April turned out to be quite a crazy month. While I was sidetracked for a while with my post-Boston Marathon injury, I still managed to kick most of my goals’ bootays. Highlights for this month include finally closing on my mortgage refinancing, securing a few more writing gigs, meeting my mini challenge of only going out to eat 5 times or less for the entire month, and fully pre-paying my Kilimanjaro adventure.

Instead of pulling the $1,300 for the safari extension and trip insurance from my savings, I managed to squeeze it into the monthly budget, which is why you’ll see a drastic reduction in the amount I sent to savings. While it still balances itself out in the end (I actually come out ahead of my original savings projections), recording it as I have below made it much easier to track everything in my Excel workbook. Ahh, the joys of being a complete PF nerd 

I also had to pull the money from savings to cover my closing costs. The good thing about this is that the $4K I transferred includes May’s mortgage payment AND I will break even with the closing costs in less than 6 months thanks to the $350/month I’ll be saving now. I’ve laid out a complete plan to have every penny of this money put back into savings by November, in addition to the regular savings I’ll be contributing. This may have an impact on my 2012 goal to buy a new camera, but I’m determined to simply bring in more income to buy that camera before leaving for Africa in October!!!  We’ll see what happens….

Financial Goals:

1. $800 into retirement accounts CHECK
2. $700 saved for Kilimanjaro trip Modified–paid $1,318 for safari and trip insurance
3. $540 into regular savings Modified–Saved $375
4. $400 saved for Ireland trip CHECK
5. $200 extra to student loans CHECK
6. $200 extra to mortgage CHECK
7. Limit variable spending to $450 CHECK
8. Limit eating out to 5 meals or less for entire month CHECK!!!

Household Goals:

1. Complete master bath back splash project   Fail
2. Re-grout guest bath shower  CHECK
3. Clean both bathroom exhaust fans CHECK
4. Service guest bath jacuzzi tub CHECK
5. Clean range hood/exhaust fan   CHECK

Personal Goals:

1. Complete the Boston Marathon!  CHECK
2. Continue biking to work  Fail
3. Continue building business project portfolio CHECK
4. Complete DIY projects at BF’s condo:
   1. Paint dining room & living room trim   Fail
   2. Install custom shelving unit in living room CHECK
   3. Paint dining room chairs  CHECK
   4. Purchase dining room table and rug   CHECK
   5. Make dining room curtains On hold–couldn’t find any fabric I liked in the stores so will be ordering it online when I return from Ireland