May 2025 Extra Savings

A break down of extra savings in May 2025:

Amex Rewards $25.56

Amazon Rewards $8.29

Chase Rewards $4.19

US Bank Rewards $45.78

USAA Interest $0.16

FNBO Interest $84.12

NFCU Interest $138.54

Total $306.64

YTD Total $1,355.11

I track any extra income beyond earnings from work. Usually, the income is from credit card rewards or interest earned on our savings. We are on track to earn an extra $3000 from these sources this year! We are grateful for all blessings that flow into our lives!

February 2025 Extra Savings

I'm tracking our extra savings beyond earned income for 2025. This extra income generally comes from interest on our CD's and savings, and credit card rewards.

February 2025

USAA Refund $3.00

USAA Interest $0.10

Chase Rewards $11.23

Amex Rewards $72.84

Amazon Reward $2.44

FNBO Interest $80.82

NFCU Interest $80.41

Total $250.84

YTD Total $481.85

April Snowflakes

I'm tracking money coming in this year from interest, credit card rewards, and other miscellaneous places. Reward money is going towards paying down our van loan. Each month I calculate the total and send it in towards the principal of the loan. Interest is just accumulating in our bank account to add to cash savings this year. 

Chase Rewards  $5.02

USAA Rewards $5.64

US Bank Reward $3.26

Amazon Rewards $3.64

Amex Reward $28.67

NFCU Rewards $50.00

NFCU Interest $62.16

FNBO Interest $90.85

Total $249.24

YTD $1,040.01

Total rewards sent to van loan was $96.23. We've been staying on track with our plan for 2023 thus far. Make a plan, then work the plan. Keep going towards what you are trying to achieve for your finances. The effort is worth it!

December Snowflakes

Time to make a concise report of the extra funds found and earned in December

Chase Reward $7.32

Amex Reward $18.60

NFCU Reward $167.37

USAA Subscriber Pmt $101.13

USAA Interest $0.10

FNBO Interest $123.39

NFCU Interest $64.90

Total $482.81

Credit card rewards and interest on our savings are the primary ways that extra income arrives in this house. I used to spend time doing surveys, or selling things online. I currently am not doing those things. I am grateful for higher interest rates and will enjoy them from a saving perspective while we can! 

Starting in January, I will sweep credit card rewards towards our van loan. I will let the interest continue to accrue in our savings account and add to the available balance. 

Setting Goals for 2024

I made two savings goals, beyond retirement, for 2024. 

1)Return $11,000 to savings for the car debt we recently paid off. I have a plan that will use regular income, $917/month. I will also send found money here as well. Always good to fatten the cash reserves!

2)Save $400 a month towards a vacation. The where and when are still to be determined and my hope is that we won't spend that much, but I'd rather oversave then under save. If we take a vacation before fully funded with current income, I will use current savings, but then keep filling in monthly to pay ourselves back.

We also have some debt to pay.

We have a loan on our 2023 Honda Odyssey. We have been paying it faster than required. I believe it was a four year loan, which we are 16 months into. The goal is to pay it off by June of 2025 half a year before my husband retires. I have the payments set as $600 twice per month. 

I'd like to sweep extra funds into both the savings repayment and the car. I might have to do a little of both depending on what I have to work with. I guess after thinking about it a little. I will consider credit card rewards towards van loan. I will keep interest earned in savings, but not necessarily counted towards my two goals above. 

The other thing that I'd like to buy is a new sofa and loveseat for our family room. Our 'fake' leather is peeling and the cushions aren't as firm and comfortable. If I buy in 2024, without specifically saving for it (we already have a good savings account) I will probably pay ourselves back for that in 2025. 

November Snowflakes

I'm just getting back into the swing of tracking and posting my money wins on this blog. Years ago money I found to throw at debt, I referred to as snowflakes. Today, I look back at November to see what found was found. I will list the incoming money wins like I used to, not sure if I will tally forward or not at this point, I guess if I do I will start in 2024. 

Ebay sale $57.08

Sling TV reward $10

Chase rewards $14.86

US Bank rewards $44.70

USAA rewards $31.99

American Express $56.98

ATM rebates $7

USAA interest $0.11

FNBO interest $142.64

NFCU interest $62.55

Total $427.91

Not bad at all! Grateful for higher interest rates on savings while we can get them. 

