Oh how 2011 is moving along.  I had high hopes for Septembers mini goals but in the end the results were a bit hit and miss.  Hey not to worry, life’s too short.

Ok, so how did I do?

Health (Back to basics)

• Sign up to Sparkspeople.  Continued with Live Strong in the end as you can still track your daily food intake with the basic membership (which is free)
• Drink lots of water. 50/50.  Somedays lots others not so much! Must do better with this.
• Lose 3lbs.  CHECK! But it’s only weight lost, gained and then lost again.
• Eat ‘cleaner’. Difficult to measure but I’m going with 50/50 on this as well.
• Sleep more.  FAIL! Enough said really.

Financial:

• Make at least £300 in side income. CHECK! Made at least £500
• Keep grocery spending below £280. CHECK! Grocery spending came out at £250.23
• Add an extra £350 to moving abroad fund. FAIL!  Too much spending in September!
• Send £657.66 extra to the mortgage. CHECK! Sent an extra £100 to make the over payment £757.66
• Keep holiday (Portugal) spending below £400. CHECK!

Personal:

• Finish reading The Wealth Cure by Hill Harper –FAIL! No excuse just really behind on my reading.
• Return library books (on time!). CHECK!
• Do a car boot sale. No. Took everything to the charity shop instead so counting this as a CHECK!
• Drop clothes at charity shop. CHECK!
• Get a quote for house painting (outside front). CHECK! Added lounge, which has been completed. Still waiting on the outside to be done.

All in all not to bad!  I’m especially happy to add a little extra to the mortgage over payment, which I did to reduce the balance below £108k when the payment goes through this week.

How did you do with your goals in September? 

Back Thursday with my mini goals for October

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September 2011 Mini Goals {Review} is a post from: Move to Portugal

One of our financial goals in 2011 is to save a ‘first six months in Portugal fund’.  We set the amount for this goal at £6k, which should be enough cash to cover the initial cost of renting an apartment for 6 months (including deposit and any fees).

Moving Abroad Fund Progress #2 is a post from: Move to Portugal

First, before I get onto the money bit of this post, I wanted to talk about this blog and it’s ridiculous identity crisis caused by my angsty posts of late.

I really don’t want to turn this site into a place of doom and gloom as it’s supposed to be a fun thing that we’re attempting to do!  

But therein lies the problem of late: What exactly are we trying to do?  And the answer….just to remind myself, is……Live simply, frugally, consciously, save some money and then hop on a plane to Portugal.  :)

And just for fun;

Dream world: I live in a mortgage free Lisbon apartment (or New York apartment, I’m not fussy!), earn £2k a month from my investments and have perfect hair!

Real world: I live in the Midlands, have a mortgage, earn £30 a month from my investments and definitely don’t have perfect hair!

Right I’m glad that’s out of the way, now onto money making in 2011.

One of our long term stretch goals (to fund our life in Portugal) is to earn at least £500 a month in alternative/passive income by 2015, and back in March I set myself a target of being half way to that goal by the end of this year.

Here’s my progress to date: (January 1st to April 30th)

• £856.46  Site(s) income (gross)
• £68.30   Cashback
• £110.65  Interest
• £65.67   Selling stuff (net)

A total of £1,101.08, so not too shabby. I’m not a master blogger like Crystal, and I wouldn’t recommend giving up your day job to blog, but at least I’m generating a little site income. The other money is from; using a cashback site whenever possible; interest on our savings and sales through eBay and Amazon. I’m going to continue on this path for a little while longer and then decide what to do (ugh, more indecision!!).

All I do know is: there’s still a long way to go to hit the £500 a month!

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Earning Extra Money and Indecision is a post from: Move to Portugal

I seem to constantly edit our stuff and when one round of de-cluttering ends, another begins. I had a small amount of success with eBay and Amazon in April, however we still have a few things left to sell, so I’m trying my hand at another car boot sale this weekend…although it looks like it may rain, in which case I’ll do it the week after. I wonder if the purging will finally end when we downsize and move to Portugal?

Speaking of moving to Portugal we’ve set a date;a ’lets do this’ date. Obviously we’re hoping that everything goes to plan (i.e. husbands work), but if it doesn’t, then we will still move by this date. We’re both in agreement, right or wrong, 2012 is the year that we take a big leap into the unknown.

Stay up-to-date with all the posts from this site. Subscribe using your email account or your RSS feed reader; either way it’s free! You can also follow me on Twitter @lauramtportugal here.

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A little more de-cluttering is a post from: Move to Portugal

Emptying a room out for painting gives you great reason to reassess what goes back in when you’ve finished……so I’m using our current round of decorating as an opportunity to have another small clear out. Because I respond better when I have a specific target, I’m going to aim to sell 5 items a week over the next 5 weeks.  Not too difficult, but enough to purge a few more things.

I haven’t used eBay for a while now, but I’ve been inspired by what Lindy’s doing over at Minting Nickels to give it another go. Time will tell if it’s worth it!

I seem to have an unstoppable urge to keep removing clutter from my life, who knows when it will end?

If you’d like to join me on the little mini challenge please let me know; the more the merrier

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Selling some stuff is a post from: Move to Portugal