Happy October! I’m personally not a fan of the cooler weather, but there are plenty of things to love about this month. Campfires, pumpkins, and fall festivals top my list.
September was a doozy for us. I was disappointed that we weren’t able to make bigger strides towards our main #yearofno debt payoff goal. On the other hand, we managed to not add to our consumer debt. That’s a strong check in the positives column!
Let’s do a check in on our S.M.A.R.T. goals for 2016.
Home & Barn
We had set these goals for updating and repairing our home and barn this year. As the year wore on, we decided to put most of them on hold in favor of using those bits of money to pay off debt instead.
- Get a water plan in place. Our weird water set up certainly needs some changes made. But not this year.
- Barn driveway. Tabled.
Improve goat pens and fencing.Finish the bathroom project.- Paint baseboards and staircase. Tabled.
Family
Swimming. This went well! We had an opportunity to go to an open swim in September, but I #yearofno-ed that, too. We might hit it in October to keep swimming skills fresh.Vacation. You can read how I saved on camping here.- One on One Time with Each Child Once+ per Month. Bits and pieces here and there, but September has been crazy.
Marriage
- Date nights. I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with this word you speak of. 😉 I’m working to put a date on the calendar for October, though.
Personal
- Faith. I’m reading The American Catholic Almanac and daily Bible readings.
- Read. Finished Being George Washington. If you like American history and positive living, you’ll like this book. I started When We Meet Again. It’s set in the World War II era. It’s been a while since I read fiction, but I’m really enjoying it!
- Exercise. I’m feeling the effects of not making this a priority this year. Planning to add some simple exercises to my routine this month.
[Tweet “Like to read about blogging goals and debt goals? Learn how this blogger is reaching her BHAG.”]
Blogging Goals
- Improve social media. Would like to have
5,000Twitter followers, 600 Facebook likes, and want to have3,500 pins to my Pinterestpage by year end. - Learn. Take 12 classes on ways to improve my blogging.
- I was able to make it through the first module and began the second one on EBA.
- Views. Right now I have about 6,000 pageviews per month. I’d like to increase that to 18,000 pageviews per month by the end of the year.
- 9974 in February
- 8990 in March
- 10,236 in April
- 11,102 in May
- 14,063 in June
- 13,434 in July
- 16,899 in August
- 22,820 in September – Gooooooooal! I’m so pumped about hitting my goal early!! My big increase is due to Pinterest (Tailwind and group boards), guest posting, and creating relationships with other bloggers. It takes time and energy for sure. Important note for bloggers – If you disable your Google Analytics plugin for any reason, always go back and reenter your ID numbers. I missed 3+ days on my analytics, so it doesn’t officially show the number you see here. It makes me a little sad.
- Guest post. I’d like to start writing at least 1 guest post per month.
- Done in February! Read it here.
- May post done. You can read it here!
- I had two go live in June. Read my Dollar Stretcher article here and my Money Saving Mom article here.
- This month was exciting in this area! I shared a guest post with The Peaceful Mom. And I’m excited to be partnering with her as a contributor to her blog for the near future! Be sure to keep an eye out for those upcoming posts on paying off debt.
- I am contributing to The Peaceful Mom on a monthly basis now. I also had another post on Money Saving Mom in September.
- Monetize. I need this blog to earn some money to help with our BHAG, so I will be exploring ways to monetize when I can. The main goal of this blog is to help people as much as possible, so I will only explore ways to earn money that are truly beneficial to my readers. (Otherwise, I’m sure I won’t have those readers for long!)
- Learn more about the ways I’m making money in this post.
- I’ve been getting more Linqia campaigns and other opportunities to bring great value to my audience.
- I had a few campaigns in September. For October, I’m hoping to find deals that benefit my readers the most. I also hope to finally dig in to freelance writing.
The BHAG
Our family has a BHAG this year. A big, hairy, audacious goal. That goal is to pay off some debt that amounts to 19% of our take home pay. Our plan for this goal is…
- #yearofno This has become our mantra, and the whole family is behind it now. They know that if they are asking for an extra (Can we have fast food? Can I have this toy? etc) that the answer is going to be #yearofno. It’s kind of turned into a running joke, and it needs no explanation.
