Taxes

I've been doing a slipshod job of TurboTax, just to get things to a point where we could see whether or not we will owe any taxes this year. The bad news is, I'm going to have to do the entire thing over again in a meticulous kind of way. The good news is that even without entering my little stamping business (which will probably be in the red this year) and not putting in any expenses for D's business, we are getting a refund. That means the refund only goes up from here! Yippee! That is really good news. Last year we had to pay, and it was no big deal because we had the money. This year we are poor as all get out. We have a new house. We are waiting for some of D's freelance money to arrive and in the meantime, we are hoping we can pay the bills on time. It's not a fun place to be, and the kids have figured that out fast. "No" is the word they've been hearing a lot lately. It's good for all of us, I'm sure. We've been loose with the budget for a while - like "budget?" - but the new house payment just won't tolerate that. It'll be a while before we can cut ourselves loose from the pile of financial responsibilities that we have at the moment. We'll have more deductible interest next year, and that's nice. Sometimes it takes a little pressure to bring about positive changes. I feel that these will indeed be positive changes, even though at the moment it feels like a big pinch. Generally D and I don't fight about money. We don't fight about very much at all. We talk a lot, too - so I'm sure that we aren't just "keeping it all in". With everything else in such turmoil, however, I was taken aback a bit by the shock of financial issues. I guess that when it rains it pours. What I'm hoping for is that we can get the government to pour just a little bit back into our pockets this year. It would be more than just a really nice surprise, it would almost be a miracle. . . And I'll take it.