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3-way Split

February 23rd, 2014 at 07:27 pm

I previously posted about the options to use the rewards I recently earned from my Discover card. Well here's how it ended it. I actually had $157.69 in rewards:

2 $50 Kohl's gif cards: $90(u get a $50 card for $45...I'm counting the $10 bonus as snowflakes Smile

$50 statement credit..u can only redeem in $50 increments

Remaining $17.69 will be spent at Amazon...yes there's an option that allows you to use your rewards toward Amazon purchases.

I actually like all the redemption options that Discover allows Smile

Tax Class Pays Off Big Time!!

February 22nd, 2014 at 06:52 pm

Happy Saturday everyone! Well I previously posted how I like my part-time job of doing taxes but don't necessarily care for the franchise owners. Well instead of writing a post complaining, I'm here to praise what I have learned to far. Back in the fall I decided to take a local tax class which was free except the books which cost $37. I figured even if I didn't end up getting the part-time job, at least I would learn more about taxes.

Well I did get the job and let me tell you this been a humbling experience. Going into this I have been doing my own taxes for years because I'm pretty good with numbers. Well while at work this week, I was working on my own taxes(free perk of the job), the computer asked me about depreciating my rental property that I own in S.C. I don't every remember the online software of TurboTax or H&R Block asking me this but then again maybe it did and I just said no to the answers, who knows. To make a long story short, I asked my coworker who has worked there for over 10 years and he said I most definitely should be taking the depreciation expense. After running the numbers this increased my refund by $500!!! If that wasn't sweet enough, he also recommended that I amend my prior year returns(another free perk of the job). After completing an amendment for 2010-2012(u can only go back 3 years) the IRS owes me an additional $2000!!!! Amendments have to be filed via paper so I will not mail them in until I get my refund back for this year.

I share all of this with you to say make sure you truly understand taxes and take all of the deductions that are due to you!!! This year I will surprisingly be getting a refund of $3700 mainly because of my school expenses. Looks like I will definitely have to up my 2014 snowflake goal and all refunds will be thrown at the mortgage!!

More Rewards

February 21st, 2014 at 03:35 pm

My Discover statement closed last night so my $150 reward has hit. I was going to just take the rewards in the form of a statement credit but now I see they have gift card options and the cool thing about it is that if u go the gift card route, some qualify for a bonus. For example, if I buy a $45 Kohl's gift card, I would get $5 extra so that would be a $50 gift card for $45. Can't pass up free money right? I will sit down tonight and decide which cards I will order.

More Reward Snow

February 7th, 2014 at 01:35 am

I received $450 reward for spending 3k on my Navy Federal Credit Union card. I'm still working on Discover and Southwest Premium rewards but I hope to have those done this month before the statement cycle closes. My school tuition is what's really helping me meet these rewards early and what makes it even sweeter is that my tuition is coming from my GI Bill benefit Smile

As usual, cc rewards earned will go toward the mortgage.

February Flakes

February 4th, 2014 at 02:02 am

I also received my Ebates payment today in the amount of $100.72. I believe that's the biggest payment I've ever received from them and that's due to getting 2 referrals during their holiday promotion which netted me a $50 bonus. So if it were any of you reading this blog, thanks so much and I hope you enjoy Ebates as much as I do.

I also have a Pinecone survey that I will do tonight that will bring in more flakes. So once again these flakes are going towards my 52 Week Savings Challenge which now total $623. I only have $127 more to go and Christmas 2014 will be funded, lets see if I can make that happen this month Smile

Healthy January

February 1st, 2014 at 04:29 pm

One of my goals for the year was to eat healthier by eating less meat. So I started tracking every day which meals were meatless. I'm happy to say that out of the 31 days of the month I had at least 1 meatless everyday!! Also 15 days were actually 2 meals that were meatless. Of course my ultimate goal is to increase the number of days of which all 3 meals are meatless(only 1 this month) but I'm taking things slow. Two things that I believe assisted me is that I was participating in the 31 Day Green Smoothie challenge(completed 30 days out of 31) and also the fact that I wrote things down; and I will continue to do so. I also learned as with anything else, success is easier if you're prepared so I have to get better at having meatless meals ready that I can grab and go.

