Since he's an independent contractor, it's pretty new territory for us, so we're trying to figure out what he can and can't write off. I've gotten different lists from different places. We've figured out a system that will work for us with receipts, which is to keep them divided by category in different envelopes (and possibly by month?). I.E., golf (this one I did find out… totally counts if you write it off by individual game, as long as it was with a client), dinners/drinks for clients, commuting, professional memberships, movies (totally counts as research, since it's part of his job to be up and up on the entertainment industry) etc. Still have to get the exact categories.
We've also been looking for a new credit card for him. The one he has now it crap, in terms of rewards and it has a not so fun annual fee. Ick! So we've been looking for one that's JUST for business expenses. I think that it will be much easier to A.) Keep track of for taxes and B.) We don't have to have a monthly category for "business expenses". Instead, we can just pay it out of the next month and adjust our budget from there. We don't expect it to be a huge amount for a few months, until he builds his own client roster. Still.
And of course, we had to take advantage of the labor day sales yesterday and we bought him a lot of new clothes. Since he'll be sporting a full suit and tie every day (god bless my job where I can throw on my jeans and t shirts!), he needed new collared shirts (his were beginning to sport a pancake collar… and just looked very used… looks like the dry cleaner it is from now on. boo!), new ties to match, a new belt and new socks. He actually bought two fancy new suits a few months ago… we'll definitely be looking to pick up 1 or 2 more in a few months so he has more variety (and they last longer). That was quite an expensive trip, even with a TON of discounts! We were going to hit up the outlets, but my poor boyfriend HATES shopping for clothes with a passion. We walked into Nordstrom, he took ONE look at the price tag on a 100 dollar shirt, and walked right back out. And he now says that he will never go into a Nordstrom again, because it was insane to pay that much money for a shirt. Ha! I guess I should be glad, although I will definitely still be shopping there for myself! But anyway, I knew the outlets would make him want to kill himself with the mobs of people there, so we just hit up Macys. Quality at reasonable prices. {We also took my Louis Vuitton bag in to get repaired. I waved goodbye to my bag, which I won't see again for 6-8 weeks, AND the 127 dollars it will cost for the repair (upon receipt of the fixe bag). Bummer.}
We've also found out that he's going to be paid weekly. Interesting. We're not sure if he will get paid THIS Friday, or start next Friday (when I started my job, I got paid two weeks the first check, even though I'd only worked there one… I doubt most places would do that). When we get that though, we'll be paying off all his new clothing purchases, and part of my credit card bill. The next week, we'll have all of our credits cards paid off, and we'll start to attack my dental bill. Can't wait to get that monkey off my back. THEN we can SAVE MONEY!!!!
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