Mama's Musings

Conscious, Sustainable Spending - GreenSherpa

If you're like me, you wonder where all the cash went by month's end. To offset the sieve that is my cash flow, I've developed a low-tech way to manage my monthly spending ~ an envelope on the shelf. No kidding. It started when I did surprisingly well at a children's bazaar. I had sold almost $50 worth of stuff, so instead of pocketing the change, I kept it in the envelope and stashed it on the kitchen shelf. Anytime I had extra change, I'd fill the envelope, then take what I needed to fulfill the kids' needs. Instead of running to the ATM five miles away every time my kid remembered he needed ten bucks to go on a field trip, I'd calmly dip into the envelope for the cash. And it works! Somehow I still have money left over. There's something about confident spending that keeps your cash flow in check.

Erin Lozano, a mom of two who started her own company, GreenSherpa.com, focuses on responsible, sustainable finances. She shared some quick tips on how to stretch your greenbacks to the max. Enjoy!

FAMILY MONEY SAVING TIPS FROM ERIN LOZANO:

  --Create a budget for the week, the month and the next six months. Revisit that plan every week as a family.
 
--Don't spend beyond the essentials.
 
--Learn to say "no" to some financial requests. (Editor's Note: Like the kids begging for yet another video game on 'sale' for only $149.99...)
 
--If the value of your home is falling, call the County Assessor's Office and request a reassessment. It could lower your property taxes.
 
--Review health, home and auto insurance, increasing deductibles and making other cost-saving changes where possible.
 
--Review bills for utilities such as water and electricity; request a reassessment of monthly usage estimates, potentially lowering the cost.
 
--Cancel cable TV subscription, or lower service to basic from premium. (Editor's Note: Don't shriek! I did this and saved three hours a night, not to mention fifty bucks a month!)
 
--Cancel your land-line telephone if you use a cell phone.
 
--Eat at home.
 
--Buy local produce, meat and fish.
 
--Sell items of value that you don't use. (Editor's Note: See top of story about the envelope. I swear it works!!)
 
--Place whatever money you can into an emergency savings account. (Editor's Note: Are you starting to pick out the theme? Envelope, my friend, envelope!)

Put your money where your mouth is. In the kitchen. In an envelope. Or, if you're tech savvy, use GreenSherpa.com for a total overview in half the time it takes to update Quicken...

Book Review: Social Media Bible

Wiley & Sons has made history with a new book, The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success. At 844 pages it is the largest book they've ever published in their 202 years. It's an everything-you've-ever-wanted-to-know resource about the social media landscape, the history of the Internet, and new tool management for businesses and laypeople alike. While some of the chapters are repetitive (the same sources get cited time and again), I found the book to be encouraging as a guideline for what to do when you're expecting more business on the 'Net. Lon Safko and co-author David Brake offer an overwhelming overview of an almost tameless subject. It is an admirable book with loads of interviews and, not surprisingly, an accompanying Web site that serves as a 'living document' to which you can easily go as the social media landscape evolves.

Because of its reference book nature, you can flip from one place to the next. I tried to read it straight through as a book and got discouraged. Pick and choose what interests you. The format is easy to read and you get the feeling you are in good hands as the authors themselves are successful businessmen who have put these strategies into practice. Thumbs up for The Social Media Bible. It's one bible I'd be happy to thump.

Babies, Branding, and Boosting the Bottomline

"Cool. It's from T-Mobile." My daughter fiddled with my Sony Ericsson cell phone. A week ago she hadn't even been aware of anything other than that my mobile was red and could be used to call friends to arrange playdates from the grocery store.

"My shoes are Tom Tailors," she boasted to her friend.

Brand names have hit my baby's brain.

If you are to believe the documentary Consuming Kids - The Commercialization of Childhood, US children ages 2-11 view 25,000 ads annually on television alone. According to the fílmmaker's fact sheet,

Materialistic values are correlated to exposure to marketing for children as young as preschoolers. Children who are more materialistic are less happy, more depressed, have lower self-esteem, and report more symptoms of anxiety.

We have all been there ~ the salivating that takes place in the backseat at every yellow 'M' with a red base while tooling down the highway. Marketing messages are everywhere ~ on packaging, shopping carts, sides of busses, on phones, screens, and even in public toilets. We are bombarded with messages, subliminal and blatant. And there is an art to it, too.

Secrets of the Marketing Masters author Dick Martin reveals the tricks behind these messaging mavens who have imprinted their brand so intrinsically in our minds that life seems unthinkable without them. A Coke and a smile; Just Do it; Real Beauty. His book is an excellent insight into why we behave as we do: the marketing wizards behind the curtain told us to. Whether we like it or not, we all attend the University of Consumerism because there is no escape. What we can do is be mindful of the messages being displayed and to limit exposure as best we can.

