Nothing is certain but death and taxes.
This week, I’ve been gathering information for my 2004 taxes. My CPA has sent me a planner with a list of questions to answer. Now it’s my job to pull together the information from various sources.
I have a storage box under my desk. When I have a receipt, a paid bill or a deposit slip from the bank, I toss it into the box. In a good year, I might sift through the box once or twice, organizing the contents. And there are times when I ignore it for the entire year, and go through it in time for taxes. The documents for our taxes have come in earlier than usual, so it’s time to get busy and go through the box.
I sat on the floor with the box on Wednesday night and did my first shuffle. The papers were divided into several stacks: banking, paid bills, insurance, services, major purchases, mementos, and trash. Today, I worked on organizing some of the stacks. Once I’ve culled information for taxes from the stacks of papers, I’ll pull things from the Quicken program on the computer. Doctors, medicine, charitable giving, dues…all sorts of things will show up there.
It’s amazing what we learn from this activity. I have to do a little research, but I’ll be able to figure out whether Dear Husband spends more to sail, or I spend more to quilt. (Want to take any bets??) I’ll be able to determine how much of our net is spent on books or magazines, and what portion of our income goes to food, housing, vehicles or clothing.
I suspect that our household spends less on clothing, and more on food than the average household. I’m sure we spend more on books and magazines, but oddly, less on music and DVDs. I wonder if tax time encourages people to look into their budgets and make adjustments for the coming year? I’m sure I plan to cut back on chocolate purchases this year.
I hope you are all farther along than I am. I think I’m going to be at this for a while.
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
If I used your system, the box would have to be nearly as big as a room–to hold all of the stuff!
Yeah, I used to play games about which cost more: his sins or mine (he won by a factor of 250:1). That is why, in THIS, our second, marriage we have separate money systems. As long as he pays his part of the joint expenses, I no longer care what he does with the rest of “his” money. Of course, since HH no longer smokes and since his drinking has taken a nosedive, his “sins” are now of the electronic variety–LOL. (We shan’t go into MY sins!)
Have fun girl! We have not started yet!
We’re still doing things jointly here, Cop Car. I don’t mind that we spend more on Dear Husband’s sailing because I’m one of those lucky women who isn’t kept on a leash. If I want a certain fabric, and feel that I can justify the expense to myself, I buy it. I’ve never understood women who have to bury their spending to keep from having a husband go ballistic. Why not get a part time job to support your habit, if that’s the case?
I’m really glad that we only have ONE box to go through. I think they should require a class in filing of every high school student!
I’ll have to ponder YOUR sins…..you’ve been fairly quiet about them. Do you still jump out of perfectly good airplanes?? *G*
Joe…usually I’m gathering the information for my taxes around April 5th. My CPA is a wonderful woman who NEVER chides me about being late. I adore her! Don’t wait too long to start yours, ya hear??
It isn’t just women who bury their expenses, Buffy. HH and I had to chuckle over one of his golf buddies who was hiding money from his wife so that he could buy a new driver that he had his eye on. The guy got a speeding ticket on one of their golfing trips (the guys take turns driving) and had to spend the hidden money on his ticket–so his wife wouldn’t know.
Got my taxes done today (did them myself, thank you very much) after three tries.
Cut down on chocolates purchases?? That would be a sin.
Sue?? :-P~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah….giving up chocolate was just a bit too much to ask, wasn’t it?? *G*
Sue & Buffy–Cut out the chocolate talk, would you? I’m sitting here drooling (well, you know how we elderly folks ARE!) I haven’t had chocolate in WEEKS! Better the only chocolate in the house be stashed in one of Hunky Husband’s desk drawers, than sitting about tempting me (he has quite a stash of food in his den.) I blame my mother. She fed me her wonderful cocoa cake when I was a child, and I grew addicted. *sigh* Of course, that is the same cake that our own kids, spouses, and granddaughter enjoy so much that they request it for birthdays. (Bogie and her WS get cheated on this since they aren’t ever HERE for their birthdays.)
HUH! Nobody every offered ME the cocoa cake! I can see where I stand in this family. (pouting)
My stepson has a stash of candy in the loft….and the mice discovered it. He had to give it up for a while to clear out the critters. Was probably just as well. They saved him from having to loose a lot of weight! lol
I cannot believe that you could have a mouse problem with Ed in the house. Does he not have “upstairs” privileges? (I’ve heard of upstairs maids and downstairs maids, but downstairs cats?)
P.S. Just finished Jennifer Chiaverini’s “The Master Quilter”. Now I must go find her other books!
Ed has the run of the house, except for our bedroom, which is off limits to him. He also has the run of the lot and the neighborhood. He’s one darned lazy cat who would rather play with the mice than kill them. One day he came up out of the basement and had a live mouse in his mouth. He dropped it between the kitchen and living room and walked off…..tired of playing. Defer walked over to the mouse….eyed it quizzically…..and then reached down with his muzzle and crunched it dead. Now we check the cat before he comes out the basement door.
I like Chiaverini’s books. I think I have most of them, and I’d like to see some of the quilt pattern books that have come from the series.