I got paid for 2 Pinecone surveys this week plus $15 I requested from Lightspeed survey. I also had $3 sitting in my PayPal from a Pinecone survey I did at the end of December, so $24 to the EF. That pushes me over the $5,300 mark on my way to $10,000.

I am so bummed. I just received an email from Pinecone explaining that they are "phasing out" the $5 surveys and will be replacing them with $3 per survey plus an entry into a monthly $500 sweepstakes.

The $3 is not bad, but I was hoping I could stay "grandfathered in" at $5. I guess that was a little too much to ask for.

They sent me a survey asking if I want to switch to this other payment option now or stay at the other option and eventually stop getting survey offers altogether. I am choosing to switch. I will miss the $5, but at least I can stay on the panel and continue to earn a little extra to put toward the debt.

I love being picked to try out new products, and while I can't give away any specifics since I crossed my heart and promised Pinecone I would never divulge the information, I can say that I really enjoyed this product and hope to see it in stores soon...with a few of my recommended tweaks of course!

$5 Pinecone check to the Goal CC -
New Balance: $7,765.73

Received $20 from MySurvey and $5 from Pinecone Research this week so I am putting an extra $25 toward the 0% CC.

New Balance on Goal CC: $7,770.72

Also, bad news: I paid $3.39/gal for gasoline at BJ's (cheapest place around)- up from $2.99 a month ago!

Good news: I got 36.1 miles to the gallon on my last tank of gas.

Okay so it was a very small amount, but I was giddy with excitement last night.

I took my hubby to Atlantic City to see Don Rickles for his birthday. We had dinner and had a little time to waste before the show, so we put a few dollars in the slot machines. He played (and lost) $5 on video poker, then I put in $1 on a very strange nickle slot that I could not understand so I lost that. Oops. We both rambled over to another section of nickle slots and put $1 apiece into different machines. He bet his whole dollar on one spin and lost. I bet 5 credits (still have no idea how much that actually was...maybe 25 cents) and WON! It kept adding more and more credits until I had a final total of $20.65! Seven of the $8 we spent was mine, so I nearly tripled my money. I cashed out, took my money and ran.

After that we went straight to the show and really laughed and enjoyed ourselves. It was a great night...and I wound up with $13.65 to add to my EF.

I also received my check from ViewPoint Forums for $34 which will be deposited to my EF Wednesday (my next day off from work).

New CF Total: $1,325.89

I cashed in $40 from my Lightspeed survey account via PayPal last week.
It just showed up in my local bank so I will be transferring to the EF at ING today.

I am also waiting on a check for $34 from Viewpoint Forum (another survey site) so I will posting another EF deposit as soon as I receive that money. WooHoo! I am so excited that the EF is growing so rapidly now that I am really looking in every nook and cranny for extra cash to fund it.

New EF Balance: $1,270.58
With this deposit I've surpassed 25% of my $5k goal!!!

I had to shell out almost $300 today for school. $255 for some new instruments (which is really dirt cheap compared to what I would pay if I were not a student), and $45 for membership dues for the ADHA (American Dental Hygienist Association).

I hate when I have no choice but to spend money. I can't even shop around. But, I know it is for a good cause and I will be glad to have that license in my hand. Still that was almost all our savings so times continue to get tighter in our household.

Speaking of school, it is just unbelievable the amount of new tasks we have to learn in the next 3-1/2 months! I am afraid my blog may get neglected at times, but I will try to hang around and keep things up to date as much as possible.

Oh, almost forgot, I received a $5 check from Pinecone Research in the mail today. Hooray! I love them. They are so dependable and you always know you will be paid for each and every survey you take. What could be better?!