Our electric bill is finally lower. Instead of $259.20 last month, it is $185.82. A difference of $73.38. I still think it may go lower next month. I believe this was a partial month where one of our two air conditioners wasn't working properly, causing one to work over time. At least we didn't have to pay for the repair, but we did have to pay for the energy used. Boo. The weather has cooled so I can imagine that will help for a month or two. Not sure when heat will be needed here in the southeast.

Next I want to see the water bill be lower. We haven't run the sprinkler system for close to three weeks, so I expect that will help a lot too.

Tomorrow is payday! Looking forward to getting our budget set up in YNAB tonight.

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 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

We don't live on the coast but we can get to the beach in just under two hours, so close enough. It seems Joaquin won't make a direct hit here, but we are getting a ton of rain. Like 8 inches in the next couple days. And this is day 8 of rain here.

I'm heading out shortly to get fuel in my van. Cash for my wallet. And more non perishables and batteries if the power goes out. That is really the biggest danger we face. No power. The ground on the trees around here (and there are a lot of them) is saturated, so bring on the wind and power lines are likely to go down.

Oh, and we have company too! The plans we had for the weekend have all been cancelled, so we will likely just hunker down and wait for the storms to pass. A new game I ordered on Amazon should arrive today and help pass the time.

Stay safe if any of the rest of you are in the path of the storm!

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

Sooo...we have been tracking all of our expenses on YNAB. My husband seems to have more transactions than I do! His are smaller though usually. We didn't actually budget categories until tonight. Yep. About nine days after pay day. But this was good for us, because we could see how much we had already spent in the categories and were able to determine/guess how much we would need for the remainder of the month.

As a result of us finally getting our budget in YNAB we decided we did have plenty to put towards our Citi credit card balance which I mentioned yesterday. After making a $1084 payment yesterday and then a $1432 payment tonight, our new Citi balance is $986.75. Ah, so much better to get that paid down to a much more reasonable level.

I also did a little tweak to our normally scheduled payments. I usually charge our Verizon bill to our US Bank Visa at this time of the month and then pay it in full with our paycheck on the first of the month. I decided to change that to the 15 of the month paycheck, since the US Bank Visa bill isn't due until the 7th of the following month (or in the case of the current bill, Nov 7). Making this change allowed me to change when I will pay our electric bill. I was going to pay it now with current funds, but realized it isn't due until Oct 10 and if I moved the Verizon payment I could pay it with our paycheck on the 1st of Oct. This freed up nearly $260, which I promptly sent to the Citi card. I like it when I can find extra cash.

We technically have $409 budgeted that we have not spent yet. And there are just six days left to go in the month. It feels we have finally turned a corner. It is possible some of it could be related to YNAB, but I think primarily it is just that our spending has come to more reasonable levels again after the move and college beginning. Whew! Feels so much better to have things under control.

I will add a little caveat...more spending is coming. We will be taking at least one trip by airplane this fall, maybe two. And then there is still a possibility of some new furniture. It does help to be caught up...or close to it at least. It helps make the trip(s) and furniture seem possible without pulling from the savings we have worked hard for.

I need to remember to budget to pay for YNAB next pay period.

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!

I claimed two offers on Ibotta today for grocery shopping done yesterday. Once those posted, I was eligible to cash out. I picked PayPal and my $10 was sent immediately. I love how quick it was.

I'm currently $1 away from cashing out my first $20 with Checkout 51. I'm not as much of a fan of this site, but I'm determined to get to the cash out amount and be done with them.

I washed the sheets on our master bed today. When I pulled them out the fitted sheet was ripped in the middle. I knew they were getting close to the end of their life span since the elastic was getting loose. I didn't really want to buy new sheets this week. And I really don't HAVE to, as we have extra set for emergency situations such as this and there is a set on our guest bed. However, I am having guests early in October, so I think I will need to buy new soon! For tonight at least the emergency set will work so I have a little time to look for a deal.

Where do you buy sheets? Do you have a thread count or style you like? Do you use Ibotta or Checkout 51?

