A Month in Review

So, I just went through my bank statement for September to see how I did. As I mentioned earlier, I have not done well at tracking my spending for this month so I had to rely on my statement. I am going to make a stronger effort to do better this month.

My bright sides were my electric, water and cell phone bills - all of which came in less than budgeted. I also came in under the mark on dining out and entertaining expenses. As you can see, I didn't quite hit my $900 mark, but actually this was about where I expected to be. The fact that I hit my goal in July was a fluke. This, I think, is a lot more accurate. I plan on being able to bring in the full $900 each month, but I realize that building up income streams take time.

Speaking of income streams, my Amazon and Half sales were up incredibly this month. eBay was a little light, but I am hoping to get it going again this month. Some items I listed recently sold, so I am going to try and get some more things going. I have had a goal to list 3 items per week - whether eBay, Amazon or Half. For the most part, I have been able to keep up with that, though preferences lately have been with Amazon and Half. I was also able to generate income this month by working at a second job house managing. I don't know that there will be as much I can do this month, but I will keep my fingers crossed. Another non income related goal which was on my list - installing cfls, has been very successful!

Now onto the bad news...

I didn't meet my goal on listing the garage stall for rent. I don't know why I have a mental block on that, except that it seems like a "daylight" thing to work on, and lately with how late I have been getting home, I haven't seen a lot of daylight. I did get to spend one afternoon cleaning it out so it looks more rentable... now I just need to get that sign out!

I went over (yet again) on my Misc. budget. To try to even that out I have made some changes to next month's budget. First, I have added two new categories - home improvement and gifts. To try to even out the numbers a bit, I lowered my dining out and entertainment lines. Hopefully that will help distribute some of the pain.

I also added another new line item - Nonprofit donation. I feel it is important is to give back. I realized recently that I used to have a good system in place for charitable donations, but not any more. I need to get back on that ASAP. Right now I only dare set up that budget item for $15.00 a month, but hopefully in time I can get it back up to my former levels - once I making sure all other bills are being met, of course.

I've also got a few more irons in the fire to earn income (of course.) I have two mystery shopping assignments set up for this month and another sales opportunity that I am going to try for a friend. More details on that soon!

Photo by: TW Collins