I logged on to our previous mortgage account to update our new address. We will be out of our apartment by this time next week. The family we are renting from is having their items packed today, so by Wednesday they will be out of the home. I decided that means we can go ahead and get mail forwarded without getting in their way. It seems to take a week anyway to even start getting mail once it is forwarded.

While I was looking at our mortgage account, I noticed that the escrow funds are being refunded. The amount is $2,032.95 plus $0.10 in interest. There should be $21.98 from our homeowner's insurance, but it doesn't seem that our mortgage lender has received that money yet. I will need to inquire with them. I'm looking forward to having our cash back! It's been building up and I knew with our move it wasn't going to be needed. But when you are required to make an escrow payment you do.

I let you know when the cash arrives and what we end up doing with it. I'm tempted to get some new furniture, but we'll know if that is our plan once we get our current belongings in our new home.

June was the least productive month for accumulating snowflakes so far this year. I'm not complaining. I will take any snowflakes I can get!

I'm pretty happy about earning those Ooma referrals since they make up the majority of the June snowflakes. I haven't actually used those yet, but I will! All other snowflakes went to pay down the credit cards.



I'm hoping soon I can start saving the snowflake money to help out with college expenses. I'm sure there will be some that will be a bit unexpected!

Did you total up your snowflakes or extra money found for June? What did you do with yours?

I've mentioned Ooma many times on my blog. It's our VoiP (Voice over internet Protocol) home phone line. We pay about $4 a month in Federal Taxes for the service. Ooma often has promotions where I can offer my referral code to others and if they sign up I get $20. I can refer up to five people each time. And this last time I did just that. I now have a $100 credit on our USAA credit card!

I will use the credit to pay some of the last bills from the house. I think I still have water, electric and gas to pay. These will exceed $100, but at least I have some assistance!

I consider this a snowflake or found money. In the past I have used these to accumulate cash or pay off debt. I don't have a current place that I am funneling these funds, but they will all help get back on track after all this spending with the move! And I'm still keeping track of the snowflakes I have earned for the year.

Who else has Ooma? Did you get a chance to refer anyone to the service during the last promotion?

I saw

this article over at CNN. Stocks for 2015 are expected to earn about 6% this year. That is less than last year by far, but I'll take it. Any growth is good!

I cancelled our newspaper subscription in May and was told to expect a refund. I checked on it at the beginning of June and was told it would go back to the original credit card, which I realized was closed. Then they indicated a check would be cut. I now know the check has been issued and mailed to our old address on June 17. I guess it will be forwarded! Hoping it arrives soon, so I don't have to keep tracking it.

Verizon needed to verify my husband's employer in order to keep providing us the 15% employer discount. Usually providing the work email does it, but the military has such high security standards that didn't work. The other option was to submit a paystub (with income and ssn crossed out). I thought I did it before we moved, but could find no confirmation. I uploaded it again this week, and today we received confirmation that they were able to verify the employer and we qualify for the discount. Can't remember how much that ends up being, but it all counts!

My husband checked about the Temporary Lodging Expense. The receipt we had doesn't qualify. It isn't billed daily and it cannot say lease on the receipt. We are inquiring with our property manager about providing the bill in the way the army is requesting. If not, it's not the end of the world, but a little help paying for this temporary apartment would be nice.

We might go to the beach this weekend. It's just under two hours away. It would probably be a day trip. We won't go if it is too hot like it has been or if it will be too rainy. I'll need to really be careful about putting on sunscreen. I must have missed some spots when we went to the pool the other day...I'm burnt!

I was notified by email to activate my 5% off categories for the third quarter on our Chase Freedom Card. It's gas stations and Kohl's. I also choose my categories for our US Bank Visa. I picked 5% for furniture and cell phone and 2% for restaurants. Not sure if we are going to be buying furniture, but it is a possibility so might as well look for a little more of a discount!

Are you okay earning just 6% on your investments this year? Do you get an employer discount on your cell phone bill? Do you have any cards you need to make sure to select or activate rewards for next quarter?

