I guess my procrastination did not pay. The Discover reward gift cards I was looking at are no longer available! I really wanted to use $80 in rewards to get a Lowe's $100 gift card. It is no longer an option for me. That did help me to decide.

I'm taking the cash! It will be in our bank account in 72 hours. Of course, soon after we know that I will be sending it into the mortgage.

I made an Amazon purchase today for my husband's razor blades, which will likely last him over a year, maybe two! I used $10 in AGC that I received from Swagbucks earlier this month, AND $9.79 in Discover rewards on his account. I still had to pay over $9 out of pocket, but now I can see the matching rewards to mortgage.

It all feels good. I like using rewards to pay for things, even the mortgage!

I had another entry I had started to type, but my husband came home early from work! That rarely happens.

He was motivated to get some new running shoes, which he was overdue for. So we went on a shopping date to get him a pair. I browsed the clearance racks while he found a pair he liked. I didn't buy anything since I know I will be a smaller size in no time, might as well wait a bit longer. He found a pair for $99. I have no clue if they were on sale or not. I did provide my store rewards card, and he used a rewards credit card for the purchase. He will get lots of use out them since he needs to stay in shape for the Army.

Now he has left again to get his workout in. The nice thing is he will be home earlier in the evening to have a little more time with his family! Yep. That makes me happy!

Do you ever get to leave work early? How often to do you leave early?

I received a $3 Pinecone survey payment last week. Just today I requested that money be moved from my Paypal account to our checking account.

I also ordered two $5 Amazon.com gift cards from Swagbucks last week. I got them the next day! I have never received any redemption from them so fast. For now, those are loaded on our Amazon account, until our next purchase. I will officially account for them as snowflakes when used. I also plan to use the $9+ in Discover rewards when I make that next Amazon.com purchase. It is the only way I can get those last rewards off that card!

Not sure if I wrote about this yet. We HAVE met the $2000 spending requirement on DHs Southwest Visa and then some. I noticed my husband put some more work trip transactions on there today. I don't see another worthwhile Southwest offer for me to apply for. I think we are at a little standstill for now with credit card offers. There are not any compelling offers that we haven't already done in the last year. But the cash and gift cards have not yet arrived for the recent cards, so there will be some big snowflakes soon.

I still need to finish our taxes. I'm pretty sure I've entered everything in. We owe $413. I was going to put this on that Southwest card, but we spent up to the minimum before I could get the taxes filed. I expect I will just pay by check and avoid the fee. Is it right that I can file and wait to mail the check by April 15? I think it is and I'm sure I can look that up to be sure.

I did write a post on my other blog today about a discussion we had with our girls the other day. Oh, and in fitness news, I have done 30 minutes of cardio the last two mornings and lifted weights. I feel so much better! I'm on track to meet my fitness goals this month. Yippee!!

My daughter turns 17 tomorrow. Amazing how fast the time goes! Adults would tell me this all the time. I just never believed them. I do now.

We gave her $60 cash, a $15 iTunes gift card, a necklace from Etsy and a large candy bar that she likes. We also took her to lunch at Panera today, where we spent about $35. We also picked up ice cream cupcakes from Cold Stone Creamery. Those cost $13, but it is a tradition she likes. In the end we spent about $150 on her. She was happy and we were glad to shower her with treats and gifts.

We will eat those cupcakes after we have homemade pizza for dinner tomorrow night. We have stretched out the celebrating since her birthday is on a weekday...and the first day back from Spring Break!

We are stocked up on groceries for what I hope is the rest of the month. There could be a couple of fresh veggies we will need next weekend. I have gas in my vehicle. I have cash for the flute lesson. I can think of a few other minor expenses, but it should be low key in spending for the week. I like that!!

Do you expect a frugal week ahead? Is the end of the month tight on cash for you? Did we overspend on our daughter?

I didn't get to the gym until late today because I didn't have a car! After we picked it up, I stopped by the gym and did 30 minutes on the elliptical. I burned 335 calories in 33 minutes. Now I can eat dinner!

I checked my stats for the month. I have exercised 14 times this month...the goal is 20. I have also lifted weights 5 times, with a goal of 10. I really should have lifted weights today, but I can say that I did 20 squats and 20 push ups with my daughter earlier and that is definitely a little strength training!!

The maintenance on the truck for 60,000 miles came to $483+, which we did put on the Southwest card. We have now met that spending requirement. I think I will be applying for my own Southwest card next, if the 50,000 rewards points is still around. If not, I will be looking for something better.

How are you exercise goals coming along this month? It isn't too late to make a goal for the next 11 days. You can do something for your health right? Let's do it!!

