Okay, we’ve righted the ship a bit this month. It was a little scary there in July, but we managed to bring the levels back down to normal… for a minute at least. By the way did you know that as kids get older, they cost more money? True fact in case you were wondering.
Just when you think you’re saving money when you move on from paid preschool to free kindergarten, think again. You’ve got PTA dues, fund raisers, school pics, t-shirts, and more. I digress though, we’re not even going into those expenses today. Just thought I’d let you in on a little secret if you weren’t already aware.
Now here’s the nitty gritty of basically what we are in control of (since we obviously have no other choice than to buy the obligatory school t-shirt):
FOOD EXPENSES:
TRADER JOE’S – $459 (Phew, not sure if you saw last month’s post, but I was really hoping there was something to that whole 5 week month.)
OTHER GROCERY – $259 (We could still do better on this one, but overall not bad.)
GROCERY – $718
According to the USDA Food Plan, this puts us closer to the “Low” to “Moderate” cost plans… as opposed to last month when we were pretty much off the chart. I’m getting really frustrated at the amount of food that gets wasted, so I think September’s going to be even lower since I’m cracking down (on myself mostly) on unnecessary grocery purchases.
EATING OUT – $382
Almost $100 less than July, but still too high in my opinion since I feel like we’re so good at eating at home… for the most part. Our plan to cut back on the lunch expenses didn’t quite pan out yet, but I still have hopes for that someday soon. Basically it involves my husband being able to come home for lunch instead of having to eat out every day.
FOOD TOTAL – $1,100
That’s $600 less than last month. I’d say most of that is just being more conscientious about unnecessary grocery purchases. We’ve also had the benefit of a flourishing garden which helps cut back on the produce. Plus we just canned some salsa, which surprisingly saves us quite a bit… especially since I’m a nacho fiend.
SHOPPING EXPENSES:
ZULILY – Zip, zilch, zero!
COSTCO – Nada!
WALMART – $74
AMAZON – $15
TARGET – $288 (My daughter’s first year of Kindergarten, I may have gone school shopping overboard letting her get all the pencils and folders she doesn’t quite need yet… but it sure was fun.)
HONEST COMPANY – $139 (I am a sucker for these diaper prints and had to get the new fall designs when they came out, so backed us up a little more than we normally do.)
OTHER CLOTHES SHOPPING -$239 (This was both kids’ back-to-school/fall/winter shopping.)
REI – $37
SHOPPING TOTAL – $516
About $70 less than last month, pretty happy with that considering all the fall shopping. Putting clothes on my kids’ backs is justified, right? And the cute diapers are good for the environment.
BLOG EXPENSES:
I figured it was probably time to start factoring in my blog expenses, since I am incurring some on a monthly basis. It’s hard to look at this and not get discouraged, but I know it’s leading to greater things. I realize I say that every month, but if you look at what professional bloggers are spending this really isn’t that much.
PIC MONKEY – $5
IZEA – $1
ADVERTISING – $54 (Some of this was actually inadvertent, I thought I did a quick $5 Facebook boost but it turned out it was ongoing $5/day for the month. Luckily I caught it after 3 days, and unfortunately didn’t pick up any more FB traffic from it. I also bought a Quuu Promote advertising package which “would have normally been almost $800, but I got it for only $39”!)
TAILWIND – $15 (I’m really starting to see the benefits from this which is exciting. It’s amazing how much more traffic Pinterest brings to the site.)
BLOG EXPENSE TOTAL – $75
(I’m investing in the future, I’m investing in the future, I’m investing in the future.)
TOTAL EXPENSES – $1,691
Well, at least we’re consistent about spending too much money every month. Imagine what it was like before I implemented these 5 Things to Buy That Will Save You Money.
Blog Income:
And now on to the BLOG INCOME portion. If this is your first time reading, you may be wondering why I’m talking about income as well… It is my goal to eventually be able to earn a full time income on this blog. While I am still a VERY long ways from that, I wanted to keep track from the beginning to help see what’s working and what’s not. So in the interest of budgeting, full disclosure, and full accountability, I invite you to follow along on my progress. (By the way if you are also interested in starting your own website, Bluehost is a great place to begin, and if you use this link it’s only $2.95/month.)
GOOGLE ADSENSE – $4.84 (Changed some layouts a bit and that seemed to give it a little boost.)
IZEA – $4 (I did a few sponsored Tweets for just a buck each)
AMAZON – $0.41 (I implemented a new “waterfall” ad in my sidebar that now includes both AdSense and Amazon.)
TARGET – $0 (A little disappointed about this one, even did an entire post about them and still nothin’.)
THE HONEST COMPANY – $3.30 (Yay, first time Honest Company commission! Plus they gave me $20 off an order, which I’ll put towards diapers.)
ETSY – $0
ZULILY – $0
BLUEHOST – $65 (This might be my most exciting earnings yet. I have no idea who signed up for Bluehost through my link, and if I know you don’t tell me yet. Let me bask in the glory a little longer.)
TOTAL BLOG INCOME – $74.25
Hey, almost paid for my Blog Expenses for the month! I know it still doesn’t sound like a lot, but who knew it would be so hard to make such a small amount of money from blogging. My pageviews have gone down a bit, but I’m trying to spend more time creating great content that you’ll want to come back for, instead of promoting the site. It’s a huge give and take.
As always, thanks for stopping by checking out this roller coaster I have going on.
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