What’s up?
I hope you had a good September. It seems like mine went by way too fast. And I am now one year older. It’s funny how the older you get the more you dislike having a birthday! Other than that I’d say September was a fairly good month.
Here’s what went down.
September Income
I finally did it. I cracked the $3,000 mark – although not by much. But I’m still happy that I finally got there!
In September I made $3,046.04
It broke down like this:
- Freelance Work (writing and virtual assistant work) $1,714.25
- Blogging: $1,231.79
- Amazon FBA: $100
**Amazon FBA Earnings: I haven’t took the time to go over item by item yet. But based on the profit margins of the stuff I sent in paired with the fact that everything has sold I’d say $150 is probably a more accurate number. $100 is conservative and I know that I’ve earned at least that after figuring in the cost of merchandise, FBA fees, and splitting the actual profits. All the Amazon money is sitting in my bank account and I’m going to total everything up to the exact number later this week. Will let you know what it turns out to be.
September Goals
Earn $3,000Save $500$497.14, close enough!- Finish eBook –Nope. See below.
Be More Patient with my Kids– This has made such a difference in the way the girls act and the stress that I feel. I didn’t instantly react to anything this month. I took my time and talked through problems rather than just yelling. I feel so much better!- Read Through the Bible – I could’ve done better. Not an epic fail but not a complete success either.
October Goals
Spend as Little Money as Possible – One of my friends and I were talking about how we were kind of nickel and diming ourselves. For me this came in the form of picking up stuff for my girls – an outfit here, a book there, until it added up to too much money.
So this month my goal is to spend as little as possible. I even whipped out the coupons for yesterday’s grocery shopping trip! I’m also going to do a better job of tracking my spending this month. I feel like I’ve fallen off track a little bit so now’s a good time to jump back on.
Earn $3,000 – I want to raise this but I also think that compared to last month that $3,000 might be a little harder to reach. At the moment I only have about $2,000 worth of jobs lined up. So the goal is to hit $3,000 again. If I can reach that goal this month then I’ll increase this amount next month.
Save $500 – I’m once again not increasing this amount because I don’t see my income increasing this month. However, if I’m able to lower my budget then I might be able to do more. We’ll see.
Read the Book of Proverbs – I quickly found out that I need to start reading the Bible from a place that I can better understand. I printed out the checklist from Good Morning Girls that lists every Chapter of the Bible and its corresponding subchapters. Proverb interests me and is easier for me to understand. I’m on chapter 5 now so as long as I read one chapter a day I’ll hit this goal.
Work on eBook Five Hours Per Week – I originally wanted to have my eBook’s first draft completed by September 14th. But here’s the thing – I was writing the book based on what I thought people would want to read rather than focusing on the message that I really wanted to get out.
While I was working on the book I completely changed the direction of it. And I’m really happy. I feel like this book encompasses everything that I am truly about. And I want it to be awesome so I’m not going to rush through it. Instead I’m going to work on it for an hour each day, five days a week!
Read to the Girls Everyday – I had slacked off on reading to the girls over the past couple months. And then on one random day we picked up a book of nursery rhymes and they were hooked again. I feel like reading together is one activity that everyone really, really enjoys so I want to incorporate this more.
Shew. That looks like a lot of goals!
The Schedule
I do realize that this seems like a lot of goals but these are things that I truly want to accomplish so in order to maximize my potential for success I’m going to try and stick to this (weekday) routine:
Also please note this routine is not a total revamp of my life. This is close to what the girls and I usually follow and I’m just adding in my goals where it makes sense!
- 7:00 am Wake up, read a chapter of Proverbs
- 7:30 – 9:00 – Get Kailyn ready for school, put her on the school bus, take Ava to the babysitter
- 9:00 – 10:30 – Work on eBook, put something in crockpot for dinner
- 10:30 – 2:30 – work on all freelance jobs and blog work (stay focused – work on stuff in order from hardest to easiest. Knock out the big stuff first. No messing around! )
- 2:30 – pick up Ava, clean up house, just hang out
- 3:50 – 5:00 Kailyn gets off bus, afterschool snack, cuddle up with Kailyn (she’s super tired when she gets home and usually watches a TV show or plays games on the Kindle)
- 5:00 – 6:00 – read to the girls sometime in this time slot
- 6:00 – Eat supper, clean up, girls play
- 7:00 – bath time, then put girls to bed
- 8:00 – work on any other work that needs to be done/read a book/watch a movie
- 10:30 – go to bed
Highlight of the Month
I didn’t take too many pictures this month but my favorite thing we did was by far visiting a pumpkin farm. There were tons of displays for the kids to play on, horse and buggy rides, hay rides, kid’s rides, a pumpkin picking patch, a corn maze, face painting, and much more.
And best of all it was a pretty cheap yet super fun day. (Except for getting lost in the corn maze which totally sucked. It was hot!!). I can’t wait to go back this month. Here are some pics of the girls and my nephew:
How was your September? What are your October goals?
