(This is an update of a post I made in 2009).

In an ideal world, a family has a pretty good idea no later than March 1 what its income and taxable situation will be for the fiscal year.

Therefore the working bees can tell their human resources departments how many deductions to take off the payroll, or the accountant how much money to set aside from the business income, and the final tax bill would pretty much equal the taxes actually paid during the year.

Here’s the reality:

• Tax laws are constantly changing with this or that deduction or tax credit added to the mix. New twist for this year: You can deduct off your 2009 taxes any eligible donations for the Jan. 12, 2010, Haiti earthquake relief efforts.
• Family circumstances do change and sometimes on short notice. You may know in the spring about a baby on the way or the upcoming marriage – but death and divorce are not so neat on the timing.
• And especially for my Michigan readers where layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts have been rampant: Sometimes you have no clue what your household income will be by the end of the year. The estimate I did for our family’s income in February 2009 had to be revamped six months later.

Is it any wonder that families who live paycheck to paycheck would prefer to err on the side of a refund – than on the side of paying taxes in the spring?

Now, there are circumstances in which the better solution is to update your payroll deductions. There really is no reason to get back thousands of dollars every the spring from Uncle Sam when you are chasing bills every paycheck. I did some tinkering with payroll myself after I saw my refunds get too high during the early 1990s.

But let’s assume you are happy with how your tax refund situation works out.

If you will get a refund this year, here’s what I want you to do with it:

Do at least one thing with that money that will help your family save money in the long run. And then follow up with those plans.

Do you need ideas?

• Purchase the office supplies you need to get on a grocery savings routine. My Grocery Shopping on a Budget 8 Week Plan explains how you can cut the grocery bill no matter where you decide to grocery shop or what newspaper you subscribe to.
• Pay off or pay down a credit card or a debt. If getting out of debt will require a long-term effort, read about the concept of debt snowballs.
• Buy the spray bottles, cleaning rags, dusting rags and other supplies you need to incorporate eco-friendly cleaning techniques into your home. You can still finish up the cleaning chemicals you have on hand while you try out alternative methods and see which ones work for you.
• Buy a slow-cooker, electric griddle, beginner’s cookbook, coffee pot, a new set of pots and pans or whatever you need in the kitchen to make it possible to cook more real food at home.
• Buy some edible plants for your garden or landscape. One of the best articles I read about the $600 economic stimulus checks from a couple of years ago was by a blogger who said she would use the money to buy fruit trees for her property.
• Take a DIY class. When you learn skills such as home canning, sewing, gardening, furniture repair, computer diagnostics, lawn maintenance and bookkeeping, you no longer have to pay someone else to provide those services for you.
• Buy a financial software package for your computer or a personal finance app for your mobile phone. You’ll make better long-range plans with your money when you track on a routine basis what you are spending.
• Review and inventory your disaster plans and supplies. If you live in Michigan or Ohio, you know the chances are good each year for at least one power outage because of weather circumstances. Do you need to buy hand-crank radio, a bigger ice chest or a generator to make sure you can get through such a situation with your wallet intact?