I logged on to our mortgage account this morning. It's Paid In Full! In fact, I get a little interest back of $15.94. No mortgage debt for the near future seems pretty nice for now. We'll see what I think after living in a rental home for couple months!

I did check with our mortgage company and they said it will be two weeks before they start processing the escrow refund, which takes three days, and then 7-10 days to receive the check in the mail. So easily three weeks from now before we get the check. The full amount I'm expecting is $2054.93. I'm sure I can find something to do with that money!

My husband filed our travel voucher for our trip to our new town on Friday. We will get 23 cents per mile for our just over 1000 mile trip. This covers fuel.

We will get a per diem (a flat fee) for hotel and food expenses. My research says this will be about $875, but my husband things slightly more.

We should also get funds to cover moving about 1100 pounds of household goods in our van. My guess is that is around $1000 right there.

The military doesn't pay for selling a home like corporations sometimes do. Everyone always seems surprised by this. The military doesn't really support purchasing a home simply because moves are so frequent. The military does provide a Dislocation Allowance (DLA) and it is based on rank and if you have dependents. Our allowance will be $3,453.76. Crazy odd number huh? Not sure where they get these numbers!

There is a potential that we could get some funds to cover a portion of our rental apartment. This is called Temporary Lodging Expense and covers up to ten days. We aren't sure if it is only for hotels though. I'm also not sure if my husband has submitted this request for funds yet. And I don't know if the amount will just be ten days of our actual cost or more based on some predetermined amount. It could range from around $700 to $2900 if we are even eligible being in this apartment. Fingers crossed we could get a little bit as it would sure help!

Much of this money will pay off current credit card charges incurred during our move. This will leave us debt free. I'm also hoping there are enough extra funds to pay ourselves back for cash we used to make our rental home deposit, airline tickets and even that big repair bill on the house!

I'll report back once the funds are received and let you know the totals and how I used those funds. I'm hoping it's by the end of the week!

I read on Million Mile Secrets that Chase is changing their rules in regards to being approved for new cards. This means you might not be able to get some of their fantastic bonus offers again...or at least for awhile.

Here's the article, so you can read the details for yourself.

My husband's new Citi Thank You Premier card arrived in the mail today. What a package it comes in! I've included pictures, because my description would fail. It seemed to take forever for it to arrive. He applied on May 21.





A pretty large box! Those aren't our cards in there, but that is where they were.

We plan to use the card to pay for our hotel, food and gas on our move east. These costs will be reimbursed, but it's nice to earn rewards on those costs. Our first living space is a furnished rental apartment for 30 days. We can pay for our rent on a credit card! This portion is not reimbursed(although I write that and think maybe 10 days is covered...need to check), but the reward of $500 after spending $3,000 will help reduce that initial housing cost.

We also have a rather large repair bill on this home that we will need to pay very soon. It may go on this card, too. I do have the cash, but some rewards along the way don't hurt. This card doesn't have the 0%, so putting the charges on this card will force me to use the cash I do have to pay it.

Onward...more things to do to get ready for the packers on Tuesday!

I have cancelled our first service bill connected with our home. Internet. Once we leave there is no need to keep it going. Unfortunately, they bill one month at a time. No prorating. We pay $55 plus federal fees, amounting to about $71 a month for some very high speed internet. That amount is due now for the entire month of June. I was hoping to cut it in half at least and save a little. Oh well.

Other utilities will be called soon, once we have a more firm date for closing. Those utilities include water, gas, and electric. I can probably call the company we are renting our water softener from since it may need to be picked up (although buyers have requested to continue the lease).

We called USAA to cancel our homeowners insurance, add renters insurance and change where we have auto insurance. Yep in the end more more money going out. Our renters insurance is about $30 a month (which we may adjust down) and auto insurance will go up about $20 a month. Of course, I'm never happy about bills going up, but it's fine for now until I can look into other options.

I did receive my Panera gift card in the mail. It's worth $10. This was earned from MyPoints. I promptly put it in my wallet for use the next time I'm at the restaurant.

We've been using our Citi card for most purchases. At one point a couple months ago I signed up for their purchase rewind program on a pair of Converse shoes I purchased for one of my daughters. The Citi Rewind program searches for a lower price up to 60 days. If they find a lower price for the item, you can apply for a refund of the difference.

