September is already almost over. I really feel like this month was gone in an instant! That’s probably because I started the month with a wonderful vacation and haven’t been catering all month long. It’s felt so decadent to have both of my weekend days free! It’s also started to finally cool down a bit here in Austin. We’re out of the hundreds and into the low 90’s!
I’m back to catering in a big way for October though and my focus is back on beefing up my emergency fund, maxing out my IRA and saving as much as possible. I’m really happy to report that I was able to get back on track this month!
Since August was such an expensive month for me I was feeling really bummed out about being able to hit all my goals for the rest of 2015. It’s always hard to spend money on things other than your own goals. I want to spend my money on shaping my life into exactly what I want it to be. The rest is just noise and there was a lot of noise in August.
This month I was able to put $400 back into my emergency fund, getting it up to $2,400 total. I’m trying to get it to $4,000 by the end of December!
I was also able to put $750 into my IRA. If I save $750 a month for the remainder of the year I will be able to max out my IRA, something that gets me ridiculously excited. I’m trying to get myself to my next life as early as possible!
I feel pretty nervous and excited for October. It’s going to be a crazy busy month. I’ll be catering nine events throughout the month and I have three events for the non profit. I’ll be looking at some very long days as well as a few weeks of working every day. I feel fine about it though, because I’d rather work really hard for a short amount of time than stretch it out. I’m definitely a sprinter when it comes to accomplishing things.
While I did spend a fairly large amount on frozen yogurt this month, ($10!) I feel great about the progress I made. I’m planning on buckling down in October in a big way, so I’ve been a little bit more lax with myself these last few days of September. (I had fro-yo for dinner last night, whoops).
I finally feel like I’ve gotten the last big road blocks out of my way. I feel really ready and hopeful that the last few months of 2015 will allow me to focus in on my own goals and make some real progress on them. I’m looking forward to the next three months!
Kara Perez is the original founder of From Frugal To Free. She is a money expert, speaker and founder of Bravely Go, a feminist financial education company. Her work has been featured on NPR, Business Insider, Forbes, and Elite Daily.