I've surpassed my August 31 goal and am just a few dollars short of my October 31.

Once my credit card bill comes I will need to transfer about $160 out of my savings and into my checking because... I bought a bike!

It was a whim purchase. I really did just wake up one day and say, "I'm going to buy a bike!". But I love the bike I got. I've had it for almost a week now and I've been using it every day. I rode it to the pharmacy to get my meds, I rode it to Walmart to get milk, I love it! My boyfriend even fixed up his old bike and we've been riding to and from each other's houses.

I would like to get a basket for the front of my bike by the end of next month. I also need to get a helmet. The basket can wait a couple months, but the helmet I will be getting with next payday.

And to further my excitement, I found gas that is UNDER $4!

I have to go to school now and then work right after. Unfortunately I cannot ride my bike there.

I totally forgot that about a week or two ago Nielsen TV contacted us asking if we would be willing to track what shows we watched for a week.

Today we received the diaries and $30 for our time.

We are splitting the money 50-50 so there's $15 extra bucks for me!

I decided to sign up for MySurvey.com and OpinionOutpost.com. We'll see how things go. Even a few bucks a month would be helpful.

One more thing: I meet my July 31 goal a few weeks early! My savings would be at $1900 had it not been for summer tuition, but I'm very happy with where it is at now. With my next paycheck I'll put a few hundred into my IRA since I haven't contributed to it in a looong time.

I'm thinking about doing some online surveys for money.

I'm not sure if this will be worth it or not. Any extra money will help, especially if it can cover the cost of groceries ($40-$50/month). And from what I've heard they don't take that long. With school and work I can spare a couple hours a week for surveys but not much more.

This has probably been posted before so I'll look through the archives on the forum but if anyone has any tips for doing surveys that would be great.