My husband did change the withholding on his W2 to 18 last week. The change is already showing on his paystub for pay on September 15. The goal was to avoid having any further withholding through the end of the year, as we have determined we have already paid enough to cover taxes on our return. The increase in pay is $259.32 each paycheck through January 1. This money is going straight to savings to pay ourselves back for tuition just paid.

We have a CD with Navy Federal Credit Union that is expiring on the 17th. It was a 5% interest CD for 12 months. The maximum we could invest was $5,000, which we did. That means $250 earned! I only wish all our money was earning this rate. I may invest in another CD with NFCU that has a maximum investment of $3K earning 3% for 12 months. Much better than 1% on savings. I'll get that all figured out once the CD matures next week. Does anyone know of any CD specials with secure banks earning a decent rate?

We will have a little spending tonight as we are going to an away high school football game to see our daughter perform with the marching band. Admission is $7 each. Plus concessions, we usually need a least a water since they won't let you bring any in and it's HOT here! I gave my daughter $15 since we weren't sure about dinner, but she thinks the band boosters are covering the cost of pizza for the group. (The game is 45 minutes away and they leave right after school...going to be a LONG night!)

Really hoping to keep the rest of the weekend LOW or NO spend!

I ran two errands today. One to Target, where I decided to include grocery shopping as well. And also to get fuel in my van.

At Target, I wandered around looking for home decor items, or anything on clearance I needed. Guess what? Did find anything! So no spending on that kind of stuff. I did see some things I liked if we change up our decor with new furniture, but that has not been decided. I was able to claim $1.40 in rebates from Ibotta and $1 from Checkout 51.

I stopped at a different gas station today so I could use a deal on my American Express card. Spend $25 at Exxon and get $5 off. I put exactly $25 in. And Amex has already indicated that I used the offer! I think my husband has this on his card also, so will make a point to use that next week.

I also made sure to record the two purchases in YNAB. I used my mobile phone, but only once I got home and saw my receipt. It would be best to record these things purchases right when they happen.

I'm home for nearly the rest of the day. I hope to spend some time learning YNAB a bit more. I especially need to understand credit cards more clearly. At least I don't have to add interest!!

I paid the big fat University bill today in full. I had the money in savings. It was $7,198.55. I have not yet pulled any money from her ESA, since the market is down. It was looking good for a very little while this morning. Not that I planned to make a sell order today. We have time.

You will be glad to hear that I did some entering of things into YNAB. I watched another tutorial which was helpful. I entered in all the credit cards we use regularly, with their current (PreYNAB balances). I entered only the $X I set aside at the beginning of this month to spend on the irregular purchases of the first half of the month. I budgeted that money into categories...starting with guesses really. Got to start somewhere though!

After that I went back and recorded actual purchases, most of which were on one credit card. There were a couple others on the Discover card and one in cash. I did have to adjust the budget. Originally I had no money for car repairs, but we did have a $129 expense for car maintenance. I had at least two other categories like this as well. The budget still shows $325 left, but I see it is assuming I want to pay all the card balances with this current income, which isn't exactly what I normally do. So, when I have a little more time I will look at that closer.

I'm feel better than I'm working on it. It does take time, but I do hope the investment is more clarity in how we spend some of our money.

My husband has a four day weekend due to the holiday. Although because they are getting ready for a conference next week he needs to go in to work on Sunday for awhile.

We took advantage of the time off to get some errands done. The first involved getting a few more civilian clothes for him to wear. One shirt(on clearance for $10) and a tie. We tacked on two 99 cents cards with our purchase at Kohl's so we could get over the $30 to use a $10 off coupon. Spent around $22 for those four items. Very pleased since business casual clothes can get pricey.

We took our truck in for an oil change, tire rotation and replacement of cabin filter. The bill was over $120 at the dealership. The big mistake was letting the dealership do the cabin filter. We have replaced that ourselves in the past. It cost $22 for the filter and $40.99 for labor!! Ugh. I looked up the cost of the filter on Amazon. Only $8.09 with 2 day shipping with our Prime Membership. We are good with maintenance on our vehicles but my husband also tends to react with yes at anything the dealership suggests without knowing if we have recently done it or if it is something we can do easily ourselves. I'm definitely going to get a spreadsheet set up with our past maintenance and start recording what we should have done and when. Maybe there is an app? Do you do a good job at keeping track of vehicle maintenance?

