How does Hilary Erickson manage her blog finances and Adsense earnings?

I manage the “blog money” just like a real small business, not like bonus pocket cash.

For income, I have four main streams:

1. Advertising (I’m with Mediavine on both Pulling Curls and The Pregnancy Nurse, not standard AdSense)
2. Affiliate income
3. My own products (mostly online courses, plus a few books)
4. Occasional sponsored posts

On the expense side, I pay for:

1. Hosting for sites, podcast, and courses, plus a tech person on retainer
2. A CPA and accounting software (I do my own bookkeeping, CPA does taxes)
3. Virtual assistants for Pinterest, SEO edits, email, and my kids for video editing and transcripts
4. Insurance (liability and cyber), plugins/software (SEO tools like RankIQ, calendars), and some conferences/courses
5. Legal work (trademarks, terms, privacy policy)

Everything runs through the business budget, and I treat it as a full‑time job with pretty regular 6–8 hour workdays, even though the income is mostly “passive” once content is created.

Is there a specific part you’re most curious about—ads, affiliates, or how I track and budget it all?