I ended up with $11 in my wallet after the weekend. We usually have cash on hand for all our marching band adventures. The season ended Saturday night on a high note. Our daughter's band was named Grand Champions at their last competition!!

Today I gave my daughter the $11 to donate to school. They are collecting funds to purchase grocery store gift cards for those in need this Thanksgiving. She gets community service hours for her donation; one hour for every $1 donated. So our small donation saves her from actually volunteering 11 hours of time! I did tell her she could use some of her own money to add to it if she desired. Not sure she is as I think she is hoarding money for her Europe trip.

So other than that donation, it was a no spend day. I'm hoping to gain some bookstore credit tomorrow when I sell some books and CDs.

I have some snowflakes to report. And they all go to pay down the Europe trip.

$17, USAA Visa Rewards
$3, Pinecone survey
$2.32, Ebay sale
$1.08, Discover Rewards
$0.07, Checking account interest
$23.47, TOTAL

Now under $4,700, with a payoff total of $4,695.53.

Today is payday, but we won't do our budget until Sunday most likely. I expect we will have some funds to throw at this.

I totaled the interest on our cash investment for the month of September and came up with $80.18. I think this may be the highest monthly total in awhile. Not positive on that, as I don't track it anywhere but in my blog posts. It would be higher as I have more money at invested at higher rates (2% plus) than ever.

I sure wish it was more, but $80 month does equal $960 a year that we don't even have to work for.

On Saturday, a check arrived in the mail from our old electric company. It was a co-op so it was a return of capital credits in the amount of $19.07. I added that snowflake to our savings account.

I went through all of our accounts on YNAB today to make sure I had all of them reconciled. It was pretty easy since I had recently paid all of them down to zero! We really need to close some of our credit card accounts....as I'm really liking the idea of simplifying those.

I sent a payment to my sister by Bill Pay last week for a fundraiser her daughter was doing. I honestly didn't want the stuff, so let her girls pick candy, figuring it was a consumable and wouldn't add to the clutter, but would still support the school. This made me realize, I should use Bill Pay for our rent! I've been writing out the check and envelope and slapping a stamp on it every month for over a year. I was always so used to a mortgage payment being automatically deducted. It was nice! So I'm giving the landlord a heads up that the check may look different. I don't think there will be any issue, and now I know I won't forget, which almost happened this last month.

I use Bill Pay for our trash service, but all other bills are automatically paid from a credit card or checking account. What do you use Bill Pay for?

One of our kitties isn't feeling so well. GI imbalance the vet says. I did get my first visit free, but a test and meds cost me $80.92 today. I don't like that she isn't doing well or that I had to spend money, but that is how it goes. Will try to have this expense come from this pay period and avoid pulling what I put aside for savings a few days ago.

Yesterday was spendy. I bought some goodies to send in a care package and then mailed two packages. I wasn't exactly looking to spend more than $15 on the gifts, but ended up finding a few more items for another $15. Not a big deal really, and I don't have any regrets. It just all added up fast!

I sold an item on eBay. Look like I will net about $6. I almost gave up on that item even selling, so that was a nice surprise!

I redeemed some credit card rewards this week. I had enough points to redeem a $50 gift card to Target. It's on it's way in the mail. I also redeemed just under $7 from US Bank (which is 5% off our cell phone bill each month). I requested this as a statement credit. I also intend to redeem $17 from USAA on our credit card account. Turns out that is the total cost for our Netflix subscription and Ooma telephone for the month! I will redeem for a credit and save that money in our savings account.

I used a Staples gift card (a previous credit card reward) tonight to buy a ream of paper. The cost was $0 out of pocket, but the actual ream is $2.99 (after rebate). Did you know that Staples sells one ream of multipurpose paper (500 sheets) for $7.99? There is no way I would have paid that with out the $5 rebate. The rebate won't arrive for 6+ plus weeks. It comes in the form of a Visa Prepaid card. Essentially, I shift some of the Staples cash for Visa cash, which is a much better deal!

Yesterday we only spent $10 on three items (all needs) and today $0 out of pocket since I used the gift card to buy the paper. Tomorrow is payday!!

Turns out the tire wasn't leaking air. We think I saw another warning light and didn't look closely to realize it wasn't warning me about the tire. So all is good. And the warning light has not returned!

