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March 27, 2011, at 4:03 pm If you're new to BFS, please subscribe to my RSS feed. It shows me a vote of support and keeps me motivated to keep your attention. If you have any questions or comments for me, please contact me and I'll get back to you asap. Thanks for visiting! Since I do plan on blogging full time by 2012 and even came up with my target number, this is the year for a HUGE push. These are the new goals to keep us on the right track!
Here are my Goals for July 4th, 2011:
Here is what we are shooting for by July 4th, 2011:
Alexa – Maintain a Ranking at or around 37,500
Visits – 60,000 total visits (I started BFS on February 20th, 2010)
Feedburner Subscribers – 500
Twitter Followers – 500
MozRank – 5.5
Today’s Update
Alexa – 32,686 (We had a little creep up, but no biggie!)
Visits – 48,273 (11,727 to go…that is doable!)
Feedburner Subscribers – 469 (31 to go!!!)
Twitter Followers – 435 (65 to go)
MozRank – 4.99 (0.51 to go still)
As always, thank you so much for being my supporters! I could not do any of this without you and I really never forget that!!!
The Saved Quarter Challenge Update
I joined The Saved Quarter Challenge this year and am aiming to save at least $21,000 by the end of 2011! That would be a tiny bit more than 25% of our GROSS pay from our two full time jobs.
Here’s how I’ve done this week for the Saved Quarter Challenge ($21,000 Goal):
Since we didn’t get paid this week, nothing was saved. We did move $5000 from our cash into a 2nd Roth IRA for 2010 though! Yay! I also closed another ad deal for BFS, but I won’t get paid for another week or so. So far, so good. 
Total This Week: $0
We can save what we do because we live off of a little more than my husband’s salary as a school librarian ($38,000 take home pay), which means we save most of what I make ($26,000 take home pay) and all of our hobby job incomes (reffing for Mr. BFS and blogging for me). Reffing usually brings in $2000-$3000 a year and blogging is bringing in $10,000 or more a year (we’ve already hit more than $5000 for January-March 2011).
Total to date: $8670 guaranteed, $11,330 to go.
Additonal Info
I will continue posting monthly and yearly blog statistics and income updates from here on out, so stay tuned at the beginning of every month!
In case you didn’t know, Alexa traffic rankings are determined by the numbers of hits a site gets by people with the Alexa toolbar. If you want to be part of this ranking community, you can download the Alexa toolbar here.
If you don’t already, you can follow me via RSS or Twitter by following those links.
To learn more about the Yakezie, the blogging group that has helped me in SO many ways, check out my Yakezie page! Feel free to email me if you are a Yakezie member or challenger and don’t see yourself on the list!
If you are interested in seeing how I went from an 8 million plus Alexa rank to about 50,000 in less than 8 months, you can see My Blogging Schedule, which breaks down everything I do related to blogging. If you want to see how I brought in $6000 in less than 10 months, you can check out How I Make Money Blogging.
THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING THE BEST READERS EVER!!!
March 26, 2011, at 6:00 am
Also, check out my other blog, Crystal Clear Thoughts,
for my Weight Watchers Updates! I’m already down 19 pounds!!!
And please use About Life Insurance as a resource for everything life insurance!!!
Let me know if you do help out and I will be sure to return the favor!
My Favorite Posts this Week
Guest Post from BFS
Thank you so much for having me over for the day!
Guest Posts at BFS
Thank you for a day off!
If you would like to guest post on BFS, please contact me with your idea or post and I’d love to have you over for the day! If you are a business, please contact me here for more details. Thanks!
Giveaways and Other Info
Blog Carnivals
My carnival – Totally Money Blog Carnival – was all March Madness
at Money Mamba!
Please check out the last edition and submit here every week!
If you are hosting a carnival that includes Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, please email me so I can include it in my roundup. Also, please email me if you’d like to host Totally Money. Thanks!
Top 5 Referring Sites to BFS within the Last Week:
I Post the top 25 on the first Saturday of every month.
- Get Rich Slowly
- Free Money Finance
- Yakezie
- Grumpy Rumblings of the Untenured
- Punch Debt in the Face
Feel free to contact me if you have any suggestions. I’d love to add a few more blogs to my regular reading list or at least give a shout-out for great posts or contests.
