Hi there! Had a good month of September? I can’t complain, I was really happy to come back to France and visit family and friends. How did I do on my goals… well, here is the detail. You can see my September goals here.

BLOGGING GOALS

WIN 5  FAIL 2

I changed the theme on my blog and I am pretty happy about it, I just have to do a few more things like trying to get the avatars back on the comments, and re-categorizing my articles, but I am almost there. Twitter, FB and social sharing works now! Also a WIN on the SEO optimization.

Finding a picture for each post was a big FAIL, it takes a lot of time and I chose to spend this time socializing with other bloggers on Twitter and their sites rather than doing that boring task. I am mostly trying to upload my own pictures, and found a website called http://www.freedigitalphotos.net which is my other source for pics. Between finding the picture, uploading, writing the tags, credit and caption, I spend about 10 minutes per post, so that is a 5 hours work I will have to do in October.

FAIL too on the 30 days Dreamweaver trial, but I am quite content with my new theme, so I will leave it there for now.

FINANCIAL GOALS

WIN 3  FAIL 1 TIE 1
I spent next to nothing this month, so that is an almost WIN, my rent was non existent thanks to my mum who hosted me, and my food bill was very low too. I bought a $25 bottle of Champagne for a friend who celebrated her 35th birthday, and a few things here and there, I don’t think I went over $100.
I splurged on a weekend with my girlfriends, 400 miles away from home, for which I took my motorcycle because all the train tickets were sold out or super expensive. It turned out to be about $100 for gas and tolls, apart from that I didn’t spend much since we mainly stayed home and gossiped!
Other expenses included medical visit $15 (you gotta love the French health system!), $10 air chamber for my bicycle, and more gas for my bike when I was showing my flat for sale.
My biggest expenses were $1000 in taxes and $400 for my empty flat’s condo fees, which I should be selling this week, fingers crossed! SIGNED THE SALE YESTERDAY!!! I can’t stand making those checks anymore, so if my potential buyer gets cold feet, I will start painting and renovating that flat and try to rent it.

I did cycle most of the time after fixing my bicycle, and took the subway only once. Big win. I still take my motorcycle to show my flat for sale, because it saves about 1 hour each way and it’s cheaper too.

On the work side, I got two interviews but no news so far, I did find some money snowflakes to help pay my taxes!

I did replace my leaving tenant with a new one, on the very same day the old one left, so big win for not losing rent money!

And my studio flat, well we are supposed to sign DONE!! with a new buyer tomorrow, I am barely breathing right now, anything can happen! I am pretty optimistic though.

 

 

October goals

 

Financial and personal

Stop smoking!! I don’t smoke on a daily basis but I enjoy my cigarettes when I go out. I know it’s bad for my health and a money drain, so as of October 1st,  I quit smoking! I actually haven’t smoked since September 25th. The government just made a big price hike today so I have an extra incentive.

Spend less than $150 on going out. Since I don’t pay rent and very little food, going out is my biggest non-debt-taxes-or-investment expense. I won’t stop going out and want to keep a social life, but will try not to order another round at 11pm… I can usually go without, frankly, but my friends are hard to convince! I think I will actually use an envelope system for that one and find free activities if the money runs out.

Finish my mum’s living room deep cleaning. I have done all four walls and the kitchen, but the ceiling is really a pain, my back hurts and I have postponed it. I have to paint her ceiling too.

If I sell my flat today: apply for short term jobs. I could use the extra money to buy my next house and I am stuck in Paris waiting for the sale’s money for two or three months anyway.

If I don’t sell my flat by October 10th: Start renovating it myself, and look for a tenant by November 1st. I am tired of paying the condo fees and the safe door rental at $400 a month for an empty flat. I would cash a monthly rent, but the selling price with tenant would probably drop a bit. I really hope I sell it though, and stop bleeding money!

Website

Find why gravatars don’t show on my comments, I have tried many things and must be doing something wrong.

Change that ”related sites” section and make a blog roll with cool blogs instead

Same for the ”information” section that I can’t seem to find where to change.

Break the 500K Alexa ranking. I see some people broke 200K in a month but I am not sure that I will have to time to put the necessary effort into it.

Reach 600 Twitter followers. Last month I went from 150 to 545 using a technique I will talk about in another post, that I do not wish to repeat. So I will only add PF and lifestyle bloggers and follow back people who have common interests.

I want to understand my RSS feed, because Google and Feedburner don’t agree on my number of followers, so until then I won’t set a goal.

Comment on at least 3 sites a day.

Keep doing a weekly roundup. I think those can really help me make friends by showing that I appreciate their hard work.

 

WHAT ABOUT YOUR GOALS FOR OCTOBER? ANYTHING FUN?