June Income – $1280.25

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Here is a breakdown of my income for June.

Interest$36.06
Amazon FBA$25.7
Job$390.03
Cashback$0
Bank/Other Bonus$160
Online Income$0
Dividends$38.41
Ebay/Other Selling$320.05
State Tax Refunds$310
Total$1280.25

This post was updated since I originally forgot to include my state tax returns.

June’s income was modest once again. This wasn’t surprising since I was out of town for half of the month. Income was still higher than expenses so I won’t complain.

I received $310 from amending my MO and KS state tax returns to reflect that the first $10,200 of unemployment income was not taxable. I’m still waiting on about a $1000 federal tax refund from the unemployment change.

I made $390.03 from a short doc review job.

My Amazon FBA side hustle made a teeny tiny bit of money. I’m doing most of my selling on eBay now.

Dividend income came in at $38.41. If you sign up using my Robinhood referral link we will both get one share of free stock. Thanks to anyone who signs up using my link. Every little bit helps.

I made $320.05 selling stuff on eBay and elsewhere. I spent some time buying stuff from garage sales and flipping it online. I enjoy doing this and plan to do a lot more of it this month.

I received $0 in cash back income. It is unusual for me to not make any cash back income. I’ve already got some cash back income coming this month. If you sign up for Rakuten using my referral link you can start earning cash back too and I’ll get a small bonus for referring you. These little bits of referral income help me keep the blog going.

My online/blog income was $0. That is pretty much the norm now.

I received $36.06 in interest. I received a $100 bonus from Fidelity for opening a brokerage account and $50 from BBVA for opening a checking account. I was probably one of the last people to not have a Venmo account. Venmo offered a $10 bonus for signing up so now I’ve finally got a Venmo account.

This month’s income is uncertain. I want to see if I can make a decent income from selling on eBay and elsewhere. How was your month?

June Expenses – $951.32

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for June.

Household$17.34
Mortgage$355
Entertainment$32.72
Transportation$0
Food$134.17
Phone$28.74
Health$39.92
Travel$343.43
Total$951.32

My June expenses were surprisingly low and I managed to hit my stretch goal of keeping my expenses under $1000 for the month.

Entertainment expense was for a one month digital subscription to the New York Times, and a couple meals out with friends and/or family.

The mortgage payment was my regular mortgage payment.

Transportation was $0. I didn’t drive much the first half of the month and the second half of the month I was hiking. That resulted in not needing to fill up my gas tank at all during the month.

My food expense was a little over my target amount. That is okay considering I was traveling half the month. There were a few times while hiking I couldn’t eat at fast food restaurants due to them being drive-thru only so I ate at more expensive sit-down restaurants instead. If I’d been able to eat at the cheaper fast food places I’d probably have been right on budget for the month.

My phone bill should be about this much every month.

Household expense was for reading glasses, floss, deodorant, socks, laundry, and a shoe insert to help with foot pain.

Health expense was for my monthly gym dues.

Travel expense broke down as follows. $120.20 for a baggage fee on Delta, taxes on two award flights, early bird check-in for Southwest, and a flight from St. Louis to Fort Leonard Wood. The early bird check-in allowed me to snag an exit row seat with extra legroom. The flight from STL went to a tiny airport that’s only about a half hour from my home. My alternative was to take the bus for just $11 less. I think the flight was easily worth the extra $11.

$158.45 for 4 hotel nights plus a night at a hostel. Two of the hotel nights were free and another was discounted by $30 from a gift card. That is how I managed to get 5 nights for what I could have spent on only one night.

$64.78 for a Lyft ride, an Uber ride, an Amtrak, and several local buses. In the future I need to take consideration the cost of an Uber/Lyft ride when I’m booking flights that will be outside of public transportation hours.

Despite the travel expenses I was still able to keep my expenses under $1000 for the month. I think I can keep my expenses under the $1000 level this month.

How was your month?

Healthy Wage Initial Weigh-In and My Weight Loss Plan

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My initial weigh-in for Healthy Wage came in at 218 pounds. That is higher than I was expecting. I usually weigh myself first thing in the morning wearing just my skivvies. I underestimated how much weighing later in the day and wearing more clothes would add to my weight. It didn’t make any difference on the amount of my wager. I still need to lose 29 pounds or more in the next six months. Losing 29 pounds would put me at 189 which would be my lowest weight since 2006. If you would like to lose weight with Healthy Wage please consider using my referral link. Using the link will add $40 to your prize and add money to my prize too.

