Nov 28th, 2012 by Jennifer Lynn
Remember the financial goal I set for myself waaaaaay back in June?
You don’t? It was when I was determined, as a stay-at-home mommy without a reliable income stream, to forge a financial challenge at the start of summer to raise $1,000, somehow. Yeah. That financial challenge. This is how things currently stand:
(All income was made from writing projects, sponsors and focus group participation.)
June – $80.00
July – $57.71
August – $425.80
September – $0
October – $262.50
November – $150.00 $250.00
TOTAL: $1,076.01
My response (the censored version): Eeee! I made it!!
My response (slightly uncensored): Hells yeah, muthaf*cka!
I will use this wonderful achievement as initiative to roll out some rousing new goals for December:
Financial? I am stumped. Should I continue forward with my savings goal and plump up the amount to $2,000? Or $5,000? Here is what else I’ve been systematically undertaking:
- Implement an envelope savings system and aggressively tackle a specific goal until it has been accomplished. PASS! M. and I resurrected our envelope savings system with all of our objectives clearly prioritized. For instance our most pressing family savings goal is to save up enough dough for a king sized bed. Once this has been accomplished we will continue to move down our list. I am pretty satisfied with this system because it catapulted us into action as opposed to wistfully chit chatting over all of the stuff we want and then remaining stagnant about it. Now we visually can document our progress and propel our ideas into action. (Instead of waffling with “we should…“, it is now “we MUST. And this is how we will…“)
- Bring my local community checking account to $3,000 while adding $2,000 to my Discover online savings account. FLOUNDERING! I am insanely close to touching these totals, however. Just a reminder that I enjoy keeping a highly liquid amount in my checking while scouring for treasures at local estate sales. I will delve more into this aspect in the future.
- Create a Christmas budget 2012 — figure out Secret Santa and home-made/useful gift ideas for loved ones. FLOUNDERING! This was supposed to occur last weekend and for whatever reason didn’t transpire. Progress should be made shortly as we rally our family and pull the names for our Secret Santa exchange. I believe a $30 limit per gift was discussed and agreed upon. Also, I need to order a set of America the Beautiful silver quarters from the U.S. Mint for my father-in-law’s Christmas gift. I’ve been gifting him an annual silver set for the past few years now, and this needs to be done as quickly as possible to ensure timely shipping (PASS! on the coins.)
Blogging goals.
- Update Broke-Ass Mommy (minimally) two to three times per week. Thus far I’ve experimented with a Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday posting schedule and a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The latter felt more natural/preferable. PASS!
- Comment on others’ blogs and tweet their posts. It seriously takes two seconds to compose a tweet after commenting, so why not share the love?
PASS! - Consider potentially setting up a Broke-Ass Mommy Facebook account (??). Social media will carry heavy weight in the future, I believe. I am slacking on this front because I lack sufficient time to properly engage fans on Facebook, however. FLOUNDERING!
- Break 200,000 Alexa Ranking. I have been successfully bobbing around the 185-190,000 mark so I want to maintain this momentum. PASS!
Writing Goals.
- 500 words a night, minimum. It means manifesting courage to face that dreaded blank screen each and every evening, but it will force me to write continually/more persistently. PASS!
Other Goals.
- Yoga, daily. This needs to be a critical priority as I feel quite a transformation with both body and mind while faithfully engaging in yoga. Since I am pretty rusty now, I will need to warm up through the basic asanas (sun salutations) to rebuild my endurance, if necessary. The standing-on-the-head stuff will have to wait.
- Find a new and fun recipe per week to experiment with. Preferably, baking. I love baking.
- Join our community co-op. Now that the farmers market is hibernating for the winter season, M. and I need to look elsewhere for fresh fruit and veggies options. Our local co-op has such a cozy inviting atmosphere, and I would receive a dividend check at the end of the year for co-owning a hunk of it.
- Buy storage bins this weekend for de-cluttering our apartment. I totally blame M. for being a packrat. At the very least I need to shuffle a lot of crap into bins and slide them under the bed and into the closets. Then systematically I will go through all of my stuff and trash/sell/donate the bulk of it. I am beginning to realize that too much stuff makes me miserable and slightly derailed. PASS!