Finally, our big splurge for the day was a USED treadmill. I saw one someone was selling locally for $1000 that was nearly new. We weren't convinced it was the right size motor for my husband who would prefer to run nearly daily. But it seemed a bit like a deal compared to a $1500 new one we had been keeping our eyes on. Before we committed to this local sale one, we stopped by Play It Again Sports and found a nearly new treadmill that was almost exactly the same spec wise as the $1500 one. The were asking $799. And for $50 more they would delivery it up to upstairs bonus room. Sold! After tax and delivery it was around $908. Cheaper than new, but like new, and delivered for less than we were considering. I will definitely use it since we don't have a gym membership. I expect my daughter is interested in it also. Fingers crossed it doesn't become a clothes hanger!!

We are paying for the treadmill out of savings since we have a pretty healthy bit of cash and this is a small drop in the bucket. And an investment in our health is worth it!! It arrives Tuesday afternoon.

It's payday so I paid off more debt that has been sitting on credit cards (no interest is being charged). I feel better than it is starting to dwindle down.

Specifically paid:
$704.38 American Express (Orlando trip expenses)
$3.20 American Express (movie rental)
$360.44 Target Red Card (dorm & school expenses)
$166.58 Discover (online school expenses)

We still have just over $2,184.79 on credit cards. Considering it was over $3K when my husband and I were discussing things a few nights ago we have made some progress. The goal will be to keep spending as low as possible to try to use some extra income toward expenses.

At the same time we are working on debt, we are discussing flying to see family and college daughter at Thanksgiving. I have a Companion Pass earned with Southwest that lets my youngest daughter fly for free with me through the end of the year. This means we only need to pay for two tickets. One scenario has our flights costing $911. Which when you divide by three people flying is pretty good!! I really dislike the idea of flying during the holiday simply because it is so busy, but that is when most of us have time off work and school.

I do often use this blog to remind myself what my plans are. It can be helpful to look back months later to see what I did as well. This post is about how I plan to handle the tuition bill due Sept 12.

The total bill is $7,198.55. The housing portion is $5,154.55. The tuition portion is $2,044.00. The housing portion will come from our daughter's Education Savings Account (ESA) which is currently invested in mutual fund. The remainder is coming from savings/current cash.

I could pay $20 a semester to divide this bill into three equal payments. But that's just more outflow that I don't think is necessary. Initially, I'm simply going to transfer the full payment from our savings. We have quite a bit of cash in our emergency fund and from the proceeds of two homes.

The goal is then to pay ourselves back before the end of the year. We are adjusting our withholding to 18 (yes, that is not a typo) to have no Federal withholding for the remainder of the year. This will increase my husband's paychecks by $259.36. There are 8 paychecks remaining for 2015. This will result in $2,074.88 back into our savings account. Notice that is just over the amount of fall tuition. Because we are paying this tuition out of pocket we can claim it on our taxes with the American Opportunity Tax Credit.

The housing portion needs to come from our daughter's ESA account in order to pay ourselves back. Since the market is crazy, I'm not going to withdraw the full amount right now. Instead I'm going to withdraw in three equal portions of $1718. Currently I plan to wait to see if the market stabilizes a bit more later in September, but worse case wait until mid to late October to make the first withdrawal.

That's the plan. I think it is a pretty good one, too. No student loans, yet! Would you do anything different?

We downloaded YNAB this weekend. I've taken one class and entered in some things (primarily savings pots that already exist in our checking account). Tomorrow is payday so seems a good day to start using it! I think initially I'm going to be entering things the old way in my spreadsheet to make sure it is lining up with what I expect YNAB to do.

My husband and I did sit down last night for a discussion. He is now aware of our total cash savings, the current amount on credit cards (not paying any interest), the net income, our expenses and how much we are saving annually for retirement. He seemed very pleased to know all the details. He was a bit surprised that there wasn't as much extra as he thought. He admitted to spending thinking that with his raise there is a lot of extra. There really is plenty. To me, it's about not wasting the extra on lunches out. We need to make sure we are accomplishing what we want with our money.