- Be prepared. Not eating fast food is a running theme on this blog, because it’s always been a problem for us! Pizza,stopping for drinks, these things are our family’s worst habits. (Check out this free challenge to help you identify and destroy your own budget busters!)
- In September we ordered pizza once. We also started to stray from our #yearofno mindset. After realizing our many errors, we reset ourselves back to no spending. It’s so easy to fall off the wagon! But it’s nice to know how to get back on.
- Bigger pie. September was an expensive month. We ended up buying tires, paying for some home maintenance things, and more. I wasn’t able to earn any extra money.
- Get creative. Not much of this in September.
So how did we do on our BHAG?
To bring down 100% of our goal this year, we need to be paying 8.3% on this debt every month. Here’s how it’s going.
In January we were able to bring down our debt by 8.2%.
In February we took it down a by 12.9%.
In March we brought the balance down a running total of 22.2%.
In April we were able to get our balance down 29.1%.
In May we were able to get the balance down 41%.
In June we got down 46%.
In July we pulled the number down 51%!
In August the stars aligned and we brought it down to 62% paid off!
In September I’m rather sad to report that we only got the total down to 63% paid off. However, that’s because we used the money to replenish our poor savings account after it took a few hits. The good news is that we were able to handle expenses without relying on debt. So that’s a positive.
The plan for October
- Reset our #yearofno. Small purchases here and there have begun to slip through our budget. It’s amazing how quickly they add up! It’s been a long 9 months, but it would be such a shame to lose steam now. We’re pushing on.
- I keep hoping for time to do some freelance blogging and freelance writing. October looks like it will be busier than ever. (I’m helping with a big school project and it’s taking a lot of my time.) That said, I’m hoping to make the time to bring in extra income this way.
If you’d like to help us meet our goal, it’s easy. Just share any Mediums Sized Family posts you find helpful! Getting this blog in front of a wider audience will help us reach our goals more quickly.
Are you reaching your big goals?
I think your October situation helps convey two things: 1) sometimes debt payoff is less about having less debt than not adding more. Either way you’re in a good place. 2) This is a long process.
Congrats on your progress. Building savings is still building net worth. And those blog and social numbers are terrific. (I broke 1000 Twitter today and am doing the happy dance.)
Your progress is amazing and very motivating. I love reading these monthly!
Thanks!
Nice work! I’m especially impressed with your social media goals/progress!! (maybe that’s because it’s an area where I need a lot of improvement…) 🙂
It’s a looooong process. If you stick with it, you’ll learn what works for you best. (I didn’t believe that a year ago, but I’m finally starting to see some progress!) 🙂
You handled emergencies without creating new debt and that is amazing in my eyes!!! 🙂 I am always so inspired when I read your posts, so thank you for the impact you are having on my life! <3 I was actually in the Target dollar aisle recently and had Halloween decorations (totally didn't need them, they were just cute!) in hand – but then I thought of the #yearofno and put them back! 🙂
I love that! I’m always inspired by the way you work to pull in extra money while raising two little guys at the same time. I’m so glad we can push each other in a positive way. 🙂
looks like you are doing pretty well I believe awesome would be my word. I so need to get back on our financial flow we have been doing pretty well but my blog has not helped a whole lot on that this year.
come see us at http://shopannies.blogspot.com
Wow. I stumbled on a fantastic post! I will have to read more when I get home. But right away I love that you set yearly goals! I am a list maker. I cannot survive a weekend if I don’t have my to do list made. But my husband hates lists and budgets and generally anything with organization.
And I giggled out loud at your comment about date night! It’s no laughing matter, but still, I giggled.
🙂 gwingal
This is fab! You are doing sooooo well, how long have you been blogging for now?
Your debt progress is great, and I love that you have been showing your progress in percentages. Good luck with the date night – I hear ya on that one! My hubby and I are going out for food this Friday night which we haven’t done in months – possibly this whole year!
I’ve been blogging for a bit over a year now. I’m really proud of our progress! Though we aren’t as far on the debt as I’d like to be, I’m excited about the big changes we’ve made. 🙂 Love your blog, by the way!
Way to go on so many areas of growth! And though September might not have been as financially successful as you had hoped, I have high hopes for October for y’all! Hoping it’s already off to a great start, with #yearofno in full swing once more! 😉