Miller Lite Free New Year’s Eve Bus Rides
Miller Lite has partnerd again with the Milwaukee County Transit System and Waukesha Metro Transit to provide free bus rides on New Year’s Eve.
The free rides on Milwaukee County buses start at 8:00 p.m., and run until the end of regular service on all routes. In addition, 13 main routes will stay in service until 4:00 a.m. offering pick-ups every 30 minutes. A route map is available on the Milwaukee County Transit System website
In Waukesha, free rides start at 7:00 p.m. and run until 3:30 a.m. If you live in Waukesha and want to celebrate in Milwaukee, you can ride a Metro Transit bus to Brookfield Square which is also served by Milwaukee County Transit. For specific route information, visit the Waukesha’s Metro Transit web page.
Full details on the program can be found on the Miller Lite Free Rides website. If you need help planning your route, call 1-800-FREE-RIDES (1-800-373-3743).
Are You Getting Your Share of the 2011 Lottery Tax Credit?
With 2011 property tax bills recently sent out by most municipalities, it is a good time to check to make sure you are receiving the State of Wisconsin Lottery Tax Credit. A portion of the annual lottery proceeds is returned to homeowners each year in the form of a tax credit. The credit will appear on your tax bill every year once you have applied for it. If you don’t apply for it, you don’t get it. The amount varies each year, and depends on the amount of State lottery revenue and your school district tax rate. Unfortunately the State doesn’t publicize this credit much, and a lot of people don’t claim it because they don’t know how to.
If your tax bill doesn’t show the credit, call your city or county treasurer’s office to find out what you need to do (most likely, just send them a note saying that you want to apply for the credit). You have up until January 31, 2012 to claim the credit for your 2011 property taxes. If you miss the deadline, you can still get the credit but it involves a little more work (click on the link below for more information).
The Wisconsin Department of Revenue website has more detailed information on the Lottery Tax Credit, including instructions on what to do if you bought or sold a home during 2011.
Donate to Milwaukee Area Charities for 2011 Tax Year
Time is running out to incur tax deductions for the 2011 tax year. This is a great time to donate to Milwaukee area charities since they are experiencing an increase in need, and you may be able to benefit with some last minute tax deductions.
Goodwill, Purple Heart, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society are all well known charities that accept used clothing and other goods. Here’s more information for each charity to assist you in making donations by year end:
Use the locator on the Goodwill site to find the Goodwill location nearest you. There are twenty Goodwill Donation Center’s in Southeastern Wisconsin, so chances are you’ll be able to find one by you. According to Goodwill, they will accept your new or gently used clothing, appliances, automobiles, computer equipment, electronics, and furniture and sell them in their Goodwill retail stores. Read more about Goodwill’s donation acceptance guidelines here. Goodwill has also published a handy donation guide that donors can use to help determine the value of their donations for tax purposes.
The Purple Heart Service Foundation has been serving Veterans and their families for over 50 years. For more information on scheduling a pick-up, visit Veteranpickup.org. Wisconsin residents can also call 1-800-924-0188 to schedule a pick-up.
St. Vincent de Paul Society accepts donations of clothing, household items, appliances, and furniture that can be distributed to the poor in our community. In addition, they are always in need of non-perishable food, and cleaning and serving supplies. To arrange for pick-up of larger items such as furniture, call 414-462-7863. Drop off locations in Milwaukee are:
- SVDP Store – 2320 W. Lincoln Ave
- SVDP Council Office – 9601 W Silver Spring Drive
- St. Catherine – 8661 N 76 Place
In addition to the three organizations above, the JSOnline Giving Guide and is a robust resource with specific requests from hundreds of local organizations. It is a helpful resource for both donation and volunteer opportunities.
Do you have a special charity that is close to your heart and could use donations by year end? If so, feel free to leave a comment and make our readers aware of the opportunity!
Milwaukee Consumer’s 24 Days of Holiday Giveaways 2011
We’re happy to announce that we’ll be repeating our 24 Days of Holiday Giveaways again this year, starting December 1st!
We have a lot to be excited for and thankful for this year. As we mentioned on Thanksgiving, we recently celebrated our one millionth page load. To thank our loyal readers, we have lined up 24 days of giveaways for products, services and events from many great Milwaukee area businesses!
Every day between December 1st and Christmas Eve we will have a new prize and select a new winner. Some prizes will have multiple winners.
The contest entries will be done on Facebook. You will be able to earn additional entries by sharing the contest with your Facebook friends. More details on how to enter the giveaways will be posted tomorrow.
Happy Holidays and Thank You for reading Milwaukee Consumer!
LivingSocial is Testing a New Product Called LivingSocial Plus
This weekend I purchased a Black Friday Weekend deal on LivingSocial. When I was in the checkout process, I was presented with an opportunity to enroll in a new LivingSocial product called LivingSocial Plus.
The product is being beta tested right now. The screen I saw read ”Enroll in LivingSocial Plus beta. Save even more on this deal with LivingSocial Plus. For only $20 per month, you can enjoy: $25 in Deal Bucks every month (a $5 bonus), instant savings on this deal, and priority access to closed deals.” The fine print read “20 of the 25 Deal Bucks good for 5 years or longer; 5 expire at the end of each billing period if not used. Closed deal access subject to availability. Still have questions? See our FAQs and terms and conditions.”
So what do you think? Would you subscribe to this new service to get an extra $5 in Deal Bucks every month, plus have priority access to closed deals?