Beacon Score

I checked my Beacon Score and it's up to 811. I'm happy with that!

Financial Goals for August

After just buying a new 2010 Honda CR-V in July and having car payments for the first time in at least 6 or 7 years, my finances now need even a bit more tightening up.

I have taken on additional shifts at my part-time job - shifts I used to work but stopped a little over a year ago - and the intention is for that money to go straight to paying for the vehicle.

I've increased my grocery budget a bit from what I nornally allow each month, being $300 up from $250 and have cut back a lot on what I normally let myself spend on eating out. I need to prepare food at home and stick to it!! It's not always easy to do that when working more than 60 hours each week but I really need to try.

I would like to earn at least $150 in August from ebay or kijiji sales from things I have around the house, to put toward a car starter as I must get one put in before winter.

I STILL need to update my sidebars but with working 60+ hours each week, taking care of my own house, taking care of my dad's house out of town (since it still has not sold), finding time to fiddle with HTML code never seems to happen. *sigh* one day I will get to it.

I'd also like to lose at least 6 pounds in August as, ideally, I'd like to lose 20 and I think 6 lbs in one month should be obtainable.

August Goals:

- stick to $300 grocery budget and make 95% of meals at home
- earn minimum $150 from ebay/kijiji sales from things around the house
- lose 6 lbs

Time to get finances back in check!

Okay, I keep saying I am going to get back to blogging and then life throws a wrench into things and it doesn't happen. Well, I am now going to make it happen.

This is just going to be a short post as it's late and tomorrow is a work day but my intention is to get back to focusing more on my finances for a number of reasons, including:

- full time position pays less than previous position
- I work a tremendous amount of OT but don't get paid for it
- 11 year old car needs replacing
- dad's house has not yet sold so am supporting 2 households with taxes, insurance and utilities (while making considerably less money)

For these reasons I really need to focus on having dedicated no-spend days, reducing unnecessary spending (biggest problem there is dining out/take out), and earning more income. To that end, I am increasing my hours at my p-time job starting this week. This will be difficult given the amount of OT my full time job requires but since they don't pay me for it I have to do something. If it becomes a problem, then I will have to have a frank discussion with my boss.