My husband purchased a one way plane ticket home, the day before graduation for $320. He also bought travel insurance for $21. Not really happy about that. He also put it on our Discover card, but our I think our Citi card would have offered better rewards for an airline ticket. He gets so confused by all the rewards, so I just have to let it go. I'm looking forward to seeing him so that's the best part. He will be off work until our household goods are packed on the moving truck. We will all drive east together mid June!

I've requested that our Wells Fargo Propel Amex card be cancelled. I sent a secure email message. I need it cancelled before mid May to avoid being charged their hefty $175 annual fee. I did get that final reward of $25 and it just credited yesterday making the balance on the card $0! It was zero, but I accidentally make a charge to that card. All good now.

We have been having $500 deposited to a US Bank checking account each month from my husband's pay. I originally set this up to earn a $200 reward for opening the account. I'm pretty sure I'm going to cancel the account, but the first step was to get the deposit from happening. I made that request on the military pay site. It should be effectively stopped on May 1. So a cancel request will happen after that. The only other thought is to keep the account until after closing. Since there is a local branch our proceeds could just be deposited there, rather than a wire to our online bank (which often can cost $50!). A detail to look into and decide about.

It will feel good to lessen the number of credit cards and accounts we have open. Have you done a financial clean up lately?

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.

Spent the weekend out of town. It was a mini vacation with extended family. We met at a hotel for two nights ($222 with taxes) I paid for one meal out for the entire group ($90 including tip). There was admission to one venue ($26 after our military discount). I paid for parking ($5). There was one other meal out for the girls and I ($20). And finally, the gas for my van ($40).

That is over $400! I think it was well worth the time to spend with family since we will be much farther apart in the future. And it could have been much more if we had picked a different location or different activities. We did have a visit to an art museum and a park that were completely free. There was a lot of swimming in the hotel pool as well.

In addition to the above trip expenses, I did purchase a swimsuit for my youngest daughter ($40, good quality) so she could swim. She had outgrown her last suit. I also stocked up on three spices we use ALL the time at the store I purchase them from. That was $55! Again, I stocked up and expect these will last over a year.

Now, I'm hoping for a really low spend week for the days ahead. How was your weekend? Was your weekend spendy like mine? Or did you get away with a frugal one?

Pay should be pending in our bank account this morning, but the entire banking portion of our bank is down! It's really not fun to see no money when you log into your bank. Thank goodness there was notification at the top of the page or I would be in a panic!

I'm about to send off our $638 we owe to the IRS. I saved up each week since the beginning of January to accumulate the cash. I'm glad I did because it makes it so much easier to write that check. The will clear up $105 each paycheck going forward.

I ordered another part for our dishwasher since over time it doesn't seem the first part worked. It is a motor assembly this time, so more expensive, but less than having a repair man out to do it, plus the part would be inflated. I'll be doing this one all by myself, but I've already taken it apart once and put back together. I was checking to see if something was stuck in there causing the noise. If this part doesn't work, I can return it at my expense. If doesn't work, I honestly don't know what else it could be...there really isn't much to a dishwasher and I've taken the whole thing apart! I ordered the part yesterday and it should be here today...and that was with their basic shipping charge of $6.95.

I also have a handyman coming over to look at my roof. I found to shingles on the driveway yesterday and can see one still on the roof that isn't attached. It had been pretty windy the day prior. He expects it to cost right at $100. Money well spent likely. Super glad he can come today as we are expecting a lot of rain tomorrow night!

Pictures for our listing will be taken tomorrow afternoon. I really have put nearly everything away. A few landscape pictures remain, but I have take down decor to make it just seem as neutral as possible. I think it will help it show well in the pictures. I did tell the girls they could get somethings back out after pictures if needed or wanted. And after we have an offer they can get more out to keep it like our home until we move.

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.

My daughters and I all need glasses. I actually wear contacts. I went to the eye doctor on Friday while they were still in school. They each have appointments on different days this week during spring break.

The basic exam is covered by our insurance but there is no other vision insurance to cover contact lens exams, contacts or glasses. In other words we pay for these out of pocket. I paid $60 for my contact exam. My contacts are on order for about $180. I think one time I was able to order online for about $90 for the pair, unless I was only buying one...which is a possibility. The doctor won't write me a prescription until he sees how these lenes work, which means I will have already purchased them. I do get a refund if they don't. The thing is I've been wearing these contacts since I was in high school. I'm pretty sure they will work!

