Easter Dinner

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and had an opportunity to spend it with friends and family!

Last Thursday, Nick and I were asked to cook Easter dinner for our DC and visiting family. All we had to do was set the menu, hand over the grocery shopping list, and show up to cook!

We planned the following menu:

Appetizers: Homemade Baba Ghanoush and Hummus with Warm Pita and Cucumbers

While I finished the hummus, Nick set the table.

Dinner: 
Steak, only seasoning was garlic salt and pepper

Homemade Pierogies. My aunt and I started this recipe on Saturday and made a double batch, half with a white potato and the other with sweet potatoes. It took 3 hours of prep, but well worth it on Sunday evening :)

Fun tip of the day, learned from my sister, if you need to chop up fresh herbs place them in a cup and use a pair of scissors to chop. Works in a snap without the mess!

We also had a spinach salad with feta, red onion, and grape tomatoes.

Desert: Homemade Carrot Cake. One of our favorites.

The best part of the evening was kicking back afterwards and catching up with the Fam :)

A mostly unstaged photo :) 

FreeTax Filing

This week I finished our taxes!!! With a little bit of motivation, Nick convinced me that I could indeed figure out how to do our taxes without spending $100 on an online program or a tax consultant. I was really nervous that if I screwed up we would end up owing more in taxes and therefore negating the idea of saving any money by doing it on my own.

NOTE: I am NOT a tax expert. This is my personal take on my first tax filing experience. Please do what you think is best given your current tax situation and don't cut corners or lie on your tax return! It is important to pay your taxes and keep our government chugging along :)

So quick basics on our tax return:
Federal Tax Return: I completed a 1040 Form and used the lengthy Instruction Booklet. The 1040 Form is only 2 pages with additional backup schedules to help calculate the individual line numbers for the 1040. Some schedules are mandatory, so be sure to read the instructions. You can file for free online or in hard-copy. I chose to complete ours online.

State Tax Return: Different for each state, but if you live in DC you can use the D-40 or a D-40EZ. Determine which is right for you here.

If you are thinking about doing your own taxes this year, I would encourage you to read through my 5 "Lessons Learned" on preparing your taxes for the first time:

1. Complete your Federal Tax Return before your State Tax Return. The two forms work together, to some degree, which was nice to learn. Their is not duplication in everything you submit to the government :) Your federal return walks you through turning your total income into your taxable income. Your total income is decreased by deductibles, such as student loan interest payments, to provide you with your total taxable income. By the way, I think the deductible for student loan interest payment should not have a cap of $2,500, especially for a joint return- give me at least $5,000!!!


2. Your previous tax returns can be a very useful tool. I sat with my 2012 paperwork for the full duration of both my federal and state returns. In terms of taxes, nothing new has changed in Nick and my life, so I knew that I could use my previous year's return as a template. Until we decide to have a kid or buy a house, I think I will be able to manage filing our own taxes using this system. But, if any life changes come our way I will probably use a consultant or online system to help complete our return to ensure that I have a new template to work from the following year.

3. Understand the different Schedules and when to use them. I went through what schedules I submitted last year and looked through each one to determine why they were used. While I was reading the instruction booklet, I made note of where I would need to use the different schedules. This helped me to get organized and not overwhelmed. The schedules seem intimidating but they really are just glorified worksheets. They help you layout how to came up with your number for line X on your 1040, so don't be scared of them.

Nick is an amateur investor and plays in the stock market. It is like his little pot of gold (note: St. Patty's Day is right around the corner!); however, when it comes to filing our taxes this is a HUGE headache. Each trade must be listed on Schedule D and includes the date of purchase, date of sale, gain/loss, a short or long term sale, and magically most of the tax forms we received did not have all of this information. This was really frustrating for me because I had to keep asking Nick to look up each transaction. In the end, I think it took about an hours worth of work for a minimal increase in our income.

4. Do not drink wine while doing your taxes :)  Surprisingly I quickly lost all ambition and focus to decipher the language in the 1040 Instruction Booklet. The booklet is pretty straight forward, but at times it still didn't make complete sense. I reread sections multiple times to figure out what they were asking me to add/subtract or if we qualified for a certain deduction. This was a great time to revert back to point 2, use of our 2012 tax return. It took me 3 sittings to complete our federal return: One for wine :), Two for frustration and missing forms, and the Third sitting took extra time due to a lack of information on our tax forms- see schedule D example above.

