Did you notice that I only spent $4 on ink cartridges at Staples last week?

That’s because I had $25 in Staples rewards for recycling ink cartridges!

Join Staples Rewards and every ink cartridge you take to your local Staples to be recycled earns you $3 in Staples Rewards. Not only that, but you also earn 10% back in rewards on all your ink and toner purchases!

Do you work in an office? Collect ink cartridges from your coworkers! Do you print coupons? I bet you go through quite a bit of ink! You can recycle up to 10 ink cartridges a month – that’s $30 in Staples Rewards!

This is an exercise suggested in a post from Punch Debt in the Face - it’s a letter to myself 10 years in the future. For me, it serves as my goal of how I would like my life to be in 10 years.

Congratulations, Self!

You’ve done it! You’ve paid off all your debts, bought a lovely house, and have a hefty rainy day fund. You’re enjoying life because you’re no longer burdened by bills. You’re relationships have improved because you’re gotten rid of the unnecessary stress of debt.

You’re care-free. A kid again!

You’ve learned from your money mistakes, and I’m proud of you. But I don’t want you to forget what it feels like to live paycheck-to-paycheck. Remember the times when you struggled to make minimum payments, fought with your husband about money, and ate macaroni and cheese until payday.

Continue to clip coupons and stick to your budget. Don’t take anything for granted. Be generous with any leftovers you may have.

And keep up the good work.

xoxo.

Me

I realize that I’m a relatively new Texan (we’ve only lived in Austin since January) and I might not fully understand the ramifications of what I’m about to say, but…

Holy hell RodeoHouston tickets were expensive! Triple digit expensive and still sold out months in advance! I guess that just goes to show how much Texans appreciate their cowboys.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo takes place at Houston’s Reliant Stadium every March and the festivities last for weeks and attract over 1 million spectators. This year’s rodeo just came to a close and even though we’re a few hours from Houston in Austin, it’s all people talked about for the past few weeks (well, that and SXSW).

I’ve heard quite a few people say that the draw of the rodeo isn’t the rodeo itself, but the musical acts.

And the rotating stage.

I never knew a rodeo could attract so many top performers. We’re talking Grammy winners and Disney stars here, people! This this year’s lineup including artists such as Mary J. Blige, Brooks & Dunn, the Jonas Brothers, Keith Urban, and the Black Eyed Peas, so I guess I can see why tickets go for a premium.

Though I think I’d rather pay my Visa bill.

This is a sponsored post. Please see my site policy with any questions.

Are you a blogger? Does your blog make money? Have you been given products of value in exchange for blog posts? If you answered YES to any of those questions, The Tax Institute at H&R Block has some great tax tips to share with you!

(I’ve summarized some the key points below, so make sure to download the complete Business of Blogging for all the juicy details.)

Is your blog a business?

The determination of whether your blogging activity is a business or a hobby is an important one. Whether your blog is a business or hobby directly affects how you report income and expenses from the activity.

Your blog may be directly related to a business activity, in that case, the decision is easy. All blog-related income and expenses should be reported along with the other business income and expenses.

Operating like a business

• Network with other successful bloggers
• Set up a separate business account and credit card
• Keep records
• Store your records in a safe place in the order that the transactions occur
• Back up your computer files

What is income?

• Fees paid to you
• Advertising revenue
• Product trials and endorsements
• There are such things as “gifts” -a box of chocolates, a cute calendar, products sent to you as “warm fuzzies”

Expenses

• Hosting fees
• Computer equipment
• Marketing and advertising
• Books and magazines
• Bank fees
• Legal fees
• Accounting fees
• Tax preparation
• Home office

Your tax return

Assuming your blog is a one person venture and you didn’t incorporate or form an S corporation, you report your income and expenses on Schedule C. Good news is that your expenses directly offset your income and you can show a loss. Bad news is that if you make more than $400 net profit, you’ll be paying self-employment SE tax.

I received access to H&R Block The Best of Both software free of charge. I was not asked for anything in exchange but chose to share the tax tips I was given with my readers. Please read my site policy if you have any questions.

