Well, I took the plunge and got my own domain name, and I've transferred everything over. If you link to my blog, could you please update the link to:

http://www.centwithlove.com/

Thanks so much! All future posts will be on the new domain.

I have a quick PF question and need a bit of help on how to handle this.

I have a student loan for about $6k that is separate from my Sallie Mae loans. This particular loan is accumulating interest like crazy because I'm currently only paying $25/month towards it. I get that sick, pit-in-my-stomach feeling because I think it was originally about $5k. I'm not sure what to do with it. Here is what I've come up with for options:

1. Bump it up on the list in my Debt Snowball. Downfalls: it's going to keep piling on ridiculous interest, and it's going to take a while to pay off. I can probably PIF most of my credit cards this year if I focus on only them. And then I could focus on this student loan.
   
2. Our 0% credit card is in DH's name alone (he has excellent credit), and the 0% is expiring soon. We are hoping to balance transfer to a new 0%. Would it be feasible to add this to the current 0% card as long as we have another 0% transfer to go to? Or would that $6k really ding his credit? Technically, I pay the 0% payment now as part of my monthly bills since it's a bunch of my junk along with a bunch of consolidated home improvement costs. It would not max out the card.
   
3. Any other suggestions?

I am aware that my credit is his credit and vice-versa; however, most of my debt is in my name alone prior to us getting married, so I *think* that separates it to a certain degree (or am I way off?). We really keep most of our finances separate and depend on his credit score if we need to, but really, I'm hoping we don't need to use any credit at all once I get out of the mess I'm in with my credit cards and student loans.

Help, suggestions, opinions are all welcome :)

It's a Chicken Week around here! Perdue is on sale at Shaw's for $1.88/lb. Woohoo, I'm stocking up, especially since I had a $27 surplus in my grocery budget from last week (out of a $40 weekly budget!).

Menu Plan is Fri-Thurs since that's how the ads run.

Friday: Digiorno Pizzas (from the Target sale - buy 1 at $3.99 and get a free 2-liter of Coke)

Saturday: Chicken Stuffed with Rice, corn (I will post this recipe if anyone is interested. It's very good, frugal, and easy!)

Sunday: Chicken Fajitas

Monday: Cheapo meal out, or something easy from the pantry

Tuesday: BBQ Crockpot Chicken, Potatoes, Corn

Wednesday: Oven Baked Chicken Fingers, scalloped potatoes, frozen veggie

Thursday: Out to eat

Breakfasts for me will be:
oatmeal with bananas and peanut butter
smoothies from homemade yogurt and frozen strawberries bought in bulk on discount

Breakfasts for DD will be:
fruit and cereal
yogurt with toast

Lunches for me will be:
soup with bread and butter
smoothies from homemade yogurt and frozen strawberries bought in bulk on discount
grilled ham and cheese quesadilla

Have a great week!

Hmm, slow week around here. I have lots of offers that I'm waiting on, and I practically watch the door each day for the mailman to show up with something exciting; however, I was pretty disappointed almost every day this past week. For some reason, I didn't do too much in terms of starting up offers this week, either. We did have a snow day, so that kept me away from the computer as I was watching DD. Oh well, hopefully this upcoming week will make up for it.

Completed: Here is a list of offers that came through this week. This includes those offers with an immediate return and those on which I've been waiting for a payout:

• $5 - TGIF coupon
• $10 - Amazon $10 Gift Card Bonus from Coinstar offer back in December
• $2.30 - Foodbuzz publishing from Oct. (old blog)
• $3.73 - YouData, Inc.
• Free Valentine's Day Cards from Scrapbooks, etc.
• Free Business Cards from VistaPrint

Total monetary gain: $16.03 :(

Started: Here are the offers/deals that I've started. Once they're complete and I've received the money or product, I'll post them in the section above.

• Freebie Martha Stewart Living Magazine
• Three Mystery Shops Completed
• Swagbucks earned

Seriously, that's it. I did get some pretty good grocery deals and CVS deals, but I'll tackle them in a separate post. I hope I have more to report next week. My spreadsheet of offers-in-waiting is gigantic!

I made it a point last week to get to the ATM and make sure that my envelopes were filled with the correct amounts of money. It really made it so much easier to stick to my budget, and I actually was under-budget in several areas!

Here's the recap of what was left in my envelopes at the end of last week:

Gas Envelope: $10 of $40
Child Care Envelope: $0 of $80
Grocery Envelope: $27 of $40
Dining Out Envelope: $7 of 40
Personal Cash: $6 of 70
Debit Card: $-75!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (teeny bit better than last week's $-90, so getting better. Again, this is just what I'm missing from my $250 tv fund)

Nothing really in terms of paying down my debt this week. Just regular payments on bills. The big 0% credit card payment was due this week, and that took up most of my bill budget for the week. I'm anticipating a good week next week, though. I should have some payments arriving from Mystery Shopping and hopefully some other Extra Income that I've been [im]patiently waiting for. I did have a couple teeny payments come in, but I'm going to lump them together once more comes in.

Here are a few freebie magazine offers for you guys!

Sign up and receive free sample of Cooking Pleasure Magazine and Membership to exclusive recipes, hands-on advice and in-depth articles to help you create award-winning cuisine at home. I like this one - could be great inspiration for frugal meals!

Sign up and receive free Gardening How To magazine, featuring in-depth articles and step-by-step instructions to help you create the garden you’ve always wanted.


Sign up for free trade magazine subscriptions. 100's to choose from.

{SURVEYS}

If you're looking to earn a few extra $$ in your spare time, surveys are a great way to do it. Honestly, you're not going to get rich doing surveys with payouts of about $1-$10 per survey; however, the money you do earn will definitely add up over time, and you know how I'm an advocate for how the little things matter. So, take 10 or 20 minutes a week, grab your favorite beverage, turn on some good music, and start answering questions that will help the marketing companies out there. They're paying for your opinions based on your demographic, so you're also letting your voice be heard.

A huge word of advice: Please set up a separate email account specifically for the survey companies. Use gmail, yahoo, hotmail...any of the free email services will work just fine. Not only will it make it easier for you to learn when new surveys are available, but you will also get a lot of junk mail. You definitely don't want all of it filling your personal email.

Here are a few of my favorite survey companies: