Tax season is upon us. How quickly it sneaks in when the holidays are over. This year we are going to do our own taxes online using TurboTax. However, we have use about every way to complete your taxes except for doing them by hand.
So our question to you is:
How are going to fill out your tax papers? Online, CPA, H & R Block type firm, or by hand?
You can answer via comments or vote in the poll on the right side bar.
Kid's Bedroom~
The girls' bedroom always looks like it has been ransacked by vandals. Today was no exception. The thought of tackling their room was scary and if it was not for making a commitment to doing it in the last post in this series I would have put it off a little longer. But alas, I will keep my word and not let the junk win this battle!
It was hard to prepare mentally for this room. There was just to much stuff everywhere and it was all a moving target with the one year old moving everything around constantly. I did decide that the best way to tackle it would be to start by the door and work my way around the room counter clockwise. This would give me a feel of accomplishment and hopefully help keep the youngest from destroying to much in my wake.
I have spent a full day in this room and could easily spend more time working in it if I had the time. So far I have pulled out 4 really large paper sacks full of toys to sell and/or give away. I've also pulled clothes out that doesn't fit the girls any more. Our oldest daughter had several outfits that will be going into storage containers for when the little one grows into them. Then there was about 10 outfits that the youngest has outgrown that were still hanging in the closet. I'm going to sell them mainly online. What I can't sell online I'll hold back for the garage sale. There was also a huge bag of trash that came out of the room.
I personally find it extremely hard to keep the girls' room clean. They are 5 and 1 years old. They have lots of friends who are always coming over to play which seems to make it even harder to keep clean even when they clean up before they leave.How is your kid's bedroom shaping up? Was it a huge disaster like my girls' room? Was there any good money maker items you are going to sell?
The next room to tackle is the kitchen next Thursday. Between now and next Thursday I'm going to try to get things sold and start to down size my sell pile in the office. We are also waiting for some new pull out baskets for the kitchen cabinets to come in. They should be here on Wednesday.
Check back on Thursday to see if the junk or I win the next round of battles!
People are not spending as much money as they did a year ago. Even Walmart is feeling the effects. They have reported that their customers are buying just the essentials.
This post marks our One Year Blogiversary. If you missed our '08 round-up, then you can catch it here. Rather than a lot of celebrating and hollerin', we offer the following missive. A rant, if you will. And if you want some celebratin', then check out our new favicon (that green thing next to our web address). Woo-hoo! Look at us!!
We want to hear from you! Today we are kicking off a new weekly series that will help us get to know you and your thoughts.
Our first question for you is:
What do you think of our new comment's section?
The Master Bedroom~
After reading the "Too Much Junk in the Trunk?" post you might be wondering about all that junk in the trunk (now the house). I promised you more info on our junk removal process. So here it is! The first post in a new series all about the Frugal and Green benefits simple house. The Mr.'s favorite saying is "Less is More". We try our hardest to live that motto but in our materialistic world is a never ending battle.
But no worries, I have never enter battle without a good strategy. Here is an outline of our basic battle plans for de-junking our house.
You might be thinking right now that I get distracted easily. Well, I think that when it comes to cleaning and de-cluttering most of us do! It's not in our nature to get rid of things so we tend to avoid it. I really do not want the process to take FOREVER so if I stay focused it will be done faster.
Are you ready to start de-junking your house? I am! You can follow along as I try to tackle my house room by room following the basic battle plan laid out above. The first battle will take place in our living room. It's time to make some room for the incoming toys!
What is your de-junking battle plan like? Do you have any strategies to share with us? Join me along the way and add a link to your progress posts!
Some time ago, the Mrs. and I squeezed some entertainment funds out of the budget - a whopping 6 bucks for a Netflix subscription. $6 affords us their cheapest plan of 2 movies per month, which is about all we can manage to get through anyways. This has allowed us to catch up on the movies that we aren't seeing in theaters, as well as discover some interesting stuff - especially in the documentary genre. Some of the more notables:
No sooner do we close the books on '08 and all of the unexpected expenditures that we faced, do we find ourselves faced with our first of '09. We're starting 2009 off with a bang - or rather a crash. Last week, while traveling to visit family, we were in a car accident.
