As Seen On:
March 11th, 2008
Last night Clark Howard ran this story on the Atlanta news teaching viewers how to save money on groceries with 3 simple steps. These are my top 3 tips for saving at the grocery store–easily!
Watch 2 minute video here and start saving big!
March 9th, 2008
Publix shoppers can save money and help dogs too during the month of March. When you purchase $25 in Pedigree products at participating Publix stores, they will make a $5 donation to the Pedigree Adoption Drive AND send you $25 in Publix pet department coupons. Go to www.pedigree.com/publix to participate and learn more.
March 8th, 2008
98.5 KTIS radio in Minneapolis has a weekly Coupon Mom segment that is a lot of fun to do. David and Pam, the hosts of the show, always have great ideas to share with their listeners. If you don’t live in Minneapolis, you can still listen to the Coupon Mom segments (about 2 minutes long) on their blog.
This is a recent segment on saving with multiple coupons.
March 7th, 2008
If you need party supplies, gift wrap, paper goods, greeting cards or more, take advantage of this $5 off $25 purchase for Party City. Print your coupon here.
March 5th, 2008
Many of us donate food to charity, as well as used clothing and household goods. The IRS has recently changed the rules regarding tax-deductibility of used items. For any items donated after August 17, 2006, they must be in good or very good condition to take any deduction at all.
I recently saw a promotion to buy a $25 book that would tell me the value of used clothing and merchandise by item to use in my tax return. However, when I read the IRS publication on this topic, even the IRS said that it is very difficult to determine values of used items. You need to base the valuation on what the items would sell for in a thrift store.
Good news! You can save your money on the $25 book and go to the websites of thrift stores to find reasonable estimates of what items sell for in their stores. Goodwill stores have online sites at www.shopgoodwill.com , and I did a quick Google search ("valuation of used clothing" was my search term) that surfaced many links. For example, this link goes to the Salvation Army’s website and it provides a simple chart with price ranges for many common items. Be sure to print any resource that you use to keep in your files should your deduction amounts be questioned in the future.
If you already have Turbo Tax, you can take advantage of their free service, "It’s Deductible" at their website with updated values of donated items based on surveys of resale stores across the country.
For more details, you can review online the IRS publication, "Determining the Value of Donated Property" and search your individual topic quickly.
