April 17, 2007
Free Ben & Jerry’s!
How did I forget to post this earlier?? It’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s! From 12pm-8pm.
family
Farewell to the best boy in the world
About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
Read MoreApril 16, 2007
Slippery Slope Confession
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
I say this every year: Next year, I’ll do my own taxes!
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?
Wine glasses and corkscrews, oh my …
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 10, 2007
Airline Snafus and the flexibility of your ticket
Zachary’s post about dropping off his wife at the airport two minutes too late to board reminded me of something.
I did sort of the same thing on my return from the Vietnam trip, except I arrived at the airport later than I should have, and missed the cutoff to check baggage while waiting in line to check said baggage. That sucked. And they wouldn’t send my baggage after me, on the next flight out either. Me and the baggage, or no go, they said. *sigh*
United wanted $100 (!!) to change my flight so that my bags could go with me, and since that was twice the fee I’d paid for the ticket in the first place, I seriously considered leaving the bags behind with BoyDucky.
Luckily, it turned out that since I was flying an award ticket, they were able to change my flight to the following morning without a fee. They may never say so officially, that I could find anyway, but award tickets are much more flexible when you’re at the airport and run into problems than a regular paid flight.
*Yes, this is the same trip wherein I had problems on the train, the outgoing flight just to get to SFO to catch the international flight, etc. etc. etc. Rather fitting, don’t you think?
Rats, screwed by the 3rd qualifying rule. Tax code, feh.
Hmph. It turns out that, despite my intense denial, the accountant is right and I can’t claim HOH status with both Pa and MaDucky as my dependents. Force of willpower can’t make him wrong, after all.
MaDucky made more than the 3,300/year income limit, and so, despite the fact that I’m pretty much paying for the entire household, I cannot claim an exemption for her. This means I could end up owing money after all. I’d artificially inflated my exemptions for the last quarter of 2006 to compensate for what I thought was overwithholding all year, but forgot to factor in my bonus and the possibility that I might not have 3 exemptions this time ’round.
Drat.
What does this mean? Well, I’ve already reduced my exemptions for this year. But, I have to try to sock away more into my retirement accounts to lower my taxable income some more in case my bonus is the same as last year’s or better.
Phooey phooey and drat. I hate it when well-laid plans go awry. It’s a good thing I never counted on a refund, though.
April 8, 2007
HAPPY EASTER! (heehee)
