I returned an item to Walmart today for $13 in snowflakes. Adding that to the $51 eBay payment this morning brings my total yearly total to $1229.61 which is 41% of my goal.

A week or so ago I placed an item on ebay but the seller never paid. This past Friday I opened up a case with ebay because I had sent numerous emails to the winner but never heard anything back. When you open up a case, you're not charged any fees if the bidder doesn't pay.

Well to my surprise, when I opened up my email this morning they finally had paid. They sent me an email apologizing for the mix-up because she hadn't realized that she had bid on 2 of the same items. Really??

Oh well I'm glad she finally paid and that's $51 in snowflakes.

How did it go for you this morning? I was up at 05:07; one area that this challenge is helping me is that I don't jump on the computer or turn on the tv within the first hour. How has it helped you? We are already half through the month!! Like the author of the book stated in today's reading "Past (poor) performance is not an indication of future (poor) performance."

So if you haven't done well so far on this challenge, start anew. This month is half over but you have another half to start again!!

As I posted before, it is my goal to have at least one day a month where I disconnect from the internet. Well my next one will be Wednesday 17 Apr. I have to make one exception for this disconnect day and all others going forward. I start my PhD program on Thursday so I will definitely need to access the internet since it's an online program. However, that's the only thing I will do. I will not check email, Facebook, this site or any other site. The only thing that I will do has to be related to my school work for that day. Combining this with the Early to Rise Challenge should lead to a very productive day Others are always welcomed to join me!

I'm still going strong with getting up before 05:30 but the last couple of days have been a little bit harder. I think it's because it's been a bit cooler in the house and I don't want to get out of my warm bed. In the beginning I was getting up at 5:05 or so but for the past 3 days I've been getting up at 5:15. I have to keep an eye on that so that it doesn't get slowly later. I'm glad it's Friday

I happy to report that I'm still doing good on this challenge but I have to admit it was nice to sleep in a little bit this weekend. How's everyone else doing?

Over the past couple of days I've gotten 2 unexpected checks in the mail. One is dental insurance premium refund for $71.97. When I signed up for my retiree dental insurance I had to pay a 2 month prepayment until my allotment started. I didn't realize that I would get the unused portioned refunded.

The second check was for $55.79. It was for the utility co-op on my previous home in South Carolina. I wasn't expected that either but I'll take it.

Also I got refunded $3 for using my USAA ATM on a non-network last month. So my total 6 days into the month is $130.76. I also have an ebay auction ending tomorrow so hopefully that will bring in more snow!

I made it to day 5!!! Woke up this morning at 05:02 and I have to admit I'm looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow although I'm not that much of a late sleeper. Reminder with this challenge, I'm taking the weekends off so I guess it's not a full 3 days. I just felt it would make things realistic and hopefully a greater chance of success.

I'm not sure why I didn't posy yesterday but I'm still going strong. Yesterday I woke up at 5:04 and 5:05 this morning. I tell you Joyce Meyer's broadcasts this week and the Early to Rise book are in step with each other this week. I would like to think it's because I'm doing this challenge and it's what I need to hear but I'm sure it's because they are both talking about habits. I haven't gotten Joyce's new book on habits yet because she's been teaching from it pretty much all week. They both say to focus on things that you can actually change. We can't control certain things or people so we should focus on what we can like what time we wake up in the morning.

Here's the Early to Rise action tip: I know I need to do this because I always watch TV before I fall asleep.

"Pick a song to listen to or a book to read before you go to bed tonight so you go to bed with good thoughts on your mind. In the absence of good input we allow negative thoughts and worry to enter our minds. Find something encouraging to listen to or read and keep it by your bed."

With this month's regular payment, I'm now officially paying more principal than interest!! I still don't have new renters for my rental in South Carolina so that will slow my progress down a bit. I'm not too worried because it's very close to the military base and high move season is quickly approaching. So for now I celebrate this milestone!!

Up at 05:04 this morning. I watched Joyce Meyer broadcast on Ipad and once again I didn't touch my computer until after 7:00. Her topic this morning was the Anatomy of a Habit, part 1 A couple things that stood out to me that she said was "bad habits are your enemies because they take away things that you want in life". She also stated that you should focus on the god habits you want to form and not the bad.

How's everyone else doing??

Good morning everyone!! Happy to report I woke up this morning at 04:54. I was pretty tired last night so I crashed before 9:30 but then I was awakened by the howling wind at who knows what time. I listened to Joyce Meyer this morning and you're not going to believe this. While I was listening, a banner scrolled across about her new book that comes out tomorrow. Guess what it's called... "Making Good Habits, Breaking Bad Habits" I think God is trying to tell me something so I will definitely be checking Amazon today to see if it's available via Kindle.