The girls will not have contacts to purchase just glasses. We did get glasses online one time and that worked really well. We will likely look around for the right frame and price before we commit. I generally like to spread these costs out, but decided that since all of us were overdue for an exam, I wanted to get them done now before the move.

So the point of my post is we will be able to see clearly, but it is going to cost us...which means more money flowing out. I think my 52 Week Challenge money is going to cover these costs. I have $285 right now, which covers the cost I just incurred. I will use savings to pay for the girls glasses, but pay myself back using the 52 Week Challenge money which is $57 twice per month. It may take me four months to pay myself back, but at least the money is figured out.

I remember at one time thinking I should save about $800 to $1000 year to cover vision costs. I haven't set it up. Part of the 52 Week Challenge money could be our vision fund. Maybe the remainder should be our vet fund, or oil changes in our vehicles. Something I will be considering. Really I can usually cash flow this stuff, but the spending lately is sky high!

Do you have vision insurance? What is covered? Do you save for your vision expenses?

Did those of you with a cell phone bill and an American Express card see the latest offer? Charge your cell phone bill of $75 or more and get a $10 credit. Up to three times!! That's $30.



I currently charge our large cell phone bill for four people with Verizon to my US Bank card for 5% cash back. I'm currently hoarding my rewards with them to get a $25 bonus for redeeming $100 or more. This will be the last time I can do that as they are ending that bonus offer at the end of the year.

However, this Amex offer is better than 5% cash back. I have

read that others have been able to make multiple charges for the same bill when their bill is over the $75 and get the $30 credit in one month. However, it could be spread out over three months if one had a bill closer to the $75 range.

My plan is to make three separate charges for our upcoming Verizon bill (it is generally $246!) and get all $30 in one month. I did just make a change to our data plan, so I already have some credits coming our way and a lower bill in the future by $7. If this months bill is under $225, I will need to break up the payments. Likely two $75 charges this month, the remainder to the US Bank card, and then next month, one $75 payment to American Express, and the remainder to US Bank for the 5% reward.

I need to check and see if my husband has this offer on his American Express. Just checked, he does have this offer and it was already added...I just forgot. If so I can do this offer on his card after doing it on mine, since it is available until July. Some people on that forum link above paid cell phone bills of other people to get the offer!

I'm excited because this lower bill on our cell phone bill will help offset that really high electric bill we have this month!

Do you have this American Express offer? Will you use it or did you already use it?

My husband made it to our new hometown late yesterday. He is on the east coast and made it ahead of all the storm stuff brewing out there! I feel less stressed now that he is there safely. He is now MORE stressed that he is there because of needing to acclimate to new surroundings and people. We will survive.

I haven't checked on his expenses yet. It was one night in a hotel, gas and food. I know he took cash out in case of tolls also. The good news on those expenses they will get reimbursed. Hopefully quickly!!

I had lunch with another soldiers wife yesterday. Spent nearly $20 on lunch and tip, but we hung out at the restaurant for nearly 3 hours! I always love a nice social lunch.

I have an eBay buyer wanting to return an items. They weren't the size she thought they were. It's not clothing and I don't think I had measurements on the listing, but she didn't ask before buying either. I have offered to take them back, she pays shipping and I refund purchase price only. Personally, she would be ahead to try to list them herself for sale. If she returns them to me at her expense, she is out nearly $20 in shipping! And she only paid $11 for the item. We will see what she does!

How is the weather on the east coast for those of you that way? Are you expecting any reimbursements? Have you returned a purchase to an eBay seller before?

Seriously! Our electric bill is nearly double from last month, which was $132. This month it is $255!! Last month's bill was for 37 days, but was only an estimate based on the usage of the month before. This was for 27 days.

I thought last month seemed low considering the temperatures. I don't remember it being an estimate, but apparently it was.

This just adds to my stress of money flowing out. We can pay the bill, but the outflows just feel out of control!

Were any of your utilities estimated this winter? Have your bills increased with the lower temperatures?

My husband's new job might put him in situations where he needs to dress business casual at times, rather than in uniform. Since he rarely dresses that way I wanted to make sure he had something current to wear when the need arises.

