Photo by jtyerse

It’s been a super-exciting few weeks for me after having filled out our tax returns and getting everything rolling early again this year.  (We always get our taxes done in February right after all the W2s come in the mail. 

Now, before I go rattling off how much money we got back from the government, I’d like to let everyone know that this year’s withholdings were WAY off for the majority of last year.  I’ve since adjusted my W4 and am paying a lot less in federal taxes every paycheck.  I’m still doubtful that I’ll get less than $2-3000 back for next year’s refund even after recalculating, but I’ll eventually get where I should be with that.

So, what’s the magic number?  Brace yourself… almost $7000 for federal and state combined.  Crazy huh?  I was only expecting to get about 4-5 thousand, but 7 will do.  :)  About $5500 of that was federal, and $1500 from state.  Needless to say, we couldn’t wait to get that money to work for us.

What’d we do with all that cash?  Well here’s the list:

1. Got caught up with bills.  We were borderline behind on everything.  It was nice to be able to pay a lot of things off just barely in time right before payday hit.  It almost served as a bridge loan for a week.
2. Filled up our $2000 emergency fund.  I know, it’s only supposed to be ONE thousand.  Well, I have practically 3 families worth of kids, so I’m doubling it.  That’s just what makes me feel comfortable, and I’m not going to feel bad about letting that extra $1000 sit there and do nothing but bail me out when I need it for an emergency.
3. Paid off a $2500 credit card!  Heck yeah!  Gooood bye 28% interest store card!  I will never miss you or use you again.
4. Started our envelope budgeting system.  I like to fill the envelopes for the next month before next month even gets here.  Having a good chunk of money in the bank made this really easy to do…having the cash to put in the envelopes right before the next month actually started.
5. Took advantage of some serious sales.  One expense that just doesn’t ever seem to have enough money behind it is clothes.  With our super-large family, we just
   

   Photo by GigHarborUndressed

   always need new jeans or something for one of us.  Well, we actually were able to take advantage of a clearance sale and managed to get all of next year’s winter school clothes for the ones in school for under $250.  That sounds like a lot, but we’re talking 4 kids having 3-5 outfits a piece.  The younger ones get some hand-me-downs, but the oldest always needs a lot of new stuff because of how fast he outgrows things.  It was so nice to have money during the sale rather than having to find him half as many clothes when they’re in season.

6. Finally, my wife and I went out on a date!  :)  That’s actually a very rare thing, so I don’t feel bad about being able to do this at all.  We needed a night out.

So there you have it.  My refund money applied in a nutshell.  We’ve still got a little bit of that in the bank account, but I think it’ll just have to sit tight until we can figure out where we want to start applying our additional funds every week.

So what kind of refund numbers are you guys getting out there?  Anyone beat my $7K?  I’ve got a friend that went over $10K, but they do it on purpose.  (Like I used to.)  No thanks, not into doing that any more…