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Shared Jul 20, 2010 comment

Operation Christmas Child: Start filling your boxes now!

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 20, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

With all the wonderful back-to-school deals going on right now, it’s a great time to think about planning ahead for possibly being involved in the Operation Christmas Child project. For those unfamiliar with this ministry, it is a yearly opportunity for families to pack shoeboxes full of school supplies, hygiene items, toys and other special things for children in impoverished countries.

Living So Abundantly has a post up on how she’s preparing now for it. And don’t miss the below video from Clair over at Mummy Deals on how they packed 45 boxes for $45:

(I posted this video last year, but I thought it was well-worth posting again!)

Shared Jul 19, 2010 comment

15 Favorite Preschool and Kindergarten Resources – Part 1

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 19, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I’ve briefly mentioned our homeschooling adventures over the past year and many of you have written in with questions on recommended resources for teaching young children. I’m nowhere near an expert on the subject considering I only have one year of “official” homeschooling under my belt. However, I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite preschool and kindergarten resources from the past year for those of you who are interested.

So, I condensed my list to 15 resources and books and the next three Mondays, I’ll be sharing a post with five of our favorite resources. Here’s Part 1:

1. My Father’s World: Kindergarten

We absolutely loved this Kindergarten curriculum! It is very simple, fun, hands-on and easy-to-use. There are 26 units and each unit covers one letter of the alphabet and corresponding Bible, Character Development, Art, Math, Creative Thinking, Reading, Phonics and Science lessons.

We didn’t do every thing in every unit, but more used it as a springboard for our weekly curriculum. I thought it made an excellent framework and the girls thoroughly enjoyed it. We usually spent 20-45 minutes 3-4 days per week on the lessons and supplemented with a variety of other great resources (mainly the other 14 resources I’ll be mentioning in this series!).

After doing this curriculum for a year, I’d highly recommend it if you are looking for a Bible-based curriculum with a mix of Classical Education and Charlotte Mason approach.

2. StarFall

This is an entirely free website has lots of fun interactive educational games and teaching tools for preschoolers and kindergartners. We don’t allow a lot of computer time for the girls at our house, but Starfall is a special treat which our girls get to enjoy on occasion. There are a few minor things on the website which aren’t in line with our Christian worldview, but overall, we’ve been very impressed with Starfall.

3. Letter of the Week Curriculum

One of my very favorite homeschooling blogs, Confessions of a Homeschooler, has a fantastic Letter of the Week Curriculum which has tons of printable worksheets which we used to supplement the letter we were studying each week in My Father’s World. The curriculum is only $10 and an exceptional buy for all the amazing downloads and helpful resources which come with it.

If you can’t afford to buy the curriculum or would like to check out some of the printables before purchasing, there is a huge list of incredible free printables available here.

4. Wee Sing Bible Songs

The girls love listening to this CD before they go to bed or while playing together. And they’ve learned so many great children’s songs as a result!

5. Come Look With Me: Enjoying Art With Children

These are the best books I’ve found so far for teaching art appreciation to young children. Each book in the series introduces children to twelve works of art and engages the imaginations and interest of young children by asking thought-provoking questions about the picture.

…To be continued next Monday

Shared Jul 19, 2010 comment

The Blessings of Being a Work-At-Home Mom

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 19, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Note from Crystal: A bunch of you have asked if I’m going to finish the Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom series. I know I kinda fell off the wagon with that for awhile — and I’m sorry! But for those of you who have been patiently waiting for the conclusion, you’ll be happy to know that it’s on the blog calendar to be finished over the next few Fridays. So come back this Friday and the following Fridays for the final installments of the series. In the mean time, enjoy Laura’s post on her experiences as a work-at-home mom.

Guest post by Laura from Heavenly Homemakers

First, let’s all acknowledge that working from home truly is work. It’s hard work. The work is always there. You don’t leave it at the end of the day.

