Refinancing For a Better Rate

We bought our Chevy Uplander in May 2008. It was a program car, so pretty new (2008) and we got a decent deal on it. Unfortunately, we were upside down on our current car that we traded in, due to a really bad deal that my husband got on his truck in tech school. We had originally wanted to go ahead and pay off the car before we traded up, but decided that it just wasn't going to work that way after all. We were in Missouri, and had just traveled over 1000 miles with a 2 year old, 3 dogs (2 weighed over 50 lbs, and the other about 20), and a cat. It just wasn't a comfortable ride, and since we are stationed over 1000 miles from "home" it's a trip we frequently make. We decided to look at minivans, and if we could get one with a lower payment than what we had on the car, we would take it. We ended up getting a payment about $20 lower a month, so we took it, even though it added 2 years to our loan (since we had been paying on our car for 2 years). It was obviously worth more than our older car, and seems to be holding it's value better as well. We ended up with a terrible interest rate, though, because we were upside down, had recently bought a house, and had some credit card debt.

Walgreens Freebies EXPIRED

A great way to save money on presents is to take advantage of any freebies offered by different companies, and save the good ones for gifts.  Right now Walgreens has a great freebie, but only this weekend.  You can get a completely free 8x10 collage print for Father's day, by entering the code 1freebie at checkout, but hurry, it's only good until June 18!  They also have regular 4x6 prints  30 for $3, a coupon code for $10 off $20 or more of photo gifts, and a BOGO offer on 11x14 collage posters.  Pick up your prints in store, and save even more!

Planning For a Possible Move?

My husband put in for a base of preference transfer recently and we are waiting to hear whether or not we get to move. We've been here his entire career so far (he got here in August 2004), so we definitely feel like it's time to move on. Waiting is hard for me, though, especially with so much up in the air. We should find out whether or not this BOP gets approved before Elliott starts school, but that still seems so far away. We also have a lot of different plans and ideas, depending on whether or not he gets it, and when we get to go.

Planning Early For Christmas and Birthdays

I'm a big planner, no matter what the occasion. I already admitted to spending a year planning our vacation. I also spend most of the year planning for Christmas and birthdays as well. One of the ways that I've found easiest to do this is to have my husband and my son both keep a current Amazon wishlist. It's a lot harder to keep my husband on top of this, but my son loves it. He lists toys that he sees on TV, or movies that he would like to see. He also usually has a fairly extensive list of books. I check the lists fairly frequently (since my son is only five I help him make his anyway), and watch for sales on Amazon. That also reenforces the items on the list, so that if I see something on sale at another store, I can grab it when I have the chance.