April 2012 – Dad's Taxi

So another Tax day has come and gone.. This year I had to do 3 separate returns for my family. I’ve been using Turbo Tax On-line for years (for the sake of convenience), but I think that I’m obviously overpaying because my total expenses for this is over $160!

Even with my refunds, I’m still doling out some hard earned cash right?

Of course, the filing fees for the Federal and State is what eats up your fees here. Tell me does anyone have a less expensive way to file electronically? Keep in mind, that 2 out of the 3 tax forms are so straightforward that there’s no reason I should be paying $65+ for each filing.

I do manage to get a healthy discount of 35% of the “normal” E-filing fees but it still adds up.

As I’m always looking to save a buck or two here what are your tips for saving money on tax filing? I’ve tried other packages, but I find that using the on-line version of Turbo Tax just reduces the pain, but jeez $65 per return (after discounts)?

Tips for Getting Across the Tax Day Finish Line (money.usnews.com)
Check Out All This Free Stuff You Can Get Today In Honor Of Tax Day (987ampradio.cbslocal.com)
TurboTax Warning (ulasovetz.wordpress.com)

Today my older daughter reminded me that I haven’t blogged in weeks and I realized that she was right. I guess instead of finding reasons to blog, I keep finding more reasons not to. I think that’s pretty pathetic, but it’s a lot easier to procrastinate that “I’ll do it it tomorrow”, then actually sitting in front of my laptop and putting my vast knowledge of nothingness into words..

I keep on searching high and low for topics to blog about but all I have flashing through my brain is flashes of nothingness. Instead of flashes of inspiration, all I seem to get is flashes of the good life if only I could win the lottery! When the Mega Millions jackpot hit half a billion, all I could do was just imagining myself hiding for a few weeks when I win. Of course that was just wishful thinking, since the probability of winning itself one in a billion!

Just like an episode of “Seinfeld”, I spend hours and hours doing nothing (if watching Netflix can be considered nothing), that my daily decompression routine has gotten almost monotonous.

Has my life gotten so boring that the best part of my day is watching recorded episodes of The Big Bang Theory. One thing for sure I’ve become addicted to this show. I watch the same episodes over and over again and find the references to geeky things so amusing. The culture of my time (70’s and 80’s) and my addiction to comics and all the geeky things I did growing up, just keep flashing across the screen when I watch this show.

I have to admit, watching Sheldon, Penny, Raj, Howard and Leonard, interact just gives me such pleasure, it’s starting to impact my nap time when I come home from work! I find that I’m searching the TV listings for more episodes for me to record.. Currently I found 2 episodes per day to record, but of course there are many more daily episondes! I think the true stars of this show are the characters of Sheldon, Penny and Raj.. Of course you can choose to disagree..

Now on to why I haven’t been blogging..

Reasons for NOT blogging on a regular basis:

I’ve been searching high and low for topics to blog about and keep searching. I can’t write about work, because we all know that employer’s troll the web looking for what their respective employees are writing about..
Being opinionated, doesn’t give me the right to constantly write about the wife and kids, who could easily give me endless topics to write about.. I just don’t think it’s right to constantly write about my family who on a daily basis continue to amuse me..
Using the excuse “too busy to blog” can be useful, but we all know, Dad can always blog about something or another.
Just logging in to see how much SPAM is in your SPAM folder is disturbing. Today’s count was 48..
Blogging takes too much effort, whereas I could just be sitting around doing nothing or thinking about doing nothing! This is a lot more enjoyable than paying bills and realizing how much deeper I get into debt every day.. depressing huh? Who wants to read about that? No-One…

I guess I can ramble on and on for a few more paragraphs of nothingness, but I think it’s time to watch another episode of.. drum roll please.. “The Big Bang Theory”.

I think that my next obsession will be watching “Lost” or “How I Met Your Mother” on Netflix! After all I’m only one season behind for

Here are some of the shows I’m hooked on courtesy of Netflix:

Weeds – Watched the first 6 Seasons
Being Human (US version) – Watched the first 13 Episodes
Rescue Me – Watched the first 7 seasons
Sons Of Anarchy – 3 Searsons
How I met Your Mother – Still on Season 1
Lost – Re-Watching from beginning

What are some of your favorites? Feel free to share..

Of course I could always write about my new found joy of gardening, or playing (More like Losing) to different people “words with friends” on my iPhone, or the other things I can do to waste time..

Dad..