Tax Day a holiday?

When I upload national holidays to my electronic calendar it loads up "Tax Day: United States" for today. WTF? I mean did I miss when this day became a holiday?

I wonder if I know the meaning of the word holiday? I didn't think it meant the day that an annoying amount of yearly paperwork is due to the government. [and let me just say that MN's forms are particularly annoying, they don't want you to send in your W2, oh no they want a another form filled out with same information on the W2]

Anyway taxes got sent in very late again this year, deliberately. I do not use tax rebates as a saving plan. [though I did for years] Then I had a mortgage for years and I got money back on because of the interest I paid. Then for a few years since I sold my property my taxes went back to basics and I did my best to balance out my exceptions [or do I mean exemptions?] because I want all my money when I earn it thank you very much. I don't want the government to use it [for free] for months. Though they will charge you big if you owe them "too much" at the end of the year. In MN the limit is $500 I believe. Note though if they owe you a huge amount $500, $1000, $5000 they don't pay you for getting to use your money all that time.

Wow, I had no idea tax day would make me so 'ranty'. I won't even start on the escrow insurance/tax 'scam' that banks do so that they can use your money for free.

Of course all this will change next year with the interest from the cottage mortgage payments. It will probably be several years before I get it all back into balance again but I love a mathy challenge.

oh yeah -- merry tax day all.

plane fares to India

Although I am in the fortunate position of having my work pay for the flight to India my wife is not. So if she wants to go we have to pay for her ticket. The same summer that we are buying, cheaply sure, a place up north. If we had a choice we would change the timing of that.

She was feeling conflicted last week "I want to go, but the money should we do it right now" I reminded her that she has always wanted to go to India and she would probably end up being pretty bummed if she does not. I had a foolish, silly, brilliant idea.

If we gave up eating out for 3 months, I said [April, May and June] we could probably save the money for your airfare. We do eat out quite a bit. This seemed so doable last week. [we will treat ourselves once a month btw]

Last night, I was feeling rushed and overwhelmed. I had forgotten to start dinner [corned beef with cabbage]. I remembered at about 4:45. My sweetie came home, I announced I wanted to eat out. I announced I knew we weren't but that I had to say it. Then I opened a can of soup and got fed. It was the evening of April first.
*sigh*
I didn't even make it one day without the desire. How long do you think I'll last until I cave? Can I make it 3 days, 3 weeks, much less 3 months!?!

save-the-dates

So the save-the-dates need to get in the mail. The wedding is only 195 days away! Why does 195 days sound like so much more time than 6.5 months?

Well a lot of guests are coming in from out of town. I also know that a lot of people need to be reminded to put things on their calendars. A few friends may not have heard about the engagement, at least not directly from us. So whoever invented save-the-dates did a great thing in my opinion. Since I am one of those people who actually like writing xmas cards I wasn't too daunted. DF is willing to help but really has atrocious handwriting. She can write the thank yous to her friends and family but since these really need to legible I have been plugging away at them. I have 34 done so far and not too many more left to do. DF can be the official stamper.

One thing I was concerned about was saving money. Yes, I did think we needed them but I didn't want to drop a bundle. We both liked the idea of a postcard. I found a fun, happy picture of the two of us from New Year's Eve 2006. I sized and cropped it and pasted it 8 times into a 12x14 word document. The copy shop at work does personal orders. I asked them to print the page 8 times on heavy card stock and cut them apart. I got 80 save-the-dates color picture postcards for 6.71. I got a lot extra in case I make a ton of mistakes. We'll probably mail about 40 of them [more will be hand-delivered], in stamps that will be 9.60. Bringing the total to well under $20.

The wording was a bit tricky. We didn't want to be cutesy. We settled for 'please save the date-DF X and Me Y -are getting married - on October X 2007 - in minneapolis, minnesota - invitation to follow.

I was extremely skeptical about needing the 'invitation to follow' line. Surely I thought everyone either knows or can figure out what a save the date card is? Isn't it self-explanatory? Nope, they can't. I hand delivered one to a close friend when we had lunch. It was one of the first 3 I had written, and I forgot to put the last line. Sure enough she asked 'is this the invitation?' Do yourselves a favor add that last line no matter what! My fiancee still has a few addresses to collect but we are almost there.

Our first cake testing is Tuesday, we are certainly looking forward to that. I know we will find a cake that I can eat!