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Life Updates and $3,287 in Extra Income

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 56 Comments

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Life Updates and $3,287 in Extra Income

That’s part of my sister’s lovely face on the left and me on the right…

Hey everyone! Happy Monday. The weekend went by too quickly, yet again. Hope all of you fathers enjoyed Father’s Day!

We took our engagement photos on Thursday night, and it went well! I was super nervous but our photographer was awesome. My sister helped us out and watched the dogs so that we could take some photos with them and photos without. We should be getting the photos either this week or next, so be on the lookout for them!

Who watched TrueBlood last night?  Who is very confused?! This season definitely seems like a weird one. I’m not sure what to think.

I have my annual review at my work today, wish me luck!

We are still looking for a potential dream house and have been searching every single day. Haven’t found anything that we LOVE, which is probably good since our current house isn’t for sale yet. However, if the PERFECT one did come up, we will probably put an offer on it.

Also, we’ve decided that we will most likely sell our current house. We have been thinking about it, and if we were looking for a house to buy in order to rent out, we most likely wouldn’t do that with this one since we could definitely buy something cheaper and more “basic” and get a higher return from it.

Don’t forget that Google Reader shuts down in a couple of weeks. Don’t forget to switch your reader over to something else. I’ve come to love Bloglovin, so I recommend trying that out. What are you switching to?

Student Loan Update

My student loans will be gone this month! WOOHOOO! I’ll be making an update post on this soon. This feeling is awesome and I can’t believe that I am this close.

Spending

I don’t think we spent too much in the past week. I can’t really think of anything. We did of course spend money on our engagement photos and those were around $400. Well worth it to me though! I’m sure W would say otherwise… 🙂

Life Updates and $3,287 in Extra Income

Extra Income (does not include income from our main jobs)

Extra income was great last week. I finally collected some very overdue payments which helped increase my weekly income, but I am still waiting on a few more. Estimated taxes are due, and let me tell you, that is never any fun to pay… Lets please not even talk about how much I will pay altogether this year!

I launched my new blog last weekend. Diversified Finances is live! This blog will be all about how I’m trying to diversify my finances and eventually become financially independent. The newest post on there is all about passive income.

 

Posts from my blog:

  1. I started a new blog and $1,258 in Extra Income – My usual weekly update.
  2. My wedding dress and budget: Part 1 Dress and Photos – An awesome wedding post! I talk about my wedding dress and photo budget, and some tips for saving money in these areas.
  3. What is your pet worth? – Jordann’s post was a good one. Lots of great comments on this post as well! For me, I would pay anything for my dogs, they are my children and my life. Some people wouldn’t spend more than $100 and I just think that is extremely shocking, and scary…
  4. Emergency Fund or Pay Off Debt? – I asked everyone a question in this post. It seems like the choice is spit. Half of you only prefer to keep a small amount in your EF so that you can pay down high interest rate debt more quickly. For me, I prefer to keep my EF high because I am an extreme worrier.

 

Link love:

There were a lot of great posts in the past week, but one that I really enjoyed was It’s just a job on Blonde & Balanced. Of course we all know that this topic has been on my mind forever. What is your job to you, just a paycheck or passion? Both?

 

Being healthy

I haven’t been the healthiest this past week, and I will say it’s because I’ve been busy, but it’s partly been laziness as well. Working out has definitely gone downhill, but oh well. We have been eating very healthy though. That is one thing that we have got going for us! Both of us want to lose weight and look/feel better…

 

Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?

 

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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

  1. Matt Becker says

    I finally made the switch to Feedly and it’s been good enough so far. Still trying to figure some things out, but it’s not too bad. I have noticed some new traffic recently from BlogLovin, which I’d never heard of before, so maybe I’ll have to check it out. Nice job on the side income. Hope your pictures turn out great.

    Reply

  5. Thomas says

    Congrats on the photos Michelle! I bet they will turn out great! I don’t watch TrueBlood so I have no idea whats going on with that show. When will you be listing your home and how soon after that will you be trying to find another home to rent out. This weekend did go by fast but it was a very enjoyable weekend. I haven’t made any income from my side hustles as I am just starting but the progress is going well. I will definitely make use of the advice you gave me. Thanks again!

    Reply

    • Michelle says

      I have no idea when we will be listing our home, probably within the next couple of months. And we won’t be buying a rental home for years most likely.

      Reply

  6. DC @ Young Adult Money says

    Great job on extra income! These updates inspire me to keep working hard to increase mine.

    “Also, we’ve decided that we will most likely sell our current house. We have been thinking about it, and if we were looking for a house to buy in order to rent out, we most likely wouldn’t do that with this one since we could definitely buy something cheaper and more “basic” and get a higher return from it.”

