Nerd Alert

My taxes are finally finished.

Not that they haven't been (mostly) ready for a while.

Although the tuition form was jacked up with only one semester and J finally got it straightened out today. (So we have two procrastinators in our little family.)

alibubba's flickr

But I just now sent them off to my frienemies buddies at the IRS because I like playing around in Turbo Tax.

Am I weirdo?

Back in December, I tried some things out to see if I should do certain things in 2009 or save them for 2010, with the help of my BFF Quicken to do some estimating.

And then I read some articles about changes for 2009 and things not to forget when doing your taxes.

USC2000's flickr

And then I waited a while until I got all of the official forms and entered enough stuff to see what our refund was shaping up to be. (Wahoo.)

And then I played around with some different scenarios to see the results. You know, for next year. (Did I subvert my destiny by not becoming an accountant? Gosh, I hope not - sorry if any of you are accountants.)

And then I read some of the "Ask the Community" questions to see if people have questions as dumb as mine. And then I laughed because some were really dumb. (Hey IRS, audit this guy! He wants to save one of his W-2s for next year so he doesn't make as much this year.)

And then I waited some more, wondering if I forgot or messed up anything. So I went over every section again, even the sections that don't even apply to me, just so I could have TT reassuringly tell me they don't apply. (Okay, I probably am a weirdo.)

Joey Harrison's flickr

And then I decided that it's April 14th, and I should probably submit them.

And then I looked at TT's comparison feature of you and the average amounts for people like you, and some areas were not similar at all. And then I decided to stop worrying about it, and sent the crazy forms off. (Turbo Tax, what would I do without you?)

If I was a fun girl, I'd dream about the pretty things I'd spend the refund on.

But instead, I am boring practical and it's going into savings. Maybe I'll get real wild and earmark some of it to start paying interest on J's student loans. (Ooh, a possible deduction for next year!)