And even better news, the air conditioning is working. In fact, we got it working on Friday night. We turned it off for several hours since it seemed it wasn't doing any good having it on. In the meantime, the temperature rose to 87 degrees. We decided to turn it back on and see if it would do anything. We left the house for about four hours and the temperature returned to 80 degrees. By Saturday morning it was cooling as expected! So our landlord canceled the appointment for service that was originally scheduled for today.

I did sell two small items on eBay in the last few days. I paid my fees and have the money being transferred to our savings account. I do like accumulating snowflakes.

Today was a no spend day! I don't expect much spending before payday on Thursday. Right now, I know I owe my sister less than $20 (waiting on the total from her) and I need to buy hair products.

I have not done a great job of tracking our snowflakes this year. Well I did a good job through part of March. I have an Excel documenting them up through then. The total on those is $216.54.

A lot of snowflakes get absorbed into our budget and don't necessarily become savings. At least for parts of this year. I did get quite a few rebate checks (over $200) that did get put into savings. I also starting diverting eBay proceeds to our savings account as well. It's those credit card rewards that get absorbed into our spending on YNAB.

I can tell that the snowflakes diverted to our savings account are equal to $566.58. But again, I didn't track any credit card rewards since March!

I do know I redeemed $550 rewards from American Express Gold. So that means we have over $1000 in snowflake earnings this year. It is probably closer to $1500 with interest and other rewards I'm not listing. By year end, I can probably get a final picture.

I just wanted those of you who know and have read in the past all about my snowflake earnings, that we are still earning them and saving a majority of them. I'm just not doing a great job of tracking them.

I have let go of actively earning Swagbucks for now. It was taking up to much of my time. I wanted to put more focus into my health and mental well being. I found that Swagbucks was contrary to both of those. I did like earning the points and the gift cards, but sometimes other things are more important that free cash! I'm actually still earning some by default from people that are referrals. I have 300 points right now and did nothing to earn them.

I'll try to be a little better about pointing out the little amounts of money we earn. They really do add up! I mean I could pay 1/2 my daughter's tuition (not housing) this semester with the money we have earned in snowflakes. That's not a bad thing at all!

I've sold a few more items on eBay. I netted less than $15, but that is money in and stuff out, so I'm happy. I have eight more items listed. I'm not sure they will all sell, but if they end without interest, then they will get donated.

I haven't had a Pinecone survey lately. Although, I know I've done some of the household questions. I decided to log on to their website. I found I had $3 that I could cash in. Nice surprise!

I'm transferring more money from our money market account to Navy Federal Credit Union. We had a certificate mature and they now have an offer of 2% for 20 months, up to $20,000. I decided that 2% is better than .95%, so I'm going to maximize the amount we can invest.

My daughter did get marching band changed to zero credit. The other one credit needs to stay as it is. She has 13 credits officially, we will pay about $3300 out of pocket, after scholarships for the tuition and fees. Total for books and supplies will be known shortly. She has to order a specific dress for choir, not sure yet on it's cost.

I made another small eBay sale yesterday. I probably only netted about $5, but that's fine. Item out, money in!

I've redeemed some rewards on credit cards recently. American Express for a $25 credit, which helped offset the charge for vitamins I bought my husband. I also redeemed just under $7 on our US Bank Visa to reduce our cell phone bill. I love the 5% cash back on cell phone bills!

My daughter left her rain jacket at home, along with several items for cooler fall days. I shipped them out yesterday, along with her bus pass, in a Large Flat Rate box. I paid $18.75. Ugh! I hope she didn't forget anything else!

It's been a calm week here so far with limited spending. I even tried to convince my daughter she may want a new shirt for picture day. She said no, she has something in her closet to wear. Turns out its the same shirt she wore last year, only in a different color! I guess that is okay. Her hair is shorter, so it will look different. She's a practical girl.

I guess I should have factored in school pictures to my budget this month. They are bound to happen that first week of school. I think she will owe some class dues. Only $5 last year, but may be more as a junior.

I sold another item on eBay. Net profit $6.74. Less stuff, more money! I will put this in savings.

I've been motivated by my daughter going back to school to sell some things, just to help offset costs. In no way does it cover the cost, but every little bit helps!

I need to get on the ball and get more listed. Tuition and housing are due September 12. I have yet to calculate total bill, but I'm thinking at least $9K for the semester.

