Counting My Chickens Before They've Hatched

The US government is in the process of approving a tax rebate for citizens who meet certain criteria in order to boost the economy. The original plan was an $800 check, but it's looking like $600 is going to be the amount if in fact it is approved. Nonetheless, I'll take it! Though I take everything our government says with a proverbial grain of salt, I'm jumping the gun on this one. Maybe it's the winter doldrums, maybe it's the after holiday poverty or maybe it's the promise of several hundred dollars worth of knitting books and supplies! Tom and I tend to be very simple, practical people who don't splurge on much of anything. Even our income tax returns never go towards anything fun; they go toward things we need, not things we simply want. Tom and I decided that this would be "free" money for us, we can each spend our half however we please. Of course this had me poring through knitting catalogs/websites as well as my Amazon wishlist in order to compose what I called my "$800 List". Well, it looks like I'll be paring the list down a bit but I'm not upset, after all it is money that I wasn't even expecting. I was only at an estimated $700 of my $800 list anyway. At least I didn't get too carried away.