My $200 CitiDividend Reward check arrived today in the mail. Time to close that card! I'm going to attempt closing online. Those funds will just be saved for now. There is a move on the horizon!

I was paid another $3 for a Pinecone Survey. Those have been plentiful this month. I'm also trying to earn lots of Swagbucks today...it is the site's 4th Birthday.

I've kept up on the green smoothies. Only two more days to go until the end of the month. I might actually need to run to the store for more greens before Wednesday.

Oh, and I have a Goodwill run to make. I found a bag of things that don't need to move with us. Lots of cleaning and organizing will be happening here.

I earned another $6 from Pinecone surveys and received the money in my Paypal account yesterday. I will pull the cash from that account at the end of the month and officially add it to my 2012 Free Christmas Fund.

I noticed we earned some more debit rewards equal to $25. That will count as well once I cash those points in.

I'm also have enough at MyPoints to cash in for at least a $10 gift card somewhere. I'm going to keep these points going as long as I can this year. I'll redeem them much later this year for gift cards.

On Swagbucks, I maxed out the $5 Amazon gift cards this month worth $25. I have 900 points that I will try to accumulate towards something by the end of the month. If I don't make it, then I will apply the points to $5 AGC in March. Either way it's a good deal.

I've been doing MySurveys too. I have enough to cash out for $10. I will cash out at $20, but I'm still 300 points short there. Those surveys haven't been too kind to me lately. Oh well. It's all good.

I will cash out what I can at the end of the month. I will also report an official total then as well. How is your Christmas Fund coming along? Any new snowflakes?

DH arrived home and promptly signed the $160 rebate check from Goodyear. It is now in our bank account. I have made a payment of $300 to pay off the tires in full. We will then close this card. Yipee!!

I was able to make DH's final 2011 Roth contribution yesterday. If you remember, last week, I accidently authorized the buy from a closed bank account rather than our current bank. It took a week for it to correct in their system. Maybe he ended up with more shares for his money than I did. I'll have to check.

My life insurance application was approved and effective yesterday. I signed the electronic documents. I thought premium would be effective this week, but it isn't showing up yet. Maybe it is effective next month? Not sure. At least I can now, rip up the bill from previous life insurance plan. This change has saved me $330 per year. Yes!!

I made the final payment on the CitiDividend card, using our bank's bill pay system. It arrived yesterday and I now have a zero balance. Statement cycles today and I should receive $200 in rewards. I will cash those out as soon as I can and then close that card, too.

I'm feeling better than yesterday, but still a bit worn down. I'm hoping I can rally a bit to enjoy spending the weekend with my husband!!

Have a super weekend!!

I did make my smoothie today for part of my lunch. I actually skipped the berries today. This one ended up being the most caloric so far at 300 calories.

1c water
2c spinach
1 banana
1 pear
1T chia seeds

It was very good. Fresh and green!

I made my final 2011 Roth contribution today in the amount of $2,000. I made one for DH too. However, it is going to get rejected. I accidently used an old bank account that is closed as the funding account. Oops. I called Vanguard. They said they can't cancel and it will get rejected. I need this contribution identified for 2011, otherwise, I'd just run it through again, but right now with the transaction I just did he's maxed out for 2011.

And this was a reminder, that DH and I really need to authorize each other as an agent on our accounts. Which ironically, I could do online!

The customer service rep wasn't going to talk to me. I completely understand for privacy and security. I've even worked in the same role. Luckily, I just needed to know how the reject would happen and if there was anything they could do. And they can't...so I will just wait for the reject. I likely won't be able to make his contribution until next week now.

So I kind of made our final 2011 Roth contributions!! Has something like that happened to you before?

I wanted to pay my new CitiDividend card bill online yesterday. I have only had the card about 10 days. As soon as I activated the card, I input my bank information. No problem.

When I went to pay the bill in full yesterda, I was not allowed to because the amount was more than my previous statements balance. In this case that is zero, because I have not yet had a statement.

I contact customer service and they confirmed that is the case because the bank information is new and still being confirmed. However, I could call the automated system and input my bank information. For free. What?

I still haven't paid the bill. I'm annoyed. What is the difference between an online payment with the same bank information and one I do online? I don't get it and find it very bad customer service. But, what's new? It is a credit card company.

