Over the last couple of months, I've been running a sort of experiment. My job is designed such that I end up working a fair amount of overtime.

To go into the details, I work a 37.5 hour week, salaried. If I work an extra 2.5 hours in one week, I get paid my equivalent hourly rate for those hours. Any time over 40 hours I work brings me my salary times one and a half.

When I get paid every two weeks, I have been transferring out the amount over what my net income would be for a pay period without overtime. This "extra" money has been going into an Emigrant Direct account (where it earns a decent amount of interest for a savings account). The "experiment" is to see how much I rely on overtime for my regular expenses.

The experiment has shown me that I'm relying on my overtime pay too much. I've dipped into my savings at ING Direct (with a less favorable interest rate) in order to cover all expenses for the month, even though there hasn't been anything out of the ordinary.

I've learned I have to be more diligent about cutting expenses and saving money. I'll be keeping myself on a strict budget during the vacation next month. I haven't been good about bringing in my lunch to the office. That should change.

My goal is for my overtime pay to be "extra" so I can put it aside for something special. I may not always have the opportunity to work overtime, so I don't want to be required to rely on that income.

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