I finally totalled up my receipts for Christmas spending. Not bad and definitely less than last year.

Total spent on gifts and miscellaneous related items was $611.68. This total already includes some gift cards and store coupons that were offered. That amount equalled about $144.54!! So I guess closer to $750 in gifts purchased.

We also accumulated cash from craigslist and the fall garage sale in the amount of $211. We sold on ebay, too. Funds from surveys added to a Paypal redemption of $74.32. One item had a rebate for $8.99. We accumulated another $95 in Target gift cards. We redeemed debit card rewards for $25. And I have to add in the $100 cash my MIL gave towards gifts, since those gift totals are included above.

The total above is $514.31!!

Soooo....Christmas was nearly free at a cost of $97.37. We paid just under 13% of the total cost of gifts out of our own funds. Amazing!

And I have to laugh a little because my first run through with the numbers led me to believe Christmas was free. I forgot to include the cash we are giving to nieces and nephews which equalled $105! Darn kids. Just kidding!!

So for those of you doing the Free Christmas 2012 Holiday Challenge, I definitely think it can be done. And I'm in for next year, too.

DH graduated from his first course today!! He's on his way home. He will only be home for a month and has to go back and finish another 4.5 month class.

His January rent is paid. His utility bills are recently paid and most things unplugged at the apartment. The airline ticket is paid. We will combine our flexible spending/allowance money for the next month for groceries and fuel. We will only drive one vehicle, since the other is parked out of state!! Maybe we can save a little by being in one household for a little while.

I made (along with my daughters) some more simple gifts with fabric and ribbon we had on hand. Another key chain with a basic key ring I found in a drawer. A zippered pouch with handle. A small tote bag for my 3 year old neice. Fabric bookmarks for our young reader friends and relatives (we made about 20!). Coasters. And bean bags (which are actually filled with rice).

All free with what we had on hand!







My oldest daughter had the idea of bookmarks. The fabric pieces were 2 inches x 7 inches, with about 1/8th seams. We didn't put any interfacing in, but one could for a stiffer bookmark.

What item is your favorite?

I estimated our taxes awhile back. I did both Federal and State. We had a low income year because combat earnings are not taxable. As a result we actually qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Kind of odd really.

Current estimates are:
Federal $3,867
State $1,075
Total $4,942

This works out great, since we suspended our Roth contributions to make cash flow easier while running two households. We will use this money to get our contributions to maximum by April 15th.

Right now we are each short $2,083.31. Or $4,166.62 for both of us.

The only reason I was willing to suspend the contributions because I had estimated the tax refunds to be large enough to cover our shortfall.

Of course, my estimates are approximate for now. There is another day and half of combat pay that will be used before year end bringing our income down. We also have made a few more donations.

Oh and the 'extra' will just be saved in our emergency fund. We expect to be moving in 2012.

I redeemed some MyPoints recently for a Bath and Body Works gift card in the amount of $10. Lucky for me two people on my list wanted items from there!!

I happened upon a printable coupon that you can find at the

retailmenot.com website that offered one item free after a $10 purchase. The free item can be worth up to $13!!

I did two different purchases. The first purchase included Japanese Cherry Blossom body cream ($12.50) and two soaps ($5 each). In this case the body cream was free with the printable coupon. I used the $10 gift card to cover most of the $10.60 total. I only spent $0.60 out of pocket!

The second purchase included another Japanese Cherry Blossom body cream ($12.50). Can you tell someone likes this? I also bought a Shimmer Body Lotion ($14). With another copy of the printable coupon I received the body cream free. My out of pocket cost was $14.84.

In the end I ended up with five items from Bath and Body Works and spent $15.44. That averages out to $3.09 per item!! On an even more interesting note: the $14 item is a gift for my daughter but will be from my mother in law who gave me cash to do the shopping. So the other items actually were free and not paid from our cash! Yipee!!

That coupon is about the fourth item down on the list when you click on the link above. The coupon is good until December 24th. Don't forget to read the fine print. I don't believe it is good with any other offers.

I've got a few other good deals from the last several days. Stay tuned and I'll tell you about them! In the meantime, do you have any good deals those of us holiday shopping should know?

I made a gift today. No current out of pocket cost since I had all items on hand.

I made a fabric key chain! I plan to give this to my neighbor and good friend for Christmas. She also sews so I expect she will appreciate the gesture.



The tutorial I used is

here.

I love that I came up with something from my stash! Do you have anything on hand that you could turn into a great gift for someone you know?

