I am 27, but so unlearned about things sometimes! How do I determine how many withholdings to take at my job? Right now I think I have 0 or 1 and so does my husband. We got back 9,000 dollars on taxes this year and while it's great to have it at the end of the year it would also be nice to get it monthly in order to pay down debt!
I did a calculator on it online and it said, based on last year's numbers, we could take up to 17 withholdings and get back 743 more per month?!
I just don't understand how to choose how many to take and what exactly it even means. And I don't want to end up having to pay either you know?

This link may help you. U.S. Office of Personnel Management We are married filing joint and we only have one child. My husband is the only one who works and he put married and 1 dependant for state and federal. It sounds to me like you are claiming the higher single rate with zero dependants. The only refund we got back this year was the child tax credit.

I just realized I haven't changed my withholdings since I got this job! And that was six years, one marriage, and 2 kids ago!!

Well, $9000 IS $750 a month, so the calculator you used is correct. That's assuming that hubby is not changing his withholding.

What I did, was change my husband's withholding to reflect what it would be if I wasn't working. Then I arranged my withholding to reflect the true cost of my working. In other words, I could clearly see how much my job was adding to our income - and our expenses.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

I agree with Cookie2 that the calculator seems like it is giving the correct number of allowances (9000/12 = 750).

I know 17 seems high to you, but DH is claiming married with 10 allowances for our family of 6 (I do not work) and we still get about $3000-$4000 back each tax year (yeah, I know we should adjust ours too). We itemize our deductions each year as well.

Do check and make sure you are not withholding at the higher single rate as Thriftygal suggested, but the 17 allowances does seem feasible.

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SAHM of 4

August food budget (groceries/take-out): $500.00/$75.00
Total spent: $238.97/$14.12

July budget/spent: $500.00/$650.00

Also check with your HR dept when you submit new withholdings ~ I believe (but don't quote me) that with any amount over 12 you are supposed to submit a form with explanation as to why your withholding are so large ~ or something like that. It would be worth checking on just so you could head off any trouble in the future.

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Good point. When DH changed his, he put the max he could claim without having to go to HR and submit some kind of form. He is able to change his online and the limit was 10.

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SAHM of 4

August food budget (groceries/take-out): $500.00/$75.00
Total spent: $238.97/$14.12

July budget/spent: $500.00/$650.00