I'm terrible at remembering we have savings that earns interest. Maybe because it isn't much. One account earned $25, while two CDs earned almost $29 in the month of November. We also deposit $25 into a savings account as part of the agreement on one of the CDs. So we are accumulating $75+ each month. Not a lot but it counts!!

I sold another item on eBay yesterday. Already paid and mailed! That is another $12 added to the $63 profit. If the buyer of an auction that ended Monday would pay I have ANOTHER $12 to add. Hoping the payment is soon. I also have a bid on another item!

I mentioned photo books a few posts back. I did get one complete for my parents. It was $9.99 plus $7.99 shipping. It has photos of the grandchildren. It will arrive in time to wrap and mail for Christmas. I think I can fit it in a Flat Rate Priority envelope, so shipping should only be an additional $6. I debated about having it sent direct, but it seemed less personal. Nice gift for less than $25.

I paid all the current credit card spending. One card had over $1200 on it! But since we use YNAB, I knew the money was there to pay it. Our available spending is a bit sparse for the next two weeks, since there was a little overspending on our Thanksgiving trip. I don't think it should impact us much, since we just plan to stay home and do minimal outings.

I sold four items on eBay yesterday. I have already received payment for three netting a profit of $63 after fees!

The items I sold were included with the used Wii U I bought on eBay a couple weeks ago. There were some valuable items in there we don't need. Turns out I got a really good deal!! My out of pocket cost is now $237 rather than the $300 I paid. I have one more sold item I'm waiting for payment on, as well as three more from this purchase that I'm attempting to sell. I feel confident I can get under $200.

I'm also selling some military gear. I have one offer which I have countered. The other items probably just need more time! I'm putting the proceeds into the vacation fund...aka the fund for my daughter's plane ticket home.

That's what my husband is giving me for Christmas. I found them refurbished on eBay today. The actual amount was less because I had a $2.28 Ebates payment in my PayPal account that arrived last week.

It does seem I often buy my own Christmas gifts. I was contemplating a FitBit, but knew if I said that to DH he would head to Best Buy and pay full price. (He doesn't shop around for the best price.) When I saw them on eBay today, I jumped on it. I feel better trying it at that price. And that puts it in budget for our spending!

I listed more items on eBay yesterday and have five items ending today. I'll sell at least $68 worth!

I'm going to buy the last two gifts, other than stocking stuffers, today! So excited to be nearly done with the shopping. And I think I'm on budget too.

It's been a pretty good day for a birthday. I'm a low key kind of gal who doesn't need much to be happy. But I enjoyed phone calls from my mother and best friend. We ate dinner in tonight, but my husband surprised us with cupcakes! There were also a few gifts: a pair of slippers and a new CD of Christmas music. A couple items I asked for.

I also received a $100 check from my parents. I'm not sure exactly what my plans are for that money. Maybe a new sweatshirt!

I redeemed my Swagbucks last night for a $25 Amazon gift card. It arrived today! I was a little disappointed to learn that my birthday Swagbucks were 55 SwagUps! I should have waited one more day to redeem. I'm sure there will be another redemption before my SwagUp expires.

I spent the Amazon gift card, plus two others worth $30 to purchase some Christmas gifts. I only paid $8 out of pocket on a $63 order. Very pleased with that!

If you want to catch up with my Christmas planning and preparations, check out my other blog,

Your Organized Friend.

We went to the grocery store (commissary) Saturday rather than our usual Sunday. We were wanting to combine trips, so we went early. I thought I had my list complete. It seems that was not the case. I've discovered about six things I still need. So I will go to a more local store today to pick those things up.

Prior to this trip, we have spent $207 on groceries. I would guess another $20 and we should be good through mid month.

I'm realizing I need to start using our Amex card for groceries. We have the Blue Cash Everyday which provides 3% back on groceries and 2% on gas stations. I know there is an American Express that offers 6% but I believe that one has an annual fee. I never used the American Express before because we did so much of our grocery shopping at Super Target and used our Red Card for 5% off.

I will talk with my husband about this and see if he is willing to work with two cards for purchases. We usually just work with one at a time, so this would be a change.