It was a good start. We didn't make any decisions on buying anything new. No changes have been made to anything yet, which is fine. We'll get where we want to go soon.

The first month of YNAB will be interesting as I'm not entirely sure how much we spend on groceries or gas each month. I will do my best to make an educated guess. The nice thing is I do know how to save cash for non monthly expenses, such as an insurance bill. I already have that part of the budget figured out....well for some things. I'd like to do this for more items as we move forward.

What do you like best about using YNAB? Did anyone try using it and then give up?

We seem to be making a mental list of things we want to buy. We don't have the cash to buy it all before the end of the year.. At least I don't think so. Tuition is a factor. That's part of the process we are starting on. Making the list, prioritizing and then making a plan/budget on how to acquire these things.

So here's the list at the moment:
A treadmill (more need than want)
A computer or tablet (not a need)
Two chairs for our living room
Lamps and table for living room

Seems there may be something else, but this is where we are starting. I do realize used are possibilities and that a tablet is cheaper than a computer in most cases.

I really think we are going to start using YNAB (You Need A Budget). At least I have suggested it to my husband. I think a budget on things like eating out and alcohol expenses would help both of us keep these to a minimum.

I'm excited at the possibility of working together on some of these goals. I don't know that it will go super smooth since I do tend to work on everything on my own. I expect I will still do the nitty gritty detail work on our finances, but talking a bit more and making some decisions together will be good.

Oh, and a reminder to myself we also need to figure in some airline tickets for our daughter to fly home and maybe for us to visit family. We live so much farther away from family than before we have not had a budget for travel expenses.

I now have more information about the costs of tuition this semester, what can be claimed for the American Opportunity tax credit and how it will impact our taxes owed. And the good news is we will owe less in taxes as a result!

The bad news(good news?) is we have already had too much tax withheld to cover our taxes. A whopping $1775. Yes, most people rejoice at such things praising the government for providing them a tax refund. Unfortunately, I blame myself. I actually increased our tax withholding to compensate for the fact that we would no longer be able to claim the child tax credit (of $1000) for our oldest daughter and my husbands increase in pay. I didn't take the time to figure out about the college credits available and how that would impact our taxes. Oops!

The good news is I have changed our withholding to 10 for the time being. In order to avoid any more withholding we need to claim 18! My husband will need to do this in person, as I can't change the amount higher than 10 online. Once it is changed to 18 his monthly paychecks will be $518 larger! Money that I plan to set aside for the tuition bill in February.

Of course, I will need to change the withholding in January to make sure we do have money withheld in 2016! I haven't figured the correct amount to withhold right now, but trust me I will do a better job this year in getting it right. I will have more clear information this time around.

Do you know where you stand on your withholding and taxes owed for 2015? Is it possible you need to make changes due to a change in circumstances? Do you prefer a refund or just to owe a little on your tax return?

My daughter had two good days of high school. So far so good. She can tell a lot of kids are connected to the military, since the teacher asked them to introduce themselves and say where they were born and where they have lived. That is a much better question than 'Where are you from?'. Do you have any idea how hard it is to answer that question? At least simply?

With the start of school I can feel myself getting back into routines. Laundry is getting done on a schedule. Dinner is at a decent hour. And so is getting to bed.

We still need to get the spending under control. Some of it has been unavoidable. I thought I would go to the grocery store today, but upon looking around in the kitchen I had asparagus, couscous and chicken. Sounded like dinner to me! Tomorrow I think I can skate by again without going to the store. I have some frozen fish sticks that if we don't eat...will never get eaten. Not sure why we bought them, other than they must have sounded good during one of the trips where we didn't have a list. What we don't have are too many fresh vegetables...and I'm craving some greens. I think I will pick those up and see if we can last through Saturday for groceries.

One reason I'm trying to control the groceries is because I spent more money today. Cat food for the next two months $40, a $20 flute repair (that's cheap!), and $10 worth of personal spending (socks and a pair of sunglasses). The socks and sunglasses really were needs. The elastic in the socks are becoming too loose and uncomfortable to wear. The sunglasses are to replace a pair I lost at Universal earlier this month. Pretty good deal to get both for $10.48.

