Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Things I Did Not Do Tonight
1.) Watch Lost.
2.) Refrain from eating a bowl of ice cream, despite 4 lb. weight gain since my last Dr. appt. 2 weeks ago
3.) Walk my dog. (POOR GUY)
4.) Have an anxiety attack about the creeper who exposed himself to the neighbor kids. (That was last night (the anxiety attack)) (And OMG. Am beyond distraught over this news. Those poor kids. I'd like to personally castrate the man. And I truly won't be able to sleep soundly for a good few weeks, I'm guessing.) (P.S. I do not live in a shady area whatsoever, so this really took the wind out of me... esp. being prego.)
5.) Fart. That was the dog. I swear!
So, it turns out... the best way for me to get some "decorate my house" motivation is to have a crap-ton of people over! Since I live in the middle of the state, and my family is on the east side, Nick's on the east, it was decided that my house would be as good a place as any to have a bebe shower.
Once that was decided... well, let's just say that my white walls are no longer white. We FINALLY got rid of hideous gold/brass light fixtures that just tortured my soul endlessly for almost 2 years, and hung up some stuff/scored some cheap duds at Home Goods. Nothing fancy, but better than nothing! Last weekend was one of those weekends where we were non-stop working on the house. Once it was all said and done with, I finally "got it" - why people work on their house. Quite rewarding, I must say!
Kinda side-bar story: my co-worker's house was ruined in a fire. He just bolted from work early last week, popped his head in our Manager's office and said "gotta run, my house is on fire!" He's a fairly young guy, early-to-mid-30s, maybe? He has 2 young boys, about 3 and 7. The older boy was devastated that his bike was ruined. We all pitched in a bought them a shiny new Schwinn. When my co-worker brought in his boys on Friday so we could "surprise" them with the bikes (the 7 yr old totes spotted the bike in one of those offices that has half-glass door) - it was the most heartwarming thing I've witnessed in a long time. The 7 yr old kept talking about how his new bike "has a kickstand!!!!!!" It truly is the little things, right?
(How was that a side-bar story? you might ask. Well, I heard that my co-worker has spent a lot of time on his house, had put in a lot of elbow grease, blood-sweat-and-tears sort of thing. And after this weekend, I couldn't help to think of how devastating it would be to not only lose your house, but to lose all of that time/effort/etc. you had put into it. Okay, I've digressed far enough...)
Where to next?
Uh, taxes. Taxes. Oh taxes. Nick and I typically claim zero exemptions. Not for any particular reason, but mostly because we're not super stellar at saving money, so if we claimed the amount of exemptions that would make us break-even at the end of the year, then that extra money (extra meaning the difference from claiming zero) would just go towards an extra dinner out per week, or a new x-box game, or a trip to Target. While some people are OK with this, and prefer this ("I get my money, what is mine, each paycheck, instead of giving an interest-free loan to the government!") - I like getting this extra money in the spring. It kind of feels like bonus money. Like, "Here, get a new fridge!" Or, "buy yourself some new windows so you don't spend $410 to heat your house in the winter!") (BTW: "HEAT" used very liberally... as I don't consider spending $410 to "heat" my house to 65 degrees quite worth it...)
Anyhow... so when I got all of our W2's gathered in a nice, neat stack, I went to town with TurboTax.
Except, um, TurboTax? Please tell me that decimal place should be one place to the right. Because $250????? EFF ME. I was expecting no less than $2500. Holy hell, we spent $11k on mortgage interest alone last year!
After taking a closer look at our W2's, I think that maybe Nick's work wasn't taking out as much tax as they should have. He claimed 0 exemptions the whole year, but they took about 50% less taxes in 2009 than in 2008. I don't claim to understand who/what/where/when/why of taxes. But it turns out that Nick got "what he was supposed to get" in his paycheck all year long.
At least we don't have to pay! But - ugh. In a few weeks here, I'm going to be out of work for 12 weeks. That $250 refund won't go so far... and I was planning on using our tax return to soften the blow of me not working for 12 weeks. (Getting partial pay for 6 weeks, granted, but zero pay for six weeks.)
At the end of the day, though, what really matter? I have a BOMB ASS husband, a perfect dog, and I will soon have a daughter! A real, live daughter! WHOA WTF. I am pretty sure I will read back on this post and say "who gives a shit" about taxes and such nonsense.
After seeing that cute kid get geeked about a kickstand... really helped me put things in perspective.
