Welcome to Frugal Families

* Does your paycheck seem smaller, thanks to the rising costs of food, gas, heating,  health-care expenses and such?

* Do you dream of becoming a single-income household, in what appears to be a two-income society?

* Have you decided to get debt-free, but now you need to find a way to do it?

* Do you feel alone in your determination to lead a more frugal, simple life?

Whatever the reason you had for seeking out frugality on the web, you have come to the right place!!!

Frugal Families consists of two sections. Our public areas are chock full of helpful information to help you stretch your paycheck. The other area is the paid community or private forums. The forums are an invaluable source of knowledge and frugal support.

* Ask questions, GET answers!

* Take frugality to a whole new level in forums such as Beginning Frugality, Frugal Shopper, Energy Savings and Freebies and Good Deals.

*Learn about crafts, family fun and home schooling on a budget.

*Find support and friendship in our community with forums such as single parents, marriage and faith.

How to Make Your Own Healthy Trail Mix

Trail mix can be an incredibly healthy snack full of antioxidants, good fats, and fiber. Instead of paying an arm and a leg at the grocery store for it, I recommend you make your own. Here’s how:

The Ingredients

There are three basic categories of ingredients that you’ll use: dried fruits, nuts, and sweets.

Dried Fruits

Dried fruits contain many of the nutrients found in fresh fruit, though usually in smaller amounts. They also taste slightly different from their fresh counterparts, so even if you don’t like a certain type of fruit, you may like the dried version.

Get unsweetened dried fruits if possible. You can look at the back and check the ingredients to see if sugar was added, and check the label to see how many grams of sugar it contains. Pick one or two dried fruits from this list:

Pineapple
Raisins
Apricots
Cranberries
Coconut flakes (not dried)
Bananas

Nuts

Nuts are full of healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, fiber, antioxidants, and protein. Look for unsalted and raw (not roasted) nuts to maximize healthiness. Choose one or two varieties of nuts from this list:

Pecans
Pistachios
Walnuts
Almonds
Macadamia nuts
Sunflower seeds
Cashews
Peanuts

Sweets

Adding some sweets makes the mix more satisfying to your sweet tooth. Then when you have a craving for something sweet, you can grab some trail mix instead of some cake, ice cream, or a cookie. Dark chocolate chips are a great choice here since they are packed with antioxidants and contain less sugar. Pick just one from the list below:

Dark chocolate chips
Semi-sweet chocolate chips
White chocolate chips
Butterscotch chips
M&M’s

Put It Together

Here’s a simple recipe:

1 cup nuts
1 cup another kind of nuts
1 cup dried fruit
1 cup another dried fruit
1 cup sweets

If you only use one kind of nuts, then use would use two cups to keep the ratio the same. The formula above gives you a good variety of tastes without having to buy twenty different ingredients.

You can experiment with many different combinations to find what you like best. Every time you go to the grocery store, buy another type of nut or dried fruit and mix it with the other ingredients you already have.

My favorite recipe is:

1 cup pecans
1 cup almonds
1 cup pineapple
1 cup cranberries
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Just remember, even though this is healthy stuff, it’s quite calorie dense thanks to the nuts. You don’t want to eat too much. A half cup is a good serving size and makes a great afternoon snack that will hold you over until dinner.

Mike Ross specializes in fitness for seniors and helps them find simple and effective ways to live healthier. His book, “The Balance Manual,” teaches seniors how to do balancing exercises at home with no equipment.

Should You Prepare Your Own Taxes?

You can’t go anywhere without seeing or hearing advertisements for the easiest, most cost effective and secure way to file your Federal Income Tax return. But how do you make the decision what way is best for you? Should you use a local CPA or tax preparer? Buy that software you are assured will do everything for you including being there when or if an audit rears its ugly head sometime in the future? Or pop into one of those kiosks that can be found at the mall, on your neighborhood main street, or even in your local big box store?

The answer is yes and no to all the above options. If you a filing a very simple 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ form then yes pick up that software. It’s inexpensive, easy to use and will lead you through the entire process. There are many do it yourself tax software programs available all at different prices and offering different features. But they all offer a wizard like interface that walk you through the process, answering general issue questions and performing a quick overview looking for obvious errors and missing information.

However, if you own a business, have sold a business or investment assets, are involved in a trust or any other of the many more complicated tax issues, than buying the software may not be the right solution for you. While the most popular do-it-yourself tax software programs will try to help you with these issues, you might not have the information you need to get the most benefit from the deductions you are allowed. Or even report your income properly. This is where a CPA or professional tax preparer can shine.

So what about those tax preparers who work under the label of a brand name? Like all chain operations, some are excellent, some are good and some are, well not so good. Often the persons preparing your taxes have taken a quick course in the basics of tax preparation and are depending on software and the information you come in with to prepare your return. Don’t expect to get suggestions beyond the obvious and realize you are working with someone that is doing what you could do with an off the shelf tax preparation software in your own home. Of course, you might be lucky enough to run into someone who has been preparing returns for many years. But every year these companies start advertising in the fall for new tax trainees, so just how many are out there with more than a few months training?

