What to do with that extra paycheck?

First off, I would like to thank www.CanadianCapitalist.com for his link today. I consider his blog the leader in Canadian PF Blogs, and hope I can emulate some of the great advice provided there.

If you are like me and get paid every 2 weeks as opposed to twice a month, December may have been one of those "special" months with an extra payday. This month my fiance and I will both be getting paid the 1st, the 15th and the 29th. With the exception of our mortgage which is paid every two weeks, all of our other expenses are monthly. Therefore last Friday's paycheck "drops to the bottom line". The real question is, what should I do with this extra money?

With Christmas approaching, it would be very easy to simply plow all that money towards presents, but at risk of sounding like a Scrooge, I'm simply not willing to spend that much on presents.

So here is my plan: treat the money like any other paycheck, and the leftovers go to presents. What do I mean by this? Well, my student loan, car loan and savings (RSP/Emergency) come out on the 15th and 30th each month. Since I have cheques coming on the 15th and again on the 29th, those regular payments are already taken care of. Therefore, this month I will be making an extra car, student loan and savings payment. There will be some left over as water, electricity, property tax, cable/phone wont need an extra payment. It is this money that will be applied to presents. The funny thing is, after doing the math, it works out perfectly with what I was planning on spending anyway.

I'd be interested to know what anybody else in this situation is doing with this windfall.

until next time....