I haven’t come up with a specific plan to lose the weight yet. I’m starting a section hike on the Appalachian Trail tomorrow. Hiking 10-15 miles a day with about 25 pounds on my back and having limited food options will cause me to lose weight so I won’t worry too much about my food choices while hiking.

When I get back from the hike I will need to be more careful with what I eat. My friend Jon at MyFrugalMiser has had great success with the Keto Diet. I’m not sure I would be able to stick with that diet. Perhaps I could stick with Dirty Lazy Keto. If I don’t decide to do Keto, I will come up with another plan to improve my diet and reduce how much I eat. I have had readers offer weight-loss tips in the past and I’d be happy to hear more suggestions.

Losing Weight with Healthy Wage Again

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healthy wage lose weight

Long-time readers might remember that I was able to sucessfully lose 30 pounds back in 2014 with the help of being motivated by a $3000 bet with Healthy Wage. I was able to go from 226 pounds to 196 pounds. Unfortunately, after the wager was over I started gaining back the weight. I ended up setting a new highest ever weight of 232 pounds back in 2018. I’ve lost some weight since then and currently weight about 217 pounds. I haven’t been able to lose weight consistently though and I’ve never gotten close to getting to a healthy weight.

I’ve wanted to do another HealthyWager but I thought I wasn’t eligible since I was above my final weight at the end of winning wager. I recently learned that they now have a Yo-Yo rule that allows you to make another wager even if you weigh more than you did at the end of your previous winning wager. You can only make one wager using the Yo-Yo rule and they apply a downward profit adjustment for wagers made under this rule. Even with the smaller potential profit I think this will provide the motivation I need to lose a significant amount of weight. Of course, this time I need to keep losing weight even after the wager has ended.

For this wager I’m betting $1200 that I will lose 29 pounds over 6 months. If I win, I’ll get back my $1200 plus $185 profit. The $185 profit includes a $50 boost that was added for signing up through a specific link. If you would like to try Healthy Wage by signing up through my referral link you can have a $40 boost added to your wager and I’ll get a boost added to my wager as well. If you haven’t made a previous Healthy Wage you should get a better profit on your bet than I’m getting.

Betting $1200 to get a profit of $185 might not seem like much of a return. Compared to how much I’d earn in interest on that money though it is a great return. Plus I was able to pay the wager with a 2% cash back credit card to get a little more return on my money. This is somewhat risky, but I know from past experience that I’m able to lose weight when motivated and I actually do the things I need to do (like eat health and exercise) to lose weight. And if a few people sign up to do a HealthyWager using my referral link the return can get a lot better.

I haven’t weighed in for this wager yet. I’ll provide an update with my official starting weight and my goal weight later this week. I’ll also provide updates on my progress and what I’m doing to lose weight at least once a month. Have any of you tried HealthyWage?

May Income – $1474.72

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Here is a breakdown of my income for May.

Interest$16.35
Amazon FBA$2.25
Job$28.27
Cashback$203.1
Credit Card Bonus$300
Online Income($17.52)
Dividends$27.24
Unemployment$558
Ebay/Other Selling$357.03
Total$1474.72

May’s income was modest. This wasn’t surprising since I was unemployed most of the month. Income was still higher than expenses so I won’t complain.

I made $28.27 from my doc review job. I had a fraction of a day’s pay that carried over to May.

My Amazon FBA side hustle made a teeny tiny bit of money. I only had one sale for the month as I did most of my selling on eBay.

Dividend income came in at $27. 24. That is down from last month which my highest ever monthly amount of dividends. That was just due to not as many of my stocks paying dividends in May. This month is the end of Quarter 2 and I should have over $50 in dividend income for the month for the first time ever. If you sign up using my Robinhood referral link we will both get one share of free stock. Thanks to anyone who signs up using my link. Every little bit helps.

I made $357.03 selling stuff on eBay and elsewhere. I spent some time buying stuff from garage sales and flipping it online. I enjoy doing this and plan to do it more when I get back from my hike.

I also received $203.10 in cash back income. This was helped by some referral bonuses from Rakuten that paid on a quarterly basis. Thanks to those of you who signed up for Rakuten using my referral link. These little bits of referral income help me keep the blog going.

My online/blog income was -$17.52. I paid to register my domain names at a new registrar and didn’t have any blog income. The new registrar is a little bit cheaper.

I received $16.35 in interest and $558 from unemployment.

Lastly, I received $300 for signing up for a new credit card.

This month’s income will probably be even lower since I’ll be traveling and not actively making money. How was your month?