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Can anyone tell me if there is somewhere that I can find how much we need to put away for taxes...we never owe and the last 2 years (which has just been completed) we have owed on both of them and it looks like from last year to this year our taxes that we owed doubled...but I would like to make sure we don't owe again but not sure what to put away...is it going to go up another $1000 plus again this year...have tried irs but couldn't find it...anyone have any ideas...our income...
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I recently applied for the senior benefit access through the Illinois Council on Aging -- a renewal, actually. I've been receiving the benefit since I retired, but it has run out. To my surprise, I was denied because my income was too large! I checked my figures, and yes, I exceeded the threshhold by less than $500. It was that slight raise to Social Security last year that did it. Not the larger one this year.
Without the senior benefit, I have to pay the full price for my license...
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I have been working really hard to pay down debt and have not felt like we have made any progress, but over the last couple of weeks, we have had little bits of money come in (some bigger than others) and I have applied all of those towards our debt.
My son received a tuition reimbursement for his junior college. That was a $690 drop in the bucket! And so unexpected!
 The Husband also received a raise of just over 4% and that has made up a small shortfall we were going to...
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I had fallen behind on keeping track of fuel costs in Quicken.  So I finally went back and got that (2022) all cleaned up.  Which wasn't a big chore because I have done a good job keeping track in my blog.  But I wanted to re-calculate monthly numbers in terms of how the electric bill sorted out every month.  Like my monthly blog estimates, it's all just a rough estimate.  But I keep track of car fuel costs versus home electricity costs.
I realized that...
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I was so pleasantly surprised how low overall our taxes were last year (with MH working full year, with my raise and bonus, etc.) that I never noticed that we had graduated out of the 12% tax rate.  😵  Which also means...  No more 0% tax on investments.
Which means...  I need some time wrap my brain around that and actually think about taxes when it comes to investments.  We've been spoiled for so long.
I went back and looked more closely because I...
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begin - beginning checking account balance
pr - net payroll check
SB - my contribution towards our joint living expenses
cash - cash for expenses over the next 2 weeks
sf - automatic sinking funds transfers
roth - contribution to my Roth IRA
Citi MC - my Verizon cell phone bill and monthly Netflix subscription
CarMax - my latest attack on my car loan.  The new balance is $22,270.24
house DP - a tiny contribution towards my house down payment fund
Broad - a loan...
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I finally filed my taxes.  I am such a procrastinator.  
Just working on paying down debt and saving for retirement.
 
 
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Waiting, waiting, waiting...  Feels like absolutely anything and everything is delayed.  RA decisions were delayed, because of course.  All of these film festivals keep delaying...  & then I was thinking that I hope financial aid isn't delayed for several months again, this year.   Last year MM's internship took forever to sort out.  I am stressed about college housing (the longer we delay the harder it will be) and it would be nice to have...
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Well I did get a paycheck from my PRN job, but there was a snafu at work with processing time cards so I didn't get paid at my full-time job. No biggie. I'm actually carrying a little extra cash at the moment as I've been receiving reimbursements for planning work events. And since I got out of debt in 2021, I've kept a good amount of cash on hand.
I'll get a double paycheck on the next paycheck. I'm most concerned that they get my match on my retirement contributions correct...
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Received $116 bank interest 
Received $246 I Bond interest 
 
Snowflakes to Investments:
--Redeemed $49 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 
--Redeemed $68 cash back on Citi card
--Redeemed $3 cash back on dining out/gas card 
 
Other Snowflakes to Investments:
+ $6 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)
 
TOTAL: $126 Snowflakes to Investments
 
401k Contributions/Match:
+$955
 
Snowball to...
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So after 2 months of waiting to hear from the IRS we finally got a letter in and apparently we owe taxes for 2021 and 2022....they are also charging us as they say we never sent them in last year (which we did and we have told them this and called many times about the taxes so they can see that we called and should have notes on  the file)...it states that they need to be paid by end of march and we will be charged $45pd that they aren't paid and we had to also do an amendment...
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I'm so happy to hear that the Supreme Court has allowed the $6 billion student loan debt settlement. There's still another case pending but this is good news. 
I've been privileged enough to knock my debt down from $80k+ to just over $30k during the freeze on interest. I also consolidated my loan. I'll continue to pay and if I'm granted a forgiveness, I'll be thankful and if I don't I'll still be thankful because over the last two and a half years I accumulated no interest. 
I...
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Yesterday I got an oil change. It was $81. And I had a coupon! I also went through a car wash for $4.
Variables are now at 58%. I'm less than halfway through the month, so the spending is trending a little fast.
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My Buffy was diagnosed with lymphoma on March 9th.  She started chemotherapy on March 17th.  She had her fourth treatment this past Tuesday.  According to the vet, it is typically the fourth treatment that puts them into remission.
We will see if she is in remission on April 25th and determine how to proceed based on that morning's ultrasound results.  Either the chemotherapy will continue for another 3 months, but at increasingly spaced intervals, or the vet...
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I had my family over for lunch and games on Easter Sunday. I spent $87 on food, which I logged on the Gifts/Charity/Hosting category rather than groceries. I have lots of leftovers, so this will affect my grocery spending. I believe I will skip it tomorrow. I don't think there is anything I really need. 
I ate some leftover salad yesterday, which was already dressed and tossed. I believe it gave me diarrhea. Anyway, I had quite a time in the night. I have to learn not to...
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17 years ago today, on April 9, 2006, I started this blog.  I'm sure the time stamps will say it is April 10th since they still haven't got those sorted after several years, but it is indeed April 9, 2023.  Very few of you have been around that long or close to that long.  Fewer than that, still post consistently.  But once in a while a familiar old name will pop up.  And there have been so many new people along the way.  I miss the busy days.
I...
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Just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a Happy Easter!
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I've got a longer post planned for tomorrow, since that is a major milestone for me financially, but this morning I hit a personal milestone that I just wanted to share outside my family.  Today I hit a weight I have not seen since 2021 around this time.  In a lot of ways it reminds me of building my first emergency fund of $1000.  And then to have to spend it on an emergency and then to have to build it all over again.
To be honest, I wasn't sure I was ever going...
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Just wondering if everyone who budgets do you have seperate accounts to keep your money in say POM (peace of mind/yearly bills), ice acct, car, animals, etc or just 1 and just figure out a monthly amount that needs to go into it...so it is available when the bill comes in...seperate savings...just those that need to budget I know some of you have lots of money so not really an issue...what other things do you add in your budget? or what budget tools do you use?
on other notes...we...
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Eating out is getting really, really expensive.  Before COVID I know we ate out a lot.  Probably mostly takeout and fast food being busy.  But I can say with a certainty we were eating out 6-7 times a week.  We typically ate out Friday nights, Saturday/Sunday Lunches, and then maybe Saturday dinner, then 1-2 dinner during the week.  This was not occassionally but with regularity.
Then Covid hit and we like everyone else went to zero/cold turkey. ...
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