Well, today is the first weekday of 2010! My kids started back to school today, my husband went back to work and Noah and I had our first Mommy and Me class of the year. It was a busy day for us all.
Beyond simply getting back into our routine, I also sat down today to map out my financial earning/saving goals for 2010. It is so helpful for me to have a map of what I want to accomplish for myself each year.
So, I am going to try and reach a $10,000 goal ( 10K ) this year. For those of you who keep up on my earning/savings tracking each year, this may seem like a decrease. But, I have decided to split out my blogging earnings separately. I am only doing this, because for all my readers who do not blog we can then do this challenge together.
I will still track my blogging earnings, but it will be it's own unique goal.
Here is what I came up with for myself. Take this format and tweak the numbers to be what you think you can achieve. Do you think $5,000 is enough for you this year, then alter the figures. This is your own personal road map, so create it to fit your needs.
And, before you get started, remember this. This extra money you earn/save is a chance for you to slowly get ahead. I know these numbers aren't huge. But over 10 years, $10,000 is $100,000. Every little bit adds up fast.
Money shouldn't burn a hole in your pocket. Instead, take a look at your families finances to see where this money can best be used. If you have high interest debt, can this help wipe it out? Have you been meaning to get your emergency fund started? What about retirement investing? Try to figure out now where you will allocate all this extra money you will have this year.
- $4,000 Online Offers ( My goal is $1,000 per quarter )
- $1,000 High Interest Checking
- $1,000 Groceries ( going to try and drop from $100 a week budget to $75 a week )
- $1,000 Sale Shopping
- $500 Credit Cards
- $500 Mystery Shopping
- $400 Surveys/Market Research
- $400 Bank Offers
- $400 Phone/Cable/Household bills
- $300 Insurance
- $300 eBay/Craigslist
- $100 Online Searching
- $100 Misc
What is your homework for today's challenge?
Create your own personal Challenge for 2010! Then, come back as we begin breaking down each method in our challenge and get a jump start on the new year financially!
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17 comments:
Hi Carrie!
Good goals. I am going to be bumping up my ebay and mystery shopping this year a bit. I hope to add Craigslist as another revenue area for me and later this year, I might venture a bit into a etsy store.
I got a little lax this past year in surveys and plan to keep a better rein on them.
Hope you and your family have a great new year!
I'm so proud of you Carrie! Great goals. I would love to hear about the new online company that you were trying out a few months ago. How did that work out?
This is such great inspiration - thanks Carrie! I have a full-time job, but would really like to supplement our income. You've inspired me to make a goal of earning $1500 this year through online offers and mystery shopping. Thanks for the encouragement!
My goal for this year is to bring in an extra $70 per week from Ebay, Amazon, rebate overage, cash pay outs from credit card points (that are paid in full each month)as well as any other cash rewards programs like swagbucks. I may bump this goal up a bit later in the year but I want to make it attainableas my most important goal is to spent more time with my kids and husband.
Hi Carrie--great goals! I was wondering if you could give more detail or write a post about how you will achieve your online offers goal. I did 2 last year ($1000 total) but the second one I did was really hard because I had done offers on the first one already and there was not much to choose from. So I'm curious if you do some sort of rotation of companies? Thanks.
On the Online Offers ( and all the aspects ) I will be writing a post specifically for that over the coming weeks.
So, I will then break out my "plan" of attack on earning with that method.
I do rotate the companies. IDeal, Netblue, Nuitech ( and now adding in this other company, hopefully ) I find when you do one company over and over, it is easier to be DQ'd because the offers start overlapping.
I also have a separate email address set up for each company. So, often times specific deals can be set up per email address and you can do them again. Or, I have myself do IDeal, my husband do Nuitech ( so there is a different name when signing up for offers ), I do Netblue, etc, etc.
HI Carrie, I just wanted you to know that Nuitech has new terms since December 11th. Now they say only one per household per year for each company. Just wanted to give you a heads up. I looked into it and it looks like their are sub-companies within Nuitech.
Carrie, I plan on making a set of goals similar to this because I like the idea. I was wondering though where do rebates fit in? Do you do those or not? I started strong around September and saved the checks until 12/31 and I had over $200 from just rebates and others from mystery shopping and it was close to $500.