My plan was a pair of dress slacks, two shirts and a pair of shoes. I was hoping to spend $100 or less.

It didn't happen. What happened was, he saw my desire to take him shopping as a shopping spree. I did try to explain to him what I thought he needed. In the end I just went with it because honestly it has been years since he had new clothes. I just hope he actually wears this stuff!

He got a sport coat, two shirts, a tie, a pair of shoes, one pair of dress slacks, and a belt from Kohl's for $265! I started joking with him at one point if he needed a tie clip, a new wallet and handkerchiefs too. At least those items were not needed. We did get 15% off and I used my rewards card which netted me a $15 reward.

Guess what? Once he heard I had that reward and $10 off a $25 men's apparel purchase he suddenly needed new jeans. Well he did NEED new jeans...there was a hole in the crotch. I was expecting to buy one pair, but his mind says if one pair is good, I might as well stock up and get two! He and I really do think differently at times. Another $50 spent at Kohl's the next day after the big splurge.

It sounds like I'm complaining, I'm sure. Logically, I know we can afford these purchases and they are needed and should all get used. Emotionally, it was overkill in the amount of things he needed to buy and the outflow of cash right now is just stressing me out! I want it to stop. I think he isn't tuned into the cash flow, so that is something to work on and figure out how to communicate better about.

Have you spent over $300 on clothes recently? What did you get?

We met with a realtor on Friday about selling our home. The good news is that our home has appreciated since we bought it, by enough to cover the commission. And it should sell FAST. Two homes on our street have had offers in the last two months in 10 days or less!

This realtor will definitely do her work likely earn her commission. But when I see that huge number, I feel a bit sick to my stomach. That money could cover a year of college!

We have not yet agreed to have this realtor be our agent, so we could still officially do our own marketing and sell on our own. We have never done that before and likely won't. We did know how much a realtor cost when we bought, so this isn't new information. We even figured this cost in when we bought. It's just seeing that big number on a piece of paper that bothers me.

The agent wants to have it listed by the beginning of April, just after Easter. My biggest concern is listing too soon and having people see it but not want to wait to close until mid June. Although I would think families would be good with this if they have school age children. My preference is the last week of April. We are still discussing and really just need to firm up a trip to our new state first.

The other good news is we should easily walk away with $12-13K. The paying down of the mortgage has made a big difference in that regard.

The S&P 500 closed at a record high again today. I can't wait to look at our balances. I look when things are up and ignore it when the are down. So to me it seems like the market is always up when I look at our balances.

My husband ordered another Army Service Uniform (Dress Blues) for work and a new pair of shoes. I was expecting over $400. I was wrong. Just $360 including alterations and the shoes. I like it when things are less than I expect, even if only by $40.

Tonight we need to pick up cat food and maybe pick up more items at Lowe's with our credit. Otherwise we will stay in and stay warm and maybe catch a movie on Netflix. We signed up again, since my husband has found any things he likes during our free trial. I think it has been nearly three years since we had a subscription with them.

Will you check your retirement and investment balances now that the market closed at an all time high? Do you subscribe to Netflix or other services for entertainment?

Hmm. I thought I posted today or yesterday. It's seems I was last here on my own blog on Sunday. Time is flying!

I earned enough points with Bing to redeem for 500 Swagbucks. I now have over 2100 Swagbucks, so I'm close to another $25 Paypal deposit.

I completed a Pinecone Survey on Friday and I was credited my 300 points for that today (three more surveys until I can cash out). It seems I may be getting a sample for that survey as I see FedEx is showing I'm getting a package from them soon. For the life of me I can't remember what the product was I did the survey on!

The bill for our garage door maintenance arrived. I was expecting about $60, it was $104! Honestly, I would have tried another company, but I left my husband in charge on that one. It's done now and I wrote the check. It will be in tomorrow's mail.

The money is going out much faster than it is coming in...at least from snowflakes!

The truck repairs that we took care of over the weekend cost us $381. The tires and alignment on my van were $818 on Friday. I'd say the money is flowing out because there are more expenditures.

We made our first $200 deposit toward my daughter's housing contract. Another $200 will be due before May 1.

We had simple maintenance done on one of our garage doors on Friday in preparation for the move. It sounds much quieter now. We are being billed for that, so not sure what that total is yet...maybe $60 for a service call. I'd love it to be less.

