We are all familiar with the prices at the pump. That is why it is more important than ever to seek every deduction possible when calculating your driving expenses that relate to your work or business. It can be a time consuming process but tracking and deducting your driving expenses can prove to be a great deduction on your tax return.

This year you will be able to claim 50.5 cents for every mile driven for a business purpose. This is an increase from the previous 48.5 cents per mile.

You will need to have proof of your driving expenses. If you take the standard deduction you will need track miles and if you choose to deduct actual vehicle expenses then you will also need to track other items such as gas, repairs, insurance, and registration. It is very important to keep these receipts and documents organized so that you are not scrambling at the end of the year.

Here are some tips to maximize your car mileage deduction:

Please visit TurboTax Online with all of your IRS mileage deduction questions. TurboTax online offers free tax calculators and deduction maximizers to help you get the most deductions possible.

Want to save some money? Ever wonder if you could do a car stereo installation yourself? Yes, you can do it yourself! Go ahead, spend that money on your hardware! Don’t spend it on labor. Besides, doing a car stereo installation yourself can be a very rewarding experience, not to mention you can learn a lot from it too. Nothing beats the feeling of seeing your “creation” in action, running smoothly and perfectly.

But be very careful, you really won’t want to damage your expensive hardware. Well, most car audio hardware are no-brainers to install, you’d find that most of the time the parts have specially shaped sockets and slots etc. and would only fit where it’s supposed to be installed. Still, it’s best to proceed methodically.

In a car stereo installation, you have to determine what kind of rig you’re going to put into your vehicle. If you’re a beginner, it’s best you do a car stereo installation if it’s just a simple system. You may want to leave the complicated stuff to the professionals, like installing delicate equipment like LCD panels, motorized parts etc. especially if it requires the creation of custom panels and such.

Head units are one of the easiest to do in a car stereo installation. Fortunately, most units follow the same size standards (DIN). In many cars, once the factory radio is removed the aftermarket radio will fit in the hole. In many other cars, a kit is needed if the factory hole is too big, or not deep enough. In some cases the dash has to be cut. Any car stereo store should have kits required for installation.

There are two types of mounting in a car stereo installation. ISO mounting is when the radio can be screwed to existing factory radio brackets, such as in most Japanese cars. Ring mounting is when an aftermarket radio comes with a metal ring that gets mounted to the factory radio hole or aftermarket kit via bendable tabs. In many cars, dash and trim rings have to be filed to enlarge the radio hole. Once the ring is installed, the radio slides in and is held by snaps. In most cases, special tools are required to remove the radio.

Speakers are very critical in a car stereo installation. No matter how expensive your speakers are, if they are not properly installed, the sound will not be up to par.

In a simple car stereo installation, you’ll probably be using speakers that fit into a factory location. Just make sure there are no gaps or holes. Sometimes building a wood or fiberglass baffle helps reduce holes and gives you much better sound. But always be careful when using power tools around speakers. Car stereo installation warranties usually don’t cover holes in speakers.

For unconventional speaker locations, sometimes metal has to be cut. You might want to leave this to the professionals, tools like plasma cutters and pneumatics drills are required. But if you’re going to insist, a pair of metal snips (left and right cut) will do.

A car stereo installation has to put up with vibrations and other noise sources in its environment. Even though it is impossible to eliminate these completely, there are products that will greatly decrease the noise and rattling, particularly on non-luxury cars. Liners, sprays and adhesive strips and even carpeting applied onto the panels can make a world of difference.

The recent rises in petrol and diesel prices at the gas station forecourts has been astonishing. Every day when I drove past my local supermarket, the price had gone up by another 1, 2 or 3p per litre. Although it has now fallen back from the highest price of 132.9 pence per litre (that is about $12 per gallon!), it still means that my husband and I do not drive as much as we used to. And the kids are unhappy because we cannot afford as many days out at weekends.

Now I have a friend called Mark who likes to mess around with cars. I know that he converted one of his cars to run on LPG (liquid petroleum gas)some time ago, so I asked him for his advice about how we could fuel our diesel estate car more economically. That is when he told me about biodiesel.

It seems that he has been making biodiesel at home for the best part of 10 years! And he can produce it for around 45p (90c) per gallon. No - that is not a misprint!

He told me that it is very easy to make biodiesel from vegetable oil - the same stuff that you use for cooking. He collects waste cooking oil from several of our local fish & chip shops, and fast-food restaurants every 2-3 weeks. Most of them give the waste vegetable oil to him for nothing (they are glad to get rid of it), and a couple even pay him to take it away!

It takes a few hours over a weekend to “brew” a batch of biodiesel (he usually makes about 200 litres/44 gallons at a time) and then he just puts it in his car. His car has not required and modifications to run on biodiesel and it does not cause any problems. The only thing you notice is that his exhaust smells like fish & chips!

He has now produced a detailed, step-by-step guide ‘How To Make Biodiesel At Home Easily & Cheaply‘ that is selling like hot cakes on the Internet.

My husband is going to have a go next weekend, so I will keep you posted to let you know how he gets on.

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