We have hardwood floors on the main level of our rental home. Of course, part of the agreement when renting a home is to leave the home in the same condition as you found it (or better). With that in mind, we are beginning to purchase some rugs for under our furniture.

Yesterday we purchased an 8x10 rug for our fourth bedroom, a guest room. I wouldn't be in such a hurry for that room, except in a week my parents are visiting! A bed on a wood floor seems like it could roll (at least our frame has rollers) or definitely make deep marks over time.

The rug was $167 at Home Depot. We purchased a $48 rug pad and a package of 4 light bulbs at the same time. The total after our military discount and tax was $212. I wished I put it on our Discover card as they have 5% cash back at home improvement stores. I didn't have mine with me. Found out later my husband had his (and he was with me), but I didn't ask him! That would have been another $10 in savings.

We have a rug under our kitchen table that I bought for $20 probably six years ago. It has always been in our basement and was purchased for that purpose. I had tried selling it before we moved. It is working for now, but I don't like it.

We also need a rug for our living area. We did see a few yesterday that would probably work, ranging from $328 to $398. They were at Lowe's. They are having 10% off their area rugs in stock until Aug 2. We would also get a 10% military discount after that. And if we actually use our Discover card this time, we could save even more.

When we first saw this rental home I liked the floors, but I didn't think about the cost I would incur to protect them. We did put little felt pads on the bottom of several pieces of furniture that will be directly on the floor, so not a requirement to have rugs everywhere!

Do you have large area rugs in your home to protect floors? Where have your purchased yours? Any rug tips?

I found out that we can pay tuition with a credit card, BUT there is a 2.75% convenience fee charged to the payment. I think I'll avoid this and just use our checking account when it comes time to make payments.

I need my daughter to grant me access to pay her tuition as a first step, otherwise it will all be on her. I'm guessing she will have no problem with granting the access.

I'm not sure exactly what the amounts billed will be yet or when the are due. I should have enough cash on hand at any time to make payments. I will likely reimburse us from her college savings after I know the amounts and they have been paid.

We received a payment for our temporary lodging expenses yesterday. The amount was $1550.50. This is less than the rent we actually paid for 30 days. But the Army made this payment based on their calculation for 10 days worth of lodging and meals. Works for me!

I can now make the final payment on our Citi Premiere card, which is under $800. That will make the balance zero. It should remain that way and we will get it closed in the near future.

I still have a running balance on our Citi Preferred card, maybe about $3K. This card has 0% interest, so I have been just paying what I can from paychecks. I will need to dip into savings soon to get it all paid off, which is fine. I haven't even used all the money the Army has sent yet.

I expect I can put at least $1500 on it today, and have another $500 available on pay day. Of course, we have our trip expenses, but some of that Army money is covering the trip. I'm finally feeling a little more in control of the cash inflows and outflows again.

It will be interesting to see how college and making payments feels in the next couple months! It's coming up fast.

We booked airline tickets for our entire family to go to Florida next week for three nights. The tickets were just $44.80 after using Southwest Rapids Rewards points and the companion pass I earned from last year. We also used points to get a rental car, which was free compared to taking a taxi or a shuttle service from the airport.

We are going to the Universal theme parks for three days. My youngest daughter is a BIG Harry Potter fan, thus she has been wanting to go for awhile. I did tell her it was possible this summer. I suddenly realized summer was winding down and her sister would be off to college. It was time to squeeze this trip in!

Our three day tickets for four people to park hop at Universal will be $604 with our military discount. We are saving $216 off gate admission with this benefit.

We are staying one night at a Fairfield Inn using Marriott points. The other two nights are going to be VERY pricey, but the benefits will be well worth the cost to our family. We are staying on site at one of the Deluxe resorts which will provide us early admission to the parks as well as an unlimited Express Pass for each of us for all three days. This will save us from waiting in some very long lines. So two nights for four people will cost us $695!! Yes. It is crazy. But since we are saving in so many other areas with reward points this money out of pocket will be in line with what we are willing to pay for this quick trip. A trip I know our girls will remember for a long time.

We will have some parking fees at the airport and on site at Universal. But the other big expense is going to be food. I'm going to look at some menu prices to see if I can get idea on that cost. It will be in the hundreds of dollars since it is theme park food!!

I made all these crazy plans before I told my girls. But at dinner I said I was working on a surprise and told them the trip plan! They were both excited and did remember I said we would probably go this summer. I'm glad I remembered to make it happen.

Anyone been to the Universal theme parks? Tips for us?

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?

Today was spendy. Not unexpected as I alluded in my last post. We spent $55 at the PostExchange on needs for the house. Then at the Commissary we stocked up on groceries and other needs spending $225. It seemed we got a lot for that money, too!

