Jana Says

Sharing Saturday #9

February 4, 2012 by Jana 15 Comments

This was a good week here at Daily Money Shot. Some behind the scenes things started happening. First, I began work on my new site (which I’ll unveil sometime at the end of the month) and I’m totally stoked about that. Second, I finally came up with a company name and by sometime next week, I will officially be an LLC! Third, and this is the most exciting for me, I abandoned Photoshop but picked up Illustrator (free trials? Are the best ever!). So now I can do graphics!!!

The graphics part is really exciting for me because I really want to start tapping into that. I’m even willing to do a little work for free to get my practice on, so if you’re looking for a new header or blog button or favicon or whatever, send me an email and we’ll see what I can do. If you’re brave enough to take a chance on me, I’ll do my best not to let you down.

Now, onto the sharing part. I haven’t exactly been the most spectacular commenter lately but I have been reading. It continues to amaze me how many great blogs there are out there. And new ones are cropping up every day. For the month of February, instead of sharing personal finance and nonpersonal finance blogs, I’m going to share links from established sites and links to brand new sites. Make sure you read the new sites, too, because the authors are terrific and absolutely deserve some love.

Personal finance reads (where I showcase some of my favorite personal finance posts)

On Everything Finance, Erika provides some excellent tips on How to Create a Good Craigslist Ad and Sell Your Stuff. I’ve never used Craigslist to sell anything but now that I know what to do, I might start to think about it.

The Well Heeled Blog asks for help on finding the best Expense Tracking App. The answers have been really helpful for me since I could totally use one of those.

Married and dating couples know how important it is to have date nights. MomVesting gives some ideas for Wacky Date Nights. The wackiest my husband and I get is going out for cheesecake and wine. Crazy shit, right?

Corey at 20s Finance talks about how his wife Earned $1000 and Gave It Away. I think what she did is admirable, and I think she has the potential to make a good bit of side income through on online store.

Money Cactus gives some great advice on How to Have Anything You Want with No Regrets. As someone who suffers from buyer’s remorse for everything from an iPad to a soda, I really enjoyed this post.

Bonus posts: Everything I read on Prairie Eco Thrifter is excellent. Seriously. It’s one of my favorite sites to read and I always want to include a post from her site for these round-ups but I rarely do because I don’t know which one to pick. So just go read her whole site. On Untemplater, Yakezie Guru Sam writes cautions “Don’t Be In A Hurry To Leave School and Enter the Real World”. The title reminds me of Billy Madison (“you gotta cherish it”) but he makes some outstanding points that I almost completely agree with.

New personal finance reads (or, blogs you need to start reading)

Thrifty and Fit–Kristen’s blog is great and fun. She’s trying really hard to manage her finances so please go give her some support.

Married with Debt–John is opinionated (which is awesome) and he’s a great writer (which is even awesomer). He provides some seriously thought provoking posts that keep you going back to his site for more reading.

The Random Path–Mackenzie is my long lost twin sister, I swear it. I love everything she writes and it’s scary how similar our lives are (and have been). Every time I read a post of hers, I feel like I could have written it. Except she gives recipes that make me want to eat my computer. I couldn’t come up with those.

Smartwealth–Evan’s wife rescued a cat from the streets and named it Boots. I did the same thing and gave it the same name and I feel like we’re kindrid spirits now. Oh, and his blog (which he cowrites with Justin from Money Is the Root)? Is awesome!

My other writing (where I showcase myself or where you can find my staff writing)

52 Ways to Live Richly Reasonable: Make-up, Part 1 at Richly Reasonable

52 Week Prosperity Plan, Week 3: Establishing a schedule at Go Be Rich

Maximizing salaries and raises at Broke Professionals

Establishing a dining out budget at Dining Out Challenge

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Now that I’m a mom, I can…

February 3, 2012 by Jana 23 Comments

Moms, myself included, spend an awful lot of time pining for the things we used to do before our kids were born. My favorite list (including the comments) was from People I Want to Punch in the Throat. To say it’s comprehensive and completely accurate is an understatement (oh, and it’s also hilarious). But after I read it, I starting thinking of all the things I can do now that I have a kid:

Never have to spend time with people I don’t like. If someone you don’t like invites you to hang out, your kid provides the best excuse. As in “I’m sorry but a babysitter just isn’t in our budget” rather than “there’s no way in hell I’m spending any more time with you than absolutely necessary”. This also works for weddings, birthday parties and general get togethers.
Have someone to blame for every broken item in the house. This is especially handy in a house with older kids, mainly boys. I’m particularly clumsy and it’s just easier to blame the kid than to admit yes, I snapped the handle off of that toy.
Buy only little kid snack foods. Because they taste so much better than adult snack foods.
Lie. All the time. My kid asks the most ridiculous questions and half the time, I’m not smart enough to answer them. So I lie.
Know where every public bathroom within a 10 mile radius of my house is located. Now when I need to go and I’m not quite close enough to home to wait, I don’t have to. I know which ones are cleanest and which ones don’t make me feel guilty if I don’t purchase something when I’m there.
Go to kids’ movies without looking creepy. It’s no secret around here that I love The Muppets. It’s also no secret that I took the day off so I could go see the new movie the day it came out. Had I gone alone, I’m sure I would have received the stink eye. Bringing the kid made it acceptable.
Sing along to cartoons. And admit that some of the songs are good.
Walk out of the house wearing mismatched clothes, covered in shmutz, looking like I haven’t slept in 3 days. Because, you know, I haven’t.
Change a diaper in under a minute and on any surface. I once changed my daughter’s diaper on the floor of an airplane. I think I set a record for quickest diaper change. Ever.
Give you the name of every Disney princess. I can also tell you who her prince is and what color dress she wears. This is essential information.
Hate Elmo. If you’ve never had a toddler, you may still think that Elmo is cute, cuddly and entertaining. It’s almost blasphemous not to like him. But let me assure he’s not what he seems. He’s terrible.
Speak Spanish. Thanks, Dora and Diego!
Have an in-depth, serious conversation about the merits of Velcro versus shoe laces.
Use bathtub crayons to sketch out post ideas or do simple math. I do my best thinking in the shower and now I can write the ideas down.
Decipher words like smorf (S’mores), Numberland (Neverland), and humidityfier (humidifier).
Understand that pointing in the general direction of a tree followed by the question “Mommy, what’s that?” really means “What is that blue object 87 feet behind the tree?”
Effectively wrangle 2 dogs, a child and a cat all trying to chase the same rabbit without breaking my neck.
Purchase a subscription to Highlights magazine. And do the puzzles inside.
Realize that bringing home a hamster is, to paraphrase George Carlin (only he was talking about puppies), really bringing home a small tragedy. This also goes for fish, gerbils, guinea pigs…anything with a short shelf-life.
Not clean my house on a regular basis. What’s the point? It’s just going to get messy again 5 minutes after I’m done.

If you’re a parent, what can you do now that you couldn’t when you were child-free?

Manage your money like a porn star

February 2, 2012 by Jana 33 Comments

A couple of nights ago on Twitter, I promised a very special post. This is that post.

There are a lot of financial books and experts out there. I have not written one of those books nor am I one of those experts. I am, however, someone who finds that financial expertise is all around us. Whether it’s from a repo man or from Roseanne, we can learn a lot about our money from what we see and read. It is with that introduction that I present…Daily Money Shot’s Porn Star Guide to Managing Your Money.

That’s right. Here in this comprehensive post are numerous tips, derived from porn stars about how to generate income and manage your finances. Who knew that porn stars could impart wisdom like:

Spend more on the things that enhance your life rather than hinder it

If you’ve seen one porn star, you’ve seen them all. And the one thing you’ll probably notice is that none of them look real. That’s because they know how to enhance their appearance in order to be more successful in their profession. They know that boob jobs and bleaching their hair (just to name the obvious) will cost a substantial amount of money but the payoff is worth it.

Porn star to real life translation—when calculating your budget, make sure that you’re spending more in categories that make you happy. If you like to travel or eat out (pun totally intended), then make sure that you allot more money in those categories.

Know your limitations

Porn stars know what they will and won’t do. I don’t know for sure, but I’m assuming that they discuss those limitations with their agents and directors prior to filming a movie. It’s not profitable for anyone for these men and women to join a movie only to find out later on that they won’t do that. If they are clear up front, everyone makes the most amount of money possible and no one is uncomfortable.

Porn star to real life translation—Have a budget. A budget sets your limitations for you. It tells how much money you have to spend and save, and it lets you know if there’s any wiggle room that month. If you’re in debt repayment mode, the limitations of a budget give you the freedom to say no to friends who are spendthrifts.

Diversify

My favorite morning show, Preston and Steve, often has porn stars as in-studio guests (yes, I know that Howard Stern did this first). The ladies will discuss strip club appearances, book signings, in-store appearances…pretty much any place you can think of that would be appropriate for a porn star to show up, they go to. They do performances and appearances as a way of making money. They know that they cannot solely rely on movies as an income stream so they seek out other ways to generate income.

