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November Goals and Life Update

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 62 Comments

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November Goals and Life UpdateHey everyone! I hope everyone is having a great week. On Monday, I published my October Business Income Update.

October was a great month in all aspects.

I left my day job, reconnected with family members (some I haven’t seen in over a decade!), and found plenty of time to relax.

Everything is going very well and I have nothing to complain about. Yes, I know that this sounds like I am bragging, but life is just going very well right now 🙂

For November, I don’t know if anything big will happen, as October was the month of major life changes. November is my first full month of self-employment though, and that is pretty exciting in itself.

We are in Gulf Shores right now, but we are leaving today. We took a last second “spontaneous” trip with our dogs.

We got an awesome deal since we booked at the very last second. We managed to score a whole beach house for $650 for 5 days (including taxes, fees, cleaning, etc.), and that includes the fees for us having dogs as well. All I did was ask for a discount and I managed to get a really good one!

Also, I recently read an article at Afford Anything that really resonated with me. Essential 4-Step Guide to Escaping the Ordinary is a great post if you are looking to reach your goals. Read it now! No matter what your goals or dreams are, reading this is a great step towards being successful with what you want to do. What are your goals? What are you doing to reach them?

 

October Goals Update

  1. Jump out of an airplane. FAIL. I completely forgot about this. I have been feeling so busy yet so lazy at the same time. I most likely won’t be able to do this in November as I am really busy and the weather may not be good for that anyways.
  2. Start looking into getting my pilot’s license. PASS, kind of.  I have been kind of looking into this. I already have an introductory class paid for. My dad had his pilots license and would take us out when we were younger, and it’s a very good memory I have of him. He also worked in the airline industry for 30 years when he passed away and it was a big passion of his.
  3. Keep our food budget under $400 and meal plan. PASS. We have been doing very well with our food spending. Lately, we much prefer eating at home instead of a restaurant, and I don’t think we have actually ate in a restaurant in a very long time (except when I went to Chevy’s with my friends). We still do order takeout occasionally, but that is almost always relatively cheap.
  4. Make an extra $10,000 this month. PASS. I made almost $12K in October.
  5. Publish a post on my last day of work. PASS. I’m done!

 

November Goals

  1. Keep our food budget under $400 and meal plan. We have been doing amazing with keeping our food budget low, but not with meal planning. I need to start doing this again as we have had too much food waste lately.
  2. Make $10,000 in business income this month. I definitely think that this amount is doable again in November. I have secured a few contracts for November, so I sort of have guaranteed income (what is guaranteed income in the freelancing world, anyways?).
  3. Send out our Save-the-Dates. I have really been slacking with this one. These are supposed to go out around 9 months before, and even sooner than that if you are getting married in a popular month (which we are – June).  We plan on sending these out this month. Luckily, two of W’s cousins on both sides have given me addresses for everyone on both side of his family from when they each got married this past Summer. This makes everything 1,000 times easier!
  4. Find a caterer. Luckily, we want catered BBQ for our wedding, so this shouldn’t be too hard. Let the BBQ taste testing begin!

 

How did you do in October? What is your main goal for November?

 

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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

  3. LaTisha says

    Congrats on leaving your job! I’m sure you will see even more doors open as you build the side income into the main income. My goal for this month is to follow thru. Because what’s a goal without the plan to complete it?

    Reply

  4. Little Miss Money says

    Congrats on the October goals! Especially the +10K income! wow!!
    I like the idea of a meal plan – planning my week’s meals has been really helpful to maintain my budget! It’s not always easy to plan ahead, but I’ve become much more organized doing it. On Sunday nights, I have a really clear idea of what my week will look like, and my To Do lists are now actually accurate. Good luck! It’ll be worth it!

    Reply

  5. DC @ Young Adult Money says

    October was a decent month for me. I’m continuing to learn SQL, Microsoft Access, and a couple other technical things I want to learn more about for career-related purposes. Additionally on the blog income was stable and I am doing a lot of planning for the rest of the year and next year. The more I plan ahead the better off I’ll be, at least I keep telling myself that 😉 As far as income in the freelance world I only feel like I have the income when it hits my bank account. I don’t know if I’m really just THAT paranoid, but it’s just how I approach it.

