Some good financial news

It's been a lean couple of weeks, with some unexpected car repairs, a
dental bill I'm waiting to be reimbursed for, and other little things
just draining away our checking. A $65 reimbursement check from my job
was really satisfying, for some reason.

It's when I'm feeling this frustrated, I guess, that finding good
preliminary news about a tax return is even sweeter, you know? Last
year, spouse and I had to pay about $6k for a variety of reasons. Nnow
that we've bought the house, we're getting back, according to our
accountant, about $4,000 from the feds and about $500 from the state.
This figure will probably go up a bit more, as we're not done adding
in a few business deductions.

It's a tremendous feeling. I would have been happy just not having to
pay anything. Spose and I are already scheming what to do with the
cash and I think we've preliminarily decided that about half will go
to pay down the credit cards, and the other half will go toward part
of the down payment we need for a second car. We live way out in some
burbs where 4 wheel drive is necessary. We have one paid-off 2-wheel
drive now. I think originally I was thinking that any found money
would go toward some of the more expensive home updates we need to do,
but the credit card looms. Then I had the thought that maybe we'd keep
the money in ING to gather some interest, and then plop the money on
the card (at 0% til September) when the grqce period ends. But I think
I'd rather have peace of mind and motivation about the balance going
down.