Tax Refund

What to do with our tax return money? My husband and I have a couple of options as to do with our tax return money.  Both options are and will be a good investment for our furture and both options will get done at some point it is just a matter of what order to do them in.

It's amazing how much more money 1 kid can bring in from our tax return.  Our tax refund doubled from last year.  Now,  Ryne and I have to decide what we are going to do with our money this year. We have two options that we could do.  We could use the money to insulate our basement or we could use the money to pay down Ryne's student loans.  We are stuck in a dilemma.

 If we decide to spray insulate our our basement, it will take a good chunk of our refund.  I have been doing some research and have decided to go with Foam It Green Home Energy Kit.  This would be a $1500 expense.  This will help keep our house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.  There is a lot of air leakage coming from our basement therefore this would be a wise investment and cut down our gas and energy costs. This kit is a DYI kit so I can do it when I want too. I am an impatient person and want to do it right now; however, after doing some research, if I get an energy audit, I  could get a 70% rebate. This option would mean I would have to be patient.

Our other option is to paying Ryne's Student Loans. With our full refund, we would be about $600 give or take a few hundred away from being able to but his loans in forbarance.  The last $5000 would be paid off through the Teacher Loan Forgiveness plan.  This would free up $232  and though the Dave Ramsey snowball effect, we could have one of our credit cards paid off in 4-6 months. In the long run, this would defiantly help pay our debt off quicker.

Ryne has taken on two additional coaching position so we will be able to do both. The question is which should we do first?  After talking with my husband, we are going to call the energy company and see when they can do an energy audit.  I think this will help determine which direction we should go in first.