Usually I am lucky enough to get a tax refund.
I look at it as an extra paycheck, a little bonus money I can use for getting something useful done.
When you live paycheck to paycheck it’s hard to afford the little extras, or even to repair something when it breaks. Last year all my plans got sidelined because a new cannabis dispensary opened up and was having a huge sale. The entire tax refund went towards buying cannabis, and my poor air conditioner did not get the tune up it needed. This year I really have no option, because the air conditioner is not working at all. It went for too long, and worked too hard, to survive another year, and now I fear I may have to buy a new air conditioner! I don’t think I could afford that no matter the size of my tax refund, because have you seen the price of air conditioners these days? I will need to get my central AC repaired, or start looking at alternatives for cooling down my house. For now I am doing okay, because the Autumn temps have been nice and cool in the evenings, so I haven’t needed to use the air conditioning as much. I do have hope for a repair, because the central heating seems to be working fine, it’s just the cooling aspect of the HVAC system that is in disarray. I am waiting to hear back from H&R Block about my taxes, and then I will know what my budget is for HVAC repairs.