We’ve talked about tax deductions related to your reception site, but there are a few other nice opportunities for wedding-related deductions that shouldn’t be missed, both for during and after your wedding.

The I Do Foundation has a number of creative ways to incorporate giving into the wedding itself, which you can do through them or replicate yourself. I will be doing a number of these for my own wedding next year.

• Give on guests’ behalf. Give to your favorite charity on behalf of each guest, then provide a favor related to that gift, whether a printed card or something more specific. Then, deduct the full amount as a charitable donation. We’re thinking of donating to our favorite avian charity, then attaching announcements printed on plantable hearts filled with seeds (we plan to make these ourselves) to these cute dove bottle openers. (We’re trying to find a source for the doves without the packaging, however.) The favors themselves, of course, are not deductible, but they make a nice presentation. The Knot has some more stories of fun ways couples incorporated tax-deductible giving into their weddings.
  
• Build a registry of charities. Create a registry of the charities you wish to support, then let guests make their own selections when giving. JustGive and Changing the Present are two more great charitable gift registry sites which makes it easy to set up a registry of the organizations you want to support. You can add explanations for why these are meaningful to you as a couple and how they support your shared beliefs. Then all of your guests get to claim a deduction and they’ll have you to thank when filing their 1040s.

And this one’s not a deduction, but I’m listing it anyway because it’s a good idea: have your gift registry give back. You can create a gift registry with one of the I Do Foundation’s partner stores and have up to 10% of the purchases given to a charity of your choice.

Next time, I’ll share some donations you can write off after the wedding festivities.

We’re entering the peak wedding season, it seems.

Ever since I got engaged earlier this year, I’ve been bombarded by sales pitches from every angle. They’re certainly tricky. They come disguised in several colors of tulle, bearing elegantly inscribed messages to remind me that I only live once and want my special day to be perfect.

Perfect, of course, translates to premium, as in every upgrade on the already mile-high price list. If you’re a frugal sort, it’s almost enough to make you fall out of love with the idea completely.

For my fiance and myself, our special day will only be perfect if we can have all our family and friends join us without incurring additional debt. The perfect wedding should be the start of our perfect life together, where we can actually afford our bills and monthly expenses. So I’ve been searching relentlessly for information to plan an affordable event to remember which still reflects our beliefs and way of life as ethical consumers.

Luckily, my search has revealed that there’s a great way to save on money while still supporting causes we believe in: finding tax-deductible wedding expenses.

The Venue
I’ve learned that the reception is typically the most costly part of the wedding, comprising about half of the total cost, according to theknot.com. This estimate includes the cost of the venue, catering food and service, alcohol and beverages, wedding cake and parking.

If you choose to have your reception at a site owned by an approved nonprofit organization, your site fees may be tax-deductible, as the cost can be considered a donation to support the upkeep of the facility. This applies to a number of historic landmarks and homes, museums, even nature centers.

I’ll share a few local spots I discovered:

Prallsville Mill, a rustic, historic mill in Stockton, NJ, holds up to 150 guests.
Tax-Deductible Facility Fee: $1,850

Honey Hollow Barn, the nature center for the Bucks County Audubon Society, is a lovely stone barn with exposed beams in desirable New Hope, PA and holds up to 75 guests.
Tax-Deductible Facility Fee: $2,500 for a Saturday wedding

Things to Know
You must obtain a statement from the nonprofit organization which states the amount of your contribution. Goods and services recieved must be deducted from this, if applicable.

For church rentals, although only your accountant can tell you about any other applicable rentals, any amount beyond what is considered to be the fair market value of the rental is tax-deductible. You may be able to deduct gifts paid to clergy as well.

In order to claim these deductions, you will need to itemize them using Schedule A.

Know of any more great, tax-deductible spots for a wedding reception? Post them in the comments!

My next entry will feature more tax-deductible wedding savings ideas.

Image Credit: babasteve

As I shared with you a few weeks ago, I choose to pay more for my electricity. And in 2007, 71 percent of my total grocery budget went to support local agriculture and small businesses.