As always, thanks to all the bloggers that teach me something new every day. Thanks to all my commenters for making this blog the community I want it to be. Thanks to all my “lurkers” too.  I hope everybody is enjoying this as much as me!
March 26, 2011, at 5:59 am
After nearly 3 weeks, here are the long-awaited first blogoversary giveaway results!!!
Prizes, Sponsors, and Winners!
Thank you for being the best readers and commenters ever!!!
All of the winners have been contacted and 90% of the prizes have been successfully exchanged.
Please let me know if you have any questions at budgetingfunstuff *at* gmail *dot* com.
March 25, 2011, at 6:00 am
The following is a guest post from Sharon at Real Life Deals about enjoying hobbies on a budget.
Hobbies can be the joy of your life.
They help define you as a person and give you an outlet for handling stress and tough days. Unfortunately, hobbies are often one of the first things to get put on the back burner in tough financial times or when life gets busy.
Before I had kids and life got busy, I was defined by my hobbies of playing the piano and quilting. Then life kicked in and any free time I had was devoted to changing diapers, doing laundry, and helping the kids do homework.
Recently, I have been rediscovering my love for the piano and have decided that I will make time each week to brush up on my skills. I budget my time as well as my money. I set aside time each week for my hobby.
No matter what your hobby, you can pursue it without breaking your budget.
One friend loved to scrapbook. She was such an avid scrapper that she needed particular tools. Instead of going out and buying them all at once, she used the weekly 40% coupon that her newspaper released for a local craft store. She was able to purchase one tool at a time. She got the tools she needed to pursue her hobby and it didn’t break her budget.
When I decided to start a vegetable garden and needed tomato cages, I tapped into our local freecycle group. Another family was done growing a garden and had 30 cages taking up space in their garage. My cost? FREE!
A friend of mine has a daughter who decided she wanted to start a stamp collection. So she contacted everyone she knew and had them save stamps. She even contacted the local church that corresponded with foreign missionaries and had them save the foreign stamps. Cost? FREE
What is a hobby that you once found fulfilling?
Is it possible to pursue that hobby in a frugal manner? Consider gardening, scrapbooking, writing, stamp collecting, genealogy, and more….
Want more tips on ways I’ve found to focus on hobbies and spend very little money? Read here for more Hobbies on a Budget!
Do you have a hobby that you love? Have you found ways to be frugal and still pursue your passion? I’d love to have you share your ideas!
Crystal’s Comments: I, of course, love blogging. It’s even better than free since I’ve made more than $10,000 over the last 13 months. My husband and I also like board gaming and have built up a nice collection over the last few years, so our necessary expenses are absolutely nothing at this point and only about $100-$200 a year before that. Mr. BFS also loves being a football sports official, but that makes him a few thousand dollars a year. In fact, the only hobbies we currently spend money on are Curling (Mr. BFS), monthly potlucks, and traveling (both of us). Not too shabby.
March 24, 2011, at 6:00 am
I’m having a great blogging income month. In fact, I’m having such a great month, that Mr. BFS and I had the serious when-can-I-quit-my-job talk. Here is what we discussed about blogging full time and the target number we’ve worked out.
Blogging Full Time Realizations
1. When I am blogging full time, we will need to pay an additional $200 a month to have me added to Mr. BFS’s health plan.
2. I will need to keep in mind that my blogging profits will be taxed. It’s hard to forget since we’re doing this right now, lol.
3. We will only be saving some gasoline for my commute. All of our other expenses will pretty much stay the same since I don’t spend much at all on business clothes and I already bring my lunch.
4. Our 2nd Roth IRA will become a necessity since I will no longer be able to contribute to my 401(k). Mr. BFS wants to visit a financial planner to make sure that his pension, 2 Roth IRA’s, and my stagnant 401(k) will be enough to fund our early retirement dreams at age 52.
5. After looking at our current budget and taking into account the above realizations, I will need to consistently make at least $2500 a month in order to pursue blogging full time without giving up our current lifestyle and savings goals.
