Most of it went to paying off a credit card – my snowball plan has changed drastically since transferring a lot of my debt to recently opened 0% cards. That’s for the next post though.

But the rest of it went to bumping my “Income Security Account” (a.k.a. Emergency Fund) to $1000 status. I will still make my small monthly contributions, since I figure it can’t hurt and I barely notice the money is being taken out of my account anyway. Frankly, I’m just relieved that my Emergency Fund is up to a decent/recommended amount. Especially considering the alarming number of people out there that don’t have any money saved up “just in case”.

For my state return, which will be around $400, I’m planning to put about half of that towards my Christmas Gift account and the rest will help me get down to Florida for my buddy’s bachelor party in a few months.

And yes…again…I know it’s probably better to not get as many refunds or as much of a refund back at the end of the year. But there’s something therapeutic about these lump sum allocations that is worth the time missed. Maybe I’m alone on that.