From my experience and what I saw when I was poor - when you're poor you never have money, and you *can't* save money - there's always something. A broken down car, an unexpected medical bill, floor collapses and you need stuff to fix it, electric bill comes due before your paycheck because this month has a different number of weeks. Always something that drains your savings right back down to zero. Poor is never being able to get ahead of that.
So that one time you get some money - like tax refund time - you spend it. Use it or lose it. You spend it on something that will at least hopefully bring you some happiness until next year. Because that's the only chance you'll have. And if you don't use it, if you diligently save it, it will be gone by next month anyway and you'll have nothing to show for the last year.
That's not foolish. That's not "deviling it away". That's just taking the rare opportunity while you have it for something, anything.