The regular monthly payment on the truck loan hit the account yesterday. We paid $37.48 in interest and $291.65 towards principal.

Our new balance is $12,705.74. I love less debt!

In other news, I did get a $100.39 check from my parents. See how my dad added $0.39 for my age. He's been doing that for a few years now. Kind of clever don't you think?

I have no immediate plans for the money. I will deposit it and keep track of it as birthday money. I might need new jeans soon, if I keep losing weight!

I'm adding to the Christmas Fund!!

I redeemed MyPoints yesterday for a $10 gift card to Bath & Bodyworks. If it arrives in time, I hope to use it as part of a Christmas gift.

I expect to be getting a $10 PayPal deposit from Pinecone for a recent survey. I also have $3 in the account from another survey. I expect to use this money towards Christmas as well.

With the addition of the above items here is the Christmas fund status:

Cash $186
Paypal $13
Target Gift Cards: $39.54
Old Navy Gift Card: $6.36
Home Depot Gift Card: $5.00
Bath & Bodyworks: $10
Total Christmas Funds: $259.90

I'm keeping my eye out for good ideas and deals. I will likely spend more than what I will accumulate in the fund. That additional money will come from current funds.

Is anyone done holiday shopping?

If I had to add anything to that previous list of 33 ways to reduce debt, I would suggest mail order prescriptions. Most plans offer this for ongoing prescriptions at a deep discount.

I recently just switched to mail order when I realized the price had increased again. The prescription (30 day supply) was usually $22 per month, but went up to $25. By mail order, I will get a 90 day supply for $25. Only $100 per year.

Do you realize the savings of that? I will save $200 per year by using mail order. That's huge!!

Why didn't I do this sooner? Because it seemed like a lot of work to contact the doctor for a change in prescription. This time the online site contacted my doctor for me. Easy!!

How much do you or could you save with mail order prescriptions?

A very inspiring list.

The couple referenced in

this article paid off $66,000 in debt in three years. The article contains 33 ways they reduced their debt. Are you doing any of these?

The only one I haven't done is number 3 on the list. I personally keep thinking about disconnecting our home phone line, and likely won't until we move. But it sure is tempting.

I received a $5 rebate from Home Depot in the mail today. It came in the form of a Prepaid Mastercard. I decided to save it for now.

I counted up the cash and gift cards on hand and found I have a total of $205.54! I think this is the beginning of the Christmas Fund.

I was also notified that I will be receiving a deposit from Half.com in the amount of $15.41. I forgot about those sales! I might just pull that cash out and add it to the above mentioned fund.

Are you saving for Christmas? If so, how do you save?

This post has mixed emotions.

The sad: My youngest daughter has decided that she no longer wants to take dance classes. Her heart isn't in it. I made her go for a full month before making a final decision. This would have been her fifth year of dance. I guess four was plenty for her. I'm going to miss seeing her smiling face at the recital this year. Of course, if I made her go for the next 8 months she probably wouldn't be smiling at the recital.

The glad: We are getting a refund for prepaid dance tuition! In the amount of $323. I pay in full to save the recital fee which is about 10% of the years tuition. It is the studios policy not to offer refunds for prepaid tuition. However, since we are still clients (my older daughter takes tumbling), we have been granted a refund of our credit balance. Whatever they want to call it, I'm getting a refund!! It should be in the mail this week.

And I can sell her jazz shoes and return a pair of yoga pants. Yipee!

I put our monthly Roth contributions on hold last month. It made a huge difference in how our cash flow felt. With DH living in another state, money is much tighter. The lack of roth contributions helped ease the tension.

We decided to keep our monthly contributions on hold until the end of the year.

Now I can't say I'm real proud of this decision, but our goal is still to max out our contributions. It might take until April 15th, but we will make the investment in our future.

I expect that we will receive a large refund this year because of wages that are within range to be eligible for the earned income tax credit. Nontaxable combat pay helps us meet this criteria. Kind of odd, considering the time in combat was our highest earnings ever. So, if needed the remainder of our 2011 Roth contributions will come from this money.

We still do not have our next duty assignment. The sooner we know where we are going and can get this house sold the better for our emotional and financial health. I personally can't wait!

I bought my daughter's school pictures. Spent $31.50. The pictures arrived this week. Enclosed is a Shutterfly code to redeem for $20 worth of merchandise on their website. It doesn't have to be a picture of my daughter.

I'm thinking a Christmas gift, a calendar or even Christmas cards would be nice. It doesn't expire until the end of January, so I have plenty of time to think about my options.