Another shocker for me this morning is that the author of the book Early to Rise(Andy Traub) actually left a comment thanking me for taking on this challenge and that he hopes his book helps. Now that's totally awesome!!


To help me succeed, last night I went ahead and read the first 6 chapters of the book but not the daily devotionals. Here are a few key points that stuck out to me and what I did this morning.

1. The temptation of start "doing": "when we awake everything that we have to do that day comes running at us". It attacks the part of your mind that brings peace and clarity. If you don't have a plan for your early morning, you'll start worrying earlier than usual. You need to set aside your morning time to just "be" instead of "do" It's very important that upon waking you don't engage with the world for at least an hour. That means no email checking, turning on the TV. Don't go thru your DVR; don't listen to anything that causes u to worry. This is a time for you to fill yourself up, not stress yourself out!!

2. I did not check my emails until after I returned from dropping my daughter off around 7:00. I have yet to turn on the TV, which is unheard of for me!

3. I listened to Joyce Meyer as planned

4. I made fresh celery,apple,and garlic juice with my juicer


I hope the others that stated they are joining me are doing well this morning. Even if u didn't succeed this morning, don't give up!!

I ran across this challenge on another blog and I've decided to challenge myself to wake up nlt 0530 each weekday. I'm being realistic here so I will take the weekends off. I think this challenge comes at a perfect time for me because not only will I continue to study to become a Financial Counselor(1 exam left) but I will also be starting my PhD program on 18 Apr.

I already get up at 6:00 because I have to get my daughter ready but I also have a bad habit of coming back home when I drop her off and getting back in the bed for at least a couple of hours. I will also be stopping that bad habit during this challenge.

Anyone care to join in??

If you love Starbucks, today's Groupon is a great deal. I just bought one for me sis-n-law for her upcoming bday. I also went thru Ebates to get 3% cash back Unfortunately limit is 1.

Today I took the first of two exams towards becoming an Accredited Financial Counselor and I'm happy to report I passed!! I will order my material for the second exam later today.

@CCF, have you looked into the spouse's fellowship for the program? Yeah I put u on blast becuase I think you would do great

Last month I completed my legacy drawer and the last items I was waiting for were the updated deeds to my primary home and rental property. I received the last deed in the mail a couple days ago and for some reason I decided to contact my insurance agent to find out if it mattered or not that both homes have now been placed in my living trust.

Come to find out it did. Since the homes are underneath my trust, the insurance company stated that the trust has to be named as "additional insured" They stated this just shows who owns the home and if there ever is a claim against the properties, the check would be made out to the owner(which is now my trust). Since I'm the trustee of my trust, I shouldn't have any problems cashing any checks that are provided.

I just wanted to pass along this bit of info to say make sure you check with your insurance agents if you have property in a trust.


Financial Tidbits: I finally got paid for 2 ebay items that sold over the weekend. That netted $17.50. I have two items set to close on Sunday and 1 already has a bid with 6 watchers. I also got paid $3 from Pinecone

March Snowflakes:$56.47

My mortgage is now under $100K and I'm sooooooooo excited!! I took this mortgage out in 2011 and my goal is to have it paid off in 2015!

New balance: $99,991

I know alot of us are trying to sell stuff and earn a few snowflakes so I just wanted to pass this along. I've used Cash4Books plenty of times and never had a problem. Granted they may not pay much for some books but I figure it's better than nothing and they pay shipping.

Well during the month of March if you sell 6 books and use promo code "BookCleaner" at checkout, you get an additional $3. Hope this helps someone.

I sold 2 items on ebay this weekend of which I just received payment. Both items were mailed out today. I listed 2 more items that closes out on Sunday.

I also received a $7 check in the mail from Cash4Books becuase someone used my referral so thank you who ever you are for that! I also completed a survey with Pinecone today so I should receive payment within a couple days but won't count it until it hits my account.

March total: $36

I will be focusing on completing a home inventory this month. I've decided to break this task down by doing each room at a time. I'm starting with my master bedroom. The software I mentioned in original post has an app so I downloaded it on my Ipad. This app is so great, it syncs up with my online account and I can take pictures right from my Ipad and drop it into the inventory. The only thing that I don't like about the app is that it doesn't allow me to put in the receipt but that's ok, I will just go online and upload it.

Today, I went through and wrote down all the serial/model numbers for each electronic type item in my room. I also took pics of each item as well. I made sure that the TV and DVD player was powered on to show that it's in working order.

A friend of mine told me she took still pics of all electronic items and then wrote the model/serial number on the back of the pics as well. I think I will also do that since I have a coupon for Walmart for 25 free pics

Side note: Both items I listed on ebay will sell tonight and I've listed 2 more.

