Author: InACents

Things to Do Once the Baby Arrives and Ways to Save Money

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As I sit in the delivery room waiting for the birth of our second child, I am thinking about what needs done once the baby arrives, and ways we saved money like last time. Obviously I am here to assist my wife with the delivery process. However, as she is laid up in bed, I will turn to her for suggestions on this post. Luckily she has a really funny sense of humor, so we have been laughing about some possible ideas.

Travel to the hospital started this morning around 4:00 AM, just like we did with our first child ironically enough. Of course we got hit with a pretty big snow storm last night, so I had to go out and shovel a path to the vehicle, then scrape off all the snow and ice. Since we were not in emergency mode (i.e. the water had not broken yet), we had no need to speed to the hospital. However, at 4:00 AM, there is nobody on the road, so I did go through some “changing” stop lights. We arrived safe and sound, and handed our son off to my in-laws, who met us at the hospital. Now we sit and wait for things to happen.

After the baby arrives, we have the normal announcement to family and friends. At some point today when we get closer to the birth, our families will wait in the waiting room, but it is too early just yet. We may be hours away at this point. We do not know whether we are having a boy or girl. Perhaps my favorite portion of the delivery day is coming out to the waiting room to tell everyone what we had. Since we already have a son, I am really looking forward to getting to go out to the waiting room to tell him first, before everyone else. It will drive my family nuts for a minute while they wait to hear the news, but he is the immediate family member, and I want to share that moment with him first and foremost.

So earlier today we had to sign a waiver for a circumcision should we have another boy. After the bills start to come in over the next several months, I plan to do a side by side comparison of the costs. I remember the five minute surgery associated with the circumcision costing in the thousands. Unfortunately, every hospital you go to, you are pretty much at the mercy of the insurance for your responsible portion.

Prior to our first child arriving, we had to make a decision whether we wanted to use disposable diapers or reusable ones that could be thrown in the wash. Back then, we really wanted to do as many “green” things for the environment, but also save money. However, our good friend (I wish), Bill Nye the Science Guy, had a show on the Planet Green Network called Stuff Happens. Bill has an amazing way of portraying science topics in an easy to understand and amusing manner. Bill had an excellent segment though on diapers. By the end of the segment, Bill had proven that from an environmental standpoint, disposal diapers versus reusable made absolutely no difference.

The environmental impact associated with washing the diapers, including purifying the water, manufacturing the soap, etc. all equaled the costs associated buying and throwing away disposable diapers into a landfill. Therefore, we decided at that point we would just go with disposable diapers. There are however great ways to save on the cost.

We typically buy our baby supplies from Target, whether it is the Up and Up brand or Similac or Enfamil. By watching for sales, and then using Target and manufacturer coupons, we can sometimes get the cost of the name brand down to the generic. Target also sometimes has some excellent gift card promotions where you purchase a certain number of formulas (or diapers), and you get either a $5 or $10 gift card. The same thing goes for diapers. However, in recent years we have been going to Costco to stock up on diapers if they have a monthly coupon. We have heard great things about the Kirkland brand, but have always stuck with Huggies from Costco. We also love the Target brand diapers. We have also found that we love Costco brand baby wipes over Target brand because they are a lot moister. When the sales are good, we tend to stock up on a several month supply to make it worth our while.

Here are my thoughts on the formula as well. My wife tries to breastfeed as much as possible as the rewards are huge for a growing baby. However, there comes a time when you may need to supplement with formula. It seems like whenever you talk to someone about having a baby, they inevitably complain about the costs of formula and diapers. When you really think about it though, where else can you feed someone for approximately two and a half weeks for around $20-30? If we purchase the larger containers of formula, we can easily get a couple of weeks out of it, even if the baby is exclusively on the formula. If I could feed myself, or even my 22 month old son for that same amount, I would be impressed. So when you think about how long the formula is lasting, there really is an incredible value.

Additional things that we will need to do once the baby arrives include apply for a social security number, sign up and start contributing to a new 529 College Savings Plan, and purchase the new baby’s website domain name (I am a sucker for purchasing them before they are gone). For now, I will sit and ponder about the wonderful things that are about to bestow us.

Why Pay for Tax Filing Software When It’s Free?

