Question

Hello All!  Just curious how do you budget tax returns?Hello All! Just curious how do you budget tax returns? Do you pay off debt? Put it in savings? Help!  

Answer 1

Every year we pay off credit cards and blow through the rest  this year we will pay off CCs, put some in savings, & use as a checking account cushion.  

Comments

@humidistat11 great job!  

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@lewse now just patiently waiting for it to hit our bank account!  

Answer 2

I’m paying off debt. I want a fresh start with minimum back bills.  

Answer 3

Some to vacation sinking fund and rest to car loan

Answer 4

We use ours each year to do a project on our home. So far we have replaced heat/air units, refinished 1/2 basement, refinished a bathroom, and we saved up 2 years to replace our roof. This year we are finishing the other 1/2 of our basement and will replace trim in our house.  

Answer 5

I’ll be putting 80% to debt payoff and 20% to rebuilding my Emergency Fund!  

Answer 6

We are paying off debt with it

Answer 7

I’m going to adult this year and put it in savings as a head start on next year’s homeowners insurance. I’m so tired of scrambling for it every year only to wind up putting it on a credit card.  

Answer 8

Ours goes into our Vacation Fund :)

Comments

We are out of debt though.  

Answer 9

Using the extra income tracker from last weeks newsletter. I am paying off debt and saving  

Answer 10

I am paying off my sprint bill (iPhone iPad accessories) and lowering my phone payment to >$50 a month  I will have an extra $100 a month now for savings or extra debt payments

Answer 11

We are getting back 5000 $1000 vacation $1500 emergency savings $500 for a new couch $3000 towards the mortgage

Answer 12

We break almost even every year. That is our goal. I’d rather have the extra $ all year long so the government doesn’t have it “interest free”.  

Answer 13

Paid off 1 student loan ($2050), put about $400 towards my credit card, and completed a few sinking funds- Christmas, back to school, and car maintenance/registration. The rest is little things- saving for my cats supplies for a while, new jeans/work clothes, and I usually budget to get my nails done so I’m ahead on that envelope:) I still have about $1000 to work with so most likely just put it towards upcoming bills/savings.  

Answer 14

We are allotting half for a vacation later in the year , and the other half into a car fund . We are debt free . Also, we have our withholdings adjusted to get a minimal refund .  

Answer 15

We used this years to pay off debt! It really depends on what your priorities are for where your money should go!  

Answer 16

We are getting back $5000. All of it is going toward 3 different vacations we have coming up this year.  

Answer 17

We're splitting it between emergency fund, new tires, debt and vacation

Answer 18

Disney trip and second car savings ! No debt here

Answer 19

We are doing both. Fully funding our emergency fund and the rest towards debt.  

Answer 20

Both! We’re currently living with my in-laws and want to be prepared to move as soon as we can so our tax return this year was $1000 to student loans, $1700 for furniture, $300 to rent sinking fund (husband will be going to school on GI Bill)

Answer 21

We are putting some towards EF to get it back to $1, 000. We had to spend money on my car repairs recently. Then the rest is going towards debt. Some went towards our Disney tickets.  

Answer 22

Mine comes out to $916 so I am funding my EF with it this year

Answer 23

I'd say that depends on your situation. If you don't have an emergency fund in place I'd probably start there.  

Answer 24

You should ideally set up your exemptions to not get a refund. That’s just an interest free loan to the government all year, when you could be investing and saving, accruing interest. Tax refunds are not a good thing.  

Comments

@suggestive5073 so I've asked a couple times and havent gotten a true response but for someone in my shoes that has 2 kids. I get the EIC & whatever the other thing is. How would I set my W4 to ensure I dont get a refund when I'm not given that money until Feb/March. I hope that make sense.  

Answer 25

I don't budget my return. This year I'm paying off 1debt. I normally have it deposited into my savings account and let it sit there.  

