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Apr 18, 2007    |       7 comments

I Won a Contest!

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No, I didn’t happen to win at Blingo and I didn’t win the lottery, but I think the prize I won will end up being more valuable than a wad of cash in my hand or an LCD TV in my living room.

The contest was straight forward. You had to to write down one thing that you wished for and why (up to $25) and had to name your favorite post at that blog. So, what did I wish for? Here’s the comment I left:

“I wish for the Money Savvy Piggy Bank for my son (http://www.msgen.com/prod/assembled/money_savvy_pig.html).

The best actions I am taking to ensure a better financial future for our family are paying off our debt aggressively and learning how to live a balanced life of spending less than we earn.

Since the Money Savvy Pig is for my son, I would like to work with him with it so he can learn the value of saving and investing at an early age (he’s 5). So far, I’ve read nothing but positive results about this piggy bank.

My favorite post is probably no surprise to anyone: “How I Killed My Debt and What I Learned From It”“

True to his word, the blogger offered to purchase the Money Savvy Piggy Bank and ship it to me, or he could send $25 to my PayPal account to cover it. I chose to have the money sent via PayPal and I finalized the order tonight. I ended up purchasing it through Toys R Us because the shipping was a little bit cheaper than through the company that makes the piggy banks. As a bonus, I was able to sign up for Google checkout and get $10 off my order.

It’s only fitting that the money left over (almost $15.00) will be the seed money for my son’s piggy bank. When the piggy bank comes in the mail, I will explain to him what each chamber is for and hopefully it will spark his interest in saving money.

Thank you Golbguru from Money, Matter and More Musings for the contest! 🙂

Apr 17, 2007    |       8 comments

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!

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