Each year, I buy a harvest share at a local community supported agriculture farm. I promise to start waxing poetic about my fabulous fruits and veggies once they start pouring in around mid-May. But for now, my topic of discussion is the act of deliberately choosing certain sources and providers for my purchases.

Sometimes I spend more, sometimes less, but I always try to spend consciously. And this concept is at the very root of ethical consumerism.

Wikipedia defines ethical consumerism as:

...buying things that are made ethically. Generally, this means without harm to or exploitation of humans, animals or the natural environment.

I find this to be a somewhat narrow definition, really, as ethics are a highly personal matter. While I may believe in supporting local agriculture and channeling my grocery budget away from factory and agribusiness farms, someone else may want the Coca-Cola company to take over the market and choose to channel all his spending towards their products.

I prefer to look at it instead as conscious spending. Whatever my interests, when I look over my budget and spending, I want it to reflect my personal moral criteria. There are two main ways to accomplish this goal: paying for products and services you believe in, and avoiding those you don’t.

Positive Buying – This is the term used for what I call “voting with your dollars,” channeling your spending towards recycled or fair trade goods, local organic farms, woman- or minority-owned businesses, cruelty-free products, etcetera. Essentially, you are investing your monies in a business you believe in, helping to ensure its success.

The United Kingdom has a relatively active ethical consumist movement, and even a magazine dedicated to the topic, Ethical Consumer. The publication rates companies according to an “ethiscore” which is meant to assess the environmental, human/animal rights, and political impact of each company, the idea being that consumers can then choose to support companies with the lowest negative impact.

Moral Boycott – The other side of this is the avoidance of companies whose practices you do not support. Ethical Consumer has a large list of these as well, including:

• Adidas, for its use of kangaroo skin in footwear
• ChevronTexaco, for dumping toxic waste in the Amazon
• Starbucks, for failing to support fair trade practices

If you watched Blood Diamond and then decided never to purchase diamond jewelry, you are practicing moral boycott.

Why Bother? – Well, sometimes it works. The primary law of consumerism, if you buy it, they will sell it, comes into play when these purchasing behaviors are witnessed on a larger scale. Wal-Mart starts selling organic products. Sweatshops close, while fair trade coffee shops open. There’s been talk that specific purchasing behaviors only serve to create niche markets, but these markets are growing.

Just this month, BusinessWire reported that:

The organic food segment dominates overall organics spending with sales in excess of US$20 billion in Europe and US$17 billion in the US alone. Food products are also increasingly being tagged as organic. In 2007 15.1% of new food product launches tracked by Productscan were tagged as organic, compared to 7.3% in 2002.

As the ethical movement has grown, a number of companies have tried to position themselves as green, some with more success than others. Going forward it is imperative that businesses create a clear plan of how to re-adjust to meet consumer demand or risk being left behind.

While some companies merely posture (a tactic termed “greenwashing”), many companies are reacting to public demand and pursuing more socially responsible and environmentally sound business practices.

Conscious buying alone may always not achieve what you’re looking for. If environmental impact is what concerns you, tossing a household full of products into a landfill won’t offset all your new, green purchases. Buying consciously while buying only what you need is the key.

Does your spending reflect your beliefs?

I asked a few weeks back whether any of you had changed your spending behaviors based on our current recession. Some of you had cut back, while others underscored the importance of always living frugally, so no recession-time cutbacks are necessary.

I, too, choose to live frugally. But sometimes, I also choose to pay more.

In fact, on Halloween Day 2006, I officially made the decision to pay more for my electricity. 1.3 cents per kilowatt hour more, in fact, which generally means an extra $11 to $16 per month for me, based on recent history.

Clean Power Choice
On that date, I signed up with New Wind Energy, which offers nationwide green energy programs. They participate in the NJ Clean Power Choice program, where these charges are directly added to my monthly utility bill.

It’s a set-it-and-forget-it approach to green power, allowing me to support my chosen provider without the installation or hassle of new lines, etc. New Wind Energy is just one of lots of providers available throughout the country, which allowed me to choose the type(s) of power I desired.

