Andy Hough

Online Income,Goals and Giveaways

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It has been way too long since I’ve written a new post. Despite that I am having another great month of income. Don at Money Reasons and Barb at Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance were both kind enough to link to my latest online income report.

The online income is nice but if I doing more work on my blogs the income is not going to last. I have not been good about getting things done this month. Part of that is because I’ve been spending more time on our real world business. The main reason though is that I just haven’t been making working on my websites a priority. My goals for this month were to run/hike 100 miles and write 100 posts and I didn’t even come close to achieving those. I didn’t even try. Rather than set a monthly goal for November I’m going to get in the habit of doing my work first and making daily goals of what I need to be done.

A goal I’ve had for a long time is to write a book but I keep putting it off. Next month is NaNoWriMo. I have wanted to participate the last couple of years but I put it off. This year needs to be the year that I get it done. I am in a great position to do this because I don’t have to work a full-time job and make enough money to pay my bills in just a few hours a week. I may not always be this lucky so I should take advantage of this opportunity while I have it. Is anybody else participating in National Novel Writing Month? It would be great if we could have a group of bloggers doing it to support each other and keep each other accountable.

I’ve been meaning to post about some giveaways that my fellow Yakezie members are having but I haven’t had a links post for a while so I’m adding them to this post. These giveaways have some nice prizes and your odds of winning are pretty good. My wife and I were lucky enough to win a Kindle wi-fi earlier this month in a local giveaway but I’m still desiring a Kindle Fire.

The Penny Hoarder is hosting a Hallo(Wii)n Giveaway until October 30th.
The Frugal Toad is hosting a $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway until October 30th.
Retire by 40 and Buck Inspire are having a big giveaway of a Kindle Fire and lots more until November 7th.

Online Income Report – September 2011

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Here is a breakdown of my online income for September 2011.

Google Adsense – $260.87

Affiliate Income – $503.50

Brokered Ads – $58.25

Direct Ads- $2650.25

Total – $3472.89

September was a record month for income.  The direct ad deals kept coming in September and they haven’t shown any signs of letting up so far this month.  I was happy that I made over $500 in affiliate income for the month as well.  I’d like to get that up to $1000 a month in order to not be so dependent on direct ad deals.  That isn’t easy to do and I don’t have a strategy for doing that yet.  I have added VigLinks to a couple of my sites and that has produced some modest returns.  I’m going to add VigLinks to a couple more sites and allow link insertion and see if that ramps up my earnings there.  I’ll keep VigLinks even if the income remains modest since it extra money without any work once it is installed.  I’m also adding another site to my direct advertising inventory.  My goal for October is to make $3500 in online income since I made almost that much last month it should be an achievable goal.

September Income – $3170.16

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Here is a breakdown of my income for September.

Online Income

 $2689.97

Interest

$19.17

Stock Dividends

$95.87

Mystery Shops

$156.27

Cash Back

$44.94

Ebay

$23.94

Bank Bonuses

$140.00

Total

$3170.16

September was yet another good month for income.  My online income was well over $2000 again. I keep thinking this can’t last but I’m off to a good start this month.  It looks like my streak of $2000 months will likely extend another month.  Online income is by far my biggest source of income but I am somewhat diversified. I am making a little passive income from dividends and investments and I added some alternative income from bank bonuses.

This month we also received our first check for our offline business.  My wife has been working hard on this business and I think it is going to grow to be a major source of income for us.  I don’t plan on including the offline business in my income reports and I don’t include my wife’s income in the monthly income reports either.  I include our total expenses but only my income because that is how I prefer to do it but that does mean our total income is larger than what I report here.

I’ll be happy if I can come close to matching September’s income. And for those wondering what my sources of online income are I’ll have my monthly online income report posted in the next few days.

September Expenses – $2421.86

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

Household

$871.88
Entertainment

$30.00

Transportation

 $805.55

Food

$344.92
Cable/Internet

$93.77
Phone

$97.78
Electric

$75.05
Medical/Dental

$102.91

Total

 $2421.86

Expenses in September were way higher than I prefer.  The household budget was high because there were $261.72 spent on gifts.  There were several birthdays in September.  We also spent a little money on clothing which we don’t do most months but it is necessary sometimes.  The transportation expense was the other big expense.  We had a $294.86 repair bill for getting our brakes fixed and some gaskets replaced.  There was also a $196.90 bill for getting a new windshield.  The windshield has had a couple of cracks for a few months and last month they started getting even bigger so we decided it was time to get the windshield replaced.  We also spent about $250 in gas, not counting the gas used for business.  All of these expenses should be lower in October although there will still be some gifts bought and car repairs made.

I’d really like to get our food bill under $300.  I think it is a reasonable goal and we can make it if I cut back on eating out.   All the other expenses should be roughly the same in October.  My goal for October is to get our expenses back under $2000 again.

Saving Money as a One Car Family

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My wife and I are a one car family. When I met my wife last year she didn’t have a car and it was easy for us to stick with just one car after we got married. Since I mainly made my money from blogging I didn’t usually need to be anywhere at a particular time and could take my wife to and from work. Since then we have started working together which makes it even easier for us to be a one car family. There are both benefits and drawbacks to being a one car family though.

The main benefit to being a one car family is saving money. We only have to pay car insurance, registration, licensing, and personal property tax for one car rather than two. We are able to avoid taking out any car loans that might be needed to purchase a second car. Having just one car keeps our automotive expenses at roughly half what they would be if we had two cars. You don’t have to have an aat qualification to see that this is a good deal.

The main drawback to only having one car is when we need to be different places at the same time. This doesn’t happen too often though and we’ve always been able to plan ahead so that we can both be where we need to be. Another drawback is when we need to take the car in for repairs. Then we need to either borrow a car or hang out at the repair shop. The repair shop we usually go to has wi-fi and has pretty quick service so this hasn’t been too much of a problem either.

Most families don’t have as ideal of a situation as ours when it comes to being a one car family. It is worth examining whether your situation would allow you to be a one car family. The large savings are worth the few drawbacks.