Do you forget things on your grocery list sometimes too? Which rewards card(s) do you use for groceries?

I stopped by Best Buy today and was able to get customer service to apply the 10% off coupon I tried to use at the time of purchase last week. Last week they refused because they had priced matched the item. This week item is on sale for same price as we priced matched for. I did make note that if I were to return item and purchase it today they would take coupon because they were not price matching. Woman seemed to get that and took care of it. $40.67 back in our pocket.

I proceeded to go buy fuel for my van. I did buy the premium since we seem to get better gas mileage. I spent $37.09. This leaves us with just under $16 in our fuel budget through Saturday.

I realized my daughter really wasn't wearing the second pair of khaki pants to school. I asked if they could be returned and she agreed. I have a credit balance of $18.19 on our Citi card now.

And finally it was time to shop for some warm weather gear. It shouldn't get that cold here where we live, but we are going back to the Midwest and will be seeing an outdoor football game in late November...to see my daughter play and march with the marching band. We need to be prepared for the cold. I purchased one pair of long underwear pants and lightweight down coat for my daughter. After $20 of Kohl's cash, a $10 coupon, and a 25% off coupon my total was $35.29 for items that would have been over $132 if they weren't on sale. I'm thinking my daughter could actually layer her coats. Not sure what she will think though

I ended up spending more than I returned or got back, but I'm still happy with the results. I wish I had thought to get gas after having the khaki's returned. I would have used that credit card! Oh, well there will be other spending at some point.

After making the meal plan yesterday, I need to start working on the grocery list. I will start with ingredients needed for the meals and add on other items we need closer to my actual shopping trip.

My daughter lost the end cap to her flute head joint at the football game on Friday night. We looked it for it, but she was all over the school grounds that night. I found one on Amazon for this specific brand of flute. It is $8.98 with shipping. I had Citi Thank You Reward points and a gift card from Bing Rewards that I applied to it to make it zero out of pocket.

My husband received $100 from my parents for his birthday. He's applying those funds to his birthday gift(a sound bar) purchase which was over $200 after we used gift cards. My parents didn't send cash last year, so I thought they were done after sending us cash for many, many years. I need to go back to Best Buy and see if I can get them to apply a 10% off coupon. I tried when we bought it, but because they were price matching they wouldn't accept it. Now the item is on sale on their website for that amount we price matched for. So if I bought it this, we should be able to use the coupon. That coupon amounts to $37 and worth the effort I think! I let you know how that goes.

We currently have $20 worth of Kohl's cash because my husband and I bought running shoes earlier this month. A pair of jeans were also purchased. So now I need to decided how to spend our Kohl's cash. I even have a 25% off coupon and another $10 off a $10 purchase coupon I should be able to stack with the Kohl's cash. Right now I'm think of practical items: gloves, long underwear, shirts for my daughter. It seems I could get a couple of those for free or very little out of pocket.

I ordered an item from Amazon last week only to realize a day later we didn't need it. So I wrote refused on the package. Amazon has it and after I emailed said they would credit our credit card. It's only about $6, but I can put that back in the budget!

I was happy to learn from my daughter we don't owe any money to the University for this billing period. I do know she needs to put down $200 for her sophomore housing contract sometime in November.

I've already started talking to my kids about what they want for Christmas. Luckily they both have ideas! This helped me so much last year with shopping to ask early and get it done early! I'll be sharing a lot of my Christmas planning in November and December on

Your Organized Friend. You might want to follow along for ideas if you want to get a head start on your holiday list.

We also made a purchase of college football tickets for the three of us. We want to see our daughter's marching band performance. And we do like the games, too. Other family members are going also. Tickets cost us $255! I charged them to our Discover card. The most recent statement closed just prior so we have quite awhile before we would actually HAVE to pay the balance. I noticed there is just over $9 in rewards I can use towards the balance, too.

I took two library books my daughter checked out. We kind of think they may be overdue. Library wasn't open when I dropped off. Usually we would get an email reminder. Not sure if it went to spam or what. And we are having issues logging into her library account to check. So I'm planning we owe a few dollars to the library.