If we have the food, we really don't need to grocery shop anyway!! I really hope the spending is slowing down.

My youngest daughter(10th grade) started her new high school today. I'm nervous right along with her. She was going to take the bus, but there didn't seem to be anyone at our stop, so I drove her. Which is fine, I have no problem with that at all. It just added to the nerves of the day.

I'm more nervous for her than my college daughter! I guess because high school can be so tough. She is already involved with the marching bad, so may have seen a few familiar faces once she was there. It's a big high school of nearly 2000 kids. She had a hard transition last time we moved, although didn't really know the full extent at the time. I'm just hoping this is better and easier!! This school is used to lots of new kids in all grades because we are near a military post. I'm crossing my fingers that is a positive thing!!

Financially, we spent a lot more money again yesterday. My college daughter bought $160 in art supplies for one class! I paid her back. I also ordered two more things on Amazon for her, which cost $37.

Later in the day, I took my youngest clothes shopping. We spent $82 during that trip. I ordered a pair of shoes online for $55, and then a used scientific calculator for $70!

Did you add that up? $374. In one day! The money is flowing out. I'm trying really hard not to find other reasons of my own to spend. With a new home to live in, it is so tempting. So far so good though!

So...I know about the American Opportunity Tax credit. It seems it doesn't cover room and board. It does cover tuition, fees and books...after scholarships. For this semester alone we have $2100 towards those costs.

If I understand correctly, I can claim tuition paid in the first three months of 2016 on our 2015 return. This means probably another $2K of expenses. So around $4k that we will pay from sources that are not college savings plans. My understanding is if I take this money from our Coverdell ESA those expense covered with this money can not be claimed for a credit. Which is fine with me since I currently plan to use that money for room and board, which I can't claim for the AO credit.

Then my understanding is the first 2K in expenses is a 100% credit. The next $2K is applied at 25% for a maximum of $2500.

Since this is a credit, it will directly impact our taxes owed. Currently I have us withholding about $520 per month for taxes. I think this is slightly more than our taxes before this credit. Now I'm debating about changing our withholding knowing this new information. If I reduce it, then I can save it for the next tuition bill in February. Or I could keep withholding the same and get a big refund, which I could then use to pay back the tuition we pay in February. I making an assumption that I wouldn't have the IRS refund by the Feb 12 due date.

Am I making any sense? Any other guidance? The credit is nearly always better than a deduction, so I'm not even looking at that scenario.

My daughter and I talked today on the phone. She finally has internet access in her room, and wireless access all over campus. It was a hard week without it, but she made it. Class start Monday, so she is all set now.

Since she could log in online she took a look at her billing statement. Tuition, fees, room and board for the first semester AFTER scholarships is $7,198.55. Scholarships amounted to $10,000. Room and board is the largest portion at $5,145.55. The tuition/fees for 18 hours came $2,044. Living ON campus is required for Freshman under the age of 19.

The bill hasn't actually been generated yet. The first bill is due September 12. I can pay in full with a debit card or check for no additional fees. If I use a credit card they add a 2.75% convenience charge. I can also make three payments, but need to sign up each semester for a $20 fee.

It's tempting to do payments, but I'm not sure it is absolutely necessary. I will be using her college funds to pay at least $5K. I would like to pay the remainder out of some of our savings and cash flow the remaining. It's the willingness to cash flow some of it that makes me interested in making payments.

I haven't thought it through much more than what I've written here. I will take a look at balances and see what I can do by September 12. I'm grateful for the scholarships and ability to pay this bill without student loans. So grateful!

Anyone else sending a child to college this semester? How much is your first semester bill?

And now our water bill is high! But we figured out that one. There is a sprinkler head that is broken, so for about 5 minutes a day it is like turning the hose on full blast! And our new shower has all these shower heads...which my husband likes to use. More water than needed for a shower! I think he's stopped that for now.

We turned off the sprinkler in that zone as we were told the owners didn't use it because the neighbors sprinklers actually get that area from runoff. It's unfortunate we didn't notice it sooner. It's hard to catch when it is running at 5am.

