Received $850 this week.

Dh gave me $50 from his focus group. ($15 of $65 went to kids' allowances).

Got $300 from a relative for taxes.

Got $500 from MIL, for 6 months' piano lessons.

Total $850.

I am also expecting $110 from my mom (1/2 cell phone bill 2 months) + $40 from Amazon sales.

I decided to put $80 of the gift money/amazon sales to the mortgage. Will make $130 in extra payments total - just like last month.

If I transferred $680 to savings, the balance should be $9000 (mid-term savings) by end of the month, once interest hits. Sounds good to me. How I determined how much to put to the mortgage. The rest above the $9k mark.

I had expected to put the focus group money + $100 from savings, for some expenses last month.

So, paid for that out of the surprise money. All taken care of!

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Next month will be another nice month. $1150 in medial bills due, but I Expect $2k-$3k from work overtime, to replenish the medical deductible fund.

This is one way I found to fund our ROTHs, even with 10% cut in compensation. I usually save $250/month for the medical deductible. This year I am depositing that in my ROTH. It's kind of depressing to put 100% of my overtime to medical bills. But, it is what it is. In fact, there is a chance that we might not even use it all next year.

As such, it's kind of nice to get a small boost to other savings this month.

I actually don't mind putting 100% of my overtime to savings. There is nothing I rather do with it. It is 100% to "medical savings" that just isn't very exciting. But, I will get over it.

Of course, I have been motivated to work more overtime, in the offchance I can take home more than $3000 and can do something else with the rest (like put some in the ROTHs).