I'm excited about the end of the month. We get to budget again...and pay off all these cards we have been making purchases on. The cool thing is the money is already set aside! I love YNAB!

Thanks for reading my random post!

I redeemed

Bing points yesterday and immediately received a $5 Amazon gift card.

Today, I ordered a $25 Amazon gift card for 2200 Swagbucks. That, of course, has not yet arrived. I did get my 200 SwagUps for that redemption, so I'm already back to having over 200 SBs in my account.

I almost said no spending today. However, I dropped a package I paid shipping for online yesterday at the post office and they asked if I needed stamps. Yes, actually I do. So $9.80 for book of stamps.

I love snowflakes and low spend days!

I'm still writing my 31 Days of Decluttering and Organizing on my other blog, Your Organized Friend, if you are interested. Just ten days left!

I received my first $6 referral for

YNAB in my PayPal account yesterday. Much faster than the 30 days they indicated. Effectively, YNAB was only $48 rather than the original price of $60. I just need four more people to buy the software under my referral and the software will be free for us.

The Best Buy gift cards we ordered from our Citi rewards arrived on Saturday. The gift cards amount to $200 and I will record them as a snowflake. We almost made our purchase Sunday, but realized we had a 10% off coupon at home that they said might work. It seems the item we want to buy went off sale, raising the price nearly 20%. They will however, price match with Amazon.com, who still has it at the price Best Buy had last week. Sales person wasn't sure if they could combine Price Match with 10% off coupon. I'm going to try though. I also remembered that I chose Electronics Stores for 5% cash back on my US Bank Visa for third quarter. That will amount to around $10 back when I use that credit card for this purchase. Specifically we are buying a sound bar for one of our televisions. It's for my husband's birthday.

Today I ordered the famous L.L. Bean boots for my daughter to tromp around campus with this winter. Those were $99 shipped. But like nearly all of their famous boots they appear to be on back order. Some said January 4th, but this pair said December 4. Hoping they fit and arrive just before the weather turns colder.

Oh, and I'm starting to follow Hip2Save again for the holiday season. I don't usually follow the other months of the year...I find I buy too much stuff I don't need!

Do you follow Hip2Save? Do you have L.L. Bean boots? A sound bar for your television? Let me know if you use my YNAB referral code so I can thank you!

Our water bill arrived yesterday. It's lower!! Last month it was $63. This month $37. That is a $25 savings. We have had the sprinkler system off for nearly three weeks, so I'm sure that helps.

After our first large bill of $76 two months ago we went looking for a leak. Turns out we turned on a sprinkler zone with a missing sprinkler head. Water was gushing out! Apparently owners knew this, but failed to tell us. If we had known we wouldn't have turned that zone on. The reason we did turn it on, was because there are shrubs in the zone. I figured those needed water. Well, until they have it repaired they won't be getting water.

I did get notified of a $6 reward from YNAB. Thanks for using my code Debt free by Thirty! I don't think it pays out for another month. But I'll look forward to it when it arrives.

The other good news financially is that I don't think we have a bill due to the university this month! Next month we probably need to put down a deposit for NEXT year's housing. I can't believe they have to work on that so early.

Our weekend is set to be low key. Apparently a perfect fall day today weather wise, so we should get out and enjoy it. There will be spending. Likely on new running shoes for my husband and groceries.

Enjoy your weekend!!

I redeemed some credit card rewards today for cash! I had $20.47 from our Chase Freedom card. And found out that our USAA Rewards has changed to redeem for cash in $1 increments. I've avoided using this card for sometime because of other rewards and how long it seemed to take to accumulate. I had $18 worth of points to redeem!

I'd really like to save these for my next Amazon 'want' which is a book shelf at the right price and style. However, we do have a lot of expenses coming up and I want to pay off the Citi card by the end of the month or at least by the early November due date. If I don't pay in full by then we will be charged interest. I can't let that happen!

The current Citi balance is $633 before these rewards. A majority of the payment will easily be paid off on payday in two days. Basically we are going to budget for as much as we can predict for the rest of the month, and then send the rest to the card. If not paid in full by month end we will finish on November 1.