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So it seems like every year I get asked about filing taxes from a friend, and they want to know, if I have ever used the TurboTax or equivalent software. The next thing out of their mouth is always how much the software costs, and I laugh every year. Do people not realize what is available to them…for FREE?

Several years ago (at least 4-5 years ago) I started using TurboTax online, Free Edition. It is absolutely free for a basic Federal return, and includes free e-file. If you have any special circumstances, such as you sold off some stock in the past year, then you will need to pay to upgrade, but that is only under special circumstances, which the free software will tell you at that point you need to upgrade.

Keep in mind throughout the free version of TurboTax online, they try and get you to pay to upgrade the software to find additional deductions, etc., but you do not need to upgrade unless absolutely necessary based on your tax situation. Last year was the first year I actually had to pay for the software upgrade because I sold off some personal stock. Every other year I have been able to utilize the free online version, including free Federal e-file. The software also calculates the State return, and at the end, TurboTax wants you to pay to file the State portion; however, in my State of residence, it is totally free to go to the State’s website and file my tax return electronically.

To begin your free tax filing process, go to TurboTax’s website. You will need to register for an account, creating a user name and password. The website will then ask you whether you want to use TurboTax Free Edition, or whether you want to upgrade. Choose the free edition to start out; you can always easily upgrade throughout the process. You will then proceed along an easy to understand path towards filing your return.

You will enter in all of your personal information. The one drawback, I have to admit, is that year to year, the free online version of the software does not remember all of your information. So you will need to enter it all in again. I remember when I used to use the TurboTax software my dad would purchase and install on his own computer, the software would import all of the previous year’s information. If you actually pay for one of the TurboTax versions, the advantage is that the program will import the previous years return. After entering in all of your personal information, you will proceed along the path with filing your Federal portion of the tax return.

You will enter in all of your W-2 information, interest and dividends, etc. The software will automatically recommend whether it is better to file jointly or separately (if you are married), as well as tell you whether it is better to itemize or take the standard deduction. As mentioned above, the software will automatically calculate your State return as well, but there is no need to pay for the upgrade if your State allows you to file for free on their website.

The moral of the story is do not pay for tax filing software unless you need to. The free options out there are more than adequate for the normal tax filer. H&R Block, and various other tax companies also offer free versions of their software if you are not partial to TurboTax.

The Value of Extreme Couponing to Save on Our Food Bill

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Yesterday was a great day at the grocery store, full of lots of unnecessary items to get the most value. We typically do not shop at Giant Eagle grocery stores because they are notoriously more expensive when it comes to non-sale items. However, Giant Eagle now offers an excellent benefit to something we were already doing…filling up our gas tanks.

The promotion is called Food Perks, in combination with Fuel Perks. For every 10 gallons of gasoline that you purchase at a Get Go service station, you receive 1% off in Food Perks. My wife and I used to have separate Giant Eagle accounts from before we got married, and therefore received separate Food Perks and Fuel Perks benefits. Going to shop for groceries, we always had to make a decision whose card was better off being used. However, several months ago, I merged my account with my wife’s, therefore, creating a “giant” pool of savings.

Now, my wife and I pretty much exclusively fill our vehicles up with fuel at Get Go gas stations. We on average, assuming we both fill up each week, receive 3-4% in Food Perks benefits. Our goal is to get up to the maximum 20% Food Perks savings without letting them expire. The other benefit, which is not the subject of this article, is that we are often able to use our Fuel Perks discounts at the Get Go stations for additional savings on gas.

We knew a portion of our Food Perks was expiring at the end of this month, so we took the SUV and filled it up prior to shopping, bringing our Food Perks savings up to 20%. Note, you are allowed to earn over 20% in Food Perks, but are only allowed to use a maximum of 20% in a single shopping trip.

I told my wife ahead of time to expect this trip to take a long time since I knew I wanted to go through all of my coupons to maximize the savings. She kind of dreads these big shopping days just because of how long they take. Entertaining a child in a grocery cart only becomes easy for the first hour, at most, before they start wanting every unnecessary item in the store. In addition to the Food Perks, Giant Eagle also doubles coupons up to $0.99 in value. Since we do not shop at Giant Eagle very often, we save up all of our coupons for what I like to call foodmageddon. We also had been working on cleaning out our shelves of food, thus making room for the big event. This is my one day of payback to the large grocery giant for my years of over paying.