I filled out a basic form, and about a month later I was being charged the difference in power cost, paying the delivery fees to my local utility while my supply payment is redirected to support wind power. The electricity I buy is supplied to the grid, even though it isn’t technically going straight to my house. My favorite analogy here is of adding clean water to a a bathtub of dirty water. The water’s not going to become crystal clear right away, but it will gradually become cleaner.

My money helps to build more wind turbines, the most cost-effective renewable energy technology in the world. You can read more about wind energy here, but one of the biggest benefits is the reduction of greenhouse gases, as wind power creates no emissions. The more of this type of power coming into the grid, the better, and I’m happy to help tip the balance.

Renewable Energy Certificates
The Clean Power Choice Program is somewhat more straightforward than RECs (renewable energy certificates), another option for greening your power. There’s a lot to discuss about RECs, but they work much like carbon offsets—you’re purchasing your equivalent electricity usage in green power. Even if your state offers no power choice programs, you can still go online and buy your allottment of RECs.

Wikipedia provides some great background on RECs:

Because nuclear and fossil fuel power are subsidized and their full costs are not built into the price charged, they are cheaper than most renewable sources. The wholesale price for electricity is determined by non-renewable sources and is often less than the cost of producing it through cleaner renewable methods. This is due partially to government subsidies for the nonrenewable energy industry, and partially to a market structure that does not fully capture all social and environmental costs associated with conventional electricity generation (like air pollution, costs to maintain the military in oil-rich parts of the world, disposal costs for nuclear waste, health impacts of dirty generation, etc.) A REC represents an additional payment for producing power from renewable resources, allowing the producer to generate and sell electricity at the local market price and thus enabling more clean renewable energy to be made.

Going Solar
I had been actively pursuing solar panel installation for my house, but the contractor explained I’d have to cut down a giant 50-year-old tree I adore, plus the cost, while well-subsidized, still was nearly $20,000. That’s a lot for a little ranch house like mine, plus I don’t plan to live here for more than another 5 years, so it may not pay to do it. A system only goes about 15 years before needing repairs, another consideration. I am hoping that further subsidies for solar installation will become available in the future and will see what I can do on that front as well.

My Choice
Faced with all of these options, I took the easy route to clean energy for my home with the Clean Power Choice program, and I’ve never regretted it, even as fuel and utility costs continue to rise.

But why? Simply said, I believe that my power as a consumer is one of the strongest powers I have, possibly more impactful than the US voting process, though of course I still plan to exercise my right to vote.

But with my dollars, I’m voting every day, sanctioning the business practices of the companies my money supports, regardless of my intentions. I’ve been this way for a long time, but only recently learned the name for my particular condition: ethical consumerism. (More on that in a future entry.)

For most of my young life, bargains were paramount, and I continually made choices based on the best price or best customer experience. Now I see my purchasing power as directly shaping the world in which I live, and I’m making very different choices.

I am well aware that the environmental impact of our present fuel consumption is a humongous spectre, of such massive scale that it seems impossible to combat it. I’ll confess that I do have a relatively apocalyptic vision of our planet’s future. However dismal the outlook may seem, I’m a person of action, and over the last few years, I’ve seen the scales start to tip in positive ways from an aggregate of what are really minor lifestyle changes. It’s encouraging.

I willingly pay more for electricity so that I can be using and contributing to the kind of power I believe in: clean, green power.

I pay more as an investment, so that over time these technologies will become better and more affordable. In fact, according to a recent article in BusinessWeek, it’s happening already.

So I pack a few lunches a month to cover the extra expense. To me, it’s worth it.

Green Power Provider Locator [EPA.gov]
Wind Energy Basics [National Renewable Energy Laboratory]
Clean Energy: It’s Getting Affordable [BusinessWeek]

Image Credit: Phault

RIS News, a retail technology publication, announced some interesting findings recently related to consumer shopping behavior.

According to Deborah Weinswig of Citi Investment Research, the recession is creating more bargain hunters and transforming our shopping style in four key ways:

1. “Trading Down” to Private Label
There’s a cost benefit to going generic, and store brand sales are increasing at stores like BJs, Costco and Target. People are becoming less willing to pay 20% more on average just for a label. Of course, this means the marketing folks out there are trying even harder to build brand loyalty to justify their premium prices.

