Snowflakes are Falling

I received $73 yesterday from a couple of different sources. And wow! was it hard not to add some money to the grocery budget for the week. It was even harder to avoid the temptation of eating out because yesterday was such a hectic day.

After school yesterday, I had a meeting of "Delta Kappa Gamma", an eduction honor society to which I belong. It was our final meeting of the year and we were initiating new members in a banquet room of a local restaurant. It was early afternoon so I was not really hungry. They served us tea for free and we were invited to eat from the dessert bar for $4. What I really wanted to do was to call the hostess over and order 4 "to go" meals. I knew I would not have time to cook anything before my husband left for his 2nd job at UPS.

But I didn't order. I called my husband and explained that dinner was not going to happen. He ate a chicken club sandwich (with leftover chicken) and a bag of chips. Once I got home, it was too late to cut up the veggies for veggie fettucini, so I cooked "breakfast for dinner" and we had scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. I don't have leftovers to take for lunch today so I will have to find something creative and avoid the temptation to eat out once again!

So, I have $73 in snowflake money to apply toward my IRS payoff. I'm making the payment this morning so I don't have that money sitting in my pocket.

How have you avoided temptations to spend money unnecessarily lately?

IRS Payoff Update

Here is a quick update to our "Payoff the IRS quick" plan.
Our starting balance was $5900
We have applied our economic stimulus check to the balance bringing it down to $3800.

Today we are making a $1000 payment from our debt snowball, bringing the balance down to $2800. The other $300 of our debt snowball is going toward field trips for the kids, since I realized we had not budgeted for them previously. We are making up for that $300 next month since May is one of two months of the year that we don't have a car insurance payment which saves us $122 and if we have to we can pull some money from our emergency account.

Here are some other areas that God is blessing us with "snowflakes" to pay off this debt.
1. Yesterday was the last day of the month, and my readers helped me reach payout from Adsense. So around May 28th, I expect $103 to be deposited into my account.

2. In May I will be receiving my Ebates check, which again, is mostly due to my readers signing up through my referral link. That deposit is expected to be $188 plus $60 in Target Gift Cards. The $188 will go to the IRS, while the $60 will be part of our grocery budget.

3. I have received $50 for 5 of my readers signing up for an ING Direct account. Thank you! If you don't have an ING account you can email me at adh913@yahoo.com for a referral. It is a great place to park your sinking funds for future bills.

4. I should also receive a check for $93.11 from Commission Junction. This is from readers signing up for ING Direct through the banner ad on my site. Again, thank you!

5. I am planning a yard sale with friends for June 7th. I have a lot of stuff to sell so I hope that will add even more money to the "Payoff the IRS fund".

Total of snowflakes expected in May: $494.11