The shoes I purchased were $49.99. Citi found the same pair selling for $37.99 by another retailer. They are offering me $12 back. I did put in the request which will be applied as a credit to our account. I think if the amount were over $25 I could ask for direct deposit or a check. The credit is good enough for me!

Have you used Citi's Price Rewind feature?

We began the year with a balance of $686.27 on our Citi card. Luckily it has been at zero percent interest. My goal was to use extra funds/snowflakes to pay it off. After some recent Facebook sales, I had the money to make the final payment on this portion of our Citi credit card debt which was $47.20.

I used the extra money earned from these Facebook sales to pay $10.80 on my oldest daughter's glasses which were also charged on the Citi card. I know only need to pay $12.80 to have those paid in full.

And yes, there is still a balance on our Citi card from more recent purchases which I will write a post about at another time.

For the first time I have sold some of our household items on Facebook! I made $33 selling a patio umbrella with stand, a leaf blower and a push broom. It appears I have another possible sale tomorrow night that should net another $10 for a dresser.

The cash from all these sales should get the balance on the Citi card from January finally paid off.

Selling on Facebook is still just as difficult as selling on Craigslist. People are still flakes about committing to an item. Don't say 'interested' if you don't at the same time tell me when you might want to pick it up!

I've given myself a limit of a week to get some of these items sold. If the items do not sell, I expect to donate or possibly trash the items. I don't want to move things I don't want anymore!!

Do you have any tips for getting people to commit with Facebook sales?

I redeemed 1600 MyPoints for a $10 Panera gift card. They usually arrive pretty fast in the mail. I expect we will have no problem using this up as we get closer to the move. It tends to come with a fair amount of eating out.

Off to spend more money...need shoes to wear to graduation. I hoping to find some for $30 or less. And I'd really like them to be found at the first place I look!

I found out Navy Federal Credit Union is offering 3.5% CD for military member this month. It is for 15 months for up to $7,500. We currently have $5K there already in a 12 month CD earning 5% through September. This new offer isn't as good, but it is much much better than a savings account or money market. Time to transfer some money over there.

If you are possibly eligible, make sure to read fine print, as I believe there is a Direct Pay or allotment requirement which I read there was no minimum for...$1 a month might just be enough.

I redeemed 600 Swagbucks for two $3 Amazon gift cards yesterday. The codes for them arrived today. I proceeded to use them to buy a DVD my daughter wants for her birthday. I only had to pay another $0.58. I will count the $6 as a snowflake and send that money to the credit card balance.

I requested our newspaper be stopped a couple days before our move. Since I had paid for a full year in advance, I will get a refund. It's just $14.36. A little snowflake to help work on our goals.

I'm assuming they will send the check soon, but it could be they will wait until the subscription expires.

I don't know if we will get a newspaper subscription again in our new place or not. I do feel that support of news organizations is important, so I expect we will.

I purchased four Mother's day cards the other day. I paid about eight dollars at Hallmark. I wish I had looked for a coupon before, but I didn't know I would be even buying cards. Most of the cards were $.99, but the one for my sister was more...it's her first Mother's Day with her foster daughter (who they are planning to adopt). I wanted to acknowledge it with a card.

I think last year I actually skipped Mother's Day gifts. This year my mother will be at our home. I purchased her a scarf and a bottle of Mrs. Meyer's hand soap (which darn I had a coupon for!) The scarf was $9.99 at JC Penney's. I had a $10 off a $10 purchase, so I found a pair of $2 baby socks and my purchase was $2.13 after the coupon. I will donate the socks.

I instructed my husband to buy his mother a card. If he's deployed it is find if I send the card, but he does need to sign if he is in the states. I texted him her address, too. He told me last night he may just call her that day instead. And I'm sure she would like that just as much. It feels good to delegate some tasks.

I received two deposits into my PayPal account yesterday: $15 from Pinecone and $5.10 from Ebates. That means $20.10 I can send off to the Citi card to pay down some more beginning of the year debt.