Today, we had a roofer stop by to check our roof because we had a leak last June when we had a really bad rain storm. We even had a little mold growing soon after, but a wipe of bleach put a stop to it. The wall is hard, so it doesn't seem to be a major thing. Since we are selling we wanted to get it checked. Turns out some flange was installed upside down on a vent up there, but of course the other three are fine! As a result it creates a well to HOLD water if rains and instead of just running off. He said it is usually only an issue in a heavy storm. And that was a really heavy storm back in June. So he will install the correct part the right way and charge us $125. And he can do it tomorrow! We only just called him this afternoon. And I will use caulk and some paint on hand to clean it all up so it will look like it never happened!

We also got notice that my daughter should take $150 to $200 cash with her on her band trip to Disney World. I'm pretty sure most of this will be her own money, but some of it is to cover meals, so we may fund that portion.

So...we are definitely spending money here! How about you is money flowing out fast for you, or are you actually able to keep some?

I plan to offer my

Giveaway on Wednesday this week. And based on the interest of that post, you may have a very good chance to win!

It is so strange for me to wait this long into the year to really post financial goals. However, this upcoming move has distracted me with other things to think about.

As of today, our goals for 2015 are:

Maximize our Roth IRA contributions.
Save 8% to TSP (may actually increase to 10%).
Save $2000 for each daughter for college.
Continue my 52 week savings (which is $57 per pay period, or $114 per month)
Pay down $5000 in mortgage equity end of June 2015.
Use snowflakes to pay off $1386 in credit card debt on two 0% interest cards.

The retirement and college investments are set up on automatic withdrawal, so those are easy. Right now I'm manually saving the $57 each pay period. I did it automatic last year, so that may work out again this year, too.

The paying off $5000 in mortgage equity will be a combination of things. I'm currently adding $104.94 to our mortgage payment towards principal. It makes for a nice even mortgage payment. This means we pay off more than $585 each month. For six months, that pays down $3510 on our mortgage. That means I'm short of the goal by $1490, or $248.33 per month. Last month, I set aside that amount and will continue to do so through June. By the way the end of June is the deadline, as I'm going to guess that is the month we will close on this house when it sells. I do realize that isn't a sure thing, but one can hope it goes that smoothly!

I've mentioned a couple times we have debt on two credit cards. They are at zero percent and resulted from some bigger purchases. From what I can tell the Wells Fargo balance was $700 at the beginning of this year. It is now at $415.94. The Citi TY card was at $686.27 and is now at $636.27. So I have already found $334 worth of found money/snowflakes to apply to this goal, leaving $1052 to go. I may get impatient with these debts and just pay them off, but for now this is the plan! I will try to get better at tracking them and letting you know the progress, too.

The truck is still in the repair shop this morning getting a sensor replaced and a new battery. We are looking at another $300 spent there. With my tires and alignment the day before, we will have spent $1100 in car maintenance in two days. Happy for savings for these types of things. (And thinking my 52 week savings will simply help the savings account recover from this expense)

Am I the last one to post my goals for 2015? How are you doing with your goals? Has anyone had to revise your goals?

We had new tires installed on my van today. We also had it aligned since it seemed to have been a few years. The damage to our pocketbook was $818. We did charge it to our Citi Thank You Preferred card which we currently have zero interest on. I expect I will the expense paid off pretty quickly however.

We also have the truck in this afternoon to have it checked for sensor that seems to be coming one while driving. The truck is also getting a new battery, as it is having difficulty starting in the really cold weather.

I did get my PayPal deposit from Swagbucks today. I have now requested a transfer of the money in my PayPal account to our checking. I'm going to make a payment (all from recent snowflakes) to the Wells Fargo card in the amount of $44.15. The card balance will be around $416 after the payment.

Ibotta, a rebate app, requires a $10 minimum in order to cash out. I reached $10.75 today after getting a $1 rebate for something my husband bought. I debated about just cashing out for the even $10, but decided I didn't want to leave any money on the table, so I cashed out for my entire balance.

