My friend Stephanie asked me why I never wrote about anything fun. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. While she enjoys all the investing information and money news, every once and a while I should sprinkle in something fun. The $500 bill trivia was a good start, but not entertaining enough.

So I turned the tables on her and asked her for ideas. Since I’m boring, I needed her help. She suggested a post about all the fun things a woman could spend her tax refund on. Nothing boring/responsible like researching the best CD rates but spending it all on something awesome. I told her that if she found a few fun things around the cost of the average tax refund last year ($2700, $3000 so far this year), I’d post it. Here were her ideas plus a few of my own:

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Sometime over the month or two (depending on how proactive you are about doing your taxes), you’ll probably be getting a nice fat refund check. Last year, the average tax rebate check was a princely sum at over $2,500. If you’re one of the many millions getting a check, you have a pretty big decision ahead of you. Do you pay down some of your credit card debt or put it in savings? (CD rates are looking better lately)

If you aren’t sure what you are going to do, here are a few ideas:
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It seems a little early but I’ve been getting a lot of “where is my refund?”-type of emails lately. While I won’t know the answer to that question (and I shouldn’t, the IRS should be that loose with your personal information!), the IRS will. While not usually known for tech savviness, the IRS does have an online tool that lets you check the status of your refund.

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