Got my federal refund today. I tried to stick mostly to the plan but due to some unexpected expenses I did have to shuffle things around. Here's out it shook out:

$8,600 Received

$3,000 to IRA

$3,000 to vacation fund

$1,000 to new tires, alignment, and plate renewal

$500 to HSA

$375 for dinner and new clothes

$650 to checking buffer

$75 to utility bill overages

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My car's tires were bald and going flat every week. It was time to get new tires. I did manage to snag a buy 3 get 1 free deal, but I needed an alignment and my plates were due. I felt it was a good use of money since I use my car to haul around our kids, and we will be traveling across country in it in a couple months.

Our automatic payment for our trash bill charged us twice this month for some reason. Sigh. I turned off automatic payments, and it will be applied as a credit for next time. Our electric bill was also up this month. So I used a bit to cover that.

Got my buffer back up to normal levels, went to dinner and the family bought some needed clothes.

I was hoping to send $500 more to HSA and save $500 for Christmas. But I still do have $400 in state refund coming to allocate somewhere. Overall I feel like we saved the majority of our refund and/or used it on things we definitely needed.