Say No to Refunds!
It’s that time of year again - TAX TIME. YEAY! You probably haven’t even looked at your taxes yet, have you?
If you’re banking on getting a refund, maybe it’s time to rethink that mentality. Here’s how I like to think of refunds. Basically, the government’s holding on to your money all year and then at the end of the year, says:
“Ok, here’s your money that we used this past year, but too bad for you, your cash didn’t earn you any interest back. Oh well, your loss.”
So, really, it sounds backwards, but you want to cheer when you don’t get a refund because that means you’ve kept your money and earned interest on it.
Sure, interest on most saving products right now is down, but still you could get 1-2 percent back on your investment. While it’s not a ton of money, it’s still better than the $0 extra the government will give you with your refund.
We all know the government could use some extra money right about now, but couldn’t you, too?
Now is as good a time as ever to go to your HR person and ask to adjust your tax withholding. It’s not hard to do. You just have to fill out a W-4 form. That way, next year, you can keep your money for yourself and even make some (from interest) on your own savings.
Contributed by: LitterLady
Cure Your Retail Hangover
We’ve all been there: gotten up in the morning and thought “What have I done?” But the excess that’s hurting you isn’t from drinking too much, it’s from spending too much.
If you find yourself suffering from a retail hangover, here are some Do’s and Don’ts to help you get back on track. Read more…
No Storybook Ending for Real-Life Shopaholics
If you’re heading out this weekend to watch the heroine of the feature film Confessions of a Shopaholic spend her way through life, it might remind you of some of your past or present purchases. These days, almost no one is free from regret about bad shopping purchases. With the economy as it is and rising unemployment, you’re probably feeling extra regretful.
If your spending mistakes are even nearly as bad as the fictitious Becky Bloomwood’s, you might have a serious shopping problem. Here are some warning signs:
Do you:
- buy things you want without thinking about whether you can afford them at the moment?
- buy things often to cheer yourself up or reward yourself?
- struggle paying your bills because you always seem to be living on the financial edge?
- tend to keep buying more of your favorite things even if you don’t have a specific need for them?
- feel intensely deprived, angry or upset if you have to put off buying something you really want?
- turn excessively to credit cards to buy wanted items?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, the National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®) — the nonprofit foundation that brought you Spendster — suggests you start gaining control of obsessive spending immediately, either through professional help, group therapy like Debtors Anonymous, or on your own. Start with our 10 tips for maintaining constructive financial behaviors.
Contributed by: LitterLady
A Spendster Resolution
Happy New Year, Spendsters! (And you know who you are) It’s resolution time. To keep things easy, you just need one for 2009: Manage your finances! Read more…
Buying Gadgets and Doodads
Now’s a great time to get that gadget your boyfriend/girlfriend/significant other/cat Fluffy has been hinting at for months.
Of course, before you go on a spending spree because of the so-cheap-therefore- must-have-it sales, look at your income and expenses this month and see what you can afford to pay. It’ll be hard, but it’s better for your bank account if you stick to that amount. Read more…
The Present of Choice
What do you get for those hard-to-figure-out people, the ones who have everything they could possibly want and yet you have to think of something cool, thoughtful, and unique to give them? In the past, the easy answer was gift cards.
But, gift cards could become a Spendster’s nightmare. Read more…
Will that be Cash or Clutter?
Isn’t it fun when you pull out a pair of jeans you haven’t worn in a while and you find a few bucks tucked away in a pocket? Wouldn’t it be great if that could happen more often?
It can. Read more…
Add the Spendster badge to your page!
Attention Shoppers!
(Don’t forget your checklist)
When I first took flying lessons, my instructor taught me about the pre-flight checklist. You check everything about your airplane before take-off. As my instructor pointed out, “When you get into trouble at 25,000 feet, you can’t pull over to the side of the road.”
Lesson learned. Read more…
Hey Big Spendster
Are you a Spendster? Maybe a definition is in order. A Spendster is someone, who in a moment of weakness buys something they think they really need and realize later they made a bad choice.
Don’t worry. There’s a little Spendster in all but the most frugal of people. Ebenezer Scrooge wasn’t a Spendster. And look at the tough lesson he learned. Read more…
I realized all my mistakes when I cleaned my house when I was moving out. I’ve learned a valuable lesson.
The wastefulness finally hit me when our credit card debt hit $13,000 and our discover card was maxed out. I took a look around and realized that I had nothing to show for it. I would have to spend years struggling to pay it back, yet I had nothing worthy to show for it.
As your site points out, had I invested that 13,000 dollars, I would have well more than 4 times that today.
A couple of years ago, I rented a pressure washer for $75 to clean my backyard deck. Then, right after I returned the pressure washer, I went and bought one for $400. It’s still in the box!
As with anything that we buy but don’t use, like the pressure washer or a treadmill, its not that we have to use it, but more that we CAN use it, should we so choose.
As in “I can use this treadmill anytime I want. I just choose to hang clothes on it.”
I just took a look around my art studio (really a spare room in our house) and was totally shocked to see how much expensive stuff I had that was literally covered with dust and un-used….i am talking hundreds if not a thousand dollars worth…
The most irresponsible spending of which I am guilty is the purchase of a video. I have quite the taste for obscure or hard-to-find movies. One of them is “Night of the Lepus,” a B-rate horror/science fiction film about giant killer rabbits.
This movie was hard to find at the time of my purchase. In fact, I had to bid on it through a major online auction site (hint, hint). The video cassette (yes, cassette) was listed with an opening bid of $9.00. I bid $10.00. Another person bid $40.00. I bid $60.00. The other person bid $80.00. I bid $90.00. The opponent’s final bid was $100.00. I bid $102.00. With shipping, I paid a total of $109.50! About six months later the movie was re-released on DVD for $20.00 at my local video store.
That episode in my life is an EXAMPLE of years of poor spending habits. The irony is that I now am a brother living in a religious community under a vow of poverty. Thus, I no longer am faced with the temptations of such stupidity.
You do not have to go as far as I have to experience bad spending habits. And, you do not have to go as far as I have to avoid them. Prudence in spending is a true virtue to be cultivated. And if worse comes to worse, keep reminding yourself that you probably do not want what it is you are trying to buy. The reality is, most of the time, you just want to buy something to feel better. If so, you could be looking at a larger issue under the surface of a bad habit.
As soon as I throw something away I need it. But I have a rule. If I haven’t touched it in 3 years it get donated. No matter what. Tools are a small exception depending on the nature and the size of the tool.
Look at my blog and see if there is free software to do what would normally pay for. Maybe you can recoupe some of that lost cash.
Donate your time and you will spend less time shopping.
I have a lil bit of trouble with spending - for example this Christmas is gonna be a biggie—
I have to do my shopping early because its cheaper NOW then it is LATER and I dont want to get the presents in January when the gifts are 70% off…
of course I can always give it to them next Christmas if I do that, i guess its lotto tickets this year.
Mmmmmm…..this is actually old news to us folks who live within our means. We have already been doing this for years. I completely financed my eating out and beer money in grad school selling old books on Amazon, and now I pay my cell phone bill and Starbucks addiction with the same good habits of knowing how to make money from good old stuff.
Your 9% APR credit card calculator seem a bit off.