March 03, 2008

Money, ooh la la

In military fashion, everyone repeat after me!

"It's that time of year again,
When we get our tax returns!
So excited, loads of fun,
Here we go, run, run, run!"

"In the bank the money goes,
See it there and jump for joy!
Out the window it then flies,
Wipe a tear and say goodbye!"

"Sound off...1, 2, 3, 4..."

It's true isn't it? Anytime you get extra money, it tends to fly out the window. We don't even have our return yet and it's practically gone. Where is it going you ask? No, it's not going to my dream vacation in Ireland. No, it's not going to buy a new car. No, it's not even going to buy me deodorant, as practical as that would be.

The largest chunk of our return will go towards getting hubby braces (paying half this year, the other half with next year's return). Did you know that the cost of braces has almost doubled since I had them 6+ years ago? It's true! Our logic is, as the children get older, more of our money will go towards them. (We don't doubt that all of our kids will need braces and paying for more than one at a time is insane.) So while we *have* the money now, we thought the timing was better. Plus the extra rebate-thing from Bush this year will help compensate. So that's the first thing on our list.

The second purchase will be for a new vacuum. I mentioned that we bought this one from Wal-Mart but it's a pain. Plus, I need something with attachments and our current one doesn't have any. You don't realize how much you use them until they're gone.

Third, will be flatware. Yes, we're buying yet another set. Thankfully our current set has lasted so long and hopefully the next one will do just as well if not better.

Fourth, we want to take a mini vacation over Spring Break. I think we've been cooped up a little too long and it will do us a world of good. After this, the rest of the money will go into savings. As small as it may be, it will be nice to have a savings at all.

So, what are your plans for your tax return?

6 comments:

Kara said...

Our tax return this year wasn't as big as normal, and then it is all going toward the down payment on our house, so no fun money for us :D But maybe when we get our stimulus check thing we will use it for something more fun.

Beth said...

Looks like you have a few fun purchases planned! Where are you going on your little vacation?

Our check is just going into our savings (one of these days we'll have enough for a down payment) ... though I guess part of it is also going toward a trip to Utah (my SIL is going on a mission and another SIL is graduating from BYU).

Stacey said...

We got ours about a month ago and we used most of it to pay off bills and buy some new furniture. We were able to put away about $500 into our savings though. :D

I hope you have a nice vacay!

Jen said...

Ours went to paying off my last camera and medical bills that have piled up on the credit cards.
I was supposed to get new teeth with it, but alas, someone had to go and get arthritis. J/K. I'm not bitter, though I sound it.
So now I'll just put my new teeth on the credit card.

Jen said...

Oh and Jake's braces cost us $5000. We finally just paid them off last November.

Natalie said...

Congrats on your tax return. We're doing our taxes when I got home in 3 weeks. If we get money it's towards debt or our trip to Boston for BIL's wedding.

I think I'm abandoning BoSox mommy, could you delete the link from your sidebar? Thanks!