It does seem to take awhile to accumulate likely because I'm not always buying what they have rebates for. I do find Ibotta better than Checkout 51. With Checkout 51, the minimum to cash out is $20! I only have a balance of $11.25. I have a ways to go. This week the only thing I likely could get a rebate for is $0.25 for carrots or salad mix. If I decide to buy a cereal they have offered I could add another $1. Again...slow earnings.

The money for my Ibotta cash out was instant to my PayPal account. No waiting at all! I'm leaving it there to see if my Swagbucks money is deposited today or tomorrow. If so, I can make just one transfer instead of two.

We got our dishwasher part today! I just ordered it yesterday (paying only for standard shipping). It clearly was breaking apart and we do think it is quieter, just not quite as quiet as I was remembering or expecting. No regrets on the part change out which took about 25 minutes at the most from start to finish. I'm just hoping there isn't another issue.

We spent just over $20 for some home maintenance items at Menard's today. Stain and poly spray for a door we are cleaning up, iron out for a stain around our water heater. grout for a small area that needs to be filled in our master bathroom, and some magic erasers (trying to clean up my laundry tub).

I'm thankful that we don't have big repairs to take care of. We will need caulk for some areas around the house. We will wait on that until it gets warmer. We will also be doing some painting (just touch ups), but we have all the paint we need for those!

Do you use a rebate shopping app? Which one do you like? Anyone else doing any home maintenance?

Our furnace has been acting up since Saturday. We have had three different service people here in the last four days (same company). In the end we were charged for a service call and the labor for two parts, the parts themselves were under warranty. In all we spent $250 to get our furnace running properly.

Now for us, we have the money and I'm glad it is running. But it is three years old!! That is a lot of money for some people. Some people spend that much on groceries in a month. It just makes me sad that things need to be so expensive.

Now maybe we have some fancy model of furnace. Not sure that we do but it is newer with 'codes' to tell you what the problems are and so forth. So there may be additional expense there.

How much have you spent on furnace repairs in recent years?

We got another band fundraiser! Twenty five percent of the profits go to the child's band or choir trip fund. In the three years we have been in this district and participated in the fundraisers we have earned $80 for my daughter's trip. Glad to have it, but it doesn't add up fast at all.

It seems most of the sales have been to my parents or my husband's coworkers. Since my husband's last week of work here is THIS week (and we only found out today), there is no point in selling to them. My parents don't need more stuff and would probably rather give straight to my daughter for souvenirs (not that they even need to do that). So we are skipping it completely. So much simpler really!

I'm waiting for the furnace repair people to call sometime today. Our furnace has decided to shut down once or twice a day since Saturday. We can always get it back on by turning the thermostat off and then back on. A service person was here Monday afternoon but since it was working they were not 100% sure of the fix. We decided to wait and look for some codes that appear on the unit when it fails to help diagnose the issue. Well we have those codes, so hopefully once someone comes the issue can be fixed.

Has your furnace been working this season? Are you a believer in fundraisers or not?

I issued a challenge on

Your Organized Friend to declutter 15 items today. Join in!

We finally took the plunge and bought a new fridge today. I think I mentioned the possibility of purchasing a stainless steel one in the past to match our current appliances, and possibly include it in our home sale.

We bought one that nearly matches our current one in size, just 20.5 cubic feet of volume. It is still a top freezer model too. Odd considering how so many of them are the french door style, right?

The sale price was $808 at Lowe's. We got 10% off with our military discount and then added another 7% back on for sales tax. Final price was $778.10.

We actually bought Lowe's gift cards for about 8.5% off the face value. We purchased them at

Raise and the printable vouchers were instantly emailed to me! In the end we bought too much because the ice maker that we were told was $50 was discounted to $25.72, but then rung up free since we bought it with a qualifying refrigerator! We still have $50.43 on gift cards.

The gift cards we purchased were valued at $828.53, but cost us $757.64 out of pocket. Definitely worth it! I really need to buy discounted gift cards for things more often.

The new refrigerator will be here Sunday. Our current one still works great, but the plastic handles smell awful in warm weather or if you get too close. I think the time the fridge spent on the moving truck for three weeks in July baked all of our hand oils and other grime right in. And we have tried numerous things to clean them. (Sorry kind of gross I know). We also realized it is probably more than 10 years old!! It could be sold for cash. However, the plan right now is to keep things simple and let Lowe's haul our old one away. As I write this though it is tempting to post it on Craigslist to pick up on Saturday. If not picked up that day then it could still be hauled away on Sunday.

