Put yourself in your budget

 👀SERIOUSLY!!👀

💰💸Do you want to save some money or not?

You have to start somewhere, so why not start today?  

You have 11 months to get this started. 

If you’re struggling at all to pull any amount together by June, August, December for insurance, taxes, Christmas etc then this is for you.  I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years and it’s a great start to budgeting if you don’t already budget. 

You just have to have the bank set up a separate account (my credit union does this for free) and have them automatically deposit the amount you need by the end of the year divided by 12. So if you needed $10,500 to pay these bills then you would have them transfer $875/month to that savings on what we date you select.  This becomes a monthly bill. 

Can you pay insurance monthly?  Of course you can. But they charge you more. Did you know you can get a pretty steep discount to pay semi annually or annually?  This is HOW you do it!

You’re paying YOU first AND earning a little interest on the money AND not accidentally spending it and then accumulating credit card debt because you don’t have all this cash by these dates. 

Try it today. Call the bank today. You will never look back once you start. 

Lid drawer madness

 Our lid drawer is always a mess.  I think most people have one if you have leftovers. I, so often, have to toss every single lid out onto the floor to find one single, smaller, lid.  So when I saw this item on Amazon I had to try it. It’s now been a bit of time and our drawer still looks neat. The larger kids in the back and the smaller ones in the organizer where we can FIND them!  Success.  You can find this awesome, inexpensive, product here

#affiliate

Cleaning is your peace

 

Cleaning gives me a sense of control and peace. 

Cleaning and reorganizing is a FREE way to make you feel better. It always makes me feel better. And you can do little bits at a time. One cabinet at a time. 

I found one container I had leftover after cleaning out another zone and used it to help organize the small things in this one. 

Let’s face it. Everyone’s cabinet above the fridge is where things go to hide and you to forget. 

Cleaning it out gave me the opportunity to throw things away, sell things and make it look neat again. And now I know exactly what’s up there again. And, well, it gave me a reason to wipe the top of the fridge off. 

Try it. Just one zone at a time

🔥declutter

🔥sell

🔥clean 

🔥repurpose

On sale now…pantry organization

 These are an awesome deal right now. Click here for vertical pantry storage containers  Check these contained out at the link or via my Pinterest saves. I have had these for several months and really love them and I paid $10 more than the sale price right now. Grab things when they go down in price for once!!

#affiliate

Real deal in tax filing

 I officially dumped TaxAct. I switched all of us over to FreeTaxUSA. My daughters both filed for free, my middle son filed for free and we paid $14.99 total to file our state and federal taxes with all of the education credit documentation etc. The free version even allowed for my daughter to file a 1099B and my son filed his federal and two different states for nothing.  All because their incomes are under $41,000.  

Remember to use the link in last nights post to the MO Department of Revenue and then link from there. It will not be totally free without that link. 

File taxes for FREE in Missouri

 If you’re on a budget or just money conscious you’re always looking for a coupon or deal, right?  Taxes are no different. 

I have used TaxAct for years, religiously.  I’ve even had my kids use it. Now, I generally have to pay a fee but they give out discounts every December via email and you just have to log in to get them and they will be effective at tax time.  If something goes wrong and it doesn’t get applied simply call them and they will refund you the difference.  The kids’ taxes have mostly been simple enough to qualify for the free versions.

But this year my 17 year old had to file since she made just enough earned income and unearned (from an old custodial account) combined that she was required to. Last year she didn’t pay any taxes and didn’t make enough at her job so we did not have her file. This year, we knew she wouldn’t owe and she only stood to get $4 back between state and federal but she was required to file and filing the forms required for a 1099B for her investments, though small, meant TaxAct would charge her about $70. Umm what?  No. 

I set out to either do her taxes manually or find somewhere to file for free. Low and behold when I looked for a way to file the state side for free Missouri had links. Please keep in mind if you don’t use these links you could be charged for the state filing even though they all do federal for free. 

I chose FreeTaxUSA and it took all of 15 minutes to fill out her employee info, 1099B gains and 1099INT info. It even allowed us to e-file for her for free. It literally didn’t cost a dime. And she paid the state what she owed electronically. 

Now, I think it would cost us because of HSA and other things but I’m going to seriously look into using them before I file. I mean if they’re less expensive than TaxAct and they have a fixed state return fee really could be worth it. 

On a side note:  Even if your child only has earned income of less than the requirement to file, if they paid taxes from their checks they will get it all back. HAVE THEM FILE 

👇🏼Here’s the link to those free tax filing web sites:

https://dor.mo.gov/taxation/individual/tax-types/income/vendors.html

Save money….eat leftovers

 We try to make really large anoints of food that we can reinvent into something else when we have 3 or more of the kids home.  And barbecue beef sandwiches with coleslaw are a hit and then the next day we make homemade queso (real cheese etc) and finish the beef. And we need lots for that because they eat DO much!!  

But today, I ate a leftover sandwich but wasn’t feeling the slaw.  I found a half an avocado that was going to go bad and some tzatziki sauce that I actually made over the weekend with leftover cucumber kimchi.  This was an AWESOME sandwich  as in I’m going to have to introduce the whole family to this one and tzatziki sauce goes so far!

Enjoy and save money.

#moneysavingtips #savemoneywithleftovers #savemoney #eatathome