When it comes to goals, I love the promise that comes with a new month and this is particularly true with September. It’s the start of a new season and with the Summer festivities out of the way, it gives us the chance to refresh our goals and really hit the ground running to achieve what we set out to do at the beginning of the year.

How did August go?

August Goal #1- Save £100

In terms of savings, we actually did pretty well (but keep reading because there’s a twist!). We actually saved £200+ from base incomes, saved all side hustle income, and started saving for our wedding.

August Goal #2- Track matched betting earnings

I tracked my matched betting earnings for the first time ever! It was a lot easier than I thought using the Profit Accumulator profit tool and it was just a matter of getting into a routine. I also revamped my approach to matched betting to ensure I’m making a profit long-term which worked quite well, and I’m adjusting how much time I spend on it by planning a little bit better.

 

 

So for side hustling, my total for the month so far is:

£226.96!

How I did this:

My new approach is to work on matched betting at peak times (weekends and during any events such as Premier League football or high profile races), because these are when there are a lot of offers for free bets, refunds etc. This week for example, I put three hours work into it and made about £85 (the rest of the month was pretty quiet for me as I hadn’t adapted my approach as yet).

On Saturdays, Profit Accumulator sends an email to paying members to give them a round-up of all the best offers for the week, which pretty much does all of the work for you. This week, I made sure to take an hour and work through the offers, which is where the majority of my profit came from. So all in, this week I made almost £30 per hour from matched betting.

August Goal #3- Blog monetisation

I posted a little heartfelt message on my blog last month about how I’m took the How to Smash Affiliate Marketing as a UK Blogger course to monetise my blog. As I’m sharing what has helped us to get out of debt and earn an extra income, it make sense to get paid to promote these. As I said last month, I will only be affiliated with things I really believe will help to save/earn my readers money that I use myself. Some of you have used my Profit Accumulator link to sign up this month, so thank you so much for this!

I’ve also recently paired up with Topcashback which saved us a fortune while we were paying off debt! If you haven’t already signed up to get cashback on your online purchases, you can join here and get your takeaway for free this weekend on Just Eat 🙂

August Goal #4- Live my best life!

My intention for the month was to live my best life but if I’m honest, it’s reeeally hard to live your best life on our budget! Debt freedom allowed us to drop some working hours (a necessity at the minute between family commitments and our own health), and I suppose we are just getting used to the drop in income and that little interim period after you’ve achieved your goal and your motivation wanes, so we are re-adjusting. This year was a really tough one and it was hard to cut down on treats and going out, so we are taking a few days while we are both off work to have some fun, treat ourselves and (gulp) spend some savings (Dave Ramsey would be ashamed of me). You can watch my spectacular fall from the wagon on Instagram between now and the 1st of September, when my birthday is over and normal service shall resume!

So what’s in store for September, except darker nights, watching American Horror Story and consuming all things pumpkin-flavoured?

September Goal #1- Saving something, anything!

My goal is to end the month with savings! I’m not even going to pretend I know what we can afford to save next month, considering the spree I’m planning for my birthday. But I’d be really happy if we ended September with something.

Currently my 3 savings pots are:

1. Baby Step 3- £5k target (this will be about 3 month’s expenses for us, in line with the Dave Ramsey 7 Baby Steps, or my own adaptation for UK followers)
2. Wedding Fund- £4k target
3. House Fund- £1k target (for annual bills, which we paid off during the Summer, so we have a full year to save for these bad boys)

So my goal is to have a least one of these not at zero by October, and stick to my budget.

September Goal #2- Earn £350 in side hustles

Continue to track side hustle earnings and hit the £350 mark. I’m planning to do this predominantly through matched betting, but it would be nice to make some blogging income too. I’ve heard a lot of good reports about freelance writing so I might also give that a shot.

In terms of my matched betting earnings, last month’s offers were incredibly slow due to the lack of sporting events so my earnings will increase next month.

If you are thinking of starting a side hustle from home, maximising your time potential is key, which I’ve learned recently by changing my approach to work and making a plan the night before for what I aim to achieve the following day. Over the last few weeks, this has meant doing matched betting on Saturday and Sundays (for an hour each day though, to be fair), when these used to be my days off, and taking time throughout the week to relax instead. I think this is key for the success of any side hustle, because we need to work smarter, not harder, to make an extra income.

If you are thinking that you’d like to make money from home but matched betting is a bit daunting, check out my casino offers post which is a great alternative. And if neither appeal to you, selling your unwanted items on eBay and Gumtree is a great way to kick off September, and get started on making money from home.

September Goal #3- Make our budget work for us

My third goal is to re-vamp our budget a little bit and see what we can take out and put in. I envisaged life after debt freedom to be wonderful but the truth is, we put all of our spare income into savings and wondered why we felt deprived. I don’t want this mistake to put us right back at square one again so I’m planning some fun times over the next few days and then next month, I’m changing our budget. Life is for living after all!

So that’s my goals set out for September. How did you get on, and what have you got planned for the coming month? Let me know below or over on Instagram and let’s smash September together! 🙂

For bloggers – I’m taking part in the Monthly Goals (and updates!) Linky hosted by Charlotte over at CharlotteMusha.co.uk and Emma at MyDebtDiary.info