From the monthly archives:

February 2009

Post-tax refund savings breakdown

by Karen on February 7, 2009

I just finished filing our 2008 tax return using TurboTax Home & Business since I had to report a little freelance income for 2008. (If you’re not reporting freelance income, I suggest using TurboTax Deluxe.) The software costs about $40 on Amazon, but it makes it simple to do your taxes yourself. In my opinion, [...]

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TGIF Round Up: Recession anxiety edition

by Karen on February 6, 2009

With all of the terrible financial news lately, it’s been getting harder and harder to stay upbeat. I’m taking all of the steps I can to ensure our financial security (we eliminated our credit card debt, we’re spending as little as we can, and we’re saving as much as possible). I also have no reason [...]

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Having fun with a limited entertainment budget

by Karen on February 5, 2009

Lately I’ve been struggling with my ho-hum routine. It’s not that I’m not busy. It’s just that I’m so busy, that the only way I can get everything done is to stick to a pretty strict routine. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for excitement. On top of that, our recent (and exciting!) decision [...]

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Organizing my finances electronically

by Karen on February 4, 2009

Everyone has a different method for paying bills and keeping track of spending. For a long time, I struggled to find the right method for me. I used to track spending with my online banking system, but that didn’t allow me to create a budget. I was constantly looking at my balance and mentally subtracting [...]

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Thoughts from a first time investor

by Karen on February 3, 2009

At the beginning of the month, we started contributing to Roth IRAs. We were both so excited to be getting our retirement savings started. Now about a month later our accounts are already down $1.60. No, that’s not a lot, but when you only have $100 they don’t have far to fall. My point isn’t [...]

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Menu Plan – 1/31-2/6

by Karen on February 2, 2009

We had a lovely and relaxing Super Bowl Sunday … even though it didn’t involve the Super Bowl. Aside from my husband flipping over to check the score every now and then, we didn’t watch it. Instead we spent the afternoon at a local history museum for free admission day. Because of the Super Bowl, [...]

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The results of my search for low-priced contact lenses

by Karen on February 1, 2009

I agreed to let my optometrist write my prescription for newer lenses instead of the older ones I’ve been using. I like that the new ones are monthly instead of bi-weekly lenses. I also found they were more comfortable than my old lenses, and the office assured me that they would end up costing roughly [...]

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