timing, as he is traveling back to our last town, for four days of work! More travel money might be in our future.

Do you ever profit from work traveling? Does the business offer per diem or simple reimbursement of expenses? If you profit, what do you do with the money?

It's nice that I check the Money Saving Mom website today. First I found that deal on haircuts for kids (see previous post) and

now $5 off a $5 purchase at Toys R Us. There are quite a few other deals that may interest you on the site as well.

I rarely shop at Toys R Us because it seems their prices are inflated and most of the things my girls want now don't come from toy stores. I did print the coupon off with my nephew in mind. His birthday is next month and he will be visiting me just before.

I did spent just over $4 out of pocket after the coupon was tallied. I purchased three things, primarily Hot Wheels! I hope the gift is a hit. If not, I included a gift receipt.

Nice to have one thing crossed off my list. I likely got him a little more than I would have without the coupon! That makes me happy.

I noticed in JC Penney's store a couple days ago that kids can get a free haircut in the month of August. You do need to call to schedule an appointment and it is for kids K-6.

Here's a link to the Penney's website for more details.

Turns out I already paid to get my girls haircut and they are over the cutoff in age as well. It's all good though. I hope someone else gets a chance to get something for free!

Did you already take advantage of the offer? Tell us about it!

I have received $6 in Pinecone survey money this month and accumulated over 1700 Swagbucks so far. So the snowflakes are coming along!

I haven't been blogging as much because school activities are ramping up as the school year is set to begin this week. School shopping, orientations, band camp and parent meetings definitely take some time!

The finances are a bit of a mess, but the cash is there and will be cleaned up soon. We are still waiting on a payment from the government for our hotel stay. Fingers crossed it is finally approved and paid this week!

We sold all of our moving boxes to a craigslist buyer last night for $75 cash. The couple is moving into a house pretty close to us. It's a local move for them, but they need to store their things for about a month before their house will be ready to move into.

So I guess this qualifies as our first snowflake for August! And we have met our Christmas fund goal of $750. Our new total is $757.86. I expect to keep adding to the fund until shopping begins!

We purchased two ceiling fans online to match some that were installed in our house. The girls feel a little stuffy in their room without fans. It's pretty typical for us to have to add them in all the homes we have been in. I've even installed one all by myself before!

I attempted to use ShopatHome, but there was not rebate with them for the site I was using. I used Ebates for the first time. I used a coupon for 12% off, and then ebates offered $5 for a sign up bonus and a rebate of 5%. I also used our Chase card that will give another 1% back. On what have been a nearly $300 purchase, I saved $56.49!!

I will add the rebate money to our Christmas fund. I'm expecting $75 today when we sell our moving boxes to a craigslist buyer. I'll add that to the fund as well.

Do you use Ebates or ShopatHome for your online purchases? What is your best online saving tip for shopping?

We purchased two ceiling fans online to match some that were installed in our house. The girls feel a little stuffy in their room without fans. It's pretty typical for us to have to add them in all the homes we have been in. I've even installed one all by myself before!

I attempted to use ShopatHome, but there was not rebate with them for the site I was using. I used Ebates for the first time. I used a coupon for 12% off, and then ebates offered $5 for a sign up bonus and a rebate of 5%. I also used our Chase card that will give another 1% back. On what have been a nearly $300 purchase, I saved $56.49!!

I will add the rebate money to our Christmas fund. I'm expecting $75 today when we sell our moving boxes to a craigslist buyer. I'll add that to the fund as well.

Do you use Ebates or ShopatHome for your online purchases? What is your best online saving tip for shopping?

I redeemed my accumulated Swagbucks in the last two days. Here's what I redeemed them for:

3 $5 Amazon Gift Cards
1 $10 Banana Republic Gift Card

I also donated 100 Swagbucks to the chariy of the month which is

charity:water. I hope to accumulate some more before the end of the month that I will donate as well. This is the first month I felt motivated to donate to the charity. I think it is such a good one. Who doesn't need clean water to drink and bathe with?

I'm adding the gift cards to my snowflake balance for July. I will update the increase for July at the end of the month!

My husband received a check in the mail from the apartment complex. His deposit was $125 last July. They deducted $45 for carpet cleaning, even though he left the carpet in clean shape. The check that arrived was for $80.

We are happy with the amount considering that the apartment complex seemed to nickel and dime everything. Finally, we are done dealing with them!!

My daughter also received a $25 birthday check from her grandma. She seems to have quite a bit of money now. She went through some old papers recently and found cash in one birthday card and a Target gift card in another. I believe it was $35. We are pretty sure that money is from her birthday prior to the one she had this month!

A couple of cat pictures since everyone liked the partial shot in the bedroom pictures in my last post:


Sleeping in the kennel at the hotel.

