Another Tax Refund Arrives

I got home from work today and found more money from Canada Revenue Agency! True, it was only $17.69, but it means that I'm one step closer to getting my retroactive Child Care Benefit and BC Benefit payments. Now that they can confirm our total family income for 2006, they can figure out how much was due to me last year. That amount will come as a lump sum. In addition, they already know our family income for 2007, so I should start getting this year's benefit payments this month!

What will I do with my lump sum payment? Well, it depends on how big it is. Based on what I've received in past years I'm sort of expecting it to be somewhere between $500 and $700. If I'm in the right ballpark I'll be able to put away enough money to pay the next Home Depot payment plan to come due in January and put the rest towards my property tax and garbage collection and maybe have some left over. If it's less, the property tax and garbage come first, and the balance could either go towards Home Depot or school clothes for our DC.

What will I do with the monthly benefit? I'd like to say it's going to go to savings but, if I'm honest, I'll have to say it will be absorbed into our current budget to reduce the deficit we've been running . And what about the $17.69? I think I'm going to deposit it into my Credit Union account, which is the account I use for the bills for the rural house. That amount will cover almost 2 months worth of bank charges on the account.