Jessi

My name is Jessi and I blog over at Notes of Life and Love. It’s basically a collection of my random thoughts, rantings, photos and anything that inspires me. When Liz asked me to write a guest post on how we manage our finances, I got SUPER excited because I totally love drawing out budgets. Ask my husband, Matt! Of course…sticking to them is a totally different story, but baby steps, am I right?

Anyways, I am the budget-er in our household. I have a notebook dedicated to budgets. Monthly budgets, revised budgets, future budgets, ideal budgets…it’s rather ridiculous. In fact, just talking about it has me wanting to go back to my budget notebook and draw out yet another budget. Basically, I write out all of our monthly expenses. Rent, groceries, insurance, cell phones, hydro, etc etc. Then I write out the total amount we make monthly. Then I fiddle with it, making sure that at least a portion of every bill gets paid each month (because lets face it, something usually gets tossed to the “pay later” pile. Usually Cogeco).

Jessi's budget notebook

After that’s said and done, I do a more detailed budget, and divide up the bills/expenses with when money comes in. Then I know what bills are getting paid what day so I can inform the companies (if I need to) and can just have Matt and I know how much is left over (usually nothing). Basically, Matt does his hardest to stick to the budget. I’ll tell him how much is left over, and where the money needs to go. My talent is writing out budgets, but Matt’s talent is not sticking to them and making me fall off the budgeting wagon too. The man has a certifiable talent for it. Every once in a while, it’s go to fall off the wagon and splurge…just a little. One thing that I find really helps us is withdrawing our money and dividing it up into jars. I leave money for rent and bills that I pay online in the bank, but the rest that will go to groceries, gas, etc, I put in jars so we can actually see it. It’s there, and it is tempting to spend, but we don’t because what’s in the jars is what’s supposed to last us until the next batch of money comes in.

It’s hard just starting out, and it’s not supposed to be easy. You fall on your butt..a lot, and then you get to play catch up on bills. Often. But that’s all part of finding your balance in the real world. The best thing you can do is live within your means. Or at least, that’s what my Dad tells me…I’m still trying to figure out exactly what he means by that. He probably means that we shouldn’t have Android smart phones on data plans, or cable TV, because our money could be better off spent on paying off debt.

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This is the first of a five-part series on managing your and your partner’s finances. Special thanks to Jessi for being the first to jump on this, and for being awesome in general.

Stay tuned for next week’s Budgeting for Two guest post: “Joint Bank Account”!

Duffy, “Rain On Your Parade”

This is probably my all-time favorite Duffy song. Sadly, it’s not on the regular version of her first album, Rockferry; it’s on the deluxe edition, so I don’t have it. (But now that I have iTunes, that needs to change.)

In 2007, 12,280 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer. 4,021 women died.

That same year, 202,964 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. 40,598 women died.

I’m willing to bet most of the women who died were diagnosed too late, and I don’t even want to think of how many women didn’t get diagnosed at all.

I’m grateful every day for services like Planned Parenthood, and for other people and organizations who help low-income families afford gynecological care; if it weren’t for people like them, my grandmother wouldn’t be receiving treatment for her breast cancer. Her doctors helped her find affordable health insurance, but before that gave her reduced rates for treatments.

Yesterday, the Susan G. Komen Foundation — an organization committed to fighting breast cancer — announced it would no longer fund Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings and breast health education. By pulling their support, they are potentially committing low-income women — and even just women who are too scared to see their regular doctor — to death. They pulled their financial support because of pressure from other organizations. Reading in between the lines, I believe it was pressure because of the abortion services that Planned Parenthood offers. However, the funding from Susan G. Komen was solely used for breast health, and Planned Parenthood’s other services should not influence donors funding this very important services. Women trust Planned Parenthood because of their confidential, no-judgment attitude. Planned Parenthood has always been there for its patients, and has always been there for me and my friends, yet I can’t think of a single instance when Susan G. Komen has directly or indirectly impacted our lives.

I can’t say it enough: Women’s health is more important than political opinions.

Let’s show Planned Parenthood that we will still support them, that we thank them for offering so many life-saving, inexpensive or free services. Please click here to donate.

Not only did I neglect my goals during those last six days, but I also dropped everything to start on a semi-secret project. I’ve been in an editing and revising haze for the last couple of weeks.

