2015 Goals Update #4 + A Giveaway!

Blogging

Can I just say THANK Y’ALL so much for helping me with The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle this year! I love that my book has been able to reach so many people alongside so many other amazing resources. Also, if you missed out on joining Elite Blog Academy this year, make sure you check out my resources page where I share some of my favorite books on blogging.

I had the.best.month.ever when it comes to earning an income from my blog! My income was $1,815.26 (after expenses)! I don’t expect this to happen every month but oh how awesome it has been! Oh and I FINALLY got a P.O. Box. I have no idea what the heck took me so long as it was cheap (the price is for a full year) and easy to set up.

If you’re interested in how I work my affiliate sales, you can sign up here to grab my free Affiliate Marketing eBook!

Here are my blogging goals specifics:

• Finish creating my pinning schedule and strategy.  (Done)
• Create my Facebook sharing strategy. (I have determined my set times of day for posting but I still haven’t worked through a strategy yet on the content I’m sharing.)
• Keep pageviews at 200,000 and increase to 500,000 by the end of the year. (You can read how I more than doubled my pageviews here.) (My pageviews for last month were 160,710. My pvs have gone way down (especially compared to last month), but I’m expecting them to stay down until the end of summer. Warmer weather = less people inside playing online.)
• Professional blog design. (Currently working with Pixel Me Designs) (Done)
• Find three brands to establish a working relationship with for underwritten posts. (Still have not done this….)
• Complete media kit by April 1^st. (Done)
• Complete Business Plan by April 30th. (Totally failed on getting this done. It is one my goals list for next week.)
• Finish my next book by my birthday (March 29^th) and publish by June on Amazon. (My edits are finally done and now I just have to send it back to my editor for final edits!)
• Increase my minimum writing goal from 500 words per post to 700 words per post. (I met this one for April)
• Keep editorial calendar with at least three months of posts, written and scheduled. (I’m not at three months yet, but I have finally gotten my calendar back under control! I’ll be sharing this month my editorial calendar strategy for those of you that are interested).
• Attend one blog conference. (Just waiting on September….now I have that Green Day song stuck in my head. 🙂 )
• Research and implement better SEO tactics and improve search engine traffic on my site. (My SEO tactics appear to be paying off. I’m gradually increasing my reach through search…which is awesome. But I still know that I have a lot more that I could be doing.)
• Bring Alexa Global rating below 100,000 and U.S. rating below 15,000. (My US Ranking went back down which is awesome but my Global ranking went back up. I’m expecting that my numbers will continue to go in the opposite direction of what I want them to since summer is upon us. Global is currently: 171,199 and U.S. is currently: 35,484)

Personal

Oh goodness y’all. I have been one tired mama here lately! We have put our boys together in one room in preparation for baby number three (if you missed the announcement, you can check it out here) and well it has made getting a good night’s sleep a challenge. Maybe they’re just preparing me for the newborn stage again….

Then not to mention that my brother received orders that he will be stationed in Japan for two years (he is a U.S. Marine) kind of threw me for a loop. Flying to and from Japan is stupidly expensive so if we do get to see him in the next two years, it will not be often and that makes me super sad as I’m a total overprotective big sister. I am even sadder because my brother will not be there at the hospital when I give birth to this baby, as he has been the last two rounds.

Here are my personal goals specifics:

• Begin working out using the Tupler Technique to fix my diastasis. (I am following the workouts in Lose Your Mummy Tummy *) (Y’all I can tell you that these exercises work! With my second child, I actually looked pregnant before I could even take a test to see if I was or not. With this baby, I am showing significantly slower than I did with Collin. I’m still doing a few of these exercises as some are safe for the stage of pregnancy I’m in but I will have to stop once I reach the third trimester.)
• Work out three times a week for ten to fifteen minutes and then increase length of workouts to thirty minutes to an hour and to simultaneously increase the intensity. (Changed to the goal below)
• Spend 30 minutes every day in active play with the boys (walking the neighborhood, playing hide-n-seek, “monster”, or other games they want to play). (I was doing great with this at the beginning of the month but then I fell off after our vacation. So, I definitely need to make this a priority for this month!)
• Write in gratitude journal every day. (I am using Money Saving Mom’s gratitude journal, Choose Gratitude * – amazing!) (I’ve totally failed on this one. I haven’t written in my gratitude journal all month long….)
• Schedule a paid date night and paid family night/event once a quarter. (We haven’t made any plans yet but I’m hoping that we can get a mini summer vacay on the books. The great thing about living in Georgia is that it is not that far from a beach and the Georgia coast is gorgeous!)
• Increase daily water intake to full eight glasses of water a day and continue detox regimen with lemon essential oil. (I got in trouble from my doctor for being dehydrated so that tells ya how not great I’ve been doing with this. My boys love to steal my water, put hot wheels cars in it, and have even poured their milk in my water. It drives me crazy so I am trying to chug a glass a water every chance I get because if I leave it for me sip, I will find a surprise in it….)
• Spend thirty minutes to one hour two times a week working with Conner on preschool learning activities. Spend same time working with Collin on tot school activities. (We got our preschool curriculum set up and I’m super excited to start! We are planning to wait until after Memorial Day to start working on Conner with it.)
• Drastically reduce the amount of personal time spent on Facebook, by leaving groups and un-liking pages that just clog up my newsfeed. Use the News Feed Eradicator extension for Chrome to keep me from being sucked into Facebook’s “should-have-left-it-in-high-school” drama. (I’ve been getting better about this but I need to remove myself from a lot of the blogging groups I’m a part of. There is just so much dang drama in those groups!)

