Planning for a major raise

Last week, I got a major promotion.

Major as in: I've woken up in the middle of the night thinking "Oh my goodness, I know I can do this job, but ... I CAN DO THIS JOB THERE ARE NO BUTS GO BACK TO SLEEP".

One of the main reasons I work 60 miles from home is because until last week, I was making enough money to make it worth my travel time/expenses. With the 32% salary increase that I just got...well, let's just say that if I took a job closer to home, I'd be looking at about half of my new salary.

More importantly, I love my job, where I work, and the people I work with.

And while I haven't received my first enhanced paycheck yet (that comes next week), I know that the time to plan is now. Before I get the extra money deposited in my checking account and go crazy with shoes, wine, clothes and fun. Here are some of the plans I've got swimming through my (increasingly full) head.

Right now, more than $500 out of every pay check goes into my ING account for my student loans. Starting in June, that number's going up by $300+. By the end of this year, I'm going to be making some substantial extra payments on those loans - have I mentioned before how much I want them out of my life?

Right now, I'm putting $10 a week into an account for car maintenance. I may up this to $20, but that's still kind of on the fence.

What I really need to do some research on is Roth IRAs. I don't have one, but I want one and opening one through ING would be easy as pie since I have accounts there already. I don't know that I'd be able to fully fund it this year if I keep to the increased student loan schedule up there - I need to decide which is more important. I love the idea of fully funding a Roth IRA, but ... did I tell you that I want those student loans out of my life?

I'm also going to start a third savings account through ING for travel money. The Professor and I love to travel, and that's something that I'm willing to throw $10-$15 a week at. That would be enough to buy our plane tickets to visit his family next year (my stepson has 3 cousins he's never met, and that's something I really want to rectify).

But I'm going to treat myself, too. I've worked pretty hard for this promotion - the paperwork alone in getting the government to admit how (*cough*) wonderful I am (*cough*) has earned me a new pair of pretty shoes for work. I'm thinking of taking a shopping trip for work clothes - it's pretty much business casual around there, so I don't have to go buy tons of expensive suits. And more importantly? I love to shop, and that's one place I have really limited myself in the last couple of years.

So, to sum up: Go me! Yay me! And in the end, I'm going to try to forget that 95% of that raise even happened. The other 5%, though, is all mine.