this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

It's tax time, and as soon as we received all of our necessary documents The Tall One sat down to work on our taxes.  We itemize our deductions, because that works for us, and when he got to medical expenses, he called me over to help.  I pulled out all of our medical related receipts and started adding.  TTO was impressed that I already had everything separated into the necessary sub-categories.  Last year, I realized that would be a simple enough thing to do and it would make it easier when tax time rolled around again.  What I failed to do, however, was actually keep all the receipts.  We knew there wasn't a receipt for everything, but we only wanted to report the expenses that we had a receipt for, you know, in case of an audit.  Turns out we couldn't account for enough to take any deduction in that area.  Bummer. 

Later that night, TTO informed that we were a measly $3 short.  Three dollars!  If I would have known that I would have looked harder for stray receipts!  But it's in the past now and there's not a whole lot we can do.  Sure, we could file an amended return, but that would be more trouble than it's worth, especially since I'm pretty sure I wouldn't find a stray receipt.  Too many just got lost before I had a chance to file them away.

Moral of the story?  Keep those receipts, you never know if it will amount to enough to take a tax deduction!
photo by x_jamesmorris 

I wonder how many people still keep their checkbooks balanced.

Credit cards, online bill pay, and online banking in general might be sending checkbooks the way of the dodo.  When I used my debit card a lot, I had to keep track of my spending in order to avoid running out of money there.  With a credit card, you don't really need to worry about that and it's certainly easy to know when you're out of cash.  But regardless of what method you use to spend your money,  it's important to have a method of keeping track of what you spend.

The Tall One and I are some of those nut cases that keep track of all their expenses manually.  This means we enter each and every purchase and transaction into Quicken. I like this because I know where my money goes.  It helps me stay on track.  Sometimes, I'll get behind when it comes to entering my receipts.  When this happens, I'm often surprised at how much I've spent in a certain area.  I try and keep a running budget total in my head, and it can be more accurate when I frequently manually enter in receipts.

I'm guessing the other choice for us would be to download all our transactions from our bank and credit cards (and this would be the bulk of our monthly transactions) straight into Quicken.  We've done it before, but I don't like it.  Aside from the fact that I feel like manually entering them helps us keep track of things, I like making sure everything is correct, that the numbers coming from the credit card match the numbers on our receipts.

It can be hard to keep up with everything manually, especially when we spend cash.  We have a misc. category that we use sometimes when we don't know where some money went.  Overall, though, we've gotten pretty good at holding onto receipts.

So, that's what works for me, what works for you? How do you keep track of what you spend?

Probably not.

In the immediate future, at least.

I had this post planned for Friday, and honestly it would have been a completely different post on that day.  If I were to hold off for a few days, it's probably be different yet again.

Just a refresher, we took our car in for some routine maintenance only to find out that it really needed about $2000 worth of additional work on it.

This is our "family car", the car I drive and drag the kids around town in.  It currently fits our two children quite well.  This summer, after the new baby is born, it will need to fit three carseats.  Which it will just fine, but I'm sure that will get old fast.  Therefore, we were originally planning on replacing the car sometime next year.

But after finding out it needed so much work, we started looking to replace it now.  So now, after much looking and test driving, we know what we want.  But it looks like finding what we want at the price we want to pay will be difficult.  At one point we thought we had it, but it was just barely out of reach.  So now we are leaning towards the original plan.

What changed our minds?  For me, I realized that a big chunk of that $2000 is for new tires.  We know the car needs new tires, we've been planning on getting them.  So really, we can't count that towards what the car "needs".  We were planning on that expense regardless. 

At first, it seemed ridiculous to pay so much to fix a car that we were only going to keep for another 18 months tops.  But now, we're thinking that fixing it, and then saving up some more money for a new car and essentially returning to plan A.  It may not totally make financial sense, but we feel good about it.  Today at least. 

With the beginning of a new year, people are perhaps looking for new ways to save money.  One such way could be by joining a warehouse club, such as Costco or Sam's Club.  There are varying opinions as to whether or not these clubs can actually save money.  Though we are lucky enough to get our Costco membership for free through my father's business, I imagine that even if we factored in the cost of a membership, it would still be a good deal for us.

Here are some things we are able to save on:

Cheese: I've been buying the five pound bags of shredded cheese at Costco forever, I keep it in the freezer, so there's no worrying about it spoiling too quickly. The cost comes to between $2 and $3 a pound, depending on the current market price for cheese apparently.  This is half of what I'd pay for cheese at the grocery store.

Pancake Mix: A ten pound bag of just-add-water pancake mix costs around $5.  It makes lots of pancakes, and we eat lots of pancakes (we go through one of these in about a month's time).  A few years ago, we priced it out and decided this was cheaper than making them from scratch.  Since then, the price of milk and flour has risen much more than the price of this mix, so I figure we're still good.

Bread: You have to buy  two loaves at once, but considering the fact that if the four of  us all eat a sandwich, one loaf is nearly gone, we can easily go through two loaves.  The two loaf pack costs about  $1 more than buying just one loaf at the grocery store.

