I finally got correspondence from the courthouse today. 4 days before the date of service. Not the greatest way to operate, county of mine. My jury duty has been deferred to 11/28. The heart of cold and flu season. Ah, well. Hopefully by then everything will be resolved with the surgery and if I push vitamins and get plenty of sleep next November I'll actually be well and in the right place in my healing to do it this time. At least DS will be in middle school then and DD can walk over there after the high school lets out and walk him home (or hop on the city bus) if DH is in Alaska then or Mom can't pick them up.

My flu is finally going away. I woke up today feeling about 80% decent. Still a ton of congestion and drainage, but no brain fog at all, no joint or muscle aches, no chills, no headache. Still have a fever of 99.5 and still pretty tired (but more of a general tired than the I need to sleep for a week and that still might not be enough tired), but feeling much more capable of actually living my life.

I went to the dentist today, another finally. I haven't been since 2008. Which was incredibly stupid but it was impossible almost when I was still homeschooling and living in the county to go. I should have at least got in there in September when the kids started school. Better late than never I suppose. Unfortunately I have 2 cavities. I haven't had a cavity in about 15 years. Darn it.

Anyway, they are going to do some major cleaning and fill the cavities in three weeks, both while under ansethetic because a couple of teeth in the back have some serious issues. Nothing that can't be fixed, but it will be painful without anesthetic so the dentist figured he could kill two birds with one stone. I really like him. This is my first time with him though DH and the kids have been going to him and his wife for a couple of years now.

They gave me an estimate of my portion of the dental bill for when I have that done. It'll be just shy of $367. Well. I'm definitely going to have to hold back some of the money I was planning to send to Master Card after all. So be it. At least I will have the money to pay it and not have to charge it. Or maybe part of the VISA payment. Yeah, actually, that's a better idea. DH only made minimal charges on the VISA this month. If I pay what he charged plus the interest, plus $100 extra to principle, I should have about $500 (out of the normal $1000 paymetn) I can spend on medical/dental instead.

Why didn't I think of that before? Then I can go ahead and pay off the Master Card in April just like I planned. Then things should really ease up. We'll have debt left only on the VISA.

I'm making spaghetti tonight with my special homemade sauce. Mom's providing hamburger, though probably just the kids and her will eat that. I tend to get pretty filled up on my spaghetti sauce and noodles without protein. I generally don't like to eat such a carb heavy meal without protein to balance it, but I had a very protein heavy brunch today and I'm not sure I could face a hunk of meat tonight to be honest.

I'll try to get back to meal planning for real this weekend. Since I'm squeezing an extra $100 out of the grocery budget to set aside for medical, I really need to be on the ball with it this month.

I went over to the CU that has the kids' accounts today and deposited $5 in each of their accounts. My daughter's account was in danger of becoming dormant and being closed and sent to the state so I needed to put something in it to make it active. I put an equal amount in my son's account to be fair. He's the saver of the two kids so his account was still active. He's saving up for the new Nintendo 3DS. All of his allowance and most of his recycling money.

That's also where the laptop fund is so I added the shampoo rebate check and the propane rebate check to that account. I also got it set up again so I can do it online. That way when it comes time to make a payment on the laptop I can just go online and transfer the money from savings to checking.

I finally found where DH put the packaging for the Brita stuff and got the two UPC codes so I can send in that $10 rebate tomorrow. That will eventually go to the laptop fund, too.

Payday tomorrow. I need to finish setting up this month's budget spreadsheet. It'll be nice to actually start paying on some stuff again after this two week pause. Geesh, I never thought I'd be excited to pay bills, but this is a big month for us.

The $50 from the Verizon refund hit the account today. I had thought they were going to send a check, but apparently because we autopay out of our bank account each month they were simply able to deposit it back to our checking account. We weren't supposed to see that until next week sometime.

The $218.18 refund from overpaying the interest on the BoA Gold Star Loan however, which was supposed to be in our account "no later than Friday," did not arrive. Stupid Evil Empire. It will probably show up on Monday. I won't be withdrawing the $50 until Monday anyway so it's not that big a deal. Hopefully it will be there then.