If you would like $5 off your first order at Reuseit.com, use coupon code: rcw2oku

Reuseit.com sells reusables for every part of your life. Think water bottles, groceries bags and so much more!

This site has flat rate shipping of $4.95, so the coupon is basically equal to free shipping.

In full disclosure, I will receive $5 credit on their site, when you use my unique coupon code. Thanks for your support.

I received the yearly notice about our property taxes yesterday in the mail. Our taxes increased from $2,820 to $2,942. That is an increase of $122 per year or 4.3%. Most of the increase is to our city and the school district, so I won't complain too much. They seem to do a good job with the resources they are given.

I recently received our homeowner's insurance bill, too. It also increased.

I save monthly for these expenses. With the increases, I am short. I will make up the difference out of the regular paycheck and then increase monthly savings with the hope of being on target next year. Although...next year we might have sold the house and be renting.

We received our payout for the DITY (Do It Yourself) move. It was less than estimated. Boo.

We were quoted $1,141.68 based on 1000 pounds and mileage of 1117 miles. DH moved 980 pounds and I assume drove that distance(!). We received $989.94. A difference of $151.74.

As I write this post, I looked up the Travel Advice of Payment (AOP) and it shows the amount I estimated based on the new weight of 980 pounds: $1,118.85. But then they subtracted out $128.91. Boo again. Not sure if the constructive costs changed from the time we received the estimate and the move occured.

The AOP shows our out of pocket expenses were $603.20. This means per army records we earned $386.74 on the move. This will be considered taxable earned income for 2011. I've got to remember to keep an eye out for that tax form!

All the money for the move has been paid. Things are getting back to normal, as much as they can, considering we are living in different parts of the country. I'm beginning to put my extra time towards small home repairs, improvements and cleaning in preparation for moving or renting this house out.

My husband left school early, with permission, to get a money order to pay the late rent and outrageous late fee. He drove over an hour round trip to the management office. I thought it was closer. Guess not.

He is paid up for August and wrote a personal check for September's rent. He received receipts for both payments.

All very irritating. Caused my husband to lose sleep over it. Since the company still didn't have the check, all we can think, was the postal service didn't do their job. Lost in the mail literally.

We did put a stop on the original check and the rental company was informed of this. Nice thing is our bank didn't charge for this service. Maybe most banks don't. First time we ever stopped a check.

I have reworked our budget to handle paying the rent at mid month. We did stop college contributions for the remainder of the year. I'm also stopping our automatic Roth contributions for a time being. I expect, we will still make all of our contributions, but it helps to not have that money flowing out when things are a bit unstable with two households. Besides, I have until April 15th to make sure I get those contributions in.

We are still waiting on a payment from the government for my husband doing his own move. It should arrive in the next two weeks and equal over $1100. I'm looking forward to that.

My husband and I are contemplating a temporary stop to the college fund investments. Right now we fund each daughter's ESA account with $2,000 per year, which is $167 per month. Each month that is $334 allocated from our budget.

While running two households our expenses are tight. We are not yet clear what all the new expenses will be, as some utilities bills have not arrived. Gas usage is still up in the air. I'm on the low side right now, since school and activities are not in session. DH seems to be using more money on food than I expected. He is working on it though. I think some of it comes from boredom.

If I showed you a proposed budget with our investments and required expenses and cash we have budgeted for groceries and fuel, we would have about $330 extra, which is an average of $165 per pay period. It feels really tight.

I'm aware of upcoming expenses that I'm just not sure where the money would come from except from the emergency fund, if we don't stop the college investments. Examples: at least airline tickets for return visits and eye glasses for two.

I'm not decided yet. But it seems that if we stop the contributions we could set that money aside for these bigger expenses on the horizon with out dipping into our emergency fund. Now, if at the end of the year, we have some of that money left we could still make a lump sum contribution.

One idea would be to simply reduce the amount of contribution to $50 each. And make up the difference later.

I actually thought of reducing retirement, but changed my mind when I remembered we can't borrow for retirement! We can borrow for college if needed. Although, we think we will have access to GI Bill funds for our kids, scholarships, and more income at the time they attend where we could cash flow some expenses. We also aren't against them working during college, too!

Some expenses have already been reduced around here: cancelled the newspaper (but miss it), gym membership is going down by about $25 since DH isn't using it. I'm also considering cancelling the netflix discs that come to our house and just go with streaming.

Any thoughts? Would you stop college investments temporarily to keep from raiding your emergency fund, knowing that the reason you are running two households is for the stability of the kids?

The money is flowing in. So very grateful.