And now we come to CPAs and professional tax preparers. These are the people who have studied the tax laws, kept up on all the newest issues and will take the time to deal with your individual issues and needs. A good tax preparer will anticipate the questions and suggest solutions to get you to the point of paying the least amount of taxes you are legally liable for while making sure you have not under reported income or over reported deductions. Do you need a CPA to prepare your taxes? Not always. You do need a CPA to prepare certified financial statements, perform audits and other functions that certify that the financial records you are presenting to an outside entity are correct and complete. There are many excellent non CPA accountants and tax preparers that have the knowledge and experience to prepare your tax return.

And remember, no matter what method you use, in the end, it is you the taxpayer and signer of the return who is responsible for the correctness of the return. If there is an error of any type, it comes back to you. A good tax preparer should stand behind their work, however. They should be willing and able to represent you before the Internal Revenue Service if the need arises. (Where do you think that brand name, trained for a few weeks, and onto another job will be if the IRS comes calling?). A tax preparer may not do this without charging a fee, especially if the audit was called because the information you provided to the tax preparer was incorrect or incomplete, but I would expect them to take responsibility for any error they made due to a mistake in their understanding of the law. Some tax preparers will go as far as reimbursing their clients for any penalties they may incur because of a mistake the preparer had made. Of course this would not include any additional taxes or interest on the unpaid taxes owed by the client.

So to sum it up – if you are just reporting wages, interest, etc and your deductions are simple in nature, than get your self right off to your favorite store and pick up Turbo Tax or to the mall kiosk to sit with a brand name affiliated preparer. If your return involves more complicated issues then do contact your local tax preparer. And remember you get what you pay for, and this is certainly one place where quality and experience can save you a lot of money and grief.

Copyright all rights reserved D. L. MacMillan

Donna MacMillan, Advanced Certified QuickBooks consultant offers a unique set of services covering all aspects of successful business growth and financial health for all business types and sizes. Comprehensive, confidential, and professional services, analyzing, designing or redesigning your current systems to maximize productivity, cash flow and solidify your bottom line.

Take your business to the next level with the training and answers you need when you need them. Private and confidential. Over 30 years experience helping businesses grow through better financial management.

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Organizing For Taxes

Take the stress out of tax time with a few simple tips!

Preparing for tax time can make anyone stressed out – but there’s hope! By using a few easy organizing techniques, you can sail through your taxes come April.

Who’s preparing your taxes? Think about who will be preparing your taxes, and what sort of information they’ll need. Preparing your own taxes is a lot easier if you make a checklist of what documents (W2s, bank statements, etc.) are needed. With a checklist, you’ll know if any important information is missing when you sit down to prepare your taxes. If you’re going to be giving your information to a tax preparer or CPA, ask them how they would like to receive your information. Some tax preparers want a list of expenses, while others are happy to take receipts and do the totaling for you.

Plan in advance. If your system thus far has been to toss all your receipts into a shoebox, now’s the time to spend one or two hours a week (or just 15 minutes a day) gathering and sorting your documentation. This will save you lots of time and stress when you or a professional are actually preparing your taxes.

Record your expenses. If you don’t have an organized way of keeping track of your deductible expenses, you may be missing out on big savings come tax time. Create a list of your expense categories using a simple list, a ledger, or a computer-based system, such as NEAT Receipts. A great benefit of using NEAT Receipts is that not only will the system assign tax categories to your expenses; it will also store a digital copy of your receipts, statements, and other supporting documentation. That way, if you ever were to get audited, all your information will be safely stored in one place.

Keep everything together. Scattered receipts and expenses can lead to lost deductions – and lost money. Instead of losing your receipts or keeping them in a shoebox, purchase an inexpensive accordion folder or scan them into NEAT Receipts. If you choose an accordion, label the folder’s slots with your expense categories, and as you get a receipt, drop it into the corresponding slot. If you’re using NEAT Receipts, your receipts will automatically be categorized. Either way, totaling your expenses for each category at tax time will be a breeze!

What about next year? Don’t wait until next year’s tax time rolls around to start thinking about your 2008 taxes. Start using your new, more organized strategy for keeping track of your receipts and expenses now! Staying on top of receipts and expenses throughout the year can eliminate tax-prep related stress.

Paying taxes is a fact of life, but the stress surrounding tax preparation and keeping track of your receipts doesn’t have to be! Use some of these simple strategies, and when the taxman cometh this April, you’ll be more than ready.

Joshua Zerkel, CPO® is the founder of Custom Living Solutions, a San Francisco-based productivity and organizing consulting firm. Joshua specializes in helping busy entrepreneurs save time, be more productive and make more money by getting organized at home and at work. Visit http://www.customlivingsolutions.com for your FREE copy of “The Top 12 Mistakes to Avoid when Getting Organized”.