Monday, February 10, 2014

{little changes / goal update}


Happy Monday!

A few blog changes...

Most noticeably, I added that picture of me over on the right, which can bring you to the new "About" page. It was a bit outdated, so I took this rainy weekend as an opportunity to spruce it up a little. I also cleaned up the side a bit too.

I'm excited to announce a new affiliate! One King's Lane. Anyone ever shop there? It's my favorite. I literally have to stop myself from buying something from there every day--it's just that good. If you've never been, click that banner to the right & check it out. You will not regret it. Or maybe you will, if you spend a lot :)

Goal Update:

Nothing major, but as I'm working at my February goals, I'm trying to simplify my spending habits. Mainly my monthly bills. A few months ago I sat down & took the time to think of all the services I use that have automatic monthly charges. This is what it came down to:

- 3G for my iPad - $30/month
- Netflix - $15/month
- Adobe Photoshop CC - $20/month
- Google Storage - $2/month
- Vimeo Plus - $10/month
- Bluehost {domain for my photo site} - $9/month
- Amazon Prime - $79/year
- InStyle & People mag - $80/year

That's a LOT! {Did anyone's jaw drop? I'm still picking mine up from the floor.}  It actually made me quite nervous embarrassed.

The first to go were the magazines. I was signed up through my school, so it renewed automatically. They were also still going to my PA address, so it was really a waste.

The second thing to go was 3G for my iPad. I'm not traveling as much as I did in college, so I'm not on trains or airplanes every week anymore. I really only use my iPad at home or in the random cafe, which always has wifi. So that was stopped. I can always start it back up again, but for now…I'm sticking to wifi.

Vimeo Plus was an easy stop; I'd only been a member for 2 months, but since I rarely post videos, it was a waste of money. {And outside of the free membership, it really just allowed a bigger GB storage & processed my videos faster. But I can wait an extra 30 minutes for free, you know?}

Amazon Prime is addicting, but another big expense that wasn't really used.

All of that was cancelled months ago, but Bluehost was where I was stuck. I left it be for a while, but this weekend I really thought about it again. I was SO excited to start my photography business last May & the website was the product of days & days of work. I had a few clients here & there over the summer, but job hunting & other things soon took all my time. Now that I have a full time job, in a city where I don't know enough people to really network for clients, the time I originally thought I could commit to it just didn't work out. I'm not shutting down OAM Photo + Design, but I've decided to close the website. I really couldn't justify spending money each month on a site that wasn't getting regularly updated. Ya feel me? It really bums me out, but I know it's the right decision. I may open up a Facebook page for it--since it's free. ha.--but I'm going to wait a few weeks to do that. I really miss photographing clients, so I'm going to slowly bring it back into my daily life somehow.

So here's where I am now:

-- 3G for my iPad - $30/month
-- Netflix - $15/month
-- Adobe Photoshop CC - $20/month
-- Google Storage - $2/month
-- Vimeo Plus - $10/month
-- Bluehost {domain for my photo site} - $9/month
-- Amazon Prime - $79/year
-- InStyle & People mag - $80/year

I watch something on Netflix nearly every night, so every bit of that monthly charge is used. Could I go without it? Sure. But for now…it's staying. As for Google Storage, I need that to keep this ol' blog running :) Same goes for Photoshop, so they're both staying too. {The old versions were a one time fee, but Photoshop CC is a monthly subscription that covers all updates that may debut. I sweet-talked my way into the student price, so it's way more affordable that the regular fee of $50/month.}

After all that...I feel SO SO SO relieved. I honestly don't miss anything that I cancelled, which just goes to show that they were just draining away my savings for too long. I really encourage anyone to do this. The list was so much longer than I had in my mind, & it's really eye-opening to think about what you need vs. want.

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