Money, Love, and Change

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The benefits of Viral Linking:

1. One of the fastest ways to see your Technorati Authority explode!

2. Increase your Google PageRank fast

3. Attract large volume of new traffic to your site

4. Build your community

5. Make new friends!

I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. Thanks to Stephan Miller who brought me to this. You have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes let’s hope a long list!) It’s real easy! Tag others and see your Technorati Authority increase exponentially!

And these are the people who already took part on this tag:Blognation, Pinoytek, Reyna, Bluep, Kotsengkuba, Buraot, Iris, Banco De Reyna, Manilenya, Mitch, Melai, Malen, Beng, Sasha, Foolsville, Lloyd Lopez, Hulag, Stephan Miller, Money, Love, and Change

I tagged these bloggers:

• Hey, it’s Jake
• Homeschooling Four
• MoneyBites
• Timothy Adam Designs
• Frugal Shopping with Julie

Tax refunds are like steaks – everyone likes them different.  Some people like theirs well-done, and blow their huge tax refund on crap they don’t need.  Others like theirs rare – they see no reason to give Uncle Sam a free loan.  Someday, if both my husband and I have a more predictable income, I would also like our tax refund to be rare, but not to the point that it sends us to the hospital (ie.  penalty and interest fees).

This year, I am content to see that our taxes are more of a medium-rare affair.  I haven’t finished them completely, but it appears that we will be getting a medium-sized federal refund.  At first glance, it would appear that this is not so good.  However, we’ll be using this refund to pay our local taxes (state taxes are going to break even), and should have just a little bit left over when all is said and done (hence, medium-rare).

Overall, I am ok with this.  I was the lucky recipient of 5 W-2’s in 2007 in addition to having  2 business entities.  My income has been unpredictable to say the least, so I’m a little relieved to know that I wasn’t totally out in left field with the taxes.  In fact, I think that I am becoming more of a tax connoisseur with each passing year.  I took a tax course at H&R Block at the end of 2006 (that’s where one of my W-2’s from 2007 came from), and it was one of the best things I have ever done.  The books alone were worth the $100 fee for the class.  I was also fortunate in that I had a really great instructor.

I did consult with an accountant this year for a couple of questions I had when setting up my LLC (Limited Liability Corporation).  While it’s nice to have professional advice, I have always done our taxes, and I think that it is really useful to have a decent understanding of how taxes work.  I would  not say that I enjoy doing taxes, but I do like understanding where a lot of our money is going as well as  legally funneling some of that money back into our pockets!

What about you – how do you do your taxes?  Do you fire up the grill yourself or go to a restaurant?  How do you like your tax refund?

photo credit: Manuel.A.69

A friend of mine sent me a link to a site with a 20-minute video called “The Story of Stuff” with Annie Leonard. It took me over 3 months to follow the link an get around to watching it, being that if I don’t do something right away, it takes me awhile to get to it.

I’d highly recommend watching it, and sending it along to others (who hopefully get around to things before I do!). Here is a short excerpt from the website regarding what “The Story of Stuff” is about:

“From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.”

I do think that some of the ideas are oversimplified, and that Annie Leonard’s tone sounds a little too preachy.  However, the message is clear, and some of the statistics really make you think!

I liked it enough to send along to a number of my friends, some of whom aren’t quite so frugal and environmentally-friendly. Perhaps it will influence them to start taking small steps to changing their lifestyle.

If you take the time to watch this video, please let me know what you think. If you follow the link and decide not to watch the video, I would be interested to know why!

I feel like February and March kind of flew by.  I know that I have been sick, but I also feel like I have been busy.  The problem is that I am not sure exactly what I was busy with.  There’s all the daily things that have to do with life in general, but this is the first time in awhile where the fruits of my labor are not really tangible.

This is why I’ve decided that it is time to set some general goals for April.   It’s going to be more like a long list, but I need to start somewhere, so here goes!

1. Get taxes done.  I bet that I get this one done before the end of the month!
2. Figure out general game plan for the finances.
3. Get a job?!
4. Decide what do to about kid’s preschool.  This is kind of a big deal – it seems so weird to deal with this months ahead of time, but that’s life these days!
5. Blog development
   1. Get more on About Me page.
   2. Approach for Entrecard – I have some new ideas on this one.
   3. I really want to start reviewing some books and products (I’ve been really impressed with my kid’s Brio trains, for example).  I’m not really trying to sell anything, but would like to share some of my personal recommendations without being too forward.
   4. Get ahead on posts.  I really want to have some content written ahead of time so that I can post on a more regular schedule.
6.  Simplify more – we’re working hard on this one.  I really need to make more of an effort in the “getting rid of crap” department.  Our problem is that we want to recycle as much as possible (ie. sell on Ebay, get rid of on Freecycle, etc.), but these things take time and effort.  Time to buck up!
7. Spend some real quality time with family on the weekends – we’re not traveling this month (to my knowledge), and we’ve spent the past couple of weekends sick or just trying to catch up.  I want to make a little list of places we can go hiking in the local area, and maybe even go camping one weekend!

What are some of your goals for April?  Whether it is personal or professional, I think it is always good to be moving towards something.  When I finished school in January, such a large weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  I think that I deserved a little break, but now I need to regain some focus.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

With the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables on the rise, my husband and I have thought about purchasing a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription.  For a set price, and sometimes volunteer work on the farm, you receive produce on (usually) a weekly basis during the harvests.  The produce is sometimes organic as well, which is a huge plus for us since we prefer to eat organic when it is available.