There you have it.
Et tu? What are your goals for this month?
=^..^=
Great work on the goals! We use the envelope system & love it! My income goals are going well and most of my blogging goals are doing ok as well, will have to write that post for next week.
Fantastic job on the extra money! Keep it up! My main goal is zero food waste, and second is more consciousness doing things, instead of going too fast and leaving important details behind…
Those all sound reasonable. I know what you mean about starting a Facebook. I didn't think I had time for it either. But what it really comes down to is posting your new posts on your Facebook and maybe commenting a few times. It isn't as time consuming as I thought….I will definitely "like" your page!!!
Good job with your goals (mostly). More money, hell yeah! Keep the momentum going! I stare at the blank screen every night, scratching the head, biting the lips, thinking about what to say next.
You're doing great! Good job on hitting your 1000 goal!
You killd it! Love it! Congratulations I would say to try and keep a "somewhat" consistent income and pay down any debt you have.
Congratulations on meeting your milestones with your goals. So many people fail to take the time to make goals or invest in themselves so a pat on the shoulder to you. Keep on setting the goals and reaching for the top. Mr.CBB
Great work getting to $1000! I was all prepared to sponsor a broke ass mommy post so you could make it to $1000 by the end of the year.
I also like the whole Monday, Wednesday and Friday thing, I know what you mean about it feeling more natural.
I agree about facebook, to difficult to keep up for me.
My goals are to keep it as simple as possible because it is a big holiday month and also things are moving forward with BK.
So simple = less stress or minimal stress.
I also can't spend too much so I am really watching my pennies!
Congrats on hitting over the $1K mark! Good job also with accomplishing many of the goals you've listed.
@John S., thank you, sir! The envelope system really has been a phenomenal boost. I look forward to reading your own blogging goals next week.
@Pauline, zero food waste is a great goal to strive for. We always try to come up with creative ways to utilize every scrap imaginable because food is just way too expensive.
@Holly, thank you for the Facebook tidbits since it probably is time to consider creating a page. Twitter initially felt overwhelming but now it takes hardly any extra time to actively maintain.
@V., thank you! I have always found how others handle the writing process very intriguing.
@Catherine, thank you so much, much appreciated!
@Marvin, currently debt free (thank goodness) so the main objective is to continue to find creative ways to produce streams of income.
@Mr. CBB, I always love your encouraging advice and I will continue to set goals in order to remain sharply focused on what it is I am trying to achieve.
@Glen, I felt pretty out of synch with the rest of my blogging buddies when I alternated days. And thank you so much. I gladly will contribute content any time, free of charge.
@Debtgirl, you have been doing so bloody fantastic and I look forward to reading where your BK journey leads you.
@K.K., thank you so much, much appreciated! I seem to conquer my goals significantly quicker when I actually commit them to writing.
CONGRATS on reaching that $1000 mark! You are kicking your goal's collective butts! I used to have a facebook for my page, and I know this is probably the worst marketing idea ever, but I just couldn't support facebook with it's disrespect for its users any longer. So I deleted all my accounts. I thought I'd go back before the 2-week panic window they give you to reactivate, but I didn't. And I'm trying to find ways to get in touch with the people I lost touch with in other ways that actually enrich my personal relationships.
Wow. Random rant. Sorry.
[...] back in touch with her goals, Jennifer Lynn is doing pretty [...]
Many congratulations on achieving your $1000 goal. That's so fantastic! I almost love how you don't know where to go from here because you've made it this far
However, I'm sure you'll find a course of action.
Well done!
[...] Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy writes A Mish-Mash of Goals – Read how I’m doing with my financial goals and really life goals [...]
[...] Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy writes A Mish-Mash of Goals – Read how I’m doing with my financial goals and really life goals [...]
[...] Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy writes A Mish-Mash of Goals – Read how I’m doing with my financial goals and really life goals [...]
[...] Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy writes A Mish-Mash of Goals – Read how I’m doing with my financial goals and really life goals [...]
[...] Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy writes A Mish-Mash of Goals – Read how I’m doing with my financial goals and really life goals [...]
[...] And for newer readers to Broke-Ass Mommy, here is where you may check the status of my previous financial challenge. I really had a lot of fun doing this last [...]