What do you do with your tax refund (if you get one!)?

[yennyfire]

It looks like we're getting a modest refund this year. Now, what to do with it? In the past, we've made an extra mortgage payment towards principal and saved the rest, but I'm SOOOO tempted to use it for one of the many house projects I'd like to work on (probably either the kitchen or the powder room)...

If there were enough to do the mort. payment AND a house project this would be an easy decision, but alas, that isn't the case.

 

[elrohwen]

I haven't had a refund in years I should definitely get one this year though, and I'll put it towards house savings.

 

[hawaiianorangetree]

I love tax returns!!

Last year I purchased my diamond studs, paid off a fridge and put the remainder on the home loan. The amounts were all fairly even.

 

[y2kitty]

My refund will be $3 so I think maybe an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts or I'll go to town on the dollar menu at McDonald's....

 

[princesss]

I put most of it in savings, but use a little bit for something fun. This year, probably a headboard (that I'll make, so it'll buy the wood, foam, and fabric) and maybe (maybe!) some night stands.

 

[Tanzigrrl]

Usually my husband and I split ours down the middle and do with it whatever we please. This year, however, we're going to invest every red cent of it. No jewelry buying for me this year, but that's okay.

 

[rhbgirl24]

Automatically goes into savings.

 

[rubybeth]

It's going to be pretty small (which is a good thing, in my opinion, since it means we didn't overpay) so it will probably just go into savings.

 

[Tuckins1]

We got a hefty refund, since DH doesn't really work and is in school full time, plus i've been in school and paying student loans. We just paid a hefty piece of student loans off, so our refund will go into our bank account to make up for some of that. Nothing exciting... We don't really spend money like that anyways.

 

[yssie]

We pay someone to make sure we don't get a refund (or an audit, different states + bizarre work history = I don't trust myself w/ turbotax!). I don't particularly feel like giving the govt an interest-free loan when I could be collecting on it somewhere myself

 

[Miss Sparkly]

I use my state refund to pay the federal taxes. Every year

 

[luv2sparkle]

Hubby just did our taxes, and our refund will be 15K. We claim 10 dependents. I would rather not get a refund but we would have
to go exempt and that is a huge pain to get accomplished. We will put part to sons college and finish up the year, braces for our
14 year old, and a trip to the east coast after school is out. My 14 year old has a trip with his school that was really expensive and
we decided we could take the whole family for just a little more and he would have more fun than if he went with his class, so that is
what we will do.

 

[Amethyste]

I will have to pay part of the pellet stove that is on my card at the moment... Ugh.

 

[Haven]

We pay someone to make sure we don't get a refund (or an audit, different states + bizarre work history = I don't trust myself w/ turbotax!). I don't particularly feel like giving the govt an interest-free loan when I could be collecting on it somewhere myself

Agreed!

If we get a refund, I'll be mad as hell, and we'll be switching accountants.

And then, I'd probably put it toward our big summer vacation.

 

[tigian]

No tax refund over here.

 

[dragonfly411]

I'll be putting mine towards paying off the small bit of debt I have.

 

[tyty333]

My husband tries to make sure we dont have too much taken out so our refunds are usually small...I never see them .

 

[random_thought]

We are completely paying off some bills we have. After the baby is born, we are taking any money we get from having a dependent and putting it in savings for the first 4 years of his life so we can take him to disneyworld for his 4th birthday. After that we are putting any money we get from having him into a college savings account.

 

[kenny]

If I get a refund I use it to calculate how much to reduce future withholdings.

My goal is to not a refund.
Actually my goal is to write the largest check possible on April 15th without incurring a penalty.

I'd rather have use of my own money all year since the IRS does not pay me interest for loaning it to them.

 

[anchor31]

Mortgage or debt repayment. Things are too tight for us to indulge right now.

 

[JewelFreak]

Refund?? Hahahahahahahaha! What's that???

--- Laurie

 

[icekid]

We owed 3 grand last year Hoping that our lovely accountant got us on track to break even this year.

 

[stephbolt]

If we get a refund this year, we will likely put part of it towards eliminating debt and part of it into our home improvement fund. We really want to get all our hardwoods refinished this summer!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Not expecting a refund this year--we paid quite a bit last year, but bought a house this year, so I'm interested to see how that impacts us. If we end up getting money back, it will go towards the mortgage. Exciting stuff, haha.

 

[JulieN]

Taking a trip to Boston, hopefully.

 

[yennyfire]

Yeah, I'd rather break even, but I'd HATE to have to pay, so I prefer to get a little back if I can't get it to balance exactly.

 

[pinkstars]

In the past a large chunk of my refund has been used on buying my plane ticket to see my family once a year.
But now BF and I split our money, so with the 30% that I'll have left over I'm hoping it's enough to scrape together a ticket.

I still haven't completely decided on going this year since we'll more than likely be moving later(BF going to grad school) and I'll probably have the opportunity to see them then. So I'm having a hard time figuring out if it's worth it to spend $500+ on a ticket and then possibly seeing them a month or two later, and then also being unemployed in a new city.

 

[that_someone_special]

I'm hoping for a few K this year. DH tried to change it so we wouldn't get ANY money back, but I prefer A larger sum at once.. we might change that in the future, but for now, whatever.

 

[Dee*Jay]

I don't really know what my taxes will be like this year because this is the first time I'm filing single again in over 10 years, but my real estate side business did pretty well in 2010 so I'm afraid I didn't withhold enough at my regular job to cover. If there is a miraculous refund though, it's going toward the master bathroom project!

 

[partgypsy]

Everyone says not to do the refund but the amount of interest I'd make from holding onto the money in interest ($50?) well, I'll "pay" that for the psychological rush we have of getting our "mad" money. I know it's not free but that's how we treat it. And I do withholding so it's between 2, 2.5K

Currently we are going to spend about 5 grand on redoing our master bathroom so the 2.5K we will get back approximately will all go towards that.

I want to buy a teak bench, towel warmer, and new towels for the bathroom. Other than beach towels and some face towels I've never bought new towels, they are all thrifted or hand me downs from other people). I want towels of my very own, that are all the SAME COLOR . So once the bathroom done I'm going to start working on my husband towards that.