Big yawn captured by my older daughter.

A new favorite sleeping spot.

The new spot is on a ledge between the window and our couch. Cozy!

Sleeping upside down on my youngest daughter's bed. My cat knew I was taking the picture. She doesn't mind!

I read My Money Blog with some frequency. Today's post is about an offer by Chase for 0% interest for 15 months and a zero balance transfer fee. How often can you transfer for free?

Here's the

link for further details. Definitely read the fine print for all the requirements. This is something you might want to look at before Monday if it interest you, since the balance fee may be changing!

It is a tempting offer for me to move our truck balance, however I'm not sure I'd have it paid off in 15 months!! I have guests arriving today, so I may look into it more on Sunday night and talk it over with DH, who will likely be opposed to opening a credit card.

Does anyone think they might pursue this deal to save some money on debt? Or would use consider the deal to make some money? Or would you avoid it completely?

We received an offer by email from FNBODirect (First National Bank of Omaha) that we can receive 1.35% APY interest on new money above the amount we currently have in our account. This rate is a promotion rate for just six months. After that the money earns the current rate of .65%.

I was keeping my eyes open for good rates. I did see several CD's that were a similar rate, but lock the money in for two year or more. I think this offer seems like a good idea for at least the next six months for our house proceeds.

I'm more likely to get the money earning some cash with an account I already have open. In the meantime, fingers crossed, rates may go up a bit! I'm also willing to move the money before the six months are up, if I see an even better rate.

So, that's the plan for our excess cash for now. Is anyone else a FNBODirect investor? Did you get the offer?

I believe this offer is for current accounts, rather than a new offer on new deposits. Check the website to be sure!

In the process of moving, we cancelled and bought homeowner's insurance. We previouslly paid our insurance directly. We know will have an escrow account with the bank.

Luckily the new homeowner's insurance premium is about $300 less than before. It seems this is attributed to the house being new primarily.

We paid our new homeowner's policy at closing and that has been applied to our account. It seems we now have a credit balance of $291.08. Our statement says they will hold the balance towards future installments, but we can request the money to be sent to us. Ummm...yes. Please send our money back!!

I'm not sure when it will arrive, but I will save this money as part of our house proceeds.

We now have library cards for our new town. We actually have a very small library in our town, but we have access to the library in the big town right next to us. That's two cards and about four libraries we have access to!

It was hard to go so long without checking out books particularly for my oldest daughter. She reads so much so fast, we would spend a lot on books if it were not for the library.

Do you use your library? Does anyone not have access to one? What do you do to keep your book spending down?

We put our Roth IRA and college fund investments on hold while DH was living in another state. We did fund our Roth IRA's in full for 2011, but have not started on 2012 yet.

I just set the investments up to begin auto withdrawing from our checking account again. It feels good to get this back on track. Right now we are six months behind if I want to fund everything by December 31st.

I may end up making a few lump sum payments to get us caught up, but I will determine that in the next month or two. We are still waiting on travel money from the Army, but I expect it in the next couple weeks. It also seems we will have to get a water softener for this house. The water is VERY hard. We can rent that, but may also buy one outright since it would be good to have one to leave with the house for resale purposes. I'll keep you posted!

How are your investment deposits going this year? Behind, on track or ahead?

It shouldn't be unexpected, but it was. We received a check from our previous mortgage company for $41.79. It says it is an escrow refund, but I believe it is actually excess interest. We did not have an escrow account with them, as we paid our own taxes and insurance.

I think the closing agent asked for a payoff date that was a few days out from actual closing, thus the excess interest.

I'm going to add it to our home sale proceeds since technically that is what it is. I'm going to keep that money separate for the time being. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a good interest rate on a CD! Anyone know of a good one. I'm looking for something over a year, but no more than 3. I don't want to lock it all in to low for too long. Aren't rates suppose to go up at some point?!

My husband did some yard work this weekend and found a $20 bill. It was stuck under some rocks and dirt. It did rip a bit as he pulled it out, but it is basically intact. I just washed off the dirt and let it dry.

Of course, this is another snowflake towards our Christmas fund! Clearly free money.

Have you ever found a $20 bill or another large denomination of cash?

We purchased a new internet router for our home on Saturday. We bought it at Target and used our Red Card to receive 5% off. There was also a sale on the router that offered a $10 Target gift card. That gift card is our first snowflake for July. I will save it for Christmas shopping!

We received a check in the mail yesterday for $56. It appears to be a refund of overpayment for internet services DH was using on the east coast. We'll take it. Right now, I'm not planning to add this to the snowflake account. Although if we weren't in the middle of moving in and many new expenses I probably would!

Anyone going to start saving snowflakes for Christmas that hasn't started yet? It is not too late to save something!