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Excessive Amount of Goals Update and my DSLR/Travel savings fund

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 35 Comments

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I hope everyone is having a great week! I’m glad it’s Wednesday. This Friday is the BF’s birthday, so I need to find him something. He’s getting his CCW this weekend most likely, so that might just be his present. Also it was around 70 degrees again yesterday! This weather is really throwing me off, but I love it.

This post is going to be about the whole bunch of goals that I have. I’ll be updating you on my monthly and 2012 goals. AHHH right?  Just to recap, I talked about my January goals here, and my 2012 goals here. I didn’t realize how many goals I had until I started typing up this post. Anything that was doubled, I just took out for the month.

Overall I’m doing pretty good I think. There’s definitely some things that I can work on, but hey it’s still early in the year so I have plenty of time to work on myself.

I’ve also decided that I want to try and save an extra $10 a day for a DSLR for my vacations. I’d like to buy one before our March vacation. That will give me around $600, but I’m sure I’ll need more. I also want to buy a water proof casing for it. How much does a good one of those run?

What’s a good model? How much? Someone help!

I also realized that I want to do a lot of stuff when we’re on our March vacation. I’ve been looking at a bunch of water sports websites and I really want to go stand up paddle boarding and kayaking. This will be around $300 for the both of us (I priced it out).

I would also like to go scuba diving or snorkeling. I’ve never done this. How much does this usually cost? So I want to save a lot more money for this vacation. I might just move around the vacation money and put more into our March vacation fund.

Anyways, onto my lists:

  2012 GOALS

  1. Have lots of fun. PASS. Ha well I’m sure how to gauge this goal, but so far 2012 has been great!
  2. Get toned. FAIL. I think I worked out once this month, and of course I have no abs. How sad is this.
  3. Have a great year at work. PASS. Work has been great so far!
  4. Get my MBA. Not yet, but soon! I’m going to sound like a dork, but I feel like I’ve learned so much from my classes this semester so far, I’m guessing it’s because it all applies to my field, so I’m paying attention.
  5. Pay off my car by March 2012. This will be paid off within the next couple of days! WHOO HOO
  6. Decrease my student loans to $20,000. Haven’t really touched this too much this past month. But I am still on track.
  7. Save around $4,500 for vacations. Saved some!
  8. Make $10,000 in side income. I’m on my way for this I’ve made around $600 this month in side income so far, and I’ve also gotten refunds of around $300 so far also from my mortgage overpayment.
  9. Grow my blog. I’m definitely growing, thanks guys! My Alexa number is dropping a lot (it’s still high because I bought a domain so I had to start over), so hopefully it keeps dropping!
  10. Volunteer twice a month. FAIL, haven’t volunteered yet, and most likely will not until the summer time.
  11. Increase my net worth to $85,000.  Obviously this hasn’t been completed in 30 days, but I’m on my way!
  12. Keep track of my goals. FAIL. Except for right now, I haven’t looked at my goals since I made them,

January Goals

  1. Make 2012 goals. PASS. Did this, DUH see above!
  2. Reassess our budget and cut out $50.  I posted yesterday about my budget. Up until yesterday, I hadn’t cut anything out, but I got a letter the other day and my mortgage payment is going down $64 a month, so this is a PASS!
  3. Start and finish homework before it’s due.  PASS.  Yes I have been doing some of my homework during my lunch break at work on the same day, but I’m still doing it. I would like to put more effort into it though.
  4. Workout at least 1 time a week.  FAIL.  See above. I want to start working out Thurs-Sun this week and forever… We shall see!
  5. Sell my stuff on Ebay. FAIL. I’ve sold some stuff, but not as much as I’d like. On Thursday I’m hoping to get through more stuff and put it online.
  6. Take down my Christmas tree.  PASS. But I also failed, I hate to say this, but even though our main tree is down, we still have our “joke” Charlie Brown tree still up. It’s so tiny that we’ve honestly forgot about it.
  7. Make an extra $500 this month.  PASS. I made over $600 from blog income and surveys!

How are your January and 2012 goals going?

Update: Lots of you have asked about my side income. A post on this should be up either this week or next! Look out.

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About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  2. Sarah says

    You are so inspiring! Seriously, look at you accomplishing most of your goals already!! I'd like to know a little more on how you're making so much side cash. That's something that I'd be interested in {obviously} haha, but especially with a big move coming up. Go you!!! 🙂

    Reply

  3. Amanda says

    I went snorkeling in the Cayman Islands and we rented our snorkel gear for 7 days for about $60. I thought it was a great deal because we spent at least half of our day out in the ocean. Ugh..this makes me jealous! I want to go on vacation and swim with the fishys!

