What in the name of Frosty is a "Snowflake"?

The basics: A snowflake is a bit of extra cash you come across. Snowflakes can be defined by whichever qualifications fit your budget and lifestyle... extra cash earned from selling junk in your closet, coming in under budget on your monthly bills, rolling the 90 lbs. of spare change in that jar. Any extra bit of cash you can scrape together by any (legal) means necessary is a snowflake. Like a real snowflake, this extra cash may not necessarily be significant by itself.

But throughout the month, snowflakes add up and form a cash "snowball"! So what's a snowball? A snowball is an extra wad of cash you can throw at debt, or save up, or pay cash for something that 99% of the US population would normally charge on a credit card... whatever your needs might be that month.

The point is, little bits of cash may not seem like much as they're "snowing" down, but at the end of the month when you tally it up, you can find yourself with hundreds of dollars you wouldn't otherwise have.

This blog is about my personal quest for snowflakes. Why? Well, before I knew better (i.e.: read a Dave Ramsey book and realized how lame debt is), I bought a brand new mini-van, fully financed. I love my van, but when I realize how much I overpaid, how much interest I'll be paying, and for how long I'll be paying hundreds of dollars every month... well, I want to hurl.

So my mission in life right now is to pay off my van like yesterday. Hence my quest for snowflakes.