January’s goals were:

• Self-publish one short story. Done. Ten points for Gryffindor!
• Submit one short story. Oops. Gryffindor just lost ten points.
• Type up edits for semi-secret project. Half done. Gryffindor gets five points, putting me at… -5 points. [ED 02/02/2012: Clearly I can't do math, because as Blaine pointed out below, this would leave me with five points. So now I lose another ten points for being so horrible at basic addition and subtraction.]

I’ve decided to ramp up my goals for this year a little and self-publish two short stories and submit two short stories each month, and write one short story each week. I might be crazy, but what’s the sense in having a goal if it’s easy? So February’s goals are:

• Self-publish two short stories. Blaine picked one of them.
• Write one short story a week. Altogether, I should be writing four or five.
• Submit two short stories. I’m going to choose two anthologies to submit to and kill two birds with one stone by using two of the new stories I write.
• Finish semi-secret project edits by 02/05. I have some new material I need to add, and still a ton of typing to do, so this is kind of reckless… but I like it that way.
• Post one Creative Marketing Minute video every day. Don’t know what I’m talking about? That’s because it’s shiny and new. Check out my YouTube channel. [ED 02/02/2012: Forgot to include this goal when I originally posted this.]

What are your goals this month?

Print this out, grab a piece of paper and pencil, or open up a blank word processing document. Let’s write your marketing plan!

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Which online tools are you using? Make a list of everything you’re using right now to promote yourself and your work, including social networking sites, email marketing, and anything else that’s internet-based. Make a note next to each with how often you use it.

Which online tools should you be using (or, which tools do you want to try)? Jot down the tools you think you should be using, or heard about and want to try. If you’re an artist, you should consider signing up for a deviantART account. If you’re a musician, you should check out MySpace, YouTube, and consider setting up an iTunes account where people can download your music. If you’re a writer, you should be on Goodreads talking about your favorite thing — books, of course.

How can you make them unique? Don’t just vomit the same things onto your email list and Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads accounts. (And by “vomit,” I totally mean “copy and paste.”) Think about it. Would you follow someone on Twitter, be their fan on Facebook, circle them on Google+, and sign up for their email newsletter if they were just posting the exact same things to both? Jot down a couple ideas next to each with how you can make them interesting and tempt your fans to follow you everywhere.

Once you’ve completed steps one, two, and three, take a look at your list. Is there something you aren’t getting any results with? Do you find yourself dreading logging in to any of these sites or neglecting your email list? It may be time to move on. I deleted my Facebook because I procrastinated logging in so that I didn’t have to deal with their change addiction. Your best bet with marketing is to use the things that work, and ignore everything else. You’re just wasting your time if you cling to everything.

That being said, there are also some necessary evils. I’ve been thinking about going back to Facebook because let’s face it: there are a lot more people there than on Google+. I don’t have any family or high school friends on G+, but there are boatloads of them on Facebook, and I’m willing to bet many of them would be at least interested in hearing about my publishing adventures, maybe even interesting in checking out my work. I may just have to give Facebook another shot (unfortunately for my ego).

With that said, you can’t be everywhere at once. (Am I confusing you yet?) Make sure you are focusing your marketing efforts in key areas so that you don’t burn yourself out. This is why making that list helps. If you can’t think of a unique use for each tool, you probably don’t need it.

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BONUS TIP: All of your marketing tools should be directing people to your website!

What’s your favorite social media account to follow, and why? Is there a brand or single person doing it really well? Mine would have to be @maureenjohnson. She cracks me up, but she also regularly tweets news about her books. I’m always wondering what she’s going to say on Twitter next.

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*Some people call this social marketing, but I’ve recently taken to calling it internet marketing, because as Gary V pointed out, it’s all the internet.

Me right now... or like two hours ago. Whatever.

In less than two weeks, I have another appointment with my rheumatologist… and I have yet to get my xrays done. I know I need to get them done, but I just can’t motivate myself to go. I think part of me just doesn’t want to know if there actually is joint damage, but I’m also pretty sure my copay for xrays is $75, and I totally don’t have that kind of money all at once. I’ve been on a super tight budget and am living extremely frugally, mostly because my paychecks aren’t all that great anyway, but also because I’m trying to save for an apartment and a new computer. I know I don’t really need these things, but I’m seriously ready for my own space.