I will wait until the statement cycles, pay it online, claim my rewards, cancel the card and be done with Citi.

In good news, I found out I was approved for my life insurance policy. It is more than my initial quote by about a $100 per year, because of a health issue. However, it is $335 less than what I would have paid with my current policy. Very pleased.

Our auto insuance is going down by $40 for our six month premium, too. It seems we are getting the discount for being awesome drivers for over 5 years. Actually, we've been great drivers for longer than that, but now we are getting compensated for it.

Have you had that issue with a credit card company before?

Our federal tax refunds is pending in our checking account this morning. This means our Roth contributions for 2011 will be fufilled! Do you think I should send in the whole amount ($2,000 each) or split it up over the next two months?

I made another green smoothie today. Very similar to yesterday, added parsley and left out the chia seeds. Total calories for 24 oz is 210. Most of those calories come from the fruit in this one.

1c. water
1c. frozen mixed berries
2c. spinach
1/2c parsley
1 banana

I found a

blog by the auther of the book I mentioned yesteday (Green for Life). It has lots of information about green smoothies. I haven't read the website, but the book is packed with excellent information, so I would guess great information on the website, too.

I have to buy jeans for my youngest daughter. She's 11 but still gets holes in her jeans! Ugh. I'm picking up two of her favorite pair at Old Navy today. I'm fine with the purchase, but frustrated that she crawls around on the floor so much!!

Swaggers: I'm just 43 points away from another $5 Amazon gift card. Those points add up fast. Do you all know about the computer on the slider bar (home page)? It's worth one point to click and you can click it at least 10 times!! I click the computer and then click on the banner on the website that pops up, right now it's a Micheal's ad.

Oh, and I've lost nearly 20 pounds since late October!! I've been diet (and regular) soda free since January 1st. It feels so good.

Let's hear about your goals/resolutions. How are you doing on them so far?

DH received "the list" today. The list of open positions and their locations. We get to choose our top seven and the Army goes from there. It's a bit overwhelming. Oh, any we only have until February 7th to complete our list.

The nice news is that he will be choosing from positions for Majors, rather than Captains. This is good because when he does get promoted, it won't require an immediate move. I think he only has another year before he is eligible to be promoted.

In financial news, I received $3 for a pinecone survey. That goes to the Christmas Fund!

Yesterday, I spent $50 at the eye doctor, for a quick exam/check for myself and my daughter. I was able to send my daughter old (but identical) frames in to get new lenses for only $16.50 at JCPenney. This was because she had a prescription change in less than 6 months. I ended up needing just one new contact lens, which I ordered online for about $45. I put all the charges on the CitiDividend card and now I'm just $45 short of the $500 minimum to redeem my rewards.

That's the news!! What's up with you?

We earned a nice little $12.83 on the money in our emergency fund last month. I'll take it. Debating about adding this to our Christmas Fund, but for now I'm leaving it out. I'd like that account to keep growing, even if by a little bit.

I relisted an ebay item last night. This was the one that I sold over a week ago to a non paying bidder. The auction will end on Sunday, or before if someone takes advantage of the buy it now price.

My daughter and I are going to the eye doctor today. Not too thrilled that we have to go less than a year after we went last time, but when you need to go, you need to go. I will put the charges on the CitiDividend card and expect to meet the $500 threshold today for our $200 reward. That's good at least.

We haven't contributed to our Roth IRA's since August. We have to catch up by April 17th! We each need to contribute another $2,083.31 to meet the maximum amount for 2011.

Last night, I made a contribution for each of us in the amount of $83.31. So now, we each need to contribute an even $2000. Once the federal refund arrives, it will all be a done deal.

I heard on the news this morning that early filers may have their tax refunds delayed by about a week. We are one of those. We filed on January 23rd. I originally expected the refund by February 1. I checked the IRS website this morning, which stated we should have the refund by February 7. Either way it will work out, but my fingers are crossed that it arrives tomorrow.

Anyone else an early tax filer? What does the IRS website indicate for your refund?

I have accumulated $50 worth of Amazon gift card this month through Swagbucks. Yipee!! That brings my snowflake money up to $205.23.

