Saving money without a "purpose" is one of the hardest things for me to do psychologically. Which is why calling it "bills" works for me--I only take money out for bills even though I've got a little bit above and beyond that. I've found that having a separate bucket for "savings" helpful.

And oh god, I am SO THANKFUL that I had that extra month's rent spare. It's really hard to see why you should save until stuff like this happens.

(Confession--I am going to dip into my savings a bit to be "debt free" at the end of this week, but that's just because interest on the card starts being applied from the 28th and it's going to take friends a bit longer than that to pay me back for tickets. All in, I'll only use about $100 of savings)

Good luck with both savings and paying down debt! Let us know how it goes!