Last night I went to a friend’s house for dinner, and we were all sitting out on the balcony which overlooks the Gulf of Mexico (yes, I am lucky to have such friends). So there we are, drinking wine, and having a great time. As the sun got lower in the sky, it was shining right on us, and it was pretty warm, so we decided to go inside where it was cooler (#firstworldproblems), and it hit me that it’s October.

While the rest of the country is starting to get the first inkling of fall weather, we’re sitting in Florida, where it’s a balmy 85 degrees, completely oblivious to the fact that the seasons are changing. And while there’s always a twinge of jealousy when I see the new fall trends with all the cute scarves and boots filling up my Pinterest feed, I gotta say that aside from two days a year, I never miss the cold weather. (Those two days are Thanksgiving and Christmas – for some reason, they just don’t feel the same when it’s 80 degrees outside!)

Our friends and family up north are already gearing up because they say it’s going to be another bad winter (is there ever a good winter?) and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why anyone wouldn’t want to live on a boat – where you could dictate your body’s comfort level in accordance with the outside temperatures by simply sailing north or south at the appropriate time of year. Where every day, you have views that the real estate market charges millions of dollars for.

We tell people we live on a boat, and they look at us like we’re crazy (and they’d be right, but not because we live on a boat), but I feel like we’re in on the best kept secret of all – that we’re part of this supersecret society that has it all figured out, and by God, we should all just stop blogging about it RIGHT NOW lest everyone catch on and sell their shit to follow in our footsteps, at which point, they would just ruin it for us all!

But that won’t happen, because as a society, we love our big houses, big cars, and our big closets filled with big collections of super cute scarves and boots, and most people would never dream of getting rid of them to live in a 200 square foot space with a 2 foot wide closet.

Whew. Distaster averted. Thanks, consumerism.

September Side Income Report

Back when I was younger and dumber, I worked as an independent contractor for a software company making pretty good money. And like any irresponsible young woman, I decided to spend more of that money shopping at Bloomingdales and Nordstrom than on my taxes. (That young woman would have never lived on a boat then.)

Due to my stupidity (and some mis-reporting of income by my former employer), I incurred a 5-figure tax bill that I’ve been making payments on for several years now, and guess what? In September I paid that sucker off!  I can’t tell you how amazing that feels! The IRS was even kind enough to send me a refund check… to the tune of $3.04 for overpayment of my taxes. (Couldn’t they have just applied it to my refund for next year rather than send me a check for a whole 3 bucks?)

September was pretty quiet as far as side hustling went. We spent over half the month traveling from St. Simons Island down to the west coast of Florida (by way of the Okeechobee), so while we were out, I did zero hustling for new gigs, and actually turned a few down, because I wanted to enjoy our trip. Even still, I managed to bring in a little bit, mostly from my online jewelry shop (which I’ve got some cool news to share soon!) and a new writing gig I landed (yay me!).

Anyway, so even though my side income wasn’t stellar this month, the combination of new clients with the payoff of old debts makes me very happy. Now for the numbers:

My side income report numbers are an accurate depiction of what I’ve made on the side, bad or good, compared to the previous month. These numbers don’t include my income from my full-time job as a QA Specialist (aka glorified proofreader), or my handsome hubby’s income (from his music, book, and freelance work).

Webmaster/Web Design: $0
Online Sales: $268.75
Affiliate Income: $43.56
Adsense: $20.40
Writing Gigs: $152.81
Misc: $49.70
TOTAL: $535.22 in extra income (Down $1049.55 from previous month)

So not great, but still not bad. Anything over $500 for just a few hours of extra work is worth it to me, and helps build the cruising kitty, or rather, the new boat kitty (did I just let the cat out of the bag on that? Yes, we’re going to be relisting our boat for sale to start the process of getting our forever boat…listing to go live hopefully this weekend!)

I’ve also saved a total of $375.77 so far with Digit, the free automated savings app that I am absolutely in LOVE with. You’ve heard me talk about it before on here, and it’s really an awesome way to save money. I love that it just pulls a couple dollars here, a couple dollars there – amounts so small that they are inconsequential to your banking balance, but when they sit and accumulate in your Digit account, they add up relatively quickly. I highly recommend the service. And it’s free!

October Goals

So I’m still working on a few things that I hope to be able to share more about very soon. It just seems like sometimes there aren’t enough hours in the day, so it’s time for me to really get focused.

Right now, I’m working on a website for a new service I’m creating, so that’s one of my bigger goals/priorities right now. I hope to have it up and running by the end of the month – crossing my fingers! I’m also working on a bunch of stuff for my nautical jewelry shop and I’ll be sharing more about that in one of my next couple of posts.

One of my other main goals is to start working out more. We already eat pretty healthy, but I understand that simply eating healthy doesn’t make you healthy. And sadly, I don’t get nearly enough exercise, so I want to start making a point to get fit. I’ve been looking at gyms in the area to find the right one for us, so I hope to get into a regular routine. And even though we do eat healthy, I want to incorporate some new recipes into the mix. If you have any good, healthy, easy-to-prepare recipes, send ’em to me!

So now, I have a question for you guys – what would you like to know more about as far as side income, or working from a boat? I want to make this blog as useful as possible, so if you have questions, please put them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them, or write about them!