As I look at my last entry, I am surprised to see it's been exactly one year ago. What has changed? Very little, unfortunately.

Thankfully, I am still gainfully employed, will qualify for the company's health insurance benefits and am on the rebound regarding my 401k. I was fortunate that I didn't lose very much.

My $20 Challenge went the way of the dinosaur, unfortunately. I tried over and over again, to no avail. I've simply got too high a cc debt to focus on first. I've tried to pay myself first, but that, too, has been put on the proverbial back burner.

I am hoping that perhaps returning here will hold me accountable regarding the above. So, that said, it's back to the drawing board.

I sent off a small box of paperback textbooks that my son gave me. They were his history books from his senior year at university. He knew I liked reading about the Civil War, which is why he gave them to me, adding that he had been unable to sell them back at the campus bookstore.

I decided to sell them myself to books4cash and managed to get over $25 plus an additional 3% for having it deposited into my paypal account.

That said, I will be adding:

$26.00 books sold online
$74.00 current challenge amount

That will make it come to my first $100. I certainly can't complain!!!

After picking up my paycheck, when filling out the deposit slip, I rounded out the amount to be deposited. The change I received in return ($15.00) was put into my $20 Challenge. That said, here's my update:

Previous amount: $45.00
Added today: $15.00
Total to date: $60.00

Woohoo!!!

A question of which I would really love to hear a few responses. Many of you have huge chunks of change to your challenge. Where to you "park" your challenge money?

You know I currently keep mine in a large plastic Coke bottle; I don't have enough yet to make an impact on interest earnings. But as the amount grows, I will put it into a high yield savings account...

There are numerous ways to save, I mean truly save. The key thing is that you learn to discern the offers out there to make sure you won't be *had*. I have a checking account with US Bank, which offers cash rewards if I use the debit card to purchase items from their connected shopping link to 150 sites.

For me it's worth it, since drugstore.com is one place I buy from every month. For clothing, it's Land's End and Eddie Bauer. What's key is that I hit drugstore.com the first week of each month because that is when GNC has their 20% Gold Card savings. I also treated myself to a few Vera Bradley accessories, including a small handbag from e.bags as a Mother's Day "entitlement." All the items were on sale, AND, I received $5.00 cashback. This is actual money that *collects* in my rewards account. I can transfer this money to my checking account in increments of $5.00. Not a bad deal.

Discernment is important to know if you are truly saving. Since I go to GNC via drugstore.com, I can tell if prices are deliberately inflated to get their money back. They aren't.

For now, that's not a bad deal. It's also a good way to add to my $20 Challenge account.

How do I add a TickerFactory ruler to show progress on my side bar?

thx in advance....

I am happy to say that I did not leave the house to visit stores or even eat out. I have the weather to thank for this. Today was an absolutely bad day for going anywhere. The wind was blowing so hard - gusts up to 49mph! There was certainly enough rain with that. I am glad no plans were made.

I did all my running around yesterday after work. Since I knew that the weather was going to be truly lousy on Mother's Day, I decided to buy a few groceries and pick up my prescription before heading home. Fortunately, my SO took me out to dinner Friday afternoon, and then afterwards we went to Barnes and Noble, just across the street from the restaurant.

So, I can thank the weather for keeping me at home and staying out of trouble.

Woohoo! It is finally working! I've reworked my budget (YNAB) and using the BudgetMap registers to keep track when I am unable to enter transactions online. I am able to avoid overspending in each budget category because I've given each of my earned dollars a job. Nothing gets put into a miscellaneous or other category. Also, as soon as a deposit from any source is made, it gets put into the needed categories.

I can't believe I've finally done it. It's all good.....