Dish and Landry Detergent and Dryer Sheets:  The Costco brand costs exactly the same as our local grocery store's brand, but since I can get twice as much at Costco, (and I like it more!) I prefer to buy it there.  The same thing goes for the laundry detergent I use.  During my last Costco trip, I decided to try out the Costco brand (a great deal, price-wise), I haven't started using it though.  The dryer sheets are a great deal as well.

Plastic Wrap:  I purchased a two pack of plastic wrap (1500 sq. feet total) at Costco about two year ago and have not had to purchase plastic wrap since.

Liquid Soap Refills: About the same as you'd pay at Target, you just get a whole lot more.

Those are the items I regularly purchase at Costco.  I occasionally purchase other things depending on our needs (purchasing lunch meat there was a great bargain when lots of family came to visit!), but I'm always careful to do a price comparison.  I also seem to be very focused in my shopping and rarely let other things that aren't on my list tempt me!

What about you?  Do warehouse clubs save you money?

I remember watching Monkey climb up our stairs for the first time.  When he reached the top, he had the biggest smile I'd ever seen across his face.  He was so pleased with himself.  I remember thinking how such a small thing for me was such a huge accomplishment for him.

Too often, it seems like the small goals are overlooked.  People would rather just reach for the stars when really reaching for the roof first would be beneficial.  The small goals take us there, though.  Cutting a few dollars a week from your grocery bill or going to sleep just a few minutes earlier each night might be small things (and perhaps laughable to others), but they can make a huge difference in the long run.  After all, you can't very easily make it to the top of the staircase if there are no steps in between.

Keep in mind the small steps you can take to reach your bigger goals.  If nothing else, achieving these smaller goals can make you happy, which can go a long way towards helping you reach your bigger goals.

I had a really good day today and I've been trying to figure out what made it so great -  you know, so I can reproduce it another day.

It wasn't a great day because it started out that way.
It wasn't a great day because we spent a lot of money (we didn't spend a dime*).
It wasn't a great day because my kids were perfectly behaved (they weren't).
It wasn't a great day because the house was perfectly clean (though it did stay relatively neat).
It wasn't a great day because we did something fabulous (we stayed home all day and did normal stuff).

I did, however, spend time with the kids, plus I allowed some time for myself, and for my housekeeping duties.

I guess today I just found the perfect combination.

What works for you?  What makes your day great?

*The Tall One did have to get his tire repaired after driving over a nail, but even this unexpected expense didn't take away from my good day, how awesome is that?

With the economy going south, many people are trying to pinch pennies where they can.  I know for us, groceries is often a great category to try and save a buck or two each month.  Earlier this week, Frugal Dad wrote about how he predicts that as a result of Americans trying to save money in this area, they will end up overweight. This does seem likely to happen, because many people think that eating healthy just costs too much, but I don't think it has to.

We don't spend a whole lot on groceries.  I don't buy organic or a lot of fresh produce because it can be expensive.  I also don't buy a lot of pre-packaged convenience food or junk food because, get this, it can be expensive.  My family's diet isn't super healthy, but it's not horrible either, there certainly is room for improvement.  But I attribute most of it to laziness and not lack of funds.  Here are a few ways that my family eats semi-healthy without spending a fortune.

• I stock up on canned veggies and fruit, and frozen veggies.  Not as good fresh, but better than nothing.  That way when the fresh produce is more than I would like to pay (or looks as if it's been sitting on the shelf for too long, which is actually more often the case) I have something for us to eat.  I always peruse the produce section because you never know when something might be at a good price.  But here's where the laziness comes in.  Sometimes I just don't get around to even opening a can of corn, so we eat our spaghetti with out a side dish.  I have also been known to forget about the spinach or zucchini in the fridge and end up having to throw it out. 
• I cook from scratch.  Sometimes this is harder than other times.  But I like to keep a few quick meals in my repertoire for nights when I'd rather do a little less cooking.  Spaghetti or sandwiches are quick and easy and still easy on the waistline.  This doesn't mean we never go for convenience.  Macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets serve as occasional lunch time fare for my boys, (especially when we are out of bread) but I do make the homemade variety every now and again.  Though it really isn't as good as the canned stuff.  We make our own spaghetti sauce using tomato sauce and herbs.  It saves us a lot of money though.  I also make cookies and other treats, though Oreos do occasionally make it into my shopping cart.
• I take advantage of leftovers. The Tall One takes them for lunch and I'll often try and reinvent them for another meal.  
• We drink juice (the 100% juice variety) instead of soda.  It probably does cost more than the soda, but it's healthier.

I'm lucky enough to live in a place where milk goes on sale a lot.  I can normally pick up a gallon for $2.50 or less.  If it isn't on sale one week, I'll try and stretch out our milk for another week to wait for another sale.  This frees up money for other things.  Try and find a staple that seems to often go on sale and buy it only on sale if you can.

My ultimate thought is, next time you throw a bag of potato chips into your shopping cart, remember that several apples cost about the same.

What are your thoughts?  Do you think it costs you a lot more to eat healthy, or do you just have to make smarter shopping choices?

