Hello! I got way behind in my reader this week. That never happens! But I dropped the class that was taking up so much time. I think I need to take it in person rather than online. In the meantime I’m taking the prerequisite again since I took it in 1997 and seem to have forgotten pretty much everything. So I’m way less stressed out now. I should be back on a regular schedule again soon.

And I wanted to mention that I participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance over at Broke Grad Student.

But on to the roundup…

PF Bloggers:

Get Rich or Die Trying started documenting his journey to provide for his family.

No Debt Plan got hit with a late fee and finance charges on his credit card.

Our Fourpence Worth has a recipe for some fast and frugal pizza toast.

Around the Blogshpere:

No Credit Needed gave a graphical depiction of the debt snowball. So if you are getting out of debt and have never heard of or don’t understand the debt snowball check it out.

Think Your Way To Wealth also wrote about debt reduction with a step by step guide to getting out of debt.

Ron Haynes from the Wisdom Journal has a guest post over at Frugal Dad about clutter control.

This is a guest post from “Bruce the tax guy”. He writes over at The Tax Guy and graciously sent over this guest post to help me out while I get my school schedule adjusted. I hope you enjoy!

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Why save records?

Now what follows pertains to tax returns but in my opinion should be used towards all records that are of importance.

Once you file your tax return is there any reason to save the records? The answer is usually wrong by most filers. Save them. How long is somewhat dependent and I will cover as I go on.

Mainly you want to save these records so you can substantiate the information on your tax return if you need to. Just because a year has passed, doesn’t mean you are in the clear. The IRS is carefully (my opinion) several years behind. I just finished with a tax payer who had the IRS after him for a return from 7 years ago. (The IRS wants their money.) So you could get an audit letter from years back. I tell most people to keep their records for at least 7 years. Those who have a business I tell them 10 years and if they have incorporated I suggest never getting rid of them.

As for your prior year returns, some states require even longer periods so if you are unsure check your state. The minimum is three years. It is advisable to keep them longer if reported transactions might affect future years.

Again, most Audits occur within three years of filling the return. After that period has past, check receipts to see if they fall into some other area that would require you to save them even longer.

If you have business records, you can dispose of most receipts dealing with operational expenses. So long as they don’t fall under a statute of limitations. However to verify the cost of future sales, retain receipts that relate to property that you still have/own. It is commonly suggested to keep your payroll records for a minimum of four years, I tell my clients 7. Now if your business produces an overall loss on the tax return, the loss is either carried forward or backward depending on your situation so save the return and records showing the calculations creating the carryover.

A few short tips:
o Save mileage logs, motel bills and meal receipts for the 3 year period
o Truckers keep your log books for the three years
o Keep you closing papers from the sale of your home, 3 years
o Fixing your home or adding on, keep these records for 3 years after sale of home
o Year end brokerage statements, 3 years
o IRA contributions and/or distribution records, forever (nondeductible contributions are particularly important.

While the most common statute of limitations is three years from the filing of the return (always assume no matter when you filed that you filed on the last day of the filing season unless it was late then use the late date of October 15th, whatever year). Of course the return that was never filed has no statute of limitations.
The statute of limitations is six years on returns where income has been understated by 25% or more.

As the big tax history person/geek that I am, saving your returns indefinitely may provide good historical information not to mention providing substantiation.

Today is my husband’s birthday! Happy Birthday Honey! So I slaved over a cold stove and made him an ice cream cake. Mmmm. If you go to an ice cream shop they can cost as much as $40! I’m sorry, but $40 is just too much to pay for ice cream and cookies. So when I saw this recipe in a magazine last month I knew I had to give it a shot. As you can see, my chocolate drizzle ended up more like a glop, but hey, chocolate is chocolate right? I doubt anyone will complain.  It ended up costing $12.63. Which is significantly less than buying it.

Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (.90)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (.34)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (.01)

3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (.75)

Filling:

1 cup heavy whipping cream (1.63)

2 cups bitter sweet chocolate chips (1.98)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (.02)

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream or 1 1/2 (1.75 quarts) cartons ($5)

24 soft chocolate chip cookies, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, divided. ($2)

Heat oven to 325. Combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and cinnamon in medium bowl until crumbs are moistened; stir in mini chocolate chips. Press into bottom of 13×9 inch baking pan. Bake 6 minutes until set. Cool completely on wire rack.

