Wide Open Wallet is a blog by a stay at home mother of two. Ashley takes an honest look at family finances by discussing debt, budgeting, saving, and frugal living. Check out her site and if you like what you see, consider subscribing!

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We got our tax return back last week. We like getting a big tax return and claim zero to make it happen. I know it goes against the general consensus of personal finance people but hey, that's why they call it personal finance. Because sometimes you have to forget what they say and do what works for you. I've figured it out and we are losing less than $100 a year in interest. For me, the forced savings is worth the lost interest. I just like getting a tax return too much.

Anyways, we got back $10,500. Usually we pay $1,000 in extra principal towards the house out of our tax return and then put the rest in an account to cover us when overtime is low at my husband's job. But not this year. I just don't feel comfortable sending money to the house with the economy so fragile. It's already gotten way worse around here than we thought possible. So for now, we are keeping all of our tax return tucked away safe in our savings account.

I hate not sending it to the mortgage but if things don't pick up at my husband's job we may need it. And it's not going to do much good for us as equity in the house. As much as it stinks, we have to put the goal of paying off the house aside to make sure we meet the goal of feeding the kids. We'll see where we stand next year. If we can send $2,000 I will. Hopefully we will at least be able to send the regular $1,000.