I'm so excited. It looks like I'll get to keep my tenant for two more years. Her lease expired this month and she wasn't sure she would renew. She wanted to try and find something cheaper and she was having issues with her next door neighbor.

She's been a great tenant and I've been really lucky with her. She was my very first tenant and I didn't take the proper precautions prior to renting the place to her. I didn't check with her previous landlord and I didn't run a credit check. It was just something about her that made me feel comfortable renting my home to her. She was also very forthcoming about her credit history. She said to me and I quote, "my credit sucks but I need a place to live". That made sense to me so I took a chance.

I just felt really good about her and took the plunge. Here we are almost six years later and she is still with me. She has never given me a bad check and she has only been late with the rent once or twice. She hardly ever calls me for repairs unless it is something major.

I did agree to reduce the rent by $50 a month in order to keep her. I know I could probably get $200 more a month in rent by renting to someone else but I'd rather keep my good paying tenant who hardly calls me for the minor stuff. My new tenant would pay more but they'd probably call me for every little thing and may not be so good at paying their rent on time.

My sanity and piece of mind are worth the additional $150 in rent I'm not getting.

I received an email the other day from a company called Ebates advising me that I had earned $20 and they would be depositing the amount into my Paypal account today.

I've been a member of Ebates since 2007 and I've really been pleased with them. Basically, you just shop as you normally would except you shop thru their website and Ebates gives you a percentage back in cash.

You can also earn $5 for each person you refer once they make a purchase. I'd referred a number of people in the past and I guess they just got around to making their first purchase.

I logged into my Paypal account and transferred the $20 to my checking account.

I LOVE GETTING UNEXPECTED MONEY!!!!!

If you would like to check out Ebates, I would greatly appreciate it if you used my referral link. Once you're a member, you can refer other people and earn cash for yourself.

Another month is in the bag and it's time to report how I did for the previous month.

Income $4823.08 (composed of Salary, Rental Income & Interest)
Expenses $3721.60

Difference: $1101.48

I met my goal of keeping my expenses at least $1000 less than my income each month. This month, I was able to keep a little bit more than my goal since my eating out expenses were less than normal.

One of my biggest monthly budget busters is eating out every day for lunch. I'm not a big fan of packing a lunch and I enjoy having time out with my co-workers during the day.

There were several days in July where I had meetings during the day and the company paid for lunch. This allowed me to spend a little bit less than usual.

You can follow along with my money journey. Follow me on twitter @savemymoney1.

Hello Everyone!

I'm extremely excited to start this blog. It is a lot easier to share your personal finances with strangers. Hopefully, you guys will enjoy my blog and we can learn something from each other.