Haircut this evening at Supercuts in Ramsey. This is probably a bad time to have a haircut as it was 16°F outside, but it just happened to get long enough at around this time. The standard cut is now $14, up 7.8% from $12.99. Afterwards, I asked the hairdresser and, for future reference, the instructions I need to give to get the haircut I want are "#4 up high, scissor on top to spike". Maybe I should bring that in on an index card next time.
Went to Popeye's in Northern Paramus. This time, the coupon was for 22 pieces of chicken instead of 20 pieces. I thought that was a little weird. Then the restaurant owner, whom I'd never met until this evening, told me that the coupon was probably from a Philadelphia-area newspaper but he'll take it anyway. That's nice of him. Of course, they packed another two sets of coupons with my order.
I'm only around 40% done with my taxes (based on the number of boxes checked in the Taxcut list) but the tax refund meter has gone down to -$203. I expected that though. There just weren't very many capital losses to harvest last year. Also, I don't have a clean-fuel vehicle deduction this time around.
I was curious, however, as to what qualified for charitable deductions, so I checked Publication 526. It turns out that I can deduct car expenses to and from mascot gigs done as volunteer work for qualified charities. The rate is 14 cents per mile plus tolls, so each trip to UCPN is a $25 tax deduction. ($13 from the mileage and $12 from the tolls.) Of course, to be on the safe side, I should include only the mileage for the direct route to and back, omitting any side trips for geocaches and dim sum. (Uhh... wait, maybe the dim sum is a deductible expense too. I need an IRS ruling! :) Nah, I only have records for mileage and tolls.)