it came! it came!

Last night my house rebate came in the mail.  5 weeks after I filed.  Woo hoo!  $8,091.96.  The $91 was interest - I had no clue that I would get interest for "letting" the government hold on to my $8k for so long.  That was a nice surprise.

So now what do I do with the money?  I need to pay off some bills and secretly, I could use all of it for that.  But should I reserve some for a new couch?  A new coffee table?

Hmmm....

If I take half and put it towards bills, that would be very responsible of me and I would still have lots left over to spend on my house, like a good American.  After all, that's what the rebate is all about, right?  Putting money back into the economy.

I think I'll start out by getting my Bonnaroo posters and college degrees framed.  That'll be several hundred bucks and is something I've been meaning to do for years.  Of course, I'm still going to shop around for the best deals and scour the internet for coupons.

Then I'll price out a new couch.  And maybe see what it would cost to have my attic access either expanded or moved to the spare room so I can have a proper set of attic stairs installed.  This article says that the ladders themselves can be around $300-400 so with cutting a new hole, insulation and man hours, maybe that's around $1,000?  Not ridiculous, but not cheap.

I also think I may buy a few nice platters and serving bowls.  I never had the right ones when I entertain.  But while I want Apilco, I can probably find ones that are just fine at Marshall's or World Market.

So many decisions!