So overall I'm pretty darned pleased with my progress, not perfection Smile

January Avalanche

February 1st, 2014 at 01:50 am

January was a great month for snowflakes mainly because of the CC rewards. This is the highest amount than any month in 2013. All CC rewards are going towards paying extra on the mortgage while the other amounts go towards the 52 Week Savings challenge. My challenge total so far is $523, so only $227 remaining and I will have Christmas 2014 covered! Bring on February Smile

Swagbucks 35
Pinecone 6
$1 bills 25
Returns 28.4
BoA rewards 53
Bill credit 13.72
Under budget 56
Citi Walmart GC 150
Chase Checking 200
Chase Sapphire 530

Total: $1097.12!!

Disconnect Day

January 29th, 2014 at 02:33 am

I spend entirely too much time browsing the internet while I could be doing more productive things, so I decided to have a "Disconnect Day" every month as one of my goals for 2014. I tried this last year but fell off in April when I started my PhD journey but I realize I can still take at least one day to disconnect if I plan accordingly. Since I'm working part-time now, that will help out as well. My first Disconnect Day of the year will be Thursday 30 Jan! Basically I will not get on the internet for the entire day. The below is my after work to-do-list for that day. Anyone care to join in??

1. Get tax documents together
2. Laundry
3. Purge Legacy folder and include new documents
4. Read ahead for school
5. Update Feb budget in YNAB
6. Whatever else pops to mind Smile

Hit By An Avalanche!

January 22nd, 2014 at 11:31 pm

Yesterday I posted that I received my $200 bonus for opening a checking with Chase. Well my Sapphire statement closed last night so I was already by 50,000 point bonus! Add that to the 30k I earned for spending, I netted 53k bonus points which equals $530!! I already requested the funds to be deposited in my account, so once that hits its going on the mortgage. That brings my monthly snowflake total to $1,016, I don't know about you but that's an avalanche instead of snowflakes Smile

Chase Snowflake

January 22nd, 2014 at 02:00 am

Towards the end of last year I opened a checking account with Chase in order to take advantage of a $200 promo. Well today I got that $200 and will be putting it towards the mortgage. That brings my snowflake total for the month to $486 so far. I'm also waiting on a few more rewards from Navy Federal and my Chase Sapphire card. If those don't hit this month, then next month will be more like an avalanche versus snowflakes!!

Everything is going good so far with my part-time job. I think I should be getting my first pay check this week so that will be going straight on the mortgage as well. Last but not least, I have had a green smoothie or juice everyday this month so far!!

Changing Strategy

January 15th, 2014 at 05:04 pm

Earlier this month I posted about receiving my Citi Preferred rewards in the form of gift cards. Since then, I've been only counting snowflakes as I spent on the cards but this tracking crap is for the birds. So now I'm just going to take the entire remaining amount out of my budget and be done with it. I also returned a couple items to Walmart yesterday and received $9 back which I'm adding to my 52 Week Savings Challenge. Now weeks 1-15, 36, 48-52 are complete!!

Part-time Job

January 14th, 2014 at 08:33 pm

I cannot recall if I posted about taking a tax course with Liberty Tax last fall or not. Anyway, it was a 10 week course that I attended twice a week. Well after completing all of their requirements, I'm happy to report that my first day of work is tomorrow! One of the main reason I chose to do taxes is because it will aid me in gaining additional experience I need to become an Accredited Financial Counselor. Since taxes are seasonal, they are very flexible with my work hours seeing how I'm only doing it part-time. Another benefit is that not only are my taxes done free but I can refer one family member or friend to get theirs done free as well. All of the income I earn will be thrown at the mortgage so that makes me happy as well Smile

Side note: Day 14 of smoothie challenge is complete!

