Financial goals:  August was an expensive month for us with Auto expenses, College and our Vacation. However we are ending the month about the same as July $1000 behind our set budget. The month of September should be better as we are expecting payment for a website, a partial refund of tuition and I have some extra work available this month as well.

• Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Payment of $100 made, almost a triple payment
• 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–   This will receive the biggest push this month as I hope to re-establish and get it to around $1000, because of Auto repairs it is currently at $100
• Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system – Still working well! It has really allowed  me to track expenses this month. It worked on vacation as well!!!!!!!!!!
• Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month   Awesome month in this area, we spent around $200 including  food for the beach!  We are currently only $20 over for the year. We have spent some time cleaning out one of our freezers and making meal plans. The goal for August is to spend less than $200 except for an order of Zaycon chicken that we should receive in October. If we are able to meet this goal, the extra will be placed in Emergency Fund to beef it up!
• Gas- Including our gas for vacation we spent $550 in addition we spent another $150 on auto repair and service. The Goal is $400 a month, so we did met this goal if you eliminate vacation and repair. I hope to keep this expense low in the next month due to the need for tags, inspection and renewal of our AAA all come this month. My goal will be to use any funds not need to cover these additional expenses as my auto fund is empty!

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month This is the 15th blog posting of the month, for the second month in a row.

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…..

On paper, August appears to be a successful month, we really enjoyed our vacation so that makes it even better.

The anticipation is that September will be a better month financially for us in the terms of income.