Many of you who get a refund have probably already filed your taxes. Quite a few may have even gotten their refunds back already. I am expecting mine at the end of the week. I would have filed sooner, but I had to wait on a 1099 to get here.

If you can take the earned income credit, you can get a nice chunk of change at tax time. I didn’t get to take it last year, and it was quite a letdown. But this year I was able to, so I’m practically dancing in anticipation.

It can be tempting to go crazy with all of that “extra” cash. But wouldn’t it be much better to put it into savings, or use it to pay down some debt? I had planned on putting a substantial amount of it toward either my or Hubby’s truck loan, but they way things are looking we would be better off to put it in savings so we’ll have something to fall back on during lean months.

Don’t get me wrong- I do have a list of things we need to get with the money. I’ll even admit that there are a couple of intense “wants” on that list as well. But I’m going to do some heavy-duty figuring before we spend a penny of it on anything but immediate bills. Having everything down on paper in advance is a good way to put it in perspective and keep impulses at bay.

I have considered getting advance income credit payments. For those of you who don’t know, there is a form you can fill out and turn in to your employer, and you’ll get so much a month instead of getting the lump sum at tax time. Our finances have been in somewhat of a roller-coaster state for the past year, so I decided against it. But if you usually get the EIC and aren’t anticipating any big changes, getting it in payments can be a big help with the bills.

If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, be sure to take a look at my post about online tax preparation. You’ll find ways to save yourself some money.