Andy Hough

December Income – $3648.01

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Here is a breakdown of my income for December.

Online Income

 $3446.67

Interest

$5.09

Stock Dividends

$107.35

Cash Back

$47.29

Sell Stuff

$16.61

Bank Bonus

$25

Total

$3648.01

December was another great month for income. My online income is still going strong.  A lot of companies pay dividends in December so that category was higher than normal.  I’m still concentrating on my online income for now but if it falls off I will work on increasing my passive income and alternative income.

December Expenses – $2287.99

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Here is a breakdown of our expenses for December.

Household

$632.62
Entertainment

$89.52

Transportation

 $227.96

Food

$351.90
Cable/Internet

$69.14
Phone

$99.90
Electric

$81.32
Gifts

$370.93
Health

$364.70

Total

 $2287.99

Expenses in December were higher than in November but that isn’t too surprising since we did have the expense of buying Christmas gifts.  Our medical expenses were also higher than normal but hopefully no doctor visits will be necessary this month and the health expense will return to normal.  My new goal for the food expense was $350 and we came pretty close to that.  It seems to me that our food expense should be lower but it is about this much or more every month and when I review our food expenses nothing seems extravagant so I’m just going to accept that this is a reasonable amount for our food budget.  I was a little surprised that our electric bill was $81.32 because it has been a mild winter but this apartment just doesn’t stay as warm as our old apartment.  We will have higher electric bills this winter than last.  Overall, our expenses weren’t too bad.  Without the Christmas expenses we should be able to get back under our $2000 goal.

Turning My Resolutions into SMART Goals

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I made the following three resolutions for 2012.
1. Lose Weight.
2. Write a Book.
3. Make More Money Online.

These are fairly common resolutions. To improve my chances of keeping them I am making them SMART (specific,measurable,attainable,realistic,timely) goals.

Lose Weight

My goal is to lose fifty pounds by the end of 2012. That goal meets all the criteria for being a SMART goal. My plan to lose the weight is to join a gym and exercise three times a week, stop drinking soda, and eat healthier food. Just cutting out the soda should be enough to lose the weight since it is probably my largest source of calories. If things work out right I might hike two or three weeks which would also give a boost to my weight loss efforts.

Write a Book

My goal is to write a book and publish it on Amazon by the end of 2012. That goal also meets all the criteria for being a SMART goal. I might tweak that goal and make the deadline earlier. My plan to meet this goal is to write 10,000 words a week. Breaking that down further to five days a week of writing 2,000 words it should take me about two to four hours a day to meet this goal. I’m also going to include my writing for blog posts in this total. Since blogging is my job this is a realistic time commitment.

Make More Money Online

My goal is make more money online in 2012 than I did in 2011. I don’t have as much control over this goal as I do the other two but I think it still meets the SMART criteria. My plan to meet this goal is to post on my blogs more often which my writing goal will help me accomplish. I also plan to outsource some writing and carnival submissions and will consider more outsourcing. One more thing I intend to do is to make placeholder sites at least for all the domain names I currently own. My plan for meeting this goal isn’t as detailed as the others but I will likely make monthly goals during the year to help me attain this goal as well. Since I didn’t start using Crystal’s advertising services until almost halfway through this year and I also have another blog this goal shouldn’t be that hard to achieve but you never know what the year will bring.

I will have a post reviewing my progress towards these goals at the end of each month to help keep me on track. Plus I will likely make smaller goals to help achieve these goals during the year. If things go well I might make some smaller goals during the year that don’t have anything to do with these goals. If you have any tips or advice on what I should do to meet these goals please share them.

How I Got All of This for Almost Free

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I managed to buy all of this plus a little more for no money out of pocket at Staples yesterday. I posted before on how I save money with Staples ink cartridge recycling. The recycling program allows me to receive two dollars in rewards for cartridges that cost me about twenty cents. This amounts to a roughly 90% savings on everything I buy with the rewards. That is a pretty good deal but being a tight fisted miser I like to make the deal even better. I try to buy mainly stuff that is on sale and use coupons too. For the purchase above I used a $10 off $30 competitors coupon plus used a Staples 15% off coupon. I think the savings from this reward program are well worth the time it takes to recycle cartridges. We haven’t had to buy toilet paper or paper towels all year plus I’ve gotten lots of other stuff such as a router, ink, and lots of household and office supplies for almost free. Does anyone else out there get almost free stuff by using an office supply store’s ink cartridge recycling program?

Resolutions for 2012

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As the year comes to an end it is time to make resolutions for the new year. Last year I decided not to make any resolutions since I knew I probably wouldn’t keep them. I did make some monthly goals but didn’t do too well at meeting those either. I did have some achievements in 2011. I managed to pass the bar even though I’d been out of school for two years and didn’t take a bar prep course. I started making enough money online that I was able to live off my blogging income for the last half of the year. Also,my wife and I started a profitable offline business but I can’t take any credit for that since my wife did almost all the work in getting it started and keeping it running. This year wasn’t a bust but there is still plenty of room for improvement in 2012.

Here are my resolutions for 2012:

  • Lose Weight – I’ve made this a goal several times before but I’ve never made much progress on it and usually quit trying after a few weeks if not sooner. Next year that needs to change. I’ve gained even more weight this year and can tell it has affected my health. I have very little energy and am constantly feeling fatigued. I’m even tired when I wake up in the morning. I’m hoping that eating better, exercising, and losing weight will change that.
  • Write a Book – This was something I originally planned on doing in 2010. I managed to procrastinate on this for over a year. I plan on writing a short ebook and have all the information I need to write it. It should actually only take a few hours to write the book once I just sit down and do it.
  • Make More Money Online – I did great at making money online this year although that was largely due to luck. I plan to work harder at making money online in 2012. I’m going to develop several new sites and update my current sites on a more consistent basis. I’ll also explore ways to increase traffic and make more affiliate income.


    • Those are my resolutions for 2012 and I will write additional posts where I turn those resolutions into S.M.A.R.T. goals. I will also likely make additional goals during the year. Are you making any resolutions or goals for 2012?