Happy Monday everyone! It’s already March and I still can’t believe that 2013 is flying by so quickly. Life is still great and I feel like it gets better every single day. Also, good luck to whoever reads this super lengthy post, it’s definitely a whale of a post.

In February, I made $5,983 in extra income, after expenses. In case you are new to my blog, “Extra Income” consists of all income that I make that does not include my salaried job that I have in the financial services industry (my job has nothing to do with personal finance just as an FYI). Extra income also does not include any money that W makes, as he doesn’t do anything for extra income and is mostly commission at his work (so it fluctuates every month anyways).

I will say that this is not all super easy. None of it is. I spend enough time to make this a full-time job on top of my already full-time job. Luckily, I do enjoy what I’m doing so it’s not like I’m dreading anything. My goals that I have are also a great motivator. I just keep thinking about how badly I want my student loans gone, and also how badly we want a new house next year. Read further on my Extra Income page.

This is for the month of February and after fees and expenses (expenses were a little over $1,000 and include payments for staff writing on my blog and on FITnancials, PayPal fees, deposit on a new blog design, etc.) being taken out. February’s number above includes rent.

February was yet another great month. No, I did not beat the $6,523 I made in January, but it’s mainly because I’ve been focusing more on affiliate income, and I don’t get paid for my affiliate income until either March or the middle of April (there’s a 45-60 day wait on most of my affiliate payments). I don’t count extra income unless I actually receive the payment. Also, I had a decent amount of expenses in February for my blog and this ate up some of my income. I’ve come a long way from the just last year when I was ecstatic about $50 in extra income in a month.

If there were no expenses, then I would have made $7,000 in extra income in February!

Blog

As you can see above in my expenses, I have a new blog design in the works. The site will be getting a total overhaul and I hired someone that always has fun and colorful designs. I want to spice up my blog, but still not become a boring personal finance blog 🙂 I hope you all love it and it should be ready by the beginning of April.

I have a ton of post ideas planned for March, I just need to finally finish them all. Look for several posts on topics such as side hustles, starting a new business, personal (such as talking about W more), selling our house and more. If there’s anything that you really want to see written this month, please leave a comment below.

Last month, I made my post on How To Start A Blog – Tips for a Beginner and also my post on whether you should use Blogger or WordPress (and how to switch to WordPress)! Thanks to these two posts I was able to earn a decent amount in affiliate income, however that won’t be included until April’s income report. Anyways, thanks guys!

My sister’s blog still seems to be going great also. Her posts have been awesome and she’s enjoying writing, so that’s all that matters. Please subscribe to FITnancials if you haven’t yet.

Staff Writing

I’m not doing as much staff writing as I used to. It has slowly dwindled down since the Fall (I started turning down some writing opportunities, while one was hit by the Page Rank issue recently). Thankfully this is something that has worked out for the best, as now I can focus my time on other things. Right now I only write for one personal finance website and one hotel’s travel blog.

As you can see below, I made approximately $800 in staff writing last month. This probably sounds like I do a lot of writing, but it’s not. One blog that I write for has a pretty good return (hey, the articles I write for them are AWESOME!) and it increases my staff writing income by a good amount.

February Goals Update

1. Cook 5 days a week. PASS. We have been doing really good with eating in as much as we can. I have also been coming up with a lot of new meal ideas as well. Eating in as so many positives, and I can 100% say we are more happy with just eating at home instead of going out to eat every night.
2. Run 5 times a week and lose 3 pounds. FAIL.  I ran around 3 to 4 times a week in February, but definitely did not lose 3 pounds. I need to work harder at this! I feel like eating at home is making me fatter since I have so many options for quick meals at home now.
3. Make an extra $5,000 this month. PASS. I succeeded with this! Around the middle of February, I did not really know if I would make it to $5,000. However, I finally received some last minute payments and it made it possible.
4. Schedule the engagement photos photographer. PASS. I booked the photographer that I originally wanted to use. She’s a really good photographer and I always love the pictures that she posts online for her photography business that she owns. Best $400 spent I think.
5. Choose a wedding date. FAIL. We need to talk to W’s family and come up with a date that will work since we will be using the family’s property. I didn’t talk to them about the wedding at all. I really hate asking favors of people, especially when I know them. I guess that’s what happens when you have no family of yours and feel like you’re taking advantage of people (when you actually are not) because you have never really asked for a family favor before, UGH.

W made us drive in this the other day…

March Goals

1. Cook 5 days a week. Since we really want a new house within the next year, we are really trying to save as much money as we can for the down payment. As long as I have a interesting and tasty meal plan, I’m sure this is possible.
2. Run 4 times a week and lose 3 pounds. This is something that I’m really working on. I want to lose some weight and be back to my normal weight for when we take our engagement photos in the beginning of May.
3. Make an extra $5,500 this month. I only slightly increased this from February’s goal number. I think this is a good goal for now, especially since I’m mainly working on affiliate income.
4. Choose a wedding date. We need to talk to W’s family and come up with a date that will work since we will be using the family’s property. This is something that we really need to do soon, as it’s hard to do anything else without a date in mind.
5. Sell 25 items from my closet. I have a TON of things in my closet, and are goal is to slowly declutter our house so that we will be ready to sell.
6. Come up with a name for the new business. We have a ton of things to do for me and my friend’s new business (nothing related to blogging). First thing though, we need a name. It’s hard to build a website or buy any product without a name and a legal entity. Then we need to apply for a lot of business items as well.

 

Extra Monthly Income in February

• Staff writing – $800
• Blog (consulting and advertising such as direct advertising and Adsense, but after all expenses) – $4,610
• Affiliate Income – $200 (this is affiliate income I made in December but wasn’t paid for until February)
• Virtual Assistant tasks – $50
• Selling Clothes – $0
• Miscellaneous (not related to blogging and online income)- $0
• Mystery Shopping – $0
• Rent (I rent a room out to my sister) – $325

Comparisons and 2013 total

• Total income for February: $5,983
• Income in January: $6,523
• Difference: -$540
• Total so far in 2013: $12,506

How did you do in February? What are your extra income goals?