I got my Costco AMEX rewards check today and took it to Costco to cash since I had to run out that way anyway and buy butter. This is the first time I've done this. I've only had the card for a little over a year. It was for $143.61. I threw the 61 cents into the coin jar along with a dime I found on the floor at Costco. The $143 will go into my laptop fund along with the $50 on Monday. I rolled the coins in my coin jar and have $13 for deposit to the laptop fund as well. I need to remember to get penny wrappers because I have a few dollars in pennies but nothing to roll them in.

$218.94 laptop fund balance
$050.00 Verizon refund
$143.00 AMEX cash back
$+13.00 rolled coin
--------------
$424.94 new laptop fund balance

I am halfway there, just have to put the money in the proper CU on Monday.

I had originally planned to put the BoA refund into the laptop fund as well, but have decided to use it on the MC instead because it was originally allocated for paying debt and it should go back to that. It's not like I'm going to buy the laptop before we pay our taxes in April anyway.

I am waiting for the rest of my World Points to hit my account at the end of February and then I will have enough points to cash out for a $250 refund. We have had this card for years and I had never really looked at our points balance before. I didn't even know it had a cash back system, I thought you could just get "stuff." But you can get cash, and we have 25,000 points so I will do that as soon as we can. That money will go to pay on a credit card also, so an extra $468.18 will go towards paying off the Evil Empire between this month and next.

Now for today's meal planning (I think I am going to stop listing prices at the end of February. I pretty much have a handle on the grocery budget now).

Breakfast:
Homemade sausage patties ($1)
Cucumber slices ($1)
Milk (just the kids)($1)
Total: $4

Lunch:
DD
Organic deli meat sandwich on homemade bun ($1.75)
Apple (.50)
Homemade cookies (.25)
$2.50

DS (was sick, ate with grandma)
Free

Me
Roast beef panini with tomato, lettuce, onions, mayo ($3.99) I bought it premade from the store. I was being lazy. Still it is better than McD's
Homemade coleslaw (.25)
Total Lunch $6.74

Dinner:
1 can green beans ($1)
Leftover Meat (me)(free)
Leftover baked potato soup (kids)(free)
Quesadillas made with leftover chicken (free), tortillas, and cheddar cheese (just for the kids) (.80)
Mozzarella (me)(.50)
Milk (kids)($1)
Total Dinner: $2.30

Total food: $11.54

My stomach was rebelling against milk today so I just drank water and had a string cheese for calcium.

Yesterday after school I stopped at a different grocery store to pick up scallions because I needed them for the two types of soup I am making this week. Well, something prompted me to go back to the meat department and check for any sales. They had 2 pound chubs on for $2.49 a pound and five of them had $1.50 off stickers on them with a sell by date of today and they still smelled good. That made them $1.73 a pound which was such an excellent price I went ahead and bought them.

I am lucky if I can find it on sale for $2.29 a pound and have grudgingly began to think $2.49 was a good price. But $1.73 had me practically doing cartwheels. I still miss .99/lb hamburger though. But anyway, $17.30 for ten pounds of meat is awesome and that will be anywhere from 10 to 18 meals worth of protein, depending on whether or not DH is home or away at the time.

DH finally got around to taking care of the Verizon refund. They sent us a $50 debit card instead of a check a while back and in order to get a check you have to then call the number on the card and ask them to send it to you. I don't know why they can't just do it in the first place. Debit cards are no good to me if I want to put the money in a savings account, which I do, my laptop fund one. Anyway, they said 3 to 5 business days so I should see it by Tuesday or Wednesday.

The refund from the loan should hit our account tomorrow. They said no later than Friday, but I was hoping maybe it would be there today so I could send it to the MC. Oh, well, I can wait another day. I just get impatient sometimes.

I entered both refunds into my spreadsheet that tracks those things. I also updated my freezer inventory spreadsheet with the meat I bought. I love that thing. It was quite a bit of work when I made it, but now that I have it and can just add or subtract from it and automatically know what I have in the freezers at all times with out looking, is an awesome meal planning tool.

