Happy Monday everyone! Another Weekly Update post. I hope you all enjoyed my St. Thomas and St. John pictures in my weekly update post from last week. Also, don’t forget to check out my sister’s blog, FITnancials, that I am helping run (she is the writer).
I also have a $399 cash or tablet giveaway that will be up on my blog later today. Please come back and check that out!
Didn’t do a whole ton this past weekend. Time flew by and we wasted a lot of time relaxing. Should have been more productive! Spent Saturday relaxing and at night watched Gangster Squad. It was good! Ryan Gosling definitely was just an added bonus in the movie 🙂
Then on Sunday spent about 5 hours looking for homy gym equipment, and then about 3 hours setting it all up.
2013 GOALS
I realized the other day that I didn’t make 2013 goals yet. Yes, I made my 2012 and 5 Year Review – So many GOOD things post but I didn’t actually list any goals for this year. So here we go:
1. Pay off ALL of my student loans.
My goal is to completely wipe out the $38,000 of student loans that I graduated with in August. I’ve been calculating it (yes, I do this all the time) and they are still on track to be completely gone by March or April of this year. April will be the latest and lets just hope that nothing changes and takes me off from this schedule.
2. Get super fit.
Now that we plan on having everything that we need to work out in our basement, we definitely should have no problem with working out and getting more toned. Me and W plan on making a workout schedule for ourselves and are super excited to see our results.
3. Save for a decent sized down payment.
We are about 75% positive that we want to buy a new house in 2014. I plan on making a new post on this soon. A lot of you have wondered why we want a new house and why we want to sell our current house. It’s probably all lifestyle inflation and in my head but I still want one.
4. Plan an awesome wedding!
We are most likely thinking Spring of 2014 and last month I posted some wedding ideas. Of course there’s a long list of things that need to be done, and I’ve done pretty much nothing 🙂
Spending:
We did spend some money in the past week, but some of it was from bonus money that W earned. He gets a bonus card from the car brand he sells, and it’s all deposited on a debit card. Now, this is different from his monthly “salesman of the month” bonus that he’s been earning (that is all direct deposited into our bank account). It’s all extra money so we decided to spend some money on ourselves and have some fun.
And we did spend a lot of other money, which you can see below in my “being healthy” section below.
Extra Income (does not include salary from our jobs):
I did good last week, but I am expecting the next couple of weeks to be better. I’m waiting on a couple of payments and I have some things scheduled for the next couple of weeks. Lets just hope nothing falls through! I made $940 in extra income last week.
Food:
No meal plan again for this week. We didn’t do the greatest with eating in last week, mainly because of laziness. We do have a well stocked fridge, I just need to cook some dinners before everything goes bad!
Being healthy:
I haven’t been doing the greatest with this. We did buy a home gym yesterday (pictured above), which was SUPER expensive. I did not realize how much everything would be just so that W could lift some weights. The olympic bar alone was $320 (tax included) and that doesn’t include any of the weights which were super expensive too ($150 for the two 45 pound weights).
We are still looking for a treadmill. We saw a couple yesterday but I wanted to do a little research on them. It needs to be reliable and good for 3 people to use every day. What brand/type of treadmill do you have? Let me know!
John S @ Frugal Rules says
Great job again on the income! I had a fairly good week myself, which is good to see. The working out…not so much. 🙁
Michelle says
Yup same here!
My recent post $940 in Extra Income, Life Updates and 2013 Goals
Allison says
Research the treadmill. Some a just garbage. Get one that is sturdy.
My recent post Clean Eating, Week 2
Michelle says
Yeah that's what I'm afraid of. Definitely need something that can be reliable for 3 people.
My recent post $940 in Extra Income, Life Updates and 2013 Goals
NoTrustfund says
Good idea to get the wedding planning out of the way early, it takes forever. And I'm so impressed with all the extra income. Looks like you'll have no problem reaching your 2013 goals. I would love to hear more about your workout goals. I found having a firm wedding date to be extremely motivating on that front!
My recent post Manifesto
Michelle says
I definitely need to make a workout goal post, greta idea!
My recent post $940 in Extra Income, Life Updates and 2013 Goals
[email protected] says
Congrats on the side income! We hope to be at your level some day:) We are making some big changes when it comes to what we eat and our health as well. Good luck with your wedding planning!
My recent post 4 Ways to Save Money in the New Year
Michelle says
Thanks Greg!
My recent post $940 in Extra Income, Life Updates and 2013 Goals
plantingourpennies says
I don't know if it's too late, but did you look at places like Play It Again Sports for gym equipment? The brand new stuff is definitely super expensive, but it's not like barbells wear out, so the used stuff is usually just as good.
My recent post Equity Vs. Liquidation Value
Michelle says
Ha funny that you say that because my ex-boss (I still talk to them) actually owns a PIAS! We ended up not going there though because the prices were similar to buying new.