5. Do your Taxes Early and Don't Stress! The whole process was fairly easy. By starting them two weeks ago , I was able to take my time and ensure that everything was correct. I had enough time to look through all of the information and ensure that I was comfortable with the final amount we owed. Yes, we did owe, but I could have told you that before I started. If at the end the numbers don't seem to be adding up, you can always take it to one of the tax companies to take a look and pay your fee, but at least give it a try! It is really empowering to understand exactly what deductions we can and cannot qualify for and what percentage of our income goes to taxes.

Good Luck and Happy Tax Filing!

My Standing Desk

I had a co-worker, a few jobs back in 2010, who came in on his first day and started setting up boxes in his cube. I questioned what he was doing and he informed me that he was creating a standing desk. Curious as to why he would want to stand and work all day, I started to do my own research on the benefits of standing at your work station.

I found plenty of skeptics pointing out that not enough scientific studies had been completed to verify that standing all day was healthy or more healthy then sitting, and others questioning what standing for an extended period of time would do to your knees. I recently received this picture below as a PDF from my employer that really summed up why people should consider standing at their desk, The Health Hazards of Sitting. Standing at your desk does not need to be a 8 hour affair. Personally, I aim for 6 hours a day, but everyone is different and you definetly have to build your muscles and tolerance to standing for extended periods of time.

In short, I decided to stand at my workstation for a few days to see if I could/should/wanted to invest in this idea of a standing desk. I immediately noticed a difference in my attention span, a greater attention to detail , and I felt more awake throughout the day. In 2010, I stood for roughly six months and then moved to a different organization and enjoyed sitting on a ball chair. I recently was motivated to get back into the grove of standing though, once again, a new co-worker coming in and setting up boxes in his cube.

I tried to go the box building route again, but got discouraged when everything wiggled, so I started looking at buying a standing desk set-up. Depending on the sophistication of the set-up prices vary; for my needs I wanted something that would work within my current cubical setting. I found standing desks for $69.99 up to $851.05. But given that I am frugal, I wanted to find the best quality for the lowest price possible. So, I decided to make my own!

What I used:

• Measuring Tape
• Wood Glue
• Nail Gun with 2" nails 
• Pine Wood 
• Sandpaper
• Home Depot's Wood Cutting Personnel :) 

First off, I need to thank my dad for walking me through my design and my uncle for letting me use his nail gun and teaching me how to use the nail gun- that was a very important piece!! Nick also deserves a round of applause for agreeing to hold the boards while I nailed them together and he managed to come out of the experience without any holes in his hands. He is a brave man :)

Since this is not a woodworking blog, I will not bore you with the details of creating the boxes, but I will break out the cost analysis.

I made two boxes, one for my monitor and one for my keyboard/mouse. In total, I needed  11ft of 3/4in board 8 inches wide of wood. I went with pine because it is a cheaper wood, lightweight,and would look good in my gray office space.

So here is the cost breakdown:

11ft of 3/4in board 8 inches wides Pine: $25.58
Wood Glue, smallest bottle available: $3.83
Nail Gun and Nails : FREE- this was a huge cost and time saver for me
Sandpaper: $3.97
Cutting of the Wood : FREE- nice trick to know at Home Depot they will do basic cuts for you at no cost

Total Cost: $ 33.38

Total Cost Savings: $36.61 
My cost saving on this project is based on if I were to have bought the cheapest standing desk option I found at $69.99.


Total time for the project: 4 Hours and 25 Minutes
This includes measuring the needed height for the boxes at my work station (10 mins), laying out the design and getting feedback (30 mins), going to Home Depot for supplies (1.5 hrs), setting up and learning to use the nail gun (30 mins), assembling the box (45 mins), and sanding (1 hour).

At the end of the day, I believe this project was well worth the investment of time and money for the benefits of a healthier work environment. If you want to learn more about the specifics on putting together your own standing desk, shoot me an email or toss a comment on the bottom and I am happy to give you some more details.

Happy Standing!