The responsible parent’s guide to tax returns

SPEND IT ALL ON YOURSELF!

Yes, that is what we are doing with our tax return this year. I know as parents to be the financially responsible thing to do would be reinvesting our returns back in our RRSP’s, paying down the mortgage or opening up an education fund for Ava, but who said we were responsible?

This year, we are using our tax return to remodel our bedroom. Out with the old hand me down furniture, and in with the new. The bedroom is the only room we have never purchased anything of our own for. Everything from the furniture, to the bed to the sheets we sleep on are hand me downs.

This weekend we purchased a new king size bed, mattress and furniture. It was so exciting to spend a weekend with my husband and do something not baby related for a change. We had a blast picking our new bed and furniture (although I had to veto the sex swing Mark wanted to mount in the corner). The look we are going for is definitely Asian inspired Sophistication. Not sure if that is real design lingo or not, but that’s what we’re calling it.

We started our day at the Pottery Barn, but quickly realized that for just the furniture alone we were looking at $8000. When Mark fell in love with a $3500 leather chair, I knew it was time to bolt before we did something stupid and actually spent that kind of money on furniture.

We shopped around, and found some lovely pieces that will work well with our budget and style preferences (think Bombay meets the Bellagio and throw in some Chinese influenced furniture …and a swanky padded headboard covered in suede for fun).

We don’t have all of our accessories yet, just the major furniture pieces and a mattress, so I’m really hoping we can pull it all together.