We arrived at the store around 9:30 in the morning, before the majority of the crowds were even up. Since we have an almost two year old, we awake early in our household. We worked our way through the produce, then the prepared foods section, and then the meat counters. By that point, our cart was half way full, we already had our lunch for the day planned, and none of it was “couponable.” Now to tackle the rest of the store and my overflowing pile of coupons.

The toughest part about the coupon journey is that I like to think I am organized, but I am not. I do not make a plan or a list on these large grocery shopping days. Instead I plan on buying anything I have a coupon for, and inevitably some that are not. I have all of my coupons in one of those little coupon organizers, all in alphabetical order. The problem is when I see something I might have a coupon for, I have to shuffle through all the coupons starting with the product names first letter in search for the correct coupon. It takes some effort and time. The smarter way to do coupons is to have the flat, clear baseball card holder sheets in a binder. Then we could easily search through the coupons. I have tons of those sheets from when I was a kid. The problem is, they are all in storage with my baseball cards while we try to sell our home. Having the house spotless and without all the extra clutter is nice; however, it causes problems while carrying on your normal, everyday life because something we need is always in storage. So for now we are stuck using our old, expandable file option.

The biggest thing we find during our extreme couponing is that we find ourselves buying lots of normal priced items because in our minds, we are still getting 20% off the price, even if we do not have a coupon. In the days before Food Perks, we usually only bought items that were on sale, and then stacked double coupons on top of it. Giant Eagle has made it a lot easier to purchase those impulse items with the Food Perks program, even if the item is not on sale.

So what did we not “need?” Quick and easy breakfast and lunch items such as Pop-Tarts, french fries, and sweet corn nuggets. Yes I said that right. They had in the frozen food section little balls of sweet corn, battered and fried. They looked delectable, and I could not help myself from throwing them into the cart without my wife seeing. My wife’s go-to-item was some Cinnabon breakfast bars that she was excited about because they can be warmed up in the microwave. Disclaimer: Luckily, we are both foodies and do not care at all what the other buys at the grocery store since we both love trying new things.

After nearly filling almost two carts full, we headed to the front to check out. We always use the self-checkout counters because it has the best possible use of the most coupons. If you head to the manned registers, the attendant will look at every coupon for the dates and to make sure you purchased the correct amount. The beautiful thing about the self-checkout is that the lines are usually shorter, they usually accept expired coupons, so long as they are not too far expired, and that if you purchase multiples of an item, you can often use multiple coupons.

My wife and I have the checkout process down to perfection since we have a toddler. I quickly scan all the items, and she bags. Our son often loves to help out by quickly handing dad all of the items his little hands can reach. However, he was distracted by the Hot Wheels car we unavoidably had to buy near the end to keep him happy (a dollar well spent at that point). We efficiently can get through the register way faster than a manned cashier. However, when people start to line up behind us, I always warn them that we are going to be a while since after we get done scanning everything, we often have a mountain of coupons to then scan. With a large amount of coupons, it is inevitable that the coupon bin is going to get jammed full of coupons when you drop them in, or the system does not accept a coupon if you have more than two. Even if you buy 4 of an item and have four coupons, the system will not accept them all the times. So the self-checkout person will need to come over and manually enter those in.

Then came the time for the final tally. We purchased $313 worth of groceries; however, with double coupons, we deducted $47, and with our 20% Food Perks, we subtracted an additional $53, bringing our grand total to $213. Therefore, who says cutting coupons does not have its benefits? By taking a little bit of time, we cut our food bill by a third. The item that we saved the most on was Zone Perfect energy bars. They were on sale for $1/each, and I had $0.55 coupons, thus making them free after double coupons (they doubled the coupon up to the amount of the item, so we did not make any money on these purchases unfortunately). We paid using my wife’s Discover Miles card, earning us an additional 213 miles towards future travel purchases.

Two and half hours later, we were finally done, and so was our son. He was so exhausted by the endeavor and was asleep within two minutes of the car ride. Fortunately, we do not live far from the store, and were able to wake him up, make lunch, and still get him down for a decent nap. Daddy on the other hand had a long road ahead of him with unloading and then storing all of our food finds.