“I love my tax refund,” I hear constantly from friends, bloggers, random people on the street…then I hear a list of ideas people want to do. Buy the latest fashion. Buy buy buy. Large purchase…blah blah.

It’s only my second year of doing taxes and I already know where my tax refund will go. Right into my savings account. I admit that I am a bit elitist and horribly frugal.

Yet it bugs me each time someone says that they got free money. Because that tax refund is really the money that the government held over the year from your salary. Money that the government held…interest-free. Money that you could have spent during the year and worked into the budget.

Am I being old-fashioned? I read today in the news that costs of gas and food was getting higher. To me, it still surprises me how people don’t know how to cook so that they can bring lunch to work. Or that they go to a grocery store and overspend on quality ingredients, declaring weeks later after the food has spoiled that this is the reason that they don’t cook.

Yet, I too wonder if I am spending in the right places. I treat money the same way I treat food. If it doesn’t give me satisfaction for more than three days, then I cannot rationally spend it. Of course, there were times that I faltered, spending over $80 for a handmade local designer skirt that I realized was dry clean only and was really only normal-looking.

Just some thoughts before I go make a chili pasta bake and challah french toast.