We do have plenty of cash in savings, but I know this was accumulated from the extra spending. We need to tighten our belts and make it happen with current income if we can. And that will include the rewards for this month.

I completed a Pinecone survey last week. I was credited today. And since I had 1500 points, I redeemed them for $15! I should have that money in my PayPal account soon. Yes, more snowflakes!!

I'm looking forward to Payday on Thursday. It seems our cash is running out. We should be fine and within budget until then. It's just time for more cash!

I'd like to get some items listed on eBay soon. I have items that should sell. I just need to get it together and done!!

Our moving company sent their insurance company over today to take picture of items damaged and broken during the move. Of course, we already took pictures, but they need their own. Now we wait to hear what they will offer us.

We had a $5,000 CD mature about three weeks ago with NFCU. It was earning nearly 5%. I can't seem to find that good of a rate, so I'm taking advantage of the next best thing. There is a 12 month CD special for 3% at NFCU. Our investment in this is $3,000 as that is the maximum allowed.

I'm just glad I didn't procrastinate getting the cash invested any longer. I kind of forgot about it and somehow it came to mind yesterday and I took care of it this morning online.

I did get my Checkout 51 $20 check in the mail yesterday. I wasted no time getting it deposited. And since it was extra money (snowflake) I added it to a Discover reward, and several Amazon gift cards and Swagbucks rewards to order a daybed quilt set I've been wanting to get. It was ordered from Amazon and will arrive tomorrow. We have an extra twin bed in our bonus room/family room that we used to just keep in basement storage. I never cared about the look of the bedding I would put on it as it was just for the occasional guest (usually a child). I now care because I see the bed EVERY time I'm in our family room. I want it to look more part of the decor of the room. With taxes is cost about $64, but non of that was out of income, just snowflakes!

Spending this weekend will be football and marching band competition admissions and a little food or drink at those events. We are going to window shop for speakers too. These are to be a birthday gift for my husband and hopefully paid in full with some credit card rewards. We have to find what we want to buy first. Once we know where and what the cost will be I will order the gift card that we will use to pay for it.

I have a ladder shelf on Amazon that I'm eyeing for either a birthday present (in November) or to use my future rewards for. It would probably be about $65 shipped.

Oh, and in other news. My daughter is likely skipping the band trip to Universal over spring break (which costs about $450). She gets that her Europe/WWII trip is much more costly and this money could help fund part of it (only 10%). We haven't signed up for the big trip yet, but can anytime. We will be talking about ways to get this funded with additional help from her. I think she has some cash she is hoarding that would be helpful.

I've had so many snowflakes(extra money) recently and I'm trying to track them, but I feel I may have lost track of some of them. The amount I recorded for September was $110. It may have been more. Or less, as I'm guessing on my eBay sales. I didn't do all the math, just going from memory.

I have $20 arriving by check from Checkout 51. It took me at least 1.5 years to accumulate that. Ugh. I have $25 from Swagbucks that I'm expecting in my PayPal account soon. I redeemed the available balance from

TopCashBack which was $6.56 for an Amazon gift card, which when I claimed they bumped up the amount to $6.72. I made a GNC purchase with them earlier this week to get 16% cash back. That is pending and should bring my earnings with them to over $10 and then make me eligible for the $10 bonus. That will mean another $13+ to redeem.

We got a check from our previous electric company in the mail for $16.02. The electric company is a co-op so they return 'capital credits' to you since you were a member. As long as we keep them notified of our address they will mail us check for the years we had service with them. This check is going to pay down the balance on the Citi card with is $650 before the payment which I'm going to round to $17.

I have $4.59 rewards on our Discover account. I had made a purchase at Amazon and used them, but then returned the item. As a result the rewards are back in the account.

Oh, and my husband bought a movie at the military Exchange store and received a $5 gift card. I'll probably use that today to buy something we need...toiletries or maybe some tea.

I'm going to keep looking and accumulating snowflakes! How about you? Where do you stand with snowflakes?