One update to my last post about the great dishwasher deal. There were three items that had to be purchased and sent with the installer when it was delivered. Turns out we didn't need two of them. I returned them for $33.35. Our net out of pocket for this dishwasher is now $75.23! I have used it a few times and it was worth every penny!

In other news, our youngest daughter accepted her first full time job, post college and is moving out (and away) later this month. While we will miss seeing her daily, I'm looking forward to her being financially self supporting. At minimum this will free up $300 in expenses, but likely more as we take her off our auto insurance, and no longer buy groceries to feed her. Is it okay to happy dance about this?! 

November was a good month of snowflakes and good financial news. How was November for you financially? 

Focus Again on Saving

I'm back! I've decided to start posting savings windfalls again. I think that attention attracts the savings mindset and the expectation of money flowing in. It also creates gratitude within me as well. 

We bought our current home in fall of 2021 and used a sizeable amount of our savings as a down payment. I lost interest in tracking the savings soon after. Plus there were maintenance projects we decided to take on. The money was flowing out faster than in. No fun to report that! 

We have still been saving for retirement, racking up credit card rewards and interest on our cash savings. We did purchase a new van to replace our old one that was 14 years old. We didn't completely go off the rails over here, and we are paying off the van loan fast just as we always have with consumer debt. 

I use YNAB for budgeting and I could probably find the details and see what we earned in credit cards rewards and interest since I stopped writing. However, I think that it's more fun to look forward than back. I'll report the money coming in for November and December and possibly come up with a goal for the new year to work towards. 

I look forward to writing here again! 

Pot of Possibilities - July 2021

Another month of 2021 in the books and we have saved money once again in our Pot of Possibilities!

7/1 Paycheck $962.77

7/15 Paycheck $1000.77    

Ebay Sale $8.65

FNBO Interest $12.87

NFCU Interest $37.48

USAA Interest $0.15

Amex Rewards $72.19

Chase Rewards  $4.89

USAA Premium Refund $538.48

July Total $2,638.25

YTD Total $18,259.56

POP Total $110,319.94

I'm calling that another milestone! Over $110,000! 

The original goal of this big savings goal was to reach $200K, by the time my husband retires. With the idea that we could put a large down payment on a home. At the time I thought we might buy a home worth about $200K! Of course home prices are rising rapidly since that time. We are likely still on track to meet that goal with about 2.5 years to retire. But things are changing. We have orders to move to our final assignment. We are likely going to buy a home there since it's in the Midwest and closer to our girls. So it will be time to dip into the Pot of Possibilities. The amount we have saved is plenty to put at least 20% down on our next home. 

It's been a fun ride building up the cash, but it will feel good to have it work for us in another way soon. And it's time, since interest rates are not in favor with savers once again. 

I expect there to be another month, or two of POP contributions. The savings never really stops, but I will likely stop reporting it in this way. 

Thanks for following our journey! Oh, and check back tomorrow I have news on another bit of a windfall!  

Pot of Possibilities - June 2021

First half of the year of savings complete! We are looking to roughly save $30,000 towards our Pot of Possibilities this year. We are on target and slightly ahead at this point. 

6/1 Paycheck $858.82

6/15 Paycheck $1029.84

NFCU Interest $55.08

FNBO Interest $12.45    

USAA Rewards $6.13

Chase Freedom $4.28

Amex Rewards $76.80

June Total $2043.40    

YTD Total $15,621.31

POP Total $107,681.69

I usually have a US Bank reward of $3.50. The bank now requires a minimum of $25 in rewards before redemption. I'm currently only using for our AT&T internet bill for 5% off. The small amounts add up, but I'm getting less interested in keeping this card. 

Interest is declining as two of our CDs matured this month and we cannot get anything close to what we had for interest now. It really isn't the best time to be holding cash. I plan to open a money market at Navy Federal rather than having the proceeds from the CDs in regular savings account. That will help a little. 

How did you do with your savings this month?

Pot of Possibilities - April 2021

A new month! Time to report the progress on adding to our Pot of Possibilities! This is the least amount we have added in awhile. April was full of spending! We flew out of town to help our daughter move from one state to another. We also had a repair to my van that we didn't have fully funded. Remember when I took our sinking fund down to zero at the end of last year? It's all the same money in the end. 