I have spent $318.84 on my CitiDividend card. I need another $181.16 to meet the $500 minimum to obtain a $200 cash reward. Getting close. I expect gas, groceries or a trip to the eye doctor will help in meeting the goal. If I get the charges built up before February 17, I should be able to redeem soon after the statement closes for the month. I hope anyway!!

Imagine my surprise when I checked our online account today and realized that our state tax refund arrived in our account on Friday!

We are saving most of the $2,309 refund in our emergency fund until after our move this summer. It makes me feel better to have that money in case something big comes up along the way.

I believe the federal refund will arrive on Wednesday this week. That money is for our 2011 Roth contributions.

By snowflakes, I'm referring to small amounts of money that will make up our 2012 Christmas fund. I have enough points at MyPoints for at least a $10 gift card to about any department store on the site. I have enough rewards at MySurveys to cash out for $10, but I'm waiting until I have enough for $20. I think I'm halfway there.

I had to report the 'buyer' of my ebay item that sold as unpaid. I will wait until that is final to relist. I hope to sell for at least $10.

And at Swagbucks, I have over 2400 points. I redeemed my limit of 5 $5 Amazon.com gift cards this month already. If I can get enough for $25 card to Amazon or Paypal, I will redeem by the end of the month. If not, I'll start over with my five $5 cards in February. Those are cheaper anyway! I have done quite a few surveys in the last few days and the points have really added up.

It will be interesting to see what other snowflakes fall my way in the next month to come!

I've been saving snowflakes for Christmas! That is what I'm calling the small amounts of money that I'm adding to the Christmas Challenge.

Here's what I have so far:


Wow! That's a lot of snowflakes and it's only January. If you are collecting and saving for Christmas, how are you doing?

Wow! I finally added up my Christmas Fund challenge money. Most of it is from free sources, but there are a several that might be considered refunds or a return of cash that would have been earned at one time.

My total is $180.23. And it is only January!!

Serve Open Deposit $20.00
Target Gift Card $5.00
Kmart Merchandise Return$4.23
Armor All Rebate $9.00
Target Gift Card $5.00
Mastercard Debit Card $20.00
Amazon Gift cards $25.00
Lottery Ticket Win $3.00
Lunch Account Refund $4.00
Wine Rebate $5.00
Chase Rewards Excess $5.02
Pinecone Surveys $18.00
Ebay Proceeds (jan) $14.78
Half.com Proceeds (jan) $18.66
Target Gift Card $5.00
Scheel Return Card $12.71
Old Navy Gift Card $5.83
Total $180.23

It will be interesting to see what kind of total I end up with by the time Christmas comes around. For those of you participating, how is your fund coming along?

My ebay buyer still has not paid. Newbie or in the area of recent tornados. Not sure. I'll wait a bit longer to relist.

I was able to see my husband's January paystub (LES) today. Our exempt status for our state was processed correctly which means no withholding for state!! With the slight increase in pay and the state tax exempt status we have a net increase of $393.74 per month.

I want to set up our Roth IRA's to draft for $150 each per month. That will give us a head start on maximizing our Roth's this year. However, part of me remembers talking to the DH about holding on to as much cash as possible until the move is complete. I might have to just stick with that.

Either way it's all good and we are pleased with the positive financial events.

I received my rewards check in the mail from my Chase card. I only had to make one purchase to receive $300. I made a couple more, so the actual rewards check was for $305.02.

It's been deposited, and I have made a $300 online payment on our Goodyear Tire account. The new balance is now $300!!

I will save the other $5.02 towards the Christmas fund. I hope to have an update on my total later this week. What is your current Christmas Fund total?

I sold the item I listed on ebay. I'm now waiting for payment. The buyer is new to ebay, so fingers crossed they can figure out how to pay me. The item sold for about $10, so I'll net a little under that with fees.

I also received my deposit from Paypal today, in the amount of $32.78, for surveys and other ebay proceeds. I'm waiting for nearly $19 from Half.com, too.

The profits will go to the Christmas Fund!

In other news, it snowed overnight. I have to go out and shovel. It will count as my exercise today, since I have the girls home and don't want to venture out on the roads just yet.