We have the truck at the Honda Dealer today. It was due for an oil change, tire rotation and one of the fluids replaced. As it turns out the mileage is nearly 60,000 which means it is time for some other fluid maintenance as well. We do follow the recommendations of the manufacturer and have found that it really pays off. It's another reason Honda vehicles last so long. Of course it does cost some cash! The estimate is about $400 for all the things that we are having done today.

This wasn't planned exactly, but we set cash aside knowing these things come up, so no worries. We will put it on the Southwest card and likely meet the $2000 minimum spending after that charge. I actually still have items I planned to charge on the card to meet the minimum...so it seems it could be time for a new card already!

In other financial news, I was able to cash out Bing Rewards for a 500 Swagbucks code. I have not redeemed it yet. I should just do it whenever, as I'm not keeping up with Swagbucks this month. I needed a break. I also claimed a $15 Amazon gift card from Lean Cuisine Delicious Rewards. It already arrived by email and I applied it to our Amazon account. That's another snowflake!

I'm still on track with my workouts, although a little behind on my weight lifting goal. I think I may see a change on the scale this week!

I think today will consist of some spring cleaning. We need to get that cat hair out from under the beds. And while we have the beds moved, we might as well strip off the quilts and wash those as well.

Happy Spring SA friends!

We were away for a few days visiting a college for my daughter, thus the lack of posts for the last few days. When we returned, there was a check in the mail. (Just imagined some angels singing for that one!) It was for a refund of some vitamins that were 'guaranteed to work or your money back'. They have worked a little, but thought we could still get some of the money back we have spent on them. The amount was $25. I think I actually spent less than that for one bottle. It must be the amount the give regardless of what you spent. I will get that check deposited and sent off to the mortgage.

My daughter wasn't feeling well yesterday when we returned so we skipped her flute lesson. Saved $20 for the time being. We hope to get with her accompanist soon to practice her flute solo. More money to shell out for that, so this savings can likely go to that cost.

My daughter got a free T-shirt on her college visit for filling out a survey. Of course, we did pay $10 each when we registered for the visit. Thus I'm sure those funds went towards our meals, parking and that T shirt!

The trip also consisted of a few snacks along the way, fuel and one stop at Subway. It was fairly inexpensive, since my parents provided several meals and free lodging. Appreciate that!

That is the financial news of late. Have you received a free meal recently? Did you get any snowflakes in the mail?

We activated our Southwest credit card just last week before my husband had a trip to Chicago. We need to spend $2000 to get our 50,000 Reward points that we can claim for $500 in gift cards. We already half way there!

_$361.87 Trip expenses
_$433.10 Auto insurance 6 month premium
_$172.23 Electric Bill (cold winter)
__$63.66 Truck Fuel
___$7.70 Subway (DH)
__$55.96 Van Fuel
__$15.91 Haircut (ME)
$1110.43 Total Spent on Card

I plan to put our tax payment of about $415, donations of $150, our wireless bill of about $150, a few birthday gifts. This puts us VERY close to meeting the minimum with our regular spending. I also know we have a mini trip that will have a few expenses and that with spring break next week for my girls we will start looking at clothes. My youngest is going to need a couple things for her DC trip early next month. In other words the spending on this card is really just about a done deal!

In health news, I skipped my workout this morning to get my haircut. I'm going to do a few more things at home this morning, but I still plan to get there around noon to get a treadmill walk in and lift some weights. Tomorrow and Monday will be days off.

Wishing you ALL the best for a super frugal weekend. And Banker Gurl, I'm keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. I wish you peace.

I found two pennies in the parking lot in front of the post office today. It made me wonder how much money has been sitting on the ground this winter, or even pushed into snowbanks along the road. I bet there is some money to be found looking in those melting snow piles. Of course, I only found my two cents out in the open. I wasn't digging through dirty snow!

I made it to the gym today! I did my thirty minutes of cardio and got out of there, so I could accomplish more at home. I have now had 8 workouts this month, so getting closer to the goal of 20. I have completed 3 of 10 weight lifting workouts so far, too!

Part of my day did include running a few errands. I need contact solution, bar soap, and a 40 watt light bulb. I also bought a mesh strainer for about $4 on clearance. That was a last minute purchase, but I think I jumped on it because I never see one that low in price. It was the amount I was willing to spend and I know I will use it when rinsing lentils and quinoa.

I went to another grocery store to get my daughter the yogurt she likes. None of the big containers on the shelf. I bought three little ones and will have to go back next week to see if they have the larger containers in stock. I also bought butter, quart of milk, and a strip steak for fajitas later this week.

I didn't pay close attention but I think all of those items I purchased today were close to $50! It might have been a little less, but I sure didn't get much for that money it seemed. I guess some of those things were just pricey though, too.