I am in a weird mood today, craving lettuce like it is going out of business so my meal planning (at least for my meals, not the kids) reflects this. Also DS is home sick again.

Breakfast:
(Everyone) Homemade beef sausage patties ($1)
(Just me) Lettuce dressed with E.V. olive oil and salt (.30)
(Just kids) Hashbrowns (.50)
(Just kids) Milk ($1)
(Me) Water
Total: $2.80

Lunch:
DD
Leftover pizza (free)
apple (.50)
baggy potato chips (.50)
water

DS
Half a chicken quesadilla
--3 ounces leftover chicken (free)
--1 tortilla (.30)
--1.5 ounces of cheese (.30)
Pineapple Juice (.50)

Me:
Ribeye steak (4 ounces, I cut up a big one, on sale for $3.99/lb over a holiday weekend) $1
Lettuce dressed with e.v.o.o. and salt (.30)
water

Total Lunch: $3.40

Dinner (for 4):
Baked potato soup
--potatoes (.80)
--8 ounces extra sharp cheddar ($2)
--Half a package of bacon ($2)
--8 cups whole milk ($2)
--16 ounces sour cream ($2)
--Half bunch scallions (.40)
Salmon (was on sale for $5.99/lb)--$4.50
Broccoli/Cauliflower/Asparagus ($2)
(Just Me) Yogurt ($1)
water

Total Dinner: $17.70

All meals $23.90

Dinner is very expensive tonight but there will be several servings of soup leftover (we'll eat about 1/3 of it tonight) and lots of veggies leftover for future meals this week. So I'm making planned overs which will bring the cost of the rest of the week down quite a lot. It's more about the average for the month than the daily average anyway.

Last night DH found a Verizon rebate card that we'd misplaced several months ago and it's valid until 8/11. It is for $50 and we can go online and have it direct deposited to our account, so that is going into my new laptop fund. I also emptied my purse on Friday before going to the CU to get this week's money out. I have a new rule that anything less than a $20 goes into the laptop fund. I had $13 and some change. I also pilfer ones through out the week. Monday I will go and make a deposit. Right now I am just stuffing the money in an envelope and the coin jar. I've got quite a lot of change I need to put through the CU's change counter.

DH opened his mail finally and found that his new work had sent him a $40 gift card for Christmas. The only place it is good for around here is Safeway, which is a 30 minute drive away, but none of the other stores even exist in this part of the state. So we'll swing out to Lynden the next time we visit his parents. Even if they don't have anything we want (son's diet makes it difficult to shop without reading every label in the store), we can at least buy fruit, veg, flour, sugar, yeast, honey, molasses, and other baking supplies. I normally buy the 25 pound bag of flour from Costco as it's cheapest, but I could get two ten pound bags this time instead. I don't think I'd buy meat there as I'm not sure about their policy on antibiotics and growth hormones and injecting meat with flavor enhancers or BPA packaging and I don't want to take the time to find out.

DH also has a $75 gift card from his previous employer that he needs to use, but it's on him how he spends it. I told him if the places it is good for don't have anything he wants we can always give him $75 cash and I'll use the gift card at one of the stores to buy clothes for the kids. The one thing he wants is $35, so the extra may just end up in his savings fund. He wants an electronic book reader of some sort.

Last night I made pizza for dinner. It was so good. The crust was perfection. It cost about $8 for all the ingredients and we topped it with cheese, Canadian bacon, pepperoni and leftover hamburger from spaghetti night. A pizza that size with that many toppings would cost $25 at our favorite pizza place. There was enough left over for lunch today.

Tonight's dinner is cheeseburgers with homemade buns and baked french fries. We will open a can of pineapple for fruit and have cucumbers for veg. With milk and condiments that'll come to $7.50. We've almost made it through two weeks without eating out. What a difference that makes to the food budget.

I received my 2nd $50 check from Global Test Market today. 4 days past the 6 weeks it was supposed to come in, but better late than never.

That will go to the EF fund. I am going to town tomorrow so I will make the deposit then and shoot it off to ING. I'll use the main account so I don't have to wait the week for the check to clear at podunk CU before I transfer it.