It might be a good day to look for more things to sell or earn points on Swagbucks.

Our tax refunds from federal and state will amount to over $6,000! We have never had such a large refund. I really try to keep things as close to zero as possible. Last year I even had to pay our state $124 and I was fine with that!

Specifically, we will receive $4,063 from federal and $2,309 from our state. This equals $6,372 back into our pockets. That would have amounted to $531 per month if we had been receiving that money all year long.

We had several factors that caused our refunds to be so large. The first was that my husband was in a combat zone for the first four months of the year. This money is considered non-taxable by the federal government and the state. While in the combat zone he also earned 27.5 days of vacation that are also considered non-taxable. He used all of those days in 2011, thus nearly another month of tax free income.

With only 7 months of basic pay taxable we qualified for the earned income tax credit in the amount of $920. We also earned a $400 saver's credit for contributing to our Roth IRA's (lower incomes can qualify for this credit). And we have two kids which qualifies us for $2000 in credits as well. We ended up paying zero dollars in Federal taxes and will get a return of our withholding, the EITC and the additional child tax credit.

Under normal circumstances, we would not qualify for the EITC or the retirement savings credit. But we tax advantage of them when we can.

I posted a few days ago that our state signed a new law this past year that renders federal military pay of any kind tax free in our state. Thus we will be getting all of our withholding returned to us and a small refundable earned income tax credit. I was not aware of this law until the day I made my post. We could have filed exempt back in May and had nearly $300 put into our pocket for the last 7 months. I just didn't know. Now that I do, we have adjusted my husband's withholding to be exempt for our state. Thus about $300 more in our pockets each month going forward. Very excited!!

The plan is to use $4,166.62 to finish funding our Roth IRA's for 2011. The remainder will be saved until after our move. We are trying to beef up our cash as much as possible, once we are moved we will attack our 2012 goals!

I filed the returns last night. It appears we should have this money returned to us by February 1. Have you completed your taxes? Are you still waiting for forms?

OMG!!

I was working on our tax return. I input wage information even though I'm waiting on the W-2. It turns out all military income earned in our state is now exempt from state income tax, retroactive back to January 2011. This also means all income earned going forward is exempt from state taxes. This is huge!

Right now we are having $291.22 withheld each month for taxes. That is now money back in our pocket. Wow! I wasn't expecting that. I guess I'm not listening to the news close enough. This bill was signed into law on 5.11.11.

This also means our tax refund this year will be about $2300 or $1200 more than I expected. Nice!!

Oh, and you got to know I just online with DFAS to change our withholding to exempt. That will be effective February 1. Yipee!!

Now...I've really got to make sure this counts.

I received another $3 Pinecone survey payment yesterday. This money will be added to the Free Christmas Challenge. I'm also pretty close to redeeming another $5 Amazon gift card on Swagbucks. It's a bit addicting. I'm not sure I can keep up the pace!

The truck payment posted yesterday, with $35.79 to interest and $293.34 to principal. Our new balance on the loan is $12,118.72. Less debt always makes me happy.

It looks like our new window pane will be installed tomorrow. That will be an outflow of $232.04. I have my fingers crossed that the Citi card I applied for might arrive in the mail today, so that I could use it for payment. That would make a nice dent in the $500 minimum I need to get the $200 bonus.

It's cold here and it looks like we'll be getting snow every other day for the next week. I shoveled yesterday, but I need to see if the snowblower will start up for this next round.

Our 2012 financial goals are still not entirely flushed out. But of course, I have ideas. So, I'll write those out here. The problem I have getting these goals firm is that we are likely to move this year and my husband is still living in another state until at least May. We are starting to spend some cash on home repairs in preparation for getting the house sold. There are just a few unknowns! Ugh.

1) Complete 2011 Roth contributions. Used tax refund money. Deadline April 15, 2012.

2) Pay off tires. Remaining balance $600. Use $300 Chase rewards and $160 tire rebate. Remaining balance out of pocket $140. Deadline March 31, 2012.

3) Contribute 7% to TSP. This is on autopilot. Yes, something easily accomplished.

4) Contribute maximum about to our Roth IRA's for 2012. Preferred deadline December 31, 2012.