I have no idea where I was going with this post. I think I was going to say something about being a boring blogger lately, and wanting to cut my hair, and how much it sucks when good friendships go south, but I’m living in an editing- and work-induced haze lately, so I’ll leave you with this: I know I said I would never come back to Facebook, but it has come to my attention that A) a lot of you want me back on there, and B) I might have shot myself in the foot since it’s a – damn I hate admitting this — great marketing tool. I’ve been thinking about going back. (I hate myself for even thinking it, trust me.) Would you throw rotten vegetables at me for going back?

PS: Speaking of social media, Instagram and Pinterest are my new crack. My Instagram username is “elizabethbarone,” and if you’re not already on Pinterest and want an invite, let me know and I’ll shoot one your way.

Disclaimer: I didn’t waste much time getting into the spoilers, so don’t watch this if you haven’t read #93 (or even #92, really). Also, I am now an iPhone nerd. This was the first video I ever made with the thing, so laugh if you want, but I’m pretty pleased with how good it looks.

I really only reviewed this for Jason. You are probably the only person who reads and watches my TWD reviews. Thank you.

PS: I take no responsibility for the absurd screenshots YouTube chooses to display. I always look like I’m trying to be goofy. #justnaturallygoofyiguess

PSS: I just remembered I have a Michonne action figure. She’ll have to make a cameo in my next TWD vlog.

PSSS: Psst. YouTube channel is here. More nerdiness coming soon.

Colbie Caillat, “I Do”

Colbie Caillat’s music is a big dose of sunshine for me, but this is also one of my songs for Mike. Daww. Gag. Heh.

I have a love affair with spreadsheets. I’ve made bank account balancing sheets, editorial calendars, budgets, submission trackers, and more with my trusty spreadsheet program. So when I found myself struggling to decide which publishing route to take with my short stories, I opened up a new spreadsheet.

I have about three dozen short stories, all in various stages. I listed all of my completed stories in one column, regardless of which draft they’re on. In the second column, I gave each story a genre (and in some cases, a secondary genre).

In the third column, I added each story’s current status (first draft, second draft, submission, published, etc). “Submission” means it’s currently out on submission to a market, and “published” means it’s already published.

Finally, in the fourth column, I created a one-word publish plan for each story. I actually have four current publishing plans: Yahoo!, ebook, traditional, and collection. I write articles for Yahoo!, and published two free short stories there to help get me name out there. I’ve made goals to self-publish one short story a month and submit one short story a month. And, in the future, I plan to query a book of short stories.

Here is an example of my spreadsheet:

“Anonymiss” was previously published in a small literary magazine at my community college, and since it doesn’t really fit in a genre I can easily market myself or to a market for submission, I’ve decided to include it in my future collection of short stories.

I’d like to publish “Outlaw Love Story” traditionally, since I feel it’s my strongest story to date, and would like it to be my first market accepted story. (“Moon Prayer” and “Anonymiss” were winner and runner-up, respectively, of my college’s Fresh Ink publication.) “Outlaw Love Story” also fits a little neater into a genre than the other stories in my list (not pictured).

This obviously isn’t written in stone; I’ve changed my mind about a couple different stories, a couple times. It has, however, helped me get more organized and has given me a clearer way to determine how I should publish each of my stories.

How do you decide how to publish your stories?

Okay, so now I know why evil bastards keep coming back from the dead in horror movies and books: it freaks out the writer.

Oh yes. Writing horror is so, so much fun. It’s like watching a scary movie that you sort of have control over… except not (because as we all know, there comes a point in every piece of written fiction when you feel like you have no control over your characters). It got me thinking: how many other things freak us out but keep us writing at the same time?

1. Crazies who keep coming back from the dead
2. Flesh-eating lunatics, of the human or zombie variety
3. Writing a character’s way out of tight spaces
4. Writing a character’s way out of a death match
5. Hacking off characters’ limbs
6. Gouging out characters’ eyes
7. Running through pitch black woods
8. Monsters hiding under the bed
9. Serial killers who kill with their bare hands
10. Deadlines (and speaking of which…)

What freaks you out when you write (or read) horror?