I need to earn between 100 and 150 points to cash out again for another $50. Some surveys don't credit immediately, though most do, so I think I have 50 points floating around out there in limbo still.

Well, I found a new research panel to sign up with tonight. It looks legitimate. It pays in gift certificates, but they are to places I would use, so I decided to give it a whirl. You have to build up $20 credit before you can cash out though. Hopefully it is one with some frequency. I could use some Amazon GC's for Christmas.

I'll keep you updated as to the legitimacy of this one when I am able to cash out.

Things are going slow in the survey world this week. I've finally got my points level to 752 at Global Test Market. Just 248 points to go and I can cash out again with them for a $50 check. It has been forever since I've qualified for a survey with them. Okay, maybe a week, but I was so used to qualifying for several in a week. I should be receiving my most recent check from them on the 8th. They do get every single bit of their 6 weeks in before the send that check out!

I was hoping I'd be able to cash out again with them by the time the check came as normally it takes me six weeks to build up enough points to cash out. Oh, well. At least GTM gives you 5 points for the surveys you don't qualify for, unlike so many others.

ACOP has been super slow, though they have sent out a couple qualifiers that looked like I should qualify, so hopefully I'll be getting something from them.

Still nothing from Pinecone. I haven't qualified for any of the lately rare Lightspeed ones. Your2Cents is MIA and so is NFOMySurvey. Feels like a regular drought in survey land.

Greenfield keeps sending ones that don't pay anything. Yeah, if I wanted that I'd have stayed with SurveySpot.

SurveySavvy is sending them out once a week, but I've only ever qualified for one of theirs and it takes like 8 weeks before they even credit the money to your account and then you have to cash it out and then you have to wait for it to arrive.

Zoomerang I haven't qualified for anything in a long time. They don't pay in cash anyway, they pay in merchandise. But there is something I want, so hopefully that will change soon.

That's surveys in a nutshell.

So a long while back I was thinking about doing plasma donation to earn a little extra money. I kind of looked at it but never really went into it deep enough to see what it was about.

So I've been researching it some more and specifically the company that has a branch in my county. They pay $25 per donation and you can donate twice a week. It takes about 1.5 hours to donate plasma and it is different from regular blood donation because they put everything but the plasma back into you. It takes the body 48 hours to replace what is lost from donation.

So they are paying $16 an hour basically. Not bad for lying on your back and reading a book or taking a nap. I'm not sure if they take money out for taxes or not, that wasn't listed on their website. But they do require a social so I'm betting they probably do, which knocks it down a bit. Of course, they may just require it because you might have to be a U.S. citizen. You also have to bring a photo I.D. and a current utility bill for proof of permanent residence. They don't want homeless people or drug addicts coming in off the streets for health issues.

I can donate if my high blood pressure is under control with medication, which it is, and with my thyroid medication, as well. I have to not be currently sick and if I've been on antibiotics they have to be out of my system for a set number of days. So I qualify if I wanted to set up an appointment any time soon. My past illness does not disqualify me from donating as it has been 2 years.

I'm still not 100% sure, but I keep thinking about it. If I donated twice a week for a whole year I'd earn $2600. But I know of coures, that I will get sick or have weeks where the kids are too sick for me to go or we go on a trip or whatever. But I reckon I could still make $2000 a year.

The only thing that might be an issue is it is 23 minutes from my house. Which means gas. Gas is currently $2.55 a gallon and it takes about 2.8 gallons to do a round trip from my house. At best that is about $7.50 per trip. So subtract that from the $25 and its $17.50. I figure I can combine it on Friday's with my regular trip to town for grocery shopping and banking, so one day I wouldn't be coming in for just that, which means one donation at $17.50 and one at $25, or a net gain of $42.50 per week. Still worthwhile I think.

I'm not one who is afraid of needles or having things sticking out of my veins. I had that going on for a good portion of 3 years of my life, so it isn't a problem. But I am still a tad hesitant. It just seems kind of creepy. I think I'm probably blowing it all out of proportion. I just keep thinking how nice it would be to have regular $50 donations going into the EF every week. Or finally open a spousal IRA.