Mr. Martin's premise is companies rise and fall by the way they brand themselves. Deeply tied to the consumer's emotional response, effective branding leaves us with a feeling that our lives will be improved by this product or that. To some degree it is true. I smile every time I wear the 100% Real Beauty T-Shirt Dove gave me a few years back. I opt to purchase their soap over other brands because they give me the feeling they care. That it is a highly manipulative game of profit and corporate reward bothers me little, as long as I feel good and no one is being harmed in the process. Therein lies the double-edged sword. Brands manipulate my reality for better...and for worse. And they manipulate my children's reality, too.

Barbie, the fifty-something dolly that enrages feminists for its false body image-building in little girls, has come under fire for years. Luckily, my daughter never took to Barbie's much, although she had at least six of them at one point. I had tried to have her identify with the imaginary Barbie world as I had as a kid. We all need role models of one kind or another (although Barbie is not one to which I ever cared to aspire). Adult women are no different.

Take the collagen lip filler I bought from a well-known cosmetic company who periodically hires Scarlett Johansson's face for their ad campaigns. I feel better wiping the tube of unidentifiable cream around my forty-year-old lips - like I'm really doing something to improve my life. My guess is it won't hinder the signs of aging, but at the moment I am content to be in on the company's little fib. It is useless, yet rewarding to act like the master of my own ship even if it widely diverges from reality. But what if I went from product to product, seeking the Holy Grail of Youth without knowing I was really lying to myself? I'd be better off spending that money on some blueberries with antioxidant properties to detoxify my middle aged frame. But the joy of emulating Ms. Johansson for even a moment suspends sanity for the time it takes to bring the tube to the check-out counter and bag it.

They tell me brand name chasing gets worse as the kids get older. I'm not sure I'm ready for it. One look at this video tells me we have a ways to go before we sleep.

 

 

 

Working Mother Turns 30 - I'm Not Sayin' How Old I am

Working Mother magazine and I share one thing in common. We're celebrating what Germans call a 'round' birthday this year. While I'm not tellin' my age, Working Mother proudly announced its thirtieth birthday this week. The May 2009 issue marks three decades of workplace transformation. It's something to yodel about!

According to a recent email I received from the folks at Working Mother magzine, the number of working moms has doubled from 16 million to 30 million in the last thirty years. In fact, two out of every three moms now work outside the home (I'm sort of one of them. Sometimes I'm 'on location' doing filmings and such - most of what I do is within the confines of my home office walls).

“When Working Mother magazine launched in 1979, women needed help finding quality child care, asking for a raise, getting dinner on the table in a flash and handling stress," says Carol Evans, president, Working Mother Media, who became the first mother to own the magazine in 2001. "We’ve come so far as working moms, but many of our basic needs remain remarkably the same. We often feel guilty about our choices, overworked and underappreciated.”

From Pin Money to Economic Lynchpin
In 1979, four years before the Equal Pay Act was amended in 1983, many working moms faced an added challenge: employers held the biased view that women wanted to work for pin money—not to build a career, but because they wanted to be able to afford small luxuries and extra treats. As a result, it was felt that they could be paid considerably less. Today, women are approaching 50 percent of the workforce (and according to recent data, they earn about 80% of a man's average salary). In many cases, mothers are becoming their families’ primary breadwinner—a trend that’s been amplified in the current recession. Still, the wage gap persists even as working mothers gain powerful positions in government, business, non profits and as entrepreneurs.

Balancing Act: A Workplace Revolution
In 1986, the Working Mother 30 Best Companies—which grew to the Working Mother 100 Best—was launched to highlight forward-thinking, family-friendly leadership among America’s top companies and to urge improvement across all industries.  Introduced well before the Family and Medical Leave Act, which guaranteed working moms up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in 1993, the pioneering Working Mother 100 Best Companies initiative forever changed how companies thought about their working mother employees, leading to a culture shift that has benefited millions of working families, and the companies who employ them.  By providing benchmarking on innovative programs like flextime, telecommuting, backup childcare and parental leave—the Working Mother 100 Best shows companies how best to support this critical segment of the workforce.

“Working moms have more demanding careers than ever before, face new economic pressures in today’s society and must negotiate evolving roles with their partners at home. At the same time, they continue to count their role as mom as their number one priority—a reason why Working Mother is even more of a must-read for working moms today,” says Suzanne Riss, editor in chief, Working Mother. 

What’s next for working moms?
In the May issue of Working Mother, Evans names five top predictions for what’s next for working moms:
• Government will inch ahead and enact more legislative support of working moms;
• Companies will continue to support families even in times of economic stress;
• Dads will continue to evolve and pave the way for more equity of work at home;
• Moms will keep climbing the ladder of power;
• Working Mother will keep celebrating as it grows and thrives—for another 30 years and beyond!

”It’s been an impressive 30 years, but there is still so much on the horizon,” said Evans. “The evolving American mom will continue to fuel the economy, push boundaries for change in the workplace and promote a happy, healthy family lifestyle. We look forward to the next 30 years of Working Mother being a source of inspiration for these amazing women to help them be the best moms and best employees they can be.”

Taxes - it's not who you know, it's what you know

It's tax season. And I thought I was being smart, filing my US taxes waaaaaaaay before deadline. I got all the paperwork together, got the right stamps, collected information for US citizens residing abroad - the whole shabang.

