I filed my taxes

Last night I finished filing my taxes using Intuit's Turbo Tax.  I usually like to do my own taxes, but I had to file two states again, claim an energy tax credit and mainly I wanted to e-file to get my money back sooner.  Last year, I waited nearly two months to get my refund.  I knew I'd get a hefty one again so I ponied up the $100.  Hopefully I'll get my money in the next couple of weeks.

I would be more excited if it weren't already spoken for, but I'm thinking of using around $50 of it to get me something.  I realized this morning in the car that I shouldn't reward myself and should get out of the habit of buying stuff I don't need.  I thought about getting a Kindle, but Kindle books are usually $10 and I've been using the local library pretty heavily which is free.  I guess Kindles are for people with financial discipline and not chumps like me.

I've also been thinking about getting a tablet or a new laptop.  The iPads are pretty cool, but there should be a few Android tablets out this year.  Motorola is releasing the Xoom, but at a price point which is not competitive since I don't care about the upper end of that market.  If it doesn't have a keyboard, then I'm not going to use it to do any real computing.  It would be something to use to read newspapers and magazines online and maybe to do some video chatting.  Also, I've been using Android on my Droid X and I don't like the skins the manufacturers use.  I could root the phone, but that sounds like more work than it's worth.  The iPad is an existing solid option.  I'm not an Apple fanboi, but I'm not going to ignore Apple products just because they're popular; I just need to make sure to evaluate them on their merits.

As for a new laptop, the Macbook Airs are pretty sweet and weigh about as little as the iPads.  I don't really need a laptop though so I need to keep with the financial discipline.  It's hard for me because I do not like to be denied or thwarted, but I have no one to blame for my current financial mess.

The good news is I'll be able to make a serious dent this year.