April 20, 2007
I was just reading TFJ’s post on his pimpmobile and admiring the rustwerks on the driver’s side.
Last week, I was struck by my coworker’s reaction to my car. Since I usually take the train to work everyday, and rarely ever talk about the details of my personal life, my car’s never come up in conversation. None of us are really car fanatics, either, so it’s a fairly low priority topic.
She drives a 5-year-old automatic Honda Accord, new to her, that her dad just bought her for Chinese New Year.
Coworker #2 drives a … manual Honda Civic that she’s had for a while.
I drive my beloved 2003 Toyota Celica that I bought new, when Pa couldn’t play Twister-car-scheduling with me anymore due to his new job in the city. Since I couldn’t convince the Padres that a new car wasn’t necessary (just because I was a girl and couldn’t do all the typical car maintenance on my own) I did my poor best to find, negotiate for and purchase a new car. Ironically, I take better care of my car than BroDucky does his.
Yes, I shouldn’t have gotten a 2-door as a 21-year-old. Yes, I overpaid by a thousand or so. Yes, I made some rookie mistakes. But I didn’t get utterly screwed: I dealt with the Fleet department who found 4.9% financing for me, which wasn’t terrible for my 3-year-old credit history, and I paid that note off in two-and-a-half years. Insurance was expensive, but I was a good student so that helped offset the increase, and I put myself back on the family’s insurance to help with that cost as well.
But, apparently, something about me doesn’t project the image of someone who’d be driving something like my car, I guess I look like someone who’d drive TFJ’s car. I think. She blurted: I can’t believe you drive that car! It’s so … zippy! And sporty! It’s a little rice rocket! (*Car’s note: my car is not a rice rocket. She is in no way “riced out” and wants the readership to know this.*)
I’m not ever had someone pre-categorize me as a particular sort of car owner before. It’s a little weird.
April 18, 2007
I found a nifty calculator that figures your take home pay after taxes with X number of exemptions and Y filing status. We were chatting on the train today about the various options my divorcing-HOH-friend -with-two-kids has to avoid over- or under-withholding throughout the year, and I think she’ll be more comfortable seeing the calculations before she makes any changes.
If you go to that page and click on the Salary Paycheck Calculator link, it’ll open a popup window with the calculator. At the very top, in the right hand corner, there’s a drop down menu that lets you select your state. Then just enter in your gross pay for a pay period (select the “pay period”, not the “annually” selection.) This seems to work pretty well!
April 17, 2007
How did I forget to post this earlier?? It’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s! From 12pm-8pm.
April 16, 2007
Rats. Rats rats rats. It’s just halfway through April and I’ve already broken my resolution. Twice. First, the nachos on Friday. Now, the burger. What next?? I was doing SO well, too!
Other than working, Saturday was spent mending a sock (hole in the toe), a tank top (the straps frayed and snapped off in the back. What the heck??), re-buttoning two pairs of pants (trying to avoid the tailor).
Then on Sunday, I cooked coconut rice at home, went to library and gathered an armload of books, and got the crew (well, a fraction of them, anyway) together last night for a movie night. I’d successfully sidestepped all hazards of spending money on going out: We went to a friend’s house, picked out a movie he already owned instead of going out to the movies (never mind that this also caters to my homebody-ness), snacked on food he already had. Ok, so that’s sort of like mooching, but not entirely.
But then they got hungry. And that there was my downfall. We went to Mimi’s and I remembered how I’d been craving a cheeseburger all week. And *bam* I spent ten bucks on a cheeseburger and baked potato. Oh, the shame! It was an awfully good cheeseburger though … even if I did forget my leftover half-potato at my friend’s house afterward. So much for making a second meal out of it.
April 13, 2007
Not five minutes ago, I scored a major triumph: the accountant completely skipped over my painstakingly compiled graph with all the pertinent details of my Federal Excise Tax Credit (darned if I was going to take their paltry $40 credit).
After walking him through the Form number and all, he recalculated with the better-than-his standard credit and found that not only do I not owe money, I’ll get a baby refund of $75. Hey, I’m not complaining, I’m just happy I don’t have to waste a check or a stamp!
Turns out, though, there was a nuance to the somewhat tangled family finances that I never uncovered in my combing of the IRS publications: MaDucky earned too much for me to claim her as a dependent as Head of Household. Because she’s married to him, and we obviously can’t both claim him as our dependent, I thought this would sink my carefully planned tax year.
It turns out that while she can file a joint return as a married individual, I can still claim his exemption on my taxes. She gets a partial benefit on her standard deduction (looks like she’s filing for 1.5 deductions) and I get the rest of it in the form of another exemption $3,300, thereby splitting the benefits of having PaDucky around. And he’ll still do her laundry. 😉
My return and her 9 W-2 forms, from working for various clients, will run us a total of $120. Oh and I get a ridiculous state refund: $1290. After the fees, I’ll be up a $1245 windfall that I didn’t expect. That means I can take about $200 off the top to pay some bills, if necessary, and throw that whole extra thousand into my house fund (or my rather depleted e-fund). Strangely, that doesn’t sound as fun as it should.
And yes, I did remember to give him my bank account number to direct deposit my refund. I’ll be watching for my fat deposit on April 27th. Oh, the joys of technology! *dancing the jig o’ triumph*
So was it worth it? Worth a whole $120? Well, I didn’t have to labor over every single number. Of course, neither did he, since he used a program – and admitted that’s why he missed my nifty non-standard credit. But was it worth not spending my hours over, and getting to just double check someone else’s work? The lazy part of me says yesyesyes! Eh, in principle I still think I should do it myself. But I’m being really lazy. It’s probably because the cost is not great enough, yet, for me to say “Oh no you din’t!” just yet.
That’s also probably because he normally discounts for us too. Last year that $120 would have been reduced to, say, $100 or $75. Next time, PaDucky can ask him for the total because I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s scared of Pa and will discount on account of not wanting to say the “real amount.” What? Is that wrong or something?
*OH!* Duh, I know where that $1000 should go! In my 2007 Roth!! Nothing’s been deposited there yet, and it’s too late to fully fund the 2006 account. Yes?
I’m officially the office birthday monkey. Last month, I made the resolution that I would never again be caught unawares and find myself searching for the funniestcardever on the night before an officemate’s birthday. Now I’ve two weeks to make reservations and purchase, wrap and otherwise conceal gifts for Little Boss’s birthday at the end of this month.
I’ve been searching the inter-webs for Riedel wine glasses of a particular shape and a really nice corkscrew with a leather case and possibly a wood box of some sort for storage. No luck on the corkscrew thus far. It’s a little weird trying to bargain hunt for “office supplies” (any number of weird things fall into that category) because Big Boss has such a specific idea of what he wants.
Normally, I would just use the office credit card to order online, except Little Boss gets the statement and I don’t want him to find out what we’re getting him before his birthday. But it seems just a little tacky to charge it on my card and then say: here, can I get a reimbursement? He’ll know what we spent anyway, but still. Just sayin’ it feels a little tacky.
April 8, 2007