I claimed the money from another Pinecone survey. I expect that money to be in my Paypal account tomorrow. Another little snowflake on the horizon.

Have you found any money on the ground recently? Do you think yours had been covered by snow for some time?

I stayed up way to late the last two nights with company in from out of town. I enjoyed the time, but I am wiped out today. It sure doesn't help that the time changed!

I managed to get to the grocery store (Super Target) and used the $25 gift card in the mail, plus some coupons, my cartwheel coupons and my Red Card to save some cash. The gift card will be included in the snowflakes. I also received another $5 gift card for Target for buying two vitamins. Now I'm stocked up!

Good news on the Southwest card, is that my husband has already spent nearly $350 on his work trip on the card. That will be so helpful. I think there is another trip this month that might help with the spending requirement, too!

The bad news on Discover is that I inquired again on the $150 promotional bonus. This time they stated the time frame to meet the bonus must pass before they apply the bonus, regardless of meeting the spending requirement. Did they tell me what date that is? No. I have now inquired about this specific. I like the Discover website interface and how easy it and helpful it is to use, but the online customer service is vague at best. Not willing to offer up information, unless specifically asked. I have had much better assistance with Chase and Capital One. The bonus is earned. It will arrive. I just need to be patient!

We had limited spending this weekend. About $16 at Subway for dinner last night. And I think $3 at McDonald's as my daughter wanted a snack after she went on an outing with me. A rare occurrence, so I didn't mind that expense. Otherwise, fuel on Friday and groceries today. I like those kind of weekends. I will take them when they occur.

Did you lose sleep this weekend? Did you have any fast food, or company visiting you? Anyone waiting patiently or impatiently on money to arrive?

My husband's Discover card statement closed yesterday. We have already spent the $750 to meet the $150 bonus, but it was not applied to our rewards account. I inquired my email. The response was the $150 bonus will be applied within 8 weeks. Ugh. They sure like you to hang around waiting for your cash don't they? I was really hoping we could both redeem those rewards this month. Now it doesn't look like it.

I'm still waiting on our US Bank Reward to be applied as well,probably worth at least $140. I also have $100 in referral money coming from Ooma sometime. There are snowflakes out there, they just seem to be stuck in the sky!!

I purchased a DVD for my daughter's birthday from Amazon. I used the Discover card to make the purchase and used $3.26 of my available rewards towards the purchase. So I have that little snowflake, as well as a Pinecone survey payment from earlier in the week.

I have worked out six days this week! I also did two of my weight lifting workouts as well. The eating and watching calories is going pretty well, too. The less I eat the less we spend on groceries which is a bonus.

Anyone know how long it took you to get your Discover bonus? This is DH second billing cycle that just ended. Did you get any snowflake money this week? How is your exercise goal coming along?

My daughter sent be an info graphic chart of all the things she wants and why this morning while she was in her free period. Her wants include a violin, violin lessons, a wood piccolo, Adobe Creative Suite 6 software and a Digital Drawing Tablet. Yikes!

She knows these are all expensive things. I did see a professional wood piccolo on craigslist for $1,100. The software is about $800 new, might be able to buy for $6-700 used. Not sure on the violin likely used as well, lessons could run another $800+ per year...and I have no idea on the tablet. She hasn't even used one before. She is trying it today though. She does play flute, owns two, plus a hybrid piccolo we bought used. The violin is something both she and her sister seem to be interested in. And the drawing stuff is definitely stuff she can use to make more art and likely more money.

She asked for help from us to pay for these things in her email to me with the chart. She emails me from school pretty often, so this is just her communicating as she normally would. The graphic chart was a new thing she has recently learned. Anyway, my response was, it sounds like you need a job!

She did agree. I just don't know how quickly she will be wanting to take that path. Right now we are hoping she gets accepted again to participate in local art fair this year where she can sell some more art. I actually hope the wants spur her desire to find ways to sell more of her things. All these expensive wants might motivate her, so I'm not going to be too quick to solve her problems or jump into help.

I'm sure we will help in some way, but that it far from determined at this point. There will need to be some discussion between my husband and I. And then between all three of us.

Do you have kids with expensive wants? Is it wrong to want to help your kids gain good experience before they are out in the world. Is it wrong to give a hand up so to speak? Is there a limit to how much we should help? I'm just thinking outloud...not really sure how I feel either way.

The Swagbucks and Pinecone snowflakes arrived in our checking account. Is it me or is Paypal getting quicker at sending money? I have already scheduled this $28 to go to the mortgage principal. Less debt!!

So that washing machine part arrived today. I did a load yesterday and no leaking occurred after. Well maybe a slight drip or two. I'm doing another load now. I wonder if all that dripping the other day was a fluke? I don't want to spend time and money replacing the part if it isn't necessary. We won't get to the part replacement until this weekend, so I have some time to contemplate it.

We are making plans to visit a college in another state over spring break. My daughter has some interest in it. Since she is a Junior this year, it is time to start looking. I attended this institution for two year but transferred to another city, same state and university system to complete. A little looking shows that my graduation, her ACT score (29) and GPA (4.0) might make her eligible for a large scholarship that would easily reduce tuition to the in state amount. My husband also has Post 911 GI bill benefits that could be used for her as well.

I think it would be best to use the GI bill benefits for our older daughter, as you never know when the benefit could be pulled or changed. I think it could virtually make her college cost zero. We then could transfer what we have saved in her ESA to her sister. Right now we have over $30K saved between the two of them. Our youngest daughter won't go to college until Fall 2018, so we have over 4 years to continue to save and for that money to grow.

My best friends son, who is a senior, just decided to attend a private school. His grades are high, but ACT was 24. The school did offer some grants and reductions in tuition. In fact, because they waiting awhile to decide the school actually offered MORE money. My friend and her husband will take out a parent PLUS loan and their son will take out the maximum student loan allowed of $5500. I think that makes their portion around $20K for ONE year. My friend said he will work all summer and have to apply all his earnings to reduce the amount of their portion. They are putting their son on notice that this is a one year trial basis. If he isn't accountable, they won't pay for this private college. Considering they are still paying on her husband's college at the tune of over $600 per month, I'm amazed they are taking on more debt. Although I shouldn't be. They finance EVERYTHING! But they do both work full time and also have part time work as well, so they do seem to make it work.

We expect my husband to get promoted this year. I expect that extra income will help us with the college costs when the time comes. I hope this allows us to at least cash flow the room and board portion of college.

It feels good to be on track to handle college. Are you saving for your child's college? Did you help them with college tuition? If so, did you take out loans or cash flow the cost?

I sold on item on Ebay today. I'm not sure if I'm getting the profit or my daughter. It was a gift to her years ago. Seems to be a collector item. She is saving for PhotoShop, so I think I will give the proceeds of $19.46 to her. Although, I'd love a snowflake for the mortgage.

Actually I do have a couple of snowflakes that should arrive in my bank account in a couple of days. Twenty five dollars from Swagbucks and $3 from Pinecone. I hope it is here by Friday so I can count it towards this months snowflakes!

A few purchases have been made in the last 24 hours. I ordered that valve for the washer, which has now been shipped and charged to my Discover card for $48. We also bought the newest Thor movie. I didn't know it was coming to video yet, but my husband said we were going to rent it this weekend. We own ALL the other Marvel movies, and we (they) watch them multiple times, so it makes sense to me to buy it. Unfortunately, it might not be here until Monday. We won't be renting though know that we bought it. So that was $19 I think. It was probably cheaper on Pre-Order so I wish I had known.

I thought there was something else I bought. I'm probably remembering that my husband agreed to buy from yet another Girl Scout. Another $21 in cookies. It is supporting some coworkers who have supported our girls in fundraisers, and we do like GS cookies. I told him NOT to buy Thin Mints this time around. I'm watching calories and don't need them.

I had to contact Ooma last week because they had not yet billed me for February and they were late in December, too. Today I had to call because they charged me again on Monday. Double billed for February. I guess I just need to let there system do it's thing and catch up on it's own, but when you expect to be billed on the 6th and aren't it is annoying. They did credit me for the extra charge.

I also received notice that our gas bill will be increasing from $28 per month to $50 starting in April. I was billed a similar amount last spring and summer and built up a credit thus the really low $28 bill for quite a few months. Well, with this really cold weather we have used up our credit balance. It is all fine with me. As long as I know ahead of time of the change I'm okay with budget billing and the changes that come with it.

I think that is the financial news from here. I'm looking forward to payday, as I like to do all the recording of bills and adding money to savings. Do you have any utilities on budget billing? Have you been double billed for anything lately? Did you cave to the girl scouts and buy cookies? What is your favorite?

I woke up this morning to feed the cats. As I neared my laundry room I heard dripping water. I first looked at the sink. Nope. No water there. Instead it was the washer. The tub was holding 4 inches of water with more water dripping into it. I did a load of laundry yesterday early evening. I'm guessing the dripping occurred over 12 hours. Definitely wouldn't have been good if we were gone for many days! Although, after my parents had a major washer flood during their absence we actually do turn off the water to our house when we leave.

