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Do I hear a collective groan from everyone out there? Yep, it's time to gather all your financial paperwork and crunch those numbers!
Good news! Several companies offer free filing if you meet certain criteria! In years past, I have used both TurboTax Freedom and H&R Block TaxCut. Now that I own my own business, things are more complicated and I have to pay for software. Now I use TurboTax Home & Business and have been pleased with it.
TurboTax Freedom
To qualify for free federal tax preparation and filing using TurboTax Freedom Edition 2008, you must meet one of the following criteria *
Did you know you can save $5/month if you have DSL and cellular service from AT&T? Just make a simple phone call and they will set you up with a bundle and combine both of the bills in to one.
Here's the link to the information.
This saves me $5/month or $60/year!
If you have a landline that you only use for DSL access, ask about switching to dry DSL. That can save you about $15 extra per month!
I had my first experience with the Sav-Mor food yard sale today. Wow! What an experience! They line up tons of banana boxes full of food in their parking lot. When I arrived there were swarms of people around the perimeter. You grab an empty banana box and wait for the signal to go. Then it's a free for all! You pay $6 for whatever you can fit in your box. (level with the top of the box) I ran into a friend from church as I was leaving and she said she calculated it out once and it's about an average of 14 cents per item!
I got a couple boxes of cereal, a cake mix, 2 cheesecake mixes, 2 jars of natural peanut butter, several cans of Main Street Cafe iced coffee, 2 bags of Nestle peanut butter/chocolate chips, several bottles of dressing, tortilla mix, graham cracker crust, organic Kraft Mac & Cheese, organic spaghetti saurce, BBQ sauce and a bunch of other miscellaneous items. Some of the things I probably never would have bought in the store, but the items that I do buy were worth over $6. The rest of the stuff was just to fill the box! :-) I could have squeezed a few more things in, but there was nothing left that I would eat or want to give away!
I did more research over the weekend. Still going with a FreeRadical hitchless trailer. I think I've changed my mind on the motor. I am strongly leaning towards a Cleverchip Stokemonkey. The price is steeper, but I think it will really give me more bang for my buck. I found some OK reviews on the Wilderness Energy kit. Every person that has a Stokemonkey LOVES it.
Here are some reasons I'm leaning towards it:
* It is built specifically for the Xtracycle FreeRadical hitchless trailer
* More torque than the WE hub kit
* All the battery options for the WE hub kit seemed to take up valuable cargo room or I'd have to buy a seatpost rack, but not sure that would really help much either.
* Seems the mileage range is longer on the Stokemonkey than the WE
The number one thing that is strongly pulling me towards it - some guy in San Fransisco uses one for his daily commute (visiting nurse) and he also can climb the hills with a rider on the back of his bike! I think the Stokemonkey can handle the hills in Greenville!
While it is a bit more expensive and it does make me nervous to spend that kind of money on an accessory for my bike, it will pay for itself in only a few months.
The sad thing is...it's not currently available. They needed to make some adjustments to the Stokemonkey design and they're behind schedule with the production. Last update was March 26th and they were hopefully going to ship to the States soon, but they aren't exactly sure of the actual date.
Since I moved back to the States in July 2007, I have not had a car. I really didn't expect to be without one this long. So far it's worked out mostly OK. It's frustrating at times, but I've gotten used to it. Every time I have "needed" a car for some reason or another, God has provided the use of one at just the right time!
Now that I've saved some money, I'm at a crossroads. The amount of money I have will not buy me much of a car. That's OK with me. I just need something to get me from point A to point B and haul some stuff here and there. But...is it really worth it?
Since I work from home, I don't need to get to/from work. I was having to go to the Post Office quite a bit to mail boxes, but now I can do that from home using Endicia. Most everywhere I need to go is within a 2 mile radius of my house. I have a rack with panniers that work great for hauling groceries and smaller stuff, but sometimes they're not quite enough for bulkier items.
The hills here in Greenville do present a bit of a problem! My stamina has increased, but some of them are killers. A few weeks ago I almost passed out when I got off my bike after a hard ride. They take the joy out of riding. Granted, sometimes it's a thrill to accomplish them, but when I'm tired or don't feel like riding, but need to get somewhere, it's not fun. I dread them. Sometimes if I can, I'll take a slightly longer route with less hills.