Meanwhile, heat cream in medium saucepan over medium heat until hot and steamy. Remove from heat; add bittersweet chocolate chips. let stand 1 minute; stir until melted smooth. Stir in vanilla. Cool to room temp, about 20 mins.

Place ice cream in fridge for 20 minutes or until slightly soft. Spread half of the ice cream over crust; quickly spread with spatula to level. (Ashley here: I had lots of trouble with this part. I got impatient with the ice cream and didn’t wait for it to be soft enough. It has to be pretty soft before you can spread it with a spatula. If this gives you trouble just keep in mind that ice cream and cookies taste good, even if they aren’t in perfect layers.) Sprinkles half of the cookies over ice cream. Quickly spoon 1 1/4 cups of the chocolate sauce over cookies and ice cream; spread with spatula to cover. Freeze 15 minutes to firm sauce.

Quickly spread remaining ice cream over sauce. Sprinkle with remaining cookies; drizzle with remaining sauce. (If necessary warm sauce in microwave to loosen)

Freeze 2 hours to firm sauce. Wrap tightly; freeze over night or up to 1 week. Place in fridge for 20-30 minutes before serving to soften slightly. Cut with warm knife. Store in freezer.

Related Posts:

Cinnamon Donut Muffins

Grandma’s Oatmeal Cookies

Lemon Raspberry Muffins

Just quick note to let everyone know that I have a guest post up over at Being Frugal.  I wrote about my financial fears and what I’m doing about them.   Please check it out and leave a comment or write a post about your own financial fears.

I don’t have a “real” post today.  Sorry.  I was right in my concerns about how much time I was going to be spending on school.  It has taken up every spare minute that I’m not taking care of my kids.  Hopefully once I get in the groove it will go a little easier.    The fact that I took the prerequisites for these classes 11 years ago is killing me.  I’m having to relearn everything I’m supposed to know already.  So you can see how that is taking forever.  But hopefully once all those dormant brain cells are fired up I will be able to spend less time on school and more time on my blog.

If anyone wants to write a guest post for me that would be great. I would really appreciate it.

While I have your attention I might as well fit in some Mommy brags:

My daughter had her first day of Cheer yesterday and loved it.  She was so excited.  She drew two little pom poms on the calendar to mark the day.  lol.  So it looks like it’s going to be worth the $55.  They learned a little cheer already.  Super cute!

AND… I don’t think I will have to buy another pack of diapers.  EVER.  How awesome is that?  I have that huge pack I bought from Costco and that should more than enough to last us.  My son is only wearing one diaper a day now and we have about 100 diapers or more left.  This is going to save us about $30 a month.  wohoo!!

Owning a home is part of the American dream. Unfortunately, most of us end up financing that dream. Signing those mortgage papers is a sobering experience. You sign and sign a seemingly endless stack of papers, and when you’re done you feel like you just signed your life away. But you can feel better about the experience if you know you have made the right choices when it comes to that mortgage.

You will feel good about taking on those big house payments if you’re confident you can afford them. When you start thinking seriously about buying you should adjust your budget so that you are making pretend payments to yourself. If you expect to have a mortgage payment of $1200 and you’re currently renting for $800 a month then put the extra $400 in savings. Don’t forget about higher utilities, water, city bills, landscaping, ect. This will give you a chance to see exactly how this new budget will feel, as well as beefing up your down payment. While you are saving up your down payment make sure you pull a credit report and look for errors. This way you will have time to fix any mistakes before you go loan shopping.

And when you are figuring out how much those mortgage payments will be don’t forget about taxes and insurance. They are easy to forget about. Ask around and see how much people are paying in your area. Also, if the home you are buying is in an association, don’t forget about those dues.

In a perfect world you want to put down at least 20%. Anything less and you will have to pay Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI), which increases the cost of your loan. The exact amount you will pay for PMI will vary depending on how close you get to the 20% goal. The more you put down the less your PMI will cost. If you have less than 20% down and want to avoid PMI you can take a home equity loan, which you then use for a down payment on the mortgage. This is called “piggybacking”. For example, let’s say you are buying a home for $200,000 and have $30,000 to put down. You can avoid PMI by taking a home equity loan for the needed $10,000. You will then have a primary mortgage of $160,000 and an equity loan for $10,000. Run the numbers of each scenario to see which option is best for you.

