April 2019 Report: Motivation Not Found

This is my april 2019 monthly quantified self report

Good things that happened

I started figure skating again

Yessss…I did this. After a 15 year break, I went back to skating this month. I’m not positive I’ll stick with it long-term, but for now it’s providing me with some fun, a good workout, and the opportunity to do something that I see significant improvement in. I skated 18 hours and 21 minutes on the ice in April. I don’t have my double jumps back yet, or all of my spins, but I’m doing pretty good for progress after such a long time away. I’ve been vlogging the whole adventure so look for a long video about it soon! (Also I post instastories almost every day with skating updates if you’d like to see them here.)

I got the anime hair of my dreams

You may have noticed in past months I was throwing some money into a “unicorn hair” sinking category. I’ve wanted to do some extreme hair dying and have MAGICAL ANIME CHARACTER HAIR.

This was a process, since my hair is black, undyed, thick hair and requires bleaching the color out before converting it. It was expensive. It’s really not reversible, short of shaving my head. But hey, here it is. Do I look like an anime character yet?

The 100 Day Project

I am participating in the 100 Day Project again this year, this year doing 100 days of creative self-portraits (similar to the 365 project I’ve done several times on Flickr). Here’s some of my favs:

 

Could Use Improvement

Catch up on Video Editing Backlog

I have fallen 5 weeks behind on my youtube channel – not from lack of filming – but from an extreme backlong of editing. I have so many videos I’m honestly super excited about, I just haven’t sat down to focus on editing, and have a horde of unfinished final cut projects sitting waiting for final touches.

Income + Work

I really struggled with motivation this month, and getting back into the groove of income-producing activities. I screwed up my sleep schedule royally (note my average bedtime has moved from 9:30PM to after midnight!)

The great news is that I’m self-employed, so if I need some off-time, I can just take it. I don’t have to get approval from a boss or HR. The bad news is that off-time means my income takes a hit. I’ve got a LOT of things up my sleeves for future months (for example, Oh My Dollar!’s kickstarter comes out next week) but I have to actually focus on earned income – including doing more outsourcing to contractors and doing more sales.



Full April 2019 Spending Report

Total Spent: $1,686.74

36% of total annual budget at  32% of the way through the year.


Household & Insurance – $668.86

  • Rent: $615
  • Water, Commons, Garbage, Sewer: $27.50
  • Electricity: $26.36
  • Household Items (detergent, TP, toothpaste, razors, etc): $0
  • Internet at Home: $0 This is now paid for by SSO’s employer due to being remote employee, was $20 per month.

Basic Food – $179.79

  • Basic Groceries: $164.32
  • Treats (non-essential snacks): $7.97
  • Coffee/Tea For Home: $7.50

Extra Food + Drink – $6.25

  • Coffee Out: $6.25

Medical – $153 ***Why this is so cheap

  • Health Insurance Premium: $29.00
  • Dentist: $124.00

Fitness – $58.98

  • Gym Membership: $38.99
  • Protein Powder: $19.99

Giving/Gifts – $10.00

  • Charitable Donations: $10.00

Indulgences – $1.49

  • Stationary: $1.49

Looking Good – $416.48

I saved up for this new hair for about 6 months, and hopefully some of these expenses will tide me over for awhile (I expect the fancy shampoo to last me the better part of the year). I went to a professional instead of DIYing it because coming from my natural black hair, I needed my hair to get bleached and I simply didn’t trust I wouldn’t destroy my hair on my own. It took a professional 6 hours to do this, I can’t even imagine how long it would’ve taken me!

  • Anime Hair – Service including tip: $287.50
  • Anime Hair – Fancy Shampoo + Conditioner: $70.00
  • Anime Hair– Bond Builder – $28.00
  • Anime Hair – Dry Shampoo + Curlers: $27.99
  • Makeup: $2.99

Figure Skating $191.89

Figure skating is super expensive- ice time is one of the most expensive things you can buy – and I’m not even doing a very “expensive” version of skaitng right now. I don’t have a coach right now, I’m mostly skating on low-traffic public session instead of the advanced freestyle sessions, I’m not entering any competitions. I estimated it out and it will cost me about $260 a month on average to do this sport, and I’m taking it month-by-month this year about whether or not it makes financial and personal sense to do it.

  • Ice Time (through end of May):  $139
  • Skate Sharpening: $15.00
  • Training Clothing: $4.95 (new tights)
  • Random: $32.94 (off-ice spin trainer + bunga pads)

Sinking Funds – not yet spent

  • Renter’s Insurance: $11.50 ($140 per year)

Retirement savings: $100


OMD Business Income + Expenses Report

I don’t focus on personal income or savings any more because this year I’m focusing not on building my personal savings, but rather getting the business to a supporting-me-full-time sort of status, and I think it’s important to show where I am 27 months into this business since my income might be missing from my expense reports some months since I may not take an income from the business (as was the case this month.)

This is cash-based accounting, not accrual, so this only accounts for income received this month, not invoices billed. Some of the income may be work done in previous quarters, depending on how fast people pay me.  That means that a number of the expenses incurred may be covered by reimbursements or sales received in another month.


Income & Sales: +$1120.57
  • Book + Kindle Sales (net after fees): $317.98
  • Freelancing: $75.00
  • Patreon Memberships: $377.59
  • Speaking Fees: $350.00
Expenses:  -$489.99
  • Travel Expenses: $224.06
  • Shipping: $9.00
  • Hosting + Software: $116.93
  • Payroll & Contractors: $100.00
  • Phone: $40.00

I pay quarterly estimated taxes on my business income, so I save 30% of my net (after expenses) income in a separate account. Please note reimbursements for expenses incurred – such as travel to a gig – are not considered taxable income.

Tax Savings: $189

(30% of $1120.57 Earned Income – $489.99 Expenses)

5 thoughts on “April 2019 Report: Motivation Not Found

  1. Hi. I appreciate the way you tell us this report. MOTIVATION! what we need to find in our daughters’ life actually

  2. Oh WOW! I love that hair! And yes very anime! Actually, it made me think of Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. Either way it’s amazing and I do love it!

  3. Hello, I liked your site very much. I will visit again.

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