How to spend $500

Her story: "I'm a 24-year-old mother of an 8-month-old baby. My husband and I will be using the tax credit to pay off our debt - as we do with every penny we can scrounge up. We're trying to correct our financial errors.

I admit I made some mistakes when I had my first job and credit card. Now we're paying for it. But we're making up for what we've done rather than rely on someone else to bail us out.

We have debt from medical bills, two cars, assisting my father-in-law on his mortgage payment, and random splurge purchases. Now we're learning the right way to manage our money. I think that's a hard lesson for people to learn. They get too comfortable with a certain lifestyle, and then they don't want to cut back." - as told to Julianne Pepitone

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