I've been minimizing lots of things, including keepsakes. Earlier this year, I took apart the scrapbook I made as a teen. Most of it was junk!! However, I did set aside a park map from a Disney park I visited. It was actually selling on eBay. I listed it about two weeks ago and it sold last night.

I know have a quick $8.40 in my pocket after fees. I put the money into our savings account.

So check any vintage keepsakes for some hidden value!

Last year around this time, I submitted a claim to be part of a antitrust settlement regarding our purchase of potatoes. As usual, I don't remember the requirements. But today we received a check in the mail for $30.49!! That's a big amount.

Just for kicks I went back in our records and found we have received $202.28 from class action settlements since the beginning of the year! Nice snowflakes hanging out in our savings account.

I believe I have become aware of all of these from

I used $4.44 from Discover rewards to make a purchase of ink for our printer on Amazon. After the reward redemption, I spent just over $17 for color and black high yield ink, remanufactured. It's been quite some time since I've bought ink for the printer. More school work done online and less coupon printing I think.

I also redeemed some Marriott points for a hotel room the night before my daughter flies off to college. She has an early 8am flight and we live 1.5 hours away. It's just more relaxing for everyone to be in the town the night before.

My husband wants me to buy his preferred vitamins from GNC. I thought Tuesdays were usually their best sale day. Right now I'm not seeing the deal I'd like, which is buy one, get one! I may need to wait another week, unless I can round up some other ways to reduce the cost!

I was reconciling our Citi Thank You card on YNAB today. I still don't have it quite balanced, but I did find two $25 Category Bonus that were applied on July 12. I didn't have any points to redeem, so these must have been applied from some promotion. Not exactly sure what that was! So an extra $50 is a nice surprise. I added this cash to our emergency fund.

The other surprise was a class action settlement from Kashi that arrived in the mail today. It was for $44.08! I quickly deposited it to our savings.

I added up the interest (which was expected) earned in our savings accounts for the month of July. A bit fat $81.35 to add to our savings. We never spend our interest. We just let it keep accumulating. If I had some sort of debt, I would be throwing it that way!

Since I was thinking about early retirement. I looked up the dividends we've earned from our investments last quarter. $1518.17 from our investments at Vanguard. This was the total ending June 30. My husband has an account with American Funds and that one paid $860 in December. It seems to pay annually. Currently these are all reinvested. But in retirement these could be withdrawn. If those quarterly amounts were somewhat equal that would mean over $6K in income based on what we currently own. That's very promising!!

My husband got a American Express Gold card earlier in the year. I believe the offer was to spend $2000 and receive 50K reward points. We did the spending and the points accumulated to just over 51K. Last week we finally went through the process of redeeming those rewards. It wasn't as simple as ordering online, although I tried. In the end, my husband had to talk to customer service to confirm the order wasn't fraud. I suppose that is because the order was for over $500 worth of gift cards!

The cards we ordered arrived three days later by UPS. No need to sign for them, just dropped on our front porch.

We got cards to places like Home Depot, Staples, Bath&Body Works, Chili's restaurant, Bone Fish Grill, and iTunes. There weren't not as many options as I would have liked to be honest. The Target and American Express gift cards 'cost' far more points per dollar than the ones we did redeem.

On Saturday night, three of us went to dinner at Chili's. The bill was $45.29. I had the server run the card, left the balance and a $5 bill as a tip. So only $5 out of pocket for three people to eat. That was nice!

I now see that I'm eligible for this same credit card offer when I log into my Amex account. It might be worth it...just wish the rewards were better (to places I tend to shop).

I just bought our daughter a one way ticket back to her college town. She leaves in about two weeks! So sad to see her go. Although she is super ready to get back to her friends and her routine.

The ticket cost me $250. I wish I could have bought it last week when prices were closer to $190! We just didn't have the dates confirmed at that time. I'll watch and see if it changes in the next 24 hours and attempt to change if it goes lower.

I was attempting to redeem our American Express rewards for gift cards today. I got some message that we need to call to complete order. This is on my husband's account, so I'm going to have to have him call when he is able. Maybe it's because it is for over $500 worth of cards? I did all the extra confirmation to confirm it was us. Who knows! Just a big frustrating. ETA: Well, American Express called us not long after to indicating fraud on the account. Then we called them back, since we don't give personal information when we receive a call like that. But really there was no fraud, they were just making sure the redemption was legit. So all the gift cards are on their way here.