I received a $4 check from ACOP today. It will go into savings on Tuesday and then I will send it off to the EF at ING with the regular deposit on Thursday.

I just checked my accounts and I should be receiving my $50 check from Global Test Market on the 8th of September. I wish it didn't take six weeks for them to send out a check. They're in California for Pete's sake! But I shouldn't complain as they are the best paying survey site I use. (Real surveys, none of this paid to try business). As for points I am currently at 577, so a bit past the halfway mark to being able to cash out again. So far I've cashed out again right around when the check comes, so hopefully they'll send out a bunch of surveys in the next two weeks.

Lightspeed has been slow, ACOP has been slow, Pinecone after spitting out one survey in my direction this month has gone dormant again, NFO has been slow, though I did do a free product test with a 100 point follow up survey for them. I've done a $1 and a $2 survey with Your2Cents (but have to hit $5 to cash out there), and SurveySavvy has been hit or miss. I haven't heard from Mindfield in months! Oh, well. You win some, you lose some.

I wish the paid to clicks hadn't gone down after that earthquake in the Asian islands. I was making a good amount with those just clicking while I watched something. Can't have everything I suppose. I'm saving up my MyPoints for Christmas time. I've got over 3000 at this point.

The money from paypal from Pinecone showed up in my CU today. I added it to the Safety Net portion of my EF.

$83.31 Beginning balance
$ 5.00 Pinecone money
-------
$88.31 Total Safety Net balance

This brings the total in the full EF to $1052.31.

I received $5 from Pinecone into my paypal account last night and transferred it to my CU. It should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday and it will go into the Safety Net portion of my EF.

I peaked at my interest at ING last night and it is already at $1.51. Every little bit helps.

To my coin jar last night I added:

$ 9.00 in ones
$ 1.50 in quarters
$ .10 in dimes
-------
$10.60 total

DH still hasn't emptied out his pockets from the fair, so I'll probably be adding some more in.

I finally got a Pinecone Survey today. It's been close to 2 months! So that $5 should show up in my paypal account tomorrow or Monday. After a very slow week with GTM I got 8 surveys from them today. I qualified for a 35 and a 50 pointer and then got 5 points on 5 and the other one was already closed. So 110 points from them today. And 10 points from NFO. I missed a Survey Savvy because I forgot to do it yesterday. It was a $2 one, too. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some, and apparently you ignore some.

Hopefully tomorrow is a slow survey invite day for me, as we are going to the county fair up in Lynden. Mucho dinero, but it's once a year. Looking forward to the funnel cake with powdered sugar, whipped cream and strawberries. We split it between the four of us. I can't even imagine trying to eat one of those things on my own. Maybe one that was just powdered sugar, but definitely not a loaded one.

I just have to restrain myself from buying any of the nifty do-dads they always have in the commercial building...it slices, it dices, it curls your hair and folds your laundry... Hmm...actually...LOL

Nope. It just didn't post right last night and when I went to fix it I lost my network and I wasn't at my computer today to fix it.

It was supposed to say in the body:

On that topic.

As in, that's it, then, on that topic. Not that's it on my blog. I decided the topic was way too touchy and removed it. Simple as that. Moving on.

My Lightspeed payment made it out of paypal and into my CU today. So that $10 is added into the Safety Net. That makes the Safety Net at $61.81 and the grand total of my EF at $1015.81.

I took a survey from ACOP today, the first one in months and instead of the usual $5, they were only paying $4 this time. It's supposed to take up to 4 weeks for the check to arrive.

Waiting for the loan deposit to go through.

I just redeemed points at Lightspeed today after doing a very large points survey. So that $10 should hit paypal either tomorrow or Wednesday, and my CU either Friday or Monday. Then it goes off to the EF.

I received a product to test Saturday from NFO so I am testing that for the next two weeks. I believe when I originally was chosen for it about six weeks ago, they said it would pay $5. But considering the product and how much there is of it, I'm happy if all I get out of it is the free product. Surveys from them have been very slow since I last cashed out.

