Yesterday was payday I received an unexpected pay raise which will increase my paychecks $117 more every two weeks. My plan is to sock away that extra money each month which will give me a little over $3,000 by year end. I am so excited about this and I've also started the new year with a better attitude. I have been carefully monitoring every dollar spent I've started using CASH versus the debit/credit card. I am so surprised at how much money I actually have when I budget it carefully. I think i'm going to pay off a $233 balance on my Mastercard. It may not be much but hey at least I won't have to worry about that bill next month. My second highest interest rate card is my Visa with a balance of $300. Next month i'll concentrate on paying that one off the snowballing method is what I plan to use. Any other tips or suggestions are always welcomed.