After I showed my husband, I turned off the water at the panel by the washer. Of course it stopped. My daughter thought it was time to get a new washer. She also thought a red washer would be fun! Our washer is over 12 years old if I remember correctly. But I don't want to buy a new washer!

I have been looking online and have determined the part we need is a water inlet valve. I watched one video of how to replace. It looks easy. However, I see our washer comes apart a little different. I need to find a video specific to our Maytag washer. I also see there is a universal part for about $20. However, when I look at the part for our specific model it looks different than the universal one. There is a connection pointing 90 degrees the other way. The part that seems specific to our washer is $55+. I also found this exact part USED on Ebay for $12.95 shipped. Not really sure about a used part and how long it would last, but it is better than $55!

So we do have choices. Buy nothing and simply turn water on and off at the wall. This just requires changing our habits. Buy a used part, install ourselves and hope it works for a relatively good amount of time. Buy a new part for $55 and install ourselves. We could also hire someone to install a new part for us. I would guess that would easily run us $120+. Or go with my daughter's idea and buy a new washer...which then I would want a matching dryer, too.

I'm sure we will not be buying a new washer, although if we think we can not do the repair ourselves, I might be more inclined to put $120 towards a new machine. But I would wait on that. It sure isn't a need when we can turn the water off on our own at the wall, which is free.

I will be discussing our options with my husband later tonight. I will definitely be showing him the video of how to do the repair too. I don't mind doing the repair myself, but I would like his support and possible assistance if I run into a tight screw or need help lifting something.

Have you repaired an appliance yourself? What option would you take in our situation? Would you buy a used part to save over $40?

It is

I went shopping at Target today, primarily for groceries. I also knew they had some toilet paper on clearance for which I also had coupons. I had two coupons, so I bought to packages. I know have 48 rolls I need to store. I also found a couple hair products we use on clearance as well. Happy to get a deal on things we buy anyway. I didn't buy extras of those though.

I ate another container of the steel cut oatmeal I prepared on Friday. I ate this for breakfast with the coffee I'm working on using up. Only two more to go! This afternoon, I used up the romaine lettuce and a ripe banana for the green smoothie I'm eating for lunch. Oh, I also added the leftover coconut water I purchased yesterday. I didn't really like it plain. I sure can't taste it in my smoothie.

My girls had pasta for dinner last night. One of them finished off the sauce. The other likes her noodles buttered. I skipped dinner as I wasn't hungry, especially for pasta. Later I made a mini sandwich where I used up the last six slices of lunch meat in the container. It was just the right amount.

Today I'm making a Moroccan Lentil soup. I will use up a half container of broth I have in the fridge and carrots. Everything else in the soup will be 'new', but there will not be any partial containers left. Yea! Later this week I planned barbecue chicken to hopefully use up the bbq sauce. I noticed some dressing in the fridge that my husband uses on a certain type of sandwich, so in another week I will buy ingredients for those in hopes that he will used up that dressing. Otherwise it will just go to waste. Besides he will be thrilled to have those sandwiches again!

Did you plan this weeks menu around items you want to use up? Do you stock up on items when you see them on clearance?

I just ate lunch. All leftovers. I have 1 cup of tortellini soup from two nights ago and leftover roasted vegetables from last night.

Yesterday, I found a bottle of expired dressing. It was nearly gone, so I tossed it out and recycled the bottle. I ended up doing the same thing with some bottles of lemon and lime juice. One was several months expired and the other wasn't clear. It seems like we had it awhile and we aren't really using those items in cooking lately. So I didn't use them up, but it helped declutter the fridge!

I did make banana bread yesterday. I was able to use up the last of the margarine and three frozen bananas. The loaf is now in the freezer, since we didn't need more sweets to eat right now. Tonight I'm making pizza from scratch. I was going to make two, one cheese and one beef. However, my husband is going out of town, so I think one cheese pizza will cover the needs of us three girls. I will cut up a couple apples that need to be used soon to eat with it. I know that the cheese I have in the fridge will be used up when I make the pizza, too. My fridge really seems extra tidy this week.

I checked the balance of our Discover cards. My husband is less than $25 away from meeting the $750 in spending. I'd like him to meet this before the statement closes in early March. All he really needs to do is buy gas and he will meet the requirement. I'm not quite as far along on my spending, as I still $459 to meet the same spending requirement. I expect March bills and fuel for my van will make up a big portion of that.

I have decided to skip the Barclay's card. I think one of us will sign up for Southwest Rapids Rewards card next. Barclay's already increased their spending requirement to $3,000. It had been $1000. I understand it is still available if we call in to customer service. Just seems like too much of a hassle. And I know I can't get DH to take the time to call either.

Is your fridge and cupboards extra clean this week from the using it up challenge? Did you find anything expired that you felt definitely needed to be tossed? Did you eat anything expired?