Still nothing from ACOP or Pinecone. Nothing new from Y2C. And I'm up to 187 points at GTM after this morning's survey with them. Oh, I should say because of the high number of points for the last survey at Lightspeed, I still have 235 points in my account there.

Oh, I did do a $5 SurveySavvy survey today. It is the first one I have qualified for with them. They say it takes 2 weeks for it to be credited to my account and then when it is I'm not sure what I do. Probably send for a check or else it has to build to a certain amount before I can send for a check. I signed up with them over a year ago and this is the first time I've actually got the invitation early enough to even try to qualify. I'll keep you all updated on how this process goes and whether or not it is a legitimate company, though I've heard good things about them so I assume they are.

Paep, I sent you your referral link for GTM today. Everyone else, I sent them out a few days ago, the day I posted about it, so hopefully you all got them this time.

Okay, ladies, I sent out referral links from the GTM survey site today to everyone that requested them. Please check your spam filters and your junk mail boxes.

Paep, I sent you an email from my yahoo account to get your alternative email addy.

Ima (Julie), do you want me to try again to send you a link with your yahoo address or do you have an alternative one?

Today was a good GTM day. They sent out six surveys and I qualified for three. Makes up for nothing yesterday or the day before.

I am a very happy camper. I just received my first $50 check from that survey company I've been talking about. And it's written on a BoA account, too. Yay!

I just cashed out with them again two days ago. They do take the full six weeks to get it to you, but it comes. Oh, and they are open to people in Canada, Australia, and the U.K., as well as the states.

Now, as for the folks that I have sent invites to who haven't seemed to have received them: It appears that AOL and Yahoo consider it to be spam and don't let them through, so if you have a different email addy, leave me a message here. I will use your linked account to send a message back to you that you can then use to send me an alternative email address.

If you don't have AOL or Yahoo and still aren't getting the invites then chances are its getting caught in your spam filter as well or your junk mail or bulk mail folders.

So, if you still haven't received the referral link I'll try again.

Oh, and the $50 goes into the EF just as soon as I cash it tomorrow.

It's good to be back and in my own bed after a week away. My vacation was pretty good. The rest of the family had a better time than I did. I got sick so bad that I thought I had pneumonia and ended up staying in bed for 2 days straight, except to go to London Drug and pick out cold medicine. They happened to be selling the Harry Potter book, and of course it had the British cover art, so that was neat.

So I was dizzy and just totally coughing down in my lungs and we almost went to a walk in clinic, despite the cost of it, but after two days in bed I woke up feeling better (still pretty bad though). So I didn't go to Craig Darroch or the Titanic exhibit or the Undersea Garden, but everyone else did.

I did however go on the carriage ride through Beacon Hill Park, which is similar to Central Park in New York, only safer. We really liked that and it was $90 well spent because we learned a lot about the city and the park and of course Tobias got a kick out of the horse because it kept passing gas. He's at that age.

Despite that it was a lovely ride and we saw people parasurfing. They had special surf boards attatched to their feet and parachutes on and the wind would pick up the parachutes and they would fly into the air. It was amazing. We also saw the world's tallest totem pole at 156 feet. I have a picture of my kids in front of it and the scale is just mind-blowing. I'll try to post it. I haven't done pictures before on here but DH is home to help me figure it out.

I did get to see Hatley castle, but I was not impressed. It was way overblown. By the time I was marginally well enough to do Centre of the Universe the kids were down with it so we didn't go.

I spent a lot of time in bed sleeping and a lot of time in bed reading Harry, which I finished Tuesday night. I spent time in the hot tub to help break up my congestion and it helped a lot. And the kids were out with DH for long stretches of time, which was really nice. So even though my vacation did not turn out quite the way I planned, and even though I still have a cough, ears that crack when I swallow and a bit of gunky stuff, I had a lot of me time, a lot of rest and a pretty good read.

I was actually disappointed in a few things in the book, but for the most part after the first 200 pages it went fast and was exciting. One thing I had predicted came true, so I was happy to be right about it. But that's all I will say about it because I know so many people don't want to know anything at all until they are done reading it and I know how careful I was to avoid any spoilers until I finished it.

