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Morning Coffee: Four coupon inserts in this weekend’s newspaper?

January 27, 2012 By Chief Family Officer Leave a Comment

There should be one Smart Source, two Red Plum, and one P&G insert in this weekend’s newspaper. Coupons to look forward to include $2/1 Downy Unstopables or Gain Fireworks, $1/1 Dove body wash, and $1/2 Keebler/Sunshine crackers. Note that coupon inserts vary by region, so yours may differ somewhat from those listed at Sunday Coupon Preview (which doesn’t have the Smart Source preview up yet, but indicates there should be one on the 2012 insert schedule).

Coupons.com has added some new coupons for various pet food products, including Fancy Feast, Mighty Dog, and Elegant Medleys.

Amazon’s MP3 deal of the day is Party Rock Anthem by Kidz Bop for $0.99.

Through Sunday, you can rent The Help at Amazon Instant Video for just $1.99 (4.5 out of 5 stars in 378 reviews). When you rent a video from Amazon, you generally have 30 days to watch it, and 24 to 48 hours from the time you started watching it to finish it.

At 5 p.m. PST today, Amazon will have a Lightning Deal on a “[c]ertified organic snack mix with three delicious flavors.”

Amazon’s free Android app of the day is Router ($1.99 value), a game for all ages that gets 4 out of 5 stars in 51 reviews.

Heavenly Homemakers has some suggestions for saving money while eating healthy.

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Filed Under: coupons, shopping deals

Evening Roundup: New coupons, double My Coke Rewards points + more

January 26, 2012 By Chief Family Officer Leave a Comment

There are some great new coupons at Coupons.com, including $1/1 M&M’S Pretzel, $2/1 Clearasil PerfectaWash, and $1/1 Schick Xtreme3 Eco razor.

Daily deal site Living Social is offering 2 tickets to see the new Sam Worthington movie Man on a Ledge for just $12 ($26 value).

One A Full Cup user reports that you can get double My Coke Rewards points for Coke Zero products through 1/31.

Get a printable coupon for $1.50/2 Nestle Crunch or Butterfinger Hearts via Free Coupon Alerts.

Get printable coupons various Kelloggs products, also via Free Coupon Alerts.

Get a printable coupon for $0.20/1 Rotel Zesty Tomato and Green Chili Sauce, also via Free Coupon Alerts.

Pinecone Research is looking for new members who are Hispanic or over age 65. Pinecone is my favorite survey company because they pay $3 per product concept survey (learn more about Pinecone here.)

Get a free Kindle download of Frugal Kitchen Tips ($0.99 value; 4 out of 5 stars in 9 reviews).

Coupon Geek explains how you can get Joann Fabric & Craft Store coupons via text message.

Common Sense with Money explains how you can get a free custom Valentine’s Day card from Shutterfly.

Moneywise Moms has some great suggestions for frugal Valentine’s Day class gifts.

Banner via MySavings.com.

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Filed Under: coupons, shopping deals

Tips for Organizing and Filing Your Taxes

January 26, 2012 By Chief Family Officer Leave a Comment

It’s the start of tax season, and unfortunately the best time for preparing and organizing your tax documents is the year before. But if all you have right now is a big mess of papers, then here are some suggestions for making the seemingly overwhelming task of doing your taxes manageable:

Gather all of your documents. Taxes = lots of papers. For several weeks, the mail brings 1099s, W2s, and other tax-related documents. You may also have receipts for deductible donations and expenses. Getting everything together in one place is the first step. Be thorough. Any omission could cost you money – either because you failed to take a deduction to which you were entitled, or worse, because you failed to report income and the IRS has found out!

Create a workspace where you can spread out. You’re going to be creating piles, so a wide, flat surface is your best friend right now. Be sure to remove spillable items (like that giant Diet Coke) out of the way.

Create categories based on your tax return. Some tax returns are more complicated than others, depending on your types of income and the type of return you file. General categories are income and deductions. Some documents, like your W2, may include information for multiple categories, and I tend to separate those out since there aren’t many of them.

My husband and I file a 1040, and I create categories based upon the sections on the form itself. Our income is separated into the following categories: his salary, investment income, prizes, my miscellaneous earnings (e.g., from surveys), and blog earnings. Our deductions get separated into the following: mortgage/tax deductions, charitable deductions, and other (e.g., dependent care expenses).