First a credit card question:
I haven't applied for any Barclay's cards because the rewards have to be redeemed for travel which we rarely do. But I'm tempted. I read that currently you can get $400 in travel rewards for spending $1000, but that the spending requirement may be going up to $3000. It seems like a good deal to jump on now. The question I have is about redeeming the rewards for travel. Do you charge the travel expense on the card and then redeem points to cover or do you book travel with points? Has anyone completed travel this way with the Barclay's card?

Other news:
I redeemed Swagbucks for $25, so that will be arriving hopefully by month's end. I cancelled my Citi Thank You Preferred card yesterday by secure message on their site. I opened this card last May and earned a $250 check payable to our mortgage company, after spending $1000. I haven't been as good about closing cards as I intended, but I was ready to let this one go. We were not using it and don't intend to.

I used up the last of a jar of Maple Pumpkin Butter today. It had about a tablespoon left, so I put it on my steel cut oatmeal this morning. I am going to make banana bread or banana muffins today to use two very ripe bananas. I will need milk for either one, so I will use more of that. The milk expires tomorrow, although it may still be good after. I just want to use it up rather than pour down the drain.

I need to decide what to have for lunch. There is leftover taco fixings from last night. However, I also need to eat a salmon filet. I might cook the salmon, but eat it tomorrow. That way I can eat up some of the taco things today.

What are you using up today? Has this been a good challenge for you or it this just the norm for you? Did you eat anything strange just to use it up?

My husband did end up buying flowers for Valentine's day. A bouquet of pink, green and orange flowers from Target for $17. The flowers are for the girls and I to share. Pretty for sure, but not needed. He did look cute with the flowers in hand when he walked in the door last night though!

Payday is today. I paid and recorded all upcoming bills, like life insurance, water softener rental, Roth and college investments. I paid current amounts on both Discover cards, which included our internet and electric bills. The total on those cards was just over $500. I also paid $184+ on the US Bank Visa. I left a balance of about $140 as I expect that the rewards I will receive will total at least that. The $100 shows as pending, once it is available I will redeem for credit on the account.

The good news is I was able to save about $350, which I tossed in our emergency fund. I scheduled a $275 principal payment on the mortgage. I plan to make this payment each month to help us pay down nearly $14,000 in principal this year. I'm recording that on the sidebar.

It's been a good payday! How about you...did you household get a paycheck today? Did it all work out like you planned? Any good or bad surprises?

I know we all have our methods of tracking our spending. I thought you might be interested in how we tracked our spending in the early days of our marriage. In some ways it was the beginning of building our budget. I wrote the post on

My Swagbucks money arrived in my PayPal account yesterday, so I requested that money to be transferred to our checking account. There was also a Pinecone payment in there, so I pulled that too. That will be $28 going to the mortgage! I will likely make that payment tomorrow when I'm paying bills.

My husband's paycheck is already pending in our bank account. I like paydays that arrive on the weekend...it means we get our money a little early.

I had over $150 in cash at our house due to getting cash for fundraiser that I wrote just one check for and getting paid for that sewing work. I took all the cash plus some change I scrounged up and made a $158.65 payment on our Target Red Card. Obviously, I made this payment in the store. I still owe more on the card, but I will pay that off tomorrow when I pay bills.

My daughter has found 10 books she wants to get rid of. Preferably she would like to sell them. One series has sold on Ebay for $50 with free shipping included. She keeps her books very nice, so I think hers can sell for this amount easily. The other series isn't as clear about the price it sells for. I might try $25 initially. Maybe I can get them posted later tonight if I have boxes for them.

We really need to list some furniture on Craigslist soon. We have a kitchen table and four chairs, a couch and a love seat. I'd like to try this weekend, but I'm not sure if my husband will be on board with that. I'd like $300 for all pieces. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I picked up The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert at the library today. I'm looking forward to reading it...for free of course.

I also picked up two small bags of candy at the store today. This is for Valentine's Day tomorrow. I might make a couple homemade cards for my girls. We will have manicotti for dinner at home. That is our frugal celebration!

Do you have frugal Valentine's plans? Did you sell any books or borrow one from the library?

I was paid for a sewing project today that I did for my Mom. I now have $45 more in my pocket than I did this morning! I will figure my profit for the work and send that amount to the mortgage since I consider this side gig a snowflake. I will actually keep the cash she gave me and use for flute lessons later in the month. That means I shouldn't need to pull any money from an ATM for the rest of the month!

My husband came home from work and was interested in going out to dinner. He said we haven't done that as a family for awhile. True. But I had dinner all planned and ready to go. And the girls wanted to watch the Olympic opening ceremony on television. So we saved a little cash, since we kind of made plans without him.

