IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

I absolutely DREAD getting organized for filing our income taxes every year.  It always takes me two full days to get everything in some sort or reasonable order, as we use the "shoebox file system", which means all reciepts, etc. are thrown haphazardly into a large shoebox for the entire year.  What chaos results in that method, I cannot begin to describe.  Also, let me mention, that I do NOT recommend this technique for record-keeping.  Since we buy and sell cattle every year, we do keep our farm expenses separate from our household expenses though.  We always have a loss on the farm, but at least it does give us some hefty deductions on the maintenence of the pasture and machinery.  Off we went to H & R Block, and once again, they have charged us a fortune (over $400) to file our taxes!  Every year we come away saying that we're going to have one of our daughters do our taxes for us, and every year we go back to H & R Block.  There's something wrong with this picture, I think.  Next year, will be different - I hope!