The Last Couple of Days

First off my grocery shopping trip to Weis(PMITA)Markets on Friday.........


I also wanted to mention that I did use that $2 ExtraCare bucks I had that expired last Saturday March 5th.
The town College Boy goes to school in has a CVS so we swung by and use it before leaving town.
Arizona Teas were 2/$1 so we bought 4 iced teas and spent $0 OOP.

I am done with CVS now until Rite-Aid turns into a Wags. lolz


We got our tax refund on Friday.
Automatic direct bank deposits rock!
Of course our water heater has decided to give up the ghost this week so we know exactly where that windfall will be going.
ugh.
I swear the appliances around here just know when we get a little extra money, don't they?


And I hopped up to Rite-Aid this morning and did the rest of the March Pain Deals on my son's card........

After 20% wellness discount that Absorbine Jr. was $8.79($9 sale price), the Stopain was $9.59($10 sale price), the Simisan was $8.79($10 sale price)and the Vivarin was $7.99($9 sale price).  Each of these gave $9 back in Plenti Points.

I also got 2 x Irish Spring Body Wash, on sale for $6/2, used 2 x $1/1 Qs and got back $3 in Plenti Points for the purhase.

I spent down $36.40 in Plenti Points and earned $39.00 in new Plenti Points, making this transaction a $2.60 moneymaker.

I am off today to do some cleaning.  The weather is beautiful so I might just do some organizing/decluttering in the garage.  There is also a fine layer of dust(from spackle and contruction)on everything in the bedroom so I'll be having a go in there as well.

I need to pick up some things for the new bathroom(hand towels, rug/bathmat, blinds)but as my foot is painful today(pulled something on the side of the right one)I am not up to walking around stores so that can wait until next week sometime.

Hubs takes College Boy back to school tomorrow so I'll have the house to myself for awhile.  I think a nice long nap is in order then. 8-)

What are you up to this weekend?

Any plans?

Sluggy

Even If You Think You Know Everything about Doing Taxes.....

So.....when our Federal Income Tax showed up in our checking account via direct deposit a couple of weeks ago, it made me happy......

Really!....wouldn't that make anyone happy?lol

But the amount that was deposited didn't sound quite what I remembered it should have been.  So I went and got out our copy of the forms we filed and the numbers didn't match up with what we actually got back.
We got back more than we thought we would!
Hmmm....

So a few days later I received a letter in the mail from the IRS.
*Cue up the ominous music.....

After I picked my still beating heart up off of the floor, I proceeded to open the letter with trepidation, just waiting for a team of men in black suits to burst through the front door and haul we away in leg irons.
Luckily, that didn't happen.

The letter was an explanation of why we got back a refund that didn't jive with what we figured our refund was going to be.
It seems we qualified for that "Making Work Pay" Credit...line 63 on the long form if you are a tax geek.

Seeing as the government considers our income in the "rich people" range(see me slap my knee and keel over with laughter!),  I didn't even download the worksheet/form or instructions to see if we could claim this credit.  I just assumed we made too much money to apply for it.
Well, I was wrong.
Imagine that?

And my wonderful government had some diligent IRS employee recalculate our return figures and they sent us $800 more than we had expected back.

Now isn't that nice of them?
I thought so.

Moral of this story......
Even if you think you know everything about doing something, you probably don't.
It's always good to take a look at how you do things with a fresh eye.

Sluggy

Hounding Ends, March Money Totaling Beings

Here's a pic of our 2 beagles:Peanut & Cherry. The one in the back in the photo(Peanut) often uses the other beagle as a pillow, like he's doing now. They love them some napping in the sunny spot in the living room. Oh, to be an actual hound and not just a human shopping hound.

Speaking of hounds....I think this last post(the WAGS Clearance one)gets me up-to-date on Hounding trips. I know those of you who aren't 'into' this are not-so-silently saying, "FINALLY! THANK HEAVENS!!....I NEVER Thought She's FINISH!!!", right about now.

You all are just soooo amusing. ;-)

Yah, I am kinda burnt out on the Deal Seeking for awhile. I seriously need to take some time this weekend and straighten the storage of the stockpile. My freezer is also so full STILL, that I am continuing my moratorium on buying any food product that needs refridgeration, outside of milk. The freezer in the garage needs a BIGTIME defrosting so we are going to eat down what's in there until I can transfer it all into the lil' freezer on the fridge and defrost the entire unit.

And it's almost the end of the Month, which means it's almost time for

my 60K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Update for March.

I can't wait to get out the ol' abacus and start crunching those numbers and see where we stand at the quarterly mark with our savings.

Offhand, I KNOW I went way over my $250 LIMIT on grocery & stocking-up Budget.

*sigh*

The most I can hope for is that it's nowhere near Feb.'s total.

It's shaping up to be a pretty nice weekend here. We are suppose to get rain so it will be messy but the temperatures are suppose to be mild(not freezing). And the ground has already thawed out, so I'm hoping I can get the clan outside at some point to do some marking, digging, compost moving, etc. prep work for the garden.

Adding to my good mood this Friday is also......

The Direct Deposit of our TAX REFUND into our bank account!

Yay!!!!!!!

I know, it was our money to start with anyway, but I still feel like a kid in a candy shop when our beloved government pries it out of their ever-reaching long, sharp-clawed talons and gives it back to us to use however WE see fit.

Stimulus this baby!

Without revealing the exact amount, I'll just say it's a substantial enough wad to buy something like a used car....or keep Paris Hilton in chewing gum for 3 days.

I'm not sure yet how much(if any)of this wad of cash will end up being part of the 60K Savings Challenge, as my better half has not taken up this Savings Challenge with me. This is my Savings idea, but the money in this household isn't mine alone. I'll be conversing with Hubby this weekend about how this wad of cash will be allocated. He's not one to take it and go out and buy some Boy Toy(ie-read blow the money)but he did mention the word 'VACATION' in the same sentence with Tax Refund Cash.

Will update when this situation unfolds.

Gotta go make some more newspaper seedling pots and ruminate over what Vacation entails this year in Hubby's mind.

Sluggy