There was a stop at Lowe's for a plunger, felt furniture pads and a trash can. Not sure the price, maybe $40 or less.

We also bought our modem for our cable internet at Best Buy. We decided to purchase rather than pay $8 a month. We picked a modem which was priced at $71.99 on the shelf, but after a 10% discount and taxes came to $125! We questioned it, and then showed the cashier where we found it. Apparently stocked on the shelf wrong, but we got the price that was listed! That was a savings of nearly $55. Worked well for us. If they had not offered the same price we would have picked a less expensive modem.

Tomorrow might involve a meal out depending on if our kitchen items are unpacked! We have food, but might be hard to make it! Otherwise, I do hope it is a no spend day.

Oh, noticed one of my fairly new tires was low on air tonight. We refilled for now. Hoping if there is a leak it could be fixed. We don't need car issues at the same time we are moving!

Did you have a frugal weekend or were things a bit spendy for you as well?

I mentioned before we were probably going to sign up for cable at our new rental home. We have been able to get good over the air reception for the last 9 years. However, taking a look at the

digital tv reception map for our area shows we MIGHT be able to get PBS and ION television with an antenna. That's just not enough for us.

We are getting the basic local channels (20+) and 15Mbp internet, including the rental of two digital adapters for our televisions at a cost of $63.19 a month. We are going to buy our own internet modem to save the $8 rental cost. We might increase our internet speed if we find that we are having issues, but it seems better to start with less and work our way up if needed.

Our internet bill with taxes and fees at our last home was $71 a month. So we are actually saving a little money. We were offered a plan for double the internet speed, 200 channels, and home phone for $50 more a month. Tempting, but overkill, since we don't need a home phone (we have Ooma), and we definitely don't need 200 channels!

We are using Time Warner. Our costs are locked in for 12 months, but we were happy to hear we are not under any contract and can cancel at any time for no fee. I'm sure after 12 months we will need to get another 'deal' on pricing, but we will deal with that when the time comes.

I'm making a $50 donation today to an organization that has been helping my niece. It's a group home for women that have aged out of the foster system. It seems to have been a great thing for her. She's had some mental health issues along with parents who didn't know how to handle it well at all (dealing with their own issues). She is doing great now from what I can tell.

The organization had a fireworks stand to raise money, but I don't buy fireworks! And I wasn't in town to do so if I even wanted to. I promised a donation when she posted the fundraiser online. I forgot about it until this morning! They accept PayPal donations, so that makes it easy and skips the need to mail anything.

She recently said the organization needs more pots and pans and a vacuum. I don't know if that is where my money will go, but it gives me an idea what they are using some of the money for.

What organizations do you like to donate to?

I've set up electricity and water utility accounts today. The electricity charges a $10 membership fee since it is a co-op. They also charge a transfer fee which is $23.54. So we owe $33.54 before the electricity charges start. The water utility charges a $20 set up fee, which is also added to our first bill. Both will allow payments online (including credit cards) for free. The electric company was kind of to tell me our bill will always be due on the 10th of the month.

I still need to figure out who to use for internet! I can't decide. I did find out that we can use our own modem with Time Warner for internet. I think we are actually using our modem from our old house here in the apartment. Seems to work fine! It isn't on the 'approved' list though. That may mean buying one, but I know that will be cheaper than renting one.

I figure we can actually wait on the tv service for a bit. We watch more online than anything else it seems. Cable is a time suck for us that we really don't need. I'm very leery of adding cable to our lives!

I wonder how things are going for LAL and her move to the West?

I'll be calling to set up our new utilities for our rental home this week. The water and electricity should be easy. But I'm getting hung up on picking internet providers. I can choose between CenturyLink and Time Warner Cable. The owners of the home have used Time Warner and did mention needing to call to get the lower rate occasionally. I dislike this tactic, but will do it if needed.

We had CenturyLink in the past and didn't ever really have an issue with service. Although my husband said it was slow...which it was but that was over three years ago and in a different location. It wouldn't work for how we use service now, but I think they have faster options available.

We might need cable too, for basic channels. I'm definitely leery of committing to a contract on tv. It is changing so fast. We had used an antenna in our last state to get over the air channels for free. I checked the ability to get over the air service at our new location and it is not good. We might be lucky to get PBS and ION stations. I'd really just like local stations, but I'd prefer all of them! So now we are looking at basic cable and possible packages that bundle them with internet.

Decisions. Decisions.

Anyone have either of the above companies for internet or cable? Thoughts. I know most cable companies can get crappy reviews and are always adding on more fees. I hate that!!

