Comments on: An update on goals & a progress report

By: Surviving the summer without spending our savings | Frugal Living Tips & Money Saving Ideas | Living Well on Less

Wed, 20 May 2009 12:05:14 +0000

[…] been anticipating this temporary loss of income all year, so we prepared by putting aside most of the money we’ll need to cover Tony’s salary without using our […]

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:21:14 +0000

Margot – We have certainly considered increasing our income, but at this time we’ve made the decision that time together is more important as long as we’re on track with our goals. If we were facing a deficit in our budget and couldn’t afford to make ends meet, increasing our income would be our only option whatever it took. But at this time, we have a limited amount of time together due to my job and his classes, and so we choose to spend it together instead of making money. Thanks for the ideas, though! Hopefully someday we’ll be in a position to try some of them to increase our income!

By: Margot

Margot — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:32:55 +0000

You’ve probably already considered this, but what about a short-term focus on sacrificing free time to bring in more income? It would be exciting to earn new chunks of money that would make you feel like you’d made significant progress toward savings and the Europe fund. I know that I am better at sticking with things long-term when I have bursts of feeling like I’m making faster progress. There are a million ways to make more money, either super short term (1 evening or 1 weekend of extra work) or over a few months (a part-time job). Even as a young professional in my late twenties, I once was short on money and earned a lot by doing babysitting for wealthy families. It pays well! Graduate students can often find opportunities to earn more money doing one-off projects helping a professor edit a book, doing short-term research, etc. There are regular part-time jobs. There are random one-off things you can do for money – helping a friend who has a catering company as-needed, taking care of a pet in the neighborhood while someone is out of town, etc. I’m assuming you don’t want to do this long-term, but it could be a fun challenge to focus on increasing income for a couple of months.

By: Bobbi

Bobbi — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:24:52 +0000

I assess my budget every month. :) I haven’t assessed my goals lately though. I need to make that a priority this month. Thank you for the post, it helps reminds me of what is important. :)