Monthly Status Report: August 2018

Wel­come to the new month­ly sta­tus report! Now that I am no longer employed by any­one, I fig­ured it was time to change up the for­mat of the sta­tus reports. I didn’t want to get rid of them entire­ly as I feel it’s impor­tant to share what tran­si­tion­ing to self-employ­men­t/­Fi­nan­cial Inde­pen­dence looks like.

I’m going to break out my per­son­al spend­ing still, but it’s going to be on a high­er lev­el than I had been doing con­sid­er­ing I split some expens­es with my boyfriend now.

Oth­er sec­tions include expens­es and income for var­i­ous endeav­ors, like sep­a­rate sec­tions for blog spend­ing, rental expens­es and income, and any oth­er side hus­tles I have.

Dis­claimer: some links may be affil­i­ate links. They help off­set the cost of keep­ing this blog running!

Why do I do a monthly status report?

I find it best to do a month­ly sta­tus report for a few reasons.

• It helps me eval­u­ate how I did the pre­vi­ous month. Did I spend a lot of mon­ey on some­thing? Why? Did I earn a bunch of mon­ey on some­thing? Can I do that again?
• It helps keep me account­able. How can I make an extra pur­chase know­ing I’ll have to explain myself to all of you? Talk about awk­ward when the blog­ger can’t walk the walk and talk the talk.
• I want to prove this crazy thing called finan­cial inde­pen­dence works!
• It pro­vides an exam­ple of real world bud­get­ing and expens­es. Some of the peo­ple I talk to haven’t ever seen a prop­er bud­get or seen one put into action, and part of the pur­pose of this blog is to lead by example!

I use Mint to help me track my spend­ing and keep an eye on my accounts. I also use a real­ly awe­some and super in-depth spread­sheet. So many for­mu­las….. Some peo­ple use Per­son­al Cap­i­tal and oth­ers use You Need a Bud­get (YNAB). What­ev­er tool (or com­bi­na­tion there­of) works best for you and your needs is the best one for you, since every­one and their bud­gets are different.

August 2018 Personal Statement:

August was a fun month! It start­ed out with a bang as I drove to Wis­con­sin to hang out with my sis­ter and her fam­i­ly for the week­end in Wis­con­sin Dells at an indoor water­park resort. I got lots of Aun­tie time which I love since it’s been in short sup­ply as I’ve moved fur­ther and fur­ther away from them.

Then I spent a few days not hav­ing fun as stress and exhaus­tion tanked my immune sys­tem. The flu in August is no fun at all, but I pulled through it thanks to some gen­er­ous help­ings of Nyquil and Dayquil.

I wrapped up August with a super fun week­end with my finan­cial inde­pen­dence friends as they descend­ed on Min­neapo­lis for Camp FI Mid­west. I spent a day hav­ing cheap fun at the Min­neso­ta State Fair with them, and then we moved on to enjoy­ing our­selves at the retreat cen­ter. Check out my recap for more details!

Expens­es:

Edit

Hous­ing:	$700
Phone:	$48
Food:	$72
Auto:	$222
Pet:	$50
Health/Fitness:	$217
Shop­ping:	$0
Trav­el:	$0
Gifts:	$0
Fees:	$58
Total:	$1,367

Notes: Obvi­ous­ly I would like this to be zero but it’s not. I have bills to pay even if mon­ey isn’t com­ing in the door. Being self-employed is fun.

August 2018 Blog Statement:

Income: $30.70

• Con­vertK­it: $8.70
• Course affil­i­ate link: $22

Expens­es: $615 (between pod­cast & blog stuff)

August 2018 Rental Statement:

Income: $0

Expens­es: $695

Note: My ten­ants are severe­ly behind on their rent. I was also expect­ing the sale to go through this month but instead it stretched into Sep­tem­ber. Ugh. Any day now. My account­ing around this is a mess.

August 2018 Money Makin’ Endeavors Statement:

Income: $175.74

• Etsy: $4.59
• Inter­est: $1.15
• Stained glass: $20
• Stu­dio mon­key work: $140
• Gas mon­ey: $10

Expens­es: $50

Combine it all together and.…

Income: $205.74

Expens­es: $2,727

Net worth: $216,838

Look guys! My net worth is up $4k this month! Woo!

.….or at least it would be if I could spend any of that mon­ey lol. All the growth is thanks to the con­tin­ued bull mar­ket and my hefty 401(k) that I can’t touch (or won’t touch). Life sure would be a lot less stress­ful if I could though!

Thanks for read­ing! What did your month look like? Did you stick to your budget?