I purchased THREE 27 roll packages in March for $15.99 a piece with a $15 coupon involved. We ran out of this huge stock pile of toilet paper more than two weeks ago. We bought a 12 pack and it felt like we quickly ran out again. I realized I really like being stocked up on toilet paper!

So I went looking for toilet paper to stock up on. I will admit that I was specifically looking for Scott's 1000 toilet paper. I found a deal at Boxed.com. I hadn't known of this company before. They were selling 36 count rolls of Scott's 1000 toilet paper for $23.99 with free shipping. I could get 15% off my first order. I decided to order four packages! My total was $81.57 after the discount.

Even better, I found out I could use my American Express card and get $20 off if my total was $50 or more. In the end I got 144 rolls of toilet paper for $61.57 delivered. That is $0.43 a roll. I think this will last us at least half a year. Although originally when I ordered I thought it would be a full years worth, but looking back at my notes for the last purchase, I think 6 months is more likely.

I've listed three items on eBay this evening. It's been awhile since I listed anything. It's still time consuming! But we've decluttered quite a few things recently and some of these things are probably worth a few dollars. I decided it would be worth my time to accumulate some cash, as I know there are some expenses like band camp and college textbooks coming up very soon.

Pretty low spend weekend here. We bought groceries and got a 50% off deal on a pizza Friday night (I didn't feel like cooking!).

I bought an item on Amazon Prime Day. According to USPS it was delivered, but I didn't get it. I inquired about that today. Normally, they would send a new one, but they are currently out of stock! So I asked for a refund instead. I'll try to buy this item later in the year when I know it will likely go on sale again. Or maybe we don't really need it, so maybe I'll skip it all together.

I received notification that my daughter's textbook that we listed on Half.com has sold. We will net $36 on the sale. I don't know off hand how much we spent on it. At least double. This was one of those cases where renting wasn't an option.

And we have discovered that renting isn't always the most economical. She rented a music book this past semester for about $14. Turns out the same book will be needed for the next music class. She could have bought the book for just an extra $0.18! This is a case where I didn't have access to that information or knowledge and she didn't read the receipt, let alone consider the option. We are all learning as we go through this college process!

We are starting to buy more things for her dorm. She is rooming alone this year, so we are buying rugs, and a microwave that her roommate brought last year. Overall, I think it is still less expensive than year one.

Snowflakes in the mail today! Both were made out to me from the same legal settlement. Each check is worth $19.17. I'm putting this $38 in our savings account, since there is no debt to pay off.

I've been doing a lot of reading about minimalism and simple living. I'm feeling inspired to keep things as simple as possible, including finances. This will likely entail closing several credit cards and consolidating a few more investment accounts.

I've been perusing rentals in the area knowing that in less than two years we will likely move out of our current rental that is costing us $1800 a month, to something smaller, and hopefully less expensive. I came across a couple condo closer to post that had three bedrooms, 2 baths, about 1500 sq ft. One was for rent at about $950 a month. The other was for sale for $79,000. We could sure live cheap if we bought that, it's just a matter of finding a buyer. They seem few and far between around this town.

Do you feel your finances and your life are as simple as you would like them?

My new (refurbished) FitBit replacement tracker and charger arrived in the mail today. I'm so excited to have it back!! I've been keeping up on walking without it, but I have missed it. It's charging now, so I should be back to using it shortly.

There were also two checks. More class action settlement checks. These were from TransUnion. My husband and I each got a check for $23.67. Not bad at all! I don't even remember what this one was about, but we did qualify!! The money will go straight to the savings account, just like the check from yesterday.

Our rental insurance is due for renewal in two months. I had received the most recent policy and was reminded that we had Valuable Property Protection attached for jewelry up to $2500. It is $28 a month. The only jewelry of significance we have are our wedding rings. And those probably cost us less than $2K when we bought them twenty years ago. The truth is we have cash to replace these if we were to lose them. We don't need to be insuring them. So $28 saved.

Our renter's insurance was $443 last year. I didn't realize our deductible was only $250! It is scheduled to renew at $432, so it did go down. However I changed the deductible to $1000, the highest allowed. Our premium will be now be $404. Not a large savings, but little amounts add up.

Overall savings is $67 a year!

