It may seem like a farce, but some purchases can save you money further down the line. Small business owners and others who will file a Schedule C during tax season can take advantage of the last hours of the year by purchasing items for the office. This time of year also makes for a good time to consider big ticket purchases for your business or home office, to create a write-off on 2008 tax returns.

Small business owners can write off:

• Equipment used for promotion and services. The write-off comes as a depreciation of value each year. The full amount of a equipment doesn’t come all at once.
• Any realized losses by the business throughout the past year.
• Those who use a home office can write off the cost of using part of the home as the office, this include electrical, water, and space usage costs. Space usage includes a portion of the mortgage and property taxes.
• Business meetings and subsequent meals can be deducted in part.

If you’re running a small business or part time business out of the home, then you should be keeping meticulous records of your expenditures. The money you spend on goods and services throughout the year on your small business can be deducted from your business’s profit margins. This would effectively reduce tax liability and save you money.

While it makes sense to save money and not to buy frivolously, many small businesses owners use this time of year to purchase equipment and other items to offset their realized profit on their 2008 returns. Will you take advantage?

The IRS wants everyone to consider whether they’re in business or just performing a hobby. The difference exists when you do the work for profit. If you’ve been doing side work throughout the year and made a profit then it may pay for you to file a Schedule C and deduct expenses related to the activity. If, however, the activity was simply for pleasure, then you may not have reasonable cause to consider losses related to the activity as a business would. Take a look at the IRS.gov site for more information on how to determine if you run a business or simply have a hobby.

Music lovers spend a fair amount of money each year for their ears to enjoy sounds. We buy CDs, MP3s, DVD Audios, concert tickets, MP3 and CD players, and more just to fulfill our need for music.

Of course, there’s always someone who finds a way around paying for the finer things in life. The first such service called Napster connected individual computers to share music between them. The service quickly caught on, as people realized they could enjoy music for nothing, just like the radio, right? The RIAA quickly brought the service down and has continued to attack music pilferers through lawsuits. Just recently the RIAA has said they will no longer sue individuals, but will go after any ISPs that have copyrighted traffic flowing on their lines. The change can let some students and the dead can breath a sigh of relief.

How to find inexpensive music without stealing?

Let’s face it — peer to peer networks that allow you to download music from another person’s collection should be considered stealing. It’s not borrowing. Of course, anyone can still do this, but there are alternatives. The alternatives support the artists and help us move towards a more digitally free future.

While the Microsoft Zune toils in the shadow of the iPod, they do have a decent marketplace. The marketplace titled Zune Marketplace 3.0 offers a subscription service similar to the new Napster or Rhapsody services. Subscribers can download unlimited songs (mostly — some songs still require purchasing) and even allow them to keep ten songs at the end of each month. The cost comes in at $15 per month, with services like Rhapsody and Napster clocking in at the same. Of course, that can add up over time and does put a dent in a long term budget.

Some prefer to get their music through online radio services. The biggest player in this arena, Pandora.com, offers visitors a chance to setup a channel specifically tailored to their listening tastes. The downfall with a service like this would be its inability to become portable. The service requires you be near a computer, not in your car, on the train, or in a plane. It is free though, which makes it very appealing.

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and most subscription services use it, while internet radio songs cannot even be skipped, let alone be copied. The cost of music can be high if buying CDs from the store, but Microsoft’s Zune subscription plan seems to be a good deal, with unlimited downloads and ten complimentary keepers each month.

They frequently put their new release albums up for 99 cents. These types of offerings also help to appease the taste for new music.

What ways have you learned to save on music?

Do you download, buy CDs, listen to the radio?

What holiday urge are we talking about? It can be one thing only — spending money without any sense of reason. The holidays tend to cause a blackhole type of effect in most people’s budgets. It’s ok to destroy months of good budget practice in favor of holiday spirit. Wrong. The answer is in building discipline and learning best practices for safe spending.

Last Minute Shopping
This urge relates to the procrastination in all of us. We want to put off today what we can do tomorrow. Unfortanately tomorrow means spending more money and losing time to find the best deals. If you’re planning on buying something online, then now is the time to do it, otherwise you may have to pay outrageous two day or one day shipping charges. It may already be too late for certain items.

Buying into Hype
Department stores want one thing this time of year — more sales. They’ll attempt to get those sales through circulars in the newspaper, emails to your inbox, and direct mailings showing you deep discounts to get you in the door. Once there you might find items have gone out of stock or a cheaper model can’t be found, but the more expensive upgrade one can. Be level-headed and know your limits.

How to Stay within Budget and Fight the Urge to Splurge
Be realistic and grounded when going Christmas shopping. If you have a dollar amount you can spend on each individual you’re buying for, then write it down. You might also benefit from brainstorming ideas for their gift ahead of time to see if it falls within the budget. It’s best to find a gift that fits the budget rather than finding a budget that fits a gift. We can’t all dole out thousands for a new Lexus.

We can also have a partner in shopping — particularly one who will hold us accountable to our budget, not someone who will easily shirk it off in favor of a fantastic gift. The holidays are about giving, but don’t give yourself too much of a headache for the new year. Wouldn’t it be great to start off without too much debt?

The urge most see is to spend money we don’t have. If that’s a problem, take some steps to thwart that problem. It’ll be a brighter holiday for it.