4/1 Paycheck $979.34
Amex Reward $5.00
USAA Interest $0.10

US Bank Reward $3.50

Anniversary Gift $50

Chase Reward $5.71    

NFCU Interest $69.89

FNBO Interest $14.04

Chase Freedom $5.74

April Total $1,133.32

YTD Total $11,336.46

POP Total $103,396.83

I have another trip back to help our daughter move out of her college dorm room for the summer. Hotel expenses and restaurants will add up. We have a little set aside, but will mostly come from current income. I am grateful we could still move the meter on the balance to the positive! It all counts.  

While doing this update, I realized I forgot to redeem American Express rewards in April. Another $50, but will add in May since it has not yet hit our bank account. 

Good luck with YOUR savings goals!

Pot of Possibilities - March 2021 (MILESTONE!!)

Time once again for the Pot of Possibilities progress report!

3/1 Paycheck $979.36

3/1 Extra funds $26.16

3/15 Paychek $971.95

3/15 Extra funds $172.29

USAA $3.08

US Bank $3.50

Found cash $20

Amex rewards $50

XRay refund ('18) $27.99

Stimulus $1400.00

NFCU Interest $72.15

FNBO Interest $14.68

March Total $3,714.16

YTD Total $10,203.14

POP Total $102,263.51

As predicted, we exceeded the $100K mark this month!! Last year our total contribution to the Pot was just over $20K, after three months we are halfway to meeting that same goal. A raise does help the finances. 

We did received $4,200 in stimulus money for myself, my husband and our college daughter. The $1,400 above is my portion. We saved $1,400 towards college tuition this fall. My husband contributed his portion to causes close to his heart. 

Two other unusual contributions are the $20 found cash and the x ray refund. I found a $20 bill in a Walmart parking lot. No one was around, it wasn't windy. Someone was just unfortunate and I was the lucky finder. I have never found paper money on the ground before! The x ray refund was a surprise. Apparently our insurance finally processed for an x ray my daughter had in the fall of 2018. We had paid the clinic and they refunded us the amount the insurance paid. 

I'm am proud that we underspent during each pay period this month. April has us traveling, helping our daughter move and some repairs to my van are expected. We will see if we can maintain that next month!  

For now, I'm celebrating our HUGE milestone of passing the $100,000 mark! Yippee!! Who hoo!! Happy Dancin'!! 

POP Contributions August

 These are the contributions we made to our Pot of Possibilities (POP) in August.

8/1 Paycheck $320.00

8/15 Paycheck $320.00

Interest Earned $87.58

Pinecone Surveys $9.00

USAA Reward $3.00

US Bank Reward $3.29

Chase Rewards $3.64

Amex Rewards $79.28

August Total $805.79

YTD Total $6,219.51    

New Big Goal Total $78,303.44

Making progress! Quite thankful. 

American Express Small Business Offer 2020

Hello! 

Just a heads up to any American Express cardholders, American Express is offering $5 Cash Back on some of their cards if you spend more than $10 at a designated small business. You can earn up to $50 Cash Back in this Shop Small promotion happening through September 20, 2020. If you have an American Express card, you will likely find the promotion advertised when you log in. The offer does require activation before you are eligible. Go sign up now!

We recently took advantage of this when we had a small business do a repair on one of our vehicles. We spent far more than $10, but it was nice to get a little bit back and help a small business at this time when potentially others are struggling to keep their doors open.

We redeem all of our credit card rewards for cash when possible. This works well for us as we never pay interest on our credit cards, using it much more like a debit card than a credit card. We are paid twice per month and on payday log in to our accounts and pay the balances in full. We do not recommend using credit cards for rewards if you cannot pay off your balance in full each month. The reason is that most rewards are only1% of the purchase, if you are also paying interest for any interest rate above 1% you are not coming out ahead by using the card this way. These rewards are only beneficial if you pay the balance in full by the due date each and every month.

As usual, I will post our credit card earnings for July at the beginning of August. 

If you are new to following our journey, I will attempt to bring you up to speed in future posts, but for now I will say that we are currently on a big savings journey that we used to call our Big Goal. We now refer to it our Pot of Possibilities. Some day as my husband nears military retirement we will start using our pot of cash to start a new adventure!!