OK: I take it back about the friction

Did I set the forces of bad karma in motion? A mere few hours after penning my post in praise of friction, I set off for some R and R at the food bank thrift store. I figured that the spa experience of thrift shopping would help me gird up my loins for the final misery of taxes: figuring capital gains and rental losses.

Off I went. A little light came on. Then it went off. Then I couldn't steer. WHAT????

Luckily, I was near my destination, but it was difficult as I have extremely weak arms.

OF COURSE, we only have one car at the moment, since Frugal Son was hit by a bad man without a license who left the scene.
OF COURSE, I didn't have a phone.
AND OF COURSE, Mr FS seldom answers the phone anyway, since he works outside with earphones.

The karmic forces weren't totally against me. Nice Mr Pat let me use his phone at the store. Mr FS answered (a miracle!) and he rode his bike over. The power steering resumed its work.

Now we have to take our single car to the shop. They don't have loaners but will rent to us for $30/day. Seems to be an electrical problem.

I take it back about the joys of friction. I hit a few snags on the tax form (and I am an educated person who is not afraid of numbers...erghh).

Next day.....

UPDATES. I awoke at 6 ready to finish the taxes. The following took my attention till 4. That's 10 hours.

OF COURSE the electrical problem didn't manifest itself at the Honda place.
OF COURSE, we have to buy another car since I refuse to drive the Honda (we were planning to replace the totaled one anyway).
OF COURSE, I made a $10 arithmetical error on my taxes,which would have necessitated doing it all over again. I ignored it (the IRS always corrects my mistakes. Please don't audit me. It's always an accident.)
OF COURSE, the printer messed up while I was trying to print out a form.
OF COURSE, State Farm lost the records of something we paid for so I had to help MR FS find it by scouring all credit card records and checkbooks.

Plus some other stuff I can't remember at the moment. My beloved burritos didn't help. No, I had to eat pot stickers and pierogi.

FRICTION BE GONE!

My Summer (Financial) To Do List and Scary Financial News

At the end of the summer, I am always filled with sadness over things left undone. There are always many. But as I was cleaning up--as we prepare for our last family visit for the summer--I found a list.

RETURN STUFF TO LANDS END
RETURN STUFF TO LL BEAN
TAXES!!!!!!

Yes, I did all those things. Thanks to the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which covers college textbooks, we got a hefty refund, all of which is going to our next summer's travel. Returning unsatisfactory items to LE and LLB is being a conscientious consumer, something my Frugal Dad would have been proud of.

The scary financial news coming every day is reminding me of the dreaded year 2008. Honestly, all I can do is focus on my little frugal ways.

Are you scared by the news these days? How's your To do list?

Things I Completed, Some Involving Money Back

Before I left for Nantes--how I love deadlines--I completed three things that have given me back some cash.

--returned unsatisfactory items to LL Bean. Love their guarantee. Miss Em wanted a pricey backpack from the Signature line and found it uncomfortable (as did others in comments).

--returned unsatisfactory items to Lands End. This took several phone calls, but I finally worked things out. The CS reps must take nice lessons, because I was always smiling after the calls. I really should take nice lessons.

--Filed my taxes, which will result in a refund. Part 2: I owe state taxes as a result of the refund. Oh well.

While the tax refund is the big ticket item, the returns total around $200. Nothing to sneeze at.

Do you return unsatisfactory items or do you let them languish (as I did)?

Procrastination, Decluttering, Frugality

Hmmmmm. The story of my life, kind of like Liberté, égalité, fraternité, only not as uplifting.

Another good tip from Susan Pinsky's book. For paperwork, if you CAN'T JUST DISCARD, have a Paper Box next to your trashcan. Under your desk. Just throw in all those papers you may need. If you do need one, they will be filed by date!

For the truly disorganized (me?), you can do that all year with things you will need--or probably won't need--for taxes. Then, at tax time, you have all your credit card statements and so forth. In chronological order!

Why is this on my mind? Because (so embarrassing), dear readers, I filed a tax extension. I have no excuse. My taxes are easy: I don't itemize. I do have to keep track of educational expenses for my children. And we have a teeny bit (and I do mean teeny) of self-employment income for when the public library asks us to lead a book discussion or the like.

Even though I LOVE doing grade school arithmetic, I always make dumb mistakes. Like last year: I took the Standard Deduction of $11,000 or so and instead of subtracting $11,000, I subtracted $1100! The IRS caught that one and sent me back the correct amount. I'm sure my return goes into a special section for humor.

So, I will finish today after my root canal. My refund should pay for the procedure. Even though I should have done this a few months ago, my refund will be a nice surprise.

Once I get the return off, I can throw everything in a box and put it away. That's the decluttering I like.

Another plug for Susan Pinsky!

And I have this other book on hold at the library.

Do you engage in any embarrassing forms of procrastination?