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May Goals and Life Update

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 42 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

May Goals and Life Update

Hey everyone! I hope you all are having a great weekend. There were bad storms and a couple of tornadoes in our area on Friday right after I got home from work.

And then our power went out on Friday at 8 p.m. And it’s still out… BUT, we did buy a generator last night.

On Saturday night, we decided that we are sick of the power going out and our food going bad, so we just bought a generator. We searched EVERYWHERE and called everywhere and there were only two generators left, and it was all at one store. It was either an $899 generator (plus taxes and warranty = $1,200) or a $1,900 generator ($1,400 plus taxes and warranty).

We chose the lesser. So that was definitely a big, unexpected expense for the month, but we do think it’ll last quite some time and be handy. Our power has already gone out twice in the past month for multiple days each time, so I’m sure we’ll use it again. The storms here have just been crazy! Our electric company doesn’t think it will be back on until TUESDAY. Altogether that would make it 8 days without power in a 30 day period. I’m going nuts…

Overall though, May was great. Me and my sister went to St. Thomas and it was a great vacation. We also fixed up our patio and it looks 1,000 times better. We even had people over and enjoyed how much nicer it looked. We also bought a new grill and grilled probably 5 times last month. It was wonderful. I’m loving the warmer weather. Also, yesterday was me and W’s 7th anniversary and it also would have been my dad’s 61st birthday if he were still here.

Oh yeah, and the winner of my $200 giveaway the other day was Budget and the Beach. WOOHOOO!

I doubt you are wondering, but I thought that I would explain why I’m posting my May goals post on a Sunday – and also why I’m not including my normal extra income update.

I decided to try something new and split up my extra income and goals into two separate posts. It definitely felt like way too much way going into one post. I also wanted to focus my extra income posts solely on extra income. I have my post for tomorrow mostly done, but is there anything about extra income that you 100% want to see included tomorrow? Such as any questions about what I do, where I’m going with it, what I’m doing with it, etc.?

 

May Goals Update

  1. PAY OFF MY STUDENT LOANS! FAIL. The other day I told you all that I’ll be paying off my student loans in full this month instead. I’m really trying to stick with this goal!
  2. Cook 5 days a week. PASS. We definitely cooked at home a lot. I think that before we just ate out so much and now we are just sick of it. Eating at home is 1,000 times better. You don’t have to wait to sit down, no driving there and back, it’s more relaxing at home, and it’s cheaper.
  3. Make a couple of awesome desserts. FAIL. I can’t think of a single dessert that I made.
  4. Run 4 times a week and lose 5 pounds.  FAIL. I ran and worked out a couple of times, but I didn’t lose any weight.
  5. Make an extra $7,000 this month. PASS. See tomorrow’s income post 🙂
  6. Sell 25 items from my closet. FAIL. I didn’t even look through my closet for things to sell.
  7. Replace the garage door. FAIL. We didn’t even look into this.
  8. Have an awesome birthday! PASS. It was great!

 

June Goals

  1. PAY OFF MY STUDENT LOANS!  This is of course my main goal for the month. I really hope this happens, and I think it will.
  2. Run 4 times a week and lose weight.  COME ON MICHELLE!
  3. Make an extra $8,000 this month. I added new side hustles this month, so I increased my income goal as well. I will be talking more about this in tomorrow’s post.
  4. Replace the garage door. Our garage door was dented right after we bought our house four years ago. Our truck (it’s a classic 1961 Apache that we adore) slipped gears and flew into reverse into the garage. I’ve been looking at carriage doors for a replacement. I’m guessing that this will probably be around $1,000 to replace. Have you ever done this before? Is it easy to do yourself? What is the normal costs for DIY versus paying a company?
  5. Get carpet for the living room. This has been on my goals list FOREVER.
  6. Make more time to enjoy life. My side hustles keep increasing, but I don’t want to get too crazy and not enjoy life.

 

How did you do in May? What’s your top goal for June?

 

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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. Jon @MrMilitaryMoney says

    Congrats on hitting $7k for this month. That is very impressive. I read you income reports and it seems like you had a huge increasing income between August and September and then again from October to November. Did this come from an increase in readers or did you put up more new posts with Affiliate links?
    My recent post Free money to go back to school!