So, the bare minimum magic target number for blogging full time is $2500 a month. After taxes and the $200 a month I’ll need for healthcare, that will leave us just enough to cover all of our current expenses and save for all of our early retirement goals when combined with Mr. BFS’s income.
Here is what I’ve made blogging every month so far:
- February - July 2010 combined – $704
- August 2010 – $1803
- September 2010 – $525
- October 2010 – $1274
- November 2010 – $838
- December 2010 – $496
- January 2011 – $895
- February 2011 – $1082
This means that on average over the last 6 months, I am only consistently bringing in $850 – a third of the $2500 I will need.
March is shaping up to be absolutely amazing since I’ve already brought in $1500 and have another $750 on the way, BUT this is NOT a normal month. I’ve just happened to receive 3 large sums of money for advertising deals I started working on in January and February. All of these deals are for 6-12 months, so I can’t expect the same results in April. My only safe way of blogging full time is to continue following my daily blog to-do list.
I am estimating that I still have 12-18 months before I can honestly say I am making $2500 or more a month, every month, so I can start blogging full time. I will take the plunge as soon as a consecutive 4 month average is at least $2500 and I am confident that it will continue.
If you’re interested in how I got to this point at all, check out How I Make Money Blogging. Thanks!
Am I missing something? Any blogging full time suggestions?
March 23, 2011, at 6:00 pm
The following post is on behalf of Debt Advisory Line, an award winning debt management companies; one of the largest in the UK. They’ve already helped thousands of people who thought bankruptcy was their only option. They offer professional debt management help and advice.
In many circumstances, people get in way over their heads and take on too much debt. These borrowers need a way of escaping their financial nightmares. That’s where debt consolidation loans come into play. They are a tool that many borrowers use so that they can avoid facing bankruptcy.
Advantages of Debt Consolidation Loans
What is a debt consolidation loan? A debt consolidation loan is when a borrower takes out one giant loan and uses it to pay off a bunch of smaller loans. It’s an easy way to consolidate bills. Debt consolidation programs are most effective when dealing with high interest rate debt.
The primary advantage of a debt consolidation loan is that it can save the borrower money. A borrower can take out a loan with a lower interest rate and save money on interest payments. For example, if a borrower had one credit card balance at 15% and another at 22%, they could consolidate that loan at 7% and be saving a ton through interest savings alone.
Another advantage is that consolidation debts reduce the number of bills that the borrower has to pay each month. This reduces clutter and saves the borrower the headache of having to mail off a bunch of bills each month. The borrower only has to worry about making one loan payment a month to cover the lump sum of their debts. A disorganized borrower is a lot less likely to miss one payment as opposed to dealing with five or six payments.
For those times when an individual is at their wits end and needs a solution to their debt woes, a debt consolidation loan may be an option. The consolidation of debts can give a borrower a second chance at financial stability and reduce their total number of financial obligations.
March 23, 2011, at 9:08 am
UPDATE: WE WON!!!
BFS has made it through the Elite 8 and will be in the running again next week!
This means Pughearts will be getting at least $100! Thank you all!!!
I promise you will stop seeing these vote requests by the end of next week, lol.
I really do appreciate all of your support!
Hi to all of the readers visiting from FMF! Glad to see you!
Feel free to take a look around!
Here are some posts that will give you some BFS flavor:
I NEED HELP – This is a close one!
For anybody who didn’t come here from Free Money Finance, he hosts a March Money Madness contest for bloggers. Right now my post, How I Make Money Blogging, has made it into the Elite 8 and is up as Game 2 on his site.
I am competing for the ultimate prize of $500 for one of my favorite charities, Pughearts. Mr. Pug was actually one of my Pugheart fosters that I simply couldn’t let go, so he’s our own personal Pughearts rescue.
If we win this round, Pughearts is GUARANTEED $100 or more!!!
How to Vote:
Please do me a huge favor by clicking over to FMF, typing in your vote in the FMF comment section (hopefully the word “Blogging” ), and hitting submit.
Thanks so much!
You can also see my daily posts below, thanks!!!
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DISCLAIMER I am not a professional or a financial advisor. BFS posts are informational opinions only. Please make your own financial decisions based on personal research or see a financial advisor.
Also, there are paid links on this site. There is no obligation on your part to purchase any products advertised on this website.
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