August Income and September Goals (Plus Life in Pictures)

Good morning. I hope you had a great weekend!

Mine was kid free. I worked on some of my projects and revamped my budget. It’s crazy how much my budget has changed in the past year. I am now paying less in babysitting and housing costs but other things like food (due to Kailyn wanting to pack her lunch everyday) and other school related costs have gone up.

I’ll have a post on budget revamping in the near future.

Amazon FBA Recap

I have a guest post coming up later on this week for those of you who are eagerly waiting to hear more about the Amazon FBA program.

My items are all sent it. But unfortunately Amazon wouldn’t let me send in around 30 of the items I had. (Apparently merchandise with batteries in them are deemed hazardous.)

I’m going to wait a few weeks until I have some better numbers to give you an update. Although I will say that the actual prepping and shipping process was much easier than I had anticipated.

August Business Income – Slightly Below Target

At the beginning of the month I was positive that my income would reach or surpass the $3,000 mark.

Well……I came in just slightly below my goal.

$2,917

It broke down like this:

• Freelance (writing and VA work) $2,212
• Blogging $705.32

Damn it. I had one payment for $150 that came in on September 1^st. If it would have just been one day earlier I could’ve finally said I reached the $3,000 mark.

That WILL happen this month. In fact, I’ve already lined up $2,700 worth of work which over half is payments I’ve received this month for work that I did last month. So now I only need to find another $300 to reach that $3,000 mark.

I wanna say that will be perfectly easy but now I’ve probably jinxed myself. Eeek.

August – Life in Pictures (the fun stuff)

I’ve been working on my photography skills and also just trying to document my life in pictures. You know, capture everyday little moments that make life great.

Here’s the fun stuff that happened in August:

The girls playing (and posing) my favorite pic of each girl:

We went camping at the beginning of August and saw two turtles stuck together. One turtle had it’s leg stuck in the other ones shell and was flipped on its back. We had to use a knife to pry open the first turtle’s shell to release and help the second turtle. This was probably the highlight of the girls trip. (Except for catching salamanders and snails, which I didn’t get a pic of.)

My Dad got blow dart guns in at his store and we might’ve had just a little bit too much fun with them….:)

And last, but certainly not least Jamie gutted his entire bathroom. It went down to the studs. This was the first time I’ve ever had a good reno budget to work with and I had full design control so it was pretty fun for me. I LOVE this type of stuff.

What started out as the worst bathroom ever known to man……. (my brother helping with the demo)

 

Ended up looking like this after two weeks of some hard work:

September Goals  

Now onward to the stuff I need to accomplish in September!                                 

Finish eBook by September 14^th – I’ve been working on an eBook after being totally captivated by Steve Scott and what he’s doing. My goal is to have the book finished by my birthday which is September 14^th.

**I’m going to need your help. I’ve come up with what I think is a pretty awesome title but after some consideration I think my title might just come off weird to other people.

***Also, I had originally planned to write an eBook about how to find freelance blogging jobs but I changed my mind. This book is all about budgeting and making temporary sacrifices to build a better life for yourself. After this I will write an eBook on my specific methods for finding writing jobs for those of you who are interested.

Earn $3,000 this Month – This will happen. Enough said.

Save at least $500 – I need to start adding some bigger chunks of money to my savings. I want to save at least $500. (I did decent last month too, saving $487.09 plus the $100 that’s been going into my IRA on a monthly basis.)

Be More Patient with My Kids – For the last month my girls and I have been passing a cold around in circles. There hasn’t been a single day when at least one of us isn’t coughing, sneezing, or constantly blowing our nose. I’ve felt more tired than usual and the girls have been extra whiny. I feel myself snapping at them over the littlest of things and then feeling so guilty afterward.

The goal for this month is to count to ten every time I get ready to yell. Hopefully I can divert the yelling and instead muster up the patience to talk through the problems. (And block out Ava’s temper tantrums. Ava + Tired = Miserable for Everyone Else. The girl can whine.)

Read Through the Bible with Good Morning Girls – I’ve never read the entire Bible. And honestly going to Church and reading the Bible has always been something I’ve struggled with, even though I’m a believer. I was reading through WomenLivingWell.org the other day. (I love Courtney Joseph’s YouTube videos. She has a magnetic personality. ) And she just started a plan for readers to read through the Bible with her. It’s just one chapter a day and she has printable plans that you can follow along with.

She also discusses what’s being read which is good for me since the Bible can sometimes feel a little over my head!

It might take a couple years to read through the Bible one chapter at a time but at least it will be progress.

That’s all folks.

What are your September Goals?