July was a busy month. Along with all my regular commitments, I also house sat for 3 weeks for a friend with 3 beautiful animals and added in a bunch of extra social activities due to a range of reasons; birthdays, friends returning from overseas, family functions, just because.
I also managed to fit in a whole lot more tv than usual due to having free Netflix while house sitting. While a lot of fun to do for a short period, I’m glad I don’t have this at home or I’d be a couch potato for sure.
If you are new here this monthly update serves two purposes. It keeps me on track to meet my goals. And also gives me an opportunity to reflect back on the month that was and be grateful for all that I do have. I encourage you to try this too. You may have one bad day, or even two, but at the end of the month you can look back and see that it wasn’t all that bad after all – just a blip on the radar in terms of your life.
1. Relationships
I’ve just realised this is a very subjective goal and while I may believe I did a great job of building and maintaining strong relationships this month, I wonder if those on the other end feel the same way. I’m interested to know how you measure relationships. How do you know they are going well, and where you can improve? Generally I just like to have a good time and by getting to spend time with family and friends I feel positive and happy. Perhaps I could have a dinner party and ask all my friends and loved ones to complete the 5 Love Languages Quiz – I’m sure that would go down well ><
2. Wealth
In 2018 my goal is to save an average of 60% of my take home pay.
July was a spendy month (see above extra social activities), however, it still wasn’t over the top and I managed to save 53.01%. If I can really enjoy life to it’s fullest and save over half my income I feel I’m doing pretty well. This brings my average savings rate for the first half of 2018 up to 63.8% – just keeping my head above water for the annual goal, but of course still stoked with the result.
3. Physical Health
a) Hitting 7,000 steps per day minimum
In July I reached an average of 10,705 steps per day – go me!
Still keeping strong with soccer for the moment. As always the conditioning pays off right towards the end of the season. Hopefully, once it is over in August I can keep some sort of momentum.
4. Community & Spirit
In July a local charity in my area was collecting ‘Christmas in July’ hampers for locals in need. I put together a hamper full of dry goods and other household items that will hopefully ease some pressure on a family nearby.
5. Mental Health
I was greeted by lots of excitement from the dog I was looking after for the first 3 weeks of the month, and also had a regular visitor on my lap courtesy of one of the cats. It was nice to have lots of dedicated attention coming my way. It was also my birthday so I had more than usual dinners, lunches and celebrations with family and friends. All of these things help to keep me happy and positive – hooray 🙂
6. Read at least 15 books
So all that amazing content hasn’t happened yet…but I did stop in at the library again and borrow another 3 books. I quite enjoyed both Money for Nothing by Justine Davies and The $50 Weekly Shop by Jody Allen from the popular website https://www.stayathomemum.com.au
Money for Nothing is a program designed to run over 12 weeks to get all of your financial house in order. It starts with capturing where you are, then moves on with tips on how to save money and land the best deals on insurance, credit cards, loans, taxes and more.
The $50 weekly shop was a good mix of advice and recipes. I love food which helped a lot. I also know that this is an area where most Aussies struggle to keep their costs down. Jody does a great job of walking through how to make a realistic budget and stick to it.
Books read so far in 2018:
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything – Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
- Armchair Guide to Property Investing – Ben Kingsley and Bryce Holdaway
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki
- Meet The Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living – Elizabeth Thames
- The Simple Path To Wealth – Jim Collins
- Side Hustle; Build a Side Business and Earn Extra Cash, Without Quitting Your Day Job – Chris Guillebeau
- Powerful – Patty McCord
- The One Hour Content Plan – Meera Kothand
- Money for Nothing – Justine Davies
- The $50 Weekly Shop – Jody Allen
That is now 10 books down and 5 to go; an average of 1 per month. This goal is still very achievable for 2018.
Final Thoughts
July is always one of my favourite months and this one was no exception. It was certainly a fun and productive way to start of the second half of the year.
What did you achieve this month? Are you happy with your progress so far?
Great job on the reading – you are smashing it!
Thanks Greg, I’m enjoying it too which is awesome 😊
Sounds like a fun and fulfilling month! Your average savings rate though, wow!
I know what you mean about having Netflix, we have it and when we’re lazy, we spend a lot (a lot!) of time on the couch. Most of it spent on looking for what to watch. :/
Belated happy birthday! July is our birth month, too, so it’s usually extra expensive. Hehe.
Good job on reading so many books! I think I got to 3. Hahaha! I’ll definitely checkout the ones in your list. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, J – it was a great month!
Oh gosh I know, we definitely spent a lot of time just deciding what to watch! And then a lot more time than normal sitting in front of the tv to get through all the episodes before we left. But as a short-term thing that’s totally ok in my book.
Happy Birthday to you too. A lot of people say how we are getting ‘too old’ to celebrate birthdays, but I’m all about finding any excuse to hang out with family and friends. It’s the small things in life that make it special.
I’ve been trying, the hardest part is getting started. Though once I’m going I really do love reading a lot and usually don’t want to put it back down. Now if only I could get that passion to rub off on individual exercise I’d be winning 😉
Haha couch potato, lucky you did all those steps to balance it out 😉
I love animals, they always make me happy – even if it’s just watching some birds go about their business. I find it really calming.
Sounds like a good month in any case, well done Miss B.
Thanks Dave – appreciate you stopping by 🙂
Hello Miis B – thanks for sharing how to have balance and live while achieving financial independence- I still want to have fun trying to get to FIRE though I’m leaving it a little late – very inspired by your savings rate 😛
Thanks for stopping by. It is never too late to start!