I am quite proud of my CVS trip this morning. I spent less than $5 and walked out with the same amount of ECBs than I went in with!

• 2 Scrubbing Bubble Mega Shower regularly $3.49 on sale 2/$6 – 2 $0.50 Sunday coupons = $5
• 2 8.5 oz Hershey Kisses regularly $3.42 on sale for $1.97 – $1 Sunday Coupon = $2.94
• 1 Colgate Sensitive toothpaste $3.99 with $3.99 ECB – $1 Sunday Coupon = $2.99
• used $8 ECB from previous purchase

Earned

• $3.99 ECB from Colgate
• $3 ECB from $10 candy purchase
• $1 ECB from bag tag

Total = $3.15

Saved = $18.02

I’m a courteous couponer.

I shop at non-peak times. I have all my coupons organized and ready for the cashier. I place the free items at the end of my order so the prices are easy to locate on the receipt. I regularly check the expiration date on all my coupons. I even let people know when they get in line after me that I have coupons.

Yet, The Coupon Stink Eye (a great post by my good friend Cheapo McFrugalpants, who I have discussed Coupon Stink Eye with at length) still exists. I’ve had people audibly sigh. I’ve had people stare me down. I’ve had people angrily throw their items back into their cart and change lanes.

99% of the time, I smile, politely apologize for the holdup, and thank them for their patience.

Except for when people mumble. Mumbling is so cowardly. I can’t respect mumblers and I had my fill last week.

“Mumble mumble COUPONS mumble mumble WASTING MY TIME mumble mumble ALL THIS FOR A FEW CENTS.”

I whipped around and said “Deal with it. I’m unemployed.”

When my transaction was complete I added “$29.30 seems like more than a few cents to me!”

And then I scuttered out of the grocery store as quickly as possible.

These people are obviously few and far between, but frustrating none-the-less. I’ve had other shoppers interested to see how much I’ve saved, I’ve had cashiers applaud, and I’ve had managers ask me how I do it (and I’m not even that good at it).

Coupons are a perfectly legitimate way to save money and I will not be shamed into stuffing them back into my purse for the benefit of the next person in line. I wait for people to write checks, return items, and chit-chat with the cashier, they can wait for me to save a little bit of money.

Have you ever encountered Coupon Stink Eye? Share your stories!

When I meet someone who has read this blog, they always tell me that the Daily Dollars posts are their favorite posts. Whether they are financial voyeurs or generally interested in how often I stop at Sonic for half price slushies, I have no idea, but it got me thinking that some of my readers might like to participate.

So…welcome to the first official Daily Dollars linkup! The (super easy and very lax) rules are below. Have fun and thanks for joining!

• $4 Staples – ink cartridges (had $25 rewards card for recycling ink cartridges)
• $106 Walmart – grocery shopping (saved $26 in coupons)
• $24 gas
• $6.50 Hey Cupcake – birthday cupcakes!
• $12.50 Which Wich – birthday dinner
• $14 vet – Ollie needed a pedicure
• $11 Taco Cabana

Daily Dollars Rules & Regulations

1. Pick a day (or the entire week) and track your spending. Blog about where you spent your money and on what.

2. Add your permalink (the URL of your post) below.

3. Please mention Daily Dollars in your post and link back to Broke as a Spoke. Feel free to include the Daily Dollars badge below and use #dailydollars if you Twitter.

4. I plan on having the Daily Dollars post live every Saturday by noon – don’t hold it against me if I sleep in.

5. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to participate in the comments!

6. Make an effort to comment on as many posts as possible. If someone leaves a comment on your post, return the favor. This is about sharing.

7. Be honest. The hardest part of tracking your spending is fessing up when you’ve wasted money or made an impulse purchase. It’s okay. I’ve been doing it for three years and still cringe at my spending habits.

<a href="http://brokeasaspoke.com"><img src="http://brokeasaspoke.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/daily-dollars.jpg"></a>

If this is a total bust, we’ll ditch it. No hard feelings.