    Reply

  4. Holly says

    You are doing awesome with your goals so far! Keep up the good work. And no worries, I've totally failed on the workout thing myself. It's hard to find daily motivation to do this but I'm working on it!

    Reply

  8. Samantha says

    I am buying my first DSLR in a few weeks (once I get my tax returns back!) and have done A LOT of research. I know many photographers and they've all recommended Canon over Nikon. I will be purchasing the Canon Rebel T3 – You can actually purchase it from Walmart for $479 right now. It does not include the memory card (another $30ish). Here is the link for the camera :http://www.walmart.com/ip/Canon-12.2MP-5157B002AA/15754560?findingMethod=rrPlus! It has HD movie mode – The other Canon I was looking at, the Canon EOS Rebel XS does not. (And it's the same price as the one above. I've also heard the XS does not have as sharp of pictures.)Hope this helps!!Sam

    Reply

  9. Live Simply- Live We says

    Any tips for selling on eBay? I have a ton of stuff I want to put on there but I've never done it before.

    Reply

    • Michelle P says

      I'm definitely not a pro when it comes to eBay selling. I just list stuff and make sure the pictures look decent. I also try to use a lot of descriptive words in the title.

      Reply

  11. Alyx says

    Sounds like your goals are going great! And we have a Canon T3 that we absolutely LOVE. It's fabulous. We got it for $600, but it's gone down in price quite a bit in the past 6 months I think. So worth every penny. I actually want to save up and invest in another so that both myself and the hubby can have one!

    Reply

  12. Northern Living Allo says

    I have a Canon 40D (now discontinued, replaced by the 50D) and I love it. I've had many Canons over the years and they are terrific. Lots of options, as Samantha says, for more generic lenses, too. Mine was pretty expensive at the time (about $1700), and it was heavier than I anticipated, but it fits my hands very well. A friend has the Rebel and it's super light, takes wonderful photos, but wasn't "hand friendly" for me, which sounds silly, but it just didn't feel right. I'd recommend comparing DSLRs online at one or two sites, go talk to the staff at a camera store, hold the cameras, play with them a bit and see what you like best, what the pros & cons are. Don't just go by price.

    Reply

  16. Evan @ Smartwealth says

    It's great that you have all these goals set and you are keeping up with them. I didn't set too many goals for myself, just go on vacation more often, and get rid of as much debt as possible.

    Reply

  18. Maldivian Finance Bl says

    I think you are doing pretty well so far and keep it up.About the camera, I think any SLR would be okay and it all depends on how much you are willing to spend for it. Canon Rebel will be my suggestion as well

    Reply

  19. Bre says

    What do you do for the surveys to make money? I am currently working on a $16 a day budget and it is getting tight, I'm talking eat ramen a lot tight! I am still in school so I am really looking to make some extra money from home since I have days off but can't technically get a job since school consumes my life!

    Reply

    • Michelle P says

      I've had a lot of people email me about this today. So hopefully everyone will look right here! :)I use Pinecone research. I don't make a ton off of it though. Maybe just like $9 a week. Pinecone isn't taking any new members right now though, but they do have advertisements up in random places (this is what I've heard), and if you click on their ads, then you can join. Most of my side income is from sponsored posts and side advertisements. I use a variety of places, most recently it was Social Spark. I'd give it a try!

      Reply

  20. Carolyn says

    i think the Canon T2i is about $700? it's a great camera to start with! it's the lenses that get expensive.. a camera will come with a kit lens but it's usually garbage :/

    Reply

  21. Laura Vanderkam says

    Looking forward to seeing the side income post. I think that's the side of personal finance that gets talked about less. There are two ways to live within your means. Spend less or increase your means. Truly savvy folks aim for both. As for goals… I'm doing one at a time, one per month. That way I can be fairly sure they'll stick. January's resolution was to lift weights — which I've made pretty much into a habit. February's goal is to eat more healthfully. More fruits and veggies. We shall see how that goes!

    Reply

  23. Modest Money says

    Great work on the goals Michelle! Also congrats on paying off your car. It's always a good feeling to take care of part of your debt. All this talk of cameras is making me want one too. I could really use one for blog post images. I might try to convince my parents to sell theirs and sell their existing one to me for cheap.

    Reply

  25. Ashley says

    your goals are so inspiring lady! we have a lot of similar ones….you just actually committed to some $$$ figures with yours! 🙂 i love it! keep up the good work – you are inspiring!

    Reply

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