Tax rebate spin-off - when yours arrives - What will you do with it??

msoulz wrote: By golly, this morning there is an extra $1800 in my checking. I think I will go splurge on some new socks!

Seriously, we don't have plans to blow our $$ on anything in particular but we do have several big home improvement projects on the horizon so it may go toward those. But as we would have done them anyway we're not likely to improve the economy.

What is everyone else thinking?

lovemy2 replied: We too have alot of home improvement projects - but none are major that will cost a chunk of money at a time except our deck but we had already put the money away for that so....into savings it will go - which actually will make me feel better than a new paint job on a room in the house....

mommy~to~a~bunch replied: It's going into savings, until this summer & fall, when we are taking 2 family vacations; one to South Dakota (July sometime), and one to Canada for DH's moose hunting trip (September).

My3LilMonkeys replied: a dresser for the new baby, probably a few small splurges and the rest to pay off bills.

It's nice to hear someone got theirs - I'm one of those "I'll believe it when I see it" people!

luvbug00 replied: mya's medical bills

ediep replied: well we aren't getting any money back this year....somthing to do with DH's stocks and the down payment on our new house... but it turns out that we don't have to pay the gov as much as he thought, so we are putting the extra towards a new deck!!

PrairieMom replied: Straight into savings.

sparkys2boys replied:
How is all your saving's going btw? I know you had taken the course and were working hard on it, still going good?

coasterqueen replied: I'm not sure what Dh has planned for it. We have our Disney cruise that we are going on next year that still has to be paid for so it could go towards that. Or it could go towards our home improvement projects we are doing or just into savings. We'll see.

stella6979 replied: I'm thinking of getting a new camera.

mckayleesmom replied: Not sure yet. I would like to get the kids each a new bycycle.....So they can ride around the nieghborhood while I walk.

luvmykids replied: I'm jealous...we won't be getting one because our personal return doesn't get filed until our corporate one does and it's not even due until September and you have to have filed your 2007 return in order to get it

5littleladies replied: Bills.

TheOaf66 replied: probably a new driveway

lovemy2 replied:
You will still get it Mon - just not as soon as everyone else - you have to file the return even if you are filing under extension it still counts - you will just have to wait for your rebate a little longer....

Crystalina replied: This money will be like any money we get. It goes straight to bills first and a % goes into savings and what little extra there is goes to shopping for whatever.

HuskerMom replied: We're going to save it til we have the money for a newer car.

Calimama replied: Into savings.

It's our "we want daddy out of the Marine Corps eventually" account.

msoulz replied:
That is one of the projects on our list too - but I don't think it will be enough.

Edited to add that I did buy myself 3 pairs of socks!!!

coasterqueen replied:
OT but ooh ooh ooh, what kind of driveway are you thinking of going with? Just curious. I've seen a lot of neat things done lately and fairly cheap.

AlexsPajamaMama replied: CC Bills
Bed for Alex
and Momma gets a treadmill!

bawoodsmall replied: Bills and clothes

msoulz replied:
Do tell! We were going to do the poured concrete but if there is something cheaper that is good I'd love to know about it!

redchief replied: It's already spent on bills.

Cece00 replied: I *think* we're getting back $2100...

I am going to use about $200 to buy a new steam cleaner for my carpets & get $100 in "fun money" (probably go towards some work clothes, I need a couple of pairs of pants & more shoes)
DH probably will get new glasses (about $100 after insurance) and I'll probably give him another $100 for "fun money"

and then we'll save the $1600 or we're thinking about buying some stock...not sure yet.

Boys r us replied: We don't get one either.

Our Lil' Family replied:
Us either I was looking forward to a new plasma tv.

Boys r us replied: A new plasma would be nice! Oh well..blame it on our DH's for making too much money..lol..what were they thinking?

Jamison'smama replied:
Ditto---however we just spent like we were getting one. We have a new swingset in our garage waiting to be assembled.

coasterqueen replied:
Stamped concrete is nice if you go the concrete route. Ryan and I recently saw a show where a couple did asphalt, then stamped a design in it and then painted it a color. It looked great. Of course I'm not sure how you feel about asphalt, but living in the country we are used to seeing it quite a bit out here. We just have a rock driveway, but we are looking at doing something like the asphalt some day.

msoulz replied:
I am not sure about asphalt - I wonder if the boy could still play basketball on it?

I have seen the stamped concrete and it looks great! I was thinking how nice that would be for a new sidewalk to the front door.

I'm going to try to do some net searching about that asphalt - thank you!!

coasterqueen replied:
They definitely can play basketball on it. GL and let me know what you end up going with.

msoulz replied:

I shall, but it may be a while - it is part of a new garage/new driveway project and I am having trouble parting with the money!!

MommyToAshley replied: Asphalt takes a lot of maintenance. It doesn't hold up to weather very well and you have to fill it in every year. We had our asphalt removed and poured a concrete driveway a few years ago and it's the best thing we ever did. If you have the budget, I would go with concrete. I have also seen the cobblestone driveaways (I guess that is what you call them with the different "bricks" that form a pattern) ... omg, they are georgous but we didn't have that kind of money to spend on a driveway.

msoulz replied:
That is good to know - we live in Michigan and our roads get ripped up because of the weather so the asphalt would likely too it sounds like.

We have a friend who does brick pavers and he said he would do the sidewalk for free if we wanted him to do the driveway - that tells me how much the driveway would cost!! Plus I wonder about them in the winter, can they be snow shoveled easily? That's a big thing here.

Well, we shall see . . .

Boys r us replied: There are so many cool options with driveways these days! But with most of them, if you want something durable, it's gonna cost mucho mula!! We have a paved driveway and it's REALLLLLLY long..about 400 ft off of the road, so we did stamped concrete only on the part of the driveway around the house b/c it's verrrrrry expensive and no way cold we afford to stamp the whole driveway. We were in awww when we saw how much work it was for even the professionals doing ours..they only do small sections at a time and they have these forms and screens they lay over it then mats for stamps then they put a glaze over it..all of this of course after they have dug out whatever existing driveway you have, we had a paved drive before..and they had to jackhammer it out then pour gravels on the ground before doing the concrete. if you have a short driveway it helps on the cost some. But I would expect to pay at least $25/sq ft. I would steer clear of asphalt...that is high maintenance stuff that needs resealing all of the time and cracks and crumbles with general wear and tear. There is something relatively new out called Cobble systems...you can google it..it's BEAUTIFUL and more cost effective than stamped concrete, but equal to if not exceeding in appearance. We're thinking of using it on our new house.

Good Luck..sounds like an exciting project!!!!

~Roo'sMama~ replied: Ours is going into savings - we were supposed to save our federal return but ended up catching up on bills and things we've been needing instead.

I'm curious - those of you who aren't getting one at all, why not? I thought everyone who filed their taxes for 2007 was supposed to get one.

Boys r us replied: I think there could be several reasons..I'm not sure of them all. My DH's income exceeds the cap for the rebate.
I actually *might* get my ex's for back child support..if he hasn't done something else to find himself otherwise ineligible for it!

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
Oh ok I forgot about the income cap.

Crystalina replied:
We really lucked out with that because our adjusted gross income helped us. If they went soley on our gross we would get squat.

Celestrina replied: A good chunk of it will be set aside for gas money.

luvmykids replied:
If we got one, it wouldn't be until much later after we file our corporate return in September. BUT we owe the IRS anyway so they'll keep it