I came back with a $20 bill and a couple dollars in change, so not bad. I'll put the Canadian money in a jar until we go to the zoo next. We're really close to the one in Langley and it is so much nicer a zoo then the one in Seattle is.

I'm looking forward to having my mail all delivered tomorrow. I hope that $50 check came. It's been six weeks so it better have. I just hit 1000 points again with them so I need to cash out again, too. I did a few surveys while I was sick in bed.

I guess that about covers everything. Oh, I probably have money to move to ING. I should do that, too.

Okay, I'm about to set off on my vacation. Victoria is pretty wired so hopefully I'll be able to do a couple posts while I'm up there.

For those who asked for the survey link, I put some more comments on the previous post here. A couple of you asked for links that I had sent links to last month. Go read my comments on the last entry and if you still haven't gotten the link let me now and I'll try to send them again, but it may be a few days depending on internet availability where I am.

I'm not sure what is up with GMT today but they are shooting out surveys like nobody's business. I am now up to 912 points, which means I am 88 points from cashing out for another $50 check. All I need is a 50 and a 40 point survey and I'm there. Last time I cashed out was June 14th, which means I'll have earned this $50 in 5 weeks time. Not bad at all. Still waiting on that first check to come. It has 13 days left in the expected arrival time.

As soon as I know it is completely legitimate I'll post it here. If anyone else wants to sign up now before I get that check besides the three people who already have, leave me a message here and I'll send you a referral email through your email linked to the SA site.

Everything I've read about them has been positive so I really, really hope they are legit, because this is quite the money maker if it is.

I spent the morning doing surveys. From GTM I did a 30, a 40, a 50, a 75, and a 100 point survey today and I qualified for all of them, that's a rarity. I cashed out last from them on June 14th and I'm already over 700 points, just 300 to go to cash out again. Still have 2 weeks left in the 2 to 6 weeks for the last check to arrive.

I also did a 150 point survey from Lightspeed.

Still no invitations from Pinecone. I've done 2 screeners from ACOP but it has been months since I've gotten a real one from them.

Y2C sent a qualifier finally last week but of course, I didn't qualify on that one. It was a $5 one, too, so I was annoyed.

NFO MySurvey has been exceedingly slow. I've done one 10 point survey from them in the past 2 weeks. I've found them to be quite hit or miss recently. Either a bunch come in one week or it dribs and drabs the whole month through.

I am anxious to receive the check from GTM since it is for $50 and it is the first time I cashed out with them. Everything I have read says they are legitimate, but I want to know by my own first hand experience. They are the most enjoyable survey company I'm signed up with. And the most frequent to send out surveys.

Tomorrow is the last day I'll receive any mail before vacation. On the bright side, the 6 weeks will be up by the time we get home from the trip, so it should be here by then, if it doesn't come before.

I added 23 cents in coins and $3 in ones to the change jar today.

I got a reimbursement check for $42.89 that will go to the EF.

Lightspeed survey money didn't show up in paypal today. I was surprised as they said next business day, and that was today. They are usually that fast.

I am over the halfway point ($25) to cashing out with GTM again.

DH was told the job vacancy announcement has gone up and that they hope to have the paperwork for him to sign Wednesday before he flies home, which would mean he would start the new job when he goes back after our vacation. I still don't believe them. Not until it is in writing. Not after last time. Or the time before that. I almost wish DH didn't tell me this stuff until it was a done deal. I don't need to obsess about it.

I added $1.15 in change to the change jar and $14 in ones to the change jar today. I received a refund check of $5.33 from Comcast left over from the old phone system. The check is made out to my DH even though the account was in my name, not sure why they did that. The new system is in his name, maybe that is why?

I have a twenty for miscellaneous weekend spending, so I shouldn't need to dip into the ones.

DH comes home on Thursday so I will deposit the check and any ones to the CU and then ship them off along with the weekly $10 to ING for the EF.