But as a Work-at-Home-Mom, what else don’t I have to leave? My children. My home. And some days, my most comfy slippers.

My husband and I chose for me to work from home 13 years ago when our first son was born. We have always maintained a frugal lifestyle and we have always lived on a modest income. My husband has always been a hard working provider for our family. But a little extra income has never hurt. Anytime I have earned extra money for our family, it means we’ve been able to breathe a little easier. It means we can save up for a new (to us) vehicle a little more quickly. It means we can give more generously when we are made aware of the needs of others.

Through the years, I’ve participated in all kinds of “work from home” opportunities as the Lord provided. I’ve offered day-care for extra little ones. I’ve sold Stampin’ Up! products. I’ve done sewing and mending for people. (That job was very short lived as sewing and mending are not my strong suit!) I’ve baked and sold goodies at our local Farmer’s Market. (These homemade soft pretzels sold particularly well!) I’ve made craft items and sold them at craft shows.

Currently, I write a weekly column for our local newspaper as well as maintain the blog Heavenly Homemakers where I share on all varieties of subjects regarding simple living, healthy eating and good ol’ family silliness. (We have four sons. There is a lot of family silliness to write about!)

While I’m able to earn a little income through these endeavors, I am constantly overwhelmed with joy that this “job” not only provides some financial help to our family, but it has also become a wonderful hobby and a beloved ministry. How awesome is it that all three of these blessings could be wrapped up into one!?

Oh the joy of being able to stay at home while I work and to absolutely love what I do! I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to homeschool my children. I’ve been blessed with the ability to drop whatever I need to drop in order to help my husband or to be flexible around his work schedule. I’ve been blessed to leave what I’m doing to go help a friend in need. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to be right beside our four boys as they grow, learn, discover, struggle, overcome, cry, laugh and love. I do believe I have the best job in the world!

Use your gifts! Be creative! Discover what it is that you can do to bless your family from home.

Laura Coppinger and her husband have four sons ages 5-13. She loves to cook healthy, family-friendly food, create new recipes, watch her boys play soccer and spend time with her husband. She strives to balance it all while she writes and shares what she’s learned at Heavenly Homemakers.

Do you have a work-from-home success story to share? If so, drop me a line and tell me about it. I’d love to consider sharing it with the readers here!

Shared Jul 17, 2010 comment

Super Savings Saturday: So much for my good intentions

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 17, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I have a confession to make: we blew the grocery budget this week.

We were doing so well at sticking to our budget in the middle of moving. We’d only gone out to eat once each week, like usual. We’d only gone a little over our usual grocery budget because we had bought a lot of quick foods. And I was feeling pretty good with how it was all going.

Then, right after we moved, I came down with a 102-degree fever (very likely due from living on little sleep for two weeks while burning the midnight oil doing everything involved with pulling off a move). And instead of going to the store and re-stocking our cupboards like I was planning, I spent a lot of time in bed.

And well, we blew the budget. So much for my good intentions. In fact, to be very truthful, we subsisted on peanut butter and jelly, cold cereal and takeout for almost an entire week.

I’m not even going to add up how much we spent on takeout this week because I know I’d be discouraged. But sometimes, you just gotta do, what you gotta do.

However, I’m finally feeling better and am headed to the store and hoping to get us back on track this coming week. Because I think we’re all a little tired of takeout. 🙂

________________________

Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save money in other ways? If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and leave your link below. Please remember that this weekly round-up is to share deals you personally got and/or money you were able to save this week. In order to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and inspiring others in their efforts to save money, links which have little-to-no content other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be deleted. Also, to make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.

Shared Jul 17, 2010 comment

Fun & Frugal: Homemade Book for Baby

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 17, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Have lots of extra Ziploc bags in your stockpile? Jenae has a tutorial up on a fun and frugal gift you can make for your child or a friend’s child. You could take this idea and make lots of different variations of it, too.