2. “Trading Down” to Lower-Priced Products
Higher food costs (5.8% inflation in January 2008) are causing consumers to examine their grocery bills more closely, and grocers are commenting on a shift from “steak to chicken.” The USDA is forecasting more increases in the near term, so you may be seeing less filet mignon and more ramen noodles on your dinner table soon. Luckily, there are some great sites out there to help you achieve great culinary feats with less expensive ingredients.

3. “Trading Down” to Cheaper Channels
Not only are consumers buying less expensive goods, they’re also visiting more discount stores. RIS details how Wal-Mart is again trumping Target:

Around the last recession, Wal-Mart outcomped Target almost every month (5/00-7/03) and that reversed when the economy strengthened (8/03-11/07). Now for 3 months in a row, we have seen Wal-Mart outcomp Target and we believe this is the beginning of a longer-term trend.

4. “Trading In” From Restaurants
Cooking at home is becoming a more appealing option for many, as I myself can attest after spending $40 on 2 Pizzeria Uno chicken salads for dinner. (What was I thinking?)

2007 brought the greatest year-over-year increase in at-home food sales since the 1940s, a 240 basis point increase. After remaining flat since 2001, dining in grew to 53.2% of total food expenditures last year, and to 54.6% in January 2008. Perhaps we should thank Rachael Ray and her cult of the 30-minute meal.

Have your shopping styles been affected as the economy slows? What changes have you made?

Cost-Cutting Consumers Trade Down from Steak to Chicken [RIS News]

My day-to-day existence includes nearly 4 hours of commuting, 8-12 hours of work where I’m without access to my personal e-mail, and very little time left over in which to live life to the fullest.

In my endless struggle to balance work, friends and family, I find that mobile web access is a must.

For years, I’ve been a faithful Verizon Wireless customer, enjoying my 17% employee discount and spending an extra $6-7 a month for bare-bones mobile web access on my teeny little flip phone.

I’ve often stared with envy at the iPhone and web-enabled PDAs like the Blackberry, but the more I look into these options, the more I realize I’m simply not interested in paying that much for mobile web access. My company’s not about to pony up the cash, and I’m hesitant to pay $30 or more per month just to be constantly accessible. And since my contract’s not yet up, I need to stay with my current provider to avoid termination fees.

Since I was recently eligible to upgrade my mobile phone at a reduced rate, I went to my local Verizon Wireless shop to search for more affordable solutions. There were, of course, fewer cheap options than I’d hoped. I’ll outline them here to help save you time in your own search:

Option 1: The Smartphone
Service Charge: $45/month
Phone Cost: $200-$600
This option offers really cool smartphones like the Palm Treo and XV6800. E-mail is pushed right to the phone instantly, plus there’s a QWERTY keyboard and nice screen size.

Option 2: The Blackberry
Service Charge: $30 (personal e-mail) or $45 (corporate e-mail) per month
Phone Cost: $200-$400
A nice little integrated trackball is a plus, and the QWERTY keyboard is functional if small. Browsing is primarily text-based, and e-mail is pushed to the device. I’d have full integration with my corporate network for the $45 monthly charge, but must choose between having corporate or personal e-mail.

Option 3: The iPhone Wannabe
Service Charge: $15 per month for V CAST V Pak
Phone Cost: $200-$400
Phones available include the LG Voyager with a frontal touch screen and LG enV with a typical mobile phone exterior. Both phones open to reveal a secondary screen for web surfing and QWERTY keyboard. Mobile web access is unlimited with the plan, but you must log in for access. Full graphical web browsing is available.

Option 4: The Traditional Mobile Phone
Service Charge: $6 per month (plus additional airtime/megabyte charges depending on plan)
Phone Cost: Free-$300
This is my old way of mobile web browsing, peering at a small screen whilst tapping out responses on the numerical keypad. There are new phones like the VX9400 which offer better screen sizes and optional mobile TV, but otherwise these are normal cell phones. Depending on level of usage, this can be the cheapest option.

