Goal update(or, My how a month flies by!)
I can't believe it's been a month since I did an update on this. I'm actually a wee bit early this month for a change! (by the way, those of you that are new around these parts may want to catch up by checking out my original goals post. )
1) Cereal avoidance
The non-cereal breakfasts thing is still going well, although I've stepped my efforts there up a notch in order to cut down my grocery spending further(more on that later). We're definitely eating more than three non-cereal breakfasts a week, though.
2) Quicken
I'm doing fairly well at keeping Quicken updated...in fact, I think all of my accounts are up-to-date. That hasn't happened in, um, a really long time. Ahem.
3) Summer Savings
I've got $372 in that account at the moment, so barring a miracle, I'm likely not going to reach my $1000 goal by summertime. However, I'm not actually too concerned about that, because I think that I will be able to get at least a few photography sessions in each month in the summer. I sent out a teeny bit of advertising a couple of weeks ago, and I already have three photo sessions lined up for April. I think this could work out very nicely...my piano teaching income goes down in the summertime, and summertime is perfect for taking pictures(people are off of school, it's warm enough to take outside pictures(I don't have a studio!), and it stays light into the evening. So, I should be able to supplement my piano income with photography income during the summer, and then in the winter when the weather is not so picture-friendly, my piano income will go back up to its normal level.
4) Emergency Fund
Last month I'd hoped to have a better update on our emergency fund situation, and I do! Our federal income tax refund has arrived, and our state refund should be here soon. So, how close are we to my goal of 3-6 months? If we had to, we could live on about $2370 a month(I'll probably post our barebones budget at some point), so we currently could survive for 2.69 months on our savings(to be exact!). That's not too far from the lower end of my goal, but we've decided that we would really like to kick up our emergency savings efforts over the next few months.
To that end, I'm working even harder at reducing our grocery bill(I was $20 under for the last two weeks), and we're trying extra hard to avoid spending money when it's not necessary(not that we fritter away much of our money even under normal circumstances!). And happily, I've been blessed to get a few freelance type of jobs last month and there are some coming up this month too(some piano-playing gigs, and the aforementioned photography sessions). All of that extra money will be going straight into our emergency fund.
I'm interested to see how much extra money we can squirrel away by buckling down for several months, and of course, I'll be faithful to update you all each month. 😉
I am excited to see your budget, I have been curious about that for awhile now. 🙂 Photography is a great hobby, that can bring in some extra cash! Good for you! 😀
I wish I could actually get some money from photography. Unfortunately I'm either artsy or horrible (depending on who you ask) so I don't sell much.
At least film is cheap these days (good processing is another story)
LOL Frugal Dreamer! I hope it will be as exciting as you expect.
Battra, I do portraits, and it's a lot easier to earn money doing that than doing the kind of photography you do. That's not why I do it...I just love, love, love to take pictures of people. Taking pictures of sunsets doesn't really inspire me, but a kid with blue eyes gives me a serious urge to grab my camera. It's just more my thing, and it really seems like people are good at one or the other, but not usually both.
That is really interesting that you are making money off photography. I never thought you could (dad is a photographer for fun), and he loves taking portraits, and landscapes as well, but he says there's no money in it except for the love of it.
I should tell him about that 🙂 He'd be thrilled.
Am finally adding you to my blogroll (damn I'm lazy) and you were already in my reader..!
Fabulously Broke in the City
"Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver."
Awesome job on the savings!! I'm working on beefing up my savings with 'extra jobs' too.. any cash I get from being published in mags & card orders goes to my savings. 🙂 I love photography too... but so far I keep on getting jobs from 'family', so no money there.. lol!!
Different strokes, I know. This last weekend I was out with two wedding photographers I know at a photo show (yay for free film from Fuji by the way) and in talking with many of the vendors there I'm sort of the exact opposite of the types they usually get.
Fabulously Broke - the photography market is VERY competitive. Honestly there are thousands and thousands of people who call themselves photographers just because they bought a bunch of equipment. I read a book on making money with photography and it's mostly things like photographing kids in their Little League outfit and making faux baseball cards and junk like that.
The only other way is with stock photos but honestly, just like every Paris streetcorner has a painter every town has dozens of people taking "artsy" photographs.
I do everything from street photography to architecture to weird stuff like this: http://tinyurl.com/cutu9j or http://tinyurl.com/d59cag
FB, there seem to be a lot of people out there making an awful lot of money doing portraits. I'm not charging very much right now just because I'm fairly new at doing this for other people, but the experienced photographers are commanding a pretty impressive fee.
I thought I was in your reader...you linked to my brownie recipe once a long time ago! lol
Carla, I take tons of pictures of my family and extended family too...but apparently there are some other people out there who like my pictures too. Very fun. I love to take pictures that make people happy.
Battra-dude, you still shoot using film???? I'm way too frugal for that. Switching to digital gave me the freedom to take tons and tons and tons of pictures, and that has helped to improve my skills more than anything, probably.
I do agree that equipment isn't everything. I've seen people get really, really nice cameras and lenses and still take not-very-good pictures. Heck, with some practice, I started getting some really nice pictures with my point-and-shoot. Of course, my SLR and new lens have made this a lot easier, but the main improvement from several years ago is in my skills.
When figuring how long your emergency savings would last, don't forget any supplemental income that you might qualify for. For example, most people (unless you are self-employed) would qualify for unemployment if a job is lost. Some companies offer disability insurance should someone get sick. I always try to make that point with my clients. In many cases, your three month emergency savings will carry you for six to nine months depending on your circumstances.
Kristin-yep, we're keeping that in mind. If we had to live without my husband's job for a time, I'd likely still have my job(I work for myself, and I have fairly good job security), which brings in about $700 a month. That's not a lot of money, but it takes a chunk out of the $2370/month figure. And then there is the unemployment income like you mentioned. So, we actually would need a fair amount less than the $2370 a month.
I just figured it would be less complicated to explain it the way I did in my post, but we know that when we have 6 months of expenses saved up, we'll be able to live off of that money longer than 6 months.
It's my one spending vice, though I should be all set in terms of film (if you go to the newest picture in my photostream you'll see all that I have.)
I used to develop my own black and white so that saved me tons. Right now I can't have a darkroom for various reasons so my costs are going up. After paying for a pro lab for developing and scanning you're talking $0.40 a shot so you tend to be a bit more particular on the shots you take.
Of course I do have a digital (Nikon d40) but that is more my pick up and take snapshots with camera than my "serious" equipment.
I am brand new to your blog but love it. Just experienced some cutbacks in income that weren't expected...but yes, I still have a job! I have never been one to save....and with no credit card debt, thought I was okay. I wasn't. Was spending extra cash like no savings were needed. Now I'm tucking away money into savings as often as possible. And reading your blog today is quite comforting. Nice to know you're cutting back and sharing your story with us. I look forward to reading your blog in depth.
Great job. I have been trying for months to cut back on our grocery budget. This month, I am going drastic. Check out my blog for my version of the Eating From the Pantry Challenge. I still have doubts about it being feasible, but hey, I am willing to try anything.