Not sure I mentioned this, but I found a dress to wear to graduation and possibly a wedding. It was marked $38 at Kohl's. I had another item for $13, but also a $10 off a $50 purchase. So two items for about $43 with tax. I do now need shoes. I think I can get quite a bit of use out of the dress.

Do you a mother to buy for? Are you giving her a gift of any kind?

I'm on the lookout for a new credit card bonus offer. We are approved for our new home rental, thus no credit checking on us for awhile. And I need some cash!! Who doesn't right?

I noticed

TD Bank has two cards with no annual fees. Each card offers $200 in cash or gift cards after spending $1500. 0% interest for 12 billing cycles, as well as 5% or 5X rewards on travel (gas), dining, groceries, cable, phone and utility company payments for the first 6 months. That extra 5% would add up fast I think. We have lots of expenses that in the next few months...so meeting the requirements is no problem. There was another one that was tempting with Citi I think...need to try to find that again to see if it would be better OR if we should do all of them.

I will need to check with my husband but I think it might be worth each of us applying for a card, so we can get $400, plus the 5% for nearly the rest of the year!

Does anyone else know of any new or good cash back card offers right now?

I used credit cards to cash flow our expenses, as well as earn bonus and reward money. I am responsible to pay our cards off monthly or at least use one that isn't charging interest. I do not recommend opening cards for bonuses if you cannot handle paying your charges back without interest.

The original balance on our Citi card is now lower. I sent in $20.52, which was the difference between our actual water/sewer/trash bill and what I usually budget. It sure helps to have one less person taking showers!

The new balance from the original debt is $90.35! I actually think I can get this paid off this month with snowflakes.

I just completed a Pinecone survey. This should bring me to 1500 points to redeem for $15 tomorrow. A May snowflake!

Our water bill arrived and it was under budget by $20.52. I do count that as a snowflake, too. I will apply this to my Citi credit card balace.

Wrote a $348 check for a plumbing and drywall repair on our home. It's a long story, but that was money well spent! I get to paint the drywall tomorrow. Luckily I believe I have enough paint, so no additional costs.

My daughter sold a piece of art that she did in less than an hour. Her profit is $20. She sold it to a friend of mine. She has a real hard time placing value on her art and charging people for it. However, I'm happy she sold something. She puts things up on her art Facebook page just to share. My friend asked if she could purchase, so it was a bit unexpected.

And for those with cats: I'm looking for a collapsible carrier to take with us on our trip east. We have hard carriers but those are really going to take up a lot of space in our already cramped van. Does anyone think

these would actually work? My cats do really dislike their carriers. It is so tempting.

At the beginning of the month I really didn't think I would accumulate too many snowflakes. I'm not trying to hard to earn Swagbucks or Bing rewards. I didn't sell anything either.

It turns out we had a nice anniversary gift from my parents and earned quite a few different credit card rewards. And it all adds up! All of my snowflakes went to pay down the beginning balance we had on our Citi card in January. We have just $110.87 left on that now.

The grand total for April was $360.23. Lower than my total from March which was over $400, but still very good.



How did you do in accumulating extra money this month?

I've mentioned a few times how we are spending plenty of money. We've been putting it on credit cards to earn rewards and help with cash flow a bit. Today I paid off over $650 for hotel costs, and $340 airline ticket. I used savings to pay these off. Eventually, I'll pay ourselves back. It just might be a bit and I'm glad it is there for these unknown kind of situations. I also paid some other charges accumulated in the last two weeks with current paycheck funds to the tune of over $600.

We earned $31.72 in Discover Cash Back rewards. I requested a credit to our balance, but then used the money I would have paid on Discover to pay to the Citi card 2015 beginning balance . I also had $40 in Amex rewards for those Amazon purchases (I thought ahead and bought gifts for my daughter's July birthday!). Between those two rewards, I reduced our beginning Citi balance from $212.59 to $140.87. Progress!

So I'm down to $20 for the next two days. And then payday. I will then pay off some more debt! It feels good to get some of those balances to zero.

