Good Morning! Hope you’re ready to celebrate Independence Day! I know I sure am! I had a crazy month in June, but still managed to crank out 11 freelance articles! I posted about Feeding Your Family on $300 a month (twice!), Why You Should Create a Bill Schedule, Frugal Ways to Beat the Heat, and my favorite…….They’re Financing Cell Phones now.…Go check them out if you haven’t already!
Without further ado, here’s the rundown of June’s Budget Successes and Failings as well as my own July goals!
June Goals:
Blog
- Comment on 5 blogs, 5 days per week – PASS. I didn’t exactly have a tracking system for this, but I think I passed.
- Break 150,000 in page rank for the Yakezie Challenge – PASS! Yipee! As of today (6/30), my page rank is 125,250!
- Finish getting my logos changed out –PASS! This one is dunzo, and I even put my name in my profiles instead of Retired by 40.
Finances
- Stick to a $300 “everything” budget – FAIL! We were just shy of $400….see budget below :-(
- Complete 2 mystery shops – FAIL – only did one, a haircut for The Big Guy
- Host a Garage Sale – FAIL – we decided to put this off until August.
- Continue to pay $500 towards personal loan – PASS! We paid $500 towards the personal loan and put an extra $100 in the pot of money we are building up to pay a big lump sum at the end of November.
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! – PASS! We went swimming, went for walks, played with finger paint, read lots of books, and learned how to say “hi” and wave!
- Lose 2 lbs – PASS, it think….I’ve been a bit afraid of the scale this last week, but the week before that I had met my goal.
- Workout 3x per week – gonna give this one a go again. – FAIL! I will never love working out. It’s just not gonna happen.
July Goals –
Blog:
- Explore Instagram. Seriously, it’s like a foreign world to me, but everyone says I should be using it.
- Get 2 Weeks ahead on blog posts again.
- Break 100,000 with the Yakezie Challenge!
Finances:
- Put an extra $50 in savings to go towards personal loan.
- Write 12 Freelance Articles
- Stick to $300 everything budget
Family:
- Date Night with The Big Guy
- Plan some fun activities for when my aunt and uncle come to visit!
Freelance Writing –
Do you need a staff writer, guest post, copy writing, or ghost writing services? I am available to write on a variety of topics! Check out my Hire Me tab for more information!
Budget –
Wins:
- Income: Much higher than expected, to the tune of more than $1,200. This is partially due to the fact that I had some secret shopping and other weird income, and the fact that The Big Guy was drawing a paycheck for 16 days of the month. Whoopeee!
- Transfer to Savings: Higher than expected because I transferred the extra odds and ends of income into savings and into the pot of money we are putting together to pay off our personal loan by the end of November.
- Childcare: I was anticipating spending $400 initially, but then dropped it to $300 when I talked to our babysitter, but then dropped it to $280 when we worked out the exact price. $20 isn’t a huge savings, but this month, every dollar counts!
- Gas: If you’ve been following my budget updates, you will know that gas is an area that we struggle with. But, with The Big Guy gone for 2 weeks, and being in school online now, our gas budget is finally under control!
- Overall Net Cash: I know, we’re in the red this month, but considering all of the craziness below, I consider being less than $300 in the red a success!
- Chase Freedom Cards: Not in the budget, exactly, but we received our 2 Chase Freedom cards this month, each with $200 bonus. We’re well on our way to fatty credit card rewards!
- Our Savings are finally just over $1,000, so we are suspending regular contributions (we will still contribute blog income, secret shopping income and other “found money”) until we have paid off our Personal Loan – Hopefully that will be November!
Losses:
- $300 Loss: At work, I maintain a safe of $30,000 to give change for various employees and guests of the hotel. But, I managed to lose $300 out of it one day in June. What scares me is that I have absolutely no idea where it went. I was really scared that I was going to get fired for my honest mistake, but luckily my boss’ boss stepped in and decided that not only would I not be terminated, I would not even be given a write-up (which would prevent me from taking a promotion), just a counseling, which is no big deal. And, I had to replace the money. It was payroll deducted, so my paycheck was $300 short, which would have made up the difference of this crazy month!
- Home Improvement: We needed some tools to fix leaks in the basement. Unavoidable.
- Gym: $21. We had paused The Big Guy’s gym contract, but it resume this month. Only 3 months until it’s up, and we will not be renewing.
- Drill Meals: The Big Guy is in the National Guard, so he went to his 2 weeks of Annual Training this month. Unfortunately, (little rant coming…) the leadership at his unit isn’t exactly the best, causing him to miss chow nearly every day and having to buy food to eat out. I was so frustrated while he was gone, but he had to eat, and I have since moved on.