    I think this is definitely the way to go. I have gone back and forth about what we will do with our current house down the road and I think you have a great point here. Why not sell it and find a house that you know you are going to rent? That way you can find one that is more suited for maximum rental income.

    Reply

    • Michelle says

      I think $400 was good also. I didn’t know that was a good price for a photographer, I thought it was a little on the high side, but I love her work so I didn’t mind. How much is photography for 1 hour usually? $400 was the highest that I found for my city.

      Reply

  8. Grayson @ Debt Roundup says

    Nice work Michelle. My extra spending up by a lot this past week because I was on a bachelor party trip and that tends to be expensive, especially with two rounds of golf. I really had fun though and there were no regrets.

    Reply

  9. Ree Klein says

    Hey, Michelle, it’s almost time to drop the word “extra” in front of “income!” By my definition, you’re making a fabulous income from your business–who needs a job when you can bring in that much from your business??? I realize it isn’t that much all the time, but it’s still VERY impressive.

    Congratulations on getting to torch the student loan debt this month. That must feel great!

    Reply

  10. Kim@Eyesonthedollar says

    That’s very exciting about your new site and the student loan payoff. I’m also really impressed that you can walk the dog in tall shoes. I’d break my ankle for sure, but my dog can be a bit sporadic on directions.

    Reply

  12. Keren says

    $400 is definitely reasonable in my opinion. The session may have only been 1 hour, but photographers typically take those many shots and do edits, cropping, etc. on them before they are presented to you. I’m fortunate to have a sister-in-law who takes awesome pictures so that saves us a lot of moolah, especially when it comes to our kiddos.

    Reply

  17. CeCe @Frugalista Married says

    Yeah for no more student loans. I remember how amazing it felt when mine were gone. Even though I’ve had two vacations back to back I’ve been doing really good on my spending. Mainly because I cut down big time on shopping. I was getting outta control. Good job as usual on all of your extra income. The healthy part will come!!!

    Reply

  19. John@MoneyPrinciple says

    Good week for income. I would not stretch to buying a new house without selling the old one to start with. That could leave you exposed if tenants fell through. Build a cushion first.

    We feed straight from the TMP – it’s the easiest way to do it. Using third parties just complicates the issue, particularly if the feeder changes policy. But then we don’t have too many people taking feeds. If we did then I would set up our own feeder system – it isn’t that difficult. Either way you can monitor things.

    Reply

  21. Budget and the Beach says

    I’m thinking “you walk your dogs in those shoes!” lol! Cute dress! I guess I’ll have to wait to meet you in person in St. Louis to see the real you. Great job on your income. 🙂

    Reply

  22. E.M. says

    I hope your review went well! Glad to hear the photo session went nicely. $400 does seem reasonable for pictures you’ll cherish forever. I think you’re making a smart move regarding the possibility of having a rental property. I’m still in denial about google reader 🙁 I’ve been using Feedly but it’s just not the same.

    Reply

  23. Alexa says

    Cute dress & dogs! My extra income is finally starting to increase whoohoo. I just hope that one day I will be able to reach the level you are at!

    Reply

  24. KK @ Student Debt Survivor says

    woo hoo for finishing off the student loans. Paying off mine really was a life changing moment (well memorable and exciting to say the least). I don’t know what engagement photos cost but $400 seems really reasonable to me. As for google reader, I’m trying to get used to “The Old Reader” but am not loving it and might try something else.

    Reply

  25. Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies says

    I hope google changes their minds, too! I’ve been trying Feedly, but I’m not nuts about it. I keep saying I need to set up bloglovin and give it a shot, but I always seem to enjoy reading the posts more than setting up RSS feeds! =)

    Reply

  26. Canadian Budget Binder says

    Congrats on the engagement photos! I hope your work review goes well for you but I’m sure you don’t need any luck in that department since you are so brilliant. Good to hear you are both eating healthy and continue to have that goal to lose weight. You will get there with the same determination you put into your blogs… I know you will!! Cheers

    Reply

  28. Meghan says

    I’m really liking BlogLovin. The only thing that I don’t like is that the format changes on mobile phones and my iPad, and replies aren’t under the post being referenced. If you read GRS for instance, there are 100 posts with people talking to each other, and you can’t follow the conversation at all. As long as it’s read on a computer, it’s good.

    Reply

  31. KC @ genxfinance says

    There are a lot of god news and reasons to celebrate. Looking forward to have a glimpse of your engagement photos. It’s good that you had fun doing it. And you’re student loan, really nice. Good job. Enjoy that feeling, the sweet smell of independence.

    Reply

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