It’s goal time. July came and went even faster than June. That’s the curse of summer, I suppose. While I definitely front loaded the month as much as possible, I’m pleased to say that we finished in good shape, too. In fact, I met most of the goals that I set, even if one goal did mean reloading my Amazon balance $1 a pop eleven different times.
Credit Card Check-In: HIT
It wasn’t pretty, I’ll say that. My credit score is my pride and joy, but I realize now that I’ve been using a strong score as a substitute for actually checking in with my accounts. Probably because I have too so many of them. 21 accounts to be exact. But the real kicker is the fact that if I hadn’t set this goal for myself, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that number. I would have just pointed towards the location where we secure our cards that are collecting cobwebs. Not brilliant.
In a perfect heaping of kismet, I received a notice from Citibank that one of my accounts would be closed due to inactivity if I didn’t use it. Cue the terror. It’s not that I was particularly attached to this card. It’s simply that it happened to be one of my oldest plastic friends, which only matters because of that credit score I’m so fond of. That’s when I decided to confront all of my cards. To do this in the most efficient way I could surmise, I made myself a pile of plastic and charged $1 to each card, reloading my Amazon balance in anticipation of an order I had to place anyway (D batteries, anyone?). I did the same thing with a few of Mr. P’s cards, too. Next month, I’ll quickly pay off the balances, and they can return back to their status as dust collectors.
I have to admit that this sounds like a lot of work when I could just close the cards. But in an effort to bring up Mr. P’s nonexistent credit score when we first got married, I added him to most of my accounts. So I’m doing this out of love, you guys. You know, for my husband, not just my near-perfect credit score.
Gift Card Check-In: HIT
To say that I hoard gift cards is an understatement. In fact, I tweeted a while back that my estimated net worth in gift cards was probably $2,000. It turns out that our actual gift card net worth is $2,137.59. A considerable chunk of this balance is a result of our baby shower, but not all of it. In fact, we have $127 to use at the movie theater alone, which I look forward to using now that I no longer have a human sitting on my bladder.
Write for Money: HIT
My first check came through for a ghostwriting post I did in June. I also sent in another one at the beginning of July, but only after they sent me the first check. Penny’s got to get paid.
Save 45% of Our Income: HIT
Just like most month’s, this is pretty standard. I’d say we actually clocked in at closer to 50% if you add up all of the extras, like Half.com sales and cashing in our piggy bank. But I’m not taking this accomplishment for granted, seeing as August is the last month where we will be a two-income household.
Touch Everything in My House: MISS
I wasn’t actually expecting to run around and touch everything in my house in a month. I suppose I could have just to say I met my goal, but that would have actually defeated the entire purpose. Instead, I’ve been working on one room at a time, slowly and painfully taking everything out and ditching as much as I can. My proudest accomplishment so far involves our bathrooms. After finding a dozen or so items that we could donate, I also know exactly what we need to replenish and what we need to use up. I also tossed seven trophies that were a testament to my nonexistent athletic prowess growing up.
August Goals
- Make money & save.
- Prepare for my leave.
- Focus on money less. More on this soon.
- Continue decluttering.
- Spend more time with family and outdoors.
Final Thoughts
I wasn’t sure I had it in me at the start of summer, but these goal posts actually added quite a bit of value to my life. So whether you like them or not, you’re getting at least one more to recap August. Now, it’s time to go savor the last month of summer.
So Tell Me…What’s your game plan for August?
I love goal posts! And not just in football! 🙂 Seriously, congratulations on hitting so many of your goals with a newborn in the house! That’s majorly impressive. And enjoy the movies. I just took my kids after a year (or two?) and it’s so much fun. We live in the boonies, so I have to wait until we’re in civilization to go to the movies. It’s always so much fun! I recommend Spiderman! 🙂
I am chuckling over here at the “goal post” pun 😉
Yes! Puns FTW 🙂 We hope to get to the movies again…one day. At the present rate of speed, ticket prices might be more than our gift cards 😉
Smart idea to put $1 on every card. We’ve paid off a lot of cards over the past couple of years, so it might be a good idea for us to do that too.
July really went by in a blur for me – plenty of goals and good ambitions, but too much going on (Goofball’s baseball games, planning the birthday party, and watching 5 kids while Mr. Smith works on the bus). Now I’m torn between enjoying the last week of maternity leave and trying to check a bunch of things off my to do list.
