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Ready, get set, spend: What your rebate can buy

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: Got a rebate? The IRS has begun sending out more than $100 billion in economic stimulus payments to 130 million U.S. households. Here's what your windfall can buy in the St. Louis region.

For $300 (minimum rebate for an individual)

  • Milk and bread for a year (52 gallons + 52 loaves)
  • 8GB Apple IPod Touch (Circuit City)
  • Designer dress and purse (Macy's)
  • 5 tanks of unleaded gas (15-gallon tanks, at Wednesday's prices)
  • 10 gallons of Olympic deck stain (Lowe's)

    For $600 (maximum rebate for an individual)

    • 3 monthly payments on an economy car (Kia Optima)
    • 2 season tickets to the Muny (Terrace A)
    • Casual dining table and four stools (American furniture)
    • Nikon D40 digital camera and zoom lens (Creve Coeur Camera)
    • 6 months of pilates classes at a student rate (Pilates and Yoga Center of St. Louis)

    For $1,200 (rebate for married couple)

    • 42-inch-deck riding lawnmower (Sears)
    • Apple MacBook laptop
    • 1 nonstop roundtrip ticket to New York for Mother's Day weekend, plus airport parking (American, economy class)
    • 1 month's rent on a downtown loft (University Lofts)
    • ¾ of a 42-inch plasma Panasonic TV. Sorry, but you'll need to come up with $399 more. ($1,599, Best Buy)

    How will you spend your rebate?

    Mary Delach Leonard is a veteran journalist who joined the St. Louis Beacon staff in April 2008 after a 17-year career at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where she was a reporter and an editor in the features section. Her work has been cited for awards by the Missouri Associated Press Managing Editors, the Missouri Press Association and the Illinois Press Association. In 2010, the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis honored her with a Spirit of Justice Award in recognition of her work on the housing crisis. Leonard began her newspaper career at the Belleville News-Democrat after earning a degree in mass communications from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, where she now serves as an adjunct faculty member. She is partial to pomeranians and Cardinals.