Energy Bill Credit=Snowflake

January 10th, 2014 at 04:50 am

Our energy company just went through a merger and I noticed on this month's bill there was a $14 credit because of it. Since I'm on the fixed payment amount every month, this month's bill is $14 cheaper than the amount I budgeted. So you know what that means, $14 has now been added to my 52 Week Savings Challenge! Weeks 1-14, 36, 48-52 is now complete. I also completed a Pinecone survey yesterday so that $3 more dollars on the way.

Day 9 of green smoothie challenge is also done Smile

Build Your 72 Hour Emergency Kit in 52 Weeks

January 9th, 2014 at 12:02 am

Someone shared the below site which has a great checklist that breaks down creating a 72 hour emergency bag over the course of the year. I have made it one of my goals for this year. With all the crazy weather going on around us, I think this came in perfect timing. Anyone care to join me? Tonight I will be clearing out two back packs(1 for me and 1 for my daughter) to accomplish week 1 and then moving on!!

Text is http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/07/build-your-72-hour-kit-in-52-weeks.html and Link is
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/07/build-your-72-hour-ki...

Christmas 2014 Half Funded Already!

January 8th, 2014 at 05:21 pm

Just like a few of you, I'm also doing the 52 Week Savings Challenge. Because I'm using this challenge to fund my Christmas sinking fund in the amount of $750, I started this challenge 1 Dec. Today I received a few snowflakes that I'm adding to this challenge. I got a $25 payout from swagbucks, returned items for $6.40 and I got $6 from Pinecone surveys. I have now completed weeks 1-13, 36, 48-52 total to $377, which completes 50% of my Christmas goal already!! I know you heard this before but tracking those small amounts and not letting them melt in your checking account really adds up.

I'm also looking forward to February because it will be more like an avalanche instead of snowflakes, but more on that to come.

Final note: day 8 of the green smoothie challenge is complete!

52 Week Savings Challenge Update

January 5th, 2014 at 07:17 pm

I hope everyone that's experiencing the cold weather is staying warm. It's about 60 degrees here in VegasSmile Quick update on the challenge, I returned an item yesterday to Kohl's for $13 and I just cashed in on my BoA rewards earned in 2013 to the tune of $48. Since I redeemed the rewards to my account, BoA actually pays an additional 10%(that's the main reason I like this card), so my total was $52.80(rounded to $53). So I'm taking that $70 in snowflakes and adding it to the challenge. That brings my challenge total to $350 which allows me to mark off weeks 1-13, 48-52!! That also means I'm only $25 away from being 50% towards my 2014 Christmas goal of $750. I know I will reach that this month because I have more snowflakes projected!!!
Once gain all of this has come from snowflakes and not my income. I love the power of snowflakes!!


Edited to add: I've completed 4 days of drinking either green juice or smoothie and day 5 will be done shortly as well!

First Snow of the Year

January 2nd, 2014 at 04:56 am

In the form of snowflakes that is, last year one of the CC rewards I signed up for was the Citi Simplicity card. Well I was awarded enough bonus points to get $200 in gift cards. Actually it came to $210 after my required spending. So I ordered 4 $50 gcs from Wal-Mart and $10 from Starbucks. I will use the Wal-Mart cards to off-set my grocery budget and will give the other as a gift. I will count the snowflakes in my monthly totals as I spend them. I'm also waiting on $25 Paypal payout via swagbucks before I transfer the $9 in earned in Pinecone surveys.

Lastly, instead of a green smoothie this morning I had a green detox juice(cucumber, celery, lemon and an apple) since I celebrated a tad much last night Smile Tomorrow I will have a smoothie and its already sitting in the fridge ready for me to just crank up the Vitamix!! Happy New Year everyone!

A Year of Snowflakes

December 31st, 2013 at 03:50 pm

In 2012 I decided to keep track of all of my snowflakes. I am happy to report that I also kept track in 2013. Over the past year my grand total is $3,480!!! I can't believe that I saved almost $3,500 just by keep track of those small amounts that we take for granted. Keep in mind this isn't from money I've earned or worked for but from things like rebates, returns, selling stuff, gifts, etc...

I share this with you as we enter the New Year to encourage you to save those small amounts and watch them add up over time. Small snowflakes do indeed turn into snowballs with time.