I accumulated $100 in snowflakes this week. I received those Target gift cards (total $75) in the mail this week from Citi Thank You Rewads. I have already used more than $50! The other one will get used up next time I get groceries, probably Sunday. I also redeemed $25 from Swagbucks with has been deposited into my PayPal account.

The girls flute teacher is not giving lessons next week, so that saves me $40. I figure this is money usually spent so I'm sending it in with the $100 to the Citi Thank You card balance. I'm considering it applied to the money we spent on my oldest daughter's glasses and charged to this card. The glasses were originally $354, but I now have those paid down to $237. There were other payments already applied to those previous to this one. I expect to pay another $117 on May 1 toward that portion of the Citi card balance, leaving just $120.

The original balance on January 1 for the Citi card was $686.27, with all the snowflakes applied to that portion recently the balance is now at $212.59! I really hope to have this paid off before we move.

I can't wait to get some of this stuff paid off. I probably could be doing it much faster under normal circumstances, but there has been a lot of outflow recently of cash for home repairs, hotels and airline tickets. It is what it is. It will all balance out eventually. And the debt will all get paid off. I'm just glad we aren't paying any interest!

I do have some other sources of snowflakes on the horizon, so I'll have more to report in a couple days!

If you are a regular reader you know I have Ooma as our home phone provider. It's VoiP system, so it uses the internet to take calls.

The

Ooma telo is on sale again for $89.99 with free shipping. That is $40 off. I currently pay just $3.85 (the Federal taxes) each month for our home phone. If you dial international and don't have a plan they offer very low rates (which you can view on the website), and all calls stateside are free!

I actually make money by having this phone since I offer my referral code (which is in the link above) when they have a promotion every two to three months. Last time I earned $80 in referral money, $20 for each referral. I have earned far more by referring others than I have paid to have the home phone. I kind of consider that it helps offset the internet bill, too.

It works great, although we don't even use it too often since our cell phones our are primary numbers used these days. It seems if I can't get my daughter to answer her cell phone at home I can usually get her to answer the home phone when I call!

If you are interested the offer lasts until May 8th. Thanks!

I mentioned that I redeemed some Citi Thank You points for gift cards on Friday. They arrived in the mail today! They must be issued close by because that was super fast.

I'm sure all $75 will be spent on groceries at Target within the next 7 days. I already have a list of three items I need to pick up there tomorrow. I will send the $75 I would have spent on those things at Target to pay down more on the Citi card balance from Januray. And of course, I'm counting these gift cards as snowflakes!

My dad has been getting creative with his numbers in the past for birthday's giving us $100.40 to represent our fortieth year. My parents have gifted us every year for our anniversary also. It has almost always been $100. This year the check was written for $119.19 for our 19th wedding anniversary. He's getting a little more generous!

Our anniversary was last Sunday. We were actually together that day. It didn't really feel to special as we were looking a rental properties in our new state. But we were together and that always feels better!

The check was given to us just before my trip to the east. I tucked it into a drawer knowing we would be having showings for our home. Until last night I had completely forgotten about it which I knew was a possibility when I did it. Luckily, I happened upon it last night. I will deposit it this morning.

For the sake of simplicity and to make some more debt payoff progress I'm counting it as a snowflake. It will further reduce the debt we have on the Citi card, which is a good thing. The beginning balance on the card was $686.27. This snowflake will bring beginning year balance to $337.59.

What do you think of my dad's creativity with his gift?

I redeemed Citi Thank You points yesterday for $75 worth of Target gift cards. I shop there all the time! In the past I have used their rewards for a check made payable to our mortgage. I decided since we are about to sell that $75 wasn't go to save me much in interest. I will count them as snowflakes after I use them and send that $75 towards our Citi card. Oh, and Citi does offer a statment credit as a reward option, but the point values are terrible. Much better to do it this way!

I paid $75.24 on my Amex card today towards our Verizon wireless bill. That charge will reward me $10. I plan to make two more similar payments over the next couple of days to get $20 more. I did this same scenario last month using my husband's Amex. A small payment of $15 will go to the US Bank card to earn 5% back...doesn't seem like much on $15, but it does all add up.