I paid some miscellaneous charges on different credit cards this weekend. No interest was charged on any of these...because I don't EVER pay interest on credit cards.

Kohl's $44.48
Chase $8.54
US Bank $47.34
Target $305.25
Citi Govt $22.23

I also used snowflakes to pay $24.88 on our Citi Thank You card. I have around $560 left in our checking account to apply to recent purchases on both Citi cards. Once I figure which amounts should go to which card I will make those payments. Paying off current charges or any debt for that matter feels good!

We went grocery shopping at the commissary on post this weekend. I will say it seems prices are better there. I wouldn't have believed it after seeing prices at the Post Exchange which I think are inflated. For example a tub of butter I had been buying back home for $5.69 was $4! I bought turkey bacon (Oscar Meyer brand) for $1.50 that I would have easily paid $2.25 for previously. The commissary does add a 5% surcharge to help pay for future buildings and locations. We also need to tip the baggers (hate this part). Our tip was $3. Despite these extra fees, the total bill seems significantly less. I love that!

We are really close to post right now, but it will be a 20-25 minute drive from our rental home. Of course, my husband is on post every work day. I can get him to pick things up. I expect though we may shop here for most things if we can. I just need to have a lot of $1 bills on hand for tips, as well as plan well for our needs so I don't have to be making a lot of trips.

Still waiting on the reimbursement from the Army. I do hope the money arrives this week!

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?

We visited the local Botanical Garden in our new city. It was very nice...although super hot at 10am this morning when we visited. With our military discount, admission was $36 for four of us. I think we were there an hour outside. We decided we would visit again and decided to purchase a membership for the year. It was $75, we were able to apply our original admission to the membership. Total spent was $75, but will cover many new adventures at the Botanical Garden.

I can't wait to go back when it is cooler! Do you have a botanical garden in your town?

I've mentioned we had a big repair to do on our home before we could close. The buyer found mold growing on the ceiling of our unfinished basement storage room on the same day they saw our home and made their offer. Once we accepted the offer they told us about the mold they saw and wanted to make sure we would remedy it. Sure no problem. If we had been aware we would have taken care of it prior to putting it on the market.

It seems the consensus is it resulted from construction materials that were likely left out in the rain too many times before being put on. One board would have it but the next one would not. It was a bit odd really.

The problems really started when the buyer requested to bring his mold guy in to look at. The buyer, mold guy, my agent and I all met just under a week after the offer. The mold guy talked about his method to mitigate which was to test the type of mold, to use a mold killing agent, a white paint to seal the wood. The mold guy also suggested drilling into the ceilings of our finished basement to see if the mold continued. The buyers biggest issue was to make sure the mold was mitigated before they occupied the space and that they wouldn't need to disclose it to their buyer when they sell.

The bid came in and was a bit vague about costs, particularly those that had to do with investigating further into the finished areas. We didn't want to go that far as it seemed unnecessary and over the top to be drilling for mold that wasn't likely there. If the buyers wanted that work then we suggested they pay for it, and could even witness and control how far they went and it could be done before we closed.

Let's just say our negotiations at some point came to a standstill. We couldn't get them to agree to anything we threw at them. Their agent wasn't communicating with our agent or the buyers. We were technically out of contract at one point because they didn't sign in time. We were out of contract for SIX days!!

What fixed everything was that we decided to call another mitigation company, Service Master. We knew we would need to get the work done if we were going to put it back on the market, which is where it seemed we were headed. We got someone to come out and bid the job the same day we called(a Friday). The price was within the limits we were willing to pay, in fact slightly less. The work could start on the following Tuesday be done on Wednesday. Then an air quality test was done on Friday. We had our results on Tuesday and the air quality was passing!

I guess I should back up a bit. Service Master's bid was to use a mold killer (hydrogen peroxide), then seal with a clear coat, steam clean the room, run air cleaning fans and run an air quality test. No drilling of holes in our drywall! Service Master was very confident in their method and felt it would pass the air test the first time. So we sent yet another proposal, that we would treat the mold per SM recommendations and provide a passing air quality test as soon as available. The buyers wanted us to state we would cover any additional treatments necessary. We agreed to state that because we felt so confident the first fix was all that was needed. And it was!

Looking back, the real problem was that the buyer seemed to want their hands in picking the mold person, although he did tell me any mold remediation company would be fine. I did at one point call to get other estimates including Service Master who said there would be a $250 fee. I thought at the time, I'm not paying more when I have one bid for free. The fee would have been taken off if we had the work done by them. The mold guy the buyer chose was nice, but wishy washy in his bid, his time frame and at one point seemed to indicate he couldn't even get to the work in time for closing. It just got bad in so many ways!

