I know many of us here practice the concept of capturing what we call snowflakes. Snowflakes are normally considered the amounts of money you may get back from returning items, rebates, coming in under budget, etc... In order to determine what my 2014 snowflake goal will be I'm curious what everyone considers snowflakes to be.

Historically I haven't counted any increases in my military retirement pay or VA payment as snowflakes but now I'm thinking why not count them? It's always said "the more we make, the more we tend to spend". While I was in the military, the one thing I practiced was whenever I got promoted or a raise, I took that increase and saved it because I was use to living without it anyway. That way when I reached higher ranks, I was still living off of what I made earlier in my career.

I say all of this to ask you whether you think pay raises or cost of living adjustments of any sort should be considered as snowflakes?

As I posted earlier, I'm starting the 2014 challenge now because part of it will be used for Christmas 2014. Earlier I was able to mark off weeks 1-4 because a bill came in under budget. Well today I returned an item to Wal-Mart for $15 and I got an email from Kmart stating they were giving their members 3000 points or $3 in points just because. Well I spent it today so I reduced my grocery budget accordingly. So now I'm able to mark off weeks 1-7!! I will not count this $18 towards my December snowflake total(which is going quite well but that's another post)

Check out the below, I just did it and it stated my promotional credit would be applied to next purchase. I plan on using this in conjunction with my AMEX Amazon purchase I mentioned earlier. Basically I will get $75 in gift cards for $45, cant beat that! Hurry not sure how long this will last.

BTW it didn't publish my wish list to Facebook only the comment I put it which said I wanted to have good times with friends and family for the holidays.

I'm sure many of you read about the money challenge from the beginning of the year where you save the amount based on the week you are on. For example, if u are on week 1, you save $1 and if you are on week $15 you save $15. If you are consistent, at the year of the year you will have $1378. Well I've decided to start now instead of waiting until 1 Jan. The main reason is because like before, I will be using part of the funds to pay for Christmas 2014 and I figured now would be the perfect time.

I plan on reaching goal by doing things like coming in under budget, saving my $1 bills again, selling stuff on Ebay, etc... I will not use any of my cc bonuses that I have coming towards this particular goal but they will go towards by overall 2014 snowflake total once I decide what that goal will be. I've already created line items in YNAB to help me keep track.

Anyone care to join me in saving over $1300 for the next 52 weeks?

I received a rebate check from ShopatHome for $25 and a $5 Amazon gc via swagbucks. An item I had listed on Ebay last night sold as well so as soon as I receive payment I will update my total!

There's a bunch of new offers. I got the below:

ToysRUs: Spend 25 get 5
Kohl's: Spend 50 get 10
Chevron: Spend 40 get 5

Make sure u check expiration dates a well.

I currently have a offer where if you spend $75 on Amazon.com, they will give you a $25 statement credit!!

If you plan on taking advantage of Cyber Monday like myself, I just wanted to remind you about using Ebates to possibly earn you cash back on your purchases. Basically you check Ebates to see if the site you plan on purchasing from is listed and instead of going directly to the site, you go through Ebates and earn a certain percentage cash back. For instance, they are currently paying 4% cash back to shop at Walmart.

Once again, don't make purchases that you don't have the money for so you don't have to worry about making returns for items you shouldn't have purchased! Happy Holidays!

I received my new card today in the mail. I think a couple of us here signed up for the card which was offering 50,000 bonus points after spending $3000. Well I still have $900 to spend to reach my goal on the card I got from Navy Federal in order to get 60,000 points. I will reach that with no problem so as soon as I cap that out I will start using this card. I will reach that sometime in Feb because I plan to charge my tuition for the class I recently started and the one that starts in Feb. Uncle Sam is footing the bill for school while I'm earning bonus money at the same time, cant beat that!!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving with family and friends, I know I am

Today I stopped by Applebee's to take advantage of their gift card offer. If you buy $50 in gift cards, you get a $10 bonus card. I eat there often so I figured I might as well. I bought 2 $25 cards and I'm thinking of making one a Christmas gift for my daughter's teacher.

Also in the mail today I got $10 off any purchase from Victoria Secret. It's good until 31 Jan but I will see what I can find for close to $10 and give it as a gift as well. So I'm counting those two things as a $20 snowflake. My total is $3243...inching closer and closer to $3400!

Throughout the year I put a specific amount of money aside to pay the property tax on my rental in South Carolina. Well I just got the bill and it is $131 less than what I have saved so I will send in as a snowflake against the mortgage. That brings my total for the 52 Week Snowflake Challenge to $3,218! Let's see if I can end the year with $3400

Currently at Bed Bath and Beyond until 4 Dec. No coupon required, in store only and limit 5 per transaction.

For those of us that earn snowflakes by using Ebates, I just wanted to pass along until 12 am PST tonight they will be giving double cash back at alot of stores.(very short time frame) This is the perfect time to get paid for doing your normal online shopping.

For those of you that don't know, Ebates(see sidebar) pays you a certain percent cash back for just going through their site to get to the store you wish to finally shop with. I have never had any major problems with them and when I did have questions, they were answered right away. I figured if they want to give me money for shopping, then I will gladly take it

Over the last couple of weeks Ebay has been very good to me so I was able to transfer $68 from my Paypal account to checking. With this I can now say that I have now reached my 52 Week Snowflake Challenge goal of $3000!!!! Of that, $1378 was for the 52 Money Challenge that I learned about on this site at the beginning of the year. So as of now my snowflake total for the year thus far is $3073 and the year isn't even over. This just goes to show you as many of us already know, small amounts do add up over time!!