WANT TO SAVE $100 FAST?!Join the FREE 14-Day Savings Challenge!

Click here to sign up!

Shared Jul 16, 2010 comment

We Paid Cash! :: We Built a Home

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 16, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Testimonial submitted by reader, Michelle Thomas

My husband and I have been married for 12 ½ years. Unfortunately, we started out our marriage about $25,000 in debt. After our wedding, we immediately established a budget and started paying off debt. Within about 14 months, we were debt free and began to save for our home. Very early in our marriage, God spoke to my husband. He wanted us to commit never to go into debt again, for anything.

My husband is a public school teacher, and at this time I was working full-time for Christian Financial Concepts, founded by the late Larry Burkett. So, we had very average incomes.

Ways We Saved

So, we began to save to pay cash for our home. We owned a piece of land, and we began to make plans to build a home on it. Instead of continuing to rent an apartment, we decided to ask my grandparents if we could live in the upstairs of their home so we could save more money. We lived with them for a couple of years and were able to save tens of thousands of dollars toward our home.

We broke ground on our home in February 2000. We had decided to frame the entire house but finish the basement first and move into it while saving and finishing the remainder of the house. By doing it this way, the outside of the house would look complete, as we hoped not to annoy our neighbors with our lengthy building process.

We were able to move into the basement in August, 2001 (and we found out the day after we moved in that our first baby was on the way!).

We did a lot of the work on our home ourselves, with much, much help from friends and family members. God perfectly orchestrated all of the circumstances of our financial path. It took us about 3 ½ years to complete our home and move upstairs, and we’ve continued to save for upgrades and finishing touches since we moved in.

What We Gained

God has been so faithful and so good to us through this entire journey, and hopefully we’ve encouraged others along the way. We lead a financial Bible study in our church periodically, and I’ve done budget counseling through the years also.

We continually praise the Lord for His faithfulness to us, and we wonder what our family would have been like had we continued on the widely traveled road of debt on which we began our marriage.

Michelle Thomas lives with her husband Trevor and four small children in Gainesville, GA. She graduated as valedictorian from North Georgia College with a degree in Sociology. Michelle homeschools her children, handles the bookkeeping for their church, works part-time from home for Crown Financial Ministries and loves saving her family money.

Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.

Shared Jul 16, 2010 comment

I Paid Cash! :: Medical Expenses With No Insurance

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 16, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Testimony submitted by reader, Jody

About four years ago I began to have terrible pain in my lower abdomen. I had been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, an “incurable disease” ten years prior to that, and knew that because of this, my chances for developing colon cancer were greatly increased. After much prayer I decided to consult with a doctor, despite the fact that I had no health insurance.

How I Saved

I was blessed to find a doctor who only charges forty dollars per visit if you are paying out of pocket. She spent more time talking with me than any doctor I have ever interacted with. She prescribed a CT scan to find out what was going on. Rather than just heading to the hospital to get this done, I went home and opened up the Yellow Pages.

I found about four or five facilities that did the CT scan procedure and called to find out how much they would charge me. The prices varied from over $1000 to about $600. When I told the place that was going to charge $600 that I would be paying cash, they reduced the price to $500.

I made an appointment to have the scan done with them. Then the morning of the procedure my brother suggested that I call and ask, “If I pay the cash today when I come in, how much will you charge me?”

I was really embarrassed to make that call. I honestly did not want to. But I did it and instead of them laughing at me, they reduced the bill by another $100!

Hooray! They even seemed rather amazed when I handed over the money that day.

What I Learned

Even though I am a patient, I am still a consumer and should shop around.
Medical facilities spend a lot of time and money trying to get people to pay their bills. You will save them that hassle by paying up front.
It never hurts to ask!

What I Gained

I waited for the results and was very relieved to find that the pain was not caused by a tumor, but an ovarian cyst, which eventually went away.