2.) Refrain from eating a bowl of ice cream, despite 4 lb. weight gain since my last Dr. appt. 2 weeks ago
3.) Walk my dog. (POOR GUY)
4.) Have an anxiety attack about the creeper who exposed himself to the neighbor kids. (That was last night (the anxiety attack)) (And OMG. Am beyond distraught over this news. Those poor kids. I'd like to personally castrate the man. And I truly won't be able to sleep soundly for a good few weeks, I'm guessing.) (P.S. I do not live in a shady area whatsoever, so this really took the wind out of me... esp. being prego.)
5.) Fart. That was the dog. I swear!
So, it turns out... the best way for me to get some "decorate my house" motivation is to have a crap-ton of people over! Since I live in the middle of the state, and my family is on the east side, Nick's on the east, it was decided that my house would be as good a place as any to have a bebe shower.
Once that was decided... well, let's just say that my white walls are no longer white. We FINALLY got rid of hideous gold/brass light fixtures that just tortured my soul endlessly for almost 2 years, and hung up some stuff/scored some cheap duds at Home Goods. Nothing fancy, but better than nothing! Last weekend was one of those weekends where we were non-stop working on the house. Once it was all said and done with, I finally "got it" - why people work on their house. Quite rewarding, I must say!
Kinda side-bar story: my co-worker's house was ruined in a fire. He just bolted from work early last week, popped his head in our Manager's office and said "gotta run, my house is on fire!" He's a fairly young guy, early-to-mid-30s, maybe? He has 2 young boys, about 3 and 7. The older boy was devastated that his bike was ruined. We all pitched in a bought them a shiny new Schwinn. When my co-worker brought in his boys on Friday so we could "surprise" them with the bikes (the 7 yr old totes spotted the bike in one of those offices that has half-glass door) - it was the most heartwarming thing I've witnessed in a long time. The 7 yr old kept talking about how his new bike "has a kickstand!!!!!!" It truly is the little things, right?
(How was that a side-bar story? you might ask. Well, I heard that my co-worker has spent a lot of time on his house, had put in a lot of elbow grease, blood-sweat-and-tears sort of thing. And after this weekend, I couldn't help to think of how devastating it would be to not only lose your house, but to lose all of that time/effort/etc. you had put into it. Okay, I've digressed far enough...)
Where to next?
Uh, taxes. Taxes. Oh taxes. Nick and I typically claim zero exemptions. Not for any particular reason, but mostly because we're not super stellar at saving money, so if we claimed the amount of exemptions that would make us break-even at the end of the year, then that extra money (extra meaning the difference from claiming zero) would just go towards an extra dinner out per week, or a new x-box game, or a trip to Target. While some people are OK with this, and prefer this ("I get my money, what is mine, each paycheck, instead of giving an interest-free loan to the government!") - I like getting this extra money in the spring. It kind of feels like bonus money. Like, "Here, get a new fridge!" Or, "buy yourself some new windows so you don't spend $410 to heat your house in the winter!") (BTW: "HEAT" used very liberally... as I don't consider spending $410 to "heat" my house to 65 degrees quite worth it...)
Anyhow... so when I got all of our W2's gathered in a nice, neat stack, I went to town with TurboTax.
Except, um, TurboTax? Please tell me that decimal place should be one place to the right. Because $250????? EFF ME. I was expecting no less than $2500. Holy hell, we spent $11k on mortgage interest alone last year!
After taking a closer look at our W2's, I think that maybe Nick's work wasn't taking out as much tax as they should have. He claimed 0 exemptions the whole year, but they took about 50% less taxes in 2009 than in 2008. I don't claim to understand who/what/where/when/why of taxes. But it turns out that Nick got "what he was supposed to get" in his paycheck all year long.
At least we don't have to pay! But - ugh. In a few weeks here, I'm going to be out of work for 12 weeks. That $250 refund won't go so far... and I was planning on using our tax return to soften the blow of me not working for 12 weeks. (Getting partial pay for 6 weeks, granted, but zero pay for six weeks.)
At the end of the day, though, what really matter? I have a BOMB ASS husband, a perfect dog, and I will soon have a daughter! A real, live daughter! WHOA WTF. I am pretty sure I will read back on this post and say "who gives a shit" about taxes and such nonsense.
After seeing that cute kid get geeked about a kickstand... really helped me put things in perspective.
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