And then they sent me a tax bill. They ignored my carefully crafted letter explaining why I was exonerated from self-employment taxes. They even turned a cold shoulder to the certificate of coverage I managed to get from some nice people in Berlin who promised me I had everything I needed to finally, finally be in one tax system instead of straddling two.

Luckily, I only got bounced to three IRS representatives before I got to the right person who said she'll put my account 'on hold'. She's promised to write an inquiry and to keep Uncle Sam at bay until they've pulled my file, which might take thirty days.

Suspension of clarity ain't my strong suit. But at least they have nice classical music to listen to while they put you on hold!

7 annoying workplace behaviors

Francie Dalton made me laugh. And she made me cringe. Her book, Versatility: How to Optimize Interactions When 7 workplace Behaviors Are at Their Worst, is a chilling look at seven personality types. Six are not desirable; the seventh is. With witty cartoon characters and accurate, if aggregated, examples of personalities we all face, Ms. Dalton lays out the challenges and drawbacks of each:

The Commander

The Drifter

The Attacker

The Pleaser

The Performer

The Advoider

The Analytical

The Achiever

Of course, everyone wants to be considered effective, knowledgeable, perceptive, constructive, generous and wise. Those are the traits of the so-called Achiever. I found myself resisting some of what she said because it used stereotypes to work with people. In reality, we are a pool of the above personalities. Some are more dominant than others. In all fairness, Ms. Dalton admits that she is categorizing people to make a point: the workplace environment does not always run smoothly based on people's annoying behavior. But you can harmonize with your environment (thus, the Chameleon's Edge) to maximize communication and, ultimately, improve the workplace environment by feeding into people's strengths while guiding their weaknesses out the door.

Trendy Me

Trend-watching is a fascinating part of my work as a PR consultant. In the age of Facebook and MySpace, we've become obsessed with our own so-called status stories, those segments of our lives we share with others to reach a desired status. Whether it's the monthly number of hits your page gets or a personalized t-shirt revealing the airport code of your zaniest trip ever, our obsession with individual experience has reached new heights. According to Trendwatching.com, we obtain status by conveying our experience to others. The products we use become the props in our own personal play. 

This morning I ran across this product by Yosimiya from Japan.

It is  a sack of rice with your newborn baby's face on it, weighing the exact amount of your child at birth and shaped like a swaddled newborn. Holding the bag of rice is like holding the baby itself. Crazy, huh? The personalized, made-to-order 'dakigokochi' are priced from JPY 3500 (USD 32 / EUR 22).

Who's Who?

If you have an online business, you'll want to know about this opportunity.

Get Listed in the Who’s Who Directory of Women in eCommerce – Deadline extended to March 15th!

The directory will include women who have an online presence either in the form of a website or blog and who either promote a product or service via one of those vehicles (or you make money through affiliate sales).  Your site does not have to have a shopping cart to qualify, just be one of the ways your customers and clients can find you. The information will be published online and promoted via our websites, media releases, WE Magazine for Women and our global network of women’s organizations.   The main criteria for being listed: your woman-owned site/blog must be at least ONE year old.  We reserve the right to exclude any sites we deem offensive in nature.

There is no cost to have a Basic Listing - Name, Company, Website URL, and Company slogan - in this directory. If you are interested in an ENHANCED LISTING, contact Heidi Richards at heidi (at) wecai.org.

Time Tip Giveaway #1

Time, time, time, it's getting away from me! Wasn't that a popular song in the 80's? I thought it was only appropriate to start our next giveaway series on time management on Leap Day, the only day that comes once every four years. In honor of slowness, I'd like to empower YOU to manage your time wisely and, more importantly, happily!

Our first giveaway is a CD-Rom on time management, designed by peak performance coach Gabrielle Whitney. We're giving away one CD-Rom to a lucky winner**. To enter, simply leave a comment below about what you think about Leap Day and subscribe to my newsletter here. Deadline is March 5th. The winner will be notified the same day via email.

Fill out your e-mail address to receive my newsletter!

**Worldwide.

We promise never to rent, sell or give away your personal information. Ever.

DESIGN Your Life: Time & Life Management System   

Would you like to spend more time with friends and family?  Would you like to live a balanced, prosperous, and joy-filled life and have time for the things that make you happy?  Improve every area of your life! You will learn an effective time management method designed to enjoy more free time than ever before while achieving your top goals.

 Master the skills of planning your weeks and organizing your days so your time is spent on tasks that really matter
 Determine what you need both personally and professionally in order to thrive
 Reduce stress by eliminating unnecessary activities
 Balance work and life priorities so you are both personally fulfilled and financially successful

This program includes simple strategies for mastering your time and achieving success.  It includes a scheduling template and an example of how to create a schedule that meets your personal and professional needs.   

Congrats to Cindi for winning!

More Giveaways fo Business People

Heidi Richards, President of the Women's Ecommerce Association International, is offering 1,000 giveaways. And I thought Mama's Musings was generous! If you're a business person, or if you want some new ideas on how your work life might look, check out her site today!