Saturday, January 25, 2020
I love Steroid Saturdays. I know I say it all the time, but it is so true. I slip into Super Quad mode and almost always have an amazing day after my Friday chemotherapy treatments. Yesterday my significant other, Donald, received his second W-2 form so I was able to start the first of the four tax returns I usually do each year for our family. Next week, when the free file fillable form is available, I will double-check my math, fill out the unnecessarily complicated free file fillable form, and his return will be on its way.
My son and older daughter are still waiting for all their forms, so I probably will not be able start their tax forms until February. I get to learn a new form for my daughter’s return. She had roommates for part of last year and I get to figure out how claiming rental income and associated deductions work. I am looking forward to the adventure! I was hoping I could do her rental income and deductions on a Schedule C, no such luck. My own taxes are going to require a lot of work. I was too sick to care about keeping my income and expense spreadsheet current, so now I need to start from nearly scratch with my bank statements and receipts. It is my own darn fault I need to do the extra work now. This year I am back on track again.
Thursday, Donald suggested we go to a Brazilian restaurant our family likes today. They have a food bar and keep bringing you grilled meats and vegetables until you wave the red flag. Steroid Saturday is the only day I have enough of an appetite to even remotely justify the steep price. Donald’s birthday was yesterday, so he invited his mom and our son. Our older daughter works on Saturdays at lunch, so she did not come. The five of us had a great lunch and I ate a lot. I may be another five pounds heavier at my next weigh-in. I might need to start cutting calories. I commandeered the lunch and paid for it as Donald’s birthday lunch, even though he invited everyone there.
I really enjoyed the lunch, but I think I am mostly over going out for lunch. When I got the bill, the three pre-calculated tip amounts were 18, 20, and 22 percent, not 15, 18, and 20. To add insult to injury, the restaurant calculates those amounts from the after-tax total instead of the pre-tax amount. I am not paying someone 25 dollars to bring me five drinks and clear away my dishes ($24.80 was the 18 percent amount). The restaurant has a food bar from which we get our own food and they do have servers that bring the grilled items to your table to cut (I am guessing the tips are pooled to cover them), but we did not get any type of service that warranted 25 dollars.
I have been to buffet-style restaurants in the past by myself. If I am alone, I need help getting my food and my server gets a larger tip that is not based on ticket amount -- as they should. I feel for tip-pay scale workers, I know tips are important because our government allows servers to be paid less. Colorado has a $8.98 per hour tip minimum wage (other states are as low as $2.13) and I am requested to pay them another $25 on top of that. I am done feeling sorry for food servers in Colorado. My older daughter only makes 14 or 15 dollars an hour as a manager at one of her jobs. She gets tips at her massage therapist job, but she is one on one with her clients for an hour or more. I would happily tip a massage therapist $25 for an hour if they did a great job because their time was focused solely on me.
I did really have an awesome day, and even though I wrote two whole paragraphs about my three-minute annoyance regarding the pre-calculated tips, the incident did not lessen my joy one bit. I still tipped more than $20 and, yes, the extra three or four dollars does make a difference when combined with eliminating delivery fees and picking up pizza or Chinese food on lazy nights during the course of a year.
My piece of advice to you is pay attention to the add-ons when you pay out. I am okay with being a cheapskate. It is not my job to keep you at the standard of living you prefer.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
I love Steroid Saturdays. I know I say it all the time, but it is so true. I slip into Super Quad mode and almost always have an amazing day after my Friday chemotherapy treatments. Yesterday my significant other, Donald, received his second W-2 form so I was able to start the first of the four tax returns I usually do each year for our family. Next week, when the free file fillable form is available, I will double-check my math, fill out the unnecessarily complicated free file fillable form, and his return will be on its way.
My son and older daughter are still waiting for all their forms, so I probably will not be able start their tax forms until February. I get to learn a new form for my daughter’s return. She had roommates for part of last year and I get to figure out how claiming rental income and associated deductions work. I am looking forward to the adventure! I was hoping I could do her rental income and deductions on a Schedule C, no such luck. My own taxes are going to require a lot of work. I was too sick to care about keeping my income and expense spreadsheet current, so now I need to start from nearly scratch with my bank statements and receipts. It is my own darn fault I need to do the extra work now. This year I am back on track again.
Thursday, Donald suggested we go to a Brazilian restaurant our family likes today. They have a food bar and keep bringing you grilled meats and vegetables until you wave the red flag. Steroid Saturday is the only day I have enough of an appetite to even remotely justify the steep price. Donald’s birthday was yesterday, so he invited his mom and our son. Our older daughter works on Saturdays at lunch, so she did not come. The five of us had a great lunch and I ate a lot. I may be another five pounds heavier at my next weigh-in. I might need to start cutting calories. I commandeered the lunch and paid for it as Donald’s birthday lunch, even though he invited everyone there.
I really enjoyed the lunch, but I think I am mostly over going out for lunch. When I got the bill, the three pre-calculated tip amounts were 18, 20, and 22 percent, not 15, 18, and 20. To add insult to injury, the restaurant calculates those amounts from the after-tax total instead of the pre-tax amount. I am not paying someone 25 dollars to bring me five drinks and clear away my dishes ($24.80 was the 18 percent amount). The restaurant has a food bar from which we get our own food and they do have servers that bring the grilled items to your table to cut (I am guessing the tips are pooled to cover them), but we did not get any type of service that warranted 25 dollars.
I have been to buffet-style restaurants in the past by myself. If I am alone, I need help getting my food and my server gets a larger tip that is not based on ticket amount -- as they should. I feel for tip-pay scale workers, I know tips are important because our government allows servers to be paid less. Colorado has a $8.98 per hour tip minimum wage (other states are as low as $2.13) and I am requested to pay them another $25 on top of that. I am done feeling sorry for food servers in Colorado. My older daughter only makes 14 or 15 dollars an hour as a manager at one of her jobs. She gets tips at her massage therapist job, but she is one on one with her clients for an hour or more. I would happily tip a massage therapist $25 for an hour if they did a great job because their time was focused solely on me.
I did really have an awesome day, and even though I wrote two whole paragraphs about my three-minute annoyance regarding the pre-calculated tips, the incident did not lessen my joy one bit. I still tipped more than $20 and, yes, the extra three or four dollars does make a difference when combined with eliminating delivery fees and picking up pizza or Chinese food on lazy nights during the course of a year.
My piece of advice to you is pay attention to the add-ons when you pay out. I am okay with being a cheapskate. It is not my job to keep you at the standard of living you prefer.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.