Anyone Else Try Some Tea This Week?

We're getting a pretty sizable tax refund this year and most of it will be going straight onto my teenager's teeth. I'm very thankful to be able to pay for his braces in cash, but it is a bummer to flit it away like that: easy come, easy go! I had honestly thought we had at least another six months before we were faced with that bill. But there's really no use putting it off.

I had been looking forward to getting a good head start on our debt eradication. As it is, our refund is about $2000 more than I had been guessing anticipating. Yippee!

We do itemize our deductions, and -- short of being a tax expert (ahem) -- I surmise a few reasons for our large return:

1. Three children.
2. Installation of new windows (energy efficient) in our home.
3. Lack of tenant for our rental house for several months = high mortgage deductions/expenses with low revenue.
4. Significant amount given to tithing/charity.

So despite a whopping $4500 of our tax return going straight to the orthodontist (you're welcome!) we still have a couple thousand to play with.

Except we're not playing with it. We're putting it toward debt. Really, we are.

Really.

We're getting closer and closer to beginning our Dave Ramsey "Total Money Makeover" plan. The Hubs is still trying to finish the book (have I mentioned he is not a book reader?) which is going slower because my parents are here this week. Basically we're ready for step two: debt eradication.

We've already completed step one, which is to accumulate a $1000 emergency fund. Actually, I recently decreased our "emergency" fund to $1000 and put the rest toward debt. This is not recommended unless you are planning on going gung-ho full speed ahead super seriously focused on getting rid of your debt. So that's what we're going to do. Really.

Have I mentioned that this freaks me out a little bit? But I'm excited, too. Financial freedom to me means that you are free from finances. From their control, that is. Being financially free allows you to focus on life and its choices rather than finances and your limitations.

But it's not easy, not at all. I've already felt challenged by it. And so has The Hubs, I can tell. He really, really, really, wants to buy a grill, for instance. Something we never got for ourselves last summer, our first year back in the States. Ordinarily he would have just gone out and gotten one. In face, I fully expected him to last week, especially after he sent me this email:

"MUST . . . HAVE . . . GRILL . . . and laptop."

Notice "and laptop" in teeny-tiny print there at the end? He also hasn't gotten one of those, despite the "great deal" that's "too good to pass up". Six months ago -- heck, two months ago, both of those purchases would have been done deals by now.

As it is, he's holding off. I'm still not convinced they won't happen. I mean, shouldn't everyone have a grill?? (Is it counted as a "need" when it means that your husband cooks more often?)

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Enough about my taxes. How about yours? Do you owe? Are you getting a return? What are you doing with it?

And how do you feel about our tax system? Did anyone else attend one of the Tea Parties held around the country this evening? We attended the one here in downtown Dayton: all five of us along with my parents. About 6,000 people turned out for it, according to the local news.I'd love to hear about your experience if you attended one in your area, as well.