Tax Rebates Being Used To Cover Cost Of Living (not large-screen TVs, vacations or luxuries)

CHICAGO — Many Americans allowed themselves to fantasize about large-screen TVs, European vacations and other luxuries when they learned of the federal rebates they'd be getting this spring and early summer.

Or maybe _ shh, don't tell the president _ they'd pay off a credit card or set the rebate aside for a big purchase in the future, notwithstanding Washington's intentions that they pump it immediately into the flagging economy.

But reality has interfered, in the form of ever-climbing food bills and $4-a-gallon gasoline. Day-to-day living costs have sopped up the checks for many other early recipients and spoiled their rebate fantasies. Government figures released Friday showed consumer spending inched up just 0.2 percent in April, despite widespread anticipation of the stimulus payments sent out starting late in the month.

Based on a small but broadly diverse group of consumers who tracked their rebate spending in detail for The Associated Press, there was no mass rush to the malls for shopping sprees after the payments started showing up in bank accounts in significant numbers in May. The greater economic ramifications may not be seen for months.



Vanessa Church, a 49-year-old Chicagoan with six children, is seen in her Chicago office Tuesday, May 27, 2008. Church said she was grateful for the federal rebate she received in early May but found there wasn't much left over after big payments for utilities and other basic needs were taken care of. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/30/tax-rebates-being-used-to_n_104259.html