Tell the world how you spent your tax rebate
Posted
May 29 2008, 02:51 PM
by
Karen Datko
If you've already received your economic-stimulus check from Uncle Sam, you can share what you did with it by posting at a Web site called -- ta-da -- How I Spent My Stimulus. You can even post a photo that illustrates how you used it. For example, we saw photos of casinos, whiskey bottles and cut-up credit cards.
Scrolling through the site, we noticed that lots of folks spent their tax-rebate money to treat themselves -- hopefully stimulating the economy in the process. Some saved it, some used it to cover higher living expenses, and some gave it away. Some posts are listed under a category called "weird."
Matthew, a shop foreman in Houston, put new rims on his extended-cab pickup. Veronica D. and her husband, also of Houston, went to Las Vegas. "Unfortunately we lost it all!" she said.
Pets (and their vets) were beneficiaries. So were video game and HDTV manufacturers, resort operators, and makers of guns and Kentucky whiskey.
Diana Donahoo of Hampton, Va., said she and her husband saved up for a year, including tax refunds and rebates, to finally buy her engagement ring. (Check out the photo.) "We could have bought a house and moved, but instead I have something that sparkles a heck of a lot more than a house," she wrote.
Others donated to charity. Marci in Denver gave hers to nonprofit groups, and her employer matched some of her contributions. She wrote: "I never felt like this money was 'mine.' I gave it to the government in hopes that they'd make good use of it and they didn't, so I felt it was my duty to give it back to the country in some way."
Some people invested in themselves. Sarah Aller of Wake Forest, N.C., said the rebate will help pay for her education as a certified nursing assistant.
Vernon Blank of Georgia bought a new camera to rekindle his love of photography and is also looking to the future. It "hopefully will allow me to make more money, in order to offset the downturn in our economy, part of which I'm sure will include repaying all the money we gave away in the form of this stimulus. Ironic, eh?" he wrote.
