Welcome to another month, which means another round of goals on the upward spiral of growth.
Goings-on
Financially, April was a pretty rough month. A car repair and a busted water heater put the emergency fund back by a few grand but hey: that’s what it’s for! We went over our cell phone minutes – $150 worth – due to all the social gatherings and other activity that went on.
We got our taxes done on-time and found that we owed a lot less than we thought we were going to. Real estate has a lot of tax benefits so there’s no taxes due there but we knew we’d owe a few thousand because of all the extra money we made from freelancing. Between the real estate “losses” and Mrs Dollar’s realtor startup costs, we ended up owing about half of what we expected to which means we can plow the difference into our investments. And there was much rejoicing!
Goal Progress
With the mix of good and bad news this month, you can expect the same for my goal progess:
Get our food budget under $250: Failed. Some of these transactions could be miscategorized but we ended up spending $358 this month. Some of that was from food for get-togethers that we attended. But still, that amounts to $179/person which isn’t all that bad.
Exercise 3x a week: Partial Success. I didn’t work out 3x every week but I think I averaged about 3x per week so I’m calling this a partial success. Some exercise is better than no exercise!
Get myself into shape to start bike commuting: Failed. I think I only put 15 miles on my bike the whole month. This goal itself was very vague to begin with and I didn’t follow my own rules when coming up with a goal. I’m going to try something more specific next time.
Secure one additional freelance software project: Failed. There was one in the works but it ended up falling through.
Work 20+ hours on our current software contract: Partial Success. We worked only 8 hours but that was all the work the client had the whole month.
You might look at that list and consider the month a big failure. I don’t. You can only fail if you stop trying. And you can’t succeed if you don’t try at all. A month where you wrote down your goals and worked towards them is a successful month, regardless of the outcome.
May Goals
We’re going to Europe for two weeks this coming Friday so this month is going to be a little weird. Regardless, here’s what I want to accomplish:
- Stay within our vacation budget. This should be pretty easy as we’ve been saving for a while.
- Exercise 3x a week. This could be hard as we’re going to have some busy days ahead of us. Then again, we’ll probably do a lot of walking!
- Put 30 miles on my bike. That’s only 15 miles a week for the two weeks we will be in town.
- Ride my bike to work once. I’m going to start small but the end-game is to ride it every day I go in. That would be 42 miles a week which isn’t all that much, really.
That’s probably good. This month is going to be interesting, given that we’ll be away from home for a while. Naturally, all the bills should be lower so that $250 in groceries goal will be easy 
Good luck on your goals!
Things I Learned In Europe
8 Comments
I ended up owing much less than I expected on my taxes too. It was a welcome relief.
I wouldn’t call your April a failure. You did make some headway on those goals and partial success is still some kind of success. Even setting goals is a step in the right direction.
By the way, I hope you enjoy your trip to Europe. Where abouts are you heading?
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Thanks for your comment, Jeremy. We’re going to Barcelona for 4 days, then over to Rome for a few days and then down to Sorrento. We’re really excited!
It is wonderful to have the emergency fund there to cover those sorts of things; it drives me nuts when my clients don’t ever want to use it. It’s there to cover emergencies! That’s what you saved it for. lol
Out of curiosity, how much did the water heater cost you to get installed and everything? Ours has broken down twice over the past 1.5 years and is acting up again…I’m pretty sure we’re going to be in the market soon and I have no idea how much it will cost.
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We paid $975 for it, all installed and that included hauling off the old one. We feel like we got a pretty good deal based on the comparisons to the big box stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s.
I recently replaced one at a rental. Water heater cost $300 at Home Depot (you can get 10% off through a coupon in the mover’s packet from the USPS). I called around and found a guy who’d install it for under $200. Hauled the old one myself to metal recycling for a $15 return. Total: under $500. I hope DD got a better-than-$300 water heater, cause $675 for installation would be too much.
I can’t find the exact model on the Home Depot website but I think an approximate model would cost $450 to $500. I agree that we didn’t get the best deal but it was kind of an emergency situation (it was a fire hazard with faulty wiring).
Congrats on the lower tax bill. That is always a nice surprise. I hope you enjoy your trip and good luck on you goals next month!
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The biking idea is great man, I wish I could do that! I hope this month you get to that goal!
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