Whew—February was a spendy month. Between extra business expenses and nearly two full weeks of travel, my credit card definitely got a workout.

This month was a mix of work and adventure, with two trips that took me away from my usual routine and lots of fun client projects. So, let’s break it all down! Here’s exactly how much I made, what I spent, and what I learned this month about running a business while being on the go.

You Can Read My 2025 Income Reports Here:

• January: $9,109.98

👉 Click here to see my income report archive.

February Highlights

1. Two back to back trips

As I teased above, February was a big month of travel for me. I spent a long weekend in Arizona with two of my business friends. We create a DIY mastermind for ourselves where each day we dove deep into one person’s business and picked apart all of their goals and plans.

We also went hiking, got facials and ate a bunch of delicious food. This trip was super refreshing and super helpful for my business.

The second trip of the month was a cruise to the Bahamas with my best friend! This one was the complete opposite of the Arizona trip where I was forced to not think about work and had limited wifi access.

We slept in, spent the entire day at a private island, read loads of books, saw a fancy show every night and overall had a fantastic time.

2. I booked TWO new clients…

Which means I am officially booked out on one-to-one client work for all of 2025.

3. My husband and I started a fun new routine

After our daughter goes to bed we watch a movie (….well part of a movie – we don’t have time for the full thing so it takes us several days per movie). The catch is we have to watch something that has an actor in it from the last thing we watched. This has made it way easier to pick something to watch and keeps us from accidentally scrolling Netflix during our free time.

How Much Money I Made:

Total Income for February: $9,181.38

Where that money came from:

• Client Work: $9,082.88
• Affiliate Income: $98.50

My Expenses:

My expenses this month are HIGH, way higher than a normal month.

Contractors $1,620

The bulk of this is for my accountant to do my taxes, which is a one time fee I only have to pay for yearly.

Credit Card Processing Fees: $361.22

This is the cut Paypal and Stripe take out when clients pay me

Software: $352.20

For my podcast hosting software, Gsuite and my Showit website hosting plan which renewed this month.

Travel: $440.67

This covered getting a couple of Ubers while I was traveling, paying for internet to work one time while I was out of town and meals during my business trip.

Total Expenses: $2,774.09

How did my goals from last month go?

1. Unplug and enjoy my trips – Absolutely Done!

2. Submit tax documents to our accountant – Done! Not only did I submit all of our documents, but our accountant finished our taxes which feels so good.

3. Read a physical book just for fun – Done!

I read The Friend Zone, Too Late and Just for The Summer.

The Friend Zone and Just For The Summer were delightful. If you need a fun, light hearted read all of Abby Jimenez books are wonderful. Too Late was dark and kind of weird. I personally don’t recommend it, but there’s a bunch of positive reviews on Amazon.

 March Goals

1. Release a new product for my business

One of my goals this year is to have a lot more passive income in my business. Almost all of my income currently comes from one-to-one client work so this month I’m focusing on a product that involves something I’ve done hundreds of times for clients (and makes them a lot of money too!)

2. Experiment with Substack

I currently use ConvertKit for my email list and I love it, but I don’t actually have a ton of funnels in my business so I’m noticing that I’m paying for a lot of extra tech that I don’t use.

I’ve worked with a lot of clients who switched to Substack as their email marketing platform and seen great results so this month I’m going to experiment with if it makes sense for me too.

3. Work on mortgage financing

Another one of my big goals for the year is to BUY A HOUSE. Now that my taxes are done we have to work on financing which involves jumping through several more hoops when you’re self employed and submitting a bunch of documentation.

Final Thoughts on February: A Wild (and Expensive) Month!

Whew—February was a whirlwind, both for my business and my wallet. Between back-to-back trips, big expenses, and exciting client wins, it was one of those months that felt like a blur but was totally worth it.

I got to dive deep into business strategy with friends in Arizona, then completely unplug on a cruise (highly recommend that work/life balance combo). I also wrapped up my last client bookings for 2025, which is both exciting and a little surreal. And somehow, in between it all, my husband and I started a new movie routine that has saved us from the endless Netflix scroll.

Looking ahead, March is all about new experiments—launching a new product, testing out Substack, and making moves on our BIG goal of buying a house. If February was a month of spending and adventure, I’m hoping March is a month of growth and smart decisions (with maybe just a little bit of adventure thrown in).

Current List of the Software and Tools I Use to Run My Business:

A quick note – Some of the links below are affiliate links which means I may get a small kickback if you use them. There’s no additional cost to you and all of these products are things I actually use in my own business.

Business Money Tools:

• Relay – Online business banking
• Bookkeeping Spreadsheet – This is the spreadsheet I use to keep track of all of my business expenses and income
• Capital One Spark Credit Card  – My business credit card 
• Chase Freedom Credit Card – My second business credit card. The Capital One card has slightly better rewards so I use that one more, but this one is good too.
• Dubsado – For invoicing and contracts 
• Profit First System – For managing business expenses and savings.

Personal Money Tools:

• Ally Bank – For checking and savings
• Wealthfront – A high yield savings account where I keep our long-term savings (emergency fund, house down payment fund, travel funds) 
• Alliant Visa Signature – The main credit card we use in our personal lives. This one pays 2.5% cashback.
• You Need a Budget – The budgeting software I use to keep track of our personal finances. It’s been a game changer and saved us thousands of dollars each year but knowing exactly what is coming in and going out.

Productivity and Goal-Setting Tools:

• Asana – For project management and staying on top of my to-dos
• Timer Cube – To stay focused on your work
• Full Focus Planner – For planning my week and daily to-do list 
• Bullet Journaling – For planning out my long-term goals and to-do lists (I use this inexpensive notebook as my bullet journal) 

Social Media:

• Your Template Club – Canva templates for Instagram and Facebook that you can easily customize 
• ManyChat – For sending automated messages on Instagram and Facebook
• Metricool – To schedule posts on Instagram and Facebook  
• Tailwind – For scheduling Pinterest pins 
• Canva – To create graphics
• Ring Light – The ring light and tripod I use to film content

Podcasting:

• Riverside – Recording podcast episodes and interviews 
• Libsyn – Where I host my podcast episodes 
• Microphone – For recording podcasts, events and videos 
• Calendly – To schedule guest interviews

Email Marketing:

• ConvertKit – The software I use to send emails
• Flodesk – I personally prefer ConvertKit for my business needs, but Flodesk is an incredible low cost option that’s a good fit for most business owners
• Liz Wilcox’s Email Marketing Membership – $9 a month membership that gives me access to hundreds of email templates.
• Interact – For creating quizzes in my business like my Find Your Perfect Course Creation Match

Website:

• Showit – The website builder I use 
• Elizabeth McCravy’s Showit Templates – Super easy-to-use website templates for Showit 
• Convertbox – For pop ups and additional forms embedded
• Namecheap – My favorite place to buy domain names (and usually the cheapest place too!)

I also have loads more tools and resources here if you want more ideas and recommendations.

Relay Bank: Relay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services and FDIC insurance are provided through Thread Bank, Member FDIC. The Relay Visa® Debit Card is issued by Thread Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used everywhere Visa® debit cards are accepted.