the tax refund... - Page 3

[dachshundqueen]

I bought a flying turtle.

Liz

[kay4]

we both get a bit to spurge on. Then we get anything the kids need and the rest is bills.

[rightkindofme]

Everything is going into savings for a few months. He is taking a month of unpaid leave when the new baby comes and he very paranoid about us having enough money for that. So we are saving fanatically right now.

[pumpkin]

If there is fun money to be had then we split it equally. Well, sometimes one of us gets a bigger treat, but it balances out over time.

This year our tax return is going towards the house we are building. Next year I am sure we will both get a bit of spending money or decide on something that we both want.

[PNCTink]

If it wasn't all going towards paying off debt, then I would have taken some to start my raised bed garden. DH was hoping for a snowblower.

[StopThat!]

Holy moly, but the things some of you guys are getting with your refunds - our refund seems small in comparison, and I have no idea why!

We're using to it pay off our line of credit, so we can fill it back up again with getting a new roof done and starting to lay hardwood floors ourselves. I think we may also get new tires for our suv.

I don't ever really get money to use on myself... Even the birthday/christmas money my parents give me usually gets saved to go towards holiday extras for our son. I'm a little resentful since DH get to use his birthday/christmas money on himself... But I'm feeling motived to keep my money this birthday comming up!

[mumm]

I'd love to start a S/O thread about HOW much money people get back. I use turbo tax and it offers the average amount people with my income spend on taxes, charity, etc. Anyone care to start?

Our federal return is usually about 11K and state is about $700.

[Storm Bride]

We usually use some of it for personal purchases/extravagances. We don't set a specific amount, but I'm the one who budgets, and if I want something and I think we can afford it, I talk to dh, then get it. Most of it goes to our car insurance.

This year? Not so much. Since Christmas, we've:

1) Bought a new computer. My in-laws put a big chunk towards it as our Christmas present, but there was still some out-of-pocket. DH needed it, though. He's in IT, and works from home sometimes (esp. when he gets a page), and our old one just wasn't fast enough.

2) Bought a new minivan. We have monthly payments to make, and it's a much newer van than our old one, so our insurance will be somewhat higher this year.

3) Had to pay for physiotherapy (physical therpay in the US) for my back and ds1's knee. DS1 also needed a $150.00 brace. We can get most of that back through dh's extended health coverage, but we have to eat some of it - and I lost the receipt for the brace.

4) DS1 was in the Provincial Gymnastics finals. That cost us $350.00, for his registration and travel expenses.

5) We've had to make the last two payments on ds1's choir trip in April.

So, yeah...new computer, new van, medical costs and extracurriculars have dogpiled us the in last three months. If dh does get a tax refund (not sure yet - he switched jobs twice last year, and I'm not sure what the overall picture is going to be), we'll be lucky if it covers the car insurance. If there's anything left over, it goes to the Visa. Our overall financial situation is good, but our current cash flow is a bit...slow.

[MariaMadly]

Ours kind of spent itself . . . we got a big chunk back because of DC1's college tuition and turned it right back around to the last payment for this year.

[Jaxinator]

I let my husband pretty much decide what to do with the money. I don't worry too much if I buy things throughout the year, so the refund is usually put to practical use. This year we paid off my car, no car payments for at least 2 more years, hopefully way more!

[sanguine_speed]

The amount of one's tax refund depends on a large number of factors. Generally speaking, it's not a great thing to have a giant tax refund because that means in essence one has given the government an interest-free loan for the year.
However in some cases it's impossible to avoid giving this interest-free loan because aside from some basic adjustable withholdings, many tax credits cannot be claimed before tax time (I'm in Canada): child care, first-time homebuyers' tax credit, kids' fitness amounts, ontario property tax credit, RRSP contributions, etc.

It also depends on tax laws in one's jurisdiction.

I have found over the years at MDC that people in the US tend to get much larger tax refunds than people in Canada, but Canada has much higher tax rates, so perhaps that's why.

So, what i'm saying is that it's not really useful to compare who gets how much back.

[SuzyLee]

We almost always owe, which we prefer since other wise you are just giving the gov. an interest free loan. This year I think we will get a refund since DH was laid off for 3/4ths of the year

Any refund we get will go towards paying off our small mortgage. We are super close and getting that 500$ bill out of our monthly budget will be a huge help.

Hypothetically if we already had the mort. paid off (I can dream right?) we would save it for a family vacation probably.

[grniys]

We usually decide together what to do with it. "Fun" money isn't a huge deal to us because when one of us really wants something we usually get it... even if we have to wait a few months to afford it.

This year, most of it went towards saving for a house. I did buy a wii (at dh's suggestion since I've wanted one for a long time). We went out to our favorite Mexican place and I think that was about it.

[InMediasRes]

This year we bought a video camera that we have been really wanting. Last year we each got fun money, but neither of us had anything we really wanted more than the camera this year.

DH has a paycheck deduction that goes into my own personal savings every month though. I am not permitted to spend that on anything but myself. I haven't spent it for a while, so it's piling up in there.