Budgets Suck - But This Tool Makes It Suck A Little Less

Currently, I am reading a book called "Rich Bitch" by Nicole Lapin. The budget breakdown presented in this book has been the number one best tool that I have found. I can only speak on behalf of myself, but the general percents and the explanations about each one has led me to finally set a decent budget for myself. 

I have tried to do all sorts of budgets - working backwards from what I typically spend, guessing at what my needs will be in the coming week/month/year, and all the other suggestions out there - but this one makes sense and works. 

Once I set up a spreadsheet and input my income, I was able to do simple calculations to figure out how much money I had for each bucket. Then I adjusted to make it work for me. I am fortunate enough to walk to work now, so I did not need 15% for transportation. However, my rent is a little higher than 25%, so I moved the some of the money from transportation to housing. 

I have been using this system for only a couple of months now, but it has really helped me understand my money. I have been able to set real goals and I know what my limits are. I feel empowered! 

Since I love content marketing and designing graphics, I designed the one below for my own reference. By sharing it here, I hope you will be able to use it as well. 

More about the book and the budget on Nicole's website: http://nicolelapin.com/richbitchbook/ 

NaNoWriMo Day 16 - Staying Warm

How to keep your fingers warm during NaNoWriMo:

A. You could use a blow torch and run it over your fingers. But then again, you would probably end up with burnt fingers and a lot of unnecessary pain. So, don't do this one.

B. Moving on, you could get a cat, train it to sit on your fingers and purr while you write. But then again, it would take a lot of effort to move your fingers, slowing your typing down and causing your word count to not be where it needs to be. So, maybe don't try this one.

C. Here's an idea. Move to a state that does not get down to the mid thirties at 5PM in mid-November.

D. Or, bring a heated blanket to all your write-ins. When people complain that there are not enough outlets to plug their laptops and other devices in, tell them they are just jealous they did not think about bringing such an awesome blanket and should have thought about that before they even attended. Then again, none of us would say that. This won't work.

E. Ok. Here is it, This one will work. Order a large coffee or tea. hold the cup in your hands long enough to be able to feel the excessive heat emanating from within, take a sip, and then put it down for five minutes so you can write. This may slow down your writing a bit, but you will have the added benefit of caffeine.

F. Do they make heated keyboards yet? Probably not. Computers still have to remain somewhat cool. Pity.

G. Gloves! It may only be November, but sometimes you just have to get up to the attic or go digging in the basement or garage for an hour to find your winter outerwear. Fingerless gloves obviously work best. There are also heating options available now and they plug right into your laptop.

Instagram Hashtags

Twitter might have started and popularized the hash tag, but many sites utilize them, to varying degrees of success.

Take, for example, the photo sharing app Instagram. I have a love/hate relationship with hash tags on this app. The more hastags I add to my photos, the more attention that photo gets. It can be a difference of 30 or more likes if I pile on the hash tags.

However, if I do load up the caption box with tags, fellow users tend to think I am being pretentious or even ridiculous.

I have heard a few of my friends talk about this issue a couple of times and can only imagine what they would have said if I was not in the room. I understand where they are coming from. Seeing lines of hash tags below a photo does tend to look like a cry for attention or just a mess.

So how do users get their photos more attention? I have been trying different approaches and strategies to get my photos more likes and get me more followers and will submit my report soon.

For now, all I can ask is for you to check out my account @sugarcursed and like the photos that appeal to you and I will do the same.

Fortunately, other sites have found ways of incorporating hasth tags into posts in ways that are not so in the reader's face. This site, blogger, is a good example. Bloggers add labels to their posts in a separate box from the body, using commas to separate each lable. In this way, the posts can be indexed with the tags without them being so obvious.