Oh, Harmony. I know just a teeny bit of that struggle. There are so many things I want to do and need to do, but do I really need to do any of them more than snuggle with HP? I think not. Enjoy your last week!
Wow, August already?!? We are hosting some family for a week in early August, then hopefully enjoying the nice summer weather while it lasts!
I hope you have fun with family! Soak up that summertime while it’s here!
My oldest credit card is a Neiman Marcus one. I don’t shop there, but I keep the account open to help the age of accounts part of my credit score. A couple of years ago, the creditor told me they were going to close the account for inactivity. I went to Neiman Marcus to buy something, but is was sooooo expensive! I wound up buying a chocolate bar.
Ha! That is an excellent decision, Lizzy. Chocolate to save your credit score. Win!
I just got the dreaded letter that my oldest credit card is being shut down for lack of use! And it said – even if you use it now, we will not reconsider. YIKES – OK, I get it! It didn’t have a big credit limit but the age of the account matters. I guess. My credit score really shouldn’t matter much anymore – but it still bugs me… Good work on your goals. Glad to hear you won’t be thinking about money as much 😉
I don’t even know why I care about my credit score at this point. Who am I kidding? It’s mostly to compete with Mr. P. That’s so surprising to me that they were so insistent that there wasn’t anything you could do to save the account. Grrr.
Great job hitting those goals! You’re on fi-yah. 🙂 And congrats on getting paid for that ghostwriting gig. I finally landed a gig that pays $50/article for freelancing and I’m thrilled. I’m not gonna complain about an extra $150/mo. 🙂
That’s amazing. Congrats! I will be happy if the pans out to $50 a month!
Great progress!
I used to enter and win a bunch of giveaways. I had tons of credits and unfortunately, they started to expire. Now, I’m double checking (when I win them) if they do and if so, I’m buying gifts for people right away.
Does having your husband as a supplementary card holder really improve HIS credit? I’m in Canada but I didn’t think that was the case regardless. Doesn’t he need to be the cardholder? I’ll have to look into this further as I’m the one with all the credit and I worry that if I were to die tomorrow, my husband wouldn’t have much ($500).
It does in the States! I don’t think it is the biggest reason that his credit score has gone up by any stretch, but I do think it is what the initial boost came from. It was low, low, low when we first got married (and I started meddling in his money life!). 🙂
I got one of those “Use it or lose it” notes in May. I ended up buying a tank of gas on it and probably will keep using it once a month for similar purchases. Weird that several of us are getting hit at the same time.
It makes you wonder if there is some monthly or quarterly system check, doesn’t it?
Sounds like you’re doing great with your goals. I like these posts as they motivate me towards making and checking in with my own goals. Guess I’ve got some thinking to do about my August game plan.
I’d love to hear what you come up with, Gary!
Congrats on hitting most of your goals, Penny. It is funny how the number of credit accounts can creep up without notice. I checked my credit report a while back and was shocked at the number of “open” accounts. We use 2 or 3 cards max, not the 20+ I have open. Gonna have to work on that.
This definitely is making me think long and hard about the value of keeping so many of them open.
It feels like I should be appalled that I’ve let a few cards go in the past few years but the impact on my credit score hasn’t been worth taking the time to keep them on the record. With any luck, that’ll continue to be true 🙂
Out of curiosity I checked my last credit report and the oldest credit cards that I have are about 14 years old, and I use one of them regularly, so they’re not in any danger. That’s good to know!
August is really buckle down to work time: both for the day job and the home renos. Wish us luck?
I wish you so much luck! And I hope to be in the blogosphere more this month for updates. Thinking of you!
Wait…did I miss something? Is Half Penny here already?
These are awesome goals, well done! We did a card-opening blitz last year in anticipation of moving, buying and fixing up our house, and trying to earn a free flight to Europe. I despise checking financial accounts (I know, a bad trait for a FIRE obsessor!) but hubby is into it. Sadly we used the points for more practical purposes like a family wedding and holiday travel but it still saved us a ton of money! Now we just need to remember to keep using them… Congrats on getting your bladder back and more family time soon!
That’s excellent that those points were able to save you so much!
I’m definitely worried that one of my big credit lines will go away if I am not careful about using it. I feel you on that. And I keep the oldest card open for longevity, too. It’s a funny game we play, but money and the systems they’ve created around them make us funny people.