By all estimations (and the IRS website), my husband and I should have received our economic stimulus check direct-deposited into our account yesterday. So far, my bank balance hasn’t changed.
Regardless of when the money shows up, here’s my quandary: I’m uncertain how I’m going to spend that money. In fact, I’m a bit annoyed that it’s assumed that I will spend the money at all. I realize that the reason the government is issuing these checks is to stimulate the economy, but I feel a bit like a sheep cowering inside the fence, with retail wolves waiting with forks and knives at the ready to dig in to my money.
According to a National Retail Federation (NRF) survey, these checks should bring $43 million into our stagnating economy–with four out of 10 families spending the checks immediately. The rest? Here’s what people will be doing with those rebate checks: “to pay down debt ($30.0 billion), saved ($19.8 billion), invested ($4.4 billion), and used to pay down medical bills ($4.6 billion),” so says the NRF.
From what I can see in the news, retailers are jockeying for position to get their share of our rebate checks like those aforementioned wolves. I just found out that ShopRite will give you a 10% “bonus” if you cash your stimulus check at the store and redeem it for ShopRite gift cards. In other words, if you get a $1,200 check and bring it to ShopRite, you’ll get a ShopRite gift card worth $1,320. The store will offer a similar deal if you bring in a regular old tax refund check.
Not a bad idea if you’d like a little extra help buying your groceries but not completely fair–we get our tax refund checks direct deposited into our checking account. I’m assuming the stimulus check will show up the same way. So what’s a direct-deposited family to do? Bring in a bank statement for the same deal?
Other retailers that aren’t interested in getting into the stimulus check-cashing business are “coincidentally” dropping their prices in hopes that you’ll come in with your check and shop. This CNN story tells how Home Depot is going after “green” consumers by offering discounts on energy-efficient supplies purchased with an economic-stimulus check. Hmm, that’s might be worth looking into…
Truthfully, we will probably fall into one of two categories once we have our check in hand–or in our bank account: we’ll use it to pay down debt (we’re so close to being able to pay off that new car we bought last summer) or will just roll it over into savings.
What about you? What are you considering doing with your stimulus check?
READ LEAH ON HOME GOES STRONG
The only debt we have is our mortgate and a home equity loan we got to make improvements to the fixer-upper we bought 5 years ago. We’ve paid off almost 3/4 of the equity loan, and our stimulus check will be helping reduce the balance.
You might consider opening up comments to other users. I have a blogger account, but it’s a pain to log in. I have a typepad blog and would like to just type my name and blog location. If I’d known Google/Blogger and Open ID were the only options (if I’d bothered to look first), I probably would not have left a comment. You may be missing some great reader comments by not having more comment options.
Kim:
Thanks for your suggestion on comments. I just changed the setting to make it easier for everyone to post.
Leah
Leah,I have been wondering the same thing too about our stimulus check b/c according to the irs website we should have received it by May 9th. However, Turbo Tax (which is the service that I use to do my own taxes) just emailed me yesterday stating that while my refund had come as a direct deposit (and therefore I assumed my rebate would also), b/c I had elected to have my fees deducted from my refund – my rebate would come as an actual check. Confusing I know, but it changed the estimated date of my rebate from May 9th to June 13th. You may want to check on yours….Kim – thanks for the opening up the comment section idea!