<prompt> Human: I have cut my bills down as much as I can. I rarely go out and live within my means. Whenever I get in the black a tire blows out or a filling craps out or a wedding or a baby shower or blah blah blah. My question is should I put the extra money, usually less than 100, before my next pay check in a savings account or towards paying off my 5000 credit card debt? I want to pay off the credit card but without any savings any surprise bill puts me in the red or makes me use my credit card.  <response>: I would put the first 500 in a savings account as a very small emergency fund. After that, I would work on that credit card debt like crazy. Baby showers and other social events dont count as financial emergencies in my book! They surely arent expecting you to go broke over their happy event, are they? So youll have to confess that money is tight and that youre happy to offer them a babysit-voucher or bake them a cake, something like that. Im very serious about this, it might be that your social circle is keeping almost-everyone broke by demanding big gifts... Try to not give in to that give in to it much less. Again, it cant be their intention that youll be homeless in a few years just because you couldnt get ahead, because of 10 baby showers, 2 bachelor parties and 4 weddings? 