The refund showed up in my checking account on a gray Thursday, sixteen days after I filed. I was eating leftover chili at my desk when the notification came in. Federal and Illinois together: $1,140. For about twenty minutes, it was the most interesting money I'd had in a year.
It all went to my student loans. I almost didn't do it.
This was my first tax year with real side income. In 2025 I made $3,860 pet sitting and walking dogs for neighbors in Wilmette, which meant filing a Schedule C along with my W-2. I'd been setting aside 25% of every pet-sitting payment since September, and in January I sent $965 as an estimated payment. I was nervous that wouldn't be enough.
It was more than enough. A few things worked in my favor. I deducted the mileage driving to clients and a small amount for supplies, like leashes, waste bags and a cat-treat budget I'm a little embarrassed by. I also got the student loan interest deduction, which covers interest you paid on qualifying loans during the year. I paid about $850 in interest in 2025, so that helped.
Between my W-2 withholding and the estimated payment, I'd overpaid a bit. The result was $1,140 back. Illinois has a flat 4.95% income tax, so there wasn't anything clever there. It was mostly the federal side.
The part where I almost didn't
Here's what was going on in my head. In January I started a move fund. I'm saving $900 a month toward my own apartment, and I cut my loan payment from $1,100 to $800 to make that work. The move fund is at $1,800 right now. Adding $1,140 would have put it near $3,000 and made the whole plan feel a lot closer.
I also thought about the emergency fund, which hit its $6,000 goal in December, and about my car, which has about 126,000 miles and opinions about cold mornings.
For two days the money sat in checking while I went back and forth. What decided it was the club sheet. The move fund is already on a schedule that works. The emergency fund is full. The loans, on the other hand, slowed down on purpose in January, and that was bothering me more than I'd admitted. The refund was a chance to make up some ground without touching either plan.
There's also a simple rule I made last year: money I didn't budget for goes to debt first. If I start making exceptions the first time it's inconvenient, it isn't a rule.
The new balance
I sent the full $1,140 as an extra payment directed at my 4.53% loan, the highest rate I have left now that the 5.05% loan is gone. After that and my regular February payment, the balance is about $11,970.
For context, it was $14,620 on December 31 and $24,600 when I started this blog last March. Without the refund, I'd be at about $13,100. I like the version where I'm under $12,000 a lot better.
The small treat
I promised myself one thing, paid for out of my regular fun money, not the refund. I bought a $24 cookbook I'd been looking at for months, a big one full of Sunday dinner recipes. I cook for my family every Sunday now, and my brother Nolan, who turns 22 this week, has requested I try the braised short ribs when he's home next.
That's the whole treat. I thought about something bigger, and then I thought about the bill for the brakes I did in October, and decided a cookbook was the right size.
My dad, who reads every bill twice, read my return twice too before I filed it. When I told him where the refund went, he nodded and said, "Good. Now you can't spend it." He has a point. Money that's already gone to the loans can't tempt me in March.
