The week sure does pass by quickly
Friday night already? Time sure does fly when you spend a good chunk of the week writing and working. Unfortunately, the two don't necessarily go together just yet. Other than doing the laundry for the week and writing a detailed Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (season one) review for Damage Control (it was a pain to write at times), e-filing my taxes was the only thing of significant that I accomplished this week.
Thankfully filing my taxes only cost me $9.95 going through the IRS and Turbo Tax Freedom edition, instead of the usual $40 that I pay for someone else to do them. For my two hours worth of filing I found that I'm getting a fairly decent return this year thanks to the Rebate Recovery Act. Since I wasn't eligible for the $600 stimulus check last year I'll be getting the entire check plus the extra money I'm getting since I'm no longer a dependent this year. If wasn't for part of Jo-Jo's medical bill costing me a significant amount in interest (36-percent) I wouldn't have to worry about putting half my return down on that bill to lower my interest rates to a sane level. I was pretty sure that I agreed to a 11-percent interest rate to be paid over a four year period (with the intent of paying it off much sooner at no penalty) but the people at GE Money had other plans in mind, and despite calling them they refused to work out a deal. Once this entire ordeal is over with and the bill is finally paid off I'm considering closing the Care Credit account and burning the credit card.
In other news, the boy from Honduras finally made up his mind. He will be coming to live here after all, but won't be here for another few days. As I've said before things around the house will probably become very interesting. In the meantime I suppose I'll think of ways to blow the money left over from my income tax return after I'm done with the Care Credit mess. I'm sort of tempted to buy the Xbox 360 Elite but it's not a very strong temptation given how large my PS2, GameCube, DS and PSP backlog is. And with the various Altus titles I plan to buy (mostly Shin Megami Tensei games) it's only going to get larger.
I also gave up my paid account and I now have a sponsored account. Other than having a drastic reduction in user pics and ads on my LJ page (which are easily blocked by FireFox) I'm not seeing a huge difference. The fact that I get to keep my scrapbook and the ability to create polls are a plus.
Thankfully filing my taxes only cost me $9.95 going through the IRS and Turbo Tax Freedom edition, instead of the usual $40 that I pay for someone else to do them. For my two hours worth of filing I found that I'm getting a fairly decent return this year thanks to the Rebate Recovery Act. Since I wasn't eligible for the $600 stimulus check last year I'll be getting the entire check plus the extra money I'm getting since I'm no longer a dependent this year. If wasn't for part of Jo-Jo's medical bill costing me a significant amount in interest (36-percent) I wouldn't have to worry about putting half my return down on that bill to lower my interest rates to a sane level. I was pretty sure that I agreed to a 11-percent interest rate to be paid over a four year period (with the intent of paying it off much sooner at no penalty) but the people at GE Money had other plans in mind, and despite calling them they refused to work out a deal. Once this entire ordeal is over with and the bill is finally paid off I'm considering closing the Care Credit account and burning the credit card.
In other news, the boy from Honduras finally made up his mind. He will be coming to live here after all, but won't be here for another few days. As I've said before things around the house will probably become very interesting. In the meantime I suppose I'll think of ways to blow the money left over from my income tax return after I'm done with the Care Credit mess. I'm sort of tempted to buy the Xbox 360 Elite but it's not a very strong temptation given how large my PS2, GameCube, DS and PSP backlog is. And with the various Altus titles I plan to buy (mostly Shin Megami Tensei games) it's only going to get larger.
I also gave up my paid account and I now have a sponsored account. Other than having a drastic reduction in user pics and ads on my LJ page (which are easily blocked by FireFox) I'm not seeing a huge difference. The fact that I get to keep my scrapbook and the ability to create polls are a plus.