My 2014 goal is $4,000 and I'm already at $284 with the 52 Week Savings challenge that I started 1 Dec instead of waiting. I plan on using all snowflakes except $750 for Christmas, to pay down my mortgage.
Here's to more Snowflaking in 2014!!!

52 Week Savings Challenge Update

December 31st, 2013 at 02:56 am

Hello everyone! After returning a few items today, I deposited the $1 bills that I have been saving since 1 Dec. I can't believe I had $66 dollars saved but some of that was cash from previous returned items as well. So now I've completed week 1-12, 49-52. I still have an item I need to return to Kohl's and will add that to the challenge as well.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge- 1 Jan

December 30th, 2013 at 08:04 pm

What a great way to start the year! I'm not new to smoothies or juicing but this will be great to get me back on track. Anyone care to join in? If so just sign-up below

Text is http://simplegreensmoothies.com/30-day-challenge and Link is
http://simplegreensmoothies.com/30-day-challenge

Frugal Tidbits

December 30th, 2013 at 04:58 am

I’m a member of Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover forum and another member proposed some small steps that can help you get out of debt by taking small steps. I wanted to share her list with everyone and I hope you find it helpful.

Are you going to second hand shop?
Are you going to get adept and selling stuff on Craig's List?
Are you going to become a coupon master?
Are you going to learn to cook your favorite restaurant meals at home?
Are you going to learn to sew?
Are you going to learn to cut your family's hair?
Are you going to groom your pets yourself?
Are you going to get really good at making the best home packed lunches?
Are you going to start a soup and/or smoothie bucket?
Are you going to learn how to plan meals, shop the specials and cook from scratch?
Are you going to get better about borrowing instead of buying?
Are you going to finally make combining trips a habit?
Are you going to try planting a vegetable and herb garden?
Are you going to start taking clothes to consignment?
Are you going to shop for a cheaper cell phone service?
Are you going to shop your insurance for a better deal?
Are you going to learn what your appliances cost to use and use them less?
Are you going to ride the bus or carpool?
Are you going to switch to cloth diapers?
Are you going to give up the cleaning lady or lawn service?
Are you going to learn to change your own oil?
Are you going to stop throwing out food?
Are you going to learn to do minor repairs around the house?
Are you going to let people know when you have a need and are looking for an inexpensive alternative?
Are you going to calculate how much of your budget is eaten up by interest charges?
Are you going to start exercising to reduce health care expenses?
Are you going to give up the gym membership and start cycling, running or walking instead?


Debt piles up with a 1000 little charges. One way you get out of debt is by eliminating 1000 little expenses. Do you feel like you can start taking on any of the items above? If so, commit to a couple and report back on your successes and failures

Loving Chase!!

December 23rd, 2013 at 08:42 pm

I’m loving Chase right about now! Previously I posted about getting an offer in the mail stating if you open a new savings account with them they will give you $200(other stipulations apply but nothing very hard). Well today when I went to pay on my Chase Sapphire card online, a promotion appeared where if you open a checking account, they will give you $200. The main stipulation is that you have to have some sort of direct deposit of $500 or more to avoid any fees. Well that’s pretty easy for me to do, I will just change my GI Bill payment to go there every month. The account also has to stay open 6 months or you will lose the deposit. I’m also still working on the Chase Sapphire reward of spending $3k to get $500 back. So after it’s all said and done, Chase will be giving me $900! See why I’m loving them Smile