Everyone is ok, and we know that is the most important thing. Our truck, on the other hand, bore the burden of the blow. The damage was far less than any of us expected, and yet word from the body shop is that insurance may total it out!
The crazy thing is - it's drivable! After the accident, we drove it quite a ways with no issue. Inspections have yielded no mechanical problems. So with what seems like superficial problems, the question is, will they salvage the title?
We're waiting to hear back from the insurance company, but our options appear to be:
We should be hearing back today or tomorrow. I guess the Mrs. was right, when she said that we need to 'aggressively start saving to replace a vehicle'. We're really hoping that it is not totaled
Today I'm excited to be celebrating our youngest daughter's 1st birthday. What a year it has been! She has brought us unbelievable joy and heart ache in a years time. I'm happy to say though that she healthy and able to enjoy her birthday like a normal one year old which brings tears of joy to my eyes just thinking about it. But that is really not what this post is about.
I'm also excited to be celebrating my one year anniversary of cloth diapering, babywearing and breastfeeding my youngest daughter.
For the past year my daughter has spend everyday but 7 (vacation) in cloth diapers. I have loved it more then one could imagine. Oh yes, you did hear me right. I hated used disposable diapers with my older daughter. I could not wait for the day she was potty trained. Now that I found love for cloth I don't mind the diapers at all. Not only is it easier for me to use it has helped my daughter from having diaper rashes and other skin problems caused the harsh chemicals in disposables. I use our cloth diapering spreadsheet to keep track of what diapers I buy and sell as well as our environmental impact. According to our spreadsheet we have saved $690 vs using disposables AND kept 3087+ diapers out of landfills! Who knew a baby's butt could be green in so many ways?
I'm extremely proud to have breastfeed my daughter for a full year as well. I would be a liar if I told you it was easy. But nothing worthwhile in life is easy. I've had mastitis twice this year and have had sever cracks that have taken several weeks to heal. In fact, I currently have one! Why would I continue to nurse my daughter having so many issues with nursing? There is nothing like the bond you have with your baby when you are holding them close to your chest, knowing that she is sometimes only comforted by nursing, and that she healthy because of the perfect nutrients only you can give her. God knew what he was doing when he created women to be able to nurse their babies.
I started wearing my daughter as soon as she came home. I use two different slings and a Mei Tai carrier. When she is having a rough day I just slide her in and off we go. I am able to get stuff done around the house while is she being comforted by the closeness to me. When we travel I feel safer having her strapped to me in a busy airport. She feels more confidant at the same time in her familiar place. It also helps me to nurse a little more discretely in public.
Is one year enough? Am I going to keep on cloth diapering, babywear and nursing? I'm very proud to be have gone this far and strive to continue both. I'm planning on cloth diapering until my daughter if potty trained. I will nurse my daughter until she decides she no longer needs it or I have to quite for a medical reason. I will continue to wear my child until she is to big.
How long did you nurse, babywear, and/or cloth diaper? Did you quite to early? Go to long?
Did you watch Suze Orman on Oprah? I did! She did have a few good ideas but most of the advice was not worth the time.
Here is my 2 cents:
Paying for college- There was a couple who lost half their kid's college savings in the stock market. Suze's advice was to roll the funds that are left to the older child and then have their younger son take out a subsized loan in his name for them to pay back. That was her goal to keep their kids from getting college debt. Hum... Sounds like she pretty effectively put the younger one deeply in debt. Batting .500, Suze.
Pay minimum or not on cards- Well, I'm not sure what she wanted you to do because at first she said to only pay the minumim while you snow ball on the largest interest rate card. Then she said to help your FICO score to pay MORE then the min. on all your cards. Which one is it?FICO Score- Can you say, worship FICO? What more can I say? But what else would you expect from a personal finance advisor who's in-bed with FICO and busy peddling her 'fix yer FICO' kit. Maybe She's a tad confused about what is really important.
Credit Cards- She told a lady with issues with over spending to NOT close any of her 21 credit cards because it will effect her FICO score negatively. I just wonder what would be worse, her maxing them out again, someone stealing her inactive card numbers, or a few less opened unused credit lines? Nothing says 'out of touch' like enabling an adict, Suze.
