Hi friendly readers, how are my fairest fans today? Another month has gone by already and it’s time for my monthly update. What does it say about me that a week has already gone by before I realized that it’s a new month? Annnnnnyyywaaaay, here’s the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:
Extra Income: $1900 in May
Overall, I’m happy with how much extra I’ve brought in this month – especially my tutoring income. Usually I work through a tutoring agency but I managed to pick up my own family which comes with a hefty raise àAgency Rate: $22/hr to Independent Rate: $50/hr. Tutoring is winding down for the year but the family has already committed to next year. I will continue to use the tutoring agency to supplement my independent contracts.
On the flip side, I did not have a banner month for blog and freelance income. I’ve negotiated a raise with the company I do work with currently and I’ve started pitching to other sites. I’ve also updated my LinkedIn page and will be soliciting testimonials from businesses and bloggers I worked with in the past. This will be an ongoing effort.
Okay. Onwards and upwards!
Last month, I challenged myself to get financially organized. I was able to achieve most of my goals but ran out of time by the end of the month. I was working a lot and time just seemed to fly by…and then it was June. So here’s the breakdown:
File 2014 Taxes: Pass
I did this pretty quickly after I published my monthly challenge post last month. Unfortunately, I owed $1600 in taxes due to the extra income I made last year. This wasn’t a surprise, however, and we’ll be paying it down a little every month. With the husband out of work, we can’t afford to make a lump sum payment from our emergency fund so we’ll have to suck it up and pay the interest. There are worse things, really.
Deal with Canada Revenue Agency’s Information Request: Fail
I’m not going to lie, I’ve been putting this off. Every year, CRA sends me some request to verify some obvious part of my tax return that usually involves me running all over the place to get confirming documentation. The latest things they’ve decided is a Scooby mystery? Is my child really my child and does she truly live with me? Just in case I actually stick her in a cardboard box, poke a couple of holes in it, a ship her off to China for six months a year. Seriously. I will get all the documentation together this month and send it off.
Organize My Paperwork: Fail
Yeah. I just didn’t do this. Enough said.
With tutoring slowing down as we come into summer, I should have more time this month to finish up this task.
Update Mint and Track Spending: PASS
So I did update Mint and I have been tracking expenses. Some weeks I’ve been really great about doing thinks like packing lunches and cutting down on other expenses that cost money, others not so much. But I did achieve the tracking expense goal.
Set Aside Time to Talk Money: PASS
This has been really helpful – especially when we had to really look at our budget and cut stuff. It’s also been enlightening. Not overly flattering, but enlightening. When we lost my husband’s income, having these conversations was stressful. Where did we want to slash the budget? What did we really need to spend money on? Challenging these topics can be difficult even when you both are gainfully employed but gets a lot more interesting when you’re down an income.
I discovered that I was holding on to tight and turning into a control freak about where the money went. It’s not that my husband was a wild and crazy spender; it’s just that I felt insecure about our financial situation and was reacting accordingly. It wasn’t very flattering to find out I reacted like that but I learned from it and moved on. I’ll write more about this in a different post.
In conclusion:
May was a good month. I’m happy with the progress I’ve made in many areas. I’ll write soon about my June challenges and goals.
