I’m quite surprised at the number of people I talk to that pay an accountant to file their taxes. I’m certainly not against paying someone to take care of your taxes and for some it really is necessary, but for others it may be easier and less expensive to purchase a tax software do it for you.
My husband and I like to use the TurboTax software and have filed this way for ten years now. It is simple to use and if you have all the proper paper work in front of you can be finished in less than an hour. Using a tax software is not for everyone, but if you have the basic deductions than you might want to consider trying out a tax software.
This year we bought the TurboTax Deluxe Federal + E-file + State 2011 Download
version from Amazon. By the way when we purchased it on January 18th it was only $39.79-so quick tip buy this before January 31st rather than later!
Here are two FREE Federal file online tax software offers for simple tax returns if you’d like to try it out without the cost. State filing is NOT included.
This post includes my affiliate link, all thoughts and opinions are mine.
Another way Daniel & I save money is by using grocery bags instead of buying trash bags for our garbage cans. Grocery bags are the perfect size for small office and bathroom trash cans. For a larger family, a grocery bag might be a little small to use in the kitchen, but it works great for us right now.
Since it is just the 3 of us, we don’t have a huge amount of garbage. In our experience with large kitchen garbage bags, we would take the garbage out to avoid unpleasant odors long before the bag was full. Because grocery bags are much smaller than a normal kitchen garbage bag, we fill the bag more quickly and take out the trash more frequently. This does not bother me one bit (No time to build up odors!).
We store our grocery bags in an old wipes container. I saw this idea online a few months ago, and I love it! I have always had trouble keeping grocery bags contained. The wipes container condenses the bags in a small space and works as a cute dispenser.
Visit Frugal Friday for more money saving ideas.
Instead of going to a salon, my husband cuts his own hair. [ He lets me trim the back 
] This saves us around $100 a year. (12 – 14 hair cuts a year @ $7 a hair cut).
I am not confident enough to cut my own hair, but I have found a few ways to save on hair cuts.
- If you are a little adventurous, get your hair cut at a hair school. They usually offer hair cuts for cheap ($5-$7 in my experience). I would recommend asking for a senior student. I had a hair appointment with a newer student that took 3 hours! (I have very thick hair).
- Look for a Great Clips Salon or similar. If you want a quick hair cut from an experience cosmetologist, this is the place. I have had really good luck at these salons. The haircuts are usually pretty cheap (around $11), and you can often find coupons to make it even cheaper. The stylists are experienced cosmetologist, so you don’t have to worry so much about your hair.
- Do a little trimming yourself and go longer between appointments.
If I just need my hair trimmed and thinned, I go to Great Clips and get a quick haircut. If I want to try something new and I am not sure exactly what I want, I go to a regular salon and pay the $20.
Do you cut your own hair or have it cut at a salon?
For of The Little Things you can do to save money, see my past posts.
Do I really need a warranty? Is it worth the extra money? This is a question I often ask when making a purchase. Last week Daniel and I were very grateful that we had purchased a warranty.
About two years ago, Daniel and I purchased a new printer on a black Friday deal at Best Buy. We also purchased an extended 2 year warranty.
We soon realized that we should have followed Natasha’s advice and bought a laser printer instead of ink jet. We rarely used the colored ink or scanner option on our all-in-one, and we went through black ink super fast. In the 2 years we purchased 6 ink cartridges!
When the printer was about a year old, we started having issues with the print quality. There were stripes on our prints. It was very frustrating to be paying so much for ink just to have poor quality prints.
In August we finally took the printer in to get it fixed. When I called to get an update, I was told that our printer was too expensive to fix so they would give us a new one.
I was thrilled. We had the option of getting a printer similar to our old one or in store credit towards a printer of our choice. We were able to upgrade to a laser printer for $30!
We have only had it for a few days, but I am super excited about our Laser Printer. It prints fast, high quality documents. Instead of an ink cartridge that prints 200 pages, our new laser printer comes with toner that will print 700 pages! (That is for the included toner, a full toner cartridge will print 1,200 pages!) I am so excited to print coupons again.
(I just checked Amazon, and a Laser Printer like ours is on sale for $89.99. (40% off!!). If you are in need of a printer, that is a great deal.)
Having a warranty on our printer proved to be very cost effective. If you are purchasing a high ticket item, I would recommend doing a little research to decide if a warranty could protect your investment.
What is your opinion on warranties?
I don’t know how it is in your house, but around here we go through a lot of socks. It seams like we buy them and a few months (or weeks…) later there are holes all over.
Instead of just throwing them away, we use the old socks as cleaning rags.
I cut them open and use them to wipe down counters, clean floors, and dust. There is still a lot of use left in the material.
How do you re-purpose old socks?
A Little Thing:
Being aware of the electricity you are using is another little way to save money around the house. Here are a few ways to conserve electricity:
- Turn off the lights when you are not using them.
- Hang cloths to dry instead of using the dryer. This does not work for all clothes, but it is great for items like towels and jeans that take forever to dry. Once they are dry, put them in the dryer to fluff for a minute or two.
- Plan your menu to maximize oven time. If you are cooking rolls for dinner and a desert, try to cook them at the same time or one right after the other so that you don’t have to warm up the oven twice.
A Big Little Thing: Pack a Lunch Instead of Eating Out
Don’t get me wrong, I love the occasional treat of eating out. It is nice to take a break from cooking or have a convenient option on a busy day, but eating out is significantly more expensive than packing a lunch. A little effort and planning can save you a lot of money.
Example:
Daniel could get lunch at a typical fast food place for around $5.00. (That is on the cheaper end, you can easily spend $8-$10 on lunch) Instead, he takes a sack lunch. Here is a cost breakdown:
Sandwich: Approx. $.50 (bread, meat, cheese, lettuce)
Carrot Sticks: (2 lbs for $1.00) pennies
Homemade Muffins or Cookies: pennies…
Granola bar: $.16
Water: Free
String Cheese: $.20
Cost of Sack Lunch: $1.00- $1.50 depending on ingredients
That is a savings of $17-$20 per week! You could spend a few extra dollars on the sack lunch to buy a special treat or drink and still have significant savings.
Many offices have break rooms with a refrigerator and microwave. Making a little extra dinner to send for lunch the next day is a simple, frugal way to save on lunch.
What little things do you do to save money?
Visit Frugal Friday for more money saving ideas
Meet Natasha, founder of Saving a Bundle and mother of four rambunctious boys, and LeaDawn writer and new mother of one boy. Raised in a frugal lifestyle we continue the family tradition by cooking from scratch, using money-smart techniques,
living simply, hunting for good deals, have fun with frugal crafts, and use coupons. Join us on our journey as we, two sisters, learn & share ways to live a more frugal lifestyle to reach our common goal to save our families money.