I also looked at the possibility of getting a wireless modem and laptop, but the service charge ranged from $40-60 a month before I ever got around to pricing out ultraportable laptops. Too much for my blood, plus I’m opposed to lugging around even more gadgets.

Stymied by the options, I logged a few more store visits and calls to customer service before I figured out the cheapest way to get what I wanted: Option 3, with the LG Voyager, which has been dubbed the “iPhone Killer”. It’s not got nearly the same features, but the concepts and overall feel are similar. Forbes described its features best:

Voyager is designed to be a multimedia workhorse, combining access to Verizon’s broadcast TV, video and music service with GPS navigation, high-speed Web browsing, and expandable memory (from 64 megabytes up to 8 gigabytes with a memory card). It has a 2.81-inch exterior touch screen that opens to reveal another screen and a full keyboard.

The touch screen worried me somewhat, but I plan to baby it. The front and interior screens were nicely sized and larger than any of the other mobile phone choices. And no matter how much I surf or e-mail, my mobile web expenses are capped at $15 a month.

I’m pretty happy with my fake, lower-tech iPhone. I don’t have any plans to blind myself editing documents on the thing, so I don’t miss the lack of full PDA functionality. And logging into my e-mail is fine with me – an extra $250 per year just to have it pushed to my phone seems unnecessary.

After paying $200 for the phone upgrade and raising my monthly mobile web costs from $7 to $15, I’m now as wired as I’m going to get.

Until the next round of mobile gadgets, at least.

Have you found any good mobile web deals with other wireless companies? Do share!

Verizon Turns Up Its Cool Quotient [Forbes]
Verizon Voyager Fan Site
Apple’s iPhone: Adding Up the Costs [Apple 2.0 Blog]

Image Credits: Verizon Wireless

As my partner and I are active landlords and property investors, it’s no surprise that people approach us with real estate offers. Sometimes they’re great deals, too – people occasionally inherit properties they want to get rid of quickly and therefore cheaply, or learn of a house at a great price that just isn’t selling. With the current housing market downturn, it’s happening more and more.

Recently, a good friend approached us when a realtor suggested he look into renting his house instead of selling it. Though his house was on the market and he was looking to find a buyer, he’d instead gotten an offer from a prospective tenant. Since he wasn’t interested in becoming a landlord, he came to us.

You’ll know from my Ten Tips for Buying a Residential Rental Property series that I closely evaluate all real estate decisions according to a number of criteria including price, location, structure, size, maintenance issues, safety and local regulations. I called upon those ten critical commandments yet again as I analyzed the opportunity. Read the rest of this article »

I’ve never been a big movie buyer, and own a whopping 3 DVDs. If I can’t guarantee I’m going to watch it at least 5 times, I don’t want it cluttering my abode.

But I do like movies, and so I opt for rentals. And there are more rental options out there now than ever before. Plenty of ways to add another bill to my monthly deluge.

I hear Netflix is pretty good, as long as you properly estimate how many movies you’ll need at one time. And my mailbox is constantly bombarded by ads for Blockbuster’s similar offering. There’s also the downloading option, from iTunes and the like.

But to me, nothing compares to my local public library.

In the very minimal off-time I’ve had lately, we’ve been chilling out with free movies, everything from foreign films to more recent hits like Babel, I Heart Huckabees, City of God, and The Corpse Bride. They even have HBO’s wonderful Rome series, which retails for $68.99 a season on Amazon. And that’s the discounted price.

They don’t have every movie I’ve wanted to see, but there’s a very nice selection, I can take out as many at a time as I like, and keep them for a whole week without cost. I can renew them, too.

I keep a list of movies I’d like to see on my desktop, then go online every so often and request a couple via interlibrary loan. When they’re in, I get a call and go pick them up.

I’m lazy that way—it’s been months since I searched the shelves for anything. I do the same thing with books, and I feel like I have my own personal concierge service. It’s pretty sweet.

I don’t remember Blockbuster ever having a stack of my choices waiting for me when I got there, even when I phoned first to make sure my selections were in stock.

Plus, while I’m there, I can pick up some books to help grow my career skills. At the local video store, I’m just likely to pick up popcorn.