I'm waiting for the Wells Fargo Amex to close in a few days so I can get my final $25 reward before I close that account for good. It has a heafty annual fee and we don't use it enough to get the rewards back on it.

I have some other pending rewards too that will add to the April snowflake total. I'll write more about those as they come around.

Have you earned any rewards or snowflakes recently?

I just activated our Discover Rewards for this quarter to earn 5% cash back on restaurants and movies. I wish I would have done this before the weekend because I had a couple restaurant charges. I do expect more in the coming months with the house on the market and the moving process. We might as well get a little back from those purchases.

I moved $4000 from our money market account to our checking account. It's time for a bigger accessible buffer since we may be putting up a deposit for a rental home. I expect to put this all back after we move, or before if it seems it won't be needed.

I haven't been doing Swagbucks or Bing with much gusto lately. I'm just to busy and have my mind in other places. I have done a little, and expect to have a reward before the month ends at least.

Our auto insurance was billed to our credit card today. Just $385 for two drivers for six months with a $1000 deductible to include comprehensive and collision. Not bad. I have the money set aside to pay the bill and will do so when it is no longer posting as a pending transaction.

My daughter is applying for a couple more scholarships. Not sure of the odds of these, but they were relatively simple to work on so she was willing. Every dollar earned is worth it to me!

Our water bill was under budget this month by over $17. I will be counting that as a snowflake and sending that difference to the Citi card balance.

I ordered cat food online through Petsmart late last week. And it just arrived this morning. I was able to get two large bags for $48.41 shipped. I easily spend $40 for one bag when I buy in the store. I think the food was on sale, plus I made sure to buy an discounted gift card through

Raise first which was discounted farther because I had a $5 reward from referring someone to Raise. So a good deal turned into a very good deal and I didn't have to leave my house to shop!

Yep, there you have it. A bunch of little money tid bits from the house of Creditcardfree.

I started the year with a balance of $686.27 on the Citi card and managed to get it down to $636.27 making minimum $25 payments in January and February. Then in March we started using the card as our primary and have added quite a bit of big expenses.

Two airline tickets $638.40
Eye glasses DD1 $354.00
Eye glasses DD2 $214.95

And lots of miscellaneous to the tune of at least $800. The current balance is $2,789.75. That is after making several payments totaling $905! I have plans on payday to pay DD2 glasses in full, $145 in snowflake money towards the original balance, plus another $785+ towards the miscellaneous. I may also pay the airline tickets out of savings...and eventually pay that back when we get our Dislocation allowance money from the government, which won't likely be until after the girls and I move.

So that card is a mess! It is a bit stressful too. It is the only card we are using, except for Discover until the end of March for 5% cash back on gas. The Citi card has 0%, but I think just until the end of June. I need to check on that!

I will get a handle on it, likely using some savings if needed. I won't let it accrue interest...because I hate that. I'll update more once I actually get those payments made on Wednesday (payday).

I have paid off Wells Fargo Amex in full! The remaining balance was $44.58. All but $15 of that was from the beginning of the year. I used eBay and Raise gift card sales proceeds to pay off that portion. The other $15 just came from our regular income.

I do have 2488 reward points and expect 15 points to be added mid April for that $15 charge that posted after the last statement closed. Once I have a full 2500 points I will redeem for cash and then close the card. The closing is the most important part because if I don't, we will be charged $175 in an annual fee. I don't want that!

I also paid off the contacts I purchased a couple weeks ago. I did use money my daughter came back from her trip with and some 52 Week Savings money I had accumulated.

We have added quite a bit on our Citi Thank You card recently. All needs. I will update about that card, as well as payments I plan to make on payday.

That's my clever title to tell you about the check I received from

Raise in the mail today for the Build a Bear gift card I sold last week. My net proceeds for a gift card that was worth $2.74, was $2.08. I requested the check since their PayPal option had a $5 minimum.

Our Discover Card statement closed recently. We earned $36.10, primarily as a result of the 5% cash back on gas! All that gas my husband used to travel east and was reimbursed for ended up getting us a little extra cash. A snowflake that will be applied to some of our Citi credit card debt.

I expect to be able to make another large snowflake payment early next week! I can't wait.