    Reply

  6. Alexa says

    Congrats on accomplishing the majority of your goals. I would never be able to jump out of a plane I am too chicken! My main goal this month is just to earn 2k. If I can do that I’ll be happy!

    Reply

  8. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    I’ve heard great things about Gulf Shores! You’re already getting to enjoy some of the benefits of working for yourself – going on spontaneous trips! 🙂 Our November is crazy packed for the business, which is good, but I am SOOOO looking forward to taking a few days off around Thanksgiving!

    Reply

  9. Matt Becker says

    Very exciting looking at a full month of self-employment. And even cooler that you’re able to use some of this newfound time to actually get away and enjoy yourself. Nice work! One of my big goals for November is figuring out how I want to expand what I’m doing online/with my blog. I have a few ideas right now, but haven’t totally hammered down one I want to focus on. In any case, it’s going to require me to restructure how I spend my time and energy. Change is always a little uncomfortable for me, but it’s necessary if I want to make progress.

    Reply

  10. This Life On Purpose says

    I like how you have monthly goals. I only do yearly but this is something I definitely should look into.

    Reply

  11. Chris @ Stumble Forward says

    Awesome to see you hitting your goals Michelle. My dad use to have his pilots license but the problem he had was the airplane became to much to maintain and the hanger fees were a bit high. Not trying to discourage you or anything it is a great goal to have.

    Reply

  12. Brian says

    I have been to one wedding that had BBQ and it was great. Probably some of the best wedding food I have had. The bride was super careful not to use any sauce because she was worried about getting some on her dress.

    Reply

  13. Retired By 40 says

    Weight loss! In the 3.5 weeks since giving birth I have lost 25 of the 40 pounds I gained while pregnant. I want to at least start working on losing the last 15 pounds and get back to my pre-baby weight!

    Reply

  14. Leslie Beslie says

    I can’t remember if you mentioned the pilot’s license thing before. Do you know someone who’s instructing the lessons? It can be pretty expensive to get even just the private pilot’s license under vfr rules. Do you have a goal in mind of what you want to do after you get the basic license? Keep learning to get other licenses? Purchase a single-prop airplane? There is some maintenance once getting a license (medical exam every 5 years, etc). Just curious how much planning you’ve put into this! (I dated a private pilot for a while so I always get excited when I hear someone is interested in it!

    Reply

  23. Laurie @thefrugalfarmer says

    Kicking it as usual, girl – way to go! You guys are doing especially awesome on your food budget. Our goal for Nov. is to keep the food budget low. We had some additional expenses and I want to make up for it by spending less on groceries so that we don’t go over budget as a whole.

    Reply

  24. Tara @ Streets Ahead Living says

    I love the gulf shores… what state are you in? I’ve been to Panama City/Destin a few times with my sister since she lives in Atlanta and it’s an easy drive for a cheap long weekend and so beautiful!

    Enjoy your vacation and here’s to another good month!

    Reply

  28. E.M. says

    I am glad everything has been going so well for you! $650 for a beachfront house seems like a great deal. I hope you enjoyed it! My main goal for this month is to visit my parents via car. I haven’t made the trip in a few years (used to go there on vacation) and I’m just worried we will get lost or that something will happen to the car during the 12 hour drive.

    Reply

  29. Jack @ Enwealthen says

    Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

    Nice.

    If you can do that, you can do anything! Or at least it will feel like it for quite a while afterwards 🙂

    Reply

  30. Elspeth says

    I had BBQ at my wedding too! We went through Famous Dave’s, and they were great. They even offer to provide plates, napkins, and utensils, (paper and plastic respectively) but we declined as our venue had plates and we rented cloth napkins and metal utensils. They not only gave us a complimentary tasting but gave us boxes so we could bring the leftovers home. 😉

    Reply

  34. DNN says

    speaking about goals,when I change my way of thinking and decided to get myself together and set goals about making it big, many of my family members switched up for me and turned heel. I had suspected in the back of my mind many of my family members were allegedly jealous after I set positive goals to achieve. Despite the fact that my family rejected me, I continued moving forward by doing the transformation work out of inspirational desperation and never gave up regardless how long it took. I understand the importance today of setting goals because it challenges oneself to see what you’re made of on the inside and outside. Thank you for a thought-provoking blog 🙂

    Reply

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