I think you did great in September! Well done for hitting the $3k mark too 🙂 good luck with your goals for October 🙂
Thank you!
Great job on the income! What is your ebook going to be about?
Thank you! Well….in a nutshell it’s about spending your money and creating the life you love according to your own values. Doing what’s right for you and ignoring what other people think.
Congratulations on the income!!! That’s quite an accomplishment, and continued success to you!
Thanks so much!
Congratulations on reaching your monthly goals! I was wondering how your Amazon FBA was doing.
I haven’t done much with it yet the last time I checked in almost everything had sold. So it’s going good and I honestly need to send some more stuff in. I kind of felt like it wasn’t for me after I experimented with it but now that I’m making money I might just change my mind!
Congrats on surpassing your income goal! I went to a corn maze the other weekend and it was a lot of fun. The only downside was getting tons of mosquito bites on my ankles.
It was super hot when we went and the girls were getting pretty freaked out when we couldn’t find our way out. We had to go out the entrance lol. I don’t know if corn mazes are good for small kids 🙂
Way to go! I have to ask, how did you make $1,200 blogging?! I really am struggling making money on the blog and would love to know any more tips you have…
The bulk of that $1,200 was from Ad networks. What I do is check my Google Webmaster tools to see which of my posts get the most visits and then I strategically add Google or Media.net ads just in those posts. (Look here for example – https://singlemomsincome.com/10-legitimate-places-single-moms-can-apply-for-scholarships/) It’s an easy way to increase ad revenue without putting ads in every single post 🙂
I am going to try this!! Thanks, Alexa!
You’re welcome!
Good job on cracking the $3,000 mark. Good job on almost reaching your savings goal as well. I think it’s close enough 🙂
Thank you! Yeah I’m gonna count the savings goal as good enough. I coulda transferred another $3 but I guess I got lazy!
Yeah! Made 3 k!
I’m looking rowward to Oct being a month with routines . Sept has school starting and that makes everything a little different.
Yes. September was a rough month for me too with Kailyn starting Kindergarten. I had to totally rework my schedule. Here’s to a good October 🙂
Amazing progress Alexa.
I don’t recall why I initially started following your site. (after all I’m not a single mom!) But I’m glad I did.
Your online journey/success is quite inspiring. Well done!
Also, love the new site design.
Thank you. I’m glad you read my blog even though you’re not a single mom 🙂
Congratulations on reaching $3000, Alexa. Amazing progress. Looking forward to seeing your eBook!
Thanks 🙂
Awesome job meeting your income goal!!!
Thank you 🙂
I’m super impressed with how much you are earning from your blog. Nice work! I hope to reach those levels one day as well : )
I’m sure you will. It’s taken me a couple of years to actually get some decent traffic so just stick with it!
Congrats, Alexa! You had a great month and I am sure that you feel really great about breaking the $3,000 mark. Your blogging income is really nice too, it should keep going up from now on. I also got one year older in September, it’s a nice feeling. Here’s for a great future! 🙂
Thank you! And happy belated birthday!
Congrats on hitting $3000! And great pics!
Thank you!
I didn’t even see this when I was on here yesterday. I think I was on last months goals.
Awesome job this month! I need to add a savings goal to my income goals.
So happy I found your blog! I will definitely be a regular!
Loved reading this! I’ve had my blog for a while now and often run out of things I think people want to read about, I make lists like this all the time, goal setting and schedule planning, never thought to share them before, I really liked reading the way you structure your time so perhaps some one may want to read how I structure mine. Its also great getting to know that you CAN make money blogging and writing freelance work, do you have a writing degree? I dropped out of college as an English major and doubt my writing skills often however I do love writing and my dream is like yours to make money from home through blogging, freelance work and well I’m also a photographer and filmmaker ( http://www.jennevazquez.com) . Thanks for sharing Alexa!
I have no degree. I think in total I spent about two semesters (maybe three) at a community college and I was actually wanting to get an accounting degree. With the internet and some hard work you can make anything possible. 🙂 And trust me – when it comes to freelance writing the majority of the people you run into could care less whether you have a degree or not.
As for blogging topics here lately I’ve given myself permission to write about whatever I want without listening to the blogging gurus who tell me I have to stay in a certain topic. It makes blogging a lot more enjoyable 🙂
Congratulations on achieving your September goal! I knew you could, have been following your website for some time. You will continue to succeed, probably beyond your present dreams, because you focus on all aspects of your life, not just working and making money. You are an inspiration to others in your situation and because of giving so much to others, you will receive many opportunities and rewards in return. As a former single parent (now retired) I often wondered why I had to struggle so much in my younger years. Perhaps it is the struggle that brings out the best in all of us.
Thanks so much Norma. And I agree. I think the struggle does bring out the good in all of us. It gives you a better perspective on life and in my case has really forced me to stop putting judgement on other people who I know nothing about. In other words I think it causes us to be more compassionate.
Nice Work. I’ve been stuck around the $1200 mark for a while now. I really want to get that doubled in the next six months.
You can do it. There’s no doubt in my mind 🙂