I expect we will get a little refund for making the changes before the policy actually expires. I will count those dollars as snowflakes!

Our rental insurance is due for renewal in two months. I had received the most recent policy and was reminded that we had Valuable Property Protection attached for jewelry up to $2500. It is $28 a month. The only jewelry of significance we have are our wedding rings. And those probably cost us less than $2K when we bought them twenty years ago. The truth is we have cash to replace these if we were to lose them. We don't need to be insuring them. So $28 saved.

Our renter's insurance was $443 last year. I didn't realize our deductible was only $250! It is scheduled to renew at $432, so it did go down. However I changed the deductible to $1000, the highest allowed. Our premium will be now be $404. Not a large savings, but little amounts add up.

Overall savings is $67 a year!

I expect we will get a little refund for making the changes before the policy actually expires. I will count those dollars as snowflakes!

I received credit for a Pinecone survey yesterday. I think I'm due for another one today. At least $3, but maybe $6.

My husband was also refunded for some conference fees, not sure why exactly. The amount was $32, and was sent to my Paypal account, since after 60 days the government can't send it back to the credit card account...or something dumb like that. Turns out better since he doesn't use that card much and currently has a zero balance.

I'm putting these snowflakes in our savings account. Savings feels good!

I redeemed $6.15 in cash from our US Bank Visa. I'm counting it as a snowflake and have added it to our savings.

I've been given a two week heads up that the first band deposit of $50 is due June 1. I'm always grateful for a little heads up on these kinds of things. I need to add a YNAB category for this I think. Right now I'm just stashing it in the slush account, but I think I would like to keep better track and it is pretty easy to set up another category.

Starting to make plans for when our next round of company comes over Memorial Day. Company costs money! Although, I can see my mother in law treating us to dinner if we go out to eat, so that will help.

Wow! I earned a 40.5% return on the money I bet with Diet Bet. That is amazing. The bet was $30. I received $30 back plus $12.15 because others didn't reach their goal.

There were 2280 players, only 1217 of us met our goal. Part of me is sad so many people didn't make it. They lost their money entirely. Some people have posted they still lost weight and were close, just not close enough to win. So they at least progressed on their goal!

I think I'll redeem my cash and put it into savings where I'm currently putting all money snowflakes!

The interest on all of our accounts for the month of April was equal to $61.67. I'd rather have ten times that amount!

We saved $25 automatically from my husband paycheck last month. It's a requirement for one of the CDs we have to have a payroll deposit.

I have paid all credit cards in full since payday occurred on Friday. All spending and saving categories have been funded. The emergency fund received a boost by $458.

My husband bought two new uniforms, a pair of boots, t shirts and PT uniform this week. He's been putting off changing over to the new one since it isn't required for another year. He finally gave in to peer pressure primarily. Everyone else is switching over. Granted he has had his current ones for quite a few years now. It's just time. He is having new name plates and rank sewn on as well. In all he spent $528.12. I'm sure he'll be wearing all these items for several years, so we will get our money's worth.

We went shopping for new end tables for our living room. We bought the couches and chair in December. Last week we bought a rug (the room didn't have one before). Now we need tables, since we don't have any at all. It sure is hard to find exactly what you want at the right price!

I often fill out class action claims when I become aware of them and qualify. I received a check for a Frosted Mini Wheats claim. I don't actually remember this one however! The check is for $11.44. Just this morning I deposited it into our savings account.

I love snowflake money!

Pinecone has awarded me another $3 for taking a survey last week. I may wait to redeem.

I made a $29.97 purchase on my American Express card. I will use $25 of the $45 rewards I have accumulated towards the balance. I will count the reward as a snowflake for April.

My parents gifted us with cash for our 20th wedding anniversary last week. The check amount was $120.20. I'm going to put this money into savings rather than setting it aside to melt away.

Our electric bill is down this month by $50! So nice. Clearly not using much heat or air right now. Still keeping windows closed most of the time because of my daughter's allergies. Beautiful outside though!

The water bill was up by about $45. It seems that we use more water when the sprinkler system is on. Funny how that happens.

And finally our cell phone bill is only $54 this month, thanks to changing plans last month. Part of our overage in charges last month, after the change resulted in a smaller bill this month. I think around $140 from here forward for four people.

No big spending going on right now. May buy some annuals this weekend for some of my pots that have been empty for more than a year because of our move.