We made a purchase today of tickets to a concert in late May. My daughters are excited. By that statement you might expect it is some boy band, but no....it is a violinist! My parents are coming with us since it is in their town, so I purchased six tickets with fees for about $175. I put it on my Discover card, ya know to help meet the spending requirement for the $150 bonus!

That is the financial news from here today! Best wishes for a thrifty weekend.

Regular readers know we have been taking advantage of credit card bonus offers to make a little cash. All funds earned from our regular spending on these cards is going to pay down our mortgage balance. If we could get decent rates on savings accounts, we would do that instead.

Currently, we are working on spending on three cards to obtain bonus cash. I thought you might like to see where we stand on those. We both have a Discover It card that we each need to spend $750 on to receive $150 in bonus cash. I also had a special offer from US Bank for which I need to spend $500 to receive $100 in bonus cash. There is an opportunity to claim an additional $25 at the time of redemption on that card.

US Bank: $427.82 of $500
Discover(Me): $35.94 of $750
Discover(DH): $126.86 of $750

I am close on the US Bank card. I will probably pick up some vitamins at Walmart and get fuel in my van to meet the minimum spending requirement.

As for the other two cards, I expect we will be charging six concert tickets for about $150, the electric bill which is $167, cell phone bill for another $150, fuel for our vehicles and other odds and end spending. I might bump up payment for our auto insurance to meet the spending as well. I already have the money set aside for that bill, so that makes it easy.

I have a balance of $552 on my Chase Sapphire card and the money to pay it, but I expect the bonus of over $500 to be available when the statement closes on February 10. When it is available I will request a statement credit and pay the remaining balance to bring the card back to zero. No interest has accrued of course, because I would never let that happen!

That is where our credit card reward activity stands. It feels things are moving slow on those cards, but I think the main reason for that is less spending. And that is a good thing!

Make sure you read my blog post from yesterday about how to pay off debt using the debt snowball, if you find yourself with multiple debts.

My daughter has a minor condition that is bugging her. My mom has it and there really isn't a known cure, but there are plenty of things to try to provide some relief. One of these items was a type of vitamin marketed directly for this condition. She gave it a try...two bottles priced at nearly $25 each. In the end she said it didn't really seem to work. Fine. There is a money back guarantee for one purchase. I sent a request to the company with the receipt and UPC code today. I don't know how long it will take to receive, but the process has begun to get some of our money back.

I redeemed some more airline miles my husband has accumulated. These are for our newspaper subscription. I know we are probably aren't getting the best value from those miles, but we really never fly any where for pleasure. We might as well get something for them, rather than nothing. And our town's newspaper is pricey...$66 for 13 weeks of everyday delivery. That is $5 per week! If I were to pay upfront for the entire year it would come down to $4.95 per week. I rarely read it...but I like to do the suduko puzzle while I eat lunch. I could find this online for free if I wanted. So for now, we will use airline miles, rather than pay out of pocket for the paper.

Do you purchase a subscription to your newspaper? How much do you pay? What do you like best about the paper? If you don't read the newspaper, why is that?

My rebates from Ebates arrived in my PayPal account today. I have requested the $29.35 to be moved to my checking account. I will then send that money to the mortgage!

I bought another 8 bags of cheese for $1. There wasn't a limit, but I do have limited space in my freezer for storing, so that is all I bought.

I returned an item at Joann's Fabric for $3.52, but then purchased new machine needles (with a 40% off coupon) for $2.24. I made the original purchase in cash, but they give returns less than $5 in cash. I now have an extra $1.28 in my wallet.

I received a postcard in the mail from USAA for a reward promotion we participated in. We spent $1200 quite awhile back and were to receive a $25 gift card. The postcard was a link to claim the gift card. I chose Target. We won't receive it for 4-8 weeks. I have to say it isn't a great reward, but at the time of the promotion we weren't working on any other rewards, so it was a bit of a bonus.

Next week our Chase Sapphire billing cycle should close, so our reward should be available at that time. I'm looking forward to that, so I can make another big payment to the mortgage with it.

As you can see it wasn't a no spend day, but some snowflakes are on the way!

Today feels like a good day money wise. I think this is because I paid bills and everything is under control. Our bank will transfer $57 to our Capital One savings account on Monday for our twice monthly deposit to the 52 Week Savings Challenge. Our challenge total is $238, which covers weeks 1-8 and 49-52. Moving right along on that one. We also set aside $164 for things like auto insurance, auto registrations, and Christmas. We do this at the beginning of every month.