The high bill could also be an issue of estimating our first bill (just a week's worth). But I feel more confident this one will be easier to get a handle on.

Really bad timing to have all these high bills while adding on college expenses. So far it seems to be working out okay though.

Geez! It has been hot here since we moved in, but didn't expect this large of an electric bill. It's $301.03!!

It did include about $45 worth of first time fees. Plus a few other 'taxes' amounting to $10. Even so that is an expensive bill.

I'm sure having the door open all day on moving day had that air conditioner working hard. And then were other trips in and out. I think we need to increase the temperature a bit and see if we can stand it higher. I know it is lower than we had at our old home. Size wise it is about the same.

I put it on the Chase Freedom card for the rewards and once it posts I'm paying it in full with funds from our August 15 paycheck.

Moving forward...and hoping we can adjust the bill down significantly for next month!

I'm back from taking my daughter to college. It was emotional. I was more sad initially, then it was her turn. She did turn a corner though and seemed pretty good when I left. She made the marching band!!! She is now super busy the next several days with that, which makes it hard to figure out getting her computer and phone set up on the University's WiFi. She thought she was connected last night then said it didn't seem so this morning.

She already has a bit of homework. Needs to find time to practice for her concert band audition next Tuesday. Luckily she did practice nearly everyday this summer. She is busy, which is probably better than being bored.

I know I spent nearly $100 at the bookstore for new t shirts and sweatshirts for our family. The books she rented were $190. I guess one was purchased, since it was available for rent. There may be cheaper options in the future, but this time we just went with the local bookstore. Luckily I checked the receipt before we left. Originally it said books needed to be returned Oct 23...before the semester is over. It was a cashier error. Now they are all due back December 18. We would have been charged the difference and then would have owned those books! Glad it happened as it was a good lesson for my daughter to witness.

I know I probably spent another $300-350 once we were in town on dorm needs. It sure adds up! Hopefully, many of these things can be used over and over in the coming years. I know I still had dorm items when my girls were younger! I maybe still do.

I need to get back on track with bill paying. There was a payday since I was out of town. I have many emails from credit cards about statements being available. My goal for today is to get that completed.

There's more to write about, but for now I need to keep getting the important things done!

We have quite a few credit cards that we now use for various types of rewards. Specifically I have balances on ten, ranging from $13.43 to $1,549.07. The total balance of those ten all together is $4,155.65. These are all current and not charging us any interest. And you might notice that is less than the last time I reported our total.

Today I made a list of the balances of each card in order of due date. I usually don't pay much attention because I just pay off the balances when we get paid. If you are paying on current charges twice a month you are always ahead of the statement closing. That's why I haven't paid attention.

As I said in the other post about our credit card debt, I plan to pay all of these off without any interest. But I also want to keep as much in savings as I can. So I'm going to aware of the due date so I'm paying the debts due first FIRST with current paycheck money rather than those due a month out or the next paycheck.

This probably isn't a big relation to anyone, or me for that matter, but I'm just taking a different approach for a bit. A little more awareness to get on an even footing again and hopefully with a nice healthy savings account.

Of course, there is the college expenses. I'm going to try to cash flow as much as I can. However, whatever I can't can be paid with funds saved for college. At least for this year. We have tuition mostly covered, but the dorm will be our biggest expense. Along with some miscellaneous band expenses which seems to be extra time in the dorm and food before the housing contract starts. Next year, I will plan to save up for this little extra cost.

Are you aware of your debt due dates, or do you pay more attention to which paycheck you pay your debt from?

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!

Our trip to Universal Orlando did cost a bit more than I expected, but I have no regrets. We had a very good time with plenty of memories!

Here's the approximate breakdown of costs:
Airline Fees $144
Park Tickets $604
Hotel Cost $695
Hotel Parking $52
Rental Car $191
Food/Gas/Souvenirs $668
Airport Parking $42

Grand Total $2396

We did Early Bird Check in for Southwest on both legs of the trip, which added $100 to our cost. It was worth it leaving, but on the way home our flight probably only had 60 people, so need for it. But you don't know that ahead of time.

