Welcome to June, everyone!
I hope that your May was as productive and happy as mine was! Man, I’m chipper this morning, aren’t I? As every month is, this post is HUGE, so I’m going to jump right in to my June Goals and Budget Update!
May Goals –
Blog
- Bloglovin’ – Get more involved and increase followers by 50. You can follow me on bloglovin’ here! FAIL – Still!
- 1 freelance writing job, be it a one-time thing or a staff-writing position (see my shameless plus below :-) or my Hire Me tab! PASS! Kathleen from Frugal Portland posted about a freelance writing opportunity, and I jumped at it!
- Change out logos on social media to match the logo on my header. PASS! I think I got them all…
Finances
- Pay $500 towards personal loan – PASS!
- Pick up one freelance writing gig – I know, this is a crossover – PASS!
- Complete 2 mystery shops – PASS! Actually did 3!
- Stick to $400 Grocery Budget – PASS! With flying colors too, I might add! See below…
Health/Family
- Actually do a date night – PASS! We went to Maggiano’s for The Big Guy’s birthday on the 15th and it was soooo good! If you’re every in St. Louis, I totally recommend it!
- 5-7 pm is family time 5 days a week! – PASS! Baby RB40 is crawling now, so I basically have no choice!
- Lose 2 lbs – FAIL! I have been tracking my food carefully and working out, but I’m GAINING weight. What?
- Workout 3x per week – MEH, I worked out 2x per week..
- Track my food 5x per week – PASS! Like I said, I have been tracking my food really consistently, but I’m still gaining weight :-(
June Goals –
Blog
- Comment on 5 blogs, 5 days per week
- Break 150,000 in page rank for the Yakezie Challenge
- Finish getting my logos changed out
Finances
- Stick to a $300 “everything” budget
- Complete 2 mystery shops
- Host a Garage Sale
- Continue to pay $500 towards personal loan
Health/Family
- Spend some quality time with Baby RB40. The Big Guy will be gone for 2 weeks during June for his annual training, and I will be only working 6 hour days. It will be sort of like a vacation and I’m hoping to take the baby to do lots of fun things!
- Lose 2 lbs
- Workout 3x per week – gonna give this one a go again.
Freelance Writing –
I am starting to branch out into freelance writing! Do you need a staff writer, guest post, or know someone who does? I can fill a one-time need or write on a regular basis, and I turn around articles pretty quickly! Check out my Hire Me page for more info!
Yakezie Challenge –
I started the Challenge on April 30th, ranked 897,683 globally and 107,727 in the US. As of May 31st I am ranked 229,488 globally and 26,797 in the US!
Budget –
| Budget | Actual | |
| Income | $3,585.00 | $3,598.00 |
| Mortgage | $636.00 | $636.00 |
| Vivint | $55.00 | $55.00 |
| Utilities | $232.00 | $210.00 |
| Phone | $43.00 | $43.00 |
| Internet | $40.00 | $40.00 |
| Vehicle Payments | $917.00 | $917.00 |
| Gas | $300.00 | $348.00 |
| Health Insurance | $232.00 | $232.00 |
| Doctor | $50.00 | $121.34 |
| Life Insurance | $31.33 | $31.33 |
| Groceries | $400.00 | $297.00 |
| Restaurants | $20.00 | $122.00 |
| Barber | $15.00 | $15.00 |
| Hulu | $8.00 | $8.00 |
| Savings | $150.00 | $150.00 |
| Personal Loan | $500.00 | $500.00 |
| Student Loans | $110.00 | $110.00 |
| Credit Card | $50.00 | $50.00 |
| Total | -$204.33 | -$287.67 |
I decided I wanted a simpler budget than what I was using before, so here it is – I think I love it!
Wins:
- In almost every category we were either right at budget, or under it! In May we had more of these than any other months. SUCCESS!
- Our Grocery (our everything you can buy at Walmart) budget was $297 to a $400 Budget! The power of eMeals
(15% Off Your Order at eMeals.com with Bonus Comfort Foods Brochure! Use code Dinner15
) and CVS at work! Hopefully we can keep that trend going in June!
- I had about $50 more in income in May than anticipated, due to being employee of the month and receiving inventive pay – Whoop Whoop!
- Also, our Utilities went down after we put a room air conditioner in our bedroom, and because of just plain nice weather :-)
- The $200 Chase Freedom Bonus is back! So, we each opened a card. Super excited to finally have a card that gives more than 1% back in rewards!
Losses:
- Gas – we are having a super hard time staying within our gas budget, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out why!
- Restaurants – we went out to eat for the Big Guy’s birthday. If you haven’t been to Maggiano’s in St. Louis, I highly recommend it! Don’t let the over budget scare you, though. I will be redeeming credit card rewards to pay for all of it :-)
- Doctor – also waaaay over budget, but I’m not going to beat myself up for paying medical bills. I transferred some money to savings to cover this.
Overall, I was super happy with May and how we stuck to our budget. Here’s to hoping we can continue this trend into June!
Carnival Inclusions –
Carnival Inclusions
Aspiring Blogger – Personal Finance Carnival #39
Carnival of Money Pros – May 6th
Financial Carnival for Young Adults – College Edition
Lifestyle Carnival – 103rd Edition
Aspiring Blogger – Personal Finance Carnival #40
Your PF Pro’s Lifestyle Carnival
Finance with Reason’s Carnival of Retirement – May 11, 2014
Money Sense’s Carnival or Retirement
Make Money Your Way’s Carnival of Retirement
The Savvy Scot’s Lifestyle Carnival
Monica on Money’s Carnival of Financial Camaraderie
Aspiring Blogger’s Personal Finance Carnival #41
The Ultimate Juggle’s Carnival of Retirement
The Money Principle’s Carnival of Money Pros: Manage Your Money Like a Boss Edition
The Money Principle’s Yakezie Carnival: Mothering Edition
Thank you so much to everyone who included me in Carnivals this month!
Articles I Wrote for Others –
Six Financial Topics to Discuss Before You Marry
Six Reasons to Purchase a Rental Property
How Budget Meetings Helped our Marriage
*This post may contain affiliate links
Great progress on the goals! And good job on the Yakezie challenge, if you continue writing and commenting you’ll be there in no time.
Thank you!
Looks like you had a pretty awesome month, also thanks for the roundup!
My first thought when reading your update was:
“Wow – how do they find the time to do all this?!”
You certainly must keep yourself busy :-)
Congratulations on all the wins here – it looks like you’re certainly moving in the right direction!
Why, thank you! I do keep quite busy!
Good job on groceries! Hopefully, you can keep up saving 25% on a consistent basis.
We went kind of overboard last month on diapers, but overall we had a good month too!
http://themillionairefund.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-may-tally.html
Ugh…diapers are definitely a tough one! Hope you can get back in line next month!
You’re killin’ it! Congrats!
Thanks!
Good luck with your goals this month!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
Thanks so much for sharing on Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party!!
Wow looks like you are doing amazing!!