I am so thankful for the wisdom and guidance that the Lord has given me as He has led me through this illness. It has been quite a journey, and I have definitely received more than a bit of scorn for my choice not to carry insurance — especially considering my condition. For now, I do not believe that that is a burden that He has called me to bear, so I am trusting Him and rejoicing in His faithfulness as He continues to heal me.*

Every year I have been getting better from this so-called “incurable disease”, and I rejoice at the words of the song by Joseph H. Gilmore:

“He leadeth me, Oh blessed thought! Oh words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whatever I do, wherever I be, Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me!
He leadeth me, he leadeth me, By his own hand he leadeth me:
His faithful follower I would be, For by His hand he leadeth me.”

Psalm 68:6 says, “God setteth the solitary in families”. He has truly done this with Jody by transplanting this Midwesterner to Texas to live with a family of nine and help with their home business.

________________
*Note from Crystal: While I completely respect Jody’s decision to not carry health insurance, my husband and I would strongly encourage you to prayerfully consider health insurance as a big priority in your budget. We’ve seen families whose finances have been destroyed by being hit with unexpected medical bills. We believe strongly in trusting in the Lord, but we also see carrying health insurance as being wise stewards of the resources God has given us.

Please note that comments which are discussing political views on healthcare, bashing other reader’s decisions or which are deemed to be inappropriate will be deleted. Let’s keep the discussion cordial and focused on the topic at hand.

Shared Jul 15, 2010 comment

31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget: Don’t Waste

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 15, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

“Waste not, want not.” We’ve all heard the phrase, but are we following it? Purposing to not waste food is a simple thing, but it can make a big difference in our grocery budget. Here are a few ideas for eliminating waste:

1. Make the Most of What You Have

Back when my husband was in law school, we often only had $17 to $20 to spend on groceries for an entire week (all 21 meals). I quickly learned that creativity was a poor cook’s best friend.

I usually stocked up on mark-downs, loss-leaders and the rock-bottom deals and then concocted the best menu I could based upon these. I rarely ever followed a recipe exactly as written, because we usually didn’t have all the ingredients and couldn’t afford to buy them. But I discovered you don’t always have to follow a recipe perfectly in order to get a fabulous end result!

AllRecipes is a great resource if you’re working with an odd assortment of ingredients. You can plug in what ingredients you have and don’t have and it will pull up recipes you can make. You also can find lots of great substitution ideas online, such as at these sites: Emergency Kitchen Substitutions and Ingredient Substitutions.

2. Repurpose Leftovers

Instead of pitching those leftover mashed potatoes or vegetables, why not repurpose them? Once again, AllRecipes is a great resource. There are also some excellent ideas in these articles: How to Turn Leftovers Into Scrumptious Meals, Creative Uses for Leftovers and Leftover Recipe Ideas.

3. Use Up the Last of the Bottle

My mom taught me never to throw out a bottle of anything unless you’ve used up the last drop. When the bottle of ketchup or salad dressing or laundry detergent is almost empty, add some water, put the lid back on, and shake it up to get the last remains cleaned out of the bottle and stretch it just a wee bit longer. It’s a small little thing, but the little things can add up to make significant differences.

4. Use Half the Recommended Amount

Did you know that you can get by with using a whole lot less than the recommended amount of shampoo, laundry detergent and so forth? Challenge yourself to try it and see how little you can get by with using without noticing any difference.

Want to do something really radical and inexpensive? Try the No Shampoo Experiment. I’ve not gotten that brave yet, but I have friends who have done it with success.

Put a rubber band around the neck of pump-style soap dispensers to limit the amount of soap dispensed per pump. — 40 Practical Tips for an Ordinary Rubber Band

What simple things have you implemented in your home to eliminate waste? I’d love to hear your ideas to possibly try!

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Shared Jul 15, 2010 comment

Ask the Readers: Is a front-loading washing machine worth the money?