Really, if we are paying for any work on our home before closing we should also get to choose who we are having do the work. The first mold guy should never have come out and I think things could have gone a lot better. We did offer cash to have the buyers do the work, but of course that was a no because they didn't want the work done while they owned the home because they would have to disclose. Ethically, since they know about the mold I feel they should still have to disclose. My agent says no.

I also found out our state has no laws regarding how mold should be remediated, no air quality standards, and even the health department indicated black mold (which this was not) wasn't any big deal and could just be cleaned up with bleach! So interesting.

There are way more details and drama I could tell, but it's too exhausting. We did take care of the mold it was handled by a professional and it was done in time for our originally closing date last Friday.

Our cost for the mold remediation: $2,854.72. Yep, that's one big repair bill! We put it on our Citi card to earn the rewards. Today, I paid nearly all of it off, I sent in $2,714.14, which was the amount I saved up for the repair. I was just a little short. I will likely pay the rest tomorrow with the house proceeds.

And the mold was the reason I left the AC running and set for 80 degrees when we left. I couldn't chance that the home would be getting too humid and cause another issue with mold. The cost has to have been minimal as the temperatures have been cooler there in the last week. The buyers did their walk through last night, and I haven't heard that anything was wrong so I expect closing to go super smooth tomorrow.

We paid the electrician that came to do a couple repairs on Monday. The bill was $87, which included a small fee for parts and tax. Two guys here for 15 minutes, but it was nearly half of what we were expecting.

Still one more repair bill to pay. We haven't seen that invoice yet, but we do have the bid so we have a general idea. I'm really hoping we have it tomorrow before we head out of town.

All utilities have been notified of our move. The gas is being turned off tomorrow, the water will be turned off before we leave, internet gets turned off Friday, and the electricity will keep going until we close on the house, hopefully in ten days or less. I think I will set it for 78 degrees...maybe 80 if it is going to hot during that time frame.

It will be nice to get the final bills of all the utilities and have them paid before we move into the rental home in July.

I was reading the forums and was alerted to the fact that Target gift cards from online resell sites are selling for less than face value by at least 8.5%. I went looking and noticed that ZenGiftCards is selling them for 10.5% off. I have not used ZenGiftCards, but I have used Cardpool.com and Raise.com to make purchases. Do you own due diligence before making purchases with companies you aren't familiar with!

Target gift cards online are always eCodes. This generally means that the gift cards can only be used online. However if you have the Target app (not Cartwheel) than you can upload the gift card to the app and show the gift card on your app to use it in the stores.

I really want to buy one, but I'm a little hesitant deciding how much. Right now I shop there all the time primarily for groceries. With the move this will change, thus probably less spending at Target. However, I'm thinking there will be some college expenses to purchase there.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up if you are a big Target shopper and want to save even more than you might on your Red Card.

We had some electrical work done yesterday for our buyers. Two men came in and took care of the work in less than 15 minutes. They indicated we would get an invoice by email, so as a result we didn't pay them! Strange way to operate a business don't you think?

I've emailed the company. The response was, "I should get to that today, or maybe tomorrow." They must be way understaffed. It really can't take that long to invoice me can it?

We need the invoice to show the buyers we have completed the repairs we agreed to. I also just want to get them paid, so I don't have one more thing to think about.

We also have another larger bill to pay, but that work is not yet complete (fingers crossed it is today). I hope they will have an invoice for us today too. Not that I want to pay a large bill, but I do have the cash set aside for it.

I do highly recommend at least 2% of your home's list price built up in cash because things do come up. You may not need that much but it sure feel better when you do.

I can't wait to be done with this house sale, so I can really work the numbers to see how we fared financially.

Have you had a company invoice you later for work done? Or do you find most repairs are paid immediately upon completion?

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.

I took our oldest cat to the vet today. I went primarily to get her rabies vaccination since we could need it as we move into another state. I also wanted to ask them why she wasn't sitting anymore. I was pretty sure it was because she is overweight, but wanted to make sure. Yep, our kitty (who is 10 years old) has put on at least 2 pounds! She was overweight before those pounds.

I think a somewhat recent food change is the result unfortunately. And I know that it is hard for cats to lose weight, but I think we'll try our best to assist her. My vet suggested cutting the food amount in half, supplementing with tuna and green beans(if she would eat them). He said the hardest part is going to be tolerating her when she is hungry! I know exactly what he means. Cats are relentless. It will probably be feeding her small amounts but more frequently.