Answer 26

I was budgeting for savings and to pay off debt with some. But two unexpected things occurred so those plans went out the window and left me with zero. First issue with my maternity leave came up so I won’t have it probably until the end of the month and then we are left with one paycheck which we couldn’t do. And just the other day feb 6 my baby came 1 month early. I thank God he is ok, well that we both are. My water broke and the placenta tore in the middle while I was sleeping. There was nonstop blood and then when I delivered it turned out he had drank a lot of it even though they took me in for a c section right away. Because of the complications with the delivery I ended up getting an infection and needed Iv and antibiotics throughout my stay. It was a mess. Thank God he is ok and we were all able to go home together because since he was a preemie they were concerned for his rapid weight loss when he was in the hospital, another time his blood sugar went down and another time he was cold and needed to be put on a heating pad. He is also jaundice. But everything is good now thank God we just didn’t have the baby shower yet it was due feb 22 so we had to use a lot of the money to get baby things. We had clothes but everything is huge on him since he is a preemie. So the plans I had went out the window because at this point God had other plans and I believe our prayers is what kept my baby safe. Interestingly enough my husband was led to fast since the beginning of my pregnancy although we never knew why. I believe it was for this. This is my baby boy Gabriel, my older son Nathaniel‘s baby brother. I woke up to go to the bathroom at 6 am and thought I was peeing on myself as I got off the bed and then my husband noticed blood everywhere, after that it was nonstop and I know there was a chance that we could have lost him.  

Comments

Nathaniel and Gabriel together  the day we came back home and he got to meet him for the first time. He wasn’t allowed in the hospital the whole time we were there because of the flu is really bad this year they said. A lot of people have been getting it. Ok I will stop lol I love my family. I just find it funny that I had plans of what I will do once my maternity leave started and with the refund. My maternity leave started 2 days before Gabriel was born and the refund had just come the night before. My plans were not God’s plans but we were taken care of because if not we we wouldnt have been able to buy any of his needs.  

Answer 27

Pay off one cc and the rest in the savings account to help towards the cost of daycare for two littles

Answer 28

Travel savings!  

Answer 29

Since we have debt still, it is all going to debt (along with my husband's bonus & dividend). We will have almost everything paid off by May! Once we have no debt, most likely towards savings. We will probably pad our sinking funds with extra next year. All of our sinking funds are revolving, not once per year, except Christmas.  

Answer 30

Last time I put it towards debt

Answer 31

Debt and sinking funds!  

Answer 32

My taxes are being used for sinking funds, savings and debt. We don't have much debt so I'm not 100% focused on it

Answer 33

Debt this year , vacation next year.  

Answer 34

We go off of percentages before we even find out the amount. So 10% to vacation etc

Answer 35

Unfortunately, we owe this year!  

Comments

@indisposition that was us last year  

Answer 36

Majority is paying off debt. We split it. He pays off his - I pay off mine. We have maybe $500-800 leftover that we will put towards our registration and then some to Xmas and then a wardrobe update because we haven’t bought clothes in years for ourselves.  

Answer 37

Putting the majority to debt. Using$500 for Broadway tickets for my daughter's birthday and some fun stuff for me.  

Answer 38

We're doing both. Half will go into our adoption fund, and the other half will be a prepayment on our mortgage (we don't currently have any other debt).  

Answer 39

If we got enough back we would split between savings and debt but we are only getting 1k so it’s going all to one Credit card

Answer 40

Whatever your priority is. We are adding $1000 to our EF, adding $1000 to our vehicle maintenance sinking fund, sending $2000 to debt, and spending the last $200 on a few needed clothing items. (We honestly thought we would owe taxes or receive very little, my husband gets a raise and bonus every 6m so it is hard to try and break even with taxes. )

Answer 41

We are saving one month of bills, paying my mom back some money she lent us, and paying off a credit card.  

Answer 42

Tax refunds don’t happen for us. We figured out what to claim on our W4 to break even at the end of the year. We get our money throughout the year. We done let the government make a dime off our income! We owe $37 this year.  

Answer 43

A little of both! We're putting about 1/4 in savings, 1/2 is paying off credit cards and the other 1/4 is going towards things we need to do (home warranty, etc)