- Restaurants: Waaay over budget and it’s entirely my fault. Let me tell you, my hat is off to single parents! I was one for 2 weeks, so I ate out a lot…..If you are a single parent, my hat is off to you, becuase I have no idea how you do it!
- Groceries: Higher than I would have liked, but our eMeals shopping is still going strong and we won’t have to buy any more groceries besides milk and a bit of fresh produce until the middle of July.
- Doctor: $944. Most of what put us in the red this month. Luckily our income was higher than normal so that covered most of The Big Guy’s oral appliance (read more about that), and the remainder of the physical therapy bills for his knee.
Posts I wrote for others:
Why Is It Important for Everyone to Have a Budget?
Inside the Complicated Process of Buying a HUD Home
How to Handle an Unexpected Windfall
Carnival Inclusions:
Financial Nerd’ s Carnival of Retirement
Finance with Reason’s Carnival of Financial Planning June 1st
Finance with Reason’s Carnival of Financial Camaraderie June 8th
Student Finance’s Carnival of Financial Camaraderie
Finance with Reason’s Yakezie Carnival June 15th
Finance With Reason’s Carnival of Financial Planning
Reach Financial Independence’s Yakezie Carnival
Your Personal Finance Pro’s Carnival of Financial Planning
The Value Geek’s Financial Carnival for Young Adults
Financial Nerd’s Financial Carnival for Young Adults
Thank you so much to everyone who included me in carnivals in June!
*This post may contain affiliate links
Linked up at:
DIY Sunday Showcase, Think Pink Sunday, Sunday Showcase, Happiness Is Handmade,Nifty Thrifty Sunday,That DIY Party, It’s Party Time, Sunday Showcase, Mommy Monday Blog Hop, Around Tuit, Mix It Up Monday, Creative Mondays, Sweet and Savory, Show Me Your Plaid Monday,Bloggers Brag ,Made By You Monday ,Monday Pin It Party ,Motivate Me Monday ,Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop ,Monday Funday ,Busy Monday ,Marvelous Monday ,Titus Tuesday ,Tuesdays at our home ,Tell Me About It Tuesday ,Tip Me Tuesday ,Tuesdays With A Twist ,The Inspiration Board ,Tutorial Tuesday ,Create Link Inspire ,Making a Home ,Something Fabulous Wednesday ,The Mommy Club ,Wow Me Wednesday ,Wake Up Wednesday, Adorned From Above Wednesday, Cast Party Wednesday ,Your Whims Wednesday ,The Project Stash ,Whimsy Wednesday ,We Did It Wednesday ,Wednesday Round Up ,Wine’d Down Wednesday ,Inspire Me Wednesday ,Whatever Goes Wednesday ,Something Fabulous Wednesday ,Wow Me Wednesday ,The Pin Junkie ,What To Do Weekends, Inspiration Gallery, Artsy Corner, Inspire Us Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, That’s Fresh Friday, KitchenFun and Crafty, Friday Frenzy, Inspire Me Please, Craft Frenzy Friday, Anything Goes, Pin Me Linky Party, Pin Worthy Projects, Friday Favorites, Best of The Weekend, Link Party Palooza, Friday Flash, Flaunt It Friday, Family Fun Friday, Frugal Friday, Weekend Bloggy Reading, Saturday Show and TellS, aturday Spotlight, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Saturday Sparks, Saturday Sharefest, Serenity Saturday, Show and Tell Saturday, Get Schooled Saturday, Dare to Share Saturday, Skip The Housework Saturday, Silver Penny Saturday, A Little Bird Told Me
Nice!! I just got the Chase Freedom card too, but of course I applied before they were offering the $200 bonus. But, nonetheless, I got my $100 bonus (and $25 for adding a second user) within the first billing cycle!! yay!!
You are really killing it with the goals!
I can’t really get into Instagram for my blog at all. I have a personal account, but I doubt brokeGIRLrich readers care at all about me goofing around with my friends, taking pictures of my food or the #100HappyDays campaign.
Although I also never used Twitter till I started blogging and I never feel any need to use it personally, but love it for blogging. So maybe I’m just missing something on the Instagram wave.
I love the access it gives me to my followers, but I definitely don’t use Twitter for my own use. Instagram, I’m not sure about either, but I have to give a go at least
I’m not sure I can even comprehend being two weeks ahead on blog posts. We went on a three day vacation recently and I pretty much had to just punt. Great goals! You can comment on my posts all you want. :)
You are so organised. I wish I had only have the organisational skills that you have. I really like your table of in and outgoings and the way you work with red and green, so you can see what you’ve achieve and what you can improve. It’s so simple, yet so effective.
Thanks for linking up with Monday Parenting Pin It Party!
Thanks for linking up your goals and progress at The Thoughtful spot! I think putting it out on (virtual) paper helps!