Porn star to real life translation—Same principle, more clothes. Find ways to make more money in a multitude of ways. Whether it’s through a side business, part-time job, the stock market or stealing from your kid, it’s important that you have multiple ways of generating income.

Promote, promote, promote!

As previously stated, porn stars know how to diversify their income. In order to do that, they need to promote themselves as much as possible. It’s why they do those appearances and attend parties and events (and even make appearance on quality TV programming like Celebrity Rehab). By getting their names out there, they can generate that diverse income and be able to live in houses like these.

Porn star to real life translation—Whether you’re looking for a traditional job or aiming for self-employment, you have to let people know you’re available. Tell them what you can do, what special skills you have and what sets you apart from everyone else. Be your own agent. Negotiate what’s best for you. And get out there and sell yourself!

Protect yourself

From what I’ve seen, condoms are not exactly popular in porn movies. However, from what I understand, porn stars are required to have frequent STD and AIDS testing not only as a precaution for themselves but for those they work with. Protection is extremely important in this line of work because their livelihoods depend on them staying safe.

Porn star to real life translation—One word: insurance. I hate insurance as much as the next person and I’m not intending for this to be a debate on the pros and cons (or a commentary on why it sucks and is too expensive) but insurance is so important. Whether it’s medical, life, car, home/renter’s insurance, you need to have insurance as protection against anything bad happening. Will it cover the entire cost in a lot of cases? No. But it will make things easier.

When it comes to dealing with money, porn stars sure do know what they’re doing. We can all learn a lot from them. After all, just because you keep your clothes on at work doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of your money!

Maximizing time and money at Disney World

February 1, 2012 by Jana 10 Comments

On Monday, I talked about how the next time my family goes to Disney World, we’re going to make some tweaks to ensure that we stay on budget. Today, I’m going to talk about how to save time, money, and maximize your days in the park.

During our trip to Disney World, we were fortunate to go with some Disney experts. We have friends who live in Florida and go to the parks about 12 times a year. They also have a 5 year old girl, so they know how important it is to get through the parks, rides, and character meet and greets as efficiently as possible. They also showed us some inexpensive ways to keep the kids entertained at the park because the park is expensive enough. You don’t need to waste even more money when you can accomplish some of the same goals for free.

A few tricks:

Pixie dust. If you walk around the park, you will see little girls decked out in all kinds of princess regalia. Because for a mere $75,000 (fine, I’m exaggerating but it’s really expensive), you can get your child a princess makeover. I find this ridiculous. Instead, you can go into some of the stores, talk to a worker and that person will—for free—sprinkle your child’s head with “pixie dust” (really, it’s just glitter in a wand. But it works). Princess magic for no cost.
KidCot. For the younger kids, EPCOT is really not the greatest place. Let me amend that. For the younger kids, the countries part of EPCOT is not the greatest place. There aren’t many rides and learning about culture is lost on most kids younger than 7. Enter KidCot. In each of the countries, there is a station where kids can, for free, obtain a Duffy bear (Mickey Mouse’s bear). Really, it’s just a cut-out of the bear, stapled to a wooden stick but my kid thought it was the greatest thing ever. After receiving a bear at the first time, the kids take the bear from country to country, getting a stamp from an “ambassador” of the country and coloring in the bear. It’s a nice, free way to keep the kids entertained and engaged. Plus, it gives you a chance to rest your feet. [Read more…]

Money Tune Tuesday:Get Thru This

January 31, 2012 by Jana 6 Comments

When you’re in the middle of an awful situation–whether it’s emotional, financial, mental or some combination of the three–you don’t think you’re going to survive. It feels endless and hopeless. Each day is a trial. You start negotiating with yourself “If I can just get through this, I’ll be okay”.

It’s during those moments when we realize just how strong we actually are. When I was deep in debt, barely able to feed myself and my husband, I thought it would break me. I thought that there was no way I was going to have the strength to come out the other side. I promised myself that if I did survive those times, I would never ever go back.

I wished that I’d had a song to kind of use as my anthem. Rodney Atkins’s “If You’re Going Through Hell” helped as did Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle“. And strangely, so did Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”. Now, I have a new song to help me through new challenges. That song, today’s Money Tune, is The Art of Dying’s “Get Thru This”.

My favorite lyric? If I can get through this, I can get through anything.

Because that? Is totally what I need right now. I hope it helps you, too. Whatever you’re going through.