Image Courtesy: Dan4th

I usually start working on my budget for the coming month in the last few days of the previous month. While working on my budget for July, I realized it's going to be a nice month for my savings account.

I am paid bi-weekly and two months of every year, I am paid three times per month instead of the usual twice a month paycheck.

Back when I had piles of credit card debt, I had to apply the extra paycheck towards my ever increasing debt or towards trying to make ends meet since my spending usually exceeded my income. Every penny of my paycheck was already spoken for by my landlord, the gas company, the electric company, the credit card and the car loan.

Nowadays, I am no longer trying to figure out how I am going to divide my extra paycheck between the various credit card balances. When I get an extra paycheck now, 90-100% of it usually goes directly to my savings account; unless I have something I want to buy that isn't included in my regular monthly budget.

After tallying all the numbers, I should be able to save over $3300 in July.
How will I save this much?

• Regular $250 biweekly contributions. $750 instead of usual $500.
  
• Savings From Extra Paycheck - $1300
• No Mortgage Payment for July - $1350 (due to refinance)

The $3300+ boost will be a nice addition to my savings account since I will be pulling out about $11,000 to bring to the closing table for my mortgage refinance (more on this later).

When you get an extra paycheck, what do you do with it?

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Thanks to everyone who entered the free gas giveaway. It's been a great 2 years here at SingleGuyMoney and I look forward to many more.

There was an awesome response to the Free Gas Giveaway and the contest closed with 103 comments.

Without further ado, the winners are:

SavingDiva - $50 Gas Card

and

Luvdaylillies - $50 Gas Card

Congratulations you two! Please contact me at singleguymoney (at) gmail.com so I get your gas cards in the mail. Please be sure to include the name of the gas station you would like a gift card from. In my area, I have Exxon, BP, Citgo, Conoco, QT, Racetrac and Shell.

Image Courtesy: Nate Steiner

It's time for another giveaway!!!! SingleGuyMoney will be 2 years old this month and to celebrate, I'm giving away gifts.

I sincerely appreciate everyone taking the time to subscribe, visit and read my blog. I enjoy sharing my financial story and I hope you enjoy reading.

The Gift:
I will be giving away 2 free gas cards worth $50 each. I am funding this out of my own pocket and not supplied by any gas company. I know the economy sucks right now and it's the summer traveling season. To thank you for visiting my blog, I want to make that next visit to the gas pump a little bit easier. I know I said in the last couple of giveaways I was going to give away a book but I think free gas can be put to better use.

The Rules:

• One entry per person, duplicate entries will be disqualified. - Let's make this fair.
• Contest applies to U.S. residents only.
• I have the final say on the contest.
• I will use a random online number generator to pick the winner.
• You will have your choice of a Racetrac or BP gas card. If you win and don't have either store in your area, we can discuss other options.
  
• Be sure you leave your email address so I can contact you if you win.
  

How to Enter:

• The contest starts Thursday June 11, 2009 and will end on Tuesday June 30, 2009 @ 11:59pm EST. I will announce the winner in a post on Wednesday July 1, 2009.
• All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. I want to know - if you win, what are you plans, if any, for summer travel?
  
• If you have a blog or website, mention the giveaway for an additional chance to win. You can also Stumble, Tip, Digg, PFBuzz, etc for an additional chance to win.
  
• I would also hope that you will subscribe to SingleGuyMoney. This is not a requirement of the contest but it would be greatly appreciated.
  

If you are new or haven't done so already, please consider subscribing to SingleGuyMoney to be updated when there is a new post and to find out if you won!