Currently at Kroger or affiliate store like Smith, you can snag either $12 off $45 Chipotle gift card or $7 of $25. Great gift idea!

Currently at Kroger or affiliate store like Smith, you can snag either $12 off $45 Chipotle gift card or $7 of $25. Great gift idea!

Snowflakes this week so far are $84 from GI bill payment increase, $11 ebay sale, and $5 Kmart giftcard that I posted about yesterday. I have another item listed on ebay but no bidders yet but it's listed until Sunday night so hopefully it will sell!

I just did the below deal at Kmart for Cottonelle toilet paper. First I bought a $25 Kmart gift card because they are giving u an extra $5 gift card and 2000($2) points if u are a rewards member which I am(it's free to signup). Then I purchased 3 12 pack rolls of tissue for which they are taking $3 off at the register if u are once again a member. On top of that I used 1 coupon I had for .55 cents because they wouldn't allow more than one coupon for the same item. Finally I used the $2 in points that I just mentioned above. My out of pocket cost was $6.92 for 36 rolls of tissue which I used the gift card I just purchased. Are u ready for the cherry on top?? The system kicked out a $3 coupon to be used on your next purchase!! I'm going to go back tomorrow and buy more!! Make sure u are a rewards member before u make your purchases to get the best deal!!

Groupon is currently offering this great deal if you like Starbucks. Better hurry because I'm sure they will sell out fast. You may just have to type Starbucks in the search feature for the deal to show for your city. Good luck!

A couple days ago I posted about QVC offering a special where if u buy $100 in e-giftcards, they would send u an additional $25 e-giftcard. Well I figured since I shop there anyway, I might as well take advantage of it and get rewarded. I emailed everything to myself, I got both cards within minutes. I will count the $25 as a snowflake once I use it If you're interested, the promotion ends today.

Looks like you have to actually activate the daily goal meter now before it starts tracking for you.

For those of u that shop at QVC like me, there's a promotion where if u buy $100 in eGiftcards then they will send u a $25 EGiftcard. I'm debating whether I should do this and save it for my future purchases I think the promotion is over on Sunday.

For the month of October I earned a whopping $617 in snowflakes!! That's my highest total of the year so far. Granted over 50% of the total came from CC reward offers but hey if they want to pay me for being financially smart, I'll take it !

An item that I placed on Ebay on Sunday already has a bid on it so it will sell. Also earlier in the month I mentioned that Navy Federal Credit has an offer where you spend $3k in 3 months you get $600 in rewards. Well I called and was told that the rewards weren't just for travel. Also after reading all the positive reviews and also noticing they pay u 2 points for every dollar spent,I decided to go for it. From the website it appears you can buy giftcards or even redeem for a deposit into your account but for a lesser amount than if u redeemed for travel. I will just have to wait and see how everything works out but since they are comparable to USAA, I don't think I will have any problems.

Just got an email from Ebates stating they would add $1 to my next reward payment if I redeemed for a Amazon GC. Of course I jumped on it and I was rewarded $10.32. That brings my snowflake total for today up to $58.32, gotta love it!!!

I rolled all the quarters I've been saving towards the 52 Week Snowflake Challenge and it came to $40. I finally returned an item to Wal-Mart today as well for $8. $48 in snowflakes in one day isn't too bad Now I'm only $213 away from meeting my annual goal of $3000 in snowflakes!

I also listed an item on Ebay last night so hopefully that will bring in more for the month of November!

Currently you can snag $15 groupon to ToysRUs for $7.50. Plus if you go through Ebates you get 3% cashback. Great for the holidays!

Does anyone have it? Have you experienced any problems getting your swagbucks awarded? I'm thinking about applying because they pay 1.25 swagbucks per dollar spent. That's more than most credit cards that pay 1%. Right now after your first purchase you get 1000sbs and then if u spend $1000 within the next 6 billing cycles you get an additional 2500sb..basically you get $35. I figured this could be an easy way to rack up on extra snowflakes by doing normal purchases anyway, especially with the holidays coming. Thoughts anyone??

Earlier this year I challenged myself to complete the 52 Week Challenge($1378) and $1622 in other snowflakes for a total of $3000 for 2013(hence the name of the challenge). Well I'm happy to report that I'm only $252 away from my goal. With the guaranteed snowflakes from the increase in my GI bill payment for Nov and Dec, I will definitely not only reach but probably surpass my goal. If I haven't said it before, I will say it now...I love the power of snowflakes!!!

Last month sometime I applied for AMEX card which was offering $150 bonus after only spending $500. Well I got my first statement yesterday and noticed that it said the bonus wouldn't be awarded until minimum payment was received. I thought that was different but ok whatever. Then I went online today to check out the deal CCF had mentioned and low and behold my $150 in rewards had indeed posted to my account. I immediately redeemed it for a statement credit and just transferred the funds from the budget to my 52 week challenge total instead of the mortgage at the moment. I will post about the status of my 52 Week Snowflake Challenge tomorrow