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 15, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

My washing machine hardly cleans our clothes at all. It doesn’t agitate the spit-up off of the shoulders of my shirts and I’m currently using a five gallon bucket and a plunger to wash our cloth diapers because my machine is that bad!

We hope to save up enough for a new machine sometime in the future. I’d love a front-loading machine but I wonder if they are worth the $800+ price tag. Do they really work 8 times better than the top loader I could buy for $100 on Craigslist? -Niki

I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this. We’ll be needing to replace our very used washing machine at some point in the not-too-distant future and I’d love to get input on whether front-loading washers are really worth the extra expense or not.

Shared Jul 14, 2010 comment

Q&A Tuesday: How do you track your money?

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 14, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

“What kind of system do you use to track your money?” -Ruthanne

[My apologies that it’s Wednesday and I’m just now getting the Q&A Tuesday up. I had good intentions, but it just didn’t happen yesterday!]

First off, contrary to what people might think, I’m more the creative and entrepreneurial one in our family and my husband is the numbers nerd. Without my husband’s attention to detail and love of spreadsheets, we’d be sunk.

What’s crazy is that over the last seven and a half years that we’ve been married, my creative and entrepreneurial spirit has rubbed off on Jesse a great deal, but, unfortunately, I’ve not become any more of a spreadsheet-lover.

So that’s why I’m so thankful for my husband. He has a sophisticated system he uses to track all of the money which comes in and goes out and he keeps us on track with our budget. We review these numbers quite often together to make sure we’re headed in the right direction and on the same page.

In the beginning years of our marriage, he used a ledger to keep track of all of our finances. This worked well, but it took at least an hour each week to stay on top of. He switched over to Quicken a few years ago and it’s been a huge time-saver. Plus, it’s so fun to be able to see all the instant graphs and spreadsheets available with a click or two of a mouse. (If you don’t already have access to Quicken, Mint.com is a very comparable free software which my husband recommends.)

Every single debit card transaction and check we write is accounted for in Quicken so that we can know exactly where we are financially at all times. Since we actually don’t spend a whole lot of money outside our regular bills and what we purchase from our cash envelopes, it usually just takes Jesse about 1-2 hours per month to input our receipts and make sure everything reconciles.

Unlike many people, we keep our cash envelopes separate from our regular accounting. We just take out $425 per month to fund these envelopes and we don’t track the expenditures in these accounts.

Our current cash envelopes are:

::Gifts — $30 per month which covers wedding, baby shower, birthday gifts and so forth.

::Vacation — $50 each month for family vacations (or, if we decide, a fun family outing).

::Clothes — $15 per month per family member (except Jesse, since he has a separate non-cash budget category for his clothing). This covers shoes, socks, clothes, under things, coats, etc.

::Eating Out — $20 per week ($80 per month) which covers our once-a-week dinner out. We usually vary whether we do something really inexpensive or a little on the nicer side.

::Groceries — $40 per week ($160 per month)

::Home — $30 per month which covers home furnishings, decorations and any other home items we need to buy (for instance, last month, we used the money in the envelope to replace our DVD player which had been on its last life for quite some time).

::Homeschooling — $15 per month which covers any supplies we need to purchase and some of our curriculum (I also used the proceeds from our garage sales to purchase some of our curriculum as we splurged on the Bob Jones Distance Learning DVDs for some of our curriculum this year.)

Instead of tracking all the expenditures in each of our cash envelopes, we’ve found that just adopting the “When it’s gone, it’s gone” approach works well for us. Because in reality, after using cash for so long, we’ve found that we rarely have empty envelopes!

How do you track the finances at your house? I’d love to hear! And if you’re married, are you the numbers nerd or is your spouse?

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Click here to download!

Shared Jul 14, 2010 comment

Girly fun

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 14, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

A poofy dress-up skirt from Grandma and Grandpa + a swing set built by Grandpa in her back yard = hours of pure delight, fun and giggles.

