Okay, lets see a show of hands, who out there doesn’t know about the tax rebate/stimulus thing? Anyone? So that’s good. Okay, who doesn’t know that you need to file a return to get it? Oh, just a couple folks who didn’t file a return last year either, like people living on social security, or veterans benefits. Okay, so the IRS is going to spend $42 million sending those people letters. Wait, what’s that you say? The $42 million is for the IRS to send letter to people who are already filing taxes every year? What about the vets and SS folks? Oh, maybe you’ll send them a letter later, but that amount isn’t included in the total. Hmmm…why doesn’t this make any sense? Oh, right, it’s the government.
Archive for March, 2008
$42 million seems like a bunch
Monday, March 10th, 2008What is it with the spam comments?
Sunday, March 9th, 2008I guess I understand the zillion spam comments I get about things like nudie pics and pharmaceuticals. Things that people want to buy anonymously on the internet and that have a huge markup after the initial investment. But why am I getting comment spam for cat beds? I think I have ten since yesterday. Do that many people buy cat beds on the internet that you would spam my tiny little blog?
Keep up with the Joneses when grocery shopping
Thursday, March 6th, 2008Normally I try not to care what other people think of me. Sometimes this is easier than other times, but it’s always best to do what you need/want to do, rather than what other people want you to do (or worse what you think other people want you to do).
But this year I’m trying to eat a little healthier. And the other day in the grocery store I started looking at my cart like someone else would. Since veggies and fruit are at the beginning of the store, my cart started out looking healthy. Then as I went through the store I evaluated items (like a giant bag of candy) by how they would look in the cart next to all those vegetables. I think I stopped a few impulse purchases of junk food that way.
On the other hand, I bought falafel mix for the first time, so I probably spent more than usual. But baked falafels are good and I haven’t had them in a while. Cheaper than meat anyway. I’ll have to try this method of shopping for a month and see how the grocery spending changes.
So maybe it’s not frugal, but it is healthy. There’s probably not much difference in cost-per-serving in buying sugary margarita mix and tequila vs. red wine, but I can at least pretend the glass of wine with dinner is healthy.
Electric Orange thoughts
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008After using ING’s Electric Orange account for a bit (since the Netbank debacle last fall) I figured I’d share my thoughts.
The website is relatively easy to use, though sometimes it takes me an extra click or two to find a feature. The billpay works great, I like that it reminds you what you paid last time when you are setting up the next payment. It’s quite easy to have multiple accounts and change the nicknames on those accounts (”emergency fund”, “vacation”, etc). It’s easy to set up recurring transfers from one account to another. All these are great features for saving and paying bills.
Now the downside: no checks. This isn’t a big deal if you’re paying VISA for example. You put your account number in the little box and click “pay”, and VISA handles it quite nicely. But I live in a relatively small town. When you get your water bill it doesn’t have a return envelope. You’re expected to take the two part form down to town hall where there is one clerk and have her take your check and stamp one half of the form as your receipt. I suppose mailing a check is acceptable, but the water department doesn’t have account numbers, just name/addresses, so I don’t know what I’d put for account number (can I fit my whole name/address in that box?) nor do I know what they’d do with the billpay at town hall.
So, to make my life easier (hah), I now have two checking accounts. One is Electric Orange and the other is a local account with real checks (but no interest). It makes it easy to deposit checks and cash, and to write checks for occasional things like the quarterly water bill or the handwritten renewal notice for a local magazine. I can transfer money to/from Electric Orange using ING’s system.
One other interesting thing that has turned up is the difference in overpaying my mortgage. I have a standard first mortgage and then a second mortgage which is technically a home equity loan (I got it at the closing, and it has a 30 year amortization). Both are with the same company. Both have tickets you’re supposed to send in with the check indicating the amount of the check that’s for “current payment”, “principal”, and “late fees”. But those tickets are different and go to different places. And when I overpay my primary mortgage using the E.O. billpay they apply the overage (without a ticket to guide them) to the principal.
When I overpay the second mortgage, they apply it to the next payment. It took a while for me to discover this, but my last bill from them showed my next payment due in August. In other words, the amount I’ve overpaid in the last six months is equal to the payments for April, May, June and July. Oops. Anyway, to make a principal-only payment, I have to send a letter asking them to apply the enclosed check to principal, and send it to different address. Hard to enclose a letter with billpay. So I’ll be using my local account for that as well.