This is the Plan for My Taxes:

I’m meeting with an accountant Saturday and have agreed to pay him $100 to do my taxes for me. It’s a little disappointing, since I planned to use either Turbotax or H & R Block online to do it myself and save money. But a few weekends ago, I got all the way through one of the programs before I realized I had too many questions.

How can it be that my taxes could be complicated? It’s not like I own property or make an insanely high salary, I know. But even as a single female, there are a lot of extra forms to fill out and questions that they provoke. Let me explain:

1) I work two jobs, and I have freelanced = W2s and 1099-MISC.

2) Even though I didn’t sell any stocks this year, I made some dividend and interest income. More forms.

3) I was a full-time student the first half of the year. Education form.
4) I have a Roth IRA. Genuinely, I don’t know if I need to do anything about this, but I know the auto-program wanted to know about it.

Plus, the real kicker was the result of my try: it said I would get a $500+ refund for federal and owe $5 for state. For all I know this could be true, but I feel pretty unsure.

Long story short: I’m biting the bullet and trusting the professional.

Cool Link: 14 Frugal Food Ideas

Kudos to Ilene Helen Zundel for her frugal food ideas at Stretcher.com!

Among my favorites:
*Store brown sugar in a glass container in the fridge to keep it from hardening!
*Too much sugar in a recipe? Add a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar.
*You can grease a pan with a potato, if you’re out of oil. (Anyone tried this?)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

My big plans? A date with the dentist (like, literally: getting my teeth cleaned) and a fun-filled class this evening.

Hope you’re all enjoying the day even more!

The Upside of Stressful Days

I love my job because it’s challenging. The pace is fast. The workload is heavy. The demands are high.

But it’s not boring.

Most days, I feel like my time disappears from me. I go to work, and it’s time to leave again. Lately, it seems the time’s been disappearing faster, with so much to do and so little time. I’m sneaking in extra time in the morning, putzing with work stuff (by choice) on lunch, thinking about ways to improve my department while I sit in my pajamas at night. There have been a lot of frazzled moments, and, since I can be honest, I’m exhausted.

Today our shared network went down, and, without going into too many specifics, let me just say that it was not good. On top of needing to get a lot done, we had no way of recording our work in a shared location. I started using post-it notes, and some other people just gave up keeping track. There were several moments where I put my head in my hands, if you catch my drift. It’s just one example of the little glitches that make things … interesting.

It really does make things interesting, I remind myself on days like these. I mean, I’ve done the whole sit-quietly-at-a-desk-and-read-all-day thing. I’ve done boredom and clock-ticking slowness. This, if nothing else, is never that. I can count on my job to throw curve balls at me, whether it’s a complaint, a mistake or a computer malfunction. And I can count on it to keep my attention and make the time fly.

(Photo borrowed from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Sciences)

On Shopping: What I Wear & How I Wear It

Inspired by the clothing fast going on at Well-Heeled, I’ve been thinking more about what I wear. For the past three weeks, I’ve planned my outfits out ahead of time, writing out a week’s worth of choices on a 3 X 5 card that I place in my closet. I still bought two new sweaters at H & M this week and a fun dress at Target last weekend, but I have been learning a few things.

1. There are a lot of things in my closet that I never want to wear. Why is this? I can’t decide if I should give them more time, in case I find something I want to pair items with at some point, or if I should just get rid of everything I don’t love.

2. There are a lot of things in my closet that I forget about. Generally speaking, I get into a routine of a couple items I *really* like, and I wear and rewear them silly. My v-neck black sweater has worn elbows, but I still wear it weekly. This is at the expense of other things I let waste away.

Planning my outfits helps me add versatility to my outfits.

3. Quality matters. There are things I bought years and years ago that I still wear because I like them and the quality is so good. This is definitely worth it.

For All You Writers:

On Freelance Weblogging, etc.
All sorts of fantastic inspiration for fellow bloggers

50 Tools to Help You in Your Writing
Sometimes I think all a writer needs is something to get inspired. Flipping through this list of reminders! suggestions! ways to improve! is a sure-fire way to get the juices flowing.

Question:

Why do I have to pay $3.99 for a pair of nylons when they do not provide $3.99 of enjoyment?

Start Your Morning Right!

At Wellness Junction, Kavit suggests five ways to increase energy in the morning:

I’m going to start implementing Idea #1: Drink a pint glass of water first thing in the morning. He says, if you don’t like water on its own, squeeze some fresh lime into it. Add to that his post on the many values of drinking plenty of H20, and I’m inspired.

This will be easy to do since I already have tons of water and I can drink it while I’m getting ready, in addition to the Nalgene bottle I go through during my work day.

Anyone else have suggestions?

Looking for Food Inspiration?

Take a look at Tastespotting. Stunning, delicious-looking photographs taken from all over the Web.

Click on anything that looks interesting to you, and you’ll be linked to the website with a recipe and maybe a story. A-ma-zing.

Go to School for Free!

I’m a big believer in the value of school, especially because of the benefits I’ve received since graduating. However, even for people (especially writers) who can’t, don’t want or don’t need to attend college, there are online courses available for free, just for the enjoyment of learning.

Where?

Take a look at this post from Education Portal:“10 Universities Offering Free Writing Courses Online.”

We’re talking about classes from major universities like MIT and Purdue. Check it out! If you done anything like this before, I’d love to hear about it.