Paycheck $3,426.11
Travel Payment $3,042.59
Debit Card Rewards $100
Paypal Deposit $61.55

I guess there will be a small interest payment in our money market account tomorrow. Probably only $10. It does feel good to have the money flowing in. Of course, much of it will flow back out. But for now, it is all good!

I have 10 items listed on ebay. Four have bids, another 4 or 5 have people watching the item. The auctions end tomorrow night. And those last seconds are when most of the activitiy occurs! Fingers crossed for high bids.

We have learned in the last week that our housing allowance will go down, since my husband is now stationed in another state. It will go down from $1521 per month to $1422, a drop in our income of $99 per month, or about $50 per pay period.

I did decide to cancel the newspaper subscription. It became effective this week. We are very aware that it is missing. It is one expense we got a fair amount of enjoyment out of. But, it's a trial for now. The cancellation saves us $17.39 per month.

We have $100 worth of rewards from our debit card that can be redeemed. I'm resisting at the moment since it seems it could be worth more as we get closer to the holidays and that money will come in handy.

I was invoiced this week for our sliding door, siding repair and painting. Total outflow for those expenses was $3,209.45. It was a necessary expense that will help avoid issues when we go to sell. I do really like the new sliding door. It works so well!!

With the repair and recent expense for my husband's move we have nearly depleted the extra $7000 that we saved last year. That is really hard to watch, but I know without saving that money it would have been far worse! The good news is that we will receive money from the Army for the move. Right now, I'm estimating we will receive about $4100. Not bad, huh?

In other good money news, DH's paycheck will be about $225 more than usual next week. This is a result of taking vacation or leave that he earned in a combat zone. Those days were non taxable earnings, thus less money was taken out for tax withholding.

It seems most of these updates are good. I'm starting to feel much better about our cash situation. It is all going to work out! Whew.

I have 10 items listed on ebay. Four have bids, another 4 or 5 have people watching the item. The auctions end tomorrow night. And those last seconds are when most of the activitiy occurs! Fingers crossed for high bids.

We have learned in the last week that our housing allowance will go down, since my husband is now stationed in another state. It will go down from $1521 per month to $1422, a drop in our income of $99 per month, or about $50 per pay period.

I did decide to cancel the newspaper subscription. It became effective this week. We are very aware that it is missing. It is one expense we got a fair amount of enjoyment out of. But, it's a trial for now. The cancellation saves us $17.39 per month.

We have $100 worth of rewards from our debit card that can be redeemed. I'm resisting at the moment since it seems it could be worth more as we get closer to the holidays and that money will come in handy.

I was invoiced this week for our sliding door, siding repair and painting. Total outflow for those expenses was $3,209.45. It was a necessary expense that will help avoid issues when we go to sell. I do really like the new sliding door. It works so well!!

With the repair and recent expense for my husband's move we have nearly depleted the extra $7000 that we saved last year. That is really hard to watch, but I know without saving that money it would have been far worse! The good news is that we will receive money from the Army for the move. Right now, I'm estimating we will receive about $4100. Not bad, huh?

In other good money news, DH's paycheck will be about $225 more than usual next week. This is a result of taking vacation or leave that he earned in a combat zone. Those days were non taxable earnings, thus less money was taken out for tax withholding.

It seems most of those updates are good news. I am starting to feel better about our cash situation. It is all going to work out.

The Army finally paid my husbands travel voucher for deployment. We were expecting around $1200, but it was for $1631.50! Over $400 more than expected.

We have been waiting for this to be paid since my husbands return. He initially mailed his travel voucher the day after he returned. It was rejected weeks later. We mailed it again. Rejected a second time. Then it was faxed and emailed. Apparently never received. And finally about 10 days ago it was faxed again. Success!! It was paid.

Friday was pay day, so it is definitely time to start working on paying ourselves back for some of the expenses that have been incurred due to the move. We can't pay them all back...there are more payments we are due from the Army due to the move. Fingers crossed those arrive quicker than this last one!

I looked at our 2011 goal page on my sidebar. It seems we have accomplished just about everything listed. Savings for college and retirement are on auto pilot. We paid off the van and saved the $12K for the truck. We even paid for our Las Vegas trip in cash.

One of the goals was to pay for two vacations, but in light of my husband's move, we have decided to reevaluate. Right now, taking a vacation is not financially feasible, and the time available is very limited.

The other goal is to consider converting more money from my husband's Rollover IRA to his Roth. This amounts to just under $6,000. It seems this would be a good year to do this, with the lower income from deployment, but it could also be a good year to qualify for the Earned Income Tax credit and receive a nice refund. The extra cash is a bit tempting. I will probably wait until the last minute to decide.