Who says you have to have all them fancy toys with bells and gadgets and gizmos to make a little girl happy? Sometimes, the simplest things are the most enjoyable and memorable!

Shared Jul 12, 2010 comment

Keeping Frugality Fun

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 12, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

There is nothing that will squelch the joy in frugality faster than pinching your pennies so hard you never have any fun. And if you’re planning to practice thrift for the long haul, you need to strategically come up with ways to keep life interesting, exciting and fresh. Otherwise, you’ll likely burn out before a few months are out.

Just because you don’t have a lot of money or are trying to live on little doesn’t mean you can’t find ways to have fun and splurge a little without breaking your budget. Here are a few things we’ve done:

::Have a bookstore date. We did this often back in our law school days, when there was almost-zero wiggle room in our budget most months. We’d browse books, buy a drink to share (usually paying for it with a card I’d earned through reading emails from MyPoints!) and sit and read and talk for awhile. It made for a very relaxing evening that cost us next to nothing!

::Go out for coffee. Nowadays, we don’t often have time for leisurely bookstore dates, but we use our Starbucks gift cards earned through Swagbucks for fun (and free!) dates.

::Visit the pet store. Can’t afford to go to the zoo? A pet store is a great alternative. Our children love to peer into all the different cages and aquariums — and we’ve never had a pet store owner have a problem with us just dropping by to browse.

::Plan a nicer dinner each week. If beans and rice make up a large part of your diet, plan ahead so that one night per week, you have “feast.” You could go all out and re-create food from one of your favorite restaurants at home. Or, you could keep it simple and just try a fun new recipe or make your family’s favorite dessert. If you can’t even afford that, add a table cloth, your best dishes and candles to your normal fare to make it seem extravagant. No one will probably notice you’re eating beans and rice yet again if they are distracted by the beautiful candlelight. 🙂

::Stop by the library. The library was one of our favorite places to frequent when we were on a very limited income. When my husband was in law school, there was little else we could afford when it came to entertainment, so we spent countless hours and evenings at the library. And we checked out hundreds of books, CDs and DVDs. Best of all, that particular library had no late fees!

::Go shopping at CVS. This might seem a little crazy, but back when I was playing the drugstore game really hot and heavy, we oftentimes used extra ECBs to splurge. And some nights, we’d divvy them up and see who could get a better bang for their bucks by hitting up the clearance section of the store. It felt like a splurge, but it didn’t affect our pocketbook.

::Have a Loose Change Date. During the first few years of our marriage, any extra pennies or nickles or dimes we had, went into a change cup that we kept in our kitchen cupboard. Once a year, when we were feeling particularly like we just couldn’t keep on living like no one else and needed some sort of pick me up, we’d take the change cup to the bank and exchange it for dollar bills.

You know that money was tight, because usually after a year of putting in our extra pennies, nickels and dimes, all we’d have would be around $7-$8 collected! But that $7-$8 could meant we could rent a movie at the $0.50 movie store and get dinner at a fast food restaurant with coupons. And you know what? A little splurge like that often did the trick to re-invigorate us on our frugal journey.

How do you keep frugality fun at your house? I’d love to hear your ideas!

photo by Maddy Lou

Shared Jul 12, 2010 comment

Debit Rewards Programs

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 12, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

While I’m a big proponent of using cash as much as you possibly can, if you’re going to use a debit card for online purchases, to pay bills or to buy gas, you might as well earn rewards, right? Lori has some helpful information in her post below on how to get the best bang for your buck when it comes to debit card rewards programs. As always, though, remember that you’re not saving money if you spend extra just to get the rewards! -Crystal

Guest Post by Lori at Moms by Heart.

Looking for another way to stretch your dollars? Put your checking account to work for you! Here are a few banks that offer special rewards programs for debit cardholders. Each program is different, so be sure to factor in fees, minimum balance requirements (where applicable) along with ATM locations if this will be a primary account for you. Stop over here for a printable spreadsheet summary.

