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Posted
Jul 28 2008, 09:40 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The past few days would have gone a lot more smoothly if I'd listened to MSN Money columnist Liz Pulliam Weston regarding the wisdom of those economic stimulus gift card promotions. For weeks I'd been mulling over the pros and cons of those cards, which are sold in $300 increments and come with a 10% bonus.
Liz thinks it's a punk idea (more on that below), yet I decided to go ahead. This move seemed cursed from the get-go (much more on that below), yet the experience reinforced a basic Smart Spending credo: Always keep your receipts.
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Posted
Jun 19 2008, 11:14 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Mike at Clever Dude has come up with a creative solution to a problem we've all probably encountered. His father-in-law made two trips from Pennsylvania to Mike's D.C.-area home to work on Mike and Stacie's floors and refuses any compensation. We have the same problem with a wonderful neighbor/friend who takes care of our dogs when we're gone, so we read Mike's post -- "Why we're donating our tax stimulus check" -- with great interest. Mike calls his method "guerilla gift-giving." We'll call it "stealth compensation."
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Posted
Jun 02 2008, 01:34 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We're in the same boat as "PT" at Prime Time Money. Our tax-rebate check has yet to arrive. Just like PT, we thought our rebate would be direct-deposited into our checking account on May 9, based on our Social Security number and the IRS payment schedule. So, like PT, we dug a little deeper to find out where it could be.
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Posted
May 29 2008, 11:51 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you've already received your economic-stimulus check from Uncle Sam, you can share what you did with it by posting at a Web site called -- ta-da -- How I Spent My Stimulus. You can even post a photo that illustrates how you used it. For example, we saw photos of casinos, whiskey bottles and cut-up credit cards. Scrolling through the site, we noticed that lots of folks spent their tax-rebate money to treat themselves -- hopefully stimulating the economy in the process. Some saved it, some used it to cover higher living expenses, and some gave it away. Some posts are listed under a category called "weird."
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Posted
May 23 2008, 08:42 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Recently I used a coupon to get a $17.95 oil change and tire rotation at a local auto-repair chain. Along with the bill came -- surprise! -- a warning that more work was needed. They suggested a tune-up plus a flush of both the coolant and brake fluids because the former was "dirty" and the latter was "dark and dirty." Horrors.
This may have sounded like a scam -- come in for cheap work, pay for additional work -- but I believed them. It's been a long time since those chores were done. I'm not sure how long. According to an MSN Money article, I should have been keeping a service log instead of (usually) tossing receipts into a folder. Oops.
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Posted
May 12 2008, 01:06 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The government giveth, and the government taketh away, given the opportunity. You might want to keep that in mind when you're wondering why your economic-stimulus check is smaller than you thought it would be. Kay Bell, the author of our favorite tax blog, Don't Mess With Taxes, explains: "If you owe the IRS federal taxes from previous tax years or have ignored a variety of nonfederal debts you owe, Uncle Sam can take those uncollected amounts out of any federal money you might be due."
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Posted
May 06 2008, 11:03 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Cathy at Chief Family Officer was very excited the other day. That tax rebate check showed up in her checking account. She's using it to pay off the balance owed on her car loan. "That's right! Our car loan will be paid off in less than two months! I feel like I pretty much met my goal of paying cash for a car this year," she writes. Lots of bloggers have received their checks and are sharing their plans for the money. Not a spendthrift group, this bunch. So much for the government's economic-stimulus plan.
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Posted
Apr 25 2008, 10:16 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Consumer confidence is at a 26-year low. Gas prices have risen yet again. Are we ready for some good news? Here it is: Those tax rebate checks will start showing up in people's bank accounts on Monday, four days early. For those who didn't select direct deposit, the checks will begin hitting the mail on May 9, a full week ahead of schedule. "The money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we're seeing at the gas pump, the grocery store, and also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown," President Bush said today.
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Posted
Apr 18 2008, 03:47 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The scramble is on by major retailers to get you to spend your tax refund or tax rebate check with them. (By the way, contrary to what many people believe, you don't have to pay that rebate back.) Cathy at Chief Family Officer informs readers that Kroger Co., which owns Kroger stores and a boatload of other chains -- will give you a 10% bonus if you turn that refund or rebate into a gift card at one of its many stores. (For a complete list of stores and a detailed description of the offer, read the press release here.) Sears Holding Co. has announced a similar bonus for Sears, Kmart and Lands' End stores. But are these really good deals?
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Posted
Apr 02 2008, 04:24 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We'll give you the happy ending first: A funny noise in his pickup was the reality check -- he calls it a "gift from heaven" -- that kept blogger "JB" of Get Rich Or Die Trying from buying a house he couldn't afford. The rationalizations he had used up to that point -- spend the emergency fund, the wedding fund and the tax rebate, and stop contributing to the 401(k) -- to make him think he should buy it may seem sickeningly familiar to many struggling to hang on to their homes or facing foreclosure. It also started when JB and his fiancee found the house of their dreams.
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