He also prescribed a transdermal gel called Amitriptyline for 10 days. We are to give it the five days before the move, each day we are traveling and finish up once we arrive to our new destination. Cost was $12 per cat. The also gave me free samples of Feliway wipes to wipe on their cages each day. I guess some sort of calming pheromone.

In total I spent $72 at the vet today. I have another appointment for our other cat to get vaccinated for rabies next week. So a little more money needed for that.

What tips do you have to keep a cat calm in the car? Anyone ever heard of a cat losing weight? My vet said he hasn't.

I have just over $1000 from this past payday that I should have sent in to our Citi credit card balance. It would have brought the balance to around $500. But I didn't do it.

We have a rather large repair coming up on the home before we can close on our home. It was definitely unexpected on this new home, but it may cost us $1500 to $2000. And I'm not sure they take credit cards. So in an effort to have enough cash on hand that I don't have to move from another account I'm holding on to this cash.

I'd really, really like to pay it on the credit card, and maybe I still will.

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!

My husband mentioned the other day he wants to see the account balances when he returns home (just days away now). Our Citi credit card statement just closed and was about $500 more than the last balance I was aware of. Some of it is my spending, but most was my husband. And yes a little bit is even from last month.

So this morning I sent him a PDF of the statement. I just said he could add up his own spending portion and left it at that. I didn't even add it up myself because what is spent is spent.

His response was 'Ugh. It's like an intervention. I'm trying to reduce my spending.' And I literally laughed out loud. I had no idea that just sending him one credit card statement would be considered an intervention!

He did just buy new running shoes for over $130. He runs nearly 5 miles a day, so they wear out pretty fast. I did encourage him to buy them when he said his feet hurt. We don't need foot or knee problems to deal with. Of course, he didn't have the coupons I have here at home, and he did throw on three more t shirts for $9 each. I think if he can get his eating out under control it would be good.

So now he knows. The more one knows the better one can do...at least let's hope!

We have some activities this weekend that will charge us admission. I have the cash on hand already.

$14 admission for two tonights musical at the high school. My daughter is playing her flute and piccolo in the pit.

$11 admission for three to listen and view large group band performances tomorrow. Each daughter is participating, but I think I will need to pay for them to view each other.

I have food for us to eat here at the house before and between the events. I'm hoping that is all I need to spend money on this weekend...well maybe more fuel to get us around town.

Other than a parking fee for graduation I think we are done paying admission for the school year. At least I hope so! It does add up.

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 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.

We signed the lease agreement for the home we will be living in. We move in July 13. We also paid the deposit and first month's rent which is prorated for July. We did have to pull this money from our savings since that is a lot of cash! When we get paid in July we will pay it back, of course.

I don't actually think they are going to cash the check until they give us the keys, but just in case that money is in our account.

I'm working on getting bills paid with our May 1 paycheck. I hope to report more debt paid off and all the snowflakes earned in April soon!

I saw this

blog post on My Money Blog about how homeowner's insurance should be painfully high. I do have to agree. And increasing it over time as finances get better is a great idea. I think increased ours last year to over $2K. If we weren't moving to a rental I'd do it again. Instead we will now need renter's insurance! I'll need to get a quote on that soon (we are signing that lease tomorrow).

My husband announced to me yesterday that he had a no spend day! It's a miracle. I told him I'd mention it on my blog so you can all congratulate him. He's been on a restaurant spending spree lately. So he is trying to reign it in.

We are expecting another offer tonight on our home. The third one in less than 24 hours. It is exciting but it sure is stressful. Once it is all cleared up for us I will be sure to know. I can honestly say my agent is motivated and is definitely earning her money! And I'm also super glad we hired her.

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.

First some home news. Our radon levels on the house came back lower than the amount that would have required us to pay for mitigation. This means we don't have to pay a $600 bill to have that kind of work done. That makes me happy!

We did have to have a roofer out AGAIN to fix a leak (same issue we had in the past). He said he's 99% sure that the problem has been corrected. Gee I hope so. That cost was $85. This was in our original disclosure, and this new issue is being disclosed as well. Buyers inspection is Monday. We may have a possible drywall repair, which I'm fine with...but of course not happy about. It's a pretty new home!

I have a penny in our US Bank Checking account. Since I want to close that account, I made a $0.01 payment from the checking account to the US Bank Visa. This seemed easier than have a check cut for a penny (not sure if they would even do that).

I have confirmed that future deposits of my husband's pay have been cancelled as I requested. Next step is to request cancellation of the actual account. I'm hoping a simple email will do it, but US Bank isn't exactly easy to work with online from a customer service stand point.

Have you ever made such a small payment to a credit card? Do you know about Radon Gas?