    Reply

  3. Budget & the Beach says

    Yay so happy I won!! Thank you! I was telling John at Frugal Rules how much I miss midwest thunderstorm, but geez not with so many tornadoes and the power going out as much. And to not having it come back on in a timely manner would be difficult, so I don't blame you for getting the generator. My biggest goal in June is to get a decent sized side hustle. My freelance work has slowed WAY down and I need to do everything I can not to dip into my e-fund anymore. So I'll be looking to your site for great suggestions! 🙂 Also looking for more staff writing type gigs as well.
    My recent post Crowdfunding: Where Dollars & Dreams Meet

    Reply

    • MakingSenseofCents says

      I'm so glad you won too! The power came back on this morning, but I'm still glad that we got it. We can use it for our outdoor wedding too, and it'll come in handy when the power goes out again (which will most likely be once a month like usual).

      And I hope you find some side hustles! And I hope that your freelance work picks back up.
      My recent post May Goals and Life Update

      Reply

  5. Nichole @CasadeCrews says

    I seriously need to learn your ways in making extra income! Holy COW! Kudos on cooking so much this week. I have been TERRIBLE at it the last two weeks but am back on track for this week.
    My recent post Meal Planning {a link up}

    Reply

  6. Dylan says

    What a bummer about the generator. I hope that things work out with it. It's so frustrating to have things like that rear their ugly heads, but I guess it happens from time to time. At least you were prepared to take care of it.

    And congrats with the side hustlin'. Sounds like your hustlin' as strong as ever. 🙂 Have a great rest of your weekend!
    My recent post MD vs PhD – Why I Chose to Pursue a Career in Biomedical Sciences Over Obtaining an MD

    Reply

  7. Lena says

    Nice job ob your goals! Getting a generator is a great investment, and you'll be happy you got it in the future! My extra income is nothing like yours but I could beat my personal goals in May, so I'm happy!

    Reply

  8. Bob @ Cubicle Sherpa says

    My only goal is to double my traffic every month. May was easy since I launched the site in April. Hopefully I can keep it up!

    Looking forward to your income report for some motivation.

    -Bob

    Reply

  9. Teresa says

    Congratulations on the extra 7,000! I am desperate need to set some good goals. It's difficult when all this unnecessary spending comes along (the Army is constantly asking for money, at the last minute, to go towards something. i.e… retirement gifts, going away gifts, military balls, fundraisers, dinners, lunches, etc, etc…it's frowned upon if you don't participate especially if you are in leadership type position)
    I finally grasped other expenses and have limited them. Droping cable down to the bare minimum was a biggie. Since we have Netflix, Hulu and rent from Redbox, Amazon, plus the television networks all posting their episodes online, we no longer needed such a hefty cable package. We kept the basic and the internet. Cut our bill WAY down. Can't wait to read tomorrow's post 🙂
    My recent post Taking Pictures – An Addiction

    Reply

  12. christie says

    I dented my garage door and was able to simply replace one panel. Cost about $300. I then repainted the whole thing.

    Reply

  15. Michelle says

    Michelle! I wish I'd met you for coffee while I was in your neck of the woods. I can't to read the "Student Loans Paid Off" post.

    Reply

  16. studentdebtsurvivor says

    Glad that you guys are OK. My heart is breaking for everyone who has been impacted by the storms. My parents have a generator and it's one of the best purchases they've made (they live in a a rural area and lose power because of snowstorms at least once-twice a winter).

    I'm also trying to fit more exercise in this month (and going forward). I joined weight watchers online today and I'm motivated to make some healthy changes. So I'm right there with you on that goal 🙂
    My recent post Self-Care – Don’t Neglect Your Health While You Accumulate Your Wealth

    Reply

  21. The Norwegian Girl says

    my goal for June is having the best time ever on my vacation with BF, and then attending a wedding where our best friends are getting married. June is going to be great! 😀

    Reply

  22. David says

    You are making great progress so far in your goals despite the Fails and best of luck following them in June

    Reply

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