The IRS dropped $1,800 into my checking account last week, my family’s share of the economic stimulus rebate.

I’m still waiting to feel stimulated.

Not to be cavalier — $1,800 buys a year’s worth of gas for my Toyota — but I’m not sure I follow the logic on these stimulus checks.

Here’s what I think: Some people watched too many episodes of “House Hunters” on HGTV and overspent on houses.

This caused the mortgage market to readjust and home prices to fall. People accustomed to using their house as an ATM were sunk. And as Tommy Lee Jones says in the film “No Country for Old Men”: “If it ain’t a mess, it’ll do till the mess gets here.”

“What shall we do?” cried Washington.

“Why not just drop money out of an airplane?” said Wall Street. “That should do the trick.”

“Yes,” said the lawmakers, cheered by the idea of an election-year cash drop. “That is just what we’ll do.”

The last time I checked, the U.S. government was still running a budget deficit. This economic stimulus rebate, which will cost about $110 billion this year, according to published reports, is adding to that deficit and growing the national debt.

Each man, woman and child in America now owns a roughly $30,000 share of the national debt, according to informed estimates, which means my family of four currently is on the hook for $120,000 and change.

Ouch.

I’m no economist, but I don’t understood spending your way out of a mess.

Many Americans seem to be feeling the same emotions. A poll by CNN and Opinion Research Corp. showed that just 21 percent of those asked said they would spend the rebate money. In an Associated Press poll, only 19 percent of the respondents said they planned to hit the malls.

Most Americans plan to save the rebate money or use it to pay bills. This is not what lawmakers wanted, but it might be a good turn of events.

To be fair, I think those of us with kids should think first about how we could use the stimulus money to help children, since they are the heirs to our growing national debt.

For parents who need the infusion of funds for basic needs like food, shelter or medicine, of course those obligations come first. For those of us blessed with some discretionary income, here are two suggestions:

n Start a college fund. Let’s say you have a newborn and a $1,500 rebate check, a typical amount for a middle-income family of three. Invest the whole rebate check in a tax-advantaged 529 college savings plan for 18 years, and it would grow to almost $6,000 (assuming 8 percent annual growth). Sure, that’s a drop in the bucket toward college, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

n Give to charity. This is a great opportunity to introduce your children to the joys of giving. Making a gift in their name to a children’s charity could teach them a real life lesson.

Two ideas: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis (stjude.org) or the East Tennessee Make-A-Wish Foundation in Chattanooga (wishetn.org).