How old are your appliances? Have you sold your old appliances for cash or let them get hauled away?

We hosted former neighbors at our home this weekend. They wanted to see the show choir events happening at my girls high school. Admission is pricey for show choir compared to marching band!! We paid $32 for three of us to get in today.

We did get our money's worth however. We saw eight different shows, which is nearly four hours worth of entertainment. We had a super time! One of the choirs was our varsity team. They were at the very end of the day (evening), my girl actually went back up to school to see them. They did fabulous!

I would have rather not spent the $32 plus the money we spent on food for lunch in the cafeteria, but we had a super time. I can say the money was well spent!

Thanks for all the support and good wishes regarding our move. My husband will be moving sooner than I would have liked and that makes me sad. I prefer to all go together. But I have time to work on all the logistics and feelings the move means. I was actually proud of myself for admitting how sad I am being so far from my college bound daughter. And also I'm sad for my youngest daughter basically needing to move so far with us and be an 'only child'. The truth is she would be home with us the next three years by herself regardless of where we are, but it just feels far! And that makes me sad. I'm pretty good at dismissing emotions...which is NOT healthy, so I'm proud of myself for recognizing it!!

One of you has lived in the state we are moving to. I'm sorry I need to be vague. I may consider disclosing briefly and then deleting, but the Army is big on our social media security and it is really for our safety that I don't. I want to, I really do!!

Did you pay for any entertainment this weekend? Was it a one time expense like mine? Did you do something for free?

First, I'm a little slow on my 2015 goals, just like The Deacon's Wife. I will get there. Officially the first paycheck for 2015 isn't until mid month for us, so we have time.

Yesterday our only spending was $5 at the gas station, but we used a gift card to pay for that little soda splurge. We needed a pick me up during our filing cabinet purging. I have a post on that at

Your Organized Friend.

Today we expect to get haircuts and shop for a calendar for my youngest daughter. I want a calendar too, but not sure if it is a need. I do use it to notice when dates are but tend to record most things on my online calendar.

We also plan to go to the music store today or this weekend. We have a credit with them after purchasing the most recent flute. It is $157. Equal to 10% of our purchase price. It must be used in January. It going to be a shopping spree at the music store! Some of it will go to purchasing music we know we need, but the rest is up for grabs. I'll let you know what we end up with.

I'm close to getting enough Swagbucks to redeem for $25 in PayPal cash. I decided to go for the cash for awhile, so I can put that money directly toward two credit cards we are paying off. The each have about an $800 balance (no worries, no interest accruing). I should have them paid off in a few short months, or tomorrow if I decide to just use cash on hand!

The CD we have with NFCU is 5% interest on our $5000 balance. We earned almost as much interest on that money last month, as we did on nearly $35K in our money market. I do regret I didn't get some of that money invested into a CD two years ago. With an upcoming move, and the intention of using some of it towards the next down payment I will wait to do anything.

Do you use a wall or other paper calendar? Or just digital? Do you have paper to purge? What is the highest interest rate you are earning on your savings?

Remember that group gift I wrote about for my mother in law? In the end we were to all give her $70. We mailed a check. As far as I know, it all went fine.

Because we didn't attend my husband's family's Christmas gathering, my mother in law sent us a check...for $80! She bought a small gift for my husband which I know cost $11 and was in with the check. Her check indicated the $80 was for me and my two daughters. Huh? Okay, she is nearly 80 years old so maybe what she wrote wasn't what she meant. In the end we deposited the check and split the money between our two daughters. I did make the suggestion to my husband that the four of us split it with $20 each or just use it for something fun together. He liked the idea of the girls getting the money, so that is what we did.

So nearly even gifts! Checks crossing in the mail. Thoughtful huh? It's all good really. Just weird!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my SA friends and readers! I hope you all take some time off from thinking about money and enjoy time with family or friends. The time spent enjoying others company can't be bought and it one of life's true gifts.

I also encourage you to consider attempting a no spend week or low spend week as we wrap up the year. This means avoiding those clearance sales after Christmas. Unless you need the item, it probably isn't worth it. The only thing I would actually buy after the holiday is the sturdy kind of wrapping paper since I ran out this year.