My recent post $940 in Extra Income, Life Updates and 2013 Goals
Sam says
Awesome job, Michelle! Hopefully you will get lots of use out of the home gym! I sooo want to learn more in detail about your online income. How you get the staff writing jobs, etc. hope you do another post on it soon! Ps- loving your sisters blog so far! The setup looks great!
My recent post Dining Room Transformation – 'Before'
Michelle says
I will definitely be making another post that is more in depth on each way I make extra income so be on the lookout!
And thanks! I'm loving her blog also.
My recent post $940 in Extra Income, Life Updates and 2013 Goals
Michelle says
I definitely think he will get good use out of it 🙂
My recent post $940 in Extra Income, Life Updates and 2013 Goals
[email protected] Adult Money says
"I also have a $399 cash or tablet giveaway that will be up on my blog later today" – Looking forward to this! My wife and I have been entering a lot of giveaways recently so we will definitely enter this one.
Your home gym is freaking awesome. It's definitely a goal of mine to have one someday. I would love to have that weight setup that you have, as well as a treadmill. I have been working out 5x/week and using our cruise in February as a motivator.
I hope you reach your goal of paying off your student loans. When we have more savings I will consider putting more towards our student loans….would be nice to get them down to a more manageable amount.
My recent post How to Save Money on a Date
MakingSenseofCents says
ooh yay! It's probably the same giveaway haha.
And thanks! We definitely love the home gym.
Lance at Money Life and More says
Extra.income has been slow this month but hopefully it picks up this week!
I have been using the Wii fit a.couple times a week which is better than no exercise!
MakingSenseofCents says
I hope it picks up!
Budget & the Beach says
Good luck with your new home gym! I that most people buy those things and get excited about it, then it ends up sitting in a dusty garage or basement not being used. An idea is (because you said it was expensive), track your workouts as if you were going to an expensive gym. Each time you work out it "goes towards" what it cost to buy that that thing. That way it keeps you motivated because you know at least you are making that purchase worthwhile, and eventually the idea is you worked out so much, the thing paid for itself and then some because you actually used it! Make sense?
My recent post Leaving There
MakingSenseofCents says
Makes sense! I am pretty positive that we will use it though. The main reason why we stopped going to the gym was because it was too far. Spending an hour each day to commute to the gym wasn't worth it for us.
therandompath says
Wow, a home gym! I would love one of those, especially a treadmill.
Do you have a location in mind yet for your wedding? 🙂
My recent post What Happened to My Allowance?
MakingSenseofCents says
Haha we are not sure. I've called a couple of places though 🙂
MakingSenseofCents says
Will definitely look into this! Thanks!
MakingSenseofCents says
Thanks! And hope your extra income increases soon. I think most people have seen a decrease.
Happy_Homeowner says
Awesome gym! Have you looked into Craigslist or other online options to help you fill out the rest of the items without spending too much?
My recent post Yes, My Boyfriend is Paying Me Rent
MakingSenseofCents says
We kind of look at craigslist but didn't see anything we really liked. Will have to look for a treadmill on there though!
c&e says
such a good post! love your blog as always, so smart! i want to find a treadmill too!
MakingSenseofCents says
Thanks!
DebtsnTaxes says
Awesome job on the extra income! I bought a Smith Machine a couple years back (on Black Friday) and got an awesome deal on it. I can't believe the weights you bought were that expensive though. I bought a set of 300 Lbs. including the bar for $150 brand new. We bought a treadmill this past weekend also. We bought a little heavier duty one that can hold 325 Lbs with a 2.5 continuous HP motor. I think it was the ProForm 790T. It had pretty good reviews and was relatively easy to put together.
MakingSenseofCents says
Yeah W wanted the best material and brands, and he wanted the weights to be rubber so that they wouldn't crack the floor. Ugh so expensive! It was the cheapest price we found for what we wanted though.
And we were looking into the ProForm! How much did you spend?
DebtsnTaxes says
It was $699 for the one we got. So far I like it. Makes sense about the weights. I have those foam mats underneath all my exercise equipment so it doesn't matter if I drop them. They should last him the rest of his life though so its not a bad investment.
Michelle says
That's a good deal! I'll have to look into that.
And yeah, we have the foam mats, but I we still wanted to be extra safe (and get the rubber weights) since some of his friends lift like 600 pounds and if they dropped the bar, I would prefer to not have to kill them! haha
Jennifer Lynn says
You are kicking some major tush with that extra income. That simply is awesome! Also I think it is great that you and W can motivate each other to tone up and stick to a vigorous workout routine together. And if the equipment is expensive, it will be well worth the investment if it is also well used!
Michelle says
Thanks Jennifer! I'm glad that no one is tearing me apart for buying it.
Squirrelers says
Very impressive with your extra income. A home gym can be a super convenient thing to have…no excuses! At one time I owned an elliptical machine, and it was very nice to have at home.
Michelle says
Thanks!
ROBERT CONNOR says
Hi Michelle,
We love it – you go girl! All the long hrs have paid off, the best is yet to come. Have a great day on purpose.