Also, as I have stated before I really want to do the online offers but I am VERY confused even after reading the posts.
Nichole,
Depending on the what the rebate is for, it will go under either Grocery Savings or Sale Shopping.
Grocery savings is made up of many items. Sale price, coupons, electronic coupons, rebates, upromise cash back and grocery bag discounts. When you put them all together, they will bring my grocery spending down.
The same holds true for Sale shopping. It is, of course, made up of the sale price, but if I have coupons for the store on top...that counts towards it. If I have a rebate, that will also increase my savings in that area.
Online offers are a great money maker if you ever do them!
Anonymous
Wow..if I am reading your post right, this is great news!
So, if we did a site already in 2009, we can now do it AGAIN in 2010?
This is the first I have heard of any company doing this..extremely exciting!
I'll go read into it more, but sounds like a good deal. Thanks so much for the heads up!
My biggest goal of this year is that I'm trying to keep my grocery budget at $3000 for the whole year. It will be extemely challenging because that is including diapers, formula, dog and cat food, beer and liquor. On top of normal groceries, health and beauty and cleaning supplies. We've got a baby on the way, due May 7th, so I expect that the bulk of my stockpiling for the year needs to be done before then. I actually bought my first bottle of formula today. I will be nursing too, so staying within my budget will be extra incentive to keep it up during those rough times. I've also found that some of the things I like to stockpile are available at amazon.com for a cheaper price. So swagbucks and the coinstar bonus are able to help me out within my budget.
I had a great trip at Kroger today! Like $50 worth of groceries that I spent $1 for! (With the $20 prescription coupon along with the help of Grocery Game and coupon matchups.) I'll be doing a produce stock up at Costco next week, and then stocking up on deli meat at GFS the week after that. It takes a lot of planning and methodology, but I've had a year of experience with it now, and it's easier than it used to be. Poor hubby doesn't like it when he asks for something in particular and I tell him to give me a few weeks!
Hi Carrie, I am sorry I did not word it correctly but this is what it says for Nuitech.
"Only one gift is permitted from Reliant per person and/or household for one year after your registration date." The terms changed December 11th. It seems as though there are a few companies within Nuitech. I also saw net radiance as a company also. Just thought I would give you a heads up.
Maggie
I love the idea of working from home by saving and earning money this way. I just wonder how much time it takes to keep all these balls in the air?? I have been using coupons and deals to save on groceries, gifts, pictures, etc, and I do some surveys for one company, but I feel like more than that and I would be sucked into the virtual world all day long. I'm not a mom, but I am a wife and grad student, so achieving balance and some simplicity is a constant prayer.
Carrie,
You really have me into mystery shopping. As I have told you before, I am doing ALOT of shops. I only do restaurant shops. I noticed that you said $500 in mystery shopping and I am wondering how you are calculating that. For example, lets say I have a shop that reimburses me up to $50 for a meal and then they pay me $5 on top of that. Do you put $5 in the $500 category or would it be the full $55?
Nichole,
I was probably going to calculate it on all money paid to me. Although, technically I should ONLY count the actual payment and not reimbursement...as you know many shops are strictly reimburse shops.
My goal, hopefully, is to get a tax shop again and get an eye glass/contact shop again this year. Since items like that are things I would need to buy anyway, the reimbursement ( and getting them free ) is saving me money.
For things like restaurants where I techincally might not have gone to the establishment otherwise, I may need to rethink that portion.
Amanda,
Very true! It can suck you in. I have put into place that I will not get online except at night (hence no posts from me during the day unless something great comes up ).
I was getting sucked in and I stay home to spend time with the kids, go to classes and events with them, etc.
But, I do try to put a schedule together on what I will do each day. So, while the TV is on at night, I try to get some stuff done on my laptop.
Schedule, schedule, schedule. Set some time apart for each method you want to take part in and the day and you will find you can find the time to get it done..or at least part of it. :)
Carrie, I received an email about a tax shop but I deleted it. I cannot think of the company right off but if they send it again I will definately forward the email to you. I received alot of emails about the eye glasses a few months ago but haven't received them lately. I have been waiting on that also because I need them also.
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