I'm making a grocery trip today for the last items we need for our holiday meal and hosting of family. I will guess I will go one more time before the year ends, too. Otherwise, I'm staying out of the stores for the rest of the year!

Next week, after our guests have left, I plan to write some posts about the success of our financial year and the goals for 2015. I always like reading those from others, so join in, yes even those of you who are lurking out there. Blogging about your finances can be very motivating!

Again, Merry Christmas!

My youngest daughter asked me a couple days ago if it was too late to ask for a Wii game for Christmas. I said it might be. I was pretty sure I was done with all my shopping.

Quite a few of her gifts, primarily T shirts, were still to arrive in the mail. Yesterday, the last package arrived. And then I began wondering if I had semi equivalent gifts for my girls. I made a list of what I had and what I spent. I even had to open some gifts I had already wrapped! It turns out I had spent $175 on my oldest and $110 on my youngest. I budget for about $150 each. I was within budget, but a little off on the equality.

In the end I found two Wii games for about $15 each. One at Target. And the other on eBay that should arrive on Wednesday.

I think she will be pleased with a couple of new games. And I'm glad it came up so I could reevaluate what she was getting.

Today I will wrap and rewrap the gifts I opened! I did end up needing to buy a roll of wrapping paper. I used up all the leftover wrapping we had left.

Other money tidbits: I did get the $200 bonus from US Bank, my PayPal money from Swagbucks arrived quickly, I tried my Bing reward code again and it worked!

Have you realized at the last minute you were low on gifts for a child?

I've been writing over at

Your Organized Friend this past month about holiday preparations and making lists. Please come check it out, and don't forget you can sign up for updates by email. I don't get or see that information, so you are anonymous!

We had new brakes installed on my van today. I thought we were getting new pads on the rear, and then thought my husband said both front and back. In the end we just got front end brakes! Cost about $197.

I did get a call from US Bank's Customer Care today confirming I was eligible for the $200 reward. It was not credited automatically from their end because my account did not have the promotion code on it. They do know I was offered the promotion and I had offered the code in my original email. In the end I will be credited the reward by the end of business tomorrow!

The brake cost is offset by the reward! Basically a wash. I like it when that happens.

Our youngest cat seems to have a UTI. It's not confirmed, but you can all guess the problems with that. The vet was not in his office, and our cat was in for a similar issue soon after we moved. They prescribed an antibiotic for the next 7 days. If not better by then she will go in for a recheck, otherwise at least another seven days of antibiotics after that. Cash out the door today was just over $20.

I took a Pinecone survey today. Another $3 coming my way soon. I also redeemed Bing Rewards for a Swag code this morning. It was sent pretty quickly but when I went to enter it in on the Swagbucks site it shows as invalid!! I did sent a help request to Bing about it. Hopefully it is fixed fast!

I redeemed Swagbucks yesterday for $25 in Paypal cash. I guess that could be considered a help to cash I'm sending my mother in law for Christmas.

We are giving the flute teacher a gift of a $10 Panera gift card (earned through MyPoints), a lotion bought on clearance last year, and a few candies. Last lessons of the year today!

I found a penny on my basement floor and a nickel in a parking lot yesterday. It does help to look down to find such things!

I was notified by Citi about their Price Rewind program that pays you back if they find a lower price. This got me to think about our flute purchase we made last month. I haven't found a lower price, but I came across a rebate! It is $50, so I filled it out and put in the mail this morning. I remember seeing it at the store, but the employees made no mention that the one we bought qualified. I also didn't think to ask, just glad I came upon it now!

The tires and flute purchased in the last couple months are being carried on two different zero interest credit cards right now. We do have the cash to pay, but I've been waiting for the cash flow from the raise to catch up and help. With payday yesterday the tires are paid off after a $708 payment! I paid $307 towards the flute.

I completed our 52 Week Savings Challenge at the beginning of December. I had been stashing that money in our Capital One 360 Savings account. Most that money has been used to pay for my daughter's band trip this spring. I ended up with an extra $423 in the account, which I'm going to use to pay towards the flute. After I apply that payment later this week, we will owe just $806.

I have made sure to set aside some cash in our checking account to pay for the $250 admission fee to the University my is choosing to attend. I also set aside the balance we will owe for senior pictures, $210. Both of these will be charged on a credit card for points, but it is nice to have the money set aside to pay for them when due.

