Hi <<First Name>>! Wowza, October was a heck of a month! I spent some money on costuming and future Christmas gifts for friends and family, had a strong pet sitting month, and Halloween was fantastic! Now it's rolling into the holiday season and it is going to be crazy...
In case you don't follow my site, just these newsletters, I made a homemade bread peace offering to the neighbor with all of the issues with cars and us. We are hopefully fine right now. Fingers crossed.
Also, my "Little" with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) officially ended our match in October and I've been told that I should wait to get another one if I'm thinking about having a baby anytime soon. Since we may be trying in 2016, I've decided to leave BBBS on a back burner for a while if not forever.
Win the Monthly Prize!
Just to say thanks for being part of the BFS community, each month we give away a $25 Amazon gift card or Paypal cash AND a free copy of BOTH of my eBooks to one lucky BFS newsletter subscriber! Congrats to October's winner, who I just emailed! To enter this month's, please
jump over to this post and leave a comment - only one comment per person per month please! A winner will be chosen and notified at the beginning of next month.
Crystal Shards
It is the beginning of yet another new month. So as you may know, here is my complete online income and expense breakdown from the last one:
October 2015 Online Income and Expenses
- BFS - $950
- My Other Blogs - $120
- Affiliate Ads - $0
- eBook - $0
- Crystal for Hire (Freelancing like App Review Replies and Blog Ad Management) - $2020
- Minus Expenses (Paypal, Writers for Co-Owned Sites, Domain Renewals, Etc.) - $450
- TOTAL - $2640
Thankfully, we also diversify with other income streams since this one has been iffy...
October 2015 Other Income
Overall, we brought in about $9990
To put things into perspective, we need about $6000 a month just for our monthly nut, which covers our monthly bills like the remaining mortgage ($1000), my new car payment ($275), a new-to-us car fund ($225), property taxes and insurance on both homes ($1250 a month), and income taxes ($1500 a month). We live on the other $1750 a month. If there is anything leftover after that $6000 is taken care of, it is divided between savings, investments, and fun. It helps make up for not-so-good months that pop up (which happens more than I'd like with self-employment). You can check out our
our budget anytime.
Our main financial goal is to continue making enough overall to work from home as long as possible since we both prefer self-employment over "normal" day jobs. Our secondary goal is to use the majority of any extra money that we ever have to reach financial independence as soon as possible (we are aiming for age 50 or before). We may still choose to work even if we ever have enough saved not to, but we would like to make that choice ourselves.
DISCLAIMER: Please keep in mind that this income comes from 25+ hour work weeks online divided between me and Mr. BFS. We put in another 40-60 hours a week split up into pet sitting. When it's a sports season he's involved in, Mr. BFS puts in about 20-30 hours a week into reffing. My personal minimum work week has become about 60 hours.
We also end up paying about 25-30% in income taxes since we do have to cover the employer's part as well. I was working 100+ hours a week personally for over a year before I was able to leave my old day job. I just want to be clear that this isn't easy money in any respect. I want to inspire everyone to accomplish their dreams, no matter what it takes. I am not saying it will be simple or fast. It just can be done.
Thanks for being the best readers ever!
Crystal Stemberger
newsletter@budgetinginthefunstuff.com
P.S. If you have any questions at any time, please contact me! Just hit Reply!
