June 23, 2019June 23, 2019 FOGA

May Goals Update

Goals, Money

Hello FOGA Readers! A happy and late June to you and welcome to the May Goals Update.  Please excuse my delay on this. I getting caught up slowly, but surely.

Let’s get into it.

May Wrap Up

May was an eventful month.

We both got sick. More doctor’s visits and medications. Hooray…

We went on vacation, which was great. I am working on a post about the cruise that will hopefully go live in the next week.

After getting back from the cruise, I got hit a huge wave of depression. I actually have to schedule some doctor’s appointments to make sure it’s not related to my birth control, diet, etc because of how bad it was. Still coming out of now, which is part of why this post is late.

Work was good in regards to sales. I sold two homes despite not being at work for nearly half the month (Yay vacation). It was incredibly frustrating in regards to issues at work. Cannot go into in detail, but someone else’s screw-up nearly caused three of my homes to cancel. That would be about $11,000 for me. I was quite furious about this and managed to get it fixed, but it took weeks and involved a lot of my higher-ups plus the company that screwed up in the first place. This went on for most of May. Can I FIRE yet?

On the bright side, I did get two paychecks in May, which was awesome. This is the first time in a long time that this has happened, so we were thrilled.

Top Posts

Most Popular FOGA Post in May: April Goals Update
This one surprised me. I thought that What Do I Plan to FIRE To? would have been the top post. It only won out by two views, but it did win. Shows you what I know. lol

My Favorite FOGA Post in May: What Do I Plan to FIRE To?
It was my favorite post, though. A lot of fun to write, and it did motivate me to make beating Mass Effect a priority so I could move on to another game at some point.

My Favorite Post in May: Doing the Things- How to Get Going When You’ve Lost Motivation
This post was still beneficial for me and great to read. Mr. Burrito Bowl has a fantastic sense of humor, and you should definitely check him out.

Goals for May

Financially May was fantastic; our net worth went up and everything. We were able to get stuff done in that regard. Not much accomplished in any other area though.

So, how were the May Goals.

• Pay Off Credit Card Balance. PASS! All cards paid off at the end of the month and even earning points in different areas. 🙂
• Stay Under $350 for Eating Out. FAIL! We actually managed to go over double our eating budget this month. We didn’t factor in that my aunt was coming into town (in our defense, we did not get a lot of notice) or Mother’s Day. Plus, once things started getting really bad, eating out was one of the few things that would cheer me up somewhat. 
• Finish Our Landscaping & Sprinkler Redo. PASS! We nearly didn’t make this goal. There was an issue with getting one of the plants for the yard and then another problem on top of that. It all got sorted in the end, and now the yard looks great! 
• Clean Out My Closet. FAIL! I didn’t even look at it. This goal will roll over. 
• Put $500 in each of our IRAs. PASS! We managed to double this and put $1000 into each of our IRAs. That much closer to maxing these out this year. 
• Read One Book. FAIL! I have read a bunch of blog posts, but have not even touched a book. Being sick on the cruise didn’t help either.  
• Work Out Once A Week. FAIL! Being sick killed the first half of the month (although, I was much more active on the cruise) and depression killed the rest. 
• Walk At Least 35,000 Steps a Week. FAIL! Considering I didn’t make the once a week goal, we can safely say that this one failed as well. My Fitbit died at some point during May. I haven’t even bothered to charge it yet. It’s been an interesting few weeks. 

Blog Goals for May

• Post Once a Week. I started so well and then screwed up in the fourth quarter. I am going to nail this at some point. Definitely better than I have done in previous months.
• Get One Week Ahead on Posts. I did get ahead. Then I got behind. Now I think I am one or two away from being back on schedule. Someday soon I hope to get to a point where if I do have a bad week or two, FOGA is not affected in the slightest.
• Equal or Beat April Monthly Views. FOGA came in at 443 views in May. I have seen a few others say that their views went down in May as well. Already doing better than that in June, so that’s good.
• Track Twitter & Pinterest Growth. We ended at 912 and 263 followers for each. It’s crazy to me that nearly 1000 people on Twitter are interested in seeing what I say or share.

Goals for June

Due to my late start on this, we’ve got one week left to achieve these goals.

Here are the goals for May:

• Keep a $0 Credit Card Balance. We are going to keep this consistent.
• Stay Under $450 for Eating Out. I increased this amount due to everything going on right now. I’m not sure if we’ll stay under, but I think it is more likely at the $450 mark. We did get a new credit card (I am attempting to get into using our points and earning more rewards on our purchases), so when we do eat out, we earn a lot more points now — silver lining.
• Clean Out My Closet. I actually have a whole section of clothes for a friend of mine to go through and see if she likes anything before they go up for donation. She’s coming over tomorrow so it will be a mini fashion show.
• Put $3500 in each of our IRAs. Yep. This is the go big or go home month. This still doesn’t max them out but would make July a great month where we do max them out. We have been doing well on this so far. One paycheck left in the month to get to this goal.
• Read One Book. I have been terrible about this. The crazy thing is I am reading a lot. It’s mainly blog posts though. Gotta get into a book though. I miss reading.
• Work Out Once A Week. This goal has already failed. During the entire month of June so far, I have only worked out once. However, that’s not the way the month needs to end.
  In honor of Mr. Burrito Bowl’s awesome post, I am making an active effort to force myself to do this. This is coming hot on the heels on days where I had to force myself out of bed to go to work, but that’s progress.

Blog Goals for June

• Post Once a Week. Already failed this for June, but working on getting back on track by the end of the month. Had a rapid-fire posting last week with three separate posts. Still, want to get back to the Sunday schedule.
• Get One Week Ahead on Posts. The comes after getting back on the one post a week schedule.
• Equal or Beat May Monthly Views. This is already done. I hope to equal April’s views, but I know that will be a stretch.
• Track Twitter & Pinterest Growth. Can Twitter make it to 1000? I guess we’ll find out.
• One Year of Blogging. Not a goal so much as a statement of fact. July will mark FOGA turning one year old. Thinking of what to do for this momentous occasion. Some have suggested a Q & A panel. I’m considering it.

Other Things

Mr. FOGA has officially stepped down. I have already noticed a difference in his stress level (it’s gone way down). Things are still a little wonky with his schedule, but I have seen him every week since we got back from vacation. That’s more than I could say for any other month.

He’s taking some time and then the switch to him working on his certifications begins. If anyone who works in IT has any suggestions, please let me know. I will pass it along. 🙂

In Summation

And that was the May Goals Update! Again, I apologize for how late this was. I will get better at that.

How was your May? Did you get your goals accomplished? Let me know in the comments.

Until Next Time!

-Ms. FOGA