Remember I'm posting 31 Days of Decluttering and Organizing this month on my other blog

Text is Your Organized Friend and Link is http://yourorganizedfriend.blogspot.com/

Your Organized Friend.

I used starfishy's YNAB referral to get 10% or $6 off the purchase of the software. Our cost just $54. And my understanding is it is a one time cost, not annual like some things.

My referral is

here. I get $6 and you get $6 off your purchase.

I'm a bit behind entering transactions into YNAB. I was busy getting ready for company at the beginning of the month and then didn't keep up while they were here. Now I'm still a bit run down with my cold. My head is a bit foggy so I don't trust myself to get the numbers right!. Real soon, though.

Is anyone in the middle of a YNAB trial?

I feel so far behind here on this blog!

I have paid off all of the transactions we put on credit cards in the last two weeks off. It's so nice how YNAB just keeps setting that money aside and the money is there to pay it. I'm going to continue paying credit cards every pay day. I don't wait for due dates usually. Oh, and I will need to buy YNAB in the next two days. I did put the cost in the budget, of course.

I was able to make a $336 payment to our Citi card that we've had a monthly balance on, but no interest. The new balance is $650. I'm pretty sure I need to pay this by the end of the month so I'm not charged any interest! I think that will be no problem. We have over 20K points that we need to redeem too. Probably for gift cards. Once that is all complete I think I'm closing this one. Along with a few others that really aren't being used.

I accumulated quite a few snowflakes. I was hoarding Amazon gift cards in hopes of buying something I wanted. I did get there, but now the item is back ordered and won't arrive for a few weeks. Today I used $30 worth of gift cards to buy Tenzi, a dice game my daughter wanted. I paid extra to make sure it arrived tomorrow. We have company coming and may get stuck in the house while Joaquin goes by our area later this weekend. So my earnings for my want became earnings for my daughter's want.

We have made airline reservations for the Thanksgiving holiday. I paid $882.18 for three of us to fly. The deal wouldn't have been as great if it weren't for that Southwest Companion Pass that my daughter has through the end of the year. So far we have only used it twice, but it sure has been a bonus! We also used hotel reward points to secure a hotel before and after the flights because one is super early and the other arrives pretty late in the evening and we have a drive to get back home since this airport isn't in our town.

I made sure to make a payment to ourselves for the tuition we covered from our savings account. This extra is really coming from the savings in changing our W2 withholding. It sure helps to have a plan!

In other expense news, my youngest daughter has been invited to go on a trip to Europe the summer of 2017. We have to pay for it, as it is two teachers going that are getting the tour together. It is definitely educational in nature. My daughter wants to go and other than the cost there is no reason she shouldn't go. The cost is $4345 for 14 days. We don't have to sign up yet...the latest we can decide is February 2016. Decisions, decisions.

I'll try to get a tally of my snowflakes posted in the next few days.

My 31 Days of Decluttering and Organizing has begun today. Go

here to view.

I have no idea when I joined Checkout 51, but I finally accumulated the minimum for cashing out. This means a $20 check is on it's way from Canada which is where the company is located.

My husband sent me a link and I saw on the Today show that Susie Orman is giving away (free) a personal finance online course. It's available until tomorrow (Friday, September 25) until 8pm EDT. I went ahead and signed up. Not sure how much I will do with it at this point, but there are always things to learn. One thing she mentioned on the show was student loans are okay, but only up to the amount you would expect to earn in your first year out of college. I know way too many people that have not followed this rule. And of course, I understand why it happens.

The balance on our Citi credit card is just over $3K. Today, I made a payment of $1084 to cover the treadmill purchase earlier this month as well as travel expenses my husband made on the card. I probably have another $1,200 to put on it leaving us with about $1200 left to pay. I think I'm finally seeing the end of the tunnel on this most recent debt accumulation!

I do have some more items I could list on eBay to bring in some cash. It's a matter of getting the time to get the items listed. Maybe Sunday this week would be best...before company arrives the first weekend in October. The cash from these sales would definitely go to pay down the last of the Citi card.