RereadingTotal Money Makeover

December 23rd, 2013 at 05:11 am

As some of you may know, I am a Dave Ramsey follower when it comes to my finances. I’m currently on what he calls Baby Step 6, which is paying off your mortgage. In an effort to get me motivated for 2014, I decided to reread his book Total Money Makeover (if u haven’t read it, I highly recommend it!). I started with the chapter that pertains to BS6 and it has really hit an accord with me this time around. I think it’s because I’m closer to paying off my mortgage (projected July 2015). Dave Ramsey states “every dollar in your budget that you can find above living, retirement, and college should be used to make extra payments on your mortgage”. I’ve known this and have been practicing it since I bought my home in 2011 but I’ve also been throwing snowflakes at other goals instead of all at the mortgage. So what I’ve decided to do for 2014 is to throw all snowflakes at the mortgage, except $750 that I will use for Christmas. I was going to put increases to income at the mortgage and snowflakes towards Christmas and a trip to the Bahamas in 2015 but now I will focus on Christmas and the mortgage only.
I know that there are others here that are focusing on paying down/off the mortgage and we should post often to help keep each other motivated and accountable because as Dave Ramsey puts it “paying off the mortgage is a marathon, not a sprint”.

Another 52 Week Savings Update

December 21st, 2013 at 05:41 pm

My HoA dues came in $20 less than what I budgeted for so I'm taking that $20 and marking off weeks 9&10. I have now complete weeks 1-10 and 51-52. I've also been saving my $1 bills since starting this challenge 1 Dec and will deposit it at the end of the month to avoid temptation Smile

52 Week Savings Challenge Update

December 21st, 2013 at 03:16 am

Hello, I hope everyone is doing well! Today I received an unexpected $50 Kohl's gift card as a Christmas gift, so I'm going to reduce my clothing sinking fund by $50 and add it to the challenge. So far I've completed weeks: 1-8, 51-52. Speaking of Kohl's, I also received an email from them with a coupon of $10 off any purchase, so I will go within the next few days to buy something totaling close to $10 as possible and will add that to the challenge as well!!

2014 Income Increase

December 16th, 2013 at 10:14 pm

With the increase in my GI bill payment, military retirement pay, and VA(Veteran Affairs)compensation, my total increase comes to $160 a month. The best part $108 of that is tax free Smile I will send all of it towards extra principal payment to the mortgage.

Side note: I received $3 from Pinecone which is going towards 2014 52 Week Savings Challenge.

Afternoon Snowflakes

December 12th, 2013 at 10:55 pm

I received a rebate of $10 that I had mailed off for a couple months ago and I returned an item today to Big Lots for $5. That brings my grand total for 2013 to $3500! My original goal was $3000 so it's all good. I've decided to take the $15 and add it to the $108 I posted about this morning and throw one last snowball at the mortgage.

This will be it for tracking 2013 snowflakes, any snowflakes excluding cc rewards from here on out will go towards my 2014 52 Week Money Challenge of reaching $1378 nlt 1 Dec 2014!

Early Morning Snowflake

December 12th, 2013 at 01:52 pm

I just checked my USAA account and saw that my annual distribution hit in the amount of $108. I knew it was coming but the amount is larger than I expected...gotta love when that happens SmileNow I need to decide if I'm going to put it on the mortgage or towards 52 Week Money Challenge!

Moving My Emergency Fund

December 10th, 2013 at 10:21 pm

Currently I have my emergency fund sitting in my Smartypig account earning 1% annually. Received an offer in the mail today from chase where if you open up a new savings account, deposit $15,000, and keep it there for 90 days they will pay a $200 bonus. The account has to be open at least 6 months but the full amount only has to stay there 90 days. After the 90 days are up, I only have to maintain a $300 balance to avoid fees. If they want to pay me to park my money, I will take it! The offer is good until 3 Feb so I'm going to wait until this quarter's interest is paid on 31 Dec and then start my transfer process. Glad to not have to spend money for once to get rewarded. YAY to more 2014 snowflakes in the forecast!!!

Done with Ebay for 2013

December 9th, 2013 at 03:13 am

Well the two items that I had listed didn't end up selling tonight so I'm calling it done for ebay selling this year. I sold $389 worth of stuff this year so I'm not complaining.

Side note...I get a two break from school starting 18 Dec and I plan to take advantage of it by doing things around the house that I've been putting off. With that said, I'm thinking that will be the time I also end 2013 snowflake tracking. Anything that comes in after that will go towards 2014 52 Week Money Challenge. I just want to spend the last couple weeks relaxing and preparing for the New Year!!!


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