Chase — Ultimate Rewards Debit Card

How It Works:
Earn 4 points for every $5 in signature purchases (aka: non-PIN purchases). 2,500 points = $25 gift card to various retailers like: Amazon, Bath & Body Works, Kohl’s and more. Check them out here.

What You Need:
Chase Ultimate Rewards Checking Account — details here.

What’s It Worth To Me: $75 per year
If I spend $1,000 a month in signature purchases, I’ll earn 800 points per month or 9,600 per year. That’s nearly enough for $100 in free gift cards. Since there is a $25 annual fee, my net will be $75 per year. Doing my online shopping through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall will earn me up to 10 bonus points per dollar spent. Cha-ching.

Other Chase Rewards Programs:
::Chase Debit with FREE rewards (no annual fee, but only 1 point per $5 spent)
::Continental Airlines Debit
::United Mileage Plus Debit

Wells Fargo — Check Card Rewards

How It Works:
Earn 1 point for every $4 in Signature purchases. 650 points equals $5 account credit or $5 gift card to various retailers including Amazon. Earn up to 16 points per dollar for shopping at the Wells Fargo Earn More Mall.

What You Need:
Wells Fargo Checking Account and Check Card. Looks like fees may vary by state. In Texas, they offer a free checking with no minimum balance and no monthly fees.

What It’s Worth To Me: $18 per year
If I spend $1,000 a month in signature purchases, I’ll earn 250 points per month or 3,000 points per year. $25 cash or $25 gift cards run 2,500 points. So, the approximate yearly value is around $30. Since there is a $12 annual fee, my net will be $18 per year.

Bank of America — Keep the Change

How It Works:
Your debit card purchases are rounded up to the next dollar amount and the difference is deposited into your savings. The best part? They match your savings 100% for the first three months, and 5% for the next nine months (maximum of $250 per year).

What You Need:
::Bank of America checking account with debit card — details here.
::Bank of America savings account — details here.

What’s It Worth To Me: $69 per year for the first year, $12 per year thereafter
This will vary. Check out this page to input your info. I assumed 40 debits per month of $50 each ($1,000) with average “change” of $0.50. That gave me $69 per year in bank savings matches. Since Bank of America matches your savings 100% for the first three months, this amount is not typical. No annual fee.

Other Bank of America Rewards Programs:
::US Airways Debit
::Nascar Racepoints Debit

Citi — Thank You Rewards

How It Works:
Earn 1 point for every $2 qualifying signature purchases and 1 point for every $3 PIN purchases. You’ll also earn bonus points based on the type of checking account you have along with other Citi services you’re enrolled in. 8,000 points = $50 cash or $50 Citi Gift Card.

What You Need:
::Citibank Checking Account — There are no monthly fees as long as you keep an average balance of $1,500 (EZ account). Details here.

What It’s Worth To Me: $37.50 per year
If I spend $1,000 a month in signature purchases, I’ll earn 500 points. In one year, that adds up to 6,000 points. There are various $25 gift cards available for 4,000 points, so the approximate value is $37.50. There are no annual fees. However, the deal is killed by the possibility of monthly fees if I go below $1,500 average balance.

Stack Your Savings

Once you’ve selected the best program for you, you can stack your savings by:

Linking your debit card to other rewards programs like the Target Red Check Card, Upromise, gas or grocery rewards programs

Using your debit card to make online purchases through cash-back sites like ShopAtHome and Rakuten (formerly Ebates).

Purchasing rebate items!

Lori is a nurse and mom to five who shares all her frugal finds over at Moms by Heart!

Shared Jul 10, 2010 comment

Will you please forgive me?

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 10, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I put up a post last night which was intended to serve as an inspiration. Instead, many of you were offended by it.

While I had spent a great deal of time considering that post before publishing it and had re-written it a few different times in hopes it would be conveyed in the way it was intended, nevertheless, my words fell short and were a burden rather than a blessing to many of you.