I did get paid from the eBay buyer that was having problems. I sent that item in the mail today. The item being returned should arrive tomorrow. If it looks in good order I will refund that buyer. I think I may just donate this item since I don't have any way to check if it is really faulty or not. Last I knew, just weeks ago, it was working. It is very possible it just didn't work with the buyers version.

We have another bill from the University. The expenses are primarily due to marching band. We needed to purchase shirt, shoes, gloves and a few other items for a total of $114. She moved in five days early (not included in main housing contract) for $160, but a $40 credit was given to those members that were selected. And then there was another $73 and change from book purchases. Our next bill of $307 is due Oct 12. I do have money set aside at least.

I did get paid from the eBay buyer that was having problems. I sent that item in the mail today. The item being returned should arrive tomorrow. If it looks in good order I will refund that buyer. I think I may just donate this item since I don't have any way to check if it is really faulty or not. Last I knew, just weeks ago, it was working. It is very possible it just didn't work with the buyers version.

Still going along well with YNAB. Pointed out to my husband that he recorded one of his expenses on a credit card that I know he didn't have in his wallet! He made the changes.

I still have not purchased sheets. I decided to buy myself new workout pants, as one of the three pair I own also decided to get a hole in them. I decided working out and not having to do laundry as frequently was more desirable then having matching sheets for the moment. I'm guessing I'll be spending nearly $50+ on sheets when the time comes. I think it just may go in the budget for next month!

Yippee! My husband is using the YNAB app to enter in his expenses so far this week. He even pointed out to me yesterday that he did so. And I'm not sure that tracking caused this, but he decided to take some coffee from home this morning!

We've been have problems with any mail being forwarded from our old home to our new rental place. It worked for awhile when we moved to the apartment AND from the apartment to the rental. But nothing direct from the house...and it was requested and input THREE times! Today we finally got a bill in the mail from the old house. It was for that darn mold test. Just $50, instead of the $75 I remembered. At least mail is coming our way.

Most everything we get mail for has been updated as much as we can, so we haven't been too worried, but there are things that come through that we don't have any control over.

Turns out I have a buyer returning an item they bought last week. They are stating it doesn't work. I know I tested it before I sent it off. And another buyer is having trouble paying me through PayPal for another item. A bit frustrating!

I'm should be able to cash out my Bing Rewards tomorrow for a $5 Amazon gift card. After that one, I will have $41 in gift cards. I'm hoping to get $60 so I can make a 'want' purchase.

It is payday today. The market was up. And I sold another item on eBay! And the weather was a 10 out of 10 in my book. It's like all of the stars aligned and angels are singing. At least it sort of feels that way!!

I'd pay bills usually, but DH is not available to work on YNAB until Thursday, so we will wait. I can probably start on it a little tomorrow, but I want him to learn along with me, so if I do too much it won't help him.

I think ten minutes after I returned from mailing the eBay item I sold yesterday, I sold another item. I promise to ship the next business day following payment so it's not a big deal. If I had waited a bit I could have mailed them at the same time. But of course, I didn't know!

As far as the stock market is concerned, I still haven't sold any shares from my daughter's college account. I'm watching the markets to see if they get closer to break even for the year at least. I would like to sell as few shares as possible. The lower the share price the more shares it will take to come up with the dollar value I need.

I also lucked out getting a big survey completed on Swagbucks today for 175 SB. I had a 50SB one as well. Even after redeeming nearly all my Swagbucks yesterday, I already have 535 again tonight. Moving right along towards my snowflake goals.

How was your day? Did the stars align and angels sing?

Yea! I feel like snowflakes have been slow in recent months. Not that I'm trying too hard. Most are from credit card rewards.

I redeemed 2200 Swagbucks for a $25 Amazon gift card. I seemed to qualify for quite a few surveys in the last couple days. I guess I qualified for the Swagup because I got my 50SB a few minutes after redeeming.

I also sold an item on eBay. It looks like my proceeds will be $11.60.

I'm using these snowflakes to buy a few house wants from Amazon when I have accumulated enough. I'm getting closer to getting one item I want.