I did end up return a few items bought for potential gifts. I returned a pair of slippers, a spa kit, a makeup kit and two pairs of men's socks (one had hot dogs on them!). I did keep the four rugs after realizing I paid less than $1.25 each. I'll probably use one myself! Or two!! The returns netted me just under $20, but I consider it less clutter and offset for three pairs of slippers (of a different kind) that I bought for friends that will need to be mailed.

Lots of money activity here! Have you found any money? Have you returned anything you purchased recently? Have you redeemed any Swagbucks or MyPoints?

I mentioned the group gift my husband's siblings are getting my mother in law in another post. Things have changed. The item was to be a media console that looks like a fireplace and is a heater. The picture I was shown and price given initially was $250. Although there are seven siblings total, only five are participating. So that would be around $50 each.

The youngest sibling showed the picture to my mother in law who said it wasn't big enough. There were not enough spaces for her dvd player and cable boxes. Another sibling went looking for other options and found a $400 one. It was decided to ask my husband's mom again if this one would work. It turns out she wants the money so she can shop for one herself.

The question then was how much money the group should give her. In the end it was decided we would give $350 as a group. We had all been willing to put in nearly $90 a piece. This new amount would be $70 each. Of course, this is still above the original $50 we thought we were going in on!

We usually spend $35-40 on my mother in law, so we are spending nearly double our budgeted amount. This comes down to a reason I don't like group gifts. They don't turn out like you expect them to.

Now, I'm not mad at how it turned out. But it does confirm my desire not to participate in the future. I'm not really thrilled that my mother in law requested a large gift and then changed it to cash. I do think she will buy the item and I would guess she will like it. It is so different from my parents who could care less if they get a gift and often tell us we don't need to get them anything. My mother in law is on a fixed income, and usually we get her a bottle of wine, nice soaps or lotions and some quarters for her condo washing machine. Quite a difference, huh?

The other unfortunate outcome of the gift discussion was one sister getting mad at a brother when he was upset about all the group texting. The brother's wife even indicated they had limited texting. The sister was trying to get everyone's advice and do us all a favor in doing the shopping. She felt shut down by their responses. We were later asked to contact the brother to tell them our decision on the gift. This was fine with us and easy in the end because he didn't answer his phone and so we left a message. Just yucky communication between some family members for something that should be enjoyable.

We won't be visiting this side of the family this year, so in the end we are just going to write a check and send a card to my mother in law. It feels a little odd, but if she is happy that will be the most important thing.

Do you think we should have handled the group gift differently? What do you think of someone asking for a gift than changing it to cash?

I made my husband go with me to Target today. I had a 20% off our entire shopping trip coupon that I earned last week. I needed him to help me because I knew I would be buying more than one cart worth of stuff. And that is really hard to handle with the crowds less than two weeks before Christmas.

I made a list of items I knew we needed, which included toilet paper, trash bags, toothpaste and other household items. I then added current groceries from my meal plan through Friday. I also added food items I knew we would eat before the end of the year. A turkey, bread, cheeses, crackers, candies, marshmallows, ect. I also added a few items such as batteries, a pizza pan, a placemat to match the ones we already have, and several stocking stuffers.

I even bought a second Christmas tree! I didn't really think we would get one, but after a coupon and 20% off it was under $40 for a seven foot tree. It will likely be our first themed tree and will help make our basement more festive. The theme is still yet to be determined. I think I will make it a surprise for my girls. Maybe...not sure yet.

The bill before our discounts and coupons was $473! It is rare that I spend more than $150 at the store in one given trip. We did buy some alcohol which was not discounted, but in the end after the coupons, 20% off and our 5% red card discount we paid $351.58! My receipt says we saved $157.64, which I assume figures in the savings from items already on reduce or on sale before the discounts at the register.

Am I thrilled about spending $350 in one trip? Not really, but we got so much stuff for that money. I'm also thinking this will save me quite a few trips in the coming days before the holiday. I know I will need to go back for a few perishables and more dinners at some point, but we are stocked up well now! I am happy that I may not need to go out to the store for awhile!

Did anyone get the 20% off coupon at Target last week? Did you also use it to stock up and buy gifts? Does anyone have a themed Christmas tree? What is the theme you have or would have if you did?