Snowflake Funds

This is a list of a few different survey sites that I use and any income from them will be considered snowflakes and applied to the bills.



ThisSiteisforreal.com

Cashcrate.com

Opinion Outpost

Mysurvey.com

SurveySavvy.com

Survey Slacking

Lately I have been slacking on completing my surveys because I have been busy with blogging (mainly for http://www.theantihairslave.com/) and doing lots and lots of school work. I finally finished with school. YaY! So I plan on doing more surveys in my spare time, so hopefully I will have more snowflake money!



I want to build a snowman! haha

Snowflaking? What is that?

Okay so I read about snowflaking on a few different sites but I still had no idea what it really is. The author of I've Paid for this Twice Already clears it all up.

"Snowflaking is a spinoff of the Snowball approach to debt reduction popularized by Dave Ramsey. With the Debt Snowball method, you figure out what amount you can pay to debt every month, and then you keep paying that amount, even as your debts shrink and your minimums get smaller. To implement it, in a nutshell, make a list of all your debts, order them from either smallest to largest or highest interest to lowest interest (that is a debate in itself), and you focus all extra money above the minimum payments on a single debt (either the smallest total or the highest interest, I use interest order). As you eliminate debts, you apply the payment you were making to that debt to the next debt in line until the snowballing effect of decreasing minimums and increasing amounts applied to particular debts eliminates all the debts on your list.
Well, what are snowballs made of? Snowflakes! I have a set amount I pay to debt without fail every month that is above my minimum payment due (about $800). On top of that, I also try to collect up little bits of money wherever I can and I apply those as well to my top priority debt as immediately as possible. I take surveys online, I sell possessions on craigslist and ebay, I have yard sales, and any money I get from these endeavors goes directly to my debt. I also keep a very strict accounting of all the money that comes in every month and what I spend and everything left over at the end of the month not earmarked for future expenses also goes directly to debt. These are my snowflakes. I have averaged over $200 extra going to pay down my credit card debt every month due to these snowflaking efforts.
Many small snowflakes make a snowball, and no amount is too small for me to snowflake. I used to pay my credit card directly every time I collected a snowflake through their online interface, but now that I have moved my credit card debt to another card with a 0% interest offer, I collect the snowflakes and pay them once per week (I am limited to the number of payments I can make to this card a month). If you are able to and your debt is not at 0% interest, I highly recommend the “pay snowflakes immediately” method. The faster your balance is reduced, the less interest you will accrue.
So, that is my snowflaking method. Small efforts matter, and many little things can add up to a huge snowstorm. I use it because of anything I’ve tried, this has kept me the most focused and deliberate about debt reduction and eliminated debt the fastest. I cannot take credit for the idea or the implementation, many many other personal finance gurus and bloggers alike have used this method before me, and I first read about it on an iVillage Debt Support message board. I am just a subscriber to it. Maybe someday I should read some Dave Ramsey and learn from the granddaddy of the snowball himself."

Sounds like a great idea right? I'm going to start doing this... I'll save all the snowflake money then use it to make the payment higher on my priority bill. My priority bill is the credit card bill with the highest interest that I am semi-aggressively paying off.

RN Job Hunt

I feel like I'm a bit on a wild goose chase because I have been sending my resume over the internet to different hospitals and I have yet to hear back. I'm starting to think that replying online to open positions is not the best way to go about searching for an RN position as a new graduate. Maybe I'm just impatient too, I have only applied to three different hospitals within the past 3-4 weeks. I could have sworn I would have heard back already... I mean helloooo isn't there a nursing shortage?!? :-) I think I'm going to go to a few different open houses if I can find some, with that being said I'll have to remember to print up a few resumes while I'm at school since it's free!

A Deeper Look inside my pockets

I'm still in debt and while the majority is student loans and a car that I owe about $7,500 on I still have some credit card debit that needs to be addressed. I'm currently working on paying them off and not use them to purchase anything, but it gets hard.

Capital One $435.81

Store Card 1$728.72

Store Card 2$388.80

Household Bank $ 2,388.10

Store Card 3 $483.86

Store Card 4 $191.28

The grand total is not too bad, I know people with a lot more credit card debit than me, but still this is pretty bad. I have been semi-aggressively paying off the card with the highest balance while making payments over the minimum on all the rest. I know being debt free is important to me so that's what I'm currently working on. Also, why anyone needs 4 different store credit cards is beyond me so once they are paid off... they are getting cancelled.

Money for Magazines?

At this point in my life I can't justify shelling out money to buy magazines, there are a few that I have 1 year subscriptions to because I requested them as my survey reward payment but other than that I don't purchase them. For the most part I just go online to the magazine's website to see what's going on or I could always head over to my local library and spend the afternoon catching up on my magazine reading. I have to say I really do enjoy reading magazines and I am often inspired by different magazines for blog posts on my hair and beauty blog (http://www.theantihairslave.com/) but I'd rather save the money.

H&R Block

I saw a commercial recently that caught my eye.... H&R Block now offers classes on tax preparation. I thought it was pretty neat because all my nursing professors talk about how they deduct their continuing education credits, journal subscriptions, and other career related things such as scrubs and sneakers. I have no idea how to go about itemizing and I would like to learn. I am seriously considering take the course. Here is some more information on it:

This course will give you the skills you need to prepare tax returns for H&R Block.* You don't need previous experience.

What You'll Learn:

• Tax theory
  
• Easy step-by-step skills for preparing tax returns
  
• How to apply the latest tax topics and tax law changes
  
• How to talk tax clients through the filing process

Why Take the Course from H&R Block:

• We created the tax preparation industry
  
• Learn from the industry's best tax experts
  
• Receive hands-on training with everyday life case studies
  
• You may be given the opportunity to begin a successful and exciting career with H&R Block, the tax industry leader
  
• You can choose to take your course at a time convenient for you: days or nights, weekdays or weekends

In addition, the H&R Block Income Tax Course is recognized for 4 hours of credit with The University of Phoenix®.¹

My First Place

Now that I'm finally going to be starting my career I can't get past getting my own place. I even went to check out some new condo's that are being built within the area of a prospect employer. The place was out of my price range for someone just starting out, but I've made up my mind that I want something along those lines. It was a beautiful condo with two bedrooms and a den that could be used for a nursery or office, in my case an office. Two bathrooms, two walk in closets, and tons of other great stuff. I've hung up the floor plan in my bedroom at my parent's house as inspiration and motivation to save!