Financial goals:  July has been a more difficult for us month. My car has required two major repairs, in addition I have been sick which means extra expense as well. Looking forward to August, I will be receiving an extra paycheck this month. The plan is to use most of that for our vacation. I will be using some to offset regular expenses in order to stay on track. We are currently waiting on a new website payment to help make up some of extra money we spent in July. Overall we are currently about $800 short for the month. This money was taken from our emergency fund as well as other categories such as gas, clothing and gifts. I want to replace as much of this as I can in the month of August.

• Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Regular payment only.
• Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June– No new debt incurred! This is a major accomplishment considering the extra expenses of the month.
• Emergency fund to $2000–   None added, when Matt’s website income comes in it will remain at $550
• Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system – Still working well! It has really allowed  me to track expenses this month.
• Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month   Well under budget this month at $325. We are still $275 over for the year but this is a great number at this point. Our plan is to only grab bare essentials and CVS deals until we return from the beach at the end of August. This should keep us at least on track for the month!
• Gas- I am adding this category. The goal each month is to spend $400 or less for gas.  I did reduce this amount by $50 but still managed to come in at $344 for the month. The remaining money was used for auto repair.

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month I have already scheduled a Wordless Wednesday post for tomorrow which means I have met this goal!!!!!!!!

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week   Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.. To be honest, I have not even address this goal this month. I have not gained the 10# I lost but there has been no progress. Repeat from last month…..

Overall July was a success for my goals. We are able to keep our heads above water even when thing happen!  I am very pleased this month.