If you live in New York state, chances are you’re about to be an unhappy online consumer; per recent legislation, by June 1st, 2008, you’ll have to pay sales tax on your online purchases.
And word on the web is that Amazon has started charging sales tax today.
Sorry, folks. Feel free to move to Georgia! (And come over to my house with cookies, while you’re at it.)
Before you take the skies, take everything you don’t need out of your suitcase.
The rising cost of gasoline has some of us considering flying over driving for our summer plans—find a fare deal and flying could be cheaper—but you’ll need to pay close attention to the new airline regulations about baggage.
A sobering overview can be found here at Mouse Print, and you can find out more (complete with links to individual airlines’ regulations) here.
I wish I had some great tip here about how to circumvent the restrictions or something. My husband joked, “You should find a deal on one of those Space Bag vacuums!” but the reality is that restrictions apply to not only the number of bags, but the weight (and dimensions) of them as well. The only advice I can give you is to pack light or buy plenty of these and vacation at home.
My love for The Consumerist cannot be adequately described, so I’ll just refer you to this informative and hilarious post wherein they let us know that Kroger is offering a 10% bonus on federal stimulus checks converted to Kroger gift cards.
Hey, you’re buying groceries anyway… why not make a little extra?
Have you seen this? You can now use Adobe Photoshop online, for free. You’re at the mercy of your internet connection, of course, but if you’re needing some photo editing magic and you’re too cheap poor to buy some software, there ya go.
If you’re like me, you’ve only been listening with half an ear to this whole “stimulus payment” plan from the IRS, because the information seemed to be trickling out here and there, but often with contradictions. “Eh,” I thought to myself, “they’ll release the details eventually.”
And yesterday, they did. That link there will give you the schedule of payments, so you can figure out when you can expect a check.
Answer any other questions you may have by checking the stimulus payment FAQ; most notably, it appears that these payments really are non-taxable:
Q. Is my stimulus payment taxable?
A. No. You will not owe tax on your payment when you file your 2008 federal income tax return. But you should keep a copy of the IRS letter you receive later this year listing the amount of your payment. In the event you do not qualify for the full amount this year but you do next year, you will need to have the letter as a record of the amount you previously received.
Q. Will the payment I receive in 2008 reduce my 2008 refund or increase the amount I owe for 2008?
A. No, the stimulus payment will not reduce your refund or increase the amount you owe when you file your 2008 return.
Now please do me a favor—plan to use that money to pay down debt and/or jump-start your emergency savings. I’m not going to get into a debate about the whether or not the government is deluded in thinking this is going to help the economy (ahem), but you will have control over your money, when you get it. Use it wisely.
Don’t forget that Discover is running targeted 5% cash back promos all year long, but they do that sneaky little thing where you have to manually sign up to opt in.
How do I know this? Why, if you guessed it’s because I bought plane tickets for the entire family last month before remembering to sign up for this quarter’s travel bonuses, you are correct! (And I am an idiot.) Ahem. Anyway.
You can go enroll for the next quarter right now. It starts in April, and gives a 5% bonus on home and fashion purchases. Why yes, that does mean you can buy more shoes!
I’m afraid that the worst has finally happened.
As of February 14th, 2008, Zappos has completely removed their price protection policy. This means you can no longer pricematch with them. They have also discontinued overnight shipping.
You can still get free overnight shipping and a 110% pricematch at Endless, but the $5 back (negative $5 for overnight shipping, I think they called it) has ended as well. Shoebuy is also still offering 110% pricematching.
Of the three online shoe stores mentioned above, I still believe that Zappos has the best customer service, and I will continue to patronize them when I can afford to do so… but the deals of yore have come to an end.
What? No, um, there’s just something in my eye….
Every so often I post a deal and someone comments “Oh, that place sends a ton of email! Beware!” It happened again this morning, in fact. Stores like to have your email address. Chances are that once you give it to them, they’re going to mail you all sorts of useless things, and they might even give your email address to their “partners.” (Partners in spammage, perhaps.)
This should not stop you from online shopping.
There are any number of free online mail services (I’m partial to Gmail, but you can use whatever you like) where you can make yourself a handy-dandy shopping address. Create an ID and use it only for online shopping. It keeps the annoying mail out of your regular account, and you know just where to go when you need to look up a receipt.
I think I’ve mentioned this in passing before, but having just picked up some t-shirts for $2 apiece, I think it bears repeating: Don’t be afraid to walk into a different department at the store to find some deals. On What Not to Wear Stacy and Clinton are forever chiding grown women for shopping in Juniors—and well they should. If you’re an adult, please don’t dress like you’re fourteen, of course, but sometimes you can get tank tops (to wear under other things) or plain t-shirts (just check the length before you buy) for cheap in the Juniors department.
If you’re a larger woman, ditto for scooching over into Men’s. If you’re a very small woman, maybe you can even wear some stuff from Girls.
Again: This is not an invitation to dress inappropriately, just to think outside the box when it comes to a few basic items.
Have one tax question you’re dying to have explained to you? For the month of January, TurboTax is letting everyone submit one tax question to be personally answered by a professional.
I’m sure they’ll be trying to sell you TurboTax, but if you have a complicated question but don’t want to employ a tax specialist or hang on hold with the IRS for six hours, you might want to check ‘em out.