Oh, wow, it has finally cooled down a bit here in the Southeast! The humidity has dropped dramatically. I mowed our lawn for the first time (DH has down it all the other times) today and really enjoyed being outside. Exercise, fresh air and a trimmed yard all at the same time. And no money spent!

I have a couple transactions to put into YNAB today. We spent $30 at the football game (we basically ate dinner there). There was Walmart trip that night, too. And then yesterday my husband needed to withdraw cash for his trip. I guess I can't really record that yet since I don't know what he is spending it on.

I've been reading some ten day email subscription from YNAB that I signed up for. Today is Day 5. It's about budgeting with your spouse. I found a PDF of the entire series

here. It's probably all worth reading, but I particularly liked how the author wrote about budgeting with a spouse. I know it can be hard for many couples. We don't really do it and we are after 19 years of marriage finally going to take a stab at it. I sent the email to my husband to read before we start working on our next budget for this next paycheck.

I'm working feverishly to accumulate Swagbucks and Bing points so I can buy some wants on Amazon. I'm a bit out of practice and things have changed at lot since I was doing it on a regular basis. Any tips on how you like to accumulate your SBs is appreciated. I do have over 1800 and I'm looking to get 2200 to get a $25 Amazon gift card.

I've done two Pinecone surveys recently, but I'm just at 900 points. I like to wait until I'm at 1500 to cash out for $15. Fingers crossed I can get a two more surveys before the month ends!

I'm also listing at least three items on eBay today after I get my cleaning tasks done. If those items sell they will help me purchase some of these wants!! It sure helps to have a goal to spur me on to earn a little cash. That and I finally have some time to do so.

What financial goal are you primarily working on? If you don't have one, what would it be? Do you budget with your spouse? How often?

August went super fast! But the snowflakes rolled in despite the business. I can thank credit card rewards for many of the snowflakes. All of them have gone to debt on the credit cards. It all helps!

Total was $183.62, which was far better than July when I only pulled in $29.17!

I will attempt to add a picture of my spreadsheet below, but just in case here is where the snowflakes came from:



Interest & Rebates $14.72
Pinecone Surveys $15.00
US Bank Visa Rewards $145.13
Discover Cash Back $8.77

How did you do collecting extra funds in August? What did you do with yours?

In September, I have some snowflakes I plan to put towards some purchases that would be considered wants over needs. I also plan use some for debt and a little for a gift for my college daughter. Do you have a plan for this month?

I received the $25 Visa Gift card from US Bank in the mail Saturday. This was a perk for redeeming more than $100 in rewards at one time, which I did less than two weeks ago. I'm glad it came fast!

I'm thinking I will go purchase two different gift cards for my college daughter with it. A food one and likely iTunes. I figure she would like to get some fun mail. And she has mentioned many times this summer she wished she had an iTunes gift card. Of course, she had plenty of cash to buy iTunes. Smart girl just didn't want to spend her own money!

I think I mentioned before that many (but probably not all) of my future snowflakes will help supplement college life!

We use our credit cards all the time and then pay balances off in full if on a interest bearing card. We have been rolling some over lately on a 0% card. I made some more payments and feeling much more current than I did last week.

Last week our balance was over $4K. Tonight after more payments were made we are down to $2,942.25. So progress! Found $14.11 in snowflakes to apply to debt in the process.

I have cash set aside to pay another $1,383 on the credit cards, but I'm waiting for a couple statements to close. There may be rewards I can apply, so I'm waiting for now. It does seem the revolving balance I don't seem to get paid off is about $1600! Ugh. Of course, I won't let them charge me a penny of interest. I will have to pay it in full by the end of October. Or the statement due date right after. I need to look back at my notes on that one.

In other news, I've lost about 6 pounds in the last two weeks. I'm watching my calories as best I can, cut back on diet soda (only one or none). I did a ton of campus walking this weekend in addition to all that walking while we were in Orlando earlier in the month. I still need to get into some sort of fitness routine. We are actually considering a treadmill...but I need this debt paid off first.

Do you own an exercise machine? Do you use it?