Financial

I’ve mentioned before that our one-income budget took a little bit of hit this past month due to an expected change. I’ve been walking a lady’s dogs for two years and the money earned from that gig is what has been contributed to my Roth IRA so it was “out of the budget” money. However, I received word from her right before our vacation that she no longer needed me to walk her dogs. It was completely unexpected but not catastrophic. Now, we have to take some money from our debt payoff plan to make up the amount that I was contributing to my retirement account (SAHMs, you need to be contributing to a retirement if you aren’t already).

I also received a few emails and FB messages about our slush fund and I decided to answer them in a quick video for y’all. 🙂

Here are our financial specifics:

• Pay off student loans by December 31^st. Total balance at the beginning of the year: $20,106.81 (Student loan balance as of today 4/30/15: $13,184.65 )
• Contribute the max allowed percentage to hubs’ 401(k) plan and continue contributing $30 a week to my Roth IRA. Will increase my contribution amount if goal of paying off student loans is met before the end of the year. We will be decreasing the amount contributed to our emergency fund in order to build up our retirement funds. (Still contributing the $30 a week, it is just now coming from our budget instead of my dog walking money.)
• Go back to carrying cash only for all purchases. (I swear, I suck at this. I still have not done this! I’m really great at only paying for us going to eat [which is super rare] with cash but I have been terrible about going to the bank to pull cash out to spend at the grocery store.)
• Plan and implement a spending freeze. (Still have not done this. We were originally planning to do this in July but then we found out that Georgia is now allowing “real” fireworks to be sold. So I already know that my hubs is going to go crazy and buy a ton….in fact I probably need to write a blog post about the time when he spent over $700 on fireworks for New Years one time. He’s a pyro.)
• Set aside $10 every week towards our Christmas fund for a debt-free Christmas (it will be our third one!). (We’ve decided to save up our Swagbucks* earnings instead of this money coming out of our budget and we have actually already saved up enough Swagbucks to buy Christmas! We’re pretty freaking excited!).

Reading List

I only read one book this month, called The One-Page Financial Plan * by Carl Richards. It’s awesome and I recommend that everyone read at least one financial book a year. It’s always helpful to learn new things and this book definitely gave me some insights that I had been lacking (primarily with investing. I’ve never been great with investing so it was nice to have Carl’s practical advice.) I’m also super excited to hear Carl speak at FinCon this year!

Make Your Mother’s Day Wishes Come True

Mother’s Day Giveaway $500 Cash!!!

Mom’s you put your heart and soul into every day with your family. We know you wouldn’t have it any other way and that the rewards far outweigh the sacrifices. Whether it’s hearing sweet voices say “Mommy, I Love You” or little hands folded into your hands, funny faces and belly laughs, first words to first dates; our children make our lives meaningful and fulfilled.

However, sometimes being a good mom doesn’t just mean taking care of our families, it means taking care of ourselves. That’s why this group of amazing mom bloggers got together to offer one special mom the opportunity to make her Mother’s Day wishes come true with $500 cash to spend any way she wants. Maybe you’ll buy that new pair of shoes you’ve been dying for or go enjoy a day at the spa or maybe it will just help to relieve some kind of burden you’ve been carrying for too long.

However, you choose to spend it is up to you, but you can’t win it if you don’t enter. We’ve provided lots of different ways you can earn entries, and with each one you increase your chances of being the mom that’s walks away with the $500 cash!! We wish you ALL the best of luck!

Be sure to stop by and visit each of the blogs taking part in the giveaway for all sorts of inspiration and parenting resources. We’re all moms too and we would love to get to know you better!

Sunshine and Hurricanes

Sports Mom Survival Guide

Unexpected Elegance

Mom Fabulous

The Budget Mama

My Mommy Style

An Alli Event

Living Off Love and Coffee

Mom Babble

One Mother to Another

Moritz Fine Designs

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How have you been doing with your 2015 goals? I would love to hear how you keep on truckin’!

Linked Up To: The Thrifty Couple

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