October 2019 Goals -The Results Are In…

October 2019 Goals -The Results Are In. In this blog post, I’ll be sharing the results for my October Goals. I’ll provide a breakdown on how much money I generated through side hustles, and lessons learned along the way. If you’re currently on your own financial freedom journey or curious to see the results of intentional living then read on. 

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October 2019 Goals -The Results Are In… 

As October swiftly draws to a close, I’ve taken some time to review the goals I set for the month. In my blog post, October 2019 goals, I outlined five goals that I wanted to achieve for the month. To recap, these goals were are follows:

1. Earn £500 through side hustles
2. Declutter House
3. Publish 5 Blog Posts
4. Exercise 3 Times a Week
5. Read 2 Personal Finance Books

In this blog post, I’ll be sharing the results for my October Goals. I’ll provide a breakdown on how much money I generated through side hustles, and lessons learned along the way. If you’re currently on your own financial freedom journey or curious to see the results of intentional living then read on.

1 – Earn £500 through side hustles

I didn’t quite achieve my £500 target but I came pretty close. I made £486 via my various side hustles. The image below provides a breakdown of the various streams of income used to achieve this total.

I’m so glad that I set the goals that I did in September. This month has proven what I already knew to be the case, you’re able to achieve so much more when you have a goal that you’re working towards. The time is going to pass by regardless, so you may as well spend it wisely.

1. Deluxe Crochet Braids

I’ve been on maternity leave since March 2019, and outside of my maternity pay, I hadn’t generated any additional income. By setting myself the goal of making £500 through side hustles, I was forced to start thinking of creative ways to make money. One of the side hustles I started was crocheting hair. It’s a skill I’ve had for years, so I decided to put my skills to good use and make some extra cash. In under a month, I’m pleased to report that I have over 100 deluxe crochet babes following my page @deluxe_crochetbraids on Instagram. Additionally, I’ve had five lovely clients book my services, making it my highest earning side hustle for the month.

2. Shpock 

I listed a few of the children’s unused gifts on Shpock and was able to make a few sales. I also sold a single bed which we’ve had in the house for the longest time. The bed frame sold for £45! I was ecstatic as we were initially planning to just give it away in order to make more space in my son’s room. We killed two birds with one stone – got rid of the bed and made some extra cash.

3. Facebook Marketplace

I listed the same items on both Shpock and Facebook Marketplace and sold them on a first-come, first-served basis. One thing I didn’t like about reselling on these platforms was the insulting offers people made. The items were already being listed at a discounted price, yet people still tried to haggle the price down further. Sticking to my price meant some items took a bit longer to sell, but it was worth it as I got the asking price or close to the asking price.

4. Other

This total was made up of other additional income that I generated via hiring out some of my belongings and babysitting.

2 – Declutter the House

My house is not a mansion by any stretch fo the imagination, but we do have a lot of stuff. In hindsight, I should have been more specific with this goal. Trying to declutter my whole house alongside the thousand other things demanding my time wasn’t realistic. I was able to declutter my two sons’ bedrooms and almost finished my bedroom. Next month I will finish decluttering my room and the kids’ playroom. Their playroom has a lot of stuff in there, every time I psych myself up to make a start on it, I chicken out of it and put it off until another day. I’m determined to get it cleared in November as I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff in there that I can sell.

3 – Publish 5 Blog Posts

Given that before October I hadn’t published a blog post in 6 weeks, aiming to publish 5 posts in 4 weeks was ambitious. I successfully published 3 blog posts this month which I’m proud of. Below are links to all of October’s posts:

Book Review: The Total Money Makeover By Dave Ramsey

October 2019 Goals

How I Failed On My Journey To Financial Freedom

4 – Exercise 3 Times a Week

I exercised 4 out of 12 times this month. Given that 3 exercise sessions were completed in the first week of the month, this is a shocking performance.  My biggest problem with exercise is consistency. I won’t give up though, I’m determined to keep working at it until regular exercise becomes a lifestyle.

Photo by Skitterphoto on Pexels.com

5 – Read 2 Personal Finance Books

I read Dave Ramsey’s book The Total Money Makeover. It’s a fantastic personal finance book which I’d recommend to anyone wanting to get their finances in order. I wrote a review on it here. In the review I summarise Ramsey’s seven baby steps that you can follow to get out of debt and build wealth.

The second personal finance book I started reading was The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. The book was written in the 1920’s so I found the English difficult to grasp, therefore the book requires proper concentration in order to understand the author’s points. So far so good though, I’m hoping to finish it in November so watch this space for the book review.

If you know of any other great personal finance books or resources, please leave them in the comments section below. I’m in the process of compiling a reading list to add to the blog as I think it will be useful to readers.

Summary

October has been a rollercoaster month. I’ve had some highs and lows but overall I’m proud of my accomplishments. Although I didn’t achieve all the goals that I set out to achieve, I can confidently say I’ve achieved more financially this month than most months this year. This was achieved by having clearly outlined goals. Knowing what I’m working towards helped keep me on track and focussed on a daily basis. How has your October been? Did you achieve your goals?

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