The interest rate and term are probably of next concern. I highly recommend a fixed rate. We’ve all seen what can happen when people bank on variable rates. Get a fixed rate with payments you know you can afford and you won’t be up at night worrying. Thirty years is the standard term for a mortgage, but think about your age when making a decision. Most people will want to have their home paid off before they retire. So if you have less than 30 working years left, you might want to consider a shorter term.

Don’t forget the closing costs. They can vary widely and can really take bite out of your down payment. Ask the person handling your loan what the expected closing costs will be and shop around if you don’t like the answer. You don’t want any nasty surprises on closing day.

Pic by: Sister 72’s

I’m falling in love! It all started with a wandering trip through Costco. I’m sure I was there for milk or something when my eye caught site of him, Mr. Elliptical. I just fell in love with all his calorie burning goodness. So pretty yet so powerful. At first I would go down his aisle at every Costco trip, just to say “hi”. Then I realized I was thinking about him even when I wasn’t at Costco. I yearned to spend some quality time with him while my son napped. I would fantasize about ways we could be together. And that’s when I knew I had to break up with Mr. Elliptical before things got too serious. But I guess he missed me, because he moved out to an end cap shortly afterwards. Then I couldn’t avoid his stares. His calls. His quick target toning and power incline ramp. It’s just too much. I don’t know how much longer I can resist!

The problem is that I am currently seeing other items. I just recently got out of a fling with some bedroom furniture. I’ve been promising a mattress that we would get together just as soon I can. And I have been avoiding Mr. Grand Canyon Trip all summer long. I’m sure I will have to return his calls before winter.

So what is a girl to do?

I can’t possibly save up enough to meet the demands of all my beaus. I’m hoping that Mr. Elliptical finds someone else soon. His promises of happiness are hard to ignore. I just don’t know if I can trust him. If I knew that he would make good on all his promises I might just have to succumb to desire. But I’m afraid that he will become aloof and unavailable once he moves in. More interested in collecting dust than being the powerhouse I know he his.

Yay. We have winner for the Go Green Live Rich book giveaway.

And the winner is….. Tiffany from We like money. Congrats Tiffany!! I’ve sent you an email.

I had 63 entries and used an online random number generator to pick a winner. I know that was the longest contest in the history of book giveaways. I really wanted to give the book away when I was done with it and I just figured this would be a good way to give it to someone who was interested. Thanks for your patience.

Another week gone by.  I can’t believe it.  I start school on Monday.  I’m taking two classes from my local community college online.  I hope they go well.  I’m kinda nervous about how much time they are going to take up.

But here is my Roundup for this week….

PF Bloggers:

Get Rich or Die Trying listed Dave Ramsey’s extended baby steps.

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds talks about stay at home wives.  Make sure to leave a comment and tell her what you think.

No Debt Plan discusses grass and how to save on watering it.

From my reader:

Frugal Dad says never to put credit card debt before the mortgage.  I couldn’t agree more.  Let the creditors call!  At least you have a home where they can call you.

Mrs. Micah talks about what her parents taught her about money.

My Two Dollars gives some ways to save money on prescriptions.

No Credit Needed announced the first strategy in a series to remain debt free.  Hey once you get debt free, you want to make sure you stay there.

I talked about the $196 I paid to get my daughter ready for school. I wish that was the end of the school expenses. I just paid another $195 for after school activities for this semester.

Last year she participated in an after school art program called Young Rembrandts that she just loved. It was absolutely her favorite part of school last year. So I would really like to keep her involved with it. I think art is an important part of life, it’s really something that you can alway have as part of your life no matter what. I like that it’s something you can do alone. So when you are feeling bored and lonely you can head upstairs and draw. And it’s an outlet for your emotions, which can be especially important when you’re growing up. (Yes, the pic is one of her drawings from class, apparently she was feeling a bit frustrated with me. lol.) That costs $140 for 12 one hour lessons.

Then my neighbor called and said she was putting her daughter into Cheer. My daughter loves her daughter and I really have intended to get her into Cheer so I went ahead and signed her up for that too. I think they will really like to be in an activity together. They could be really good friends. Plus I would like to get her into a physical activity. So that costs $55 for 6 one hour lessons.

I might sign her up for something next semester, I might not. I haven’t decided yet. I’m sure she will want to do the drawing class again. But it’s so expensive, I’ll have to see how it goes.

Related Posts:

Saying no to your kids

Chores and allowance

Teaching kids about savings