Every weekend, I post a tried and true recipe (for my family at least) that has ten or less ingredients. Follow this link for more under 10 recipes


For Christmas gifts, we gave The Tall One's co-workers the dry ingredients for this soup layered in a mason jar.  But you can skip the jar and just make a tasty soup.

2 tbsp. chicken bouillon granules
2 tbsp. dried onion flakes
1/2 cup shell macaroni
1/3 cup pearl barley
1/4 cup long grain rice
1/2 tbsp. garlic
1/2 tsp. ground pepper
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 cup cooked chicken

Pour all ingredients (except the chicken) into a large pot along with 8 cups of water.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer for 20 minutes (or longer if your rice or barley requires it).  Add chicken and simmer for about 10 minutes more. 

I hear of many people who think that just because they do not own an iPod, they have no use for iTunes. That is definitely not the case!

The Tall One and I have been avid iTunes users long before we owned an iPod (and before we owned a  Mac).  It was a quick and easy way to purchase individual songs we wanted, and purchasing an entire album via iTunes was often cheaper than buying at the store.  We would download the songs to our computer and for the most part listen to them there, but it's very easy to burn the songs to a CD and listen in your car or on your home CD player.  Songs range in price from 69 to 99 cents, and albums usually start at $9.99.   You can also purchase audio books, which can be burned to a CD as well.

iTunes offers TV shows and movies for purchase, but these can only be viewed on your computer or your iPod (or your TV if you have Apple TV), you can't burn them to a DVD.

Not into purchasing?  No problem.  Each week, they offer a variety of free songs and TV shows.  We once got 3 full-length episodes of the Disney Channel series, Handy Manny, for free!  You can also access hundreds upon hundreds of podcasts, which are essentially short talk shows (sometimes with video) on any subject you can think of.  Listen to podcasts on your computer or burn them to a CD.

I'm not associated with iTunes in anyway.  I just think it's wonderful and want to get the word out to people who may not realize all they have to offer!

I had no intent of writing about this today, but life has a way of throwing curveballs now and then.  This morning we dropped our car off for some routine service and to fix a sensor that wasn't doing its job (or rather a sensor that was doing its job, just not at the correct times).  The work was done and then we were presented with a laundry list of other things that needed to be done to it, work amounting to nearly $2000. 

So now we have to decide whether to throw more money into this car, or buy a new one.  For fun (though I don't think the sales guy or his manager had much fun), we looked into what we could perhaps get should we use our current car as a trade-in and toss in some cash.  Our car currently carries some good trade-in value so, based on today's "car buying" experience, we're thinking we could easily use it plus cash for a car that we want.  But, it's always such a hard decision.

A new car would be good though, considering we are expecting baby #3 at the beginning of the summer.  Back when we needed a new carseat, I made sure to purchase a carseat that was slim enough so three carseats would fit across the back seat.  Thus a new car isn't necessary, but would certainly be nice, and it's a purchase we were looking to make within the next two years, just not right now!

On a side note, while my car was in the shop, I braved the stick shift and drove The Tall One's car to my doctor's appointment.  There were no tears or horns honking at me, so I think my fear is possibly overcome.  Too bad I didn't make it a New Year's Resolution, I'd be on a roll!

The Tall One and I have always been ones to get our TV stations via rabbit ears.  Once Tivo and DVR came into the picture, I was about ready to jump ship.  Being able to pause live TV and easily skip commercials just sounded too good to be true.

For Christmas, my in-laws gave us our very own digital video recorder (official name - Hard Disc Drive  and DVD Player/Recorder with Digital Tuner).  It's like the best part of cable with no monthly subscription fee, and I had no idea that it existed!  Because of the new DTV revolution, all you need for this nifty machine to work is a TV with video input slots (and chances are it does if you've bought it in the last decade). It has a built-in digital converter box (though you'll want an additional one if you think you might want to watch one channel and record another one).  Last week, we paused a TV show, started watching it about 15 minutes later, and then fast forwarded through all the commercials, it was great!  The recording feature is fabulous too, though it's not as intuitive as you'd get with your cable package (meaning you have to tell it exactly when to record as opposed to programming it to just record Sesame Street whenever it comes on).  Ours has more hours of recording space than we will ever need, and since it's also a DVD player, it's easy to record anything over to a DVD (well, it appears to be easy, we actually haven't done it yet). 

I love not having to worry about accidentally recording Heroes over Bug's beloved Word World or making sure there's actually a tape in the VCR.  I could also use it record to DVD my husband playing our new Wii, not that I'd want to, but I could.

It seems that there are two people in this world, those who make New Year's Resolutions and those who do not.  One argument from the later group is that goals should be made when they are needed, not postponed until a certain time of year.  I like deadlines.  I especially like forced deadlines (I tend to not be so good at making them up on my, they seem to get indefinitely postponed).  So, I like New Year's Resolutions.  It gives me a time to actually sit down and think about how I might actually accomplish the goals I've been putting off all year.  Because everyone else is doing it, after all (apparently I like peer pressure, too).