I’ve deleted the post, but I wanted to publicly ask those of you who were offended or hurt by it to please forgive me. It is inevitable that I’m not going to please everyone as a blogger, but my hope is that the vast majority of you will be inspired by what I share. I never want to come across as though I’ve “arrived” or am somehow better or more capable at this financial thing. I have many, many shortcomings and have made and continue to make many mistakes. I just hope to share from our own personal experience — failures and successes — in a way which will encourage you in your financial journey.

Thank you for reading here. Thank you for your encouragement to me. And thank you for bearing with me when I’m not always the best communicator. I’m blessed to have you all as readers!

I’m closing off comments on this post, but please feel free to write personally if you need clarification on anything.

Shared Jul 8, 2010 comment

A Dream Come True: Paying Cash for Our First Home

Published: by Crystal Paine on July 8, 2010 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

When we walked into this house, we both instantly fell in love with it. It was everything we were looking for — and so much more! Best of all? It was in our price range.

While we both were a little antsy to go ahead and put a contract on it, we wanted to research out everything more thoroughly, think it through, pray about it some more, sleep on it overnight and bring both of our dads to investigate it again with us to make sure we weren’t missing anything which we needed to be aware of.

There were already quite a few showings scheduled, so we felt it was best to not piddle around. We scheduled a time to come back and look at the house the next day with our dads and then we went home to pray and think.

Once home, we researched flood plains, tax appraisals, register of deeds documents, homes in the area which had recently sold and how much they sold for and we spent a long time praying for wisdom. We wanted to be 100% sure God was leading us to put a contract on this home. We really didn’t want to practically clean out our entire bank account for something which was not His will for us!

And the more we researched and prayed, the more the lights turned green. Based upon the prices of comparable houses in the area which had recently sold and based upon what we felt the home was worth, we decided upon what we wanted to offer.

The next day, we went back to look at the home praying that if there was any reason we weren’t supposed to put an offer on the house, God would make it very clear to us. Well, in going through the house with a fine-toothed comb again, we only came to like it even more. And our dads really liked it as well and felt the offer we had decided upon was fair.

So, with great excitement, we signed the contract. And within a few hours, the sellers accepted!

We had a hard time believing it was really and truly for real. After talking, dreaming, working and praying towards the goal of paying cash for a house, it felt rather surreal that it had actually happened.

A few weeks later, we drove Old Blue Van into town and signed our names on the dotted line to become home owners. We were chuckling while driving there about how crazy it was to be driving a clunker to pay cash for a home. We felt a little out of place when we drove up to a parking lot full of shiny almost-new cars.

But, in a way, it seemed so fitting. Being content with a clunker instead of upgrading to a newer car was just one of the many reasons we were in a position to pay cash for a house.

After signing the contract and getting the keys, Jesse and I headed over to our new home. It is hard to describe the feelings which washed over us when we pulled up into the driveway. To see our dreams come to fruition. To see the sleepless nights and long days of working and saving pay off. To see the realization of years of scrimping.

It was far from a fleeting momentary giddiness; it was a deep fulfilling feeling in the bottom of our souls. By the grace of God, we had paid cash for our first home.

And we knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that God is good. We stepped out in faith and obedience at the beginning of our marriage to follow His leading to be counter-cultural and follow the Biblical principle of “owing no man anything” (see Romans 13:8). It has been far from easy and there have been many times when we’ve wanted to give up and give in. But as we’ve stayed faithful and obedient — even when the going got very tough — He has blessed that obedience and faithfulness far beyond our wildest imaginations.

Without God’s blessing and provision, we would never have been position to pay cash for a home. But He has seen fit to bless us with a spacious home that meets and exceeds all of our expectations. And it’s a testament to His goodness and graciousness to bless His children with good gifts. It is our heart’s desire that we be wise stewards of this home He has entrusted to us.

Summer Bucket List