5 Step Financial Action Plan- How many steps? The five steps where five different action plans. I personally was confused by all the different disjointed plans she talked about. That is scary since I'm one of the few people who actually has their financial act together.
I always try to listen with an open mind. Not all of Suze Orman's advise was bad. She did have a few good tidbits.
Here they are:
If you read my recent article about toys and cloth diapers disappearing from the U.S. then you might have already received the email below. Please, take the time to read the email and take action! Our kids deserve a greener future!
What: We need your vote again at Change.org!
How: Vote here
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia
When: Now!
Thank you so much for your support of the Handmade Toy Alliance. Our membership numbers continue to grow and we have been receiving many positive press responses. We have issued letters to the Consumer Protection Safety Commission, responding to the agencies requests for comments on the CPSIA. Many of us have contacted our Congress People, hoping for their support in changing the law.
Currently, we are in the running to have our issue presented to President-elect Obama, but we need your help to make this happen. Please vote to save small businesses from the CPSIA at www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia.
The Handmade Toy Alliance remains grateful to all of you, your trust in our products and your ability to work with us to make a positive change in this legislation.
Maybe you've heard, the economy is suffering a bit. Actually, it's quite bad out there, and the retail sector is taking quite the beating. In fact, with consumer confidence dwindling, even gift card sales were off this year as many feared that certain retailers may not survive, leaving them high and dry. Not that any of the big guys have folded.
I've read in the past year, many folks bemoaning that 'negotiation is dead' and that this is 'the age of no negotiation'. Well, it was. I'd even experienced this at Sears, where they flat out told me that store policy was to not to do so.
Hit the link to see why I think that negotiation is making a comeback.
On a recent trip to one of the big boxes, we were shopping for some products for our bathroom remodel (remuddle, as a friend puts it). We had found some tile we liked at a different store, and wanted to see what they had. The team leader in flooring was helping us out, but not finding what we were looking for. Still she was being a bit odd about it. As if not wanting to tell us that they could not help us.
After a few minutes, she finally came clean. Here's the jist of what she had to say:
Yeah, it was all we could do to keep our jaws off the floor. We were still awe struck by this exchange hours later. Would they really come down that much?? But I think I've figured out why this is happening - supply and demand.
Stay with me here - I'm no economist, but I think I've got something here. In the first half of this decade, retailers saw a huge boon. They saw growth on top of enormous growth, and acted like it would never end. Demand was huge and thus the retailer was king. Consumer friendly policies - like negotiation, easy returns and exchanges - died off. They didn't need your business, Miss Thrifty Pants, because the drunk on debt idiot behing you will gladly pay full price since it's just going on the credit card anyways.
But those days are done. The bubble has soundly burst. Now it's the retailers who can't seem to catch a break. The charts have swung in our favor and now demand is dying. For you real estate folks, this is what you'd call a 'buyer's market'.
I'm calling it now: Negotiation is back - power to the people.
Go give it a try. Do some shopping at the big boxes and make it no secret that you've been shopping around. See if they don't work a little harder for your business.
Most people dread January since it is the month all the large Christmas bills come due. There is nothing quite like the buzz kill of maxed out credit cards, blizzards and the lack of sunlight that is January for most families.
However, we are no orderinary family December was wonderful and so will January. No credit card hangovers for us this year! Here is the recap of December and our lovely plans for January.
December's Budget Recap:
January Budget:
2009 Financial Goals:
Did you go over budget in December? Are you dreading the January credit card buzz kill? Or are you still riding high like us?
As I've been surfing the blogsphere today I've seen lots of great posts on everyone's personal resolutions for the new year. I have to admit I'm not one for making New Year's Resolutions. Not sure why, but that is just me. So that is my list of the 3G's for New Year! On the surface they seem do able, but we will see how long they last. What are your resolutions? Feel free to leave a link to your 2009 list of resolutions if you posted them on your blog.
This year I do have a few small resolutions I'm hoping I can carry through the year and beyond.
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