For more information on what a CSA is, please visit http://www.localharvest.org/csa.jsp.  To look for CSA farms in your area, take a look at http://www.localharvest.org/csa/.  There are a couple of local farms in our area, and although they are a little expensive, it seems like you get a lot of variety and a lot of food.  I think that for this year we are going to make more of an effort to visit the farmer’s market and a couple of farmer’s stands, but we may put this in the budget for next year – during this time I would like to learn more about some of the vegetables I haven’t heard of!

Are you part of a CSA?  If so, I would love to hear about your experience.  Would you consider joining a CSA?  Why or why not?

Ok – I know this is kind of off-topic, but please bear with me for a moment.  I am a fairly healthy person – I eat well (with the exception of the occasional Oreo!), exercise to some extent (honestly, not as much in the winter,  but that always changes in the spring), and maintain a healthy weight (I could probably stand to gain some weight, but have always had high metabolism).  I was sick last week – just a minor cold, but enough to prevent me from posting a lot.  I felt better by Friday.

By Sunday night, I was feeling crappy again.  What gives?

I think that I have finally figured it out.  I just can’t sleep for 8 hours at a time anymore, but I need about 8 hours of sleep to function.  On my current schedule, I tend to work on things at night when there is peace in the house and I can focus.  I end up going to bed around 2am, sleeping until 7am when my son gets up, and then napping when he naps.  By the middle of the week, I am usually taking 1 hour cat naps when my husband gets home.  By the end of the week I am completely drained.

This bad habit started when I was pregnant – I couldn’t sleep at night because of the rock star in my tummy.  I would sleep on the train ride to work, and then coming home.  When I stopped working, I was pretty much up all night (with my rock star tummy) and slept during the day.

Things didn’t change after having the kid for obvious reasons.  I was nursing, so I dealt with all the middle of the night feedings (also, my husband was also looking for another job at the time, and had enough stress to deal with).  Now that our son is on a normal sleep schedule, I need to get on one too.

Not only is my current sleep schedule unhealthy, but my son isn’t going to nap forever.  I’m going to start making an effort to change my habits.  Please bear with me for another week or so while I try this little experiment out.  If you have any suggestions, I’d greatly appreciate them!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter.  I hope that you can find as much to be thankful for as I am – family, friends, a roof over your head, etc.

We’ve “hidden” a couple of eggs while the kid is napping – I can’t wait to see how he is this year!

I have a confession to make.  This weekend, we splurged and picked up some potato chips and Oreo cookies at the grocery store.  They were real Oreos (not generic), and for the record they were absolutely delicious.   Both cookies and chips are an extremely rare find in our household – neither my husband and I really watch our weight (thankfully, we are both at a healthy weight), but we usually keep all junk food out of the house and only have healthy snacks (granola bars, yogurt, etc.).

After the kid went to bed, we pulled out the junk food and decided to settle down with a movie.  We went to hulu.com and decided to watch K-Pax.  I wouldn’t recommend K-Pax (Jeff Bridges will always be The Dude), but we were pretty satisfied with our viewing experience.

If you haven’t checked it out, I would recommend giving it a try.  Hulu is a site that has both tv shows and movies from a variety of networks and content providers.  There are some great movies (Big Lebowski) as well as both new (Arrested Development) and classic (Fantasy Island, anyone?) tv shows.  All of the content can be viewed for free, although there are commercials.

The video stream with Hulu was continuous, without any problems at all during the 2 hour movie.  We had a Netflix subscription when they first started streaming video, and the connection was horrible (and therefore extremely annoying) most of the time.  The only downside with Hulu was that the commercials got annoying in the middle of the movie, but the spots were under 30 seconds long.  My husband and I agreed that it was acceptable, but only because it was free.

Have you tried Hulu?  What do you think?  Do you recommend any other sites that are similar in nature?

I was talking to my friend the other day about bringing down their household costs, and he mentioned that their family cell phone plan cost $90 a month.  This is just for he and his wife.  They are on a network plan where they can talk to other members of their family for free (ie. their parents, sisters, brothers, etc.).  However, I was still amazed at the cost.

My husband and I each have a cell phone from Virgin Mobile, and they are pay-as-you-go phones.   At a minimum, it costs us $160 a year to keep these phones in service, and last year we spent $200 total.  For our needs, I think that this is pretty reasonable.

What do we use them for?  When we travel, we tend to use the phones to contact family and friends.  Traveling is the only time that we really spend time on the cell phones.  Other than that, we both travel with them in the car (in case of an emergency), and we occasionally call each other.  Replacement phones are usually $10 or less since neither of us need any of the latest phones.

I honestly don’t think that the added “convenience” is worth the cost of a cell phone.  I understand that there are people who need them for work, but other than that I am not sure of why someone would pay the extra money.  I am still amazed by the number of parents I see who are ignoring their children while babbling on their phone – what kind of message does that send?

What about you – what is your cell phone life like?  Why?  Would you consider simplifying when your current plan is up?

We are currently using Vonage for our local and long distance calls from home, but we are always looking for ways to save money. I was checking out this post at BudgetCents.net, and have ordered a free 30-day trial from magicJack. Our current local and long distance bill is about $30 per month – if magicJack works out, we would end up paying $40 per year (this is for the first year – it is then $20 each subsequent year).  That would be a savings of about $320 per year!

Basically, you plug one end of the magicJack device into a USB port, and then your landline phone into the other end. This works out for us, as we have one laptop that sits in our bedroom for our processor-heavy tasks such as video editing and music conversions. We’ve also had our issues with Vonage throughout the years, with less-than-stellar reception at times and the inability to receive our voicemail messages in a timely manner.

I am really glad that there is a 30-day trial, and will post again once I receive it and check it out.

What do you think? Would you find this useful if it works? How much would you save?