Projected Tax Refund

Well… it looks like we are going to get a tax refund. Quite unexpectedly, I might add.

We have enjoyed getting more money in our paychecks every two weeks and have used that money pretty diligently. With each paycheck we were able to increase our debt payments, but because of that, we weren’t expecting a tax refund this year. (*Aside from the 30% federal rebate we were going to get on our solar, which, as part of our contract, will be paid directly to the solar company.)

After our initial run through of our taxes, it looks like we will be getting nearly $4000 back all told between federal and state. That is on top of the $10,100 that we are getting as a rebate on the solar. I’m still shocked at the projected amount of our refund. Although it’s slightly less than last year’s refund, last year there weren’t tax cuts that put an extra $2500 in our pockets over the course of the year. Somehow, I feel like we won the tax lottery! We got more money in our paychecks each month and we are getting a pretty sizable refund!

That is so much more than I was expecting. I was expecting somewhere in the $1000 range, maybe! Now, having said that, we haven’t actually filed our taxes yet as The Husband wants to run through them again to make sure that all the numbers were inputted correctly and that there are no errors. I will do an update when everything is actually filed and on the up and up.

Now for the plan we have for our tax refund. Don’t judge me, but we aren’t planning on sending any of it towards our debt. First of all, yes, I realize that would be the smartest thing for us to do with our money. Secondly, I’m okay with not doing the smartest thing. And lastly, we do have a plan and are not just going to fritter it all away!

We have a lot of expenses coming up in the next few months. All of these are “extras” and things we don’t need, (but are going to do anyway). And the entirety of our refund, and then some, will go towards paying for these things. The Girl is going to Japan in June and we will need to pay for airfare, some new clothes, and gifts for her to take over with her. Our season tickets to the theater will come up for renewal in June-ish and we will use our refund to pay for that. Lastly, we will use the remainder of our tax refund to take a vacation over the summer. (We don’t know where we are going or what we are doing, but our tax refund is how we are going to pay for it and we do know we are going somewhere.)

I know none of these are necessary expenses. I know that almost $4000 could go a long way towards getting us out of credit card debt. But I also know, and have said over and over again, that although getting out of debt is a huge priority for us, it’s not the only priority. We still want to live our life and give our kids experiences while we dig ourselves out of the mess we made. That may not be your debt philosophy, but it is ours.

Once we actually receive our tax refund, it will be shuffled straight into savings and then used as it’s needed. The Girl’s airline ticket will need to be paid in the next four weeks or so. As I said earlier we will renew our theater tickets around June and then we will take a family vacation in July. This will completely tap out our refund but to get to do all these things will be money well spent! During this time, we will also continue to contribute to our savings account at our usual rate.