Estimate Your 2012 Tax Refund in less than 5 Minutes...Broke Single Mom Alert!

Photo Credit The Vintage War Bride

Wouldn't it be nice to know how much your Federal income tax refund check might be, right now, or at least very, very soon? If you're anything like me, you count on your income tax refund every year to help pay off some bills, fix your car, upgrade the house or take a vacation. Or maybe you just like seeing your savings account multiply.

If you knew beforehand you could even create a budget and allocate the funds to be spent wisely as opposed to having no real plan and giving into the shopping bug when the money comes in? Hey I've been there, When you have that money and no set plan, pretty shoes and dresses and taking the kids away for a spur of the moment trip, seem like great ideas.

For the past few years I have been using three different websites to calculate my income tax refunds. And they have given me a very close estimate, I'd say within a few hundred dollars, of what my Federal return actually ends up being. I have used it for family members as well and it has basically been the same across the board. 

Vacation on Lay-a-way

Photo Credit Spokesman.com

I ran across an article on Yahoo Finance about Sears offering vacations, from cruises to Hawaii that can be paid on lay-a-way! Lay-a-way was a huge part of my childhood and young adult hood in New York City. It was how my mom got us Christmas gifts. She would go and pick out a few toys for each of us in October with a small down payment then pay it off little by little and bring them home right before Christmas, well most years.

On the years she was unable to get the gifts out prior to Christmas we would get them for Three Kings day, is that just a Puerto Rican thing?

Anywho, when I had my first child I was young and living paycheck to paycheck and her father had passed away so I had to do it all alone. In September I would "make a lay-a-way" as we said back in the day, lol. I would pick out winter clothes, socks and a coat and pay it off every payday until I could bring it home. Same thing I did in the Spring for the summer. It helped me and a lot of other people clothe their children during time when Plato's Closet didn't exist and the only offerings to be had at the Salvation Army and Good Will were polyester suits from the 70's. Oh, the horror!

When stores started to eliminate lay-a-way in favor of store credit cards I was pissed.

Instead of paying it off slowly and owning it once you were done, now if you qualified and got a store card you were at their mercy in terms of the max amount you could spend. And don't even get me started on the ridiculous interest you had to pay.

Yes, you got to take the stuff home before you paid for it. But as we all know that was the beginning of a lot of peoples shopping addiction and snowballing credit card debt.

Enough ranting, here is part of the article and a link to the full story on Yahoo.

Vacation Meal Budget and the Broke Single Mom

Photo Credit Retroama

When you are on vacation, eating out can be a large chunk of your budget. If you figure 4 people eating out 3 meals a day for 5-7 days, you can easily spend upwards of $400.

But when you are on a shoestring budget of $500 for your entire trip you may feel as if there is no way to make this work.

Don't fret, it just takes a little research and planning.

What I like to do is deduct all of my fixed expenses from my budget. Those include, transportation, hotel and baggage fees. Then I take the remainder and guesstimate how much I will need for things like souvenirs and outings.

After all of these deductions I can see how much I have to work with for food. Don't panic if your numbers is low. You can do your best to work with it and if it's just not possible you can adjust another area to put more money into the food budget.

Let's use my friend's upcoming 5 night/6 day trip to Williamsburg.

Mother's Day and the Broke Single Mom

-Just saw that this was never published and was simply in draft mode :) I decided it's my blog so I did try to back date it but wanted to publish whether the back dating takes or not :)-

With Mother's Day upon us I wanted to write a post about inexpensive things to get and give for Mother's Day.

When you are a single mom on a tight budget it can stress you out thinking of your own mother's gift as well as sisters, cousins or best friends.

On the other side of that coin, you may not be able to give each of your kids $20 to go get you a gift. Or is my mom the only one that did that? Nah, she can't possibly be. I mean I did when I was flush with Cash.

Anywho, Mother's Day isn't, or shouldn't be about material gifts. It is about loving and honoring the mothers in our lives that mean so much to us.

If your kids want to gift you something besides what they've made in school you can give them a low cost suggestion list. This way they get to pick and choose and it will be a surprise since you won't know which to expect.

You can find plenty of things online but here are a few:

Coupons, This Coupon entitles you to a: Clean kitchen, foot rub, clean car etc.

Breakfast in bed: Self explanatory

Photo Puzzle: They'll need a large photo, glue and scissors

Movie Night: They can pull out your favorite movie, make some popcorn and curl up on the couch with you. ( I think this is my favorite sicne my teenagers haven;t watched a movie on thecouch with me for a couple of years)

As for gifts that you can give to the other moms in your life without breaking the bank or whipping out that credit card, how about?

 Baked Goods

The tried and true will work here, a plate of chocolate chip cookies or a cake. But you can try something a little different like a Cupcake Bouquet.









So be creative and Happy Momma's Day.

Mother's Day/Free Gift and the Broke Single Mom



Photo Credit Babble

As my Mother's Day present to you, I will gift one of my eBooks (your choice) if you email me at brokesinglemombooks (@) yahoo.com through midnight tomorrow May 13th,2012. Just put Mother's Day in the subject line.

Hello every one! I just wanted to wish you all a fabulous and wondrous Mother's Day tomorrow.

May your children shower you with love and attention and may your man do the same, with diamonds!

And if you don't have a man, then I wish for you to meet Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome :)

(But it is 2012 so make sure to vet him online before that first date)