What you do next will vary based upon whether you file your own return, or whether you pay someone to do it, and just how much paper you have to deal with.

If you are filing a simple return like a 1040EZ, you can pull out the form and start filling it out at this point. Low to moderate income earners (generally below $50,000) can get free tax return preparation assistance. I worked as a VITA volunteer in law school, and prepared many 1040EZs for low income families – it’s a legitimate program that can help a lot.

If you are hiring someone to do your taxes for you, this is a good time to find out how much more work they’d like you to do. Our old accountant would send us a worksheet that I would fill out, but our current accountant prefers me to hand over the sorted papers.

If you are doing your own taxes and are filing a 1040 or 1040A, pull out the form and just go step by step through the instructions and a draft version of the form. You may need to rearrange some of the sorting you did previously, but everything should be quite easy to find now that they’re in general categories.

You have 82 days from today until the filing deadline of April 17. Good luck!

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Filed Under: taxes

Morning Coffee: New Trop50 coupon at SavingStar = good deal at Ralphs

January 26, 2012 By Chief Family Officer Leave a Comment

There are new digital coupons at SavingStar, including $1/2 Trop50, $0.50/2 Cottonelle Bath Tissue, $0.50/1 Cottonelle Flushable Moist Wipes, $2/1 InStyle magazine, and $1/1 Aleve Product. Buy 2 Trop50 at Ralphs with the current Mega Sale and pay just $1.99 per bottle after SavingStar credit.

Daily deal site Plum District is offering the I Like Book for $12 + Free Shipping ($25 value). The book is intended for you to sit down with your kids each day and write out what makes you happy – it’s a tool for communication and building your child’s self-esteem. New Plum District members get a $5 sign up credit, making your cost just $7.

Amazon has over 1,000 MP3 albums for just $5 this month, including Pure ’80s: #1s, which includes hits like “Karma Chameleon” and “Eye of the Tiger.”

Daily deal site Zulily has a new Crocs sale, with prices starting at $9.99.

Amazon’s Kindle Daily Deal is A Drowned Maiden’s Hair, a novel by Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz, for $0.99 ($6.15 value).

If you know a beer lover, here’s a great gift for them: daily deal site Mamapedia is offering a one-year subscription to Draft magazine for just $12 (valid for new or gift subscriptions in the U.S.).

Get printable coupons for Scrubbing Bubbles products via Free Coupon Alerts.

Get a printable coupon for 15% off your purchase at Staples (exp 1/28). (Via Passion for Savings.)

Get a one-year Shop Runner membership for just $1 (which will be donated to Philabundance, a charity that provides food to those in need). Shop Runner gives you free two-day shipping at select stores, like Toys R Us and Drugstore.com. (Via Coupon Geek.)

Get $35 off any purchase at Paper Coterie with code FREETHIRTY. You’ll have to shipping, which starts at $6. I used a similar code to order desktop calendars last year – they were a really nice quality, and made great gifts for the grandparents during the holidays.

Savings Lifestyle explains how you can get Method dish detergent for just $0.99 at Target.

Banner via MySavings.com.

This post contains affiliate links that help support this site at no additional cost to you. Thank you for clicking through them! You can read CFO’s full disclosure here.

Filed Under: coupons, shopping deals

Evening Roundup: Some new coupons

January 25, 2012 By Chief Family Officer Leave a Comment

There are a few new coupons at Coupons.com, including $1.10/4 Beech Nut baby food, $1/1 Cat’s Pride litter, and B1G1 Scotch Brite Botanical Disinfecting Wipes. The coupon for $1/1 Honey Bunches of Oats has reportedly reset and may be available again as well.

Get a printable coupon for $5 off $15+ at Smokey Bones via Free Coupon Alerts.

Get another printable coupon for $0.55/1 Florida’s Natural Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice, also via Free Coupon Alerts.

Northern Cheapskate has a useful post about preparing a “just in case” file.

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This post contains affiliate links that help support this site at no additional cost to you. Thank you for clicking through them! You can read CFO’s full disclosure here.

Filed Under: coupons, shopping deals