I love May. It’s the month the leaves really start forming on trees, flowers are blooming, and the weather warms up a bit. This May was fun–I told you we’re having a baby, Shane and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary, and we went on a lovely trip to Florida.

At the beginning of May, I told you that in 2009, we hope to either max out our retirement accounts, or come really close. I have no idea if this is even in the neighborhood of being realistic, but we’ll see.

I outlined just two goals I wanted to accomplish in May. First, to only spend cash in Florida to keep tabs on our spending while there. Achieved that no problem.

Second, I hoped that we could put $2,500 into our emergency fund in May. We had our $1,200 economic stimulus check arrive, which was quite a nice boost.

So let’s see. Did we do it? By my records, at the beginning of May, we had $4,441 in our emergency fund. An extra $2,500 would mean we’d need to have $6,941 in that account. Today, I transferred some money from our main checking into our emergency fund that will put it at $7,006. We did it! Yay! Only about $3,000 to go to have our six-month emergency fund.

May snowflakes

Note: These links below are affiliate referral links.

$40 from Revolution Money Exchange Note: I know that people who refer others will get $10, but I don’t know if you’ll get $25 for signing up for an account anymore. If you use my referral link and sign up, but don’t get that $25, I’ll split my bonus with you and we’ll each get $5. Just e-mail me to let me know.

$20 from ING Direct (E-mail me if you’d like to open an account with them with an initial deposit of $250 or more. You’ll get $25, I’ll get $10)

$13.15 in ING Direct account interest

$520.11 from Ebates– Wow. This is mostly referral bonuses from you amazing readers. Thank you so much! I’m a huge fan of Ebates for online shopping, and it’s not just because of the referral bonuses.

$30 Target gift cards (from Ebates)

$15.42 from Clickbank — I totally forgot about Clickbank. A long time ago, I set up an account with them, but I didn’t think I’d ever get a payout. Cool surprise.

$6 from Pinecone Research

$11.42 Cashcrate — Didn’t know I had any money coming from them, either. Nice.

Total: $626.10 + $30 in gift cards

Goals for June

Let’s just see if we can add $1,500 more to our emergency fund in June, bringing the balance to $8,500 by the end of the month.

I’d also like to find new ways to save money. I feel like I’ve got the basics pretty well understood. Time to find some new, creative ways to cut costs.

I will turn 23 years old in June. I want to go out to a nice dinner with Shane to celebrate. Also, sometimes relatives give me money for my birthday. If that’s the case, I’m going to do my best to spend at least a little of that money on myself, rather than save it all.

That’s all I can think of for now. Here’s to a great June for everyone!