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2006 Taxes Done and I am Squared Away With the IRS for 2006

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Yesterday I sent out over $800 to pay for 2006 taxes. I thought it was going to be closer to $900 when I first estimated but I think it’s safe to say that rushing and using an old calculator doesn’t mix. I have no idea where I came up with some of the numbers that were there. Thank goodness for computers!

I was originally going to file with TurboTax by Intuit. I’ve used them before, and have been pretty happy with them. I went through the whole procedure that was supposed to be free only to find out that it wasn’t! They decided because I hit the Deduction Finder button (but quickly backed up because I knew I didn’t need it), they were going to charge me extra for that. After reading their help section, I found out there is no way to undo it. Sheesh.

So, I looked into TaxCut by H&R Block. I’ve never used it, but I know others do and like it. Upon looking, they had the return for free as well so I started inputting everything again. When I got to the end, it was still free and the tax amount owed was the same as it was with TurboTax so that was that. TaxCut was the winner this year and I will likely use them again next year.

I only did the federal return through the program and then printed it to mail. The state return for Michigan actually is pretty straightforward for the basic return so I went ahead and did that one myself to save some money (the state return is not free through TaxCut or TurboTax). I assembled everything, checked it a gazillion times and gave the envelopes to my husband to mail. I told him to mail them certified.

He came back home and I saw the receipts and wondered why it didn’t cost that much to mail them. I didn’t have my husband request certified mail with return receipt! Doh! Oh well. I get frazzled and I start forgetting things.

I made an important realization this year. Although I usually love doing my taxes, I only love doing them when I get a refund. Next year I am tempted to let an accountant do them and save myself the headache of trying to read and learn about everything.  I should also hopefully be able to avoid costly errors like with my 2005 return.

One thing marked off my to-do list! Yay! There’s many more to go. I think it’s time I wrote a to-do list down on here again to help push me to get things done!

Getting Coupons for the Products That You Actually Use

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Some years ago, I used to buy the Sunday paper for the Detroit area in order to get the coupon inserts. After looking through the coupons, it was a really good day if I found 5 or more coupons that I could use. After a while, I quit buying the paper because I didn’t save enough money with coupons to justify purchasing the paper. Well, it turns out there may be a way to get coupons for the products that you use!

Thanks to this article in the Dollar Stretcher, I am going to try contacting the companies that make the brands that we like to buy. Email will be my method of contacting them and I will write a short email thanking them for their product and then asking if they have any coupons available.

The woman who wrote the article for the Dollar Stretcher had great success. Out of 74 email and phone contacts made, she received coupons from 51 of the companies. Not too shabby for taking a few minutes to send a quick email.

I am so intrigued by all this, that I am going to give it a shot. There are definitely a few brands that we love that sometimes go on sale. Use the coupons when the product is on sale and you can save big bucks!

Now for an update, you may remember that a while ago I mentioned that the company that holds some of my debt was having a promotion for a tasty treat that you could receive by referring people to the company. Since I blogged about my entire experience with them, I decided to email them to see if I could qualify for the tasty treat, which was actually so unlikely of me to do. I finally told myself, “What harm could I do by trying?”

Well, almost two weeks later I haven’t even received a response. Sort of a bummer they didn’t even reply. Oh well…I tried 😉