I have one more transfer I can make before I hit the limit. Curious, there is a legal limit of 6 unsigned transfers per month. Does that mean I can only transfer six into ING in a month or does that mean I can only transfer six from each CU, which would be a total of 12. Anyone know?

Tonight I did two 150 point surveys and one 75 point survey at Lightspeed. That brought my account up high enough to cash out for a $10 paypal payment, with 35 points left in the account.

Lightspeed is usually very fast (no way to avoid the pun, sorry) and it will most likely be in the account by morning. That $10 will go into the EF.

I also did 4 non-qualifying surveys with GTM today, so that was 20 points. I am almost to the halfway point ($25) to cash out with them.

Pinecone has been really slow lately. So has NFO. Did get a screener from ACOP today and haven't heard anything from Y2C in awhile, either.

I received a survey check in the mail yesterday and I rolled up the coin in my coin jar today. I had:

$10.00 quarters
$10.00 dimes
$ 4.00 nickles
$ 1.50 pennies
-------
$25.50 total rolled coin
$10.00 check from NFO MySurvey
-------
$35.50 total to be deposited
$ 1.05 interest
-------
$36.55

So when that has all gone through my EF will then have a total of $436.05.

And there is the $700 from my vacation fund in there at the moment as well, all interest generated going to the EF. $500 here I come. I am hoping to hit that this month. There will be the four weekly deposits of $10.00, so I only have to come up with $23.95 to hit that goal.

If my other survey checks come this month or I get some Pinecone surveys to do I should hit that. If not, I'll try to squeeze it out of some other place in the budget.

I did another survey with Your2Cents and cashed out today, so will have a $5.00 check coming. They say 6 to 8 weeks but they have never taken more than 3 to get here.

I took a 75 point survey with Lightspeed and a 50 point survey with GTM. I also caught up on my backlog of MyPoints. I'm close to getting a $20 gift card, though I'm thinking of saving my points up for longer and aiming for a $50 gift card that I can use at Christmas. I just need to cash out well before December so I don't face one of the card out of stock shortages like last year.

NFO sent me a 50 point survey today so I hit my 1000 points and cashed out for a $10 check to be mailed. It should arrive in 3 to 6 weeks.

The $5 payment for the Pinecone survey I took last night showed up in my paypal account this morning. I have to love how fast they are with payment. At first it seemed like they were very slow to send out surveys but now I am getting them at a pretty rapid fire rate. Well, one a week or so. Pretty good compared to some of the slow poke companies out there.

I transferred that to the CU so it should show up and be ready to be bumped into the vacation fund on Wednesday.

Today I cashed out with one of my survey companies and should be receiving a $50 check in the next 2 to 6 weeks.

I did another survey with Pinecone today, which should arrive in my paypal account tomorrow or Monday.

I am 35 points from cashing out for a $10 check with NFO, so that should happen within a week or so.

The $5 from the last Pinecone survey that I transferred from paypal has shown up in my CU.

I am on track for a very good survey month this month. This is the first time I am being paid by the first company I talked about. I have read very good things about them and have had a very good experience with them. They have lots of surveys, usually 2 to 5 daily of which I qualify for at least one or two. Once in awhile I may go a day or two without any survey offers from them, usually over a long weekend or something.

They tend to run 50 points, with an occassional one at 35 and maybe 10% at 75 points. Rarely there will be one for more. Generally you get 5 points if you don't qualify. So if you have five non-qualifying surveys in a day, you'd still most likely get 25 points that day. It has taken me about 3 months to reach 1000 points. Points are cashed out at 5 cents per point, but you can't cash out until you reach 1000 points.

I'll update when (and if) I get the check, but if anyone wants to sign up with them before that knowledge comes through, drop me a note and I can refer you now. Otherwise I'll offer referrals when I get the check. I had researched them thoroughly online before I signed up with them and everything I've read says they do pay out on time and are a good company.

Now I'm off to see what's up with Lightspeed. No surveys from them for awhile.

I recieved $5.00 in my paypal account today from a survey I took yesterday. I transferred it to my CU and it will end up in the vacation account when it arrives there.