While my husband was deployed we deposited $10,000 into the Savings Deposit Program (SDP). This is available to service members serving in a combat zone. We earned 10% interest on the principal portion while he was deployed. Unfortunately it ends 90 days after leaving the zone.

In total we earned $975 on the money!! Not bad interest. I would love to earn that much in our money market account, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

We requested the money to be returned to our checking account so that we can have access to it again. No point in the government holding it any longer if it isn't going to earn any money.

To other service members, I would highly recommend putting as much in the SDP upfront to take advantage of the high interest rate on the most money you have right away. The entire process has been very smooth and without error.

Hi. Me here. Reminding myself to stay the course for the next year. It is likely to be hard. There is not much wiggle room each month. Maybe $800. Maybe. It seems like enough. It is just far less than we are used to.

We will have to be mindful of ALL spending. This will require heightened communication between DH and myself. We need to start communicating about how that is going to work now.

I commit to look for sales and coupons. I commit to selling things we no longer need for cash. I commit to reviewing our current expenses for ways to cut back. I commit to thinking further ahead for items I will need to purchase.

Staying the course means we don't take on additional debt. Staying the course means minimizing the amount of cash we use from our emergency fund. Fingers crossed we can keep that emergency fund intact!

We went out of town for an Army family event. That sounds more fun that it was, but it also wasn't as bad as it could have been.

The Army scheduled us to ride a bus on the six hour trip, feed us all meals on Saturday and breakfast this morning, and paid for our hotel. We actually skipped the bus and drove ourselves.

Our allotted per diem was $111.50 for each of us to cover meals on Friday and Sunday. That is $446 total. We knew this would be plenty to cover gas and our food expenses, thus the reason we drove ourselves. We spent about $80 in fuel, $40 in miscellaneous expenses and $80 on a dinner out including tip. Thus we came out ahead by about $240.

Can you tell, I'm just ball parking those numbers? It's been a long day, but I'm still pretty close. We could have banked more, but it was nice to take the girls out to a nice dinner and spend quality time together on the drive to and from our destination.

I just wrote a check towards DH's new apartment application/deposit. It was $185. Thus the money we made on the trip can cover this expense, too.

I know the market is all haywire. And likely due for some sort of correction. However, here in the CreditCardFree household we are still investing. Every month.

We contribute 15% of our gross income to our Roth IRA's and my husband's TSP. Why not buy on sale? We have more than 25 years until we need the money!

We are also still adding to the college funds. This is a little more iffy, since the time horizon is shorter. The earliest we would need the money is 4.5 years, but we could hold on to most of it for up to 9 or 10 years, when the youngest is in her last years of college.

For now, we keep investing. Automatically. Every month. On sale! Are you still in the market for the long haul? If not, why not?

Finally, I get to post that we paid ourselves back the money we pulled from savings for the downpayment on the truck. Yipee!!

We borrowed $78. In May we earned $89.62 in interest, so without much effort we are back to a full emergency fund. Not sure how long that will last. I expect that we'll have to use a portion for a rental deposit. At least it is there.

It is payday, and I can definitely tell that our income has dropped. It doesn't seem like there is anything left over. I think it is that we are in a spending place right now. That is how things go sometimes. Other than the truck loan, no additional debt has been incurred. For that, I am grateful. I expect I will adjust to the income in due time.

DH is going on a house hunting trip soon. Okay, apartment hunting. We have booked the airline ticket at a cost of $438.20. Not bad for a trip that is short notice.

DH also booked a three night hotel stay for $77 a night, which is $231 plus tax. And a rental car for $175. I told him we could do better.

I searched online for member discount codes and coupons for the same rental car agency. I was able to book the same car for $148. Savings: $27. I will keep watching the rates up until the moment he goes. It does pay to shop the rates. Often you can get a better deal closer to the travel date. Not always, but sometimes.

The hotel. I gave him two alternatives. The same hotel he booked at $40 a night using earned points. Which would save $37 per night or $111. Or another hotel which we have earned rewards for free. He chose free! Wise man. The second hotel includes free breakfast and is closer to the airport and the area he will likely be looking for apartments. Savings: $231 plus tax.

Right now, without food and gas the trip will cost us $586.87. Without making the changes I did, we would have spent at least another $258.

I just thought of another savings idea. We might be able to use some airline miles towards the rental car. The air miles weren't an option with the short notice trip and the dates of desired travel. I'm off to check into that.