My March Money

I've added a new feature to the blog - the Top Articles section. These are a combination of "most read" posts and also ones that I think explain my financial situation and give a bit of back story. I've noticed that I've had a lot of new readers lately, so hopefully that will help out.

In other news, I've gotten some nice additional income this month. I wasn't expecting to be able to get as much as usual because I am doing so much volunteer work in March, but things are looking really good. I already mentioned the surveys I've been taking, and speaking of small, but nice checks, I was also able to pick up a bunch of mystery shopping (even did one on my lunch hour yesterday) and was paid this month for some shopping I did last month. For larger returns, I picked up three shifts at the part time job. The last of those three shifts will take place on Sunday. They should be cutting that check before the end of the month, so that will be great. In addition, I also have had a number of book and CD sales on Amazon and Half! Things were pretty slow last month, but they have been slowly picking up a bit.

The one downside is that I haven't done nearly enough with sales in eBay or other venues. I wanted to, but with the hours I am putting in on other things, it just hasn't happened. However, next week looks really good for getting a few things posted. The money may not hit until April, but it will be a good start to that month.

I have been getting extra funds from another source as well...

I've found that changing my tax deductions has really made a difference! I'm going to leave that for another post, but for the moment suffice it to say, my $900 a month goal is a bit more manageable now! I'm not entirely sure I will hit the $900 goal this month though. In one way I have already succeeded it and then some, since I got my income tax returns, but I would really like to keep that money in savings instead. I put the whole thing in my emergency fund for now and will do some number crunching towards the end of next week and see if I need to use it for this month. I don't think I will, I have a bit of a buffer built in from other months and the No Spending Challenge for March has been awesome! For example, I have only been to the grocery store once this month (to buy healthy, portable snacks for my busy month) but other than that the only purchase I have made was some shampoo and conditioner. (I was completely out and had rinsed out the bottle with water for the last drops... twice.) This means that even if I don't hit the $900 goal in the sidebar, I still could be just fine since I've kept my budget as lean as possible. I won't know until next week for sure though.

Finally, I've been considering a few other income streams of late. My part time jobs won't be happening during the summer, so I need to be thinking about some things I can do that month. eBay and other sales, including at least one garage sale, are in the future, but I want to see if there are other things I can do then as well. We'll see how it goes. This no Spending Challenge has been great though, so if I have to I could do a No Spending Summer. For now though, I am just tossing ideas around. We'll see how things go!


Photo by: s.alt