We ventured out after the snow stopped falling and purchased fuel for my husbands truck and some groceries to fill in for the next couple days. At the grocery store we found store brand shredded cheese for $1 in an 8 oz package. We buy these at Super Target for nearly $2.50 or more. We picked up 5 or 6 packages, since we didn't know if there was a limit. I did notice the sale ends on Monday, so I may pick up more cheese before then since this is a significant savings for something we buy anyway.

My daughter bought an item from Etsy online last month. She paid nearly $85. I used my credit card to make the payment since I wanted to use the expense towards our credit card rewards spending. I decided she could wait to pay me until it arrived. At this point we expect it next week, so I will get my money at the same time. What is fun, is that I actually forgot that I would be getting that money!

I was able to set $525 aside in savings, which is similar to the amount I saved last payday. Clearly we are not spending everything we earn! Some of that money actually will get to go to the mortgage once I get the rewards and have them credited to our current balance.

I'm going to write a post soon about how a debt snowball works. I think we might have some new members and probably some readers that are not familiar with this process. I don't think anyone is writing much about it right now either. We are not actually doing this type of pay debt down anymore since we only have one debt...our mortgage!

Is anyone snowballing debt currently? If so, will you let me know, so I can refer readers to your blog when I do the post? Did you get to put extra money in savings this week? Did you find any good grocery deals?

My husband received some travel money today. I sent $135 to our credit card to cover some of the charges he made there while traveling. The card does have a balance of nearly $815, but I think rewards will post on February 10 for over $500. I will pay a little more, maybe $265 on payday this Friday. All the spending there is in control.

I'm going to be purchasing some items on Amazon tonight. Vitamins for the girls, and Lysine for the cats. I regularly buy these online and with Amazon Prime they will be here in about two days! I am also going to purchase a light box to help with SAD (seasonal affective disorder). I think several of us in our household could benefit from more sun type light. Worse case, I sell it used on Ebay.

Only spending today was $20 flute lesson, and mailing a package to my sister for $2.50. I almost ran to the store for more taco seasoning and sewing machine needles. I ended up just using LESS seasoning and finding another needle to try that seems to be working so far. I'm happy that I didn't need to spend on those things.

I'm in the middle of sewing some napkins for a client. Once I'm done, I might have more time to blog. I'm hoping that is tomorrow.

I worked on our taxes this weekend using FreeTaxUSA. Right now it looks that we will owe $413 to the Federal government. We are exempt from state taxes in our state for military pay, so we don't owe or receive anything back.

This is the first year in a very long time where we are unable to itemize our deductions. We were about $1000 short. I guess it is good news...we get a higher deduction than we 'earned' so to speak.

I'm still waiting on 1099Rs from Fidelity for the rollovers we did earlier this year. These will not change our taxes owed since the rollovers are in tax deferred accounts. I just need the numbers to report correctly.

I won't be in to big of a hurry to pay the government, but knowing me I won't want that 'debt' hanging around until April 15th either! I might consider paying the fee imposed to pay the amount owed with our credit card since I know we will get that money back in bonuses. Depends on if I need the payment to meet a goal. I estimate the fee would be between $7 and $10, depending on the service we use.

Speaking of credit card bonuses. I need to double check, but I'm pretty sure we have met our $3000 in spending on our Chase Sapphire card just this weekend. I activated a US Bank card today and paid our Verizon wireless bill with it. That payment already meets 34% of the spending we need to get $125 bonus.

I'm hoping we can stay frugal through the week and keep our spending low. I don't think we will need much of anything, but with three other people in this household I just never know!

Do you know where you stand with your tax return yet? Owe or refund? Any frugal plans for the week?

We went out yesterday to run some errands. We bought groceries for the week. Picked up a gift. Bought those books of stamps I mentioned yesterday.

My last purchase for the day was buying season five of a television series we are trying to catch up on. We stopped at Walmart and saw it was available for $29.96. I just couldn't spend that much! I ended up bidding on a brand new copy on Ebay. I won. And paid $9.50 which includes free shipping. That is a huge savings for waiting for something we want.

I thought we did some frugal things yesterday, too. I wrote about those on

One of the things on my list today is to buy postage stamps. We don't really mail that many things, but I would guess we still go through about three books of stamps a year. I don't mail any bills, so most of those stamps are used to send cards.

The price of postage increases tomorrow from $0.46 to $0.49 for a First Class letter. This is just over a 6% increase. I like the idea of saving 6% on something I will use anyway this year.

I'm going to stop by the customer service counter at our local grocery store and pick up three books and charge it to our credit card...since any spending gets us those bonuses!

If you make a purchase of stamps today, make sure to get those Forever stamps, so they will be useful for you tomorrow and beyond.

How many stamps do you think you use each year?