POP is our Pot of Possibilities. This is our Big Goal renamed just this month. We just keep adding funds to it knowing someday we will want to draw on it. What we spend or invest it on is a mystery, but one with many possibilities!

Paycheck 5/1 $260
Paycheck 5/15 $260
Total Interest $164.37
US Bank $12.32
Chase Rewards $49.38
Amex Rewards $62.86
Ebay Sales $4.49
USAA ATM refund 3.00
Auto Insurance refund $97.45

May Total $913.87

YTD Total $3,794.86
New Big Goal Total $75,878.79

We crossed the $75,000 mark this month!

Fear saddens me.

Fear and panic create bad decisions.

Yes, as with everyone, this has impacted us and our girls.

I will not let fear weaken my resolve or my immune system.

I will walk outside. I will talk to my neighbors.

I believe in a higher source that knows all and can create peace out of chaos.

We will all have a story to tell when this ends. I will tell my story then.

(Please take care of your health. That may mean you need to step away from the news and focus on self care and stress relief. Eat real food, take supplements that support your immune system if appropriate, get plenty of rest, get outside for fresh air and exercise, and stay hydrated)
❤️✌️

Apparently, you can't type the word congratulations in the comments on someone's blog any more?!?

Anyway, Lucky Robin, Congratulations!! You did great paying off debt this month.

Today is the last day to file a claim as part of the class action against Equifax for the data breach.


"In September of 2017, Equifax announced it experienced a data breach, which impacted the personal information of approximately 147 million people. A federal court is considering a proposed class action settlement submitted on July 22, 2019, that, if approved by the Court, would resolve lawsuits brought by consumers after the data breach. Equifax denies any wrongdoing, and no judgment or finding of wrongdoing has been made."

Go

here to file a claim or get more information about options available to you.

I just filed today! I remember hearing about it months ago, I just didn't act until today.

I just had the idea to do a blog post in the next few days about our financial progress in the last ten years. So if you are interested in joining me and writing about your progress title your post something similar to A Decade of Progress or Ten Years of Finances. The titles don't have to be the same, but similar enough that we will notice them.

I look forward to reading your reflections!

Happy New Year!

Wishing each of you SA readers and bloggers peace and joy this season of holy days!

Our Christmas has been wonderful with our girls home! We received a gift of an Escape Room in Box. We are looking forward to the challenge later today!!

I hope to get some time to reflect on 2020 financial goals soon!

Did you know you can sign up with the post office to see the mail that is arriving in your mailbox that day? The email we received shows we are receiving our utility rebate today. It's over $60. I'm a little annoyed because it is supposed to be direct deposited!

We earned a $13 reward on our US Bank credit card. I always pick a credit for this account. I just show the transaction in YNAB as a deposit to our Big Goal.

I'm working on earning more Swagbucks so I can redeem an Amazon gift card. I will use it to pay for most the DnD book we are giving our daughter for Christmas. After I buy that I will attempt to get another 2200 Swagbucks points for a Google Play gift card.

I have done a significant portion of our Christmas shopping at this point. I'm nearly done with my parents and may actually take the gift with us for Thanksgiving, so that I don't have to mail it. It depends on how much room I have in my suitcase, and the weight of my suitcase.

My husband parks at those offsite lots near the airport when he travels for work, he earned enough free parking days for our next trip to cover three days! This saved us about $40.

I sold an item I made on eBay. It was extra fabric, so I sold it cheap and made nearly $4.

Also my husband's expenses for a recent trip were under the per diem amount so we have $105 which we added to our Big Goal.

I'm hoping to redeem Fetch Rewards again soon, too. I've noticed Planter's nuts are quite the help in the points adding up. Do you use Fetch? It's much easier than Ibotta. My referral code is FQ8U1, which you enter when you sign up for the first time. You can find the app in the App Store or Google Play store for free. Once you scan your first receipt, you will receive 2000 points.

Are you finding extra money for your debt, your savings or your holiday spending? Share in the comments!

I loved all the replies on my post about being Boozed!! It is interesting, odd, yet a little fun all at the same time! My post may have sounded a bit negative, but I am all about being neighborly. We live on base, so these are coworkers and fellow military members and families. We support each other in fun and work.

This is what we received.



Note this

flyer, which is what you put on your door once you have been Boozed, so people know not to hit your home again!

Originally, I was just going to do one basket, but decided I would rather pass on some of what was in our original basket. The flyer stated to give two baskets, which I found a bit odd. I don't think that is what the other neighbors had been doing.

I purchased a bottle of red wine for $6.49 at our local exchange on base. I also bought a small fall themed candle, a Halloween themed pail, a 3pk of purple glow sticks, and a 2pk of orange curly ribbon. Each item was a $1 at Dollar Tree, so I spent $4.37 with tax. In total I spent $10.86.

I purchased the above items with a specific family in mind, a coworker of my husband, his wife and three daughters. They had not been Boozed yet. The glow sticks were for the kids. The wine and candle for the couple. I added candy to both baskets from two large bags I bought last month and have had in my freezer.

