Gather Little by Little

Last night was the Internal Revenue Service filing deadline – in case you missed it. If you are reading this and have not filed – you are late and need to contact the IRS immediately to file an extension.  If you owe money, you are probably better off waiting as long as possible to file, although it might be nice to have the paperwork finished in advance. Some of us filed our taxes back in February or March, but I know at least one person who waited until April 15th to finish his taxes . . .

If you are one of those who was jumping around like a jitterbug in order to git ‘er done yesterday, you probably have a great feeling of relief today. I often think that it is a similar feeling to the morning after pulling an all-nighter to finish a paper in college. Remember how that felt to hand the completed work to your teacher? I experienced great relief after finishing major projects in college, however I never conducted an all-nighter and I never handed in a late assignment – I was a bit of a nerd. Mrs. Stew, on the other hand . . . well, let’s just say that she was not a nerd . . . she actually had a social life.

Here are a few frugal ways to relax after finishing the tax season:

• Get a free coffee at Starbucks (well, yesterday, you could have).
• Instead of logging into TurboTax, go straight to Facebook and don’t feel guilty.
• Go for a long walk.
• Go throw pennies in a fountain (make certain that they are pennies).
• Surf over to USAspending.gov and see how the government is spending your hard-earned money. On second thought, don’t.
• Pick out a nice folder to hold all of your receipts for next year so tax season is not so stressful.
• Donate some stuff so you can reduce your tax liability next year.
• Put a notebook in your car so you can keep track of mileage.
• Try some of the fun things to do at Wal-Mart.
• Read an entire “Dear good sir” e-mail from Nigeria.
• Lay in the sun and stretch.
• Go to a minor league baseball game. Tickets are cheap and the event is relaxing.
• Trade massages with your spouse.
• Test your typing speed. Mine was 56 words per minute.
• Play poker for peanuts with some friends. Literal peanuts.
• Put some music on and just dance.
• Go out to eat at P.F. Changs and get 15% off (yesterday, remember for next year).
• Make chalk drawings with your kids in the driveway.
• Spend some time in prayer asking that you not be chosen for an audit.

Enjoy the rest of your spring!

Article by Stew

Photo by nainil