I mentioned that I closed our US Bank Checking account last week. I already have confirmation in the mail that it was closed.

Tonight, I redeemed $106.02 in rewards on my US Bank Cash+ Visa. I put it as a statement credit towards the balance (the rug we bought a couple weeks ago). Because I redeemed more than $100, I will receive a $25 Visa in the mail (approximately six weeks). This is the last time this card is offering this extra bonus. I think I got it one other time. I still like this card though since I can get a 5% rebate on our cellular bill every month!

This is considered a snowflake to me. I'm still tracking them, just have been slower in the last two months. I'm also just putting the money towards our recent moving/college/trip expenses. I might have a fun goal to track them towards starting in September or October.

I also added $15 from Pinecone Surveys and $14.72 in interest and atm rebates from our bank to the August snowflake total.

Are you keeping track of your snowflakes? Are you putting them towards debt or another goal?

Eek! We are just days away from flying my daughter to college. We have a big list of things to buy when we arrive, but need to pack here first. Suitcases are lining the hallway. We have the next few days to get things packed. If it gets to be too much to take with checked bags, then we may need to mail some things. We sent a few things with family that just left today.

It's pretty overwhelming for all of us it seems. Today we are getting her meningitis vaccination taken care of and likely a little clothes shopping. Tomorrow more packing since we need to know by Wednesday morning if we need to mail anything.

In other news, I redeemed Pinecone Points for $15 Paypal cash. I think I will have that tomorrow if I remember right.

I'm guessing I won't be posting much in the next week with all the activity, but eventually I'll get back to my regular updates about our goals.

So for full disclosure I'm putting how much we have currently on credit cards. A whopping $5,161.22! I know. That is a lot. None of it has been charged any interest. We have either paid the balance in full before the due date or let the balance roll over on the one 0% interest card we have, Citi Thank You Premiere. And yes, that card does have the largest balance at $2,585.67.

The good news is I have $3,441 that I have decided I can pull out of savings and start paying these balances down/off. I also have a $100+ reward from US Bank to apply to a balance as well. That leaves $1,620.22 to pay off. Some of that will come from current money in our checking account to cover purchases included in the total that are current purchases and bills. That accounts for at least $300, maybe a little more.

I'm pretty sure I can get the remaining carryover balance paid off in the next month, by the September 1 paycheck. Of course, I could pay the whole thing off and just pay ourselves back too. I am considering that also.

And yes, a big chunk of that balance is our trip. I said I would use some extra Army funds and house proceeds and that's what I'm doing. Off to pay off some more debt!

I'm taking my daughter to college in less than a month. We are flying! We just booked our tickets with Citi Thank You Rewards for a total out of pocket cost to us of $36.

These Citi Thank You Rewards were earned with our Citi Thank You Premiere card that we applied and received in May. We spent the required amount (I believe $3K) and earned 50,000 bonus points on our last statement. With points earned for the purchases as well, we had over 55K points which was just short by $36 for covering our tickets. One is a one way ticket and the other is a round trip ticket. It's going to be sad to leave her, but I know she will end up doing just fine.

We charged all of our travel to our new home, the first half of our temporary housing rent and just regular everyday spending to meet the $3K. It's nice to know we did get a benefit from it. This is the first time we have used credit card rewards for flights. We usually use them for cash or gift cards. These airline tickets were definitely the better deal! These tickets would have cost us nearly $700.

We still have over 78K of Southwest Rapids Rewards points to use...maybe for flights. Just haven't decided on the best use for those yet.

If you have credit card rewards, do you use them for airline tickets?

There's a promotion to refer friends to Swagbucks right now. If you sign up by July 31st and earn 300 Swagbucks by the end of August you will receive a 300 Swagbucks bonus and so will I.

A $3 Amazon gift card is worth 300 SB. So a little help with your next Amazon purchase. Or save your Swagbucks for other gift card redemptions.

I'm going to attempt to save my Amazon gift cards earned on Swagbucks and Bing for needs my daughter might need in college. A simple and affordable way to help her out from time to time.

Here's

my Swagbucks referral code. Thanks for helping me out!