How are you using your "recession rebate"?
 

Sure glad I got two kids and a lousy income.
The rebates are being distributed by the last two digits of your SS number and being sent the way tax refunds were distributed. So, if you got your refund as an auto-deposit, it'll be how you get your rebate.
Because of our SS number, we already got ours. So, I decided to only keep the equivalent of one week's pay out of it and put the rest away. Of course, our list is bigger than the check. Son wants contacts, we need a new fridge. Only thing for sure is paying a couple of bills and getting a new kitchen floor.

What are your plans?

The initial plan was to put it away and save it for a trip to England... which then became "throw it all at a credit card"... and is now "freaking car needs to be fixed in many ways and that's apparently how I'm doing it." Dammit.

Plan on buying a new camera with it.

But between the economy and the housing market these days, I'd probably be better off converting it all into singles for when I'll have to burn it in the park with all the other bums.

Throwing it into the flower budget for the wedding.

Not being an American, I will not be getting a rebate. If I did get one, I would have put it into my RRSP (sort of like a 401K).

Well, being as that I'm unemployed and all, it will go into my ever-shrinking quality of life cushion...eventually, no doubt, it will be used to pay bills.

I'll be giving it to homeless people.

i'm paying off the last of my debt, except the car, of course. so when my FAFSA gets looked at in a few months there won't be anything left in regards to credit cards. Phew.

I'm a little confused on the distribution of the money. I went through H&R Block and got my federal put on an emerald card but my state was direct deposited. So, do I get a paper check or direct deposit? My SS # falls in the very beginning of the distribution so I'm super excited.

I'm fairly behind in my rent, so I plan on trying to catch that up, though I would like to just blow it. ):

They should be sending it to my accountant (I think). I'd call H&R and ask.

Strippers, escorts, and booze.

Sorry, I just watched Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay hours ago and had to use this humor.

I am probably going to purchase a 32 GB IPod Touch, but I may wait until June to see if they come out with a bigger model.

How about a bottomless party?

my brain lost five years of its life from all the stupidity in that movie.
i feel like i got sucked into Idiocracy again.
except the cyclops.
that was amusing.

/ threadjack... carry on.

It's going towards the move back to Chicago. Even the government knows that we don't belong here. :p

Bills.

Judging by the sound my computer is making, I'm going to have to spend it on a new hard drive. And Mario Kart Wii

PS3

bills. . . and maybe a new tattoo :)

Pay off last years taxes.

does it help our(USA) economy if I spend it in Belize ?....July, 3 weeks!!!!

xoxoxoo

Savings, as with my current salary, I am deficit spending until I get a real job upon graduation (1 week now!)

I should be getting the direct deposit tomorrow, it will just about offset the $617 that I sent them two weeks ago to pay my federal tax bill. I don't have any special plans for it.

I'm still a student, am claimed as a dependent, and do not get a check (this means my mom gets my share, right?) I will next year, though.

If my mom gets my share, it'll go to the same place it would if I got a check, mortgage payments.

According to the letter I got from the fed, I won't be getting a check.

Well, about $400 will be paying me back for taxes. The rest will be going to paying for electricity-the lines leading to the main hydro-electric power generator here in Juneau have been knocked down, so we're completely on diesel-generated power. This is increasing bills 500%...

And I was going to get an iPhone before all this. =/

Wait, huh? Free money for yanks?

How?

furniture, I hope. I'm getting tired of the floor.

Put it in savings.

A new bed.

I guess I'm one of the only folks not getting one.

Be thankful you make enough to not qualify....

Mr. Bush decided that because so many people are being hit with high heating bills, the cost of gas, mortgages, etc., that the government should send out "relief" money. Qualifiers are that families make less than $150k ($75k if single). Payments are $600 for the adults, $300 for each dependent, so a family of 4 gets $1800. The idea was that the rebates would do two things-help out the families and generate some buying, but it's pretty obvious both here and what's being reported in the news that all it's going to do is help alleviate some personal debt.

That's why you'll never hear me complain about paying taxes. No government in the world can tax your income if you don't have one. And I've been in that boat before - and don't plan on ever seeing it again!

It's an election year, and with the rough economy this was a bipartisan way for Congress and the President to pander to voters. Just another 150 billion dollars to tack on to the national debt that our grandchildren will be left holding the bag for.

Wow! No idea you guys were getting so much back!

That's the boat I'm in, more or less...sort of? I only made $600 in reportable income last year. My SO will get a check, though--this means I'll be saving a bit of money. We're saving it for a possible deposit for an apartment come June.

New washer and dryer. Actually, we already bought it, and we would have bought it without the rebate coming, but we decided to line the two up.

Deposit it in my HSA (Health Savings Account). I need to build it up to pay for some dental work.

Paying off my guitars. Then I'm gonna buy a new one. Ha

I have a large hose out the back of my house that just sprays all my money directly into a raging fire.

Really??

win

i suspect i might have one as well. i never see the other end of my paycheck as it seems to be all gone by the time i get there.

How are you using your "recession rebate"?
 

Buying euro.

it's not a rebate from last year's taxes

it's a rebate on THIS year's taxes

in other words, a family of four will be getting $1600 NOW, but $1600 less next year.

most people don't know this, and will be fucked come April 2009

It's going to be used to pay the interest on my school loans that are accumulating as we speak, so that the interest doesn't capitalize, and I owe less overall.

The IRS says otherwise:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/...179181,00.html

I heard this also. From someone who does taxes for a living.

We'll be paying off our new computer.

Making payments on my credit card debt...*sigh*

I'll follow The Plan exactly as it was laid out - From me to the government; from the government back to me; then I give it back to the real government (Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, et al).

You didn't really think the price-gouging and the Impetus Check timing was coincidental, did you?

As Bill Maher said recently (paraphrased), "I'm no conspiracy theorist, but If Colonel Sanders was President, and the price of chicken tripled during his administration, somebody might start asking some questions, right?"

Irony.

If I didn't work on a new bussines venture, I'd have made to much money and not qualified.

But because I did, I took a large hit to my income (by over 50%) got a ginormous tax refund since I paid on my higher level of income which I didn't have anymore, and then qualified for the rebate.

Had I actually just paid all that money into the government I wouldn't have gotten anything back.

Screwy system that they decide you make to much to get a refund on what you put in.

Anyways all that being said it just goes into (along with the refund) the warchest to keep the new business afloat until it can break even on its own.

I'm going to buy some euros.

I think Derwood had it right.

It is not rebate on 07 taxes....its more like a "prebate" on '08 taxes, but based on your '07 tax return. And there will be another form to attach to your 1040 next year.

The IRS faq cited above is a bit misleading...its correct that it wont reduce the overall refund you receive in 08...it just pays a portion of it a year in advance.

But maybe I have it wrong. In any case, I'm not getting a check...so I have no stake in it.

From what I'm reading, that's not correct either. It's an "advance" on any tax credits you might be eligible for next filing. It neither reduces nor increases your refund.
This was done a couple years back, when families were getting checks of $400 per child; the following year, the dependent child deduction, which was about $3000, was reduced by $400. So come next year's filing, if that child deduction was to be $3000 per, it'd be reduced by $300 per and your own allowance reduced by $600.

Were getting a new couch for our new house. Hubbies getting an Ipod phone and the rest will go in savings. It will help to get our small balance back up to where it was before this winter's heating costs led to us slowly "borrowing" from ourselves to pay the bills. That was with a brand new 97% high efficiency furnace.:grumpy:

I wish we were getting ours.....but since we are on a payment plan for 2006 taxes, they are taking it to pay that off :( I could really use that 1200 in one chunck instead of having an extra 75 bucks a month.

Oh well

I feel your pain. We owe 1200 on our utility bill, a balance I could pay off with this check, but won't. Why? Because no matter what we do, we will still get socked with an outrageous bill we can't pay and be out $1200 all at once.
We cook on the grill(in the dead of winter), had the thermostat on a constant 64, I take 8 minute showers and chase the kids out after 10, hang laundry on a line to dry and never do laundry in warm water. Yet, we still got hit so bad that last summer, they shut off our electric.

News reports are all over this rebate as being not so much as the "Economic Stimulus" it was purported to be but just a panacea to help with bills, the most prevalent being utility and credit cards. No increase in conspicuous consumption will be evident.

I'm going to buy a shovel. Then I'll use it to dig a hole in the sand to bury my head. Blissful ignorance reached!

beer!!!!!!!!

gonna bank half of it and blow the rest of it on a new bike (for the wife) a new 22 LCD widescreen monitor (for me, already got it and its SWEEEEEEET) and whatever the kidlet decides on getting (probably 6 month of WoW)


http://www.sceptre.com/Products/LCD/...x22hg_Naga.htm

Tequila

car repairs

We used some of it to pay for repairs/maintenance on my car. The rest will go to the credit card bill, in attempts to get a zero balance on it.

I don't get HBO any more, man I miss Maher.

credit cards baby!

I bought an LCD TV for my bedroom.

I actually got a check. I didn't think I was going to get one based on the letter they sent out a few months ago.
Just going to put it in the savings for now.

Please send some of that to me.

We bought a new fridge. When we got the deposit, I took what equals one week's pay from it, paid some bills, put the rest in the bank for a fridge and a new floor...
Well, the store offers a 3 month, 0 interest store card, so I took it, put the fridge on it. It'll cost 250 a month, less than I put into the savings anyway, so we won't lose it and we won't have to pay any interest on the purchase.
I can still get the kitchen floor and not make much of a dent in the savings.
Thanks, Uncle Sam. You made my passbook look purty.

Folley Beach, South Carolina on Friday then to Carowinds Amusement Park on Saturday.

Just used it to buy an aquarium cleaning filter/pump and some supplies for the fish.

Apparently, the US economy doesn't require my economic stimulation this year. The designated date for mine has come and gone, with no "rebate" arriving.

Which, honestly, sucks for me right now... then again, I might be laughing at all y'all in a years' time.

I changed my mind about purchasing the 32 GB IPod when I noticed the 80 GB Zune was listed at $240 on amazon.com, so I am going to test out Microsoft's MP3 player product line. Oh yeah, I also purchased:

Seagate FreeAgent Go 120 GB USB External Hard Drive
Belkin Neoprene Armband for Zune
Zune Car Pack v2
Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica (have not seen this series yet!)

And now I wonder what I will do with the remaining $100. Any suggestions?

Well, we were saving it for the Chicago move. But then JJ's camera broke. Bummer.

The whole thing went to a new camera. Good for him, not so much for our cushion. Luckily, everything has been cheaper so far for the move. :)

Road trip next month for vacation. Start in New York, drive to Smoky Mountains, spend a couple days there, then 2-3 days driving back north on Blue Ridge Parkway. Then visit some parks and civil war monuments in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania and back home. All in 10 days or less.

Did you get a letter? Any single making $75k or less and filed an income tax return for 2007 gets $600, married couples making $150k or less get $1200.
If you got a tax refund and it was auto-deposited, the rebate is as well. Banks won't send notices about the deposit, either.
Even if you did not qualify, a letter would have been sent stating so.

I'll be paying rent with my stimulus check. Yay!!! :(

How will I be using my What, now?
Apparently, my check is stimulating the Federal Reserve.
I can't actually SEE if they're stimulated, as I'm bent over. But judging from the rectal pain, I'll just assume that they are, in fact, stimulated.

Ok, that's funny.

I'm killing two birds with one stone - by putting mine under the mattress where it will hopefully stimulate me.

http://www.tascam.com/products/dr-1.html

I am stimulated.