So...what to do? Continue living car free? Or buy some cheap car that is going to need to be replaced probably sooner than later?
I've been weighing my options & minimally, I'll save over $4200/year ($350/month) by remaining car free! That's just for gas, insurance, oil changes and saving for a replacement car. That is not including car repairs, yearly registration, etc. (AAA's research shows the annual average cost of driving a small sedan is $6,320 per year.) With that kind of savings, living car free is becoming more tempting! That leaves me plenty of money to give my friends gas money (I do need to get to church, unless I find biking with a change of clothes will work.) or rent a car for a few days if I need to! The Transit Authority here recently installed bike racks on all the buses. So far, I haven't ridden it yet. The one and only time I tried to catch one didn't work out so well. Maybe I'll try again later.
So I've come up with some options to overcome the hurdles of hauling stuff/the hills:
First is the Xtracycle FreeRadical hitchless trailer conversion kit and WideLoaders. The hitchless trailer provides a lower center of gravity for more stability. It also provides more cargo room than my current saddle bags. The WideLoaders provide a platform to haul bulkier things:
The next purchase will be a Wilderness Energy ebike kit. This will give me assistance going up those tough hills without killing myself!
I had been planning on saving my tax rebate check for a rainy day, but I'm seriously considering putting that money towards these accessories. After all, that's what the government really wants us to do - stimulate the economy by buying things, right? :-)
There are some other options out there. But, since I'm just starting out, I don't want to sink a lot of money into something I might regret later. If I decide this is going to work out, I can always upgrade since I'll have some extra spending money!
Campbell's has a $4 coupon for their StockPot Fresh Soup here.
* Adobe Chicken & Toasted Corn Chowder
* Tomato Basil Bisque
* Creamy Broccoli & Cheddar
* Fully Loaded Baked Potato & Cheddar
* Kickin' Crab & Sweet Corn Chowder
* Tuscan Market Minestrone
* New England Clam Chowder
* Roadhouse Beef Chili with Beans
* Roasted Vegetable
* Creamy Chicken & Wild Rice
* Chicken Noodle
* Sizzlin' Chicken Tortilla
Campbell's StockPot Fresh Soups are available in select retail locations. Look for it hot–ready to eat or in 24 oz refrigerated tubs to take home–in your grocer's deli.
Read More...For the last several weeks I've been living off the food in my cupboards and only buying milk when I run out. I'm trying to make it the whole month of March (and maybe longer) without doing any grocery shopping. So far, it's working! (Except for a couple good deals I couldn't pass up - cereal for a quarter and bags of frozen vegetables for 34 cents each!)
The last few days tortillas have been sounding good. I didn't have any on hand. That posed a problem. I googled tortilla recipes and found one that used ingredients I had on hand, so I made my own! They were very easy to make and tasted pretty good! They are not the ultra-flat version, but a little puffy. Almost like a flatbread. I made a wrap sandwich for lunch with turkey, cheese and BBQ sauce. For supper I wrapped scrambled eggs, cheese and salsa and topped it off with a little non-fat yogurt as a sour cream substitute. For dessert I heated up a tortilla, spread it with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.
Here's the recipe if you want to try it out! (The post is a little long. The recipe is below the 3rd picture in the post.)
You can go to the Blue Bunny website and sign up for the iScream Team to get your coupon. They'll send you an email every month that generally has a coupon and other news about Blue Bunny ice cream. If you don't have a favorite flavor, try Bunny Tracks! Mmmm.....
I just got started shopping at CVS. It's addicting when you see how much you can get for so little! :-) Today's haul:
3 Dove Shampoos
3 Dove Conditioners
4 Johnson & Johnson Buddies Soaps
2 samples of Hershey's Bliss Chocolates
Total value: $35.50
Total out of pocket: $1.95 And I got $5 coupon to use later! (My actual total would have been less than $1, but I made a mistake and ended up spending a little more. I'm still getting the hang of this!)
In previous weeks I've scored toothbrushes, razors, toothpaste, and mouthwash. All for free or very little out of pocket. On some items, I even made money back after getting it free then sending in for a rebate!
Since I'm single, I obviously don't need all this stuff, so I am sending it to friends overseas that can really use it!
