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It's Always Something! How Stimulating!

May 9th, 2008 at 01:13 pm



Our stimulus dollars arrived today in the checking account. It was under the $1200 by a few dollars. Not sure why that is exactly. Anybody have a clue?

Hubster and I just had our 'state of the nation' talk. He's to get back to me exactly what we're going to do in the next couple of days. We are at an advantage in that we have his inheritance money coming to us fairly soon. Final hearing scheduled sometime mid-June. We have several projects around the house that need doing and we're not sure exactly what order we are going to do them:

1)Replace bathtub (cracked) and then tile the bathroom floor. It will leave a new footprint and the carpet in there is already shot, so these need doing. Even if we stay in the house it can only get worse. If we were to sell, still has to be done. It's a patch job for now, there is some kind of water-proof tape on it at the moment. If you read about Bubba (FrugalSon's) excessive use of TP and the resulting overflows you can see we really need tile in this area instead of just floorboards that are carpeted!

2)There is a pipe in the basement starting to look pretty iffy. It has to be replaced before we have a very wet 'boo-boo'.

The plumbing portions of #1 & #2 can be combined in one visit from a plumber who's a close friend of the family for some savings. I can tile the bathroom myself, except for the fancy cuts, which a niece & nephew will help me with.

3)The air return vent for our heat/cooling system is not large enough and keeps causing the switch to go out as it has to switch on and off too often somehow. This spot needs to be enlarged. Apprx. $500.

4)Our heat and cooling system in now 9 years old. It was the cheapest model the seller could throw in here in order to get us to buy the house. It will likely need replacing sometime in the near future.

I personally vote to put stimulus payment in the IRAs and let the inheritance money cover some of these expenses. We shall see. For today, I'm moving it out of checking into hard labor over at one of the online banks. Now, gotta go check who's paying what interest today!

I am grateful to have this stimulus money returned to us. Big Grin Because, obviously we're in need of it!

9 Responses to “It's Always Something! How Stimulating!”

  1. campfrugal Says:
    1210337927

    I can't decide what to do with my Stimulus money either. Save it, pay down debt, but my Jeep needs new tires immediately, my youngest son broke a tooth, my daughter needs new glasses and I wanted to open an ING account for my oldest son for a Christmas present. Oh, so much needed, so little money.

  2. pjmama Says:
    1210338676

    Bah. All my stimulus money is going to the CC. ha! Guess I'm not going out and spending money like I'm s'pposed to Smile

  3. sagegirl Says:
    1210339928

    My stimulus money was supposed to be deposited by today, but it is not in the account. Figures. I have been waiting and waiting. No money. I tried calling the IRS this morning--lines are busy or they tell you they cannot take your call right now. Just my luck!!

  4. luxlivingfrugalis Says:
    1210340110

    @sagegirl, Have you tried to call your bank? It may be that they have funky posting hours. Like maybe they'll be posting deposits at midnight tonight or 2 a.m. or something.

    IRS phone lines are generally always like that! I imagine it's worse right now because of the stimulus checks.

  5. snoopycool Says:
    1210344199

    Ours was under what I expected, too. You can figure out what they figure for you on irs.gov. There's a calculator there. If it figures you to get less than expected, it gives you one of two reasons. I can't remember what they are.

  6. luxlivingfrugalis Says:
    1210345215

    @snoopycool - Thanks - I will go back and look. I had checked earlier and knew what amount to expect, but I guess I didn't pay attention to the why-fors!

  7. Lylic Says:
    1210346129

    This is from the IRS Web site:

    Your payment may be less than the maximum for one or more of the following reasons:

    • You are married and your net income tax liability is less than $1,200.
    • You are married filing a joint return and your AGI is more than $150,000.
    • You owe back taxes.
    • You have non-tax federal debts such as unpaid student loans or child-support obligations.

    Also:

    The stimulus payment begins to phase out for individuals with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) over $75,000 and married couples who file a joint return with AGI over $150,000. The combined payment is reduced by 5 percent of the income above the AGI thresholds.

  8. luxlivingfrugalis Says:
    1210346426

    Thank you Lylic, that explains it!! Big Grin

  9. Homebody Says:
    1210366020

    Lux you crack me up! I love reading your blog. "State pf the Nation" talk. Ha ha. DH and I going to need one of those soon!

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