The second basket, was made up of the pail and the bottle of wine given to us. I changed the tissue paper in it and added the candy. I wrapped the wine in the brown bag the other wine came in and wrapped it with a ribbon. The reason I put it in the bag is because some neighbors are posting on the group Facebook page and I didn't want it to look like the one we received. I have decided NOT to post our basket, but I think I will post a thank you for the one we received.

So after dark, I went out and dropped them off. I did purposely ring the doorbell to alert them, so that no teens would have the opportunity. I know for a fact both were taken inside rather quickly!

The family of my husband's coworker posted a picture of the basket we gifted on Facebook with a huge thank you for the treats. That alone made the effort and a little money spent well worth it. Who knows what the other family thought!

Here's the two baskets:

Ultimately, I know this activity was to promote community and bring smiles to faces. It wasn't intended to upset or cause anyone to spend a lot of money. I feel okay about passing on the wine and the bucket, as I knew we wouldn't use them. The vodka shot is up to my husband to use, and I stuck that spider web decoration up in the transom window on our front door. Maybe someone will notice on Halloween that I 'decorated'!

Except for the Halloween trick or treaters that is the extent of our celebrations! Although, I'm tempted to make a costume for that night consisting of a sign I wear that says 'mosquito bait'. The mosquitos were so bad last year we came in early by nearly an hour from handing out candy. And from what we can tell they are bad again this year!! Help!!

We are living on base and our circle of probably 50 homes is playing that game where you drop off a basket of alcohol (thus the term boozed) for Halloween. We were boozed last night. I'm not sure I'm really a fan. This sort of reminds me of the pressure to do work gift exchanges. The Facebook post said there would be instructions to opt out if you were boozed, but don't want to participate. That was not the case. Only instructions on how to pass it along, which I guess technically could mean I could pass the basket we received to the next person.

Our basket was a purple Halloween themed plastic bucket, probably from Dollar Tree, with sweet Rose wine and a mini shot bottle of vodka, along with about ten pieces of candy. Oh there was some crinkle paper in there for stuffing and a huge (also plastic) spider web decoration (also probably from Dollar Tree). I don't decorate for Halloween, so the bucket and the decoration are basically not something I want to keep. We also don't drink sweet wine OR vodka!

Part of me wants to just play along and spend the $10 to buy some alcohol. Another part of me wants to figure out how play along on the cheap. I wish I could pass on the basket and decoration without feeling guilty. I know for sure our gift came from our direct next door neighbors. I saw her walk up to the porch last night. I feel like I could find something to wrap around the bucket to make it look a little different, but probably not on the decoration. I could also just buy beer and put as many as could fit. No one said it has to be wine! I could also put an orange ribbon on six pack of bottle beer and call it good.

So...play along with me. What would YOU do? Would you participate? Would you go out all out? How would you make it frugal?

(Oh, and I'm think we might just pass the sweet Rose wine to a coworker of my husband's at Christmas, assuming she drinks alcohol)

Almost done with the FAFSA, just waiting on my daughter to give me some information so I can complete it. I know she's busy with a visit from her sister and my parents today, so later today or tomorrow we should be done! And it wasn't quite as bad as I remembered. It helps to import the information from the IRS.

I redeemed over $70 in American Express rewards towards our Big Savings Goal.

And the best news is that YNAB did offer us an extended trial period of four months for the new web version that I have switched to. I didn't see their email until now, but they responding to my military discount pretty quickly with this offer. So far I seem to be able to adjust to the new version. I still don't use it exactly like intended, but it still helps us track what we want.

My husband travels some this week, so groceries should be a little lower. I don't have a lot on hand so I will need to stop at the store mid week.

It's so sad. The flooding happening in the Midwest. I have friends and family there. One friend did have water in their unfinished basement, but she says it is no big issue. They did have to evacuate for one night. However, a niece has two coworkers who lost their home. They are completely displaced and lost everything. My niece is fundraising for them, so we decided to donate to her friends and will also send in a donation to the Red Cross, which is our charity of choice usually since they are a neutral, independent and impartial organization that can help respond quickly in crisis situations.

It was quite disappointing to the people of those states that news coverage started so late on this. People think that these flyover states don't matter, but these are the people that supply the beef and corn (among many, many other products) that go into other products in our food supply and the grain used to put ethanol in our fuel. This will affect you financially is some way.

Please pray for those affected by the flooding.

I don't know if any of you juice or have wanted to, but you have a chance on February 14 to win free Champion brand juicer. You can enter

here.

I've always wanted to try one myself. I do use my basic blender to make green smoothies. Do you make juice or smoothies?

James, the site owner, has emailed me that the tech will work on the blog issue later today. Fingers crossed we can get quick resolution!

Hello fellow Saving Advice bloggers!

Many of us are pretty good about writing about our year end in some way or another. I'm going to be writing about our financial wins and fails for 2018 before the end of the year. I'd like you to join me and write a specific blog post about your wins and fails for 2018.

While it's important to review for ourselves, sharing our financial wins and fails helps inspire others. Will you join me? Simply title your post 2018 Financial Wins and Fails, post before the end of the year and invite others to join at the end of your post.

And if you are new or a lurker, we would love for you to join in and post your own financial wins and fails! Goal setting and review is helping in making progress and changes for the year ahead.