Last month I focused on completing my legacy drawer and was able to get that done. To keep on the theme of preparing for the unknown, during March my goal is to do a complete inventory of my house. For Christmas my brother gave me a video recorder so I plan on doing a video inventory of both in and out. I've read that I should also open up the cupboards,drawers and go through the closets to show exactly how much stuff I own.

I will only put the big items in the home inventory software and use the video to capture everything. Do you have a inventory of all your possessions? If not, how will you prove to the insurance company that you owned things? Just food for thought

@CCF, I thought specifically of you when I read this.
The FINRA Foundation Spouse Fellowship Program provides military spouse recipients with the education and training needed to earn the Accredited Financial Counselor® (AFC®) designation. I'm currently studying for this certifcation myself. I think you would be great and should apply.

http://www.finra.org/Newsroom/NewsReleases/2013/P212562

One of my goals for 2013 is to try a new veggie or fruit every month. Well today I had butternut squash for the first time. I actually made a quick soup of it in my Vitamix. It tasted pretty good, a little sweeter than I thought it would be.

As some of you know, I often drink green smoothies or juices quite often as well. Today I juiced collard greens for the first time. I eat collards but never juiced them. I added celery,cucumber and an apple as well. It wasn't bad at all and I loved the color was dark green

Jan Disconnect Day--completed
Jan New Veggie/Fruit--completed
Feb Disconnect Day--completed
Feb New Veggie/Fruit--completed

Well I'm happy to report that my legacy/love box is now complete!!!! I finished the last step today by going on base and getting my Will and POAs updated for free. The legal office provided me a pratical tips list concerning Wills that I will share a couple points with everyone.

1. Don't mark,write on,unstable,staple documents to, tear or do anything that can be looked upon as tampering with your new Will. Such actions can act to void your will and be grounds for denial of admission to probate.

2. Keep it in a safe place that can be found and accessed readily in the event of your death. Be aware that a bank safe deposit box may be sealed upon your death and would require a court order to access it.

3. Only a Will with original signatures can be probated.

Lastly, was this alot of work to get the legacy drawer(mine is a binder) completed? Yes it was but it is worth it. I feel sooooooooooooooooooooo much better now that all my important docs are in one location and I can just grab and go during an emergency.

I encourage each of you that haven't got this done, get to work! It's not for u but the ones u leave behind.

I thought that the Pinecone payment I received yesterday might be the last snowflake of the month but it wasn't. I received $5 Walmart GC via swagbuck today and I've already added to my Walmart account. As I posted before, I'm using Walmart GCs this year instead of Amazon to purchase groceries.

52 Week Snowflake Challenge: $910.40

I did a survey on Friday or Saturday and received payment today via PayPal. This was my first time getting paid via PayPal instead of via a check and it was pretty darn quick. This will probably be the last snowflake of the month but we will see.

52 Week Snowflake Challenge: $905.40

I've decided to combine 2 goals that I set for myself for 2013. 1 goal was to complete the 52 week money challenge with $1378 and the other goal was to complete 2013 snowflake challenge with $1500. Well I've decided to combine those 2 into 1 and call it 52 Week Snowflake Challenge with a goal of $3000. $750 will be used towards Christmas and the remaining amounts will be split between throwing extra at the mortgage and changing one of my spare bedrooms into an office/small gym. I plan on just replacing the bed with a futon or daybed and buying an eliptical. All of this isn't going to take place till the end of the year.

I'm happy to say that between last month and this month snowflakes, I already have $902.40 towards new goal! I also listed 2 items on ebay tonight to hopefully bring in some March snow!! I know that I've said this befor but keep track of those small amounts becuase they add up over time!!

Today I received quite a few checks in the mail today.
1. Ebates $28.49
2. Pinecone $3
3. Rebate mailed in last month: $4
4. TJ Maxx Giftcard that I bought using debit reward cards points on an account I'm closing: $50...I'm saving this as a Christmas gift. Total snowflakes today $85.49. That brings my montly total to $465.99, surpassing last month!!

2013 Snowflake Total: $892.40

As you many of you may know, I'm working on getting my "Love Box" completed this month. Well a fellow SA member (scfr) shared the below website which contains a free Letter of Instruction that u can provide to your loved ones. I think it's very detailed. Thanks again for sharing so I'm also passing it along.

http://www.jonathanpond.com/letter

Second meeting with the lawyer today to sign the paperwork for the changes I made to the trust and also to sign the new deeds for both properties in order to place them inside the trust. Now I have to wait for the deeds to be recorded and for the laywers to send me the original. I've put a note on my calender to call in 30 days if I haven't heard back by then.

Another good thing about all of this is that my lawyer is emailing the docs as she scans them in so I now have electronic copies without having to do it myself

Finally, I made an appointment for next week with the legal office on base to update my Will,POAs and Health directives. I went with the base instead of the lawyer becuase it's free since I'm a retiree.