Hotel costs could have been much less, however, we did get Express Passes included to cover all three days for four people even though we only stay two nights for that cost. (Third night at different hotel was paid with reward points) If we had purchased Express Passes (Unlimited version) for three days for four people it would have cost us over $1400! That is not a typo. There is no way I would have paid that, which is why staying on site is such a deal even though the cost of the hotel seems pricey it isn't for what you get.

I mentioned the rental car issue in yesterday's post. Originally I though I was getting a rental car 'free' with reward points.

Of course, we could have limited souvenirs, of which there really were only six or seven items. My husband had some pricey beer. We did eat Clif Bars in our hotel room each morning so that saved us a bit, but if we wanted food in the parks we ate it. I tried Earl Grey and Lavender ice cream, which was yummy! With it being so hot, water was probably our biggest expense. I didn't have time to do enough research, but we could have refilled our water bottles with water at the Coke Freestyle machines for FREE! Oops. Lesson learned for next time!

So it's all good. I'm using a little bit of our house proceeds and army reimbursements to pay for the trip.

Transportation on our trip was more than planned. It seems I thought I had reserved a rental car using Southwest Rapid Reward points. However, when I went to double check all of our reservations I couldn't find the rental car, only an email stating I had redeemed a reward. It seems the reward I redeemed is a voucher for Dollar Rent a Car that was mailed to me (well mailed to my old address). I still have yet to receive it.

So less than 24 hours before we needed a rental car I was on the hunt, using every rental car company and coupon codes I could come up with to find the least expensive option for us. We really wanted to pick up our car at the airport rather than a shuttle (this does increase the cost). We also wanted a reliable company (some companies have terrible reviews). We went through USAA and got a mid size car for $191 prepaid with Budget. It was definitely more than I wanted to pay. Later my husband asked about other options to get to the resort since we barely needed the car. Shuttle service or Luxury Town car round trip for four people would have been at least $144. It turns out we did leave the hotel resort area one night for dinner and stopped to get something at Walgreen's. We also used the car to get to our hotel for our third night's stay closer to the airport. This stay was at a Fairfield Inn and we used reward points. Staying at the resort would have cost us over $300 for a third night. Oh, and we also ate at a restaurant on our last night and we drove there.

So the rental car wasn't a bad deal considering how we used it to save us a little money. It just cost me much more because I originally thought I was getting a rental car for free! Well, I am getting a 'free' rental car but not for this trip.

We paid $20 per night to park on site at our resort hotel. That fee was expected since I was planning on a rental car. We would have saved that fee had we not rented a car.

And finally, we parked at the airport for $12 a day. Our parking tab was $42. Again, we could reduced that amount in half if we had parked off site. We ran into backed up traffic on our way to the airport and decided it was better to just pay the higher cost of parking than be late for our flight.

So it is what it is! I think in the end it worked out fine for why we rented a car and what the alternatives would have been. At least the airline tickets didn't cost us anything out of pocket!

We are still spending. This time we went to Kohl's and bought some clothes. I needed another pair of shorts for our trip, I bought three because I couldn't decide. However, I will return two after the trip. My husband needed two pairs as did one of my daughter's. My husband also needed a couple shirts. And then since we had a 25% off coupon and a $10 off coupon it seemed the right time to buy a new kitchen pan. My husband has been complaining about ours sticking. He's already used it and very happy!

That trip was not frugal, but we all found things there in one trip so that was really good. But spending $178 is tough! Again, I do plan to return two of the shorts I bought, which we probably be about a $32 credit, bring the bill to under $150. A bit better, but boy things are expensive and thus why we usually get by with less clothing. On vacation we don't want to spend our time washing and drying to get things clean. And we will be in Florida, thus the clothes are going to be filthy after sweating in them all day. No wearing again. Although I actually might try that with one pair of shorts. Wash in the sink and hang to dry. Then I could return all three pairs of shorts!!

Our first water bill arrived today. It was for just 7 days. It included a $20 turn on charge. The actual water with taxes was 7.60. I set the bill to pay next Monday from our checking account and requested future bills to be sent by email.

I'm going to enjoy the trip and plan to pay all the bills when we return this weekend.