We’ve decided to reduce our taxes in protest of the stimulus package. It’s going to take a few days to put a new, strike-worthy budget together, but we’re trying to come up with one that continues to pay down the debt we were stupid enough to incur, yet doesn’t penalize any organizations we support, like our church, Compassion, assorted local secular charities, and various missionaries all over the world – and still reduces our tax burden by half without pulling a Geithner. It’s a tough order. We’re perfectly content to make personal sacrifices to do it; we just have to figure out what to cut, and how much of our income we must eliminate in order to reduce the tax burden. Ordinarily that would reduce our charitable giving, which starts at 15% of the gross. Our charitable giving is usually a little more than our mortgage, so instead of using a percentage, we’ll just keep the flat number. We’ll adjust the budget over the next few months until we find the right setup. But with reduced income and stable giving, that means we’ll need to make adjustments in our lifestyle, which was already fairly modest.
Like most people, we trade money for time. We trade time for money to earn an income, and money for time in areas like eating out and buying processed, more expensive food rather than cooking from scratch. We spend a lot of money on conveniences in order to have more time and energy for work. But since I’m going to be working less, I’ll have time to do more; a reversal of the system.
On the chopping block – Most of our discretionary income is spent on eating out. (We don’t eat to live; New Orleans is the city that lives to eat!) Now I’ll be cooking a lot more, and from scratch, with a goal to eat for less than $3 a day. That’s hundreds saved right there. Netflix, book and movie purchases, and most home improvements are likely to be cut. We gave up cable television quite a while back, but I may get a slower internet connection. We can reduce our cell-phone usage.
Keeping – the Mystic Monk coffee; it’s smmooooth like Vince Guaraldi. Air conditioning; I’ll definitely be sticking to the President Obama-approved temperature controls. If it’s good enough for the White House, it’s good enough for me!
Substitutions - Using the public library more. Maybelline instead of Bare Minerals. Making my own cosmetic remover instead of buying it. There are a lot of money-saving ideas here that I’m going to start using; even recipes to make my own laundry detergent! Again, the trade is money for time; since I’ll be working less, I’ll have a great deal more time on my hands and will be able to make things for which I’d ordinarily pay.
Another budget-enhancer in terms of reducing our tax burden is to barter. I’ll definitely be doing more of that. I will also ensure my charitable giving is at the level I want by doing more work pro bono. I already work (building and maintaining websites) for free or at much reduced rates for charities; I intend to step that up quite a bit.
Oh, and the Magical Mystery Stimulus Tax Break works out to $13 a week. For a year. Until it drops to $8 a week. Is that the tax break promised to “95% of taxpayers who earn below $250,000?” Seriously? Just slap me in the face next time… it’s quicker and more honest. (Senators Snowe, Collins, and Specter – hope it was worth it! I’ll find money somewhere, if I have to sell a few things on Ebay, to donate to whoever opposes you in the next election.) Like The Anchoress, I’ll put that “tax break” in the Donate column of the budget. As for malaise… Bring it on! I want as much malaise as we can get between now and 2010 – maybe people will smarten up by the next election. I’m registered Independent and I don’t particularly care which party rules, but I do care about conservative principles and about capitalism, which has been proven to be the economic system under which people enjoy the best lifestyle and least want. So until 2010, per Mencken – give voters what they asked for, good and hard.