5) Contribute something to college. $500 each minimum.

6) Save for a Free Christmas. At least this is started. Goal $700 or more.

7) Increase emergency fund by $3,000. Or at least end the year with the same amount we started the year with.

8) Pay extra to truck loan. Get the balance under $10K would be ideal! Oops! I checked the amortization of this loan. We'll be under $8900 by the end of the year without extra payments! So, I'll make it my wish to be under $8K by the end of 2012.

I plan to re-evaluate all goals when we move. Because everything changes. In the meantime, we are in status quo mode. Don't add new debt. Pay the bills we have. Keep as much cash in our pockets as possible.

There you have it. What do you think?

I was able to redeem Swagbuck points for another $5 Amazon gift card yesterday. I will be up to $25 with those. I accumulated all of those in the last three weeks, maybe two weeks.

I received a $5 rebate check in the mail yesterday. It has been deposited and added to the Christmas fund as well.

We went out to our local Botanical Garden yesterday. Nice to see so much green and take in the wonderful smells of flowers too. Spent $16. I decided to look at the expense as supporting a local business.

After the garden experience, we used a $10 Groupon for frozen yogurt. The $10 was absoultely free, with a coupon Groupon offered at the beginning of the year. At checkout, I paid $2.89 for four people to experience a flavor treat. An excellent deal!

DH heads back to school later today. It has been awesome to have him home for a month. Even with parking fees we will have broke even for the month. We stayed within our regular budget for spending. I'm interested to see what his utility bills are since he unplugged everything, but left the heat at a very low setting. I'll know in a couple days.

Ugh...wrote this post, forgot to right click and copy...thus I lost it. Frustrating. Why is this a problem on the blogs?

I sold the last item I had listed on ebay today at the Buy It Now price. We also sold a book on half.com this morning. Both items are in the mail and I settled my ebay fees as well.

It looks like I netted $23.33 on the ebay sales and $9.91 on the half.com sales.

I plan to pull the Paypal balance to my checking account (which has $15 in Pinecone Survey money in it). Once the half.com money arrives in my checking account, I will withdraw all of it in cash to save for the Christmas Fund.

I actually have a $9 rebate in my checking account as well. It will also get cashed out. If I figured correctly, I should be able to withdraw $57 for the Christmas Fund!

I sold the last item on I had listed on ebay today. It ended at the Buy It Now price! We also sold a book on half.com this morning as well. Both items are already in the mail.

I paid the online fees to ebay. Ebay sales on two items netted $23.33. The half.com sales netted $9.91. That's $33.23 for the four items we sold. Happy. Happy!

In addition to the ebay sales money in my paypal account, I have $15 from Pinecone surveys. I will withdraw this money to my checking account. Once the half.com money arrives I will withdraw all of the money in cash to save for the Christmas Fund! I actually have a $9 rebate waiting to be withdrawn, too.

I believe the total cash I will be to save for the Christmas fund is just over $57! Now that is nice.

I kind of knew I had a couple of gift cards in my purse, but today I found them and they surprised me! One is for Old Navy for $5.83 and the other to Scheel's (a sporting goods company) $12.71. Both cards were from returning merchandise.

I will keep the cards to put towards the 2012 Christmas Fund. If I end up making a purchase at either store prior to Christmas shopping, I will simply reimburse the fund in cash. I want to be able to shop where I need, rather than only where I have gift cards.

After English Castle mentioned her daughter's lunch account, I remembered that one of my daughter's has a $4 balance in her account. And it's been that way for over a year, since she always takes her lunch from home. The other daughter does the same. I sent an email to the nutrition department asking for the return of the funds. Once received I'll put those towards the 2012 Christmas Fund as well.

Last I heard, small amounts add up!!

I received a rebate check in the mail for the Armor All products I bought my brother in law for Christmas in the amount of $8.99. It will deposit to our online bank today with our scanner. I really love that feature. I will add this money to my Christmas 2012 fund. I will need to make a page or spreadsheet to start tracking those funds.

I found $0.26 on the floor in front of the ticket counter where we purchased movie tickets to see War Horse this morning. It was a pretty good movie considering it did contain war scenes.

We are still waiting for a call about our flooring estimate. I need to see that one before I can make decisions on the other repair estimates we received.

I'm still in the processing portion of changing my life insurance. Thursday morning they come to my home for a simple medical exam. I fainted the last time I did one of these. I will definitely lay down this time!! I have to fast for 4-6 hours prior to the 9:30 am appointment. I think I can do that, especially since they want me to drink plenty of water.

We went looking for vinyl flooring yesterday. Our kitchen, two upstairs bathrooms, two entry ways and a laundry bathroom combination all have vinyl floors. They are three different patterns/colors of vinyl on the main level alone. The bathroom floors have stains and the laundry room has some major chips/dings in the vinyl (which I believe the previous owners caused when they moved their washer upon moving out).

We are interested in replacing all of it to match and create a bit of an upgrade and selling point for the house. Right now, using our basic measuring and math skills we are looking at $785. We expect the estimate to go up especially since three toilets will need to come out and then be replaced. We are willing to do a little work to prep ahead of time to save costs if needed.

We did get quotes on carpet, but feel that is more than we want to spend right out of the gate. Our carpet is light in color, but with carpet cleaning it seems to come back to life pretty nice. We will clean and put down plastic in high traffic areas at the time of listing.

Right now we are definitely leaning towards selling rather than renting, thus the new get ready to sell expenses. We can't be landlords from miles away and paying someone to do it isn't appealing either.

Here's a snapshot of our financial year:

We earned more interest than ever because we invested in the Savings Deposit Program (SDP) available to deployed military members. We earned 10%!!

Here's the interest breakdown: SDP $583.33, Money Market $106.48, USAA $1.97. Total interest was $691.78.

Our emergency fund took a small hit, and is down $737 from last year at this time. I feel okay about that considering we have had additional expenses running two households and buying new siding and a sliding glass door for our home, all of which were much more than $737!

We were debt free except for our mortgage in mid January 2011 until May when we purchased a new to us truck. We paid part of the purchase ($12,000) in cash which was a first for us. The remainder was taken out in a loan in the amount of $14,776.68. Our remaining debt on this loan stands at $12,412.06. We are simply making regular payments until we are back to one household. That loan will become priority number one once we do.

We did contribute some to our girls college educations this year, but not the full $4,000 we planned. We stopped contributions when we split to two households. Their accounts are each up about $1100 each for the year.

We also stopped making Roth IRA contributions in August. We are currently short of our 2011 goal to max out our Roth IRA's by $4,166.67. We expect to make this up with our tax refund. Thus meeting our goal, but later than normal. We did contribute $5072.76 to the TSP and $5,833.34 to our Roth's in 2011, which is $10,906.10.

I compared this years retirement totals to last year and we are only up $11,028.72. At one point we were up over $18K. But you know how the market is!

Since our goal was to primarily keep the status quo, I think we did pretty good. Yes, we took on more debt, but this vehicle will be one we keep for the long term. We feel good about the purchase.

It has been disappointing to cut back on investments, but it needed to be done temporarily to keep from getting into more debt while running two households. We really are cash flowing this adventure and all that comes with it and it feels good.

How was your financial year? Negative, neutral or positive?

Yesterday, I received notice in the mail that my life insurance premium is increasing again this year. I have had term insurance, but the term ended last year and the premium increased from $295/year to $675. Ouch. Last year I paid it and planned to change policy holders for new term insurance. However, I totally forgot about it until the notice arrived.

The premium for the next year on my current policy is going up to $720 for the year. Don't like that one bit. I have already filled out an online application with USAA and hope to have this new policy in place before the next policy is due at the end of February. The current estimate for similar coverage is $280 per year!! It may go up once they complete the medical portion, but fingers crossed it won't go up too much.

I have just about saved the $675 for the upcoming premium. It will be nice to have a little extra cash saved for something else.

I opened a Sharebuilder account today. I heard of an offer to earn $75 by just opening an account with $100. It does seem the $75 takes a few weeks to show up and must remain in the account for around 120 days, but it seems like a great rate of return on such a small sum of cash. No need to make any trades, either.

I learned about the offer from

My Money Blog.

You do need to complete this offer by December 31, 2011. That's just a couple days away, so if you are interested get click on the offer now!