Is gradual the way to go?

This is one of my favorite times of the year. Even better than Christmas. Its tax return and profit sharing season! *spreads confetti all around*

Last year it was easy to decide what to do with our profit sharing (to be further called PS for simplicity's sake). We knew we'd need to live on it from September to this March. We paid off a little bit of debt and shoved the rest into our savings account. We've done pretty well living on it and will drain the account in about the next week or so. Perfect timing.

This year we are getting a bit more of both our tax return and of PS. I think Jake and I are going to have a pretty moderate conflict relating to how to go about spending this money.

We have quite a bit of debt. My first student loan payment will come due next month and I have no intention of putting them on forbearance any longer. The interest they've accrued in the last 3 years makes me sick. Jake's student loans are much smaller and we've been paying on them for several years already. We also have a credit card with a nasty balance, one with a relatively small balance, and still owe 2 years worth of payments on my car.

Jake wants to pay off as much debt as possible and adjust our tax exemptions to cover the difference. He basically wants to spend all the tax and PS money on debt. I get it. Debt sucks, its no fun shelling out all that money every month on interest and junk.

I want to sock that money into our savings account again and draw an allowance. What we are getting for PS would cover our expenses from this March to next March. I am especially hesitant to adjust our tax exemptions b/c I know how much we love to get our money back every February. We are able to pay off things in bulk or buy big ticket items we need. I'm also afraid we'll end up owing next February, which could be catastrophic given that PS might not be as good next year b/c of the economy.

I know there is middle ground to be found here, and we'll find it, I